Birmingham

In the heat of summer, New Yorkers escape to the beaches of the Hamptons, the Jersey Shore or Florida, but being married to a history buff, Alabama had been long on his list of states to visit.

The city of Birmingham shows a radical mix of progress. As we drove in the 90-degree-plus weather, we saw a half-dozen soaring modern skyscrapers mixed among a barrage of abandoned or neglected store fronts. Amid scattered fine restaurants and newer businesses, were empty lots and stores long-ago abandoned.

Alabama Theater - A Movie Palace

We had lunch reservations at Cafe Dupont, which we easily found. This truly Tony Tastery soon had every table filled with what looked like "professional" clientele on their lunch hour. The decor is a renovated 1920s high-style motif with pale yellow walls and serviced by attentive wait staff. The food had a taste of the country, but with an elegant touch. Our lunch companion told us that downtown Birmingham had an economic down turn in the '70s and '80s, but in the last decade it has had a resurgence and is becoming the heart of southern banking with new businesses coming in, hence the dichotomy of old and new.

After lunch, we headed over to the Alabama Theater, which was built in 1927 and restored in 1998 to its original "theater palace" design, but this building is no museum. Cecil Whitmire, the general manager, shared this gem with all the passion and excitement of a young man in love. He boasted that the theater, originally built by Paramount, has not changed in 77 years. The Spanish Moorish design is vibrant and alive with rich reds, greens, gold and purples. The main ceiling is gold leafed with a nine-foot-tall chandelier and over 9,200 light bulbs take care of the illumination. The electric bill alone is almost $280 a day, so Mr. Whitmore needs to shake a lot of hands and pat a lot of backs in order to raise the revenue needed to restore and maintain this historical theater. In 1927, it cost one and a half million dollars to originally build and the renovations in 1998 cost over five million. Come to see the Alabama Theater, bath in the lobby's glow and you'll decide it was worth every penny.

From 1981 to 1987, it lay abandoned as multiplex movie houses exploded around the country. Prior to 1933, about 6,000 theaters or theater palaces, as they were commonly called, were built across the country, but now there are only 500 left. Most of them were originally built by the mammoth and powerful film studios of the 1930s. They were constructed with multi levels, lobbies, spacious lavatories, painted ceilings and eye-catching opulent decorations.

All of them evoke a time and era of long ago. As Mr. Whitmore gushed "There's a magic to the theater," we walked through this 2,300-seat theater and I couldn't help but wonder, "if the walls could talk?!!" Besides being one of the oldest theaters, the Alabama Theater has the distinction of being the first air-conditioned building in the state in 1927. Considering the heat in the area, it's easy to see how the elements of success came together.

Mr. Whitmore, a tall, friendly and blunt-speaking gentleman, does it all. On any given day, you might find him cleaning the halls, selling the 50-cent candy bars, "kissing up" to prospective supporters, giving a tour or playing the house organ. He does whatever it takes to keep his lady dressed her best. I was happy to learn that the children of this generation are not so jaded for instance by seeing another showing of Willy Wonka, but rather come to the Alabama Theater" for the whole experience