About Victory Theatre
Victory Theatre 3D Tour
Victory Theatre Seating Chart
About Victory Theatre
The Sonntag Hotel-Victory Theatre was laid out at Sixth and Main Street in downtown Evansville in 1919. It was built with a total of 2,500 seats and opened to the public on July 16th, 1921. The opening show was the silent movie “Wedding Bells”, accompanied by an 11-piece orchestra. Around 12,000 people turned out for opening day in 1921 and included 500 dignitaries from other surrounding cities. The Victory offered a daily program consisting of four vaudeville acts, a movie, a comedy routine, organ music, and an orchestra.
The architect, John Pridmore, based the interior and color schemes on the playhouses of Southern Italy. The most notable feature of the theatre is its unique proscenium arch, which frames the stage. The function of the proscenium arch is not only decorative, but also key to the structural integrity of the building. Weighing approximately 45 tons, it acts as a girder supporting a portion of the building’s roof directly above the stage.
The theatre was built in commemoration of World War I (1914-1918) and is decorated throughout with patriotic motifs, such as the eagle, a Roman symbol which represents victory.
The exterior of the building is very basic and keeping with the contemporary architectural movement of the 1920s. The most notable element of the exterior was the magnificent Victory marquee with its 3,000 cascading and flashing bulbs.
In 1926 the Victory was leased to Loew’s Theatres as a movie house chain and was renamed Loew’s Victory. In 1928 Loew’s featured Evansville’s first “talking picture”, an epic titled “Tenderloin”. Later that year, “The Jazz Singer”, became the first stand-alone “talkie” shown in the city.
The Victory Theatre complex has been home for a variety of businesses. In the 50s it was a triple screen cinema and in the late 80s and early 90s it was a teenage night club. In the 1990 the city of Evansville planned to restore Victory Theatre to its original glory. After a 20-million-dollar renovation they succeeded and the Victory reopened its doors on August 21, 1999, with a performance by comedian Carrot Top.
The Victory Theatre is now a 1,950-seat venue managed by Venuworks. It is the home of the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra and Signature School, Indiana’s first charter school and top raked charter school in the nation. The Victory hosts a wide variety of local events, concerts, Broadway shows, and family shows.