Recalling a Treasure of Memories

The placement of the performing arts portion of the Milwaukee County War Memorial in the urban redevelopment area north of City Hall brought new focus to the Milwaukee River.

As part of the county’s partnership in the development, Red Arrow Park to the east of the “music hall” and Pere Marquette Park across the river to the west were established.

The inclusion of the Quarles Landing in the project renewed recreational interest in the river, which led to efforts to beautify the riverbanks and to create a riverwalk.

The memorial also triggered a more fanciful concern with the area when North Edison Street was vacated. The one-back street between East Kilbourn Ave. and East State St., once known as River St., served as the city’s red light district until the cluster of brothels (some accounts numbered them as high as 100) were disbanded in the moral uprising of 1912.

Descriptions included in promotional brochures of the period indicated that the district was formidable and operated on a lavish scale, including fountains, marble baths, and golden thrones as features in establishments that covered as many as 42 rooms.

The fact that the morality crusade was carried out by the county gave fuel to the legend that City Hall was not enthusiastic about the operation. The excavation for the memorial laid to rest a part of that legend: No sign was found of the tunnel legend that had claimed to have existed between City Hall and the tenderloin attractions.





The river challenged architect Harry Weese’s ingenuity. Eschewing the use of pilings other buildings in the marshy neighborhood had used, Weese devised something of a hull for the music hall. In a very real sense the massive structure floats in the water table.

Although major elements of the music hall fell into place, the structure was plagued by smaller annoyances.

Richard A. Hoover, the hall’s managing director who came aboard in 1967 during the construction, facetiously threatened Weese with dire happenings because of the literally thousands of golden light bulbs with which the architect had decorated the promenades.

“I will curse you every time I have to replace a burned out bulb,” Hoover threatened Weese.

The hall became something of a living structure as added interests and support changed original space designations when funding changed plans.

The Todd Wehr Theater is a prime example. Penciled in as a rehearsal hall for the Florentine Opera Company, the Wehr Foundation donation changed and enlarged the space into a thrust stage for the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

The Milwaukee Rep planned to inaugurate its space with an eye-filling production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. An elaborate set was ordered up on the assumption that the theater met its announced specifications. When it came time to place the finished set onto the stage, it was discovered that the indicated center line was a bit off, causing a major shift in elements of the set. An overhang at the back of the stage also blocked the upstage decorations from many of the audience members.

Literally little things made for big excitement when the wooden balls, meant to ease the movement of the massive gold lame grand drapery in Uihlein Hall, came undone and showered the orchestra pit – sending musicians of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra scuttling out of the way, clutching their instruments to protect them from being pelted by the golden balls.

The gala opening extravaganza on Sept. 17, 1969 attracted the press from afar. Hoover was hard pressed to find enough telephones in quiet nooks for use by the platoon of visiting reporters.

The opening also caused a less welcomed attraction. The 1960s was the era of street theater. The dedication of the $12 million music hall with a formally-dressed audience in attendance drew squads of scruffy demonstrations to the building.

Richard R. Teschner, chairman of the War Memorial Development Committee, took subtle notice of the demonstrators and won Uihlein Hall’s first burst of approving applause when he turned over the keys of the structure to County Executive John Doyne.

According to tradition, the keys were to be accompanied by a shaft of peppercorns and a clump of dirt. Teschner delivered the keys and the peppercorns – but as for the dirt, he said: “We left the clods outside.”

A number of unique events come to mind.

The first three summers were marked by the operetta festivals staged by the late Clair Richardson of the Skylight Theater, who went to Vienna and other European centers to bring to Milwaukee the most authentic operetta productions.

The opening night was a gala “sausage fest” in the Viennese manner. Tables were set up on the grounds around the hall where patrons strolled with sausage in one hand, and a dish of mustard in the other.

The event was especially romantic. The weatherman used the Milwaukee River to raise a fog almost of pea soup character.

Pearl Bailey provided the Performing Arts Center with an occasion that, luckily, was the only one of its kind.

Bailey was booked into Uihlein Hall to star in the all-African American version of Hello, Dolly! Early in the morning of the opening, the large cast led by Cab Calloway, slated to play Horace Vandergelder, and his daughter, chosen to play Mrs. Malloy, came to the stage door to find the house dark and cold – and no Pearly Mae. Dolly had decided that the Houston run of the show was so strenuous that she couldn’t go on. So she checked into a hospital without telling her colleagues.

The show didn’t go on.

Ella Fitzgerald exemplified a more usual routine at the Performing Arts Center. She was booked into Milwaukee before she underwent serious surgery on her eyes. She made the date as the first performance after her operation.

She held a short, but friendly, interview just before going on the stage. The meeting was held in the maestro’s room with hardly any light. When show time arrived, the great scat singer moved out of the gentle dusk into the biting glare of the spotlight.

Uihlein Hall has always been a center for education. Kenneth Schermerhorn, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s music director, instituted the orchestra’s matinee series for youngsters. It was Schermerhorn’s plan to present graded instructional concerts for three school levels with the intention of having the young audience increase their knowledge of orchestral music as they moved through the schools.

These concerts were staged, of course, during school hours. Eldon Balko, then the music director of the Lutheran A Cappella Chorus and later head of the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee choral department, used “prime time” for his education.

Balko had instituted a course of instructions following the Carl Orf theory of teaching. Balko used Uihlein Hall to demonstrate the success of the Orf technique in a concert of young voices that nearly sold out the house.

The 28 years of the Milwaukee Performing Arts Center (now Marcus Center for the Performing Arts) has generated a treasure of memories. With the improvements worked into the rejuvenation, the memories will struggle against the incredible potential now in place.

by Jay Joslyn.

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