Kirby's Augusta - Memories of the Miller

We’re here at Augusta’s old Miller Theater - for 40 years a showplace on Broad Street.
The thing about the Miller is that it has been closed almost long as it was open.
Its last show, an opera called “Regina,” was in January 1985 - 31 years ago.
It’s next show will pretty much be up to Symphony Orchestra Augusta, which has acquired this old grand old theater and plans to turn it into something approaching its past glory.
And glorious it was.
The Miller Theater opened in February 1940 to much fanfare.
The buildup was unlike almost anything anyone had seen before in Augusta or the South.
Advance stories in The Chronicle called the theater “huge,” and pointed out that 2,500 could be seated comfortably .
“It’s size is deceiving for it has been built so compactly that a casual observer would overlook its tremendous capacity.
On entering the theater, a customer would along a corridor 155 feet long. Lining it was panels of Italian marble.
That marble had been tough to get in 1940 because, the newspaper said, the present European situation was a problem.
That “situation” is a nice way of saying “world war.”

KIRBY ON CAMERA NO. 2
And if you had a hearing problem, the Miller was where you wanted to watch Clark Gable or Bette Davis. It had what the newspaper called, “hard of hearing” seats.
If a person was slightly deaf, he or she could notify the ticket seller who would make sure they got one of 80 seats
equipped with ear-phone sets.
Kirby reading OFF CAMERA no. 2
The Miller’s first show that winter of 1940 was a grand one: “Night at the Moulin Rouge,” It featured a cast of 75 -- 95 percent girls - advertisements in the Chronicle pointed out.
“16 scenes of splendor”
“Frenchy! … Farcical! Fast and Furious!”
They even featured a photo of a woman stretched out somewhat across the bottom of the ad.
“Frenchy, indeed.”
Finally the priemere and a front page story and photos in The chronicle. Feb. 27
“Broad street took on the aspect of A HOLLYWOOD PREMIERE,” THE CRONICLE crowed.
Front page photos showed floodlights turning Broad Street into Tinsel Town
Another photo shows the man of the hour Frank Miller, himself, reading notes of congratulations from Clark Gable and Mickey Rooney.

More than 22-hundred people crowded into the theater that night and Mayor James Wooddall took the stage and paraphrased the poet Keats, saying the new theater would be prove “a joy forever.”
“All in all, it was a pretty big night for downtown Augusta,” The Chronicle reported.
But you know what? In 1957 they topped that, when the Miller Theater held the world preimere of the “The Three Faces of Eve,” starring JoANNE Woodward.
“Eve,” was based on the true story of Edgefield woman Chris Costner Sizemore and her battle with multiple personality disorder.
The movie was adapted from a book written by the two Medical College of Georgia psychiatrists - Drs. Hervey Cleckley and Corbett Thigpen - who discovered and helped treat Ms. Sizemore.
Between that first night and the PRIEMERE’S big night were a lot of memorable nights at the Miller Theater for people in Augusta.
It molded memories for 40 years … We know because we asked Chronicle readers about it. Here’s what they said.
You can help if you want.
Your tax-deductible donations for the Miller Theater campaign can be mailed to Symphony Orchestra Augusta, 1301 Greene Street, Suite 200, Augusta, Ga. 30901. Make checks payable to Miller Theater.
Think of it as an investment for future memories.