Forty years ago in October 1984 the Portland Anchor was much like it is today, with announcements of Halloween activities and even excitement around a new arts attraction: KentuckyShow! This month’s article from yesteryear announces the multimedia show’s opening festivities at and around the Kentucky Theater, a cinema set at that time to permanently house the project. Theater Square’s signature movie house would shutter in 1986 though, later being revived as a shop and later still a restaurant yet today it is again closed. Thankfully KentuckyShow! would not suffer the same fate, seeing multiple revisions and homes since 1984, with it today showing daily at the Frazier History Museum.
KentuckyShow!
Portland Anchor Vol. 9 No. 10 (October, 1984)
KentuckyShow!, a $1.2-million, multi-media sight and sound adventure about the Bluegrass State, will open in October amid fourteen days of special events celebrating this theatre extravaganza. Many of these activities will be held in or near the Kentucky Theatre at 651 Fourth Avenue, which will be the permanent home of this 40-projector production.
On Thursday, October 18, local, regional and national media will be invited to preview a showing and reception at the theatre. The reception, sponsored in part by Brown-Forman Inc., will feature regional Kentucky foods. After the preview, Sharon Potter, executive producer of the show, and members of the production company will be available at the reception to answer questions from the media.
Then, on Saturday, October 27, and Sunday, October 28, KentuckyShow! will have its grand opening for the public. A ribbon-cutting ceremony in front of the theatre, conducted by state and local government officials, will begin the festivities, and will be followed by the release of thousands of balloons. For these two days, the area of Theatre Square near the theatre will be alive with dancers, singers, costumed performers and outdoor decorations. Entertainers will include The Over Forty Four, the Dixieland All Stars, the Cumberlands, and the Rascals of Ragtime. Members of the Youth Performing Arts School, dressed as famous characters mentioned in the show such as Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis and Colonel Harlan Sanders, will mingle with the crowds outside. Confederate and Union soldiers will appear at the Square, and a “historymobile” will be set up for those whose interest in Kentucky’s past is stimulated by the show itself. Kentucky regional foods will be featured.
All of these activities are fitting celebrations of this unique production, the first multi-media presentation about an entire state, and they will focus attention on Kentucky’s newest tourist attraction and crowd-pleaser.
Do you remember these “fourteen days of special events celebrating the theater extravaganza?” Stay tuned to the Portland Anchor for more glimpses into submissions from the paper’s past!
