Valentine Theatre to unveil Toledo’s largest mural

Forty-seven of the performers who trod the boards of the Valentine Theatre’s stage between 1895 and 1917 live again in a massive mural that will be unveiled this week [June 3, 4, and 5, 2008].

Nine years ago, a group of Valentine Board Members and staff wanted to pay homage to the thousands of performers who appeared on the Valentine stage during its early years. After extensive discussion, Toledo native Paul Geiger was chosen to create the painting. Fifteen Board members, several supporters, and the Ohio Arts Council contributed to and paid for the painting of the mural.

The painting (68.5’ x 10’) features performers from the Valentine’s early days. The Barrymores, Houdini, Fanny Brice, Will Rogers, W.C. Fields, Sarah Bernhardt, Douglas Fairbanks, W. C. Fields, and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, are just a few of the performers depicted in the painting. Click here for a complete list of performers and their biographies.

After 12 months of research, the artist assembled the cast of characters who would appear in this work. In 2003, Paul Geiger stretched 68’ 6” of canvas 10 feet high in his studio. This project will be the largest public painting ever installed in Toledo.

"I wanted to restrict my cast of characters to 1895, when the theatre opened, to 1917 when it became a movie house," Geiger said. "A lot of these figures were just colorless, black and white photographs to me, but, by the end of my research they were all living, fascinating people."

"I didn't just want to do mug shots," Geiger said. "I wanted to weave a narrative throughout. There had to be a story. I wanted one character to be relating to another. And there's an educational component to this whole thing that will endure here at the theatre and be a reason for a lot of people to come and see it."

But one of the remarkable things about this painting is that you don't have to be able to pick up all of the obscure references to be able to enjoy it. It bursts with such life and energy that it's simply a joy to see.

"Even if you don't know anything about any of these people, just looking at it is going to be an entertaining experience, and an engaging one," Geiger said, smiling wryly. "And it'll keep you busy while you're ordering your drink."

William Gillette, lighting a pipe and dressed in the unmistakable garb of Sherlock Holmes, stares up confusedly at a chained and straight-jacketed Harry Houdini hanging upside-down from the rafters. Ed Wynn, complete with his little hat and circle-rimmed glasses, has stolen a couple of juggling balls from W.C. Fields to use as props to strike his trademark wacky, rubber-faced pose, while a few feet away, Sarah Bernhardt lounges disinterestedly stroking the head of one of the cheetahs she famously brought along as part of her traveling menagerie.

Five years devoted solely to a $100,000 project has driven [Geiger] into debt, he said. "I'm ultimately the one that loses." But that's secondary to his desire to create a stunning piece.

"If it's going to make for a more spectacular painting, for a more interesting, exciting experience for the viewer, if it's going to go beyond what I'm getting for it, or push the deadline, I don't really care."

The almost-final product has thrilled Reams, Wolfe, and Vivirito. And, it meets with Geiger's own critical eye.

"I have to admit I did feel a small sense of pride when I stepped back and looked at it."

In 2002, Geiger was completing two years’ work on a 25-foot mural — an opulent 17th-century banquet feast for a large Columbus catering firm. “I thought I could turn it around really fast,” says Geiger, 53, who has green-blue eyes and long, silvering hair tied back. “Like everything I do, it was very labor intensive.”

Other than a mural in his brother's West Toledo pediatric office, he'd done little painting. "I never even watched anybody squeeze paint from a tube, so I'm flying by the seat of my pants." Geiger doesn't attend art shows, doesn't exhibit his own art in galleries, hates marketing.

Geiger, who in addition to being a brilliant illustrator also runs a fine printmaking facility in his Summit Street studio.