The Pantheon Theatre was constructed in 1919 on the corner of 5th and Main Street in Vincennes, Indiana

Vincennes, Indiana

Vincennes is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Indiana, United States. It is located on the Wabash River in the southwestern part of the state. The population was 18,701 at the 2000 census...

. It was built to hold 1200 people. One of the highest paid interior decorators in the world was hired to supervise the decorating of the theatre. The Pantheon's interior was highly embellished with ornamental plaster, draperies and painted details such as the birds of paradise. Over six miles of electrical wiring and 15 miles of rope for rigging was installed. With its large stage, orchestra pit

Orchestra pit

An orchestra pit is the area in a theater in which musicians perform. Orchestral pits are utilized in forms of theatre that require music or in cases when incidental music is required...

, eleven dressing rooms, and fifty-two curtains and backdrops the Pantheon was the only facility in the area that could handle Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 shows. The Pantheon featured live shows from Broadway, vaudville, live music, cooking shows, fashion shows, and movies. At first the movies were silent and the Pantheon had Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

's largest pipe organ

Pipe organ

The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...

 to play along with the silent movies

Silent Movies

Silent Movies are 13 solo guitar compositions by Marc Ribot released September 28, 2010 on Pi Recordings.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek awarded the album 4 stars stating "For those interested in one of the more compelling and quietly provocative and graceful guitar records of 2010,...

. In 1929 the Pantheon showed the first "talkie" in Vincennes. The Pantheon was also the first building in Vincennes to be air-conditioned

HVAC

HVAC refers to technology of indoor or automotive environmental comfort. HVAC system design is a major subdiscipline of mechanical engineering, based on the principles of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer...

.

Famous performers

The Pantheon had some of the greatest performers on its stage including Red Skelton

Red Skelton

Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American comedian who is best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing...

, Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...

, Count Basie

Count Basie

William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...

, Ed Wynn

Ed Wynn

Ed Wynn was a popular American comedian and actor noted for his Perfect Fool comedy character, his pioneering radio show of the 1930s, and his later career as a dramatic actor....

, Isaac Stern

Isaac Stern

Isaac Stern was a Ukrainian-born violinist. He was renowned for his recordings and for discovering new musical talent.-Biography:Isaac Stern was born into a Jewish family in Kremenets, Ukraine. He was fourteen months old when his family moved to San Francisco...

, John Phillip Sousa, Amos and Andy, Hank Williams, Minnie Pearl

Minnie Pearl

Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon , known professionally as Minnie Pearl, was an American country comedienne who appeared at the Grand Ole Opry for more than 50 years and on the television show Hee Haw from 1969 to 1991.-Early life:Sarah Colley was born in Centerville, in Hickman County, Tennessee,...

, Roy Acuff

Roy Acuff

Roy Claxton Acuff was an American country music singer, fiddler, and promoter. Known as the King of Country Music, Acuff is often credited with moving the genre from its early string band and "hoedown" format to the star singer-based format that helped make it internationally successful.Acuff...

, Fay Wray

Fay Wray

Fay Wray was a Canadian-American actress most noted for playing the female lead in King Kong...

, Gene Autry

Gene Autry

Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...

, Roy Rogers

Roy Rogers

Roy Rogers, born Leonard Franklin Slye , was an American singer and cowboy actor, one of the most heavily marketed and merchandised stars of his era, as well as being the namesake of the Roy Rogers Restaurants franchised chain...

, James Dean

James Dean

James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...

, Bill Monroe

Bill Monroe

William Smith Monroe was an American musician who created the style of music known as bluegrass, which takes its name from his band, the "Blue Grass Boys," named for Monroe's home state of Kentucky. Monroe's performing career spanned 60 years as a singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader...

, Will Rogers

Will Rogers

William "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....

, Sally Rand

Sally Rand

Sally Rand was a burlesque dancer and actress, most noted for her ostrich feather fan dance and balloon bubble dance. She also performed under the name Billie Beck.-Early life and career:...

, Marx Brothers

Marx Brothers

The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...

, Red Grange

Red Grange

Harold Edward "Red" Grange, nicknamed "The Galloping Ghost", was a college and professional American football halfback for the University of Illinois, the Chicago Bears, and for the short-lived New York Yankees. His signing with the Bears helped legitimize the National Football League...

, Cecil B. DeMille

Cecil B. DeMille

Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...

, Ivan Romanoff

Ivan Romanoff

Ivan Romanoff was a Canadian conductor, violinist, arranger, and composer. For three decades he led the "Ivan Romanoff Orchestra and Chorus" on a variety of radio and television programs for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, on commercial recordings, and in live concerts throughout North...

, Eileen Farrell

Eileen Farrell

Eileen Farrell was an American soprano who had a nearly 60 year long career performing both classical and popular music in concerts, theatres, on radio and television, and on disc. While she was active as an opera singer, her concert engagements far outnumbered her theatrical appearances...

, Spade Cooley

Spade Cooley

Donnell Clyde Cooley , better known as Spade Cooley, was an American Western swing musician, big band leader, actor, and television personality...

, Blanche Thebom

Blanche Thebom

Blanche Thebom was an American operatic mezzo-soprano, voice teacher, and opera director. She was part of the first wave of American opera singers that had highly successful international careers. In her own country she had a long association with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City which...

, David Rubinoff

David Rubinoff

David Rubinoff, also known as Dave Rubinoff, was a popular violinist who was heard during the 1930s and 1940s on various radio programs playing his $100,000 Stradivarius violin. He also performed in theaters, clubs and schools, and he gave several concerts at the White House during the 1940s...

, Bert Williams

Bert Williams

Egbert Austin "Bert" Williams was one of the preeminent entertainers of the Vaudeville era and one of the most popular comedians for all audiences of his time. He was by far the best-selling black recording artist before 1920...

, Edgar Bergen

Edgar Bergen

Edgar John Bergen was an American actor and radio performer, best known as a ventriloquist.-Early life:...

 and Charlie McCarthy, W.C. Fields, The Diamonds

The Diamonds

The Diamonds are a Canadian vocal quartet who rose to prominence in the 1950s and early 1960s with sixteen Billboard hit records. The original members were Dave Somerville , Ted Kowalski , Phil Levitt , and Bill Reed .-1950s:...

, and The Kansas City Night Hawks.

Final Show

By the 1960s attendance started to drop and the Pantheon was in need of many repairs, so after forty years of shows, the Pantheon closed in 1961. All twelve-hundred seats were removed and the orchestra pit was filled with sand and concrete. They also hung a fake dropped ceiling throughout the entire theatre and rented the building out for almost fifty years.

Restoration Effort

In 2006 Travis S. Tarrants purchased the Pantheon Theatre and started a 501(c)3 non-profit to restore the Pantheon to its original state. Travis is the founder and President of The Pantheon Theatre Company and is currently over seeing the multi-million dollar restoration of the Pantheon Theatre

Pantheon Theatre

The Pantheon Theatre was constructed in 1919 on the corner of 5th and Main Street in Vincennes, Indiana. It was built to hold 1200 people. One of the highest paid interior decorators in the world was hired to supervise the decorating of the theatre. The Pantheon's interior was highly embellished...

 in Vincennes, Indiana

Vincennes, Indiana

Vincennes is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Indiana, United States. It is located on the Wabash River in the southwestern part of the state. The population was 18,701 at the 2000 census...

. Travis is a member of the The War of 1812 Bicentennial

Anniversary

An anniversary is a day that commemorates or celebrates a past event that occurred on the same day of the year as the initial event. For example, the first event is the initial occurrence or, if planned, the inaugural of the event. One year later would be the first anniversary of that event...

 Commission and on the board of advisors for The Red Skelton

Red Skelton

Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American comedian who is best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing...

Museum.