New Virginia Theater Marquee Goes Up

Yay" --- that's the one word on the new marquee installed Wednesday afternoon at Champaign's Virginia Theater.

Workmen used a crane to hoist the sign up to the front of the 90-year-old vaudeville and movie theater. It replaces the old triangular marquee that had hung on the Virginia since the 1940s.

Supporters of that marquee protested the Champaign Park Board's decision to replace it with one resembling the theater's original lighted sign. District spokesperson Laura Auteberry said the 1940s marquee will continue to have its supporters. But she said the new marquee is a better fit.

"We now have three sides of a marquee to advertise on instead of just two," Auteberry said. "And it also opens up the facade of the building itself. You can now see the entire facade with the beautiful windows and all the architectural detail as opposed to the old one that really blocked all of that."

Auteberry said the new marquee makes perfect sense. "It looks beautiful, and is absolutely more architectually in keeping with the style of the architecture of the building than was on there before, which better represents how the building looked and was intended when it was opened in 1921."

The word "Yay" was the only word on the Virginia's new marquee when it was installed Wednesday. Auteberry said the marquee will next be fitted with hundreds of light bulbs and wired for electricity. Soon, it will be advertising the Virginia Theater's next attraction, a Sept. 10 showing of the 1930 movie classic "All Quiet on the Western Front".

(Photo by Jeff Bossert/WILL)