The Gillioz Theatre in Springfield, Mo., opened on Route 66 on Oct. 12, 1926 — one day after Route 66 was given its name.
The Gillioz, which is on the St. Louis Street alignment of Route 66, is set to reopen exactly 80 years after its opening night, after more than 16 years and $10 million worth of remodeling.
Here’s a bit of history on the Gillioz’s Web site:
With 1200 seats, an orchestra pit, a Wurlitzer theatre organ and the very latest in projection equipment, the Gillioz was the largest and finest theatre in Southwest Missouri. Originally designed for both stage shows and silent films, sound equipment was soon added to accommodate the new “talkies”. The Gillioz was operating only as a movie house at the time it was closed in 1979. It stood empty only a few years before the Springfield Landmarks Preservation Trust acquired it and began the effort to salvage and restore it to its former glory.
Today major renovations are underway at the Gillioz Theatre as a neighboring building with its 27,000 square feet of space is being incorporated into the original footprint.
This addition, called the Jim D. Morris Center for the Arts, will accommodate the theatres offices, modern rest room facilities, a restaurant, a bar, and a grand ballroom. These renovations will allow the Gillioz Theatre to once again become the community asset that it once was, bringing theatre, music, movies, entertainment and the arts back to Springfield’s downtown.
The vintage photographs of the theater came from the Web site, also.
Dr. Richard Aiken, who’s informed me about this, is on the board for the Springfield Opera, which will eventually use the restored theatre. He tells me that Nancy Reagan is on the theatre’s honorary board because her husband, Ronald Reagan, stopped at the theatre a couple times to promote his movies when he was an actor.
Aiken also has told me that singer Brenda Lee, who got a big boost in her career on the Ozark Jubilee television show in Springfield, will be making an appearance.
Here’s also a blog about the Gillioz Theatre’s history and its ongoing restoration.
I understand that Brenda Lee has declined to appear at the theater for the Grand Opening