Historic Tampa Theatre celebrates 100 years

A downtown Tampa landmark is celebrating a massive milestone today. The historic Tampa Theater is ringing in its 100th birthday. It has been closed for the last seven months for a multi-million dollar makeover. FOX 13's Ariel Plascencia joins us live from the theater. Ariel, doors for tonight's birthday event are opening soon. Yeah, they sure are. Six o'clock. And you know, ladies, I was thinking about a hundred years ago today, those doors opening for the very first time. You probably had some people who wanted to check out the city's first public building with air conditioning. Kind of a cool thought, pun intended. But here to tell us more, let's join Jill Witecki here. Jill, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for coming out tonight. Oh, absolutely. What a wonderful night. You and I have been talking. It's been seven months of restoration. And every inch of Duncan Auditorium, the paint, the plaster has been touched. But I was talking about making jokes about the air conditioning. That actually was renovated as well, wasn't it? It was. So when Tampa Theater opened in 1926, 1926 we were one of the most technologically advanced theaters of our time trying to get back to that again so a lot of the systems in this building the HVAC the plumbing had elements that were some original to the building and in the case of the plumbing some of the HVAC components have been here for longer than you or I have been alive so in order to make this a well-functioning building it was important for us to fix all of that unsexy behind the walls stuff to make sure that the building is healthy, that it runs correctly, and that our patrons are comfortable when they come into the building. Absolutely. But it wasn't just HVAC and plumbing, and we're actually hearing the orchestra kind of warming up and practicing, but it was the sound and lighting too, right? Exactly. So as part of this project, we've got a brand new projector, brand new screen, brand new sound and lighting, and this brand new mix position out here in the house. Awesome. So that we can control all of that from the proper location. Because this building was never built for live theater it was built as a movie palace and so today when we have live shows come in the expectation is that they're able to come in take control of our light and sound and then run their show we've always had to kind of patch that together in the past but now with all of this new equipment with this new pit mix position even though the building looks like 1926 it functions like 2026. absolutely and people are going to be able to see that tonight just quickly we have the the big birthday bash tell me about it exactly doors open at six show starts at seven we've got the live orchestra up there the paragon ragtime orchestra is going to be playing sherlock jr great buster keaton film we've got some guest speakers the mayor's going to be here our board chair our past and present CEOs and all kinds of special guests to celebrate with us definitely but if you can't be here tonight uh don't worry the uh renovations and the restoration didn't affect the uh haunted nature oh good theater did it we are known as one of the most haunted buildings in Tampa and right after we're finished celebrating the birthday we're going to get right into spooky season with our Nightmare on Franklin Street series creepy movies uh kid-friendly films and most importantly the ghost tours definitely oh Jill thank you so much for your time lots of amazing fun things happening here at the Tampa Theater they are really ringing in that 100th birthday and there you go Linda it's haunted and it didn't go anywhere with those renovations I told you Ariel the ghost tours maybe go check it out before you Thanks. Hey, Paul. That'd be awesome. .