tcpalm.com - A team of paranormal investigators dimmed the lights at the Sunrise Theatre (Fort Pierce, FL) on Saturday night to see if any lingering spirits refuse to let the curtain fall on their stay at the 86-year-old downtown institution.
And judging from the team’s five hours of research, there very well could be a specter or two on stage — or sitting in your row — next time you catch a Sunrise show.
“You hear some sounds here that make you go, ‘Hmm,’ ” said John Wilkes, executive director of the theater. “And every theater seems to have a story about ghosts haunting them.”
A door closing by itself, multiple camera batteries dying at the same time, inexplicable shadows, and banging that answered team members’ requests for spirits to make noise were a few of the findings reported by the Florida Ghost Team, indicating they weren’t alone in the theater.
“It was definitely worth it,” said Shaun Jones, the team’s founder and director. “There is definitely some stuff going on there, but nothing’s ever just going to jump out and go, ‘Boo.’ ”
Twelve crew members that have investigated about 20 possible hauntings at Florida historical spots and homes in the past year used the latest in paranormal equipment to prove or disprove creaks, bangs and shadows throughout the theater were otherworldly.
The team set up DVR cameras and monitors in the basement, first, second and third floor of the theater, and used hand-held video and digital cameras. Members were equipped with digital recorders to catch any possible voices or answers to the questions they pose to potential spirits, which the ghost hunting community calls electronic voice phenomenon.
The Ghost Team brought electronic magnetic field detectors, and some high electric and magnetic field readings are thought to indicate a paranormal presence, they said. Likewise, team members brought along thermometers, they said, because big temperature changes and particularly odd cold spots theoretically mean ghosts could be nearby. Once all the wiring and book bag-packing was finished, the Florida Ghost Team turned out the lights — at least the ones that weren’t mandatory emergency lighting — paired off, and started hunting.
While trying to communicate with the theater’s founder and owner Rupert “Pop” Koblegard in his old third floor apartment, several team members reported their camera batteries quickly drained. Koblegard built the Sunrise as a vaudeville house in 1923. And when Jones twice called for a response from any entity in his room, she said she heard a knocking from the hallway each time.
Jones and team member Darlene Digani said they saw and heard an exit door close by itself.
Investigator Brian Standorf said he heard someone’s footsteps twice in the second floor bar area, even though he and his partner were the lone souls up there.
Though ghost hunting entails a lot of sitting around, talking to the air and going over hours and hours of footage, a few investigators said, finding evidence of the unexplainable is the rewarding part.
Florida Ghost Team investigators think they might have some at Sunrise, which closed its doors in 1983, to be reborn as a performing arts venue in 2006.
After the team’s experiences at the theater, the investigators think a second, closer look at what is going bump in the night would be worthwhile.
“There is definitely something going on at the theater that warrants a second investigation, which will be an all night adventure,” Jones said.
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2/19/06
The Restoration of the Sunrise Theatre
palmbeachpost.com - It's hard to say what Rupert "Pop" Koblegard envisioned when he built the Sunrise Theatre.
In the '20s, Fort Pierce claimed all of 2,100 residents. But Koblebard, a West Virginia oil man turned Florida citrus king, saw potential for growth — and the need for entertainment. So, he hired a Miami architect and had him create an impressively sized, Mediterranean-styled vaudeville theater on a choice downtown parcel.
"It is better to be ahead of the times than behind them," he declared in advance of the theater's grand opening on Aug. 1, 1923.
To be sure, Fort Pierce did grow and the theater flourished — for at least a few decades. But by the '80s, the downtown fell into a state of neglect, especially as completion of I-95 shifted attention to St. Lucie County's western edge. On Sept. 8, 1983, the theater, now strictly a movie house, shut its doors.
But not for good.
On Saturday, the Sunrise will be christened once again — this time, as a 1,200-seat performing arts center that will be home to everything from touring musicals to alternative rock acts to high-school graduations. Headlining on opening night: Pop legend Dionne Warwick.
But the theater, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is part of something much larger — the transformation of the city's core into South Florida's next great downtown. Already, shops and restaurants are opening their doors on the quaint streets, which are situated steps away from the Indian River Lagoon. Soon, major residential and commercial projects, including condos, will be added to the mix.
In other words, Koblegard's dream couldn't be timelier.
"It's exciting to see something like this restored. It will have a ripple effect," says longtime Fort Pierce resident and Sunrise Theatre board member Sandi Hellstrom, who recalls attending the venue when it was still a movie house.
There's nothing half-hearted about the $13 million restoration project, largely paid for with city, county and state funds. From its coral-colored exterior to its nicely appointed two-level interior, the theater is old-fashioned and contemporary all at the same time — with features ranging from an antique bar to the most up-to-date of dressing-room facilities.
In that sense, the Sunrise takes the best features of some of South Florida's already existing cultural venues and combines them into one impressive package.
The look and character recall the 500-seat Lyric Theatre in downtown Stuart, another historic venue. But the size and scope is more in line with the 2,200-seat Kravis Center in downtown West Palm Beach. (Sunrise is the largest theater between the Kravis and the 2,000-seat King Center in Melbourne.)
"We tried to re-create what had initially been planned in the '20s, but still allow the theater to have modern technology," says Sunrise board chair Michael Horowitz, a local attorney.
There are many historic touches, from the paint colors to the stenciled artwork, all based on the theater's original designs. But a vaudeville theater of the '20s didn't have the backstage facilities required for a contemporary venue, from the extra load-in space for sets to a catwalk system that provides quick access to stage lighting, so that was added to the restoration.
Nor did a vaudeville theater have to comply with the sort of safety and access codes that exist today. The Sunrise Theatre of 2006 has impact-resistant glass for hurricane protection and two elevators and a wheelchair lift.
But the story of the Sunrise's rebirth isn't just about the theater's design or functionality. It's about what audiences will see on stage.
The nonprofit theater is taking something of a hybrid approach to programming. On the one hand, it will be a traditional performing arts center, booking cultural fare and renting its space — at a reduced rate — to local arts groups.
But for an area that lacks nearly any performance space, it's also expected to play the role of pop promoter, presenting rock, country, gospel, jazz, blues and R&B shows that might normally find their way to a for-profit venue — à la the temporarily shuttered Carefree Theater in West Palm Beach.
For ticket-buyers, that means Sunrise won't have a traditional subscription season, booked and announced months in advance. Rather, Executive Director David Jenkins, who came to Sunrise in the past year after managing other historic theaters around the country, says that while Sunrise will commit to certain shows and rental dates early in the booking cycle, it will leave room in its calendar for what becomes available. (Pop acts tend to book later in the cycle.)
"Very seldom will we announce something more than eight weeks in advance," Jenkins says.
So far, the theater has announced a handful of shows, including gospel star CeCe Winans, rock pioneer Bo Diddley and a double-bill of pop greats Lesley Gore and Bobby Vee. Local arts groups are also lining up to rent the facility: Among those slated to appear are the Treasure Coast Opera and Treasure Coast Symphony.
There's hope that Sunrise will help these organizations rise to a new level. In the past, their artistic success was often limited by the lack of a decent local venue. The Treasure Coast Opera had to make do for decades with the St. Lucie County Civic Center — a vast, drab space where singers had to be amplified.
Now, the company is looking forward to showcasing these booming operatic voices without microphones.
"It's a real theater," says opera founder and director Carlos Barrena.
Which is just how city and downtown leaders envisioned it. The seeds for Sunrise's rebirth were planted in the mid to late '80s, particularly through the nonprofit organization Main Street, which was charged with redeveloping downtown. Restoring the theater, which in its heyday presented such artists as Tom Mix and fan dancer Sally Rand, was seen as a cornerstone to any revitalization plan.
Not only was it cheaper than building a new theater — the Kravis Center cost $50-plus million in its initial construction phase in the early '90s — it was also a way to celebrate Fort Pierce's past.
Sunrise "is a significant piece of this community's history," says Fort Pierce City Manager Dennis Beach.
All of which paved the way for an infusion of public money in the mid '90s that enabled the Main Street organization to buy the theater from the Koblegard family and set the restoration in motion. (Eventually, Sunrise was spun off as its own nonprofit entity.) The community was also tapped to contribute more than $1 million to the project — no small challenge in an area that had never tackled such a large-scale nonprofit cultural endeavor before.
But now that Sunrise is ready to open — and other plans for downtown are falling quickly into place — there's still the question of whether it will succeed.
After all, many local residents continue to have concerns about traveling to the once blighted area at night. And there's no telling whether the community, which lacks the sort of deep-pocketed donors that are abundant in Palm Beach County, will continue to support the theater financially. Like other nonprofit theaters, Sunrise is likely to mount annual fund-raising campaigns and an endowment drive.
There's also quiet concern as to whether the theater's board and management is up to the task. For all the talk of Sunrise's ability to raise the profile of Treasure Coast arts groups, it's somewhat alarming to realize that Horowitz and Jenkins have yet to be in contact with the Atlantic Classical Orchestra, widely considered the Treasure Coast's top classical ensemble. Actually, until questioned by a reporter, neither leader was aware of the group's existence.
Jenkins insists everything will come into place programmatically in due time. "You don't fire off all your arrows at once," he says.
Another important issue: Sunrise's relationship with the sizable African-American community. The matter recently came into focus when NAACP local chapter president Charlie Frank Matthews called upon Dionne Warwick to cancel her show, pointing to the "stigma of segregation" that was attached to the theater in its earlier incarnation.
For now, the issue appears to have gone away — African-American leaders staged a counter-protest at the end of December to show their support for Sunrise. But Jenkins appears mindful of the wounds that may continue to need healing.
"This theater is going to be everyone's theater," he says.
Right now, however, the focus is on Sunrise's opening. It will be a race to the finish to complete the restoration: Last week, work crews were still rolling out the new carpeting. Dust and debris from the two-year construction project, which was delayed slightly by the spate of hurricanes, are just about everywhere.
But underneath it all, a theater is being reborn.
It's a sight that continues to impress Killis Almond, the San Antonio-based architect and historic preservation specialist who was hired to oversee the project. He believes that every old theater is "haunted," but not in the traditional sense. "What some people feel is a spirit is really an echoing of laughter and applause from previous times," he says.
So, what are the "ghosts" of Sunrise saying? Almond believes they're reiterating something that was said eight decades ago with the theater's first opening — that the arts remain central to the identity of our communities.
"We're just now getting to hear the message again," he says.
SUNRISE'S PASTWhat took place at the Sunrise Theatre?
Here are some highlights from the theater's 82-year history.
At the Aug. 1, 1923, opening, the theater was heralded with a downtown parade. A performance inside followed, featuring organist J.W. Coolidge (cousin of then Vice President Calvin Coolidge). Then came two movies: The Famous Mrs. Fair and Charlie Chaplin's The Vagabond.
Famous performers of the era who appeared at the Sunrise included fan dancer Sally Rand and silent-film star Tom Mix.
When talking pictures were introduced in the late '20s, Sunrise was adapted for them. The theater presented the first such picture, Al Jolsen's The Jazz Singer.
In keeping with the spirit of the movie-mad Depression, Sunrise presented children's matinees — a can of soup or other non-perishable item could be presented for admission — and a "Bank Night" drawing where a ticket holder could win up to $100.
When Fort Pierce became a Navy base in World War II, Sunrise was regularly packed with sailors and soldiers.
As development shifted from Fort Pierce's downtown to St. Lucie County's western edge, the Sunrise suffered. On Sept. 8, 1983, the theater closed.
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