#Sheila Copelan

[outoftowninac]

WARNER / WARREN

1959

The Warner’s Embassy Theatre aka The Warner Theatre aka The Warren Theatre (Boardwalk and Arkansas Avenue, Atlantic City NJ) opened on June 19, 1929 with Warner Bros. “On With the Show” plus a stage show. 

The Warner was designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm of Hoffman-Henon Co. in a Moorish-Atmospheric style, with seating for 4,189 on three levels. It was also equipped with a Wurlitzer 4 manual, 29 ranks organ. 

For most of its life it was a movie palace, but in the late 1950’s it was renamed Warren Theatre and became a live venue. In order not to spend resources on a new marquee, the letters of ‘Warner’ on its blade marquee were simply rearranged to spell ‘Warren’.  This was also done at another Warner Theatre in Los Angeles. 

From late 1958 through the start of 1960, it went legit hosting live theatre, some coming from - others going to - The Great White Way. The great Atlantic City Boardwalk was dubbed The Great WOODEN Way. 

The transformation to theatrical venue kicked off with a September 1958 production of Make A Million starring Sam Levene. The show was about to open on Broadway, so technically, the Warren was contributing to Atlantic City’s rich history of being a try-out town for Broadway. 

In March 1959 the rarely seen Garden District by Tennessee Williams was on offer. Unlike the previous offering, this was a national tour based on a production previously seen off-Broadway. It was actually two one-act plays: Suddenly Last Summer and Something Unspoken. It starred Cathleen Nesbitt, Richard Gardner, and Diana Barrymore, third generation of the famous Barrymore acting clan. 

In April 1959, the Warren presented Dear Liar starring Brian Aherne and Katharine Cornell. Dear Liar was also Broadway-bound, landing at the Billy Rose Theatre a year later after an extensive tour. 

In April 1959, Julie Harris brought The Warm Peninsula to the still chilly Jersey shore, in her first Atlantic City appearance. The play would arrive on Broadway in October 1959. Set in Miami Beach, the play also starred June Havoc, Larry Hagman, and Farley Granger. 

The summer season of 1959 kicked off with another Julie - Julie Wilson - in a revival tour of Babes in Arms. Like Harris, this was Wilson’s first time in front of an Atlantic City audience. The “face-lifted” revival had begun in April in Florida, and was billed as “Broadway-Bound” but that never came to pass. The Rogers and Hart musical instead played the ‘Music Fair’ circuit: Westbury, Valley Forge, and Camden County. 

Babes was followed by Bells with Martha Raye starring in the musical Bells Are Ringing.  That summer, Bells were everywhere with Raye’s tour just one of several productions of the Judy Holliday tuner on offer. 

The final legit offering at the Warren before its reverting to cinema was a December 1959 production of the national tour of Two for the Seesaw starring Hal March. March had played the character (originated by Henry Fonda) on Broadway in July and August 1959 before going out with the tour. He co-starred in the two-hander with Sheila Copelan in the role originated by Anne Bancroft.  

On July 29, 1960, the venue went back to its cinematic roots when “Windjammer” was presented in CineMiracle 3-strip projection. The engagement demanded special sound and screen requirements. 

The Warner / Warren Theatre closed in 1966 and was converted into a bowling alley. By 1978 the lobby was in use as a pizza parlor. In the late-1970’s the auditorium and main lobby were demolished to make way for Bally’s casino. The façade, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places was preserved. 

In 2021, entertainment company Spiegelworld announced that it was partnering with Caesar’s Entertainment to open a new entertainment / dining experience on the location. It will features a 400-seat performance space, restaurant, bars, and nightclub. A production titled “The Hook” will become its first (and billed as pernanent) residency.  The Warner legacy lives on. 

[batboyblog]

a list of firsts from Tuesday:

Brendon Barber won election as the first black mayor of Georgetown, SC

Ravinder Bhalla was elected mayor of Hoboken, NJ, the first Sikh American to govern a major city

Melvin Carter will be the first black mayor of St. Paul, MN, which is 67% white

Wilmot Collins became the first black person elected as mayor anywhere in Montana

Joyce Craig won election as mayor of Manchester, NH, the first woman to do so in its 266-year history

Laura Curran will be the first female county executive of New York's Nassau County

Janet Diaz won election as the first Latina member of the Lancaster, PA city council

Jenny Durkan will soon be Seattle's first lesbian mayor

Booker Gainor was elected mayor of Cairo, GA, the first black person to win that office

Elizabeth Guzman and Hala Ayala were the first Latinas elected to the Virginia House of Delegates

Andrea Jenkins became the first openly trans woman of color elected to a city council, in her case, Minneapolis

Vi Lyles became the first black woman elected mayor of Charlotte, NC

Jonathan McCollar will soon become the first black mayor of Statesboro, GA

Lisa Middleton is the first trans person to win a nonjudicial office in CA, in her case the Palm Springs city council

Cathy Murillo is about to become the first Latina to hold the office of mayor of Santa Barbara, CA

Sheila Oliver won election as New Jersey's lieutenant governor, the first black woman to do so

Mary Parham Copelan will become the first female black mayor of Milledgeville, GA

Danica Roem became the first transgender state legislator in America, beating a very conservative incumbent in Virginia

Mazahir Salih will be the first Sudanese-American on the city council in Iowa City

Yvonne Spicer, who is black, became the first mayor of the city of Framingham, MA (it used to be a town)

Tyler Titus won a seat on the Erie, PA school board, the first openly transgender person ever elected in PA

[omgktlouchheim]

Word Vomit Wednesday - Anniversary

Welcome to Word Vomit Wednesday! A series of blog posts about a specific topic from current events that I, and sometimes the rest of the Internet, ruminate obsessively about. All thoughts/opinions/experiences are my own; I don’t claim anything that I write to represent anyone other than myself.

  This time last year I parted ways with my girlfriends, bleary-eyed and in a fog. We didn’t even finish watching the coverage because we knew where it was heading. This time last year my numbness from shock slowly morphed into dread as I cocooned myself in a shield of blankets as the realization of how much more danger my life and the lives of many began to sink in. I was mortified, humiliated, and utterly heartbroken. The eerie silence of the street outside my window as the sky cried echoed my state of mind and the minds of many that day. This time last year I didn’t know how we were going to make it through the next 24 hours let alone the next two years. Last night, a year later, I finally feel relief. Our fear fueled into action made an enormous impact. Look at what we accomplished:

Congratulations to Danica Roem. Roem made history by becoming Virginia’s first openly transgender elected official. Not only that, but she beat the legislator who authored the abhorrent and infamous Bathroom Bill. Let that sink in for a second. She will be joining Virginia’s House of Delegates.

Congratulations to Larry Krasner on becoming Philly’s new DA. As a civil rights lawyer, he has made a career of defending activists, standing up to and suing law enforcement.

Congratulations to Phil Murphy on his gubernatorial win in New Jersey.

Congratulations to Andrea Jenkins on becoming the first openly transgender woman of color elected to public office in the US to the Minneapolis City Council.

Congratulations to Ralph Northam on his gubernatorial win in Virginia.

Congratulations to Lee Carter on his win in Virginia’s House of Delegates in the 50th district.

Congratulations to Justin Fairfax on becoming Lieutenant Governor of Virginia and only the second African-American to win a statewide post in Virginia since Reconstruction.

Congratulations to Sheila Oliver on becoming Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey, and being the first African-American woman to hold that title.

Congratulations to Michelle De La Isla on becoming Mayor of Topeka, Kansas.

Congratulations to Ravi Bhalla on becoming the first Sikh American mayor in US history, of Hoboken, New Jersey.

Congratulations to Mazahir Salih, a Sudanese immigrant, on being elected to the City Council of Iowa City.

Congratulations to Vi Lyles on becoming the first African-American woman mayor of Charlotte, Virginia.

Congratulations to the state of Maine for putting your health first and expanding Medicaid.

Congratulations to community activist Justin Brannan on winning a City Council seat in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

Congratulations to Bill de Blasio on his second term mayoral win in NYC. (Please be better because you’ve kinda sucked these past few years. Good talk. Love, New Yorkers).

Congratulations to Chris Hurst on joining Virginia’s House of Delegates.

Congratulations to Attorney General Mark Herring on his re-election win in Virginia.

Congratulations to Joyce Craig on becoming the first woman to serve as Mayor of Manchester, New Hampshire.

Congratulations to Michael A. Soriano on becoming Mayor of Parsippany, New Jersey.

Congratulations to Manka Dhingra for her special election Senate seat win in Washington State.

Congratulations to Yvonne Spicer on becoming the first mayor of Framingham, Massachusetts.

Congratulations to Janet Diaz on becoming the first Latina member of the City Council in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Congratulations to Booker Gainor on becoming the first African-American mayor of Cairo, Georgia.

Congratulations to Laura Curran on becoming the first woman to hold the County Executive title in New York’s Nassau County.

Congratulations to Lisa Middleton on becoming the first openly transgender person to be elected to a non-judicial office in California, joining the City Council of Palm Springs.

Congratulations to Wilmot Collins on becoming mayor of Helena, Montana. He is a refugee from Liberia, and is the first black mayor in Montana’s history.

Congratulations to Elizabeth Guzman on becoming one of the first Latinas elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.

Congratulations to Hala Ayala on becoming one of the first Latinas elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.

Congratulations to Melvin Carter on becoming the first African-American mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota.

Congratulations to Lydia Edwards on being elected to District 1 of Boston’s City Council.

Congratulations to Kim Janey on being elected to District 7 of Boston’s City Council.

Congratulations to Jennifer Foy on being elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.

Congratulations to Wendy Gooditis on being elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.

Congratulations to Kathy Tran on being the first Asian-American woman elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.

Congratulations to Jennifer Boysko on being elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.

Congratulations to Kelly Fowler on being elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.

Congratulations to Tyler Titus on becoming the first openly transgender man elected to a seat on the Erie School Board in Pennsylvania.

Congratulations to Delaware County (Delco) on becoming Democrat-controlled for the first time since Pennsylvania became a state in 1787.

Congratulations to Jerry Shi on being elected to the Edison, New Jersey School Board.

Congratulations to Falguni Patel on being elected to the Edison, New Jersey School Board.

Congratulations to Jonathan McCollar on becoming the first African-American mayor of Statesboro, Georgia.

Congratulations to Brendan Barber on becoming the first African-American mayor of Georgetown, South Carolina.

Congratulations to Mary Parham Copelan on becoming the first African-American mayor of Milledgeville, Georgia.

Congratulations to Vernetta Alston, a queer death penalty attorney who has helped exonerate black men with DNA evidence, for being elected to the Durham City Council.

Congratulations to Jenny Durkan on becoming Seattle’s first woman mayor since the 1920s (the first was Bertha Knight Landes in 1926) and first lesbian mayor at that.

Congratulations to Phillipe Cunningham on becoming the second openly transgender person to be elected to the Minneapolis City Council.

A majority of these positions that once were red now bleed blue. And a fuck ton of old, white, cis-het, republican men were rightfully fired from their positions. Exclusion and discrimination are disqualifiers. We don’t need public servants who only serve a portion of the public. This time last year everything changed. More people were inspired to take action, run for office, and fight for the America that we want to be and not the America we’ve historically been. Our resistance is strong and yesterday was just the tip of the iceberg. History was made and we wholly deserve to celebrate this moment. Then we get back to work.

 Katie Louchheim says “Onward and upward!”