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The Grand Theatre today. It closed in 1958 and fell into disrepair, but it is currently undergoing extensive renovations.
A.E. Araiza / arizona daily star
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They remember Grand Theatre and all its glory
One came from a family who started a string of theaters in Southern Arizona, including the Fox Tucson and the Grand in Douglas.
The other was just one of the thousands who lined up at the box office.
Both remember the Grand — and its glory.
"It was gorgeous," says Jo Ann Diamos, whose father, Daved Diamos, managed the Grand from 1923 to 1943. "They had vaudeville there."
Jean Ellen Lusk, who still lives in Douglas in the house where she was born, remembers Saturday mornings and the Mickey Mouse Club at the Grand. "If you had a dime you could go," she says.
An amateur hour also ran before the cartoons. "Anybody could do anything," says Lusk.
Well, almost anything. "We had these boys who sang 'Red River Valley.' The first week they sang the first verse. The second week they sang two verses, the third week three verses.
"After that, the word got out: 'Bring your pea shooters.' They had hardly started when they were dodging peas. They did not come back the next week."
Born in 1928, Diamos does not remember the silent movies the way Lusk, 91, does. But she does remember the usherettes.
"If they had 'Gone With the Wind,' the usherettes all had hoop skirts," says Diamos. "If it was a Sonja Henie movie, the usherettes wore satin outfits."
She also remembers usherettes as enforcers. "If you put your heads together and smooched, people would complain and the usherettes would tell them to break it up."
Lusk was still a kid when John Philip Sousa and his band came to town. "Oh, my yes, I saw him," says Lusk, who remembers the horns blasting out across the auditorium.
Valedictorian of the Douglas High School class of '35, Lusk gave her speech on the stage of the Grand.
Diamos never got that opportunity. Her family returned to Tucson in 1942 after she completed the eighth grade. "My dad stayed in Douglas another year to run the theater, then came to Tucson," she says. He died in 1946.
DID YOU KNOW
The Fox Tucson Theatre, also started by the Diamos family, had a Saturday morning Mickey Mouse Club, complete with talent shows, too.
benefit raffle
Your choice of a 2008 Corvette, $40,000 in cash or two his-and-her Harley-Davidson motorcycles will be offered during a July 4 raffle to benefit the Grand Theatre Douglas restoration project. Tickets are $75 each. For more information, log onto www.grandtheatredouglas.org or call 1-800-582-1111.

Accent

Opinion by Bonnie Henry : Keeping their dream alive

The Douglas community works to preserve once beautiful theater
Opinion by Bonnie Henry
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.19.2008
I see a ruin — a gutted, roofless shell. They see progress — and a dream that refuses to die.
In 1919, the Grand Theatre — billed as the finest theater between San Antonio and Los Angeles — opened in the mining town of Douglas.
Managed first by Greek immigrant James Xalis, and soon after by his nephew, Daved Diamos, the theater seated 1,600 and boasted a marble lobby, a pipe organ and ladies' tea room.
Pavlova and Ginger Rogers danced on its stage. John Philip Sousa performed here. For decades, graduating classes at Douglas High School held commencement exercises here.
And then, as is the history of so many grand, old theaters, it fell into disuse and eventual abandonment.
It closed in 1958. According to the theater's Web site (www.grandtheatredouglas.org) the roof collapsed in 1976. Trees eventually sprouted among the fallen timbers — too heavy to be removed.
Water pooled on the auditorium floor. An owl took up residence, feasting on the pigeons inside.
In 1983 the all-volunteer Douglas Arts and Humanities Association formed to save the building from slated demolition.
By then, the theater had been added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Also in 1983, the group, headed by the late Floy Mae King, bought the Grand from the Cochise County Board of Supervisors for $1.
Still, the enormity of the cave-in left them with few options. "We couldn't clean things out," says board member Shirley Gregory.
And then in 1997, Douglas resident Dwight Weaver went to work with his crane and in one day managed to lift the heavy beams out of the building. Now they could start removing the debris.
"The city came in with two dump trucks and loaded up. The trucks were running continuously," says Tucson architect David Wilson, who has been involved with the project since the early 1980s.
Since then, the theater has been cleared of most of the debris. Of two shops flanking the theater entrance, one has been restored, the other is almost complete. Both will provide rent money to the theater.
The original organ and pipes will be repaired and returned to the theater. Water and sewer lines have been reinstalled, as well as restrooms. And electrical service has been installed to the theater and its marquee.
Next up: installing the neon letters, says Holly Berryhill, president of the arts council.
As she gives me a tour of this grand old girl, a dozen or so inmates from the nearby prison shovel out wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of debris from the auditorium floor.
The inmates, who are paid 50 cents an hour, come courtesy of Charles Flanagan, director of the Correctional Education Division of nearby Cochise College.
When Flanagan was warden of the Douglas prison complex 11 years ago, he offered inmate help to the arts council.
"It was mainly nice, little old blue-haired ladies," he says. "Nobody was helping them. It was an enormous project."
Today, Flanagan serves as vice president of the arts council. "I have a love of historical preservation," he says. And the arts itself. For 14 years he danced with the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam.
"They say I went from the ballet barre to prison bars," jokes Flanagan.
Wilson says the aim of the project is historic preservation — as opposed to restoration.
"Our approach is it's a ruin with a modern, new theater inside," he says. The outside walls will remain and a new roof system put into place.
Only the lobby, mezzanine and adjoining shops are returning to their historic look.
It makes no sense, says Wilson, to re-create the original auditorium and stage. "That type of theater is no longer functional."
Instead, the theater will accommodate stage productions and an orchestra pit, but will also feature removable seats, for theater-in-the-round, or even dances.
"This will be our community center," says Berryhill.
Price tag for all this: between $6 million and $7 million, Wilson estimates.
"We had so little money when we first started out," says Berryhill.
"I can't tell you how many hot dogs I cooked," says Gregory, who remembers selling hot dogs and popcorn and also opening up the theater for haunted-house nights.
In the last few years, substantial government grant money finally started coming in, including a $350,000 federal grant that will finance trusses for a roof. "A second grant should complete the roof," says Berryhill.
"We're hoping the roof goes on in a year to 18 months," says Wilson, who envisions the auditorium ready for use in two years, though the stage, lighting and sound may not be complete.
For him and the others, the work — and the dream — continue.
● Bonnie Henry's column also appears Sundays in ¡Vamos! Reach her at 434-4074 or at bhenry@azstarnet.com, or write to 3295 W. Ina Road, Suite 125, Tucson, AZ 85741. Bonnie's latest book ● To order Bonnie Henry's collection of writings about Tucson's rich history, call 573-4417. "Tucson Memories" is $39.95 plus tax, shipping and handling.
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