APPAC Board will miss its prime mover

Spring 2008
Showtime
P.O. Box 7733
Auburn, CA 95604
The mission of the Auburn Placer Performing Arts Center, Inc. is to enhance the cultural and economic environment of our community by building and operating a center for the performing arts.
Bill Lipschultz 1929-2008
APPAC Board will miss its prime mover
Bill Lipschultz, a retired attorney and a prime mover of the
Auburn Placer Performing Arts
Center passed away January 22.
An active civic leader ever since
he moved to Auburn in 1975, he
received the prestigious Vernon
McCann Award in 2003, which
is given to Auburn residents
who dedicate their lives to community involvement.
Lipschultz was a key player
in the creation of APPAC and
developing the group into a
501c(3) non-profit organization.
He served as the first president
of the Board of Directors and
played an active role in the
quest to reconstruct the State
Theater in downtown Auburn
into a state-of-the-art performing arts center.
Paul Ogden, the current
president of APPAC worked
with Lipschultz for the past five
years on the performing arts
center board. In an interview with
the Auburn Journal, Ogden said,
“Whenever we came to a fork in
the road, we could always count
on Bill to have a couple of ideas
to get us over a log jam.” He was
the guy I could always call on the
phone with any kind of issue, talk
about it and he always seemed to
have the answer.”
“He was just a model, kind
human being,” Ogden said. “He’s
one of those people that touched
my life.
“There’s a lot of good people
you deal with, but there are some
exceptional people. He was one of
those exceptional people.”
Lipschultz established himself
as a leader in the Auburn community through his involvement
with a variety of groups.
He was a member of the Auburn Rotary Club, Executive
Director of the Sutter Auburn
Faith Foundation for Sutter Au-
Attorney Bill Lipschultz added intelligence and strong organizational skills along
with a quick wit and warm personality to the APPAC Board of Directors in their
goal of creating a performing arts center at the State Theatre in Auburn.
burn Faith Hospital, served on
the Board of Directors for the
Auburn Chamber of Commerce
and Placer County Board of
Education, was the past president
of the Placer County Bar Association and the Highway 49 Business
Association.
His interest in bringing
performing arts to Auburn
stemmed from his involvement
as a bass in a local barbershop
singing group, his role as a a
board member of the Auburn
Symphony and his leadership
in APPAC.
Two musical groups performed at the Celebration of Life of Bill Lipschultz held at
the Auburn District Fairgrounds. Left, the Auburn Symphony was represented by a
string quartet of Judy Bromley, Loretta Ames, Sue Dings, and Alan Clark. Below,
the barbershop quartet “Stampede,” comprised of Roger Perkins, Norm Kendall,
Dennis Lloyd, and
Pat Jones provided
a touching closing
to the celebration.
Lipschultz was
a member of the
Barbershop Harmony
Society for 25 years
and sang with the
“Sierranaders.” He
also was a Board
member of the
Auburn Symphony.
President’s Message
Performing arts center
a community project
APPAC Board
Members
By the time our Spring Newsletter reaches you, the bidding for the Theatre’s marquee and vertical S-T-A-T-E sign
will be completed. We are all holding our breath that the low
bid will be within our total budget of $250,000—and that we
will be able to proceed with the installation in July following
Project Auburn’s restoration of the building façade by the
end of May. If not, we’ll have to revert to “Plan B”.
Getting the marquee and tower up will usher in a new
era for our restoration project. It will make believers out of
non believers. It will create excitement in the community
and will set the stage for major fundraising needed to get
our next phase (a 415 seat, state of the art performing arts
center) in place.
Recent telephone interviews of key community leaders
and potential donors were conducted by our fundraising
consultant. They confirmed that putting a public face on our
project and starting small are ideas that have community support. Restoring the façade and marquee is what catapulted
the Cascade Theatre in Redding to success and is the model
we have chosen to follow.
Our Board recently conducted its own pledge campaign.
The results were positive and gratifying. APPAC’s campaign
shows that board members are committed to putting their
personal resources on the line in order to make this project
succeed. We are confident that this will send a signal to
other donors.
It cannot be said too often that what we are trying to
achieve is a Community Project—in the truest sense of the
phrase. It is based on the premise that a performing arts
center will bring great value to our community—a great
cultural resource and a needed economic resource.
Our Board members have
worked tirelessly over the past
seven years to set the stage for
creating a performing arts venue
in Downtown Auburn. We are very
close to reaching a major plateau.
However, APPAC can only take
this effort only so far. The rest will
be up to the community and people
who have the financial ability to
make it a reality. And we really do
not want to think about “Plan B”.
Vice-President
Paul Ogden
President
Paul Ogden
Dave Mackenroth
Past President
Bud Pisarek
Treasurer
George Graziano
Recording Secretary
Kelly Lardner
Corresponding Secretary
Rosie Stilwell
Founders
Esther Stanton
Doris Viera
Trustees
Bob Burge
Warren Burns
Monroe DeJarnette
Sue Dings
Janice Forbes
Glenda Gonzales
Kevin Odell
Linda Olsen
Dean Prigmore
Bill Radakovitz
Ron Ravo
George Remaley
Peter VanBeckum
Janis Wikoff
Newsletter Editor: Bob Burge
Auburn Placer
Performing Arts Center,
Inc.
P.O. Box 7733
Auburn, CA 95604
Phone: 530-885-0156
Fax: 530-885-0157
livefromauburn.com
Behind
the
scenes
ABOVE: An old air
conditioning unit
in the bowels of the
State Theater. ABOVE
RIGHT; Fallout shelter
survival supplies from
the 1950s. RIGHT:
Board members Janis
Wycoff, Paul Ogden,
and Linda Olsen tour
the theater.
Become a supporter,
get a ginkgo tree
With this issue of Showtime, APPAC begins its 2008-09 Annual Support Drive. The first 100 donors from
the Individual Support and Business
Support categories will receive a ginkgo tree as a memento, compliments
of Don Yamasaki. These saplings are
from the big ginko tree in front of
Lincoln Way School/City Hall.
Paul Ogden led a contingent of APPAC
Board members through the State Theatre in early March. The group viewed the
backstage area, the former dressing rooms
beneath the stage, and the heating and
air-conditioning room. On the main level,
the ladies’ lounge from the 1930s still exists
with black and white tile flooring and the
remnants of a vanity lounge. Old electrical
panels, air-conditioning equipment, and
Civil Defense survival supplies can still be
found backstage and in the basement area.
Unravelling the
mysteries of the
State Theater’s
interior artwork
As the Auburn Placer Performing Arts Center makes plans
for the reconstruction of the State Theater, many mysteries surround
the art and interior design of the original movie house. What do we
know about the mural of Auburn in 1880 that adorns the wall as movie
goers exit the theater doors? What interior artwork existed on the ceiling and walls of the original movie house?
The mural, which has been in place since a remodel in the
1930s is unsigned, and the source of the artwork has also been ques-
Images from Redding
tioned. Built in 1930, the theater was remodeled seven years later.
At that time, according to accounts in the Auburn Journal, an artist
named William Chavalas, a graduate of the art academy of Athens
was contracted to provide drawings on the ceiling and elsewhere
throughout the building. Chavalas was used for interior designs in
several T&D Enterprise theaters like Auburn’s throughout California
during the 1930s.
Chavalas personally sketched the drawings and then trans-
ferred them to the ceiling. He rented Kenison’s Hall in order to have a
large wall on which to stretch the transfer paper. The design was Neo
Classic, the details of which came from the ancient Greek vases.
Working with NTD Architecture, APPAC is interested in finding
out what original drawings may still exist.
Possible Artwork? These three designs
can be found in the celing and walls of
the Cascade Theater in Redding. The
Cascade was built by T&D Enterprises,
which also owned Auburn’s State
Theater. Artist William Chavalas
provided interior art for both theaters.
Model for the Mural: This lithograph (ca. 1890) shows a birds-eye view of Auburn and
surrounding countryside. It was supplied by Feodor Closs, a German immigrant who
is considered the pioneer of the olive industry in Placer County. He owned a vast olive
orchard in the area of Nevada Street and Mt. Vernon Road and operated an olive mill in
the 1880s. A copy of the lithograph
hangs in the foyer of the Auburn
City Hall. The original is owned by
the California State Library. The
middle portion of the lithograph
was used in creating the mural at
the State Theater. Before a 1970s
remodel, the wall and mural
were inside the theater as it was
configured in the 1930s.
Theater manager relied
on Auburn artist for signs
g’s Cascade Theater
From 1925 to 1934, Harry DeGroat ran
a sign shop at 740 Lincoln Way in Auburn
and lived in a house on Foresthill Avenue.
His business letterhead advertised posters,
signs, show cards and the motto “Tell the
World With Signs.”
He was a friend of Tom Whittemore,
the manager of the State Theater during
the time. According To DeGroat’s son,
Ray, Whittemore used his father to illustrate some of the upcoming films.
Ray claims that his father produced
the mural for the theater as well. Although only eight years old at the time,
Auburn artist Harry DeGroat at his sign
shop on Lincoln Way circa 1930. On the
right are coming attraction signs for the
theater, advertising actors Edward G.
Robinson and James Cagney in the film
Smart Money.
the younger DeGroat says that several
aunts remember his father painting the
mural as well as lying on his back painting the ceiling of the theater.
DeGroat also painted advertising
signs for several businesses in Auburn,
and some of his paintings hung in
Sather Grill.
APPAC Board solidifies future
plans during January retreat
Members of the Auburn Placer
Performing Arts Center Board of Trustees came together Jan. 19 to discuss
plans for 2008 at a retreat held at the
Sisters of Mercy conference center in
Auburn..
The focus of the day was organizing
effectively for the future, and defining
operating funds operations and capital
campaign fundraising.
Angela Tahti, Executive Director
of Placer Arts was moderator for the
retreat which helped organize the committe more efficiently as APPAC heads
into an all important year in its quest
for a performing arts center in the State
Theater in downtown Auburn.
APPAC President Paul Ogden
provided the attendees with the background and history of the organization.
Architects Jordan Knighton and Derek
Labrecque of NTD Architecture updated board members about the proposed
design and answered questions.
ABOVE: Angela Tahti, Executive
Director of Auburn Arts, moderated
the day-long retreat, which focused on
more effective organization and resulted
in new committee responsibilities and
assignments. LEFT: APPAC President
Paul Ogden provided information on
the background and history of the
organization.
Placer County Board of Supervisors
Resolution
In the matter of a Resolution commending the Auburn Placer Performing Arts Committee In support of the State Theatre Performing Arts Center Project:
WHERAS, the State Theatre, located in downtown Auburn since 1930, was built and
designed with elaborate furnishings; and
WHERAS, the State Theatre has provided generations of movie goers the pleasure of
viewing motion pictures in air conditioned comfort; and
WHERAS, the Performing Arts Committee had undertaken the worthy task of renovating the theatre into an eight-hundred seat Auburn Placer Performing Arts Center; and
WHERAS, Doris Viera, Esther Stanton, Monroe DeJarnette and William Lipschultz
were granted charter committee status by the Auburn Area Chamber of Commerce in
2001; and
WHERAS, the auburn Placer Performing Arts Center organization’s mission is to
enhance the cultural and economic environment of our community by building and
operating a center for the performing arts, is the organization that is spearheading the
effort; and
WHERAS, the Auburn Placer Performing Arts Center is in the process of raising six
million dollars for the renovation; and
WHERAS, the State Theatre is the focus of Project Auburn 2008, a community effort
which will result in the restoration of the facade to its 1937 era look.
APPAC President Paul Ogden receives a
Placer County resolution in support of the
Auburn Placer Performing Arts Center
project from Supervisor Jim Holmes.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Placer County Board of Supervisors
supports and encourages the committee in their effort to work with the community to
build a showcase performing arts center for the benefit of all its citizens.
APPAC Progress
To Date:
1999
• APPAC founded by residents
Esther Stanton and
Doris Viera
2000
• APPAC incorporated as a
501(c)3 charitable nonprofit organization
2002
• Feasibility Study Undertaken
2004
• Business Plan Created
2005
• Financial Feasibility Study
• Supplemental Business Plan
• Design Plan
•Awarded a $100,000 Federal
grant from HUD
• Received $14,200 grant from
the United Auburn Indian Community
2006
• Purchased the State Theater
By summer the facade of the State Theatre building should look like this architectural
rendering, featuring a lighted marquee and tower, along with exterior improvements.
Facade improvement, marquee
and tower expected by summer
The exterior improvement of the State Theater is scheduled for May when the venerable
building becomes the recipient of this year’s
Project Auburn.
Sponsored by the Auburn Rotary Club,
and headed up by Nick Willick and a host
of community volunteers, the work day will
involve replacing windows and painting the
exterior of the building.
This will be followed in early summer by
building
2007
• Office and meeting room created
• Multi-phased reconstruction
plan agreed upon
•1930s design concept agreed
upon
• Facade work begins
• Campaign Coordinator employed
• Architectural Firm selected
2008
• Facade improvement selected
for Project Auburn (May)
T
ha
s
k
n
the professional installation of a canopy
marquee and tower over the entrance at an
approximate cost of $250,000.
The City of Auburn, through its Auburn Development Agency, has approved
contributing up to $125,000 in matching
funds to this phase of the reconstruction of
the State Theatre. APPAC will match the
amount through donations and contributions from the community.
and a “Tip of the Hat” to . . .
• Betty Walsh of Grass Valley for her
donation of a used lighting system
• The Placer Community
Foundation for its $1,000
grant for the January 6 Chamber Music Concert at the Pioneer United Methodist Church
in Auburn
NON-PROFIT ORG.
US POSTAGE
PAID
AUBURN, CA
PERMIT #150
P.O. Box 7733
Auburn, CA 95604
Upcoming Events
• Auburn Community Concert
Djokie and Jalbert Duo
March 30 at 3 pm, Placer High School Auditorium
Jeni Fleming Acoustic Trio
April 25 at 7:30 pm, Placer High School Auditorium
• Auburn Symphony
Romancing the Exotic
Saturday, Sunday, April 26-27
Placer High School Auditorium
Music on the Green
Saturday, May 31
(Photo by Keith Sutter)