{"id":2311,"date":"2011-03-15T03:35:56","date_gmt":"2011-03-15T07:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alcapones.com\/blog\/?p=2311"},"modified":"2018-04-05T11:49:43","modified_gmt":"2018-04-05T15:49:43","slug":"the-history-of-dinner-theater-%e2%80%93-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alcapones.com\/blog\/the-history-of-dinner-theater-%e2%80%93-part-1-2311","title":{"rendered":"The History of Dinner Theater \u2013 Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ah, dinner and a show, what a great combination!\u00a0 With all the <strong>Orlando entertainment<\/strong> options for both locals and tourists, <strong>Orlando dinner shows<\/strong> are a very enjoyable option.\u00a0 And, there is a vast array of shows to choose from, with different themes, fun for the entire family!\u00a0 Be sure to check out our <a href=\"https:\/\/alcapones.com\/blog\/restaurants\/dinner-showstheaters-overview\/dinner-shows\"><strong>dinner show directory<\/strong><\/a> for a brief description of our local dinner theaters.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a class=\"button\" href=\"https:\/\/alcapones-shop.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Purchase Half Price Dinner Show Tickets!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, let\u2019s take a look at the history of the dinner theater.\u00a0 <strong>Dinner theater<\/strong> (sometimes called <strong>dinner and a show<\/strong>) is a form of entertainment that combines a restaurant meal with a staged play or musical. \u00a0\u00a0The earliest dinner theater dates all the way back to the Middle Ages.\u00a0 The early theatres served dinner in one room and staged the show in another.<\/p>\n<p>The first formal dinner theatre in the U.S. is the <strong>Barksdale Theatre<\/strong>, which was founded in 1953 in Richmond, VA.\u00a0\u00a0 The theatre started out using an adjoining room to serve buffet dinners for groups attending the show, and this eventually became available to all guests, becoming a <strong>dinner theatre<\/strong>.\u00a0 However, Barksdale\u2019s reputation is that of a theater that happens to have a restaurant; dinner is optional.\u00a0 They want to keep their reputation of a professional theatre more than their reputation as a restaurant.<\/p>\n<p>Even before Barksdale Theatre, Tony DeSantis began producing plays in 1949 in a tent adjacent to his <strong>Martinique Restaurant<\/strong>.\u00a0 The success of these shows prompted him to build his first theatre, <strong>Drury Lane Evergreen Park<\/strong>, by 1958.\u00a0 This was the first of six dinner theatres he started, and it was a local entertainment landmark for 45 years before it closed in 2003.<\/p>\n<p>Then, in 1959, theatre student Bill Pullinsi implemented the first facility where dinner and the show were together in one room, utilizing the Presidential Arms Hotel during spring breaks from college.\u00a0 After college, Pullinsi returned to his Chicago hometown and opened the <strong>Candlelight Dinner Playhouse<\/strong>.\u00a0 With the Candlelight, several new innovations were brought to dinner theater.\u00a0\u00a0 Among these were the hydraulic stage, stage wagons on wheels, and lighting equipment located in the mezzanine.<\/p>\n<p>Starting in 1961, Howard Douglass Wolfe created The<strong> Barn Dinner Theatre franchise<\/strong>, which included 27 theaters.\u00a0 These theaters were strategically located in New York, North Carolina, Virginia, Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, and Louisiana.\u00a0 All locations of the franchise featured Wolfe\u2019s barn design and farm-themed decorations, and even his \u201cmagic stage\u201d.\u00a0 The magic stage was Wolfe\u2019s patented elevator in which at the end of an act or scene, the stage would disappear into the ceiling, then reappear, all ready for the next scene.\u00a0 Wolfe\u2019s memorial cites him as the \u201cFather of Dinner Theater\u201d.\u00a0 Several famous actors reportedly acted at The Barn, including Robert DeNiro and Mickey Rooney.<\/p>\n<p>The late 1960s and 1970s brought several more dinner theaters, as the popularity increased.\u00a0 These include the <strong>Alhambra Dinner Theatre<\/strong> in Jacksonville, FL; the <strong>Chanhassen Dinner Theatres<\/strong> in Minnesota, and the <strong>Carousel Dinner Theatre<\/strong> in Ohio.\u00a0 The 1970s were the heyday of dinner theaters, and in 1976, there were 147 <strong>professional dinner theaters<\/strong> in operation.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Read more in <a href=\"https:\/\/alcapones.com\/blog\/the-history-of-dinner-theatre-%e2%80%93-part-2-2321\">Part 2 &#8211; The History of Dinner Theater.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ah, dinner and a show, what a great combination! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[256,295,449],"tags":[502,13,152],"class_list":["post-2311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","category-general-tourist-information","category-orlando-shows-theatre","tag-dinner-shows","tag-orlando-dinner-shows","tag-orlando-dinner-theatre"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The History of Dinner Theater \u2013 Part 1 - Al&#039;s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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