Gillioz Theatre
The Gillioz Theatre is a historic theater located at Springfield, Missouri, United States. It was built by M. E. Gillioz of Monett, Missouri. Mr. Gillioz was in the business of building bridges, and the theater was built with steel and concrete. Wood was only used for handrails, doors, and doorframes. The original cost of the building was $300,000. Renovation costs totaled approximately $1.9 million.
The theater opened on October 11, 1926. Gillioz managed to secure a 100-year lease on one wide piece of property which bordered on U.S. Route 66, so that the theater could garner patrons who traveled on that historic highway. After many prosperous years, and many not-so-prosperous years, the "Gillioz, Theatre Beautiful" finally offered its last show in the summer of 1980, an opera.
The theater was originally a transition theater, with a Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ for silent movies and a stage for live performances, such as vaudeville acts. The pipe organ was Wurlitzer's opus 1411 Style D. The organ had 2 manuals and 6 ranks of pipes, 4 tuned percussions, 6 traps, and 9 sound effects. The organ was sold in 1980 when the theatre closed and is currently in private hands. A sound system was installed in 1928 with the advent of talkies.
The theatre is mainly a concert venue. It hosts a variety of entertainment such as Dave Chappelle, Elvis Costello, George Clinton, Ben Folds, Shaun Cassidy,Weird Al Yankovich,Parliament Funkadelic, Blue October, Kacey Musgraves, Billy Ray Cyrus and many more. Capacity for general admission is 1,300 and for reserved seating there is 1,015.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. It is located in the Springfield Public Square Historic District.
Premieres
The Gillioz hosted the premieres of three movies:- 1938 January 14: “Swing Your Lady” with Humphrey Bogart and Penny Singleton
- 1952 June 6: “The Winning Team" with Ronald Reagan
- 1952 July 4: “She’s Working Her Way Through College,” also starring Ronald Reagan
Stories
Elvis Presley passed an afternoon watching a movie at the Gillioz after performing sound checks for an evening show at the nearby Shrine Mosque.Questions of the old theatre being haunted are frequent. Factually, the theatre did have a death on New Year's Eve 1962 when the projectionist died at his post prior to starting a midnight screening. It is a favorite spot for paranormal investigation.