Historic Majestic Theatre lobby aquarium has provided a sneak preview of downtown San Antonio theater’s marvels since 1929 - San Antonio Express-News
When John Eberson was designing the Majestic Theatre in the 1920s, he knew audiences would experience sensory overload once they stepped into the auditorium — the peacocks! the clouds! the cherubs! — so he wanted to give them a hint of things to come.
To this day, the aquarium Eberson placed in the lobby just outside the auditorium helps ease the transition into the Majestic's alternate reality.
"It gives you a little bit of a sneak peek," said General Manager Emily Smith. "The aquarium is one of the first things you see. You're getting a little bit of a hint of what you're walking into, this amazing fantasy land."
The aquarium got a makeover as part of the renovation of the lobby that was completed while the theater was closed because of the pandemic. The changes made their big debut at comedian Bill Maher's show July 10, the first in-person event at the Majestic since March 2020.
Other San Antonio businesses include aquariums as part of their overall design. An elegant curved tank greets diners at the Kona Grill at the Shops at La Cantera, and fish swim laps inside a kitschy aquarium designed to look like an enormous blender at the entrance to Margaritaville on the River Walk. There are tanks at Gunn car dealerships and in dental and law offices all over town. But an aquarium in a theater is a rarity.
Aquariums in public places can be a visual treat, said architect Grace Boudewyns.
"I think it brings a little bit of life to the space," Boudewyns said. "I think it's the unexpected touch that is a glow, a beacon that draws people to it. And I think they're fun."
Boudewyns, who works for Lake Flato, was part of the team that recently renovated the Majestic lobby and bar to help improve audience flow and the overall experience of the space. The project included expanding and upgrading the restrooms with no-touch fixtures as well as adding a family restroom. In addition, the bar was moved back, creating a roomier space. The lighting was revamped, too, with new light fixtures overhead.
The aquarium got some love, too. Brass detailing was added to enhance the tank and the plasterwork around it. It also was moved back a bit.
"That aquarium is so unique and unexpected in a theater," Boudewyns said. "The main idea was to keep the magic of that aquarium and push it back into the bar so that it creates some much more inviting space and also helps with way-finding for patrons going to the theater, so that it's pulling you through that main lobby."
The aquarium also creates a connection between the original theater and the 1980s-era addition of the bar and the restrooms, Smith said.
"By moving the aquarium into that space, it ties the two spaces together just a bit more," she said.
The aquarium was at the top of artist John Coutu's to-do list when he returned to his job at the theater at the end of June. Coutu repairs plaster moldings, refreshes the paint and generally makes sure that everything in the theater looks good. For the aquarium, he repaired chips in the plaster and repainted the tiles around it.
"I wanted to get the aquarium up and done," said Coutu, who has worked at the theater for more than 17 years. "It's such an attraction. People want to see it."
The folks at Aquatic Interiors Unlimited are the stewards of the inside of the aquarium. The 275-gallon fresh water tank is home mostly to brightly colored mbuna and peacock cichlids, said Jeffrey Sebern, who owns Aquatic Interiors with his wife, Pamela.
"There are various forms of cichlids that do very well in our water in San Antonio," Sebdern said. "Some of them have actually reproduced in the aquarium."
An automatic feeder dispenses food, he said.
When the theater opened in 1929, its features were detailed in an expansive four-page spread in Motion Picture News. The article included a photo of the lobby with the aquarium glowing at the entrance to the auditorium. It was described as "a giant wall aquarium, illuminated from behind and above. The drape at top covers the surface water line, thus giving an effect of a submarine view composed of plants and swimming fishes of various species."
At the time, it was one of two water features in the theater. There also was a fountain in the grotto upstairs, said Mary Margaret McAllen, who was project manager for the Las Casas Foundation's restoration of the theater in the 1980s. That took place after the theater had been closed for several years.
There was some talk back then about restoring the fountain, McAllen said, but ultimately, that didn't happen.
"It was probably for maintenance, and it's just kind of a nuisance to hear that water running during a show," McAllen said. "I don't know why that decision was made on that."
A guiding idea for the restoration back then as well as for the recent work in the lobby was to preserve Eberson's intent to create an atmospheric space that transports patrons into a fanciful environment removed from whatever was going on outside its doors.
"The whole idea in entering that building was to set apart from reality," McAllen said. "You enter a dream state, and part of that dream in state is coming in and seeing this (statue) in this alcove and then you turn to the left and at the very end of that hall was the aquarium. It was meant to pull you into this fantasy world."
dlmartin@express-news.net | Twitter: @DeborahMartinEN
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