Courtesy of Birmingham Landmarks Inc.
Alabama Theatre
The stage and auditorium of the historic Alabama Theatre movie palace in downtown Birmingham originally opened in 1927.
The Alabama Theatre is a 1927-vintage, 2,100-seat movie palace on Third Avenue North downtown with a one-of-a-kind Wurlitzer pipe organ. The Lyric — across the street from the Alabama — is a restored vaudeville house that opened in 1914.
Both are local historic treasures, and both are owned and managed by the nonprofit Birmingham Landmarks Inc.
But they have something else in common, according to Brant Beene, Birmingham Landmarks executive director. “The maintenance is extraordinary,” he said.
“Imagine you lived in a hundred-year-old house and had 150,000 guests every year,” Beene said. “That’s our situation at the Alabama and Lyric.”
That ongoing need for maintenance and repairs is the reason that Birmingham Landmarks, in March, launched the Showplace Society, a new community-based giving program. The Showplace Society offers a choice of four levels of benefits for donors who wish to help preserve these magnificent theaters.
”We know our patrons care enough to invest in our future,” Beene said.
The Showplace Society was bolstered by a $500,000 match from the Linn-Henley Charitable Trust over 10 years, so anyone who joins the Showplace Society at any level — bronze, silver, gold or platinum — will have their gift doubled, according to Beene.
Birmingham Landmarks believes “this will inspire a real sense of ownership” on the part of the donors, Beene said.
Maintenance in recent years has included the installation of a new air-conditioning system at the Alabama in 2017 for the first time in more than 40 years. In 2018, new carpet was installed throughout half of the Alabama, with the remaining installation to be completed in phases.
Earlier this year, the Alabama sign above Third Avenue was removed for repair and refurbishment. While the sign removal is temporary, other repairs at the theaters will go on for decades, according to Beene.
The Showplace Society “demonstrates the urgent need for patrons who love these theaters to fund them for the future,” Beene said.
For more information about the Showplace Society, call 252-2262 or go to alabamatheatre.com/showplace-society.
