![]() ![]() Many Springfield individuals, as well as businesses and corporations, have continued to contribute towards the restoration of this excellently preserved Baroque Renaissance/ Napoleon-styled architecture and decoration, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. Since that time, a number of restoration projects have been undertaken to return the facility to its full 1909 elegance. The Springfield Little Theatre organization, founded in 1934, purchased the Landers in 1970. ![]() Enter Springfield Little Theatre & The National Register of Historic Places In 1928 the theatre became the 35th facility in the world to acquire “talkies.” Until 1970, the Landers continued as a movie theatre, doing double duty in 1959 when broadcasts of FIVE STAR JUBILEE a national NBC-TV show, were filmed live from the Landers stage. Rebuildingįollowing the fire, the Landers was rebuilt and reopened on May 21, 1921, as part of the Orpheum Circuit by Ensley Barbour, and, under his management, touring artists, and vaudeville acts ranging from Fanny Brice to John Philip Sousa have appeared on The Landers’ stage. ![]() In the end, an asbestos curtain and other fireproofing precautions kept the theatre from being a total loss. Three streams of water were thrown on the rear of the building and three lines of hose were taken through the main entrance. The fire was supposedly started by a boiler explosion and immediately spread to the coal bins in the furnace rooms underneath the stage. The call was answered by fire trucks from all four stations in the city and it was feared that the flames might sweep the entire block. On December 18, 1920, the Landers suffered a major fire. Febru– Helen Keller lectured on “Happiness”.February 23 & 24, 1912 – Three performances of Klaw and Erlanger’s production of “The Round Up” featuring a cast of 134 and 20 horses.February 20-22, 1911 – “Ben Hur” with a cast of 200 and eight horse.Septem– Silent movie of Jim Jefferies – Jack Johnson boxing match.– Wrestling match between Joe McVey & Jim Downing.In 1915 “Birth of a Nation” was shown in the theatre, and afterward, silent movies were a regular feature with musical or drama productions playing between the motion pictures. ![]() Some other famous performers who appeared here were George Cohan, Lon Chaney, John Philip Sousa and, Lillian Russell. The Weaver Brothers and Elviry were regulars at the Landers, before they went on to make movies. The Landers Theatre was part of the Orpheum circuit of theatres, showing vaudeville and tabloid shows-a different one each week. “Under the tempered glow and radiance of two thousand electric lights which shed their beams, rivaling the brilliance of a mid-day sun in ocean mist, or the witching haze of a dreamy Indian Ozark summer, the devotees of fashion and pleasure and of material progress, met and mingled last night, at the opening of The Landers Theatre, a commodious and beautiful temple of amusement, the perfect appointments of which brought a flush of admiration and of pride to the cheek and a gleam of pleasure to the eye of those who greeted ‘The Golden Girl’ and witnessed the initial offering of the playhouse which came to Springfield as a heritage of fire.” Landers: The Early Years The following is an excerpt from an article that appeared in The Springfield, Missouri Republican on Septemillustrating the atmosphere of opening night: Built for $100,000, the brick and terracotta building has been in continuous use either as a legitimate theatre or a motion picture house since it opened with the musical THE GOLDEN GIRL starring Lillian Russell on September 18, 1909. The Landers Theatre was designed by architects John and Carl Boller and was built in 1909 by John and D.J. The ashes of the Baldwin Theatre, which burned on January 6, 1909, were not yet cold when the plans for a new theatre on Walnut Street in downtown Springfield, Missouri were actualized.
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