MY NAME UP IN LIGHTS

BY DAN MILLER
April 20, 2006

Ever wish your name could be in giant letters on a theatre marquee?

Well...... mine is.
That's right, my family name "Miller" adorns one of America's classic old theaters, on Broad Street in my hometown of Augusta, Georgia.

True, it's been sitting empty for the past 22 years.... but it's still there -- and I've learned the place has been purchased, and is now in the process of being restored.

That's wonderful news for all of us who grew up in Augusta and whiled away many hours of our youth (and young adulthood) inside that incredibly beautiful old theatre.

My great uncle Frank Miller built the theatre for a whopping $550,000, and opened it in 1940.

Now, I never knew Uncle Frank.
He was the brother of my grandfather, and the theatre had already been sold out of the Miller family by the time I was old enough to want free passes.
But I vividly remember they hung a picture of Uncle Frank on a giant medallion over the entrance, and never took it down.
It was a good way to impress my dates..... "yeah, that's Uncle Frank up there"....

Among my fond memories of the "Miller" was a Saturday morning radio show called the Sancken's Youth Review, broadcast live from the stage, sponsored by Sancken's Dairy.
I guess you could call it Augusta's version of "American Idol".
Local kids would perform for the half hour show, and at the conclusion the audience would select the week's winner with an applause meter.
Warren Hites was the emcee.

I also recall in 1957 when the world premiere of the movie "The Three Faces of Eve" was held there in Augusta at the Miller Theatre.
It was a big, glamourous deal for the city.
That movie was about a medical case that took place in Augusta, and one of the stars was Joanne Woodward, a Georgia native whose mother lived 16 miles outside of town in Aiken, South Carolina.
Joanne's mother, and several Hollywood notables, including Allistair Cooke, attended the premiere.

Only years later did I also learn that my great uncle Frank had been one of the original investors in Augusta's first radio station, WRDW.
That could explain my lifelong fascination with broadcasting.
Maybe it's in my genes.

When I travel to Augusta this summer, I'll try to arrange a personal tour of old Miller Theatre and -- if so -- I'll be writing more about it then.

Oh, it'll be nice to see my name up in lights again!

By the way, if you're interested, there's a website -- with great pictures -- devoted to the restoration taking place at the Miller.
CLICK RIGHT HERE and you'll be magically taken there.

______________________________________________