You're forgetting a couple of live theater events by Renegade COMEDY Theatre in '95 and '96.  We did "Road to Nirvana" which got a bit of national notoriety, and we also staged "Jeffrey", "Lloyd's Prayer", and "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)", all in the upstairs theater.  Eric let us use as long as we cleaned up after ourselves.  I spent quite a few late nights freaking myself out as I locked up and headed out to Superior Street.

Man there were a lot of typos in that comment! I was writing quickly hoping to get back to the super bowl.  I realized that I forgot to clarify that I am JP, for those that don't know that.  And if you do have anything, my email is jp.rennquist at that newfangled google mail service, or I have been using this blog thing http://wildgoosedj.vox.com/

And what I meant by "I'm sure others would" I was referring to other manager/owners such as Marvin, Craig S, or even Rick (although quite a record of that run exists in Ripsaw, etc) 

Baci is referring to a very popular musical "The Phantom of the NorShor" from Colder by the Lake.  He was a part of the crew. It was a good show.

entertainment these days is a shadow of it's former self

The Munchs ran the place for less than two months. Actually, they didn't run the place at all. It was a con that run out of a California prison pay phone. Munch Jr. was promising "big improvements" while the small local staff ran the day-to-day movie operations. At the end of the week, the gross receipts were deposited in a local bank account- to which Jr. had access. When bills weren't getting paid, local vendors began to complain. The manager (a nice girl named Christie, if I remember correctly) went to the bank to see what was going on. The bank manager told her to talk to the local FBI office. They sent an agent to the theater one evening for a full staff meeting to inform us of the con. We were to keep the charade going until Munch Sr. came to town to take over management. In the meanwhile, the manager was holding back receipts in order to pay us flunkies. Sr. did show up- full of bullshit and bluster 'till the Feds charged him and his son with various kinds of fraud. We closed up shop at the end of that week. I have a few other tales of on-again off-again employment there in the 1980s...

A later recording of one of the first acts at the Orpheum:

http://prod.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/sh/humor/vaud_2

Low video recording.

Speaking of Angie and the basement, I remember Angie had to use that uber-spooky bathroom down there when we were doing "Nirvanan".  She is the bravest woman I know.  For that, and the nudity thing.

So many fuzzy memories of great times over the years. 

Just the other night I was relating the story how Duluth's greatest surf/ska/reggae band (and Lion regulars) played the mezzanine and tossed out dozens of joints which the crowd instantly lit up. The entire building filled with a thick cloud of smoke. Rick Boo just stood there with arms crossed, stunned, pissed and fighting back a smirk the whole time.

Paul, wouldn't the beach house on Park Point be considered 'the birthplace of Homegrown'? hmmm.

I miss the carpet which is why I still visit the place.

Paul, I gotta disagree with you on this post. The Orpheum turns 100 this year; the Nor Shor did not exist until 1941. Nit picky? Sure. But that's my job....

And wouldn't Aug. 22, 2010, be great date for Dr. Ringsred to sell the building to someone who's vision for this landmark go beyond using it as some sort of revenge against the City of Duluth? 

Thanks to Jim Heffernan the X-comm image archive boasts interior views of the Orpheum in 1929 and the Nor Shor on its opening night in September, 1941. Even a pic of Charles Boyer and either Olivia de Havilland or Paulette Goddard getting off a plane in Duluth for the Nor Shor premier of "Hold Back the Dawn." When I have the time, I'll make a little web page on the X-comm site so PDDers can check them out.

The Hotel Duluth was pissed.

Pepper the monkey used to live in the basement.

I always thought that the tribe should buy it from Ringsred, renovate it, and turn it into another venue for them to bring acts in to (with the aim of supporting their casino of course).

Ah, Buttercup!

On February 28, 1983 I watched the final showing of the movie Diva in the Norshor when it still showed movies. I remember this so clearly because I was the only one in the theater and didn't realize why until I found out later it was the same night as the final episode of MASH was shown.  I don't want to be remiss and forget to mention that I had gone to see this movie all of the nights it was shown simply because it was the most amazing place to watch it. I still can't imagine seeing it in a big box theater...

Saw Marshall Crenshaw there August 25, 1983.

Saw "Wizard of Oz" there in 1984 or '85.  It was the single greatest movie going experience of my life!  Up on the big screen, and the entire audience was really getting into it.  "Run, Toto, run!"  Very fun.

Also saw Colder by the Lake school Dudley Riggs in a sketch comedy/improv show in the early '80s.  Don Ness' dad was the host, Bruce Ojard put clothes on the naked ladies on the walls...it was packed and hilarious.

Some friends of mine went there last week to check it out. I refused to join them, and told them I'd meet up with them afterwards at Blackwoods. They showed up about a half hour later and said it was really depressing: the place was pretty much empty and some emaciated young woman was poledancing, but looked like she'd rather be banging her head against a brick wall. My friends were just sad, being there, remembering what the place used to be like and what it's become. Like Baci, I used to respect Dr. Ringsred's thumbing his nose at the city. But now that Mr. Zeppa has created the Zeitgeist across the street, I am just angry that Dr. R didn't sell the Norshor to Zeppa so it could have become a hub of activity in Old Downtown like Zeitgeist has become.

By the way, does ANYONE know where those people who hang out at Blackwoods come from?

@ Wildgoose, are you SURE Ringsred published a book in the '80s about the Duluth lynchings? I know that a Fedo wrote a book about that time about the lynchings, and I believe it was reissued in the late '90s? I'll have to check on this. A good book with historical analysis must be written on the Duluth lynchings. I've actually tried to get my husband who's got a Ph.D in Southern US history to write one, and even got a publisher interested in it, but Joel just hasn't had time to do it yet. But I'm hoping.

Didn't the Zeppa foundation try to buy the Norshor, to basically do what they did across the street.  I recall Ringsred having an objection to a plan to break up the theater into smaller spaces or something.  It seemed like a silly objection to me as there is quite a bit of space in the building that could have been used without even touching the existing theater space.

Wildgoose, there was indeed a great deal of racial prejudice in Duluth in 1910, and long after. Dick Hudelson's "Down By the Ore Docks' explains it well, and if I remember right:

Top tier was eastern "Americans" of English, Scottish, and German descent--or recent immigrants from that group (all Protestant). Next came Scandinavians. The came the Finns (socialist), Southern Serbs, Italians, and Irish (Catholic). Finally, the blacks. After I gave a talk that included the Lyceum a couple years ago, an elderly gent made it a point to tell me that one balcony of the Lyceum was reserved for blacks; he proudly told me that was called "nigger alley."

Photos of the Orpheum in 1929 show two balconies and some private boxes, so not sure what you mean abut a 4th balcony.

And WG, I would hesitate to agree with the Dr. on anything to do with the NorShor. The very sad thing is that he was once champion of Duluth's historic buildings, but now he gives anyone associated with saving buildings in Duluth a bad name. I cringe each time the DNT describes him as a "preservationist." He is not. He is a building collector and a poor steward of the buildings he owns. His cause is now personal, not community minded as it once was. His actions of the last 5 years have set preservation efforts in Duluth back decades, as we are now all painted with the same broad "building-hugging-crack-pot" paint brush. He is holding that building hostage, but his efforts fail to move anyone in City Hall and all he does is keep that building away from those who love it and would treat it with respect. It should be the centerpiece of the eastern downtown renaissance, but instead it is the symbol of one man giving his finger to the City. How sad.

I'd be surprised if there were more than 10 of us on PDD that remember the Herald. I mean, actually reading it in the evening after it came out.

That embedded PDF keeps fucking my shit up.

And if I remember the DNT interview correctly, Eric Ringsred said he did not understand Zeppa's "agenda" and, thus, wanted to "punish" him by doubling the asking price.

But, being an underdog, I suppose meth addled strippers need... Oh, wait, never mind—he also basically alluded that since the casino opened and the block was in decline, he may as well kick the whole thing into high gear and put the pedal to metal on the highway to hell, "if that's what the city wants."

I remember the "Duluth Herald" for I delivered it (rain, sleet or snow) every day after school for 5 years.

Also, to Carla, funny that you say that about the skylight and the handicap access.  Many building tenants, managers and owners have made "improvements" or adaptations that would have to be dealt with if the theater were to be restored or even just "fixed" to the point of being practical.  Your proposals are very modest challenges.  Sounds more like he just didn't want to turn the reins over to you ... or to Zeppa ... or to the City of Duluth ... or to (then private citizen) Donny Ness' Artist Collective ... or to the Sheraton/Hotel Duluth folks ... or to many, many suitors over the years.

Just a small point that may have been made in an oblique manner already. Harlan Quist's non-profit, Theater in the State, published the second edition of Fedo's book, which should explain why there were copies in the NorShor basement. My mom re-typed the whole thing from the first edition for Mr. Quist. 

I hope the NorShor will be rehabilitated someday soon!

I've heard the balcony referred to as "n***er heaven". Somehow... just no. Jason Baumgarth has some awesome pictures of the upper, closed off theatre. 

I myself spent some time up there, and when we cleared out that stairwell in preparation for the fire inspector, we found a huge cache of Harlin Quist's stuff, which I rescued from the dumpster. He deserves a book unto himself, that guy. 

Ringsred had little to nothing to do with the publishing of the second edition of Fedo's book. The first edition was published in the 70s by a company up in Canada. It was titled "They Were Just Niggers" because that was what one of the lynchers said after the murders. It did not get wide distribution because the company went under. Then Quist, who was in the publishing biz in NYC, came back to Duluth and wanted to bring a little bit of NY to the NorShor. And, in a huge departure from his usual fare (whimsical children's books with surrealist art--that's a whole other story, and his books are *very* rare and worth a lot of money) he decided to publish Fedo's book as his last foray into publishing. But Quist always was broke, and both the theatre effort and the book publishing thing went bust almost before it happened. Very few people got copies of that edition (Trial By Mob). None were sold publicly I don't think. 

Back in the late 90s, I was hanging out at Marv's place, and Jason Owen was bartending. I had just run across a vigil put together by Kwiesi Jahi (a guy who gave the local police force and NAACP conniption fits in his efforts to confront police profiling of young black men in Duluth) where he memorialized the lynching victims. I'd never heard of this incident before. 

So, I was talking about it to Owen, and he mentioned that there were copies of a book on it back in the back of the theatre. He gave me one, and I read it. I was also a member of a book group at the time, and I got enough copies from Owen for us to read it. The discussion on this book turned into a mini anti-racism exorcism that made a lot of people cry and feel awful, mostly because I invited Kwiesi Jahi and he was like having Malcolm X in the room--he didn't let you get away with anything. 

It is because of my having been given this book, the subsequent many discussions following, and my own obsessions, that the Ripsaw published my article on the lynchings in 2000, the 80th anniversary. Not coincidentally to the anniversary, the MNHS published the first widely distributed copy of Fedo's book. 

All of these little incidents led to a group of people getting together to create the memorial.  

As for the Orpheum, one of the chief witnesses to the lynching was 19 yr old Francis McHugh, who was a stagehand at the theatre. If you go to the Duluth Lynchings Online Resource, created by the MN Historical Society, you can read his first-hand account of what happened. (It's hair-raising and awful, just to warn you.)

To Whom It May Concern:

The vacuum cannot suck up shit like paper clips, pennies, guitar strings, beer bottles, shoes, dead bodies, your broken dreams, or other huge shit. So if you are vacuuming the entire bar, or just the Mez, please do a pre-sweep for stuff that will damage the vacuum.

Dear HBH,

Thanks for the note on the vacuum cleaner. Wish I'd had that, we went through about 5 vacuum cleaners/carpet scrubbers in 8 months.  And many, many belts.  That's a lot of carpet to clean.  

Also I remember your article in the RIpsaw really touching off the consciousness raising that led to the CJM memorial.  And that is great all by itself, but I enjoy reading about the very personal background on it.   

In the end, everything is deeply personal to someone, isn't it?