When movie and TV stars walk the red carpet, one of the first questions the entertainment and gossip media want answered is: Who are you wearing?
Versace, Valentino and Carolina Herrera are names that roll off many lips. But every now and then, someone answers “vintage.”
There was no red carpet at a multipurpose champagne reception that Mayor John Hickenlooper, Denver’s Division of Theatres & Arenas and Judi Wolf hosted the other afternoon at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. But there sure was a lot of for-real vintage.
Because it was a party to mark Denver’s 150th anniversary as a city, the 100th birthday of the Quigg Newton Denver Municipal Auditorium, the launch of Tom Noel and Amy Zimmer’s coffee-table book “Showtime,” and the first time in 100 years that Denver has hosted a Democratic National Convention, the hosts were able to talk several folks into showing up in costumes reflective of the era.
Denver District Court Judge Larry Bohning was a dashing William Jennings Bryan while actor Tupper Collum was a spitting image of former Mayor Robert Speer, who launched his City Beautiful movement a century ago.
Gregorio Gonzales and his sister, Trini, also were in period dress as they mingled in a crowd that included Marcia and Dick Robinson, whose high school graduation in 1947 was held on the auditorium stage, and Donald R. Seawell, whose vision created what is now the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, the nation’s second-largest theater complex.
Seawell is about to celebrate his 96th birthday, which caused Wolf, the producer for “Showtime,” to point out to him — in the most loving and respectful way, of course — that the “only antiquity older than you is the Auditorium Theatre.”
Now rebuilt and rechristened the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, the historic building held lots of memories for many of the 200 attendees. Electra and Dr. Constantine Falliers recalled all of the ballet performances they had enjoyed there while others remembered seeing basketball games, lectures and musical productions there.
“One of my fondest memories as mayor will always be meeting with Ellie’s (late) husband, George, and discussing how to surprise her by making this a truly grand opera house,” Hickenlooper said.
Others enjoying the celebration were Jack Finlaw, director of Theatres & Arenas; City Auditor Dennis Gallagher; DCPA chairman Dan Ritchie; Robert Garner; Lester Ward; Ann Levy; Jeremy Shamos; Barry and Arlene Hirschfeld; Sherrye Berger; Marvin Wolf; Patricia Barela Rivera; Jack and Adrienne Fitzgibbons; Gail Johnson; Diane Huttner; Pat and Dr. Bruce Paton; and Steve Weil, whose Rockmount Ranch Wear is in the midst of fulfilling an order, placed by U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, for 300 commemorative shirts that she’ll give to colleagues attending the Democratic National Convention.
Society editor Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also,
