By Kerry Singe
One day in 2012, then-Bank of America executive Cathy Bessant stood inside the remnants of the Carolina Theatre with architect and former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt and banking titan Hugh McColl Jr.
The nonprofit Foundation For The Carolinas was thinking about acquiring and renovating the uptown theater as part of a “mini-campus” focused on philanthropy and civic engagement. The foundation’s then-CEO, Michael Marsicano, invited them to tour the theater, built when silent films were popular, to see if a renovation was feasible.
Bessant recalls exchanging skeptical glances with Gantt and McColl inside the abandoned theater, thinking similar thoughts. “It was such a disaster on the inside. There’s no other way to say it,” Bessant says. “The three of us, well, we had some experience in real estate, and we looked at each other thinking, you have to be crazy.”
The historic theater was once a lavish cinema palace that also hosted acts such as Bob Hope and Elvis Presley, drawing patrons from across North Carolina. But the venue had sat vacant since closing in 1978 and had been damaged in a fire.
“We knew Michael had great vision,” says Bessant, now the foundation’s CEO. “We are practical people, and we were daunted by what it would take. Our reaction was that this would take monumental effort.”
In March, the foundation opened the newly restored Carolina Theatre. With 906 seats, vintage touches and modern amenities, such as 10 laser projectors and a modern sound system, the theater will host concerts, plays, films, speakers and weddings. Extraordinary care was given to match its original elegance while adding the latest technology. The original project cost more than doubled to $90 million, with local, state and federal agencies providing about $19 million and the Belk family and other private donors putting up the balance.
Efforts to preserve the building, however, spanned several decades and involved hundreds of volunteers, many false starts, and a few dashed hopes and dreams. The restoration demonstrates the determination and vision of civic leaders, say those involved in the project, along with hundreds of people who loved an old building and rallied to protect it.
“You have to be really tenacious to keep with a project like this for 30 years,” says Charlie Clayton, founder of the Carolina Theatre Preservation Society. “One of life’s lessons with this whole endeavor is don’t give up.”
Preserving a gem
Debuting in 1927 as part of Paramount Pictures’ Publix Theatre chain, the 36,000-square-foot Carolina Theatre was considered an architectural gem, its opulence reminiscent of a palace. The Mediterranean-inspired building boasted a coffered ceiling, murals on the side walls, a Spanish cathedral window and wrought-iron chandeliers.
The theater opened with a silent movie, “A Kiss in a Taxi,” with Miss Fae Wilcox at the Wurtlitzer organ, “accompanying a program of novelty slides,” according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission. The theater also had vaudeville performers on stage. It later switched to sound films and attracted audiences from across the state. It was the first in the Carolinas to screen “Gone With the Wind,” while a young Elvis Presley performed there in 1956.
For 79 weeks in the 1960s, nearly 400,000 people saw the film adaptation of the musical, “The Sound of Music” with Julie Andrews. “When I was a kid, we always got dressed up for special things. And going to the Carolina Theatre rated high on that list,” says Moira Quinn, chief operating officer at Charlotte Center City Partners. “I imagine that (the theater) might have been getting a bit run down by then, but my 10-year-old eyes only saw elegance and beauty.”
Black patrons were not welcome at Carolina Theatre until 1963, when Charlotte-area theaters started to desegregate. Business also faltered as people started going to multiplexes in the suburbs. On Nov 27, 1978, the theater closed for good after showing “The Fist,” a Bruce Lee action movie.
Various proposals were considered to revive the building, including the CityFair mixed-use project that planned to convert it into a performing-arts center and conference space. But CityFair ran out of money, and the city took ownership of the theater in 1986.
Clayton learned about the Carolina Theatre when a job transfer led him to Charlotte around the time the theater closed. A salesman trained in engineering, Clayton fell in love with the building and its history.
Clayton met others who shared his interest in preserving the theater. But no one had the money to do so. In the mid-1990s, he watched developers raze older uptown buildings to build high-rises near the theater, which has a prize location at East Sixth and North Tryon streets.
“We thought, ‘We’re going to draw the line,’” Clayton says. “Someone has to stand up for the Carolina Theatre.”
On a whim, Clayton sent an application to state government, requesting $30 million to restore the theater. The state replied by saying it would give $50,000.
He established the nonprofit Carolina Theatre Preservation Society to build awareness of the venue. It organized events, including a showing of “Nosferatu,” a silent German horror film, where the audience sat on folding chairs. The alternative dance troupe Moving Poets Theatre of Dance performed “Dracula.”
“People thought, ‘Man, this place is so cool,’” Clayton says. “It was haunting in there. Everyone just went gaga over the place.” Word spread, and an estimated 300 volunteers eventually got involved.
Real-estate developer Jim Donnelly of Charlotte proposed renovating the theater and building a multimillion-dollar residential tower with elevators to carry cars up to garages next to each residence. Donnelly’s company entered into a purchase agreement with the city in 2006.
More than half of the condos were pre-sold when the 2007-09 financial crisis struck. Promised funding dried up, killing the project. “It was really pitiful and bad timing,” Clayton says.
Then he got a call from Marsicano, who proposed that the foundation buy the theater. In December 2012, the deal was struck at a $1 price, plus a pledge to renovate the theater and dedicate it to civic use.
“No one could envision how gorgeous it was going to be. But Michael could see it,” Clayton says. “And he could convince other people.”
Charlotte leaders want the Carolina Theatre to act as a catalyst for the North Tryon corridor, which has attracted less investment in the past decade than the center city’s southern edge. One block north of the theater, a $137 million library is under construction. Directly across Tryon Street, the Discovery Place Science museum is mulling a renovation.
Plans by Australian investment firm Salter Brothers for a 250-room InterContinental Hotel above the theater stalled in 2020. The company hasn’t disclosed its plans.
The theater is being billed as a “community-first” nonprofit, and to Bessant, that means returning to its roots. Half of the programming is expected to involve partnerships with community-based groups, such as the library and emerging-arts organizations. There’s no intent to compete with the Blumenthal Arts nonprofit, which presents Broadway shows and operates a half dozen uptown arts venues within a few blocks.
“This is a theater for all kinds of endeavors, civic learning, educational programming and, of course, entertainment,” Bessant says. ■
A version of this story appeared in BNC’s sister publication, SouthPark.