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Nixontheater Downtown? full \Jm\%J I BY CHRIS POTTER MANAGING EDITOR OF PITTSBURGH CITYPAPER AND WRITER OF THE WEEKLY "YOU HAD TO ASK" COLUMN WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO THE OLD NIXONTHEATER DOWNTOWN? JOSEPH FORBES, OAKLAND WELL, PUT IT THIS WAY: YOUDON'T HAVE THE NIXON THEATER TO KICK AROUND ANYMORE. Built in 1903 at a cost of $1.25 million, the Nixon was somewhat immodestly called "the world's most perfect playhouse." It was financed by Samuel Nixon, whose family had built a chain of such theaters in several cities. Located on Sixth Avenue where the former Alcoa headquarters building is today, the Nixon belonged to a time when one could speak of a "theater district" and not mean just one theater. Live theater was about the only form of night- time entertainment people had before movies and TV, and the Nixon was one of 10 such theaters in Pittsburgh at the time. — The Nixon boasted a 47- by 86-foot stage one of the largest in the country (though not so impressive by today's standards; the Bendedum Center, for example, is 80-by-145) —where productions of Cecil B.DeMille-proportions were put on. But it wasn't just the quantity of actors brought to the Nixon; practically every major live entertainer of the first half of the 20th century appeared: Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Will Rogers, Ethel Barrymore, W.C. Fields, Enrico Caruso, and other legendary entertainers. Even Ronald Reagan, in celebrating the opening of the Benedum Center, fondly recalled performing at the Nixon. (And this was during the Iran-Contra hearings, when Reagan wasn't remembering much.) But the Nixon's fortunes began to wane by World War II.Movies had eroded live theater audiences for years, and attempts to attract larger crowds with vaudeville and girlieshows did littleto reverse the trend. The theater was slated for destruction as part of the city's first Renaissance; its final show was "Diamond Lil,"featuring Mae West. The Nixon was closed in 1950, and sold to the Aluminum Company of America, which quickly demolished the theater. You can read more about the Nixon in S. Trevor Hadley's Only inPittsburgh. 94 WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY |SUMMER 1999 WASN7 THERE A ££ A#C\A/U NIXON THEATER fV£ WW AFTER THE OLD ONE WAS TORNDOWN? DAVID WOLK, CHURCHILL YES, THERE WAS A NEW "OLD NIXON THEATER" WHICH, MUCH LIKEGERALD FORD, ASSUMED THE MANTLEAFTER A PREDECESSOR WAS CONDEMNED. During its lifetime, the new old Nixon had more names than a White House enemies' list. Located at 956 Liberty Ave., the theater opened in 1914 as a burlesque house called the Victoria. During the 1920s, it was called first the Shubert, then the Adine, and finally the Senator. When the old Nixoncame down in 1950, the Senator took both the Nixonname and the mission: a venue for touring Broadway shows that featured big-name talent. Throughout the 1950s, the Nixon was graced by Henry Fonda, Maureen Stapleton, Olivia de Havilland, Audrey Hepburn, and other legends of American theater (and Carol Channing). So bewitching was the theater's spell, apparently, that in the 1960s patrons once refused to leave even after it caught fire. A decade later, they also had to stand by and watch the auditorium razed. Hurt by declining attendance and a declining Downtown, in 1976 the theater was replaced withthe most beloved of cultural amenities: a parking lot. "People say we died because we're up here on Liberty Avenue," Nixon manager Leo Carlin groused to the Pittsburgh Press, "but ... ifyou get the good people up here the bad ones willgo away." Today, of course, that's the rationale for replacing porn shops on Liberty with cultural venues like the Benedum, or the new home being built for the Pittsburgh Public Theater. Ironically, the Public Theater is part of the reason the Nixon was torn down in the first place: in the mid-'70s, spirited attempts to save the Nixon failed in part because the necessary funding was already earmarked for a new Public Theater home on the North Side ... the very home the PPT is leaving so it can help bring "good people" Downtown..
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