Signs of Fargo’s Past: The Fargo Theatre

Behind the Sign

The Historic Fargo Theatre opened on March 15, 1926, as a vaudeville and silent film house. In 1937 the theatre was closed to be renovated into an art deco movie palace designed by the Minneapolis-based architect, Jack Liebenberg. During the art deco renovation, the 1937 marquee was updated to include a foot in length. The foot was not original to the 1926 marquee. Flash forward to May of 1998, the Fargo Theatre closed its doors for $2.6 million in renovations. When reopened in 1999, the marquee donned its original hardware and lost a foot in length. When talking to Margie she mentioned quite a few heated discussions surrounding the foot of the marquee. Restoring the foot would have cost the theatre thousands of dollars and did not align with the historical perspective of the 1926 marquee. Another talking point surrounded the black infrastructure that holds up the sign itself. The Fargo Theatre opted to add the infrastructure for authenticity and reliability reasons. Wondering why the sign was replicated instead of repaired? Well, the original marquee was “too far gone” with missing lights and chipped paint. This all took away some of the sign’s shine. The restoration’s budget opted for a new, replicated “Fargo” marquee to restore all of its original luster.

A letter taken from the past signs (Pictured M for Margie).

Neon Lamps Meet Neon Fountains

On either side of the interior stage, you will note a series of neon fountains. The 1937 theatre art deco renovations included neon fountains that covered the many sets of pipes used for the organ. The fountains were torn down in the 1950s due to deterioration from the organ pipes’ vibrations. In the 1999 renovations, the Fargo Theatre was fortunate enough to find the original plans for the fountains dating back to 1937. A neon artisan and a plumber insisted on following the plans that they found to reconstruct the neon fountains. Who would’ve thought there were so many similarities between neon, theatres, organ pipes, and plumbers?

Cold Party Crashers

The marquee can be seen all over Fargo with many different artists’ renditions, pictures, and figures posing in front of the sign itself – a few of which are pictured below. The replicated marquee was re-lit on New Year’s Eve of 1998 after being taken off the face of the building in May of 1998. The theatre planned a large celebration of lighting the marquee with many guests invited. In true Fargo fashion, there was a major snowstorm. The guests were so cold that they stormed the theatre which was unexpected and unplanned. The seats had yet to be reinstalled and the lobby was not ready for guests, but the theatre served as a warm place to take refuge from the snowstorm.

Board members’ custom-made Fargo Theatre quilt auctioned off to raise funds.

Artist rendition of an encounter outside of the Fargo Theatre marquee.