♪♪

[Narrator] For nearly a century, downtown Davenport has been anchored by a grand theater, a testament to elegance, ambition, and resilience. Today it stands as the renewed Adler Theater, a shining example of art deco design and one of Iowa's most treasured stages. [Chandler Cox] We were funded by George Bechtel. He was a very prominent Davenport financier and municipal bondsman. At one point, he actually supplied about 90% of Iowa bonds. So, he had a large chunk of money.

[Narrator] It was Bechtel's vision and wealth that brought forth the dream of a grand theater.

In 1926, he announced plans for a joint hotel and theater complex and hired architecture firm A.S. Graven and Mayger to design the building.

[Cox] In 1931, we opened with black and white film in Vaudeville. We were the last building constructed downtown during the Great Depression.

[Narrator] The theater opened as part of the Radio Keith Orpheum Circuit, or better known as RKO.

[Cox] He'd wanted a theater that was part of one of the big five of the Hollywood studios, that is MGM, Paramount, Warner Brothers, Fox or RKO.

♪♪

[Narrator] Inside the Adler Theater, art deco design dazzles visitors with geometric shapes, sweeping curves, and an acoustically enhanced egg white coated ceiling.

[Cox] Everything about us was chosen for acoustics and design. It was very popular in the 1930s, especially aesthetics. Our ceiling was painted with tempers, which back in the day was a dried powdered pigment mixed with egg whites. Our ceiling was painted with that specifically for acoustic qualities. It took about 2,000 egg whites to make our ceiling. I'd like to think that because of the Great Depression, those were probably local eggs and local farmers and Quad City chickens that laid my ceiling. And I'd like to think that those egg yolks probably fed the painters.

[Narrator] Tiers of seating provide unbroken views of the stage for every guest.

[Cox] One of the lovely things about our theater when we were designed was that they wanted every seat in here to be available to somebody, regardless of their income. So even if you were in the very last seat in my upper balcony in the last row it is a beautiful view of the stage. There are no obstructions, there's no poles, there's no columns, and they were just built differently.

[Narrator] The Adler's interiors were guided by famed designer Henry Dreyfuss, who ensured that every detail, from carpet patterns to the carvings, matched in perfect harmony.

[Cox] He saw the overall vision and theme for RKO and he made sure that everything RKO did was kind of in that uniform thing. What we now know today as branding. The floral carvings on the exterior of my building match the floral in my carpet, match the flowers in my pattern on the seats, match outside on my advertising cases, and downstairs on my arch above my fireplace. Everything here matches in a way we just don't see anymore. It was part of the luxury and opulence of the late 1920s and really shows a time that you don't get to see elsewhere downtown Davenport.

♪♪

[Narrator] By the 1940s, talking pictures filled the screen. But the theater was never only a movie house. It was a stage welcoming live performances, traveling shows and Broadway tours.

[Cox] In 1973, we showed our last film. But the whole time we were still doing live events, live productions, Broadway theater league, comedy, ballet, a little bit of everything.

[Narrator] By the mid-20th century, downtown Davenport changed. The rise of malls and multiplex cinemas threatened the great picture houses in America. And the Davenport theater quickly fell into disrepair.

[Cox] And just like Internet killed the mall, the mall and movie theaters really killed the picture house. And it's unfortunately what led us into such a disarray prior to our 1986 rehabilitation.

We reopened as the Adler Theater. Prior to that, people did know us as the RKO Orpheum. We are named after the Adler family. That is the family that started the Quad City Times. So, they made a very sizable donation during our restoration to help us. And that is why we've been renamed the Adler.

♪♪

[Narrator] The reopening was marked with both triumph and tragedy. Hollywood legend Cary Grant took the Adler stage that year, only hours before his untimely death.

[Cox] He had an incident here. One of my staff members took him out into the back alley, and he did pass away up the street. We keep a photo of him on stage in remembrance. And he really loved the small towns of America, and he fell in love with Davenport, and it was why he had come back. He really saw us the cornerstone of a rebuilding of downtown.

[Narrator] Over the decades, the Adler has welcomed an astonishing range of performers.

[Cox] It's hard to say who has been here as much as maybe who hasn't. It's been a little bit of everybody. I always say there's something for everybody here. In one month, I could have a symphony, a Broadway, a rock concert, a ballet, a children's show, a tribute, and still have 20 more shows. There's always something for everybody at the Adler.

♪♪

[Narrator] Yet beyond the famous names, what endures most is the building itself and the details it uniquely holds preserved for almost a century.

[Cox] When you look at our fireplace, there's granite and marble. Outside on my advertising cases, you see granite, marble, terracotta, brass, which was very popular for the time. You'll see a lot of metal working here, especially on our doors. My main entrance doors are still original. They're plated steel. The colors here are really important. The red, the gold, the black and the terracotta were very, very popular. One of the reasons why you'll always see red in a theater is when the lights darken, red is one of the first colors in the eye to go dark. So, part of why theaters are always red, including ours, is it helps with that viewing scene when you're looking at it. One of the most, I think, defining features of us are our chandeliers and our great hall. The ceilings are about 22ft tall. And we have strands of crystals draping down in this very graceful arch with geometric shapes. And there's two of them from the ceiling. They are original. We also have pseudo balconies and mirrors, which help create a very open atmosphere that was also popular at the time. And everything here is very symmetrical and uniform.

[Narrator] Having endured depression, decline and revival, the Adler Theater stands as a proud home to music, to laughter and tears. It is a place where history and imagination meet and where every curtain up breathes new life into the spirit of a city.

[Cox] It is important to maintain historic buildings because it connects us to our past and to others. I love that something super small, like a detail on a seat, can tie me to somebody from 200 years ago, and that my ceiling can tie me to the farmers and, you know, the economic downturn of the time. It's important to maintain buildings to remind people of history and what we did to be here.

♪♪