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To see views from each section of the Mishler Theatre, click the thumbnails below:
The next fifteen years brough fame and excitement with the likes of Sarah Bernhardt, Lillian Russell, Ethel Barrymore, W.C. Fields, Ed Wynn, Al Jolson, Isadora Duncan, Helen Hayes, George Jessel, George Raft, "The Ziegfield Follies" and "Ben Hur", with a cast of hundreds and an on stage chariot race. Jascha Heifitz, then only 18 years old, played his violin. Anna Pavlowa and her corps de ballet danced and John Phillip Sousa and his band performed many times on stage at the Mishler.
View the Mishler Theatre's seating chart |
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Saturday August 30, 2008
"Labor of Love"
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On February 15, 1906, the magnificent Mishler Theatre in Altoona opened its doors. The construction
of this unusually grand theatre was directed by famed theatre architect, Albert E. Westover. The
Mishler Theatre cost between $115,000 and $118,000 to build and it was said at the time that there
was no other theatre like it. In 1893, Isaac Charles "Doc" Mishler used his own money to build the
Mishler Theatre, which the Altoona Mirror proclaimed was a "...new theatre build by and for theatrical
men." In the past 30 years, capital campaigns have raised enough money to clean the theatre and make
some badly needed repairs. The two great muses above the Mishler's entrance have witnessed the
performances of international stars of great opera, drama, comedy, dance and music. They have stood
steadfast watch, too, through boxing and wrestling and burlesque. They saw the advent of the "talkies"
and thought that theatre would never be the same. But these two sisters, Terpsichore and Melpomene,
in recent years have seen a community's renewed commitment and growing appreciation of all that they have
watched over since 1906.
