BY JANELLE GELFAND
The Cincinnati Enquirer
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The ceiling of Music Hall's ballroom has been lifted an a new dance floor installed.
(Michael E. Keating photo)
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For many of those entering the newly restored Music Hall Ballroom on Friday night, it will be difficult not to experience a bit of deja vu.
The bronze-and-glass doors that open onto the glamorous space once graced the Albee Theater, the grand Depression Era theater - movie palace that stood on Fifth Street for half of this century.
Outside the ballroom doors, the Albee's walnut and brass ticket booth sits, as if waiting for crowds to appear for the next big feature. Pilasters, columns, filigree cast-iron railings and story-high etched mirrors that flanked the Albee's marble staircase are a few of the fixtures enhancing the $1.8 million renovation of Music Hall's South Wing Ballroom.
The ballroom reopens Friday with a sold-out, black-tie fund-raiser. Proceeds will go to the makeover, the first in 39 years.
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A 1959 renovation featured the world's largest color mural of Hawaii's Diamond Head and Waikiki Beach.
(Enquirer file photo)
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The nostalgia will be twofold for those who remember the Albee and who played swing, danced or attended high school proms in the ballroom. In the '30s, '40s and '50s, "the ballroom was filled for public dances every Wednesday and Saturday night," says Robert Wheeler of Springfield Township, who played in big bands there. "People came from all different stratas of society."
"It was the place to go for formal dancing in Cincinnati," says Robert Dominique of Anderson Township, Western Hills High School Class of '48.
The room, then called the Topper Club for whites and the Graystone Ballroom for African-Americans, had a stardust ball and Egyptian decor that included a sphinx.
"The young people went to the swing bands, and a lot of jitterbugging went on," Mr. Wheeler says.
"All the big bands played there. I heard Woody Herman there in the '30s and '40s," says trumpeter Pierson DeJager of Fairfield, who played in bands throughout the city. "It was extra swanky."
"The big thing was the graduation dance," says Janet Greiner of Westwood, who was in Western Hills High School Class of '51. "We graduated in Music Hall in long white dresses, then we walked over to the Topper Club."
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Mirrors from the old Albee Theatre have been installed in the ballroom.
(Michael E. Keating photo)
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It "had a glamorous look," says 1993 Walnut Hills grad Torie Hesser of Hyde Park. Her junior-senior prom rocked and rolled to a disc jockey there.
But the popularity of the glittery room, once busy every night, faded. Before being closed in May for the renovation, bookings had dwindled to two nights a week.
"It seemed like it couldn't possibly be a part of Music Hall," says Gary Barton, announcer - librarian at WGUC-FM (90.9). "I was impressed with the seediness of the place."
For the first time, the ballroom radiates old Cincinnati. The most recent renovation, in 1959, had a Hawaiian theme and featured the world's largest color photo mural of Diamond Head and Waikiki Beach.
Gone is the low ceiling; the room is cavernous. Elegant white and gold pilasters line softly lighted taupe walls. A gleaming white oak floor shines under six tiaras of marquee lights skimming the high arched ceiling.
The Albee pieces provided a solution for architect Don Beck of Beck Architecture Inc. He needed "a decorative theme that would fill the room."
It was a daunting task. With 18,000 square feet (about three times the size of the Omni Netherland's Hall of Mirrors) the ballroom can accommodate up to 1,500 revelers.
"It's still a very big space, but without the artifacts, it would just be another empty hall," Mr. Beck says.
Design details include an enlarged bar finished with mirrors and a wooden railing from the Albee. Two new restrooms have mirrors and paneling from the Albee's luxurious lounges.
Mr. Beck's other challenge was to unify the ballroom with the rest of Music Hall's neoclassical interior featuring columns and simple lines.
The face lift includes state-of-the art lighting and sound systems, designed to attract a variety of tenants.
The ballroom's renovation was undertaken by the Cincinnati Arts Association (CAA), which manages Music Hall, Memorial Hall and the Aronoff Center. It was financed by a commercial loan issued through Hamilton County, to be paid back through higher rental fees and more bookings, says Ernest Toplis, Music Hall manager.
No one can say yet whether the grandeur has been returned to the ballroom, but every weekend through May is booked -- and daytime slots and weeknights are filling up, says Mr. Toplis.
Remembering the Albee
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