Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that answer the question.
Query: How many people can Beacham Theatre hold?
Beacham outfitted his theater with innovative state-of-the art equipment from the Southern Theater Equipment Company of Atlanta.[19] The Beacham's box office in the lobby featured both an automatic admission ticket vending machine dispenser and ticket chopping machine. A decorative marquee that was unique in Florida extended toward the street and featured an electric changeable sign that flashed the daily program.[18] Two Powers 6B type "E" projectors were supplied by the N Power company of New York. The Midas Gold film screen was made especially for the Beacham. A medium-sized pipe organ from the Austin Organ Company of Hartford, Connecticut, was purchased and installed at a cost of $15,000.[18] The organ, Opus 1034 with 3 manuals in a center console, 24 ranks of pipes and 24 stops[20] was played by both Mr. Herman Stuart and Mrs. Roberta Branch Beacham, wife of Braxton Beacham Jr. to accompany silent films and vaudeville acts.[18] Typhoon cooling and ventilating equipment was installed in the theater. The Beacham Building's construction featured numerous fireproofing and fire safety measures. When the theater opened, the auditorium had an operating capacity of 1400.[18]
Professional wrestlers Rob Van Dam, Masato Tanaka, Rhyno, Super Crazy, The Dupps, Yoshihiro Tajiri, Tommy Dreamer, and Simon Diamond had a match in the Beacham Theatre.
By 1992 the future looked brighter for the Beacham Theatre when Mike Berry, staff writer, for The Orlando Sentinel wrote that, "The Beacham Theatre is the latest testament to reincarnation." Concerts were no longer being held in the auditorium during this time period and the Beacham Theatre was used exclusively as night club through 2010.
Beacham's Building is divided into seven rental units using wood frame, brick walls, different facades, and paint. The theater is the south-most unit. The two-story Beacham Theatre was constructed in 1921 in a simple 20th Century Commercial Style. The structure is constructed of reinforced concrete and brick with stucco out-surface. Utilization of wood in the construction was minimized.[18]
Braxton Beacham Jr., died in 1961.
The senior Braxton Beacham died in 1924 after a long illness, and Roberta Holland Beacham died soon after in 1926. Their estate and real property were left to their children, Norma K. Hughes, Roberta Augusta Rogers, Braxton Beacham Jr., and his wife Roberta Branch Beacham.[21]
The Beacham, as it is currently named, has since been used as a series of concert venues and nightclubs thus saving it from demolition. The Beacham Theatre was once home to the late-night underground discotheque Aahz that is recognized internationally as a birthplace and critical component of the electronic dance music movement.
Following an effort to "bring back the aesthetics of the old Beacham Theatre," in 2000 owners restored the Beacham's ornate plaster ceiling moldings, facade, and marquee. In addition, the sloping theater floor was made level and the stage was elevated. The original Beacham Theatre sign is awaiting restoration and is being stored on the roof.[82]
Despite the new recognition for the theater by the City of Orlando, Mr. Juarez saw the building as a liability with many pleasant memories surrounding it, but with little economic potential. Citing maintaining the building and rehabilitation of the area, he first announced plans to raze the building for an unspecified mix-use purpose and later to redevelop the former Beacham Block with a new skyscraper that would be used as a combination office building and hotel.[43][44] In 1988 Juarez received two successive approval Certificate of Appropriateness permits from the City of Orlando Board of Historic Preservation to demolish the Beacham Theatre within 180 days.[5] The "Bye-bye Beacham Bash" was promptly organized by Orlando Remembered and attended by former theater doormen, ushers, candy girls, and cashiers on December 9, 1988.[45] However, Mr. Juarez's redevelopment plan and the new construction of a 20-story office building and parking garage fell through at the last moment due to poor timing. Additional parking could have contributed to a revitalized downtown area, but the market for office space in Downtown Orlando was nearly saturated in the late 1980s and there was a general lack of interest from prospective future tenants. Had the project materialized, Mr. Juaraz would have been required to reconstruct a replica of the original Beacham Theatre facade using original building materials of brick, stucco, decorative tile, and pastel colors.[5][39]
The Beacham's "exploitation director" Frank H. Burns often designed and created large elaborate standing displays that decorated the facade and lobby of the theater in order to advertise new film features.[26] The iconic displays that Burns created for the Beacham Theatre were sometimes complete with coordinated costumes for the employees.
Orlando's Chamber of Commerce held open forum meetings at the Beacham Theatre on Sundays during the winter months of 1971-1973 under the direction of W. F. Blackman.[21]
Other short-lasting entities followed such as a tourist-oriented laser tag business. The Orlando Sentinel critic Howard Means, reminded readers, that the 1965 installation of "then-new Cinerama equipment at the Beacham was the latest testimony to the faith in the future of Downtown Orlando" and that, "The Beacham had long been seen as a bellwether of the health of the center city." Upon further reflection, he lamented, "that the Beacham is simply a microcosm of modern downtown realities." Means editorialized, by 1982 "The present state of the Beacham was the latest testament to decay," and, "In the way of dying enterprises, the Beacham's reincarnations became increasingly more short-lived."[13]
The Beacham website offers the following synopsis:[86]
The Beacham's auditorium features "square columns adorned with feathered capitals that climb gracefully to a high ceiling decorated with rectangles of intricate plasterwork."[1] When constructed, the theater was outfitted with draperies that covered the plaster walls. The draperies had "mild tan figures delicately woven into the broad white field with an occasional soft blue figure" that were selected by Mrs. Roberta Holland Beacham, wife of Braxton Beacham Sr.[18]
The final all-night Aahz-themed events (The Return of Aahz) were held at the Beacham between September 7, 1991, and July 4, 1992, and lasted until Dekko's opened. However, "Aahz" was the theme that really stuck with patrons and among participants is still used as a nickname for "Late Night" reunion tour events and even for the Beacham Theatre itself.[54] "Lift" night soon commenced in the Beacham Building's north-most unit, then called Barbarella's. The Beacham Building's north-most corner unit was once called Beach Club where Kimball Collins was resident DJ in the mid-1980s.[60] "Late Night" in the Beacham Theatre returned when Unity presented "Welcome (Back) to Late Night" on October 30, 1993. "Late Night's" Reunion at the Beacham was then initiated at Dekko's.
The Beacham Theatre was constructed in 1921 by Braxton Beacham Sr., who had previously owned three other Orlando theaters[6] and had served as Mayor of Orlando during 1907.[5] In 1917 Beacham paid approximately $17,500–$20,000 for the property one block southwest of his stately residence on Jefferson Street after Orlando's citizens voted to pave the road to the cemetery instead of purchasing the old jail.[7] The property he purchased had formerly served as the jail for Orange County since about 1873.[8] With a $200,000 investment, the former jail building was torn down in 1919 and Beacham developed a series of connected building units along the west side of Orange Avenue between Washington Street and Oak Street (now Wall Street). The new building was then known as "Beacham's Block" and is now known the Beacham Building. The location of Beacham's theater was precisely where several condemned prisoners were executed by hanging.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14] According to local folklore, the Beacham Building is reportedly haunted.[13][15][16][17]
On December 9, 1921, Orlando's premier vaudeville and movie house opened by showing The Wonderful Thing, starring Norma Talmadge, a Pathé News newsreel, and Buster Keaton's The Boat.[7][24] The Beacham Theatre was originally the only independent theater in Orlando.[18] However, the next year, in 1922, Beacham leased his theater to Mack Sparks of the Sparks Theater Company chain.[10][13]
Manager Harry Vincent started several promotions at the Beacham Theatre in the summer months of the mid-1920s that included Bank Night, Amateur Night, and Country Store Night, which was supported by dozens of local merchants. An advertisement for the Beacham in 1925 says, "Don't talk about the hot weather. Beat the heat in a Beacham seat. 'Kum Keep Kumfy Kool at the Beacham' is known to many and you won't enjoy yourself until you too get into the line that leads to comfort."[25]
In May 1989 the Beacham Theatre was sold by Oscar Juarez for $1.8 million to a property management firm owned by Longwood businesswoman Missy Casscells and her husband Frank Hamby.[48]
Introduced in 2011, Savings Spree is an App for children created by Beacham along with App developer Carstens Studios. Savings Spree teaches children how the choices that they make each day can add up to big savings or big expenses, depending upon how they spend (or do not spend) their money. The App was awarded the 2011 Parents' Choice for mobile Apps for children ages 7–12.
Late in 1988 the lease for the Beacham's theater was secured by the Bellettos under Entertainment Investments International.[45][46] Several of Lisa's cousins relocated to Orlando to help out with the task of preparing the Beacham for its opening and Brad's mother Bev tended the bar through the entire duration of the lease. The Bellettos also hosted an annual full-service Christmas dinner for hundreds of the city's homeless population at the Beacham Theatre with food donated by Orlando's high-end restaurants and businesses.[46]
During the 1970s Orlando, like many U.S. cites, was experiencing symptoms of urban decay. The rush from the city to the suburbs affected nearly all of the city's businesses. As an effect of the exodus, each of Downtown Orlando's movie theaters closed.[4][7] Dick Gabel and John Prine were serving as projectionists at several of the theaters.[37] Following a decline in attendance, by 1974 the Beacham Theatre and Florida State Theaters in general were primarily showing exploitation films and B-movie action films.[11] The next year, H. A. Tedder, who was the Orlando executive manager at long-time lessee Florida State Theaters, made the decision that The Beacham Theatre would cease operating as a first-run movie cinema.[11] After showing a Sunday double-feature of Return of the Street Fighter, and The Scavengers, the Beacham Theatre's manager, McKinley Howard, closed the theater's doors as a first-run film cinema for the last time on September 28, 1975.[38] Florida State Theaters remained responsible for paying the monthly lease of $2700 until the theater was sold.[11]
In 2011 leases for the Beacham Theatre were renewed by John SanFelippo and George Maltezos, along with Gerard Mitchell and Michael McRaney, who leased the adjacent unit. Their partnership is named 46/54 North Orange Ave, LLC, and both units are leased from building owners Margaret Casscells and Frank Hamby, of Beacham Theater, LLC.
The Live Entertainment era currently continues on stages at both The Beacham and partner The Social. Prominent national and international musical acts perform with fidelity to the countless shows by numerous acts that have previously held performances in the Beacham Theatre from the mid-1970s through the early-1990s.
The Beacham Theatre is a cinema built in 1921 by Braxton Beacham Sr. in the city of Orlando, Florida. The current address of the theater is 46 North Orange Avenue, and it is located at the southwest corner of Orange Avenue and Washington Street. The building's current lack of impressive architecture is offset by its significant cultural history.[1][2][3][4] The Beacham Theatre was considered an important contributing structure when the Downtown Orlando historic district was created in 1980 and the building was granted local landmark status in 1987.[5]