The Pantages Theatre is an historic theater in Salt Lake City, Utah in the United States. It opened in 1918 as the Pantages Theater, after the name of its owner, Alexander Pantages. Babe Ruth performed there in 1927. Abbott and Costello, Will Rogers, and many other celebrities also performed in the theater during its heyday. Formerly also known as the RKO Orpheum and later as the Utah Theater, it was built in 1918. The theater was originally built for vaudeville at the princely sum of over two million dollars, making it among the most expensive and opulent structures in the Pantages theater chain. The structure, designed by celebrated architect B. Marcus Priteca, was built in the interior of a city block, and reached by long grand gallery extending to Main Street. The interior lobby was done in an exotic neo-classical style, with ornate plaster work, an inlaid marble floor, and ramps ascending to the mezzanine level. The interior was accented with Alaskan marble and faux tile. The auditorium's proscenium was flanked with marble columns and gilded opera boxes. The hall's ceiling was decorated with a Tiffany skylight. The main floor of the auditorium seated 1,700, and the balcony accommodated an additional 600 patrons. The theater functioned as a vaudeville venue through the 1920s, before being converted into a movie palace during the 1930s. Through most of the decade, the theater was owned by Radio-Keith Orpheum and was renamed the RKO Orpheum. By 1937, however, it had taken the name the Utah Theater, which has endured to the present. One of the highlights of the Utah as a movie venue was during the mid-1960s, when the Sound of Music had a run in the theater that lasted two years. In 1968, the theater was split into upper and lower levels, with the balcony being transformed into a second auditorium. This architectural arrangement, commonly known as "piggybacking," was frequently imposed on older traditional theaters during the 1960s and early 1970s. With this transformation, an escalator ascended from the Utah's mezzanine to the top rows of the balcony. During the remodeling the proscenium, box seating and some of the elaborate ornamentation was removed. In 1988, the structure ceased operation as a movie theater, and was used by local dance company until 1992, when the building was sold. After passing through the hands of various owners, the vacant building was purchased by the Salt Lake CityRedevelopment Agency in 2009. At this time there are no definitive plans for the future of this theater. The theatre is located at 148 South Main Street, Salt Lake City.
