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Eli Mizrachi, whose family recently bought the Huntridge Performing Arts Theatre, stands under the marquee, which must be preserved until 2017 under restrictions the state established before investing $1.3 million into preserving the building. Photo by Ralph Fountain. The lobby of the Huntridge Theatre shows a stained carpet and a chandelier broken by an errant microphone hurled into the air. The future is uncertain for the property at 1208 E. Charleston Blvd. Photo by Ralph Fountain. The site of the stage where Judy Garland once sang is set up for Voodoo Glow Skulls. Photo by Ralph Fountain.

Sunday, January 06, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Future of historic venue up in the air

Huntridge Theatre has been sold, but marquee will remain for now

The historic Huntridge Theatre, propped up by $1.47 million in tax dollars over the past eight years, has been sold and its future is uncertain.

The venue, which in the 1950s attracted the likes of Marlene Dietrich and Frank Sinatra to its movie premieres and later became a punk rock concert hall, is now in the hands of the Mizrachi family, which owns the adjacent Cima's furniture store.

The sale, for $925,000, closed last week. And on New Year's Eve, the band Guttermouth established itself as the answer to the potential trivia question, "What was the Huntridge's last act?"

Most involved with the venue, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993, say taxpayers got their money's worth even if the sale price was well below the amount put toward maintaining and improving the 57-year-old building.

Eric Jordan, chairman of the Friends of the Huntridge Performing Arts Theatre, said that without the infusion of state and city grants since 1994, the building at 1208 E. Charleston Blvd. would have been demolished.

"If the state had not come forward, the Huntridge wouldn't be here. It would have been a Walgreens years ago," Jordan said.

The nonprofit bought the Huntridge in 1994 for $1.1 million, helped by a $150,000 grant from the city of Las Vegas. In ensuing years, it was sustained by more than $1.3 million in state grants.

Some of the money was used to rebuild the theater's roof, which collapsed in mid-1996 hours before the start of a sold-out rock concert. No one was hurt and potential tragedy was averted because of the time of the roof's collapse.

Jordan said after paying the bank loan and other debts, his group will try to return some of the grant money to the state, even though that's not required by law.

"I'm not happy about it (the sale)," said Jordan. "But I'm happy we can walk out of here with our heads held high and know that the state's investment was protected."

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, represents the Huntridge area and said she believes the sale is "a lost opportunity." She said she wants to look into whether other options could have been pursued.

"We need to ask if maybe a sale wasn't the proper way to deal with it," she said. "I've always envisioned that property being used for a cultural center, a senior center or a library."

Although Giunchigliani questions the sale, she acknowledges there's no evidence that any grant money was misused.

"I think the building was worthy of salvaging," she said. "But there may have to be some dollars repaid."

Ron James, state historic preservation officer and historian, said the Huntridge has been a good investment of tax dollars.

"Obviously any project can fail, there are no guarantees out there. ... But a number of things are positive. First, that the building is still standing. It would not have survived the early 1990s without the grant."

When the Huntridge operated as a punk rock concert venue, James said "roughly 750,000 minorities and disadvantaged youths came through that structure and benefited from it."

If taxpayers paid $1.47 million to preserve the building, "that's $2 a head for every person who enjoyed that theater. And if that's all we bought, I don't think that's bad at all.

"As time goes on, that structure is going to become more revered, not less," James said. "Who knows what the future will hold? We've given that structure the best chance for survival. If it's used for the next 50 years as a furniture showroom, I don't care. At the end of that 50 years, it may be a theater or an art gallery.

"It's important that it's used and becomes part of a community and has a future," he added. "Buildings that are used are better than buildings that are demolished. And without those grants, there wouldn't be any building."

The grant money did not go toward subsidizing the operating expenses for rock concerts, James said. Grant money doesn't go directly to the nonprofit. Instead the bills for preservation are sent to James' office, where they are scrutinized before being paid.

Whatever the Mizrachi family decides, it must honor the covenants that accompanied the grant money as they pertained to preserving the historic elements, particularly the marquee.

"Any changes to the structure, inside and out, need to be reviewed by my office before they're undertaken," James said.

Possible options include expanding the furniture store, continuing with concerts, or perhaps putting in a museum, said Eli Mizrachi.

"As far as a theater, I don't know if it will exist. We have some ideas of incorporating some other things to keep it alive," said Mizrachi, who is meeting Monday with Las Vegas Councilman Gary Reese to talk about ideas for the Huntridge.

Reese used to go to movies at the Huntridge and he supported the effort the nonprofit made toward its preservation.

"Historically, it has a lot of value to it. We in the city don't have the money to buy it and preserve it and take care of it," Reese said.

City of Las Vegas Finance Director Steve Houchens said keeping the theater open since 1994 kept it on the tax rolls. The city loaned the nonprofit $75,000 to install a sprinkler system in 1996, the year after the roof collapsed. That loan was repaid.

Nevada's north-south rivalry for tax dollars also translated into support for the Huntridge. When the Commission for Cultural Affairs was looking to give grants, there were far fewer requests from the more populous and newer Clark County than the rest of the state, which has older buildings to preserve. The Huntridge was the beneficiary as there were fewer projects to compete with within Clark County.

James said there is also a value placed on memories.

Peter Bernhard, chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission, said it's hard to imagine Las Vegas without the Huntridge.

"My wife and I remember the thrill of attending movies as kids in the '50s and '60s ... the Saturday matinees and the more formal evening showings. `Thirteen Ghosts,' with 3-D glasses, was the scariest movie I had ever seen at that time," he said. "We enjoyed ... `Fiddler on the Roof' with my aunt and uncle ... and took our kids to see `Annie' ... . The Huntridge has really been a shared part of our lives across generations."

Former Las Vegas City Councilman Matthew Callister helped Richard Lenz, former chairman of the Friends of the Huntridge Theatre, obtain state money to help the venue and keep the alternative music scene alive. The former councilman and assemblyman also attended concerts there, but didn't return calls to address whether the grant money he helped obtain for the Huntridge was money well spent.

A recent visit to the Huntridge before it was closed showed a broken chandelier, stained carpeting, and an auditorium without seats where part of the concert hall wall was torn away.

It was hard to resurrect the spirits of Dietrich attending the premiere of "Witness for the Prosecution" in 1957 or Sinatra selling tickets in the Huntridge lobby in 1954 for "Suddenly," in which he played a psychopath trying to kill the president. The stage where Nelson Eddy and Judy Garland once sang was being set up for Voodoo Glow Skulls.

Competition was one reason the Huntridge failed.

"It was obsolete as a concert venue and was not big enough to draw big enough crowds," Jordan said. The operators couldn't compete with facilities like the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay.

As word spread about the closing of the Huntridge, some people who probably weren't aficionados of its current music genre bought a $15 ticket for the final night.

"A man 60 or 70 years old came to buy tickets," Jordan said. "And I know he's not a Guttermouth fan."