Victory Theatre Collection

Introduction
Scope and Contents
Box and File List

Introduction

The Victory Theatre has been the center of the fine arts in Dayton since January 1, 1866. On that night the Turner Opera House, the first of the Victory's many names, opened with the classic Greek tragedy, Virginius. The Opera House would remain the center of culture in the Dayton area until May 16, 1869 when fire destroyed the building's interior. 1871 brought a rebirth of the theatre under the name Music Hall; and in 1865 it was renamed the Grand Opera House when it became the center of Dayton's centennial celebration.

Disaster struck the theatre again during the great flood of 1913. The citizens of Dayton, however, were not willing to allow their beloved Opera House to go to ruin, and it was resurrected as the Victoria Opera House shortly after the flood. But when water could not destroy the Theatre, fire tried again, and on January 15, 1916 flames engulfed the Theatre and caused over $150,000 in damages.

William A. Keys brought the Theatre back to life in 1919, this time it was named Victory to commemorate the United Stated efforts in World War I. This began the longest and most successful run in the Theatre's history - business was booming first with stage shows in the 1920s and 1930s, then with silent films and eventually movies. The Victory Theatre was at the center of many social and cultural events in Dayton.

The success of the Theatre continued until the early 1970s, when another disaster struck. This time the problems were economic. Growing suburbs steered people away from downtown Dayton, including the Victory Theatre. In 1975 the owners decided to give up on the Theatre, and demolish the building to make a parking lot. Their decision was met with fierce opposition from many in the Dayton community. A small band of students, arts patrons, and other supporters began to raise money to "Save the Victory", and they signed a one-year lease to protect the building from destruction. This "Save the Victory" committee evolved into the Victory Theatre Association, and has managed to keep the Theatre alive through individual and corporate donations and patronage. They restored the interior of the Theatre, and began a regular fall/winter theatre season. The work of these individuals saved the landmark that has stood at the corner of First and Main streets since 1866 from total destruction.

Most of the records of this collection begin with the conception of the Victory Theatre Association. Although there are a few photographs, contracts, and programs from the 1920s and 1930s, the majority of the records are from the files of the VTA beginning in 1975 and stretching through 1981. The University of Dayton Archives acquired this collection after archivist Linda Hinrichs offered the Special Collections Department as a repository for the VTA records on September 16, 1980. Ms. Hinrichs believed that the files of the Victory Theatre were important for three reasons, which she expressed in a letter to Kent Anderson, director of the VTA.

First, future historians will find them an important source of information about Dayton's cultural rebirth in the late 1970s. Second, other groups involved in restoration projects will want to take a look at a highly successful project. Third, the Association itself needs to have orderly and convenient access to its older files for administrative purposes.

Hinrichs felt the University of Dayton Special Collections would be an ideal place for the Victory Theatre to house its records. The University already housed the Urban Schnurr collection, which has many commonalties to the Victory Theatre Collection. The University would take special care in preserving the records, while at the same time making them available to researchers and the VTA itself. After much correspondence between Ms. Hinrichs and the Association, the records were transferred to the University of Dayton in October, 1981.

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Scope and Contents

The Victory Theatre Collection is divided into fourteen series: Rental Agreements and Supporting Materials; Accounting Records; Sheet Music; In-house Records; Maintenance Materials; Special Events Records; Seasonal Paraphernalia; Printed Histories and Photographs; Historic Preservation Materials; Fundraising Campaign Records; Victory Theatre Association Minutes; Advertising Materials; 1920s and 1930s Memorabilia; and Oversized Materials.

Series I: Rental Agreements and Supporting Materials
Contains rental contracts and agreements, programs, playbills, and correspondence from various organizations that played the Victory Theatre between 1975 and 1981. The records are arranged as they were found, alphabetically by organization.

Series II: Accounting Information
Contains purchase orders and receipts from accounts paid (1975-1981), requests for payment (1976), tax information and forms (1976), balance and expense sheets (1976-1977), bank statements (1977), and ledger sheets (1976-1978).

Series III: Sheet Music
Contains sheet music from performances at the Victory Theatre. The copyright dates on the music range from 1902 to 1957; however, there is no indication as to when the songs were performed at the Theatre.

Series IV: In-house Records
Contains concession reports (1976-1977), box office statements (1976-1979), vendor box office statements and invoices, daily advance ticket sheets, 1977-1978 theatre season ticket sales, Magnificent Seven Series ticket count information (1977), bar graph of torn ticket count (1978-1979), and ticket sales information.

Series V: Maintenance Materials
Contains box office, concession, maintenance, and usher checklists; blank stage direction sheets for cues, expenses, lights, stage, and victory players; materials from contracted companies in various fields of building operation and maintenance; two handwritten maintenance notebooks; and materials from the restoration projects of the Victory Theatre.

Series VI: Special Events Records
Contains schedules, programs, correspondence, invitations, press releases, and rental contracts for special events held at the Victory Theatre. These events include the Dayton Air Fair (1978), Celebration Week (1977), The Magnificent Seven Series (1977-1979), The Silver Screen Series (1977-1979), and the Summer Film Fare.

Series VII: Seasonal Paraphernalia
Contains information from events of the 1976-1981 Victory Theatre Seasons. This includes programs, playbills, tickets, press releases, and magazine articles related to the shows of each season.

Series VIII: Printed Histories and Photographs
Contains printed histories of the Victory Theatre that were published in various magazines and used to promote the Theatre. This series also includes photographs of the Theatre taken as early as 1913.

Series IX: Historic Preservation Materials
Contains literature from local and national historical societies. The materials were collected in the mid-1970s during the "Save the Victory" campaign. They suggest various grants and other forms of aid that is available to establishments like the Victory Theatre who are trying to preserve an historic landmark from destruction.

Series X: Fundraising Campaign Records
Contains posters, pamphlets, and letters requesting donations to the "Save the Victory" fund; a list of pledges to the "Save the Victory" fund from a radio pledge drive; and letters pledging money to the "Save the Victory" campaign from both corporations and individuals.

Series XI: Victory Theatre Association Minutes
Contains minutes from meetings of the Advisory Committee, the Board of Trustees, and the Executive Committee of the Victory Theatre Association (1976-1978).

Series XII: Advertising Materials
Contains articles promoting shows at the Victory Theatre and reviews of shows at the Victory Theatre (1976-1979); poster advertisements for movies at the Victory Theatre; sample swipes that were used in programs; and photographs from various performances that were once posted to advertise the shows.

Series XIII: 1920s and 1930s Memorabilia
Contains programs and playbills from the 1920s (1921-1929), Brownell-Stork Weekly and Mabel Brownell Weekly (1920-1922) which are magazines that reviewed performances at the Victory, sharing contracts (1920-1922), and photographs of actors and actresses of the 1920s and 1930s.

Series XIV: Oversized Materials
Contains the portion of the collection that are not paper records or that were too large to fit in normal sized boxes. A majority of this series consists of oversized posters, which are located in the map case. All of the items in this series have been cross-referenced with the series with which they best fit.

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Box and File List

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Electronic finding aid created in Oct. 2006 by Lisa Pasquinelli, from existing finding aid (original prepared in Summer 2000 by Julia Santucci).