Photo by Larry Widen
Princess Theater demolition
Demolition of the Princess Theater in 1984
When a demolition crew knocked the Princess theater down in 1984, one of Milwaukee’s oldest movie houses was reduced to a vacant lot in less than a month. On the decline since the mid-1950s, the Princess no longer belonged in a Downtown that was in the process of revitalization. But the theater had an unusual backstory in which a local brewery, movie tycoons, and the President of the United States all played a part.Originally part of city founder Byron Kilbourn’s vast real estate holdings, a lot on the east side of North Third Street was purchased by the Pabst Brewing Company in 1897 with the intention of developing a venue to sell their beer. Businessman John DeWolf built a $7,500 building to house the Grand Theater, and the agreement included a clause prohibiting the sale of any beers other than those made by Pabst. Opening in May 1904, the theater presented shows featuring comedians, songs, and dramatic monologues, all for a dime. The film Sleeping Beauty and the Beast projected by Edison’s kinetoscope marked the beginning of an 80-year legacy of films shown on the site.Two years later, the Grand theater property was inherited by Clara Heyl, the great-granddaughter of Pabst Brewery founder Jacob Best. As part of the inheritance, Heyl also received shares of Pabst stock valued at $35,000. She divorced her husband, Jacob Heyl, and moved to Berlin, Germany with her sons Helmuth and Reinhard. Helmuth Heyl would eventually become the steward of the property, but like his mother, would never return to Milwaukee.
Talking Pictures?
With Clara Heyl functioning as an absentee landlord, the Grand soon fell into a state of disrepair. To boost sagging attendance, the theater was given a facelift and as a novelty, teenage girls were hired to work as ushers. “Talking motion pictures” were advertised and became a huge hit with Milwaukee audiences, running for 74 weeks. The “talking” was done by a group of actors behind the screen shouting out the dialogue.
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Eventually the Grand was leased to John and Thomas Saxe, operators of five successful moving picture houses in the city. They invested the staggering sum of $50,000 to remove the rear wall, which added 25 feet to accommodate a new stage and proscenium arch. Lobby fountains, an electric ventilation system, private boxes and the first cinema pipe organ in the city were installed. The building’s exterior now featured a 40-foot facade with an ornamental arch and 1,500 incandescent light bulbs that could be seen for blocks at night. The Saxe brother called their new theater the Princess.
On December 16, 1909, the Princess was unveiled to an eager audience of city officials, competing theater managers, and members of Milwaukee society. Mayor David S. Rose delivered the dedicatory address. Inspired by the success of the Princess, the Saxe brothers opened a sister theater, the Modjeska, at Twelfth and Mitchell Streets.
Trading with the Enemy
In 1911, the new Butterfly theater on Wisconsin Avenue drew patrons away from the Princess, and five years later, the theater was yesterday’s news. At the same time, World War I began and Clara Heyl’s land was seized by the Federal government in accordance with the Trading with the Enemy Act. The Saxe brothers continued to run the theater during this time, and in 1924, President Calvin Coolidge issued an executive order returning the Princess theater’s land to the Heyl family. A year later, the 1909 facade was replaced by a streamlined covering of glazed terra cotta with the name Princess embossed in the tiles high above the street. But as newer theaters opened downtown, the Princess began to attract patrons looking for lower admission prices at the box office.During World War II, it became an eighth-run theater, playing low-budget westerns and action movies, a policy that prevailed for nearly two decades. In January 1960, the Princess showed its final Hollywood film, The Five Pennies, starring Danny Kaye and Louis Armstrong. The following day, the Milwaukee Journal carried large advertisements for films that were “frank and daring” and “for adults only.” Although many of these movies were rather tame, they attracted an art house clientele.
But by the 1970s new more explicit adult movies were being shown at the theater. Out-of-state pornographic film distributors leased the Princess Theater in its final years. In 1984 the Milwaukee Redevelopment Authority purchased the property for $300,000. Six months later, 80 years of showing motion pictures at 738 N. Third Street came to an end as the wrecking ball punched the first hole in the north wall. Today the site serves as a parking lot for nearby businesses as well as the newly refurbished Warner theater.
