Alabama Theatre Marquee Blueprints – Vintage Art

Description

There’s just something about the style of old signs like the Alabama Theatre Marquee that speak to some of us. Those old marquees hearken back to the golden age of American movie palaces. It was a time when those old theaters were a new and different experience. Vaudeville stages were not yet a thing of the past and any night out at the movies was an unparallelled adventure. Not only did the movies provide an experience of being transported to another world, the theaters themselves were built in a fantastical style.

And the Alabama Theatre Marquee in Birmingham exemplifies that style. Imagine this classic old sign in the night sky in the 1920s in a world where the electric light is still a relatively new invention! It’s a beautiful sight today but it must have been truly magical back then!

The vintage style of the Alabama Theatre marquee was what I wanted to capture in this blueprint inspired artwork. It evokes a feeling of a long ago design made of that classic old sign before it ever reached into the skies in downtown Birmingham. After being well worn by the builders, perhaps it has spent the passing decades in the back of an old cabinet? Thus the signs of patina you see in this artwork.

This Birmingham print is based on detailed drawings done by the US Government’s Historic American Building Survey in the 1990s. They documented the historic building as well as the Alabama Theatre Marquee in some detail at the time. Each and every bulb in this detailed artwork reflects the actual vintage sign. Even with such a detailed starting point, the level of precision made creating such a refined piece of art quite time consuming but nonetheless enjoyable.

Do you have fond memories of the Alabama Theatre Marquee or is it the vintage style that speaks to you?