John Eberson

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John Eberson (1875 - 1964) was a Romanian born American architect best known for his movie palace designs.

Born in Cernauti, Bukovina, Romania, Eberson arrived in the United States in the early 1900s and at first settled in St. Louis. There, while working for a construction company he designed his first theater, the Jewel, in Hamilton, Ohio. A year later found him living in Chicago, and in 1926 he made his final move, to New York City.

Eberson attained national, and even international acclaim for his theatres, many of them executed in exotic revival styles, including Italian Renaissance, Moorish Revival and others. " He specialized in depicting outdoor settings with no formal walls and made the whole auditorium a gigantic stage set that enveloped the whole audience." (Throne, p. 24)

Many of his later designs, some executed with his son Drew, were in the Art Deco style. In all Eberson designed close to 100 movie palaces, located in dozens of states in the United States, including the Tampa Theatre, The Louisville Palace, The Warner Theatre, Stanley Theater and the Silver. Others can be found in Paris, France, Caracas, Venezuela, Mexico City, Mexico as well as in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. A significent number of his buildings have been destroyed.

[edit] Sources

• Naylor, David, Great American Movie Theaters, The Preservation Press, Washington D.C., 1987
• Thorne, Ross, Picture Palace Architecture in Australia, Sun Books Pty. Ltd., South Melbourne, Australia, 1976