%1 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/ en Denver Center for the Performing Arts http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-center-performing-arts <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Denver Center for the Performing Arts</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2022-02-15T15:25:48-07:00" title="Tuesday, February 15, 2022 - 15:25" class="datetime">Tue, 02/15/2022 - 15:25</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-center-performing-arts" data-a2a-title="Denver Center for the Performing Arts"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fdenver-center-performing-arts&amp;title=Denver%20Center%20for%20the%20Performing%20Arts"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>The Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) is a theatrical organization that puts on professional productions, brings Broadway shows to <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a>, and offers educational programming. Established in 1979, DCPA grew out of a Denver theatrical legacy that included the University Civic Theatre and <strong>Denver Civic Theatre</strong>. Under its founder, <strong>Donald Seawell</strong>, DCPA originally managed what is now known as the <strong>Denver Performing Arts Complex</strong> (DPAC), but in the 1980s, the city took over the venues, and DCPA narrowed its focus to theater.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Today DCPA still operates out of its Arts Complex home, which includes the Helen Bonfils Theatre Complex and Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre. Together the group’s performances attract nearly a million patrons a year. Currently, under the leadership of president and CEO Janice Sinden, DCPA has an operating budget of around $65 million, with 300 employees.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Early History</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>DCPA owes its existence to <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/helen-g-bonfils"><strong>Helen Bonfils</strong></a>, the millionaire owner of <strong><em>The Denver Post</em></strong> from 1933 until her death in 1972. Her greatest love, however, was not the newspaper but the theatre (she insisted upon the English spelling). As a little girl, she turned her dollhouse into a stage set. As a young woman, she acted in Denver’s famous, long-lived summer theater, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/elitch-gardens"><strong>Elitch’s</strong></a>, for which she came to be a major financial angel. Next, she moved to New York and Broadway, where she acted in and produced big-league plays.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In Denver, Bonfils also supported the University Civic Theatre, an amateur company established in 1929 at the <strong>University of Denver</strong>. After <strong>World War II</strong>, Bonfils built the Civic Theatre, a new theater on East Colfax Avenue at Elizabeth Street. The building was named the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/bonfils-memorial-theatre"><strong>Bonfils Memorial Theatre</strong></a>, and the organization changed its name to Denver Civic Theatre.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Bonfils long dreamed of starting a professional theater company in Denver. When she died in 1972, her attorney/confidante Donald Seawell worked to make that happen. Then chairman and publisher of the <em>Post</em> as well as head of the Helen G. Bonfils Foundation, he sold the newspaper, put the proceeds into the foundation, and pumped the funding into his vision for a downtown performing arts complex anchored by a professional theater company. After the professional Denver Center Theatre Company started in 1979, the old Bonfils Memorial Theatre on Colfax was used for the community theater and renamed for <strong>Henry Lowenstein</strong>, long a local champion of a wide variety of community productions. The Lowenstein Theatre closed in the mid-1980s and has been home since 2006 to <strong>Tattered Cover Book Store</strong>.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Programming</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The Denver Center Theatre Company (DCTC) fulfilled Helen Bonfils’s dream of a professional theater company. Its headquarters is in the back of the former <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/tramway-building-hotel-teatro"><strong>Tramway Building</strong></a> (now Hotel Teatro), located just across Arapahoe Street from the Arts Complex. The basement; car barn; streetcar service shops; and lower floors have been converted into administrative offices; six large rehearsal rooms; production studios’ staging areas; and paint, set making, costume, and wig shops, as well as the Tramway Theatre. The DCTC sponsors the New Play Summit, which attracts actors, actresses, and theater people from across the country.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>DCPA is heavily involved in the general community. The Denver Center Theatre Academy annually serves some 70,000 students, from three-year-olds to aspiring actors, with programs for students, teachers, professionals, and other interested parties. DCPA also puts on regular student matinees and provides study guides to help teachers incorporate the performance into the classroom.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>DCPA’s other arms include DCPA Broadway, which brings Broadway tours to Denver; DCPA Cabaret, which has put on comedies and musicals at the Garner Galleria since 1992; and DCPA Off-Center, which has offered experimental and immersive theatrical experiences since 2010.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Venues</h2>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Helen Bonfils Theatre Complex</em></p>&#13; &#13; <p>DCPA has developed several venues to serve its multiple roles, beginning with the</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Bonfils Theatre Complex. The Bonfils Theatres were the first DCPA venues to open in 1979. The building features raw concrete walls, banded windows, and a sixty-six-foot-high glazed canopy soaring over the entry and lobby. On the south side of the complex, a broad pedestrian ramp called the Crescent curves inside and outside under a canopy with a sweeping view of the city and its <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/rocky-mountains"><strong>Rocky Mountain</strong></a> setting. The Crescent ends in the Directors Room, with entry portraits of Bonfils and her father, <em>The Denver Post</em> cofounder <strong>Frederick G. Bonfils</strong>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Bonfils Complex houses four theaters where Denver Center Theatre Company presents its work. The largest, the 600-seat Stage, is a proscenium-style theater that invites audiences to sit in a fan shape in front of the stage. It is now heavily remodeled and known as the Marvin and Judi Wolf Theatre after two major benefactors. The Space Theatre is a smaller, more flexible, 380-seat pentagonal venue. It is now known as the Dorota <a href="#_msocom_2" id="_anchor_2" name="_msoanchor_2" uage="JavaScript">[SM2]</a> &amp; Kevin Kilstrom Theatre after two principal donors. The Lab Theatre opened as a 200-seat “black box” that was renamed the Source after a thrust stage was added in the 1980s. It is now known as the Glenn R. Jones Theatre after the former DCPA board member and cable television magnate. The fourth theatre in the complex, a 200-seat venue, was initially named for Denver movie theater magnate Frank H. Ricketson and focused on cinema. It has been renamed the William Dean Singleton Theatre after the former <em>Denver Post</em> publisher, who has been a longtime board member and major donor.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The most notable addition to the Bonfils Complex came in 1998, when the Donald R. Seawell Ballroom was built on top of it. Designed by Kevin Roche, this $10 million glass-and-steel structure provides a 10,000-square-foot space with city and mountain views. As a premier venue in downtown Denver, the ballroom annually hosts more than 100 events and performances of all kinds.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The 2,884-seat Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre, named for <strong>a prominent Denver architect, developer, and philanthropist</strong> whose foundation helped fund it, is the largest venue at the Arts Complex. As the city’s old Auditorium Arena became less and less capable of showcasing big-time Broadway productions in the 1980s, Denver mayor <strong>Federico Peña</strong> and Colorado governor <strong>Roy Romer</strong> spearheaded a campaign for a state-of-the-art theater. To build the $35 million theater, the old Auditorium Arena was gutted for a modern showplace that includes the Marvin and Judi Wolf Room for receptions, parties, and special events. Actors’ Alley connects the Buell to the adjacent Ellie Caulkins Opera House and is a popular stop on public tours because of the large hand-painted replicas of show posters signed by touring casts that adorn the walls.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Buell opened in 1991 with a sold-out ten-week run of <em>The Phantom of the Opera</em> and has since hosted many big-time Broadway hits. Besides launching the national tour of Disney’s <em>T</em><em>he Lion King, </em>the Buell has launched other tours, including<em> The Book of Mormon, Sunset Boulevard</em>, and the revival of <em>Hello Dolly! </em>starring Carol Channing<em>.</em> The theater also hosts concerts and comedy acts.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Leadership</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Donald Seawell retired as chairman of the DCPA board in 2006, at age ninety-four. He was replaced by his handpicked successor, <strong>Daniel Lee Ritchie</strong>, another noted philanthropist, business executive, and civic leader. Ritchie had just stepped down as chancellor at the University of Denver, where his prodigious fundraising took the school out of bankruptcy and paid for many stone and copper buildings that distinguished what had been a hodgepodge campus. At DCPA, Ritchie continued to bring in blockbuster shows and encouraged the company to stage Colorado-centric productions about figures such as <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/clara-brown"><strong>Aunt Clara Brown</strong></a>, an early Black immigrant, and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/elizabeth-%E2%80%9Cbaby-doe%E2%80%9D-tabor"><strong>Baby Doe Tabor</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p> In 2016 Janice Sinden followed Ritchie as president and CEO. Previously she held various executive positions, including chief of staff for Denver mayor <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/michael-hancock"><strong>Michael B. Hancock</strong></a>. “Politics is public theater,” she reflected in 2021, “with its large cast of clashing characters.” At the DCPA helm, Sinden oversaw a $54 million renovation of the Bonfils venues to enhance theaters, upgrade accessibility, and improve audience experience, as well as a major face lift and updating of the Buell Theatre.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Today</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>When the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/coronavirus-colorado"><strong>COVID-19 pandemic</strong></a> hit in March 2020, the DCPA shut down for seventeen months. All performances were postponed until fall 2021, when <em>The Lion King</em> reopened the Buell, followed by <em>A Christmas Carol</em> and <em>Hamilton</em>. A full range of other productions reawakened the DCPA’s many venues with hopes to return to an average year, when the DCPA stages around forty different shows with about 2,500 performances that draw more than 950,000 visitors.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/noel-thomas-j" hreflang="und">Noel, Thomas J.</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-center-performing-arts" hreflang="en">Denver Center for the Performing Arts</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-performing-arts-complex" hreflang="en">Denver Performing Arts Complex</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/helen-bonfils" hreflang="en">Helen Bonfils</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/donald-seawell" hreflang="en">Donald Seawell</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Denver Center for the Performing Arts, <a href="https://issuu.com/denvercenter">Annual Reports</a>, various dates.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Denver Center Theatre, <em>Twenty-Five Years of Sterling Theatre</em> (Denver: Denver Center Theatre Company, 2004).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Thomas J. Noel and Amy B. Zimmer, <em>Showtime: Denver’s Performing Arts, Convention Centers and Theatre District</em> (Denver: Denver’s Division of Theaters and Arenas, 2008).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Daniel Lee Ritchie, interviews by Thomas J. Noel, February 28, and March 13, 2007.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Donald Ray Seawell, interviews by Thomas J. Noel, March 13, 2006; April 3, 2006; and July 9, 2007.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Janice Sinton, interview and DCPA tour with Thomas J. Noel, July 29, 2021.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Eva Hodges Watt, <em>Papa’s Girl: The Fascinating World of Helen Bonfils</em> (Lake City, CO: Western Reflections, 2007).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p><a href="https://www.denvercenter.org/">Denver Center for the Performing Arts</a>.</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Tue, 15 Feb 2022 22:25:48 +0000 yongli 3670 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Helen G. Bonfils http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/helen-g-bonfils <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Helen G. Bonfils </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2020-09-14T16:28:40-06:00" title="Monday, September 14, 2020 - 16:28" class="datetime">Mon, 09/14/2020 - 16:28</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/helen-g-bonfils" data-a2a-title="Helen G. Bonfils "><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fhelen-g-bonfils&amp;title=Helen%20G.%20Bonfils%20"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Helen Gilmer Bonfils (1889–1972) was a well-known Colorado actress, businesswoman, and philanthropist. She is best known as manager of <strong><em>The</em><em> Denver Post</em></strong> and for her contributions to the theater in Colorado through her time as an actress, producer, and later benefactress of the Helen G. Bonfils Foundation, which supports the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-center-performing-arts"><strong>Denver Center for the Performing Arts</strong></a>, the largest nonprofit theater organization in the country. Her other charitable works included endowing scholarships, creating the Belle Bonfils Blood Bank, and funding the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-zoo"><strong>Denver Zoo</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Early Life</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Gilmer Bonfils was born in Peekskill, New York, on November 16, 1889, the second daughter of <strong>Frederick</strong> and Belle Bonfils. The Bonfils family moved to Kansas in 1894 and then to Denver in 1895, where Frederick and his business partner, <strong>H. H. Tammen</strong>, purchased a failing newspaper and rebranded it as <em>The</em> <em>Denver Post</em>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The successful newspaper business provided for Helen Bonfils’s extravagant upbringing. She attended the Miss Wolcott School, an elite private girls’ school in <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> and then continued to finishing school at National Park Seminary in Maryland. The Bonfils girls were raised in the Catholic Church, as their mother was devout.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen was close with her mother. They attended shows together at the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/tabor-grand-opera-house"><strong>Tabor Grand Opera House</strong></a> and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/elitch-gardens"><strong>Elitch Gardens</strong></a>, which sparked Helen’s love for the performing arts. She began acting as a young adult and performed at the Elitch Theatre when she was starting out. She also helped organize the <strong>University of Denver</strong>’s Community Theater, then known as the Civic Theatre, where she later performed. At the time, many theaters in Denver operated seasonally, but Bonfils recognized the need for formal theater companies to keep talent engaged and shows running year-round, not just during summer months. Over the course of her life she orchestrated the creation of five theaters and performance companies, including the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/bonfils-memorial-theatre"><strong>Bonfils Memorial Theatre</strong></a> as a new home for the Denver Civic Theatre in 1953.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Family Strife</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The success of <em>The</em> <em>Denver Post</em> amassed great wealth for the Bonfils family. Each daughter was to receive a large inheritance that would be paid out in installments. However, Helen Bonfils received most of the inheritance because her older sister, <strong>Mary “May” Bonfils</strong>, had married without her parents’ approval. Helen inherited majority shares of <em>The</em> <em>Denver Post</em> after her father’s death in 1933. When Belle Bonfils died in 1935, May received a small portion of her mother’s estate in the form of a trust but was offended that Helen had been appointed by her mother as the trust administrator. May sued Helen and won, gaining access to about $12,000 per year (roughly $225,000 today). Even with this concession, May remained bitter about her parents’ desertion and favoritism. Family strife and sibling jealousy were recurring themes in Helen Bonfils’s life. The sisters rarely spoke, and they publicly criticized each other throughout their adult lives.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>The One-Woman Show</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Bonfils managed <em>The</em> <em>Denver </em><em>Post</em> as secretary treasurer from 1933 until 1966, when she became the newspaper’s president. Women were not commonly recognized as business leaders in the 1930s, but it is clear from the company’s organization and decision-making that Bonfils was steering the <em>Post</em> during her long tenure. She made a point of hiring female editors and ensured that the paper featured more cultural and family-focused content than it had under her father. Under her leadership, the paper also gave back to the Denver community more than it had under her father’s management. The paper started sponsoring free community events, such as summer operettas in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/cheesman-park"><strong>Cheesman Park</strong></a>. These events were a huge hit and allowed Bonfils to combine her work at the paper with her goals of promoting the performing arts in Denver.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Success did not come without a few bumps in the road. The Bonfils sisters’ discord negatively affected the newspaper. May publicly criticized the <em>Post</em> while Helen ensured that May’s charitable works and important news were never reported. In 1960 May escalated their fight by selling her 15 percent stake to Samuel I. Newhouse Sr., a publishing magnate who planned to take over the newspaper by edging out Helen Bonfils. He did not succeed, but the sale nevertheless caused the sisters’ rift to widen further.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Success at the Box Office</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>While managing her father’s newspaper, Helen Bonfils never lost her love for the arts. In 1936 she married producer George Somnes. The pair met at the Elitch Theatre, where the English producer had recently been hired. His connection to the Denver theater scene—and particularly to the first theater where she had performed as a young woman—relit the dramatic fire inside Bonfils, who set to work as a playwright, recruiter, and benefactress. The couple created the Bonfils and Somnes Producing Company in 1937. They produced shows in Denver and New York City, with their biggest hit being <em>The Greatest Show on Earth</em> (1938). Helen performed in the play in New York City during the height of its popularity. She continued to recruit talent and produce shows with Somnes for eighteen more years, until he passed away in 1956 from liver failure.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Following her husband’s death, Bonfils needed a change of scenery. She took some time off from <em>The </em><em>Denver Post</em> to co-produce shows in New York and London with well-known producers Haila Stoddard and <strong>Donald Seawell</strong>. With Seawell, Bonfils produced <em>Sail Away</em> (1962), <em>The Hollow Crown</em> (1963), and Tony Award–winning <em>Sleuth </em>(1971). Bonfils appreciated Seawell’s work ethic so much that she asked him to move to Denver and become the chairman of <em>The </em><em>Denver Post</em> when she was appointed president in 1966.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the midst of her theatrical success, Bonfils tired of being alone. In 1959, at the age of sixty-eight, she married Edward Michael Davis, her twenty-eight-year-old chauffeur. To avoid appearing too scandalous, she set Davis up to manage an oil company, making him appear more respectable. Though their marriage seemed mutually beneficial, Bonfils filed for divorce in 1971, when her health was ailing. Some Denver historians believe she did not want Davis to inherit her estate after she passed away on June 6, 1972.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Charitable Legacy</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Bonfils had a large fortune and no heir, so she determined to leave her mark through charity. In 1943 she created the Belle Bonfils Blood Bank to benefit wounded soldiers during World War II. This center, named after her mother, still functions today as part of Vitalant, a nationwide network of donation centers. At the same time she started the blood bank, Bonfils funded the completion of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/holy-ghost-catholic-church"><strong>Holy Ghost Catholic Church</strong></a> in honor of her parents. She also organized sponsorship for specialized wings at Denver hospitals. Her passion for animals led her to be an active member of the Dumb Friends League and contribute to the creation of the Denver Zoo. These ventures marked the start of Bonfils’s long legacy of giving, which was spurred in part by competition with her sister’s charities.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Bonfils’s most substantial charitable legacy involved the performing arts. In 1953 she created the Helen G. Bonfils Foundation to support the performing arts in Colorado and endow arts scholarships. Through her foundation, Bonfils built the Bonfils Memorial Theatre, which was named in honor of her parents.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>After her death in 1972, Donald Seawell, her successor at the <em>Post</em> and manager of the Bonfils Foundation, envisioned and oversaw construction of a new arts complex around the Municipal Auditorium downtown. Seawell’s plan was in many ways a continuation of Bonfils’s lifelong project of promoting the performing arts in Denver. He made the Bonfils Foundation a subsidiary of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, as the campus was then known. (The campus is now the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-performing-arts-complex"><strong>Denver Performing Arts Complex</strong></a>, while the Denver Center for the Performing Arts focuses on theatrical programming.) By 1979 construction was complete, including the Helen G. Bonfils Theatre Complex with four theaters of different sizes. When Seawell sold <em>The Denver Post</em> a year later, the profits went into the Bonfils Foundation to continue to fund the performing arts center. Meanwhile, the smaller Bonfils Memorial Theatre on East Colfax Avenue became a community theater for a few years before eventually becoming home to the <strong>Tattered Cover Book Store</strong>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Bonfils was posthumously inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame in 1985. Today her legacy in Denver and her love for the theater continue through the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, which is now the largest nonprofit theater organization in the United States.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/helen-bonfils" hreflang="en">Helen Bonfils</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-post" hreflang="en">the denver post</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/frederick-bonfils" hreflang="en">Frederick Bonfils</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/bonfils-family" hreflang="en">Bonfils family</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-civic-theatre" hreflang="en">Denver Civic Theatre</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/bonfils-memorial-theatre" hreflang="en">Bonfils Memorial Theatre</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-center-performing-arts" hreflang="en">Denver Center for the Performing Arts</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Vivian Epstein, <em>A History of Colorado’s Women for Young People</em> (Denver: Vivian Epstein, 1978).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.cogreatwomen.org/project/helen-bonfils/">Helen Bonfils</a>,” n.d., Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.denvercenter.org/about-us/history-of-dcpa/">History of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts</a>,” n.d., Denver Center for the Performing Arts.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Thomas J. Noel, <a href="https://bonfils-stantonfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/BSF-History-Book_0419_FINAL_low-res.pdf"><em>The Legacy Continues: The Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Story</em></a> (Denver: Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, 2018).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Thomas J. Noel, “May Bonfils and Her Lost Belmar Mansion,” <em>Colorado Heritage</em> (Fall 2018).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Arian Osborne, “<a href="https://www.coloradovirtuallibrary.org/digital-colorado/colorado-histories/20th-century/helen-bonfils-co-owner-denver-post-philanthropist/">Helen Bonfils: Denver Post Co-owner and Philanthropist</a>,” Colorado Virtual Library, April 5, 2017.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://duarchives.coalliance.org/agents/people/664">George Somnes</a>,” University of Denver Archives, n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Jeanne Varnell, <em>Women of Consequence: The Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame</em> (Chicago: Johnson Books, 1999).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Eva Hodges Watt, <em>Papa's Girl: The Fascinating World of Helen Bonfils</em> (Lake City, CO: Western Reflections, 2007).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Ed Will, “<a href="https://extras.denverpost.com/scene/bonfils1104.htm">Performing Arts Greats: Helen Bonfils</a>,” <em>The </em><em>Denver Post</em>, November 4, 1999.</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Gail M. Beaton, <em>Colorado Women: A History</em> (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2012).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Bill Hosokawa, <em>Thunder in the Rockies: The Incredible </em>Denver Post (New York: Morrow, 1976).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-4th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-4th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-4th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-4th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-4th-grade"><p>Helen Gilmer Bonfils (1889–1972) was a Colorado actress, businesswoman, and philanthropist. She is best known as manager of <strong><em>The Denver Post</em></strong>. She contributed to the theater in Colorado through her time as an actress, producer, and benefactress. Her other charitable works included creating the Belle Bonfils Blood Bank and funding the <strong>Denver Zoo</strong>.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Early Life</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Gilmer Bonfils was born in Peekskill, New York, on November 16, 1889. She was the second daughter of <strong>Frederick</strong> and Belle Bonfils. The Bonfils family moved to Denver in 1895. Frederick and his business partner, <strong>H. H. Tammen</strong>, purchased a failing newspaper and rebranded it as <em>The Denver Post</em>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The newspaper business provided for Helen Bonfils’s wealthy upbringing. She attended an elite private girls’ school in <strong>Denver</strong>. The Bonfils girls were raised in the Catholic Church, as their mother was devout.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen was close with her mother. They attended shows at the <strong>Tabor Grand Opera House</strong> and <strong>Elitch Gardens</strong>. This started Helen’s love for the performing arts. She began acting as a young adult. Helen performed at the Elitch Theatre. At the time, many theaters in Denver operated seasonally. Bonfils saw the need for shows to run year-round. Over the course of her life she helped create five theaters and performance companies.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Family Strife</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The success of <em>The Denver Post</em> created great wealth for the Bonfils family. Each daughter was to receive a large inheritance. Helen Bonfils received most of the inheritance after her older sister, <strong>Mary “May” Bonfils</strong>, married without her parents’ approval. Helen received majority shares of <em>The Denver Post</em> after her father’s death in 1933. When Belle Bonfils died in 1935, May received a small portion of her mother’s estate. The money was in the form of a trust. May was offended that her mother gave Helen control over the trust. May sued Helen and won. May received about $12,000 per year (about $225,000 today). May remained bitter. The sisters rarely spoke. They publicly criticized each other throughout their lives.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>The One-Woman Show</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Bonfils managed <em>The Denver Post</em> as secretary treasurer from 1933 until 1966. That's when she became the newspaper’s president. Women were not often recognized as business leaders in the 1930s. However, Bonfils was steering the <em>Post</em>. She hired female editors. The paper featured more cultural and family-focused content than it had under her father. The paper also gave back to the Denver community more. The paper started sponsoring free community events. These events were a huge hit. They allowed Bonfils to combine her work at the paper with her goals of promoting the performing arts in Denver.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Success did not come without a few bumps in the road. The Bonfils sisters’ fighting hurt the newspaper. In 1960 May sold her 15 percent stake to Samuel I. Newhouse Sr. He planned to take over the newspaper by edging out Helen Bonfils. He did not succeed. However, the sale caused the sisters’ rift to widen further.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Success at the Box Office</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Bonfils never lost her love for the arts. In 1936 she married producer George Somnes. The pair met at the Elitch Theatre. His connection to the Denver theater scene relit the dramatic fire inside Bonfils. She set to work as a playwright, recruiter, and benefactress. The couple created the Bonfils and Somnes Producing Company in 1937. They produced shows in Denver and New York City. Their biggest hit was <em>The Greatest Show on Earth</em> (1938). Helen performed in the play in New York City. She continued to produce shows with Somnes for eighteen more years. He passed away in 1956 from liver failure.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Following her husband’s death, Bonfils needed a change. She took time off from <em>The Denver Post</em> to co-produce shows in New York and London.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Bonfils tired of being alone. In 1959, at the age of sixty-eight, she married Edward Michael Davis. He was her twenty-eight-year-old chauffeur. Bonfils filed for divorce in 1971, when her health was failing. Some historians believe she did not want Davis to inherit her estate after she passed away on June 6, 1972.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Charitable Legacy</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Bonfils had a large fortune and no heir. She determined to leave her mark through charity. In 1943 she created the Belle Bonfils Blood Bank to benefit wounded soldiers during World War II. This center, named after her mother, still functions today. Her passion for animals led her to be an active member of the Dumb Friends League. She contributed to the creation of the Denver Zoo. This was the start of Bonfils’s long legacy of giving.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Bonfils’s biggest charitable legacy involved the performing arts. In 1953 she created the Helen G. Bonfils Foundation to support the performing arts in Colorado. Through her foundation, Bonfils built the Bonfils Memorial Theatre.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>After her death, Donald Seawell, her successor at the <em>Post</em> and manager of the Bonfils Foundation, oversaw construction of a new arts complex downtown. By 1979 construction was complete. The building included the Helen G. Bonfils Theatre Complex with four theaters of different sizes. Seawell sold <em>The Denver Post</em> a year later. The profits went into the Bonfils Foundation to continue funding the performing arts center.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Bonfils was inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame in 1985. Today her legacy continues through the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-8th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-8th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-8th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-8th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-8th-grade"><p>Helen Gilmer Bonfils (1889–1972) was a Colorado actress, businesswoman, and philanthropist. She is best known as manager of <strong><em>The Denver Post</em></strong>. She contributed to the theater in Colorado through her time as an actress, producer, and benefactress of the Helen G. Bonfils Foundation. Her other charitable works included endowing scholarships, creating the Belle Bonfils Blood Bank, and funding the <strong>Denver Zoo</strong>.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Early Life</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Gilmer Bonfils was born in Peekskill, New York, on November 16, 1889. She was the second daughter of <strong>Frederick</strong> and Belle Bonfils. The Bonfils family moved to Denver in 1895. Frederick and his business partner, <strong>H. H. Tammen</strong>, purchased a failing newspaper and rebranded it as <em>The Denver Post</em>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The newspaper business provided for Helen Bonfils’s extravagant upbringing. She attended the Miss Wolcott School, an elite private girls’ school in <strong>Denver</strong>. She continued to finishing school at National Park Seminary in Maryland. The Bonfils girls were raised in the Catholic Church, as their mother was devout.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen was close with her mother. They attended shows together at the <strong>Tabor Grand Opera House</strong> and <strong>Elitch Gardens</strong>. This sparked Helen’s love for the performing arts. She began acting as a young adult and performed at the Elitch Theatre. She also helped organize the <strong>University of Denver</strong>’s Community Theater where she later performed. At the time, many theaters in Denver operated seasonally. Bonfils recognized the need for formal theater companies to keep talent engaged and shows running year-round. Over the course of her life she orchestrated the creation of five theaters and performance companies. These included the <strong>Bonfils Memorial Theatre</strong> as a new home for the Denver Civic Theatre in 1953.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Family Strife</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The success of <em>The Denver Post</em> created great wealth for the Bonfils family. Each daughter was to receive a large inheritance. However, Helen Bonfils received most of the inheritance because her older sister, <strong>Mary “May” Bonfils</strong>, married without her parents’ approval. Helen received majority shares of <em>The Denver Post</em> after her father’s death in 1933. When Belle Bonfils died in 1935, May received a small portion of her mother’s estate. The money was in the form of a trust. May was offended that her mother made Helen the trust administrator. May sued Helen and won, gaining access to about $12,000 per year (roughly $225,000 today). Even with this concession, May remained bitter. Family strife and sibling jealousy were recurring themes in Helen Bonfils’s life. The sisters rarely spoke. They publicly criticized each other throughout their adult lives.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>The One-Woman Show</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Bonfils managed <em>The Denver Post</em> as secretary treasurer from 1933 until 1966. That's when she became the newspaper’s president. Women were not commonly recognized as business leaders in the 1930s. However, it is clear that Bonfils was steering the <em>Post</em>. She hired female editors. The paper featured more cultural and family-focused content than it had under her father. The paper also gave back to the Denver community more than it had under her father’s management. The paper started sponsoring free community events, such as summer operettas in <strong>Cheesman Park</strong>. These events were a huge hit. They allowed Bonfils to combine her work at the paper with her goals of promoting the performing arts in Denver.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Success did not come without a few bumps in the road. The Bonfils sisters’ fighting negatively affected the newspaper. In 1960 May escalated their fight by selling her 15 percent stake to Samuel I. Newhouse Sr. He planned to take over the newspaper by edging out Helen Bonfils. He did not succeed. However, the sale caused the sisters’ rift to widen further.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Success at the Box Office</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Bonfils never lost her love for the arts. In 1936 she married producer George Somnes. The pair met at the Elitch Theatre, where the English producer had recently been hired. His connection to the Denver theater scene relit the dramatic fire inside Bonfils. She set to work as a playwright, recruiter, and benefactress. The couple created the Bonfils and Somnes Producing Company in 1937. They produced shows in Denver and New York City. Their biggest hit was <em>The Greatest Show on Earth</em> (1938). Helen performed in the play in New York City during the height of its popularity. She continued to recruit talent and produce shows with Somnes for eighteen more years. He passed away in 1956 from liver failure.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Following her husband’s death, Bonfils needed a change. She took some time off from <em>The Denver Post</em> to co-produce shows in New York and London with well-known producers Haila Stoddard and <strong>Donald Seawell</strong>. With Seawell, Bonfils produced <em>Sail Away</em> (1962), <em>The Hollow Crown</em> (1963), and Tony Award–winning <em>Sleuth</em> (1971). Bonfils appreciated Seawell’s work ethic so much that she asked him to move to Denver and become the chairman of <em>The Denver Post</em> when she was appointed president in 1966.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the midst of her theatrical success, Bonfils tired of being alone. In 1959, at the age of sixty-eight, she married Edward Michael Davis, her twenty-eight-year-old chauffeur. To avoid appearing too scandalous, she set Davis up to manage an oil company. This made him appear more respectable. Bonfils filed for divorce in 1971, when her health was ailing. Some Denver historians believe she did not want Davis to inherit her estate after she passed away on June 6, 1972.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Charitable Legacy</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Bonfils had a large fortune and no heir. She determined to leave her mark through charity. In 1943 she created the Belle Bonfils Blood Bank to benefit wounded soldiers during World War II. This center, named after her mother, still functions today. Bonfils also funded the completion of <strong>Holy Ghost Catholic Church</strong> in honor of her parents. She also organized sponsorship for specialized wings at Denver hospitals. Her passion for animals led her to be an active member of the Dumb Friends League. She contributed to the creation of the Denver Zoo. These ventures marked the start of Bonfils’s long legacy of giving.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Bonfils’s most substantial charitable legacy involved the performing arts. In 1953 she created the Helen G. Bonfils Foundation to support the performing arts in Colorado. Through her foundation, Bonfils built the Bonfils Memorial Theatre.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>After her death, Donald Seawell, her successor at the <em>Post </em>and manager of the Bonfils Foundation, oversaw construction of a new arts complex around the Municipal Auditorium downtown. By 1979 construction was complete, including the Helen G. Bonfils Theatre Complex with four theaters of different sizes. When Seawell sold <em>The Denver Post </em>a year later, the profits went into the Bonfils Foundation to continue to fund the performing arts center.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Bonfils was posthumously inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame in 1985. Today her legacy in Denver and her love for the theater continue through the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, which is now the largest nonprofit theater organization in the United States.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-10th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-10th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-10th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-10th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-10th-grade"><p>Helen Gilmer Bonfils (1889–1972) was a well-known Colorado actress, businesswoman, and philanthropist. She is best known as manager of <strong><em>The Denver Post</em></strong> and for her contributions to the theater in Colorado through her time as an actress, producer, and later benefactress of the Helen G. Bonfils Foundation. Her other charitable works included endowing scholarships, creating the Belle Bonfils Blood Bank, and funding the <strong>Denver Zoo</strong>.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Early Life</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Gilmer Bonfils was born in Peekskill, New York, on November 16, 1889, the second daughter of <strong>Frederick</strong> and Belle Bonfils. The Bonfils family moved to Kansas in 1894 and then to Denver in 1895, where Frederick and his business partner, <strong>H. H. Tammen</strong>, purchased a failing newspaper and rebranded it as <em>The Denver Post</em>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The successful newspaper business provided for Helen Bonfils’s extravagant upbringing. She attended the Miss Wolcott School, an elite private girls’ school in <strong>Denver</strong>. She continued to finishing school at National Park Seminary in Maryland. The Bonfils girls were raised in the Catholic Church, as their mother was devout.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen was close with her mother. They attended shows together at the <strong>Tabor Grand Opera House</strong> and <strong>Elitch Gardens</strong>, which sparked Helen’s love for the performing arts. She began acting as a young adult and performed at the Elitch Theatre when she was starting out. She also helped organize the <strong>University of Denver</strong>’s Community Theater, then known as the Civic Theatre, where she later performed. At the time, many theaters in Denver operated seasonally, but Bonfils recognized the need for formal theater companies to keep talent engaged and shows running year-round, not just during summer months. Over the course of her life, she orchestrated the creation of five theaters and performance companies, including the <strong>Bonfils Memorial Theatre</strong> as a new home for the Denver Civic Theatre in 1953.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Family Strife</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The success of <em>The Denver Post</em> amassed great wealth for the Bonfils family. Each daughter was to receive a large inheritance that would be paid out in installments. However, Helen Bonfils received most of the inheritance because her older sister, <strong>Mary “May” Bonfils</strong>, had married without her parents’ approval. Helen inherited majority shares of <em>The Denver Post</em> after her father’s death in 1933. When Belle Bonfils died in 1935, May received a small portion of her mother’s estate in the form of a trust but was offended that Helen had been appointed by her mother as the trust administrator. May sued Helen and won, gaining access to about $12,000 per year (roughly $225,000 today). Even with this concession, May remained bitter about her parents’ desertion and favoritism. Family strife and sibling jealousy were recurring themes in Helen Bonfils’s life. The sisters rarely spoke, and they publicly criticized each other throughout their adult lives.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>The One-Woman Show</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Bonfils managed <em>The Denver Post</em> as secretary treasurer from 1933 until 1966, when she became the newspaper’s president. Women were not commonly recognized as business leaders in the 1930s, but it is clear from the company’s organization and decision-making that Bonfils was steering the <em>Post</em> during her long tenure. She made a point of hiring female editors and ensured that the paper featured more cultural and family-focused content than it had under her father. Under her leadership, the paper also gave back to the Denver community more than it had under her father’s management. The paper started sponsoring free community events, such as summer operettas in <strong>Cheesman Park</strong>. These events were a huge hit and allowed Bonfils to combine her work at the paper with her goals of promoting the performing arts in Denver.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Success did not come without a few bumps in the road. The Bonfils sisters’ discord negatively affected the newspaper. May publicly criticized the <em>Post </em>while Helen ensured that May’s charitable works and important news were never reported. In 1960 May escalated their fight by selling her 15 percent stake to Samuel I. Newhouse Sr., a publishing magnate who planned to take over the newspaper by edging out Helen Bonfils. He did not succeed, but the sale nevertheless caused the sisters’ rift to widen further.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Success at the Box Office</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>While managing her father’s newspaper, Helen Bonfils never lost her love for the arts. In 1936 she married producer George Somnes. The pair met at the Elitch Theatre, where the English producer had recently been hired. His connection to the Denver theater scene—and particularly to the first theater where she had performed as a young woman—relit the dramatic fire inside Bonfils, who set to work as a playwright, recruiter, and benefactress. The couple created the Bonfils and Somnes Producing Company in 1937. They produced shows in Denver and New York City, with their biggest hit being <em>The Greatest Show on Earth</em> (1938). Helen performed in the play in New York City during the height of its popularity. She continued to recruit talent and produce shows with Somnes for eighteen more years, until he passed away in 1956 from liver failure.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Following her husband’s death, Bonfils needed a change of scenery. She took some time off from <em>The Denver Post</em> to co-produce shows in New York and London with well-known producers Haila Stoddard and <strong>Donald Seawell</strong>. With Seawell, Bonfils produced <em>Sail Away</em> (1962), <em>The Hollow Crown</em> (1963), and Tony Award–winning Sleuth (1971). Bonfils appreciated Seawell’s work ethic so much that she asked him to move to Denver and become the chairman of <em>The Denver Post</em> when she was appointed president in 1966.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the midst of her theatrical success, Bonfils tired of being alone. In 1959, at the age of sixty-eight, she married Edward Michael Davis, her twenty-eight-year-old chauffeur. To avoid appearing too scandalous, she set Davis up to manage an oil company, making him appear more respectable. Though their marriage seemed mutually beneficial, Bonfils filed for divorce in 1971, when her health was ailing. Some Denver historians believe she did not want Davis to inherit her estate after she passed away on June 6, 1972.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Charitable Legacy</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Bonfils had a large fortune and no heir, so she determined to leave her mark through charity. In 1943 she created the Belle Bonfils Blood Bank to benefit wounded soldiers during World War II. This center, named after her mother, still functions today as part of Vitalant, a nationwide network of donation centers. At the same time, she started the blood bank, Bonfils funded the completion of <strong>Holy Ghost Catholic Church</strong> in honor of her parents. She also organized sponsorship for specialized wings at Denver hospitals. Her passion for animals led her to be an active member of the Dumb Friends League and contribute to the creation of the Denver Zoo. These ventures marked the start of Bonfils’s long legacy of giving, which was spurred in part by competition with her sister’s charities.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Bonfils’s most substantial charitable legacy involved the performing arts. In 1953 she created the Helen G. Bonfils Foundation to support the performing arts in Colorado and endow arts scholarships. Through her foundation, Bonfils built the Bonfils Memorial Theatre, which was named in honor of her parents.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>After her death in 1972, Donald Seawell, her successor at the <em>Post </em>and manager of the Bonfils Foundation, envisioned and oversaw construction of a new arts complex around the Municipal Auditorium downtown. Seawell’s plan was in many ways a continuation of Bonfils’s lifelong project of promoting the performing arts in Denver. He made the Bonfils Foundation a subsidiary of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, as the campus was then known. (The campus is now the <strong>Denver Performing Arts Complex</strong>, while the Denver Center for the Performing Arts focuses on theatrical programming.) By 1979 construction was complete, including the Helen G. Bonfils Theatre Complex with four theaters of different sizes. When Seawell sold <em>The Denver Post</em> a year later, the profits went into the Bonfils Foundation to continue to fund the performing arts center. Meanwhile, the smaller Bonfils Memorial Theatre on East Colfax Avenue became a community theater for a few years before eventually becoming home to the <strong>Tattered Cover Book Store</strong>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Helen Bonfils was posthumously inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame in 1985. Today her legacy in Denver and her love for the theater continue through the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, which is now the largest nonprofit theater organization in the United States.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Mon, 14 Sep 2020 22:28:40 +0000 yongli 3418 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Elitch Gardens http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/elitch-gardens <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Elitch Gardens</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--3234--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--3234.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/elitchs-gardens-entrance-c-1909"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Elitch-Gardens-Media-1_0.jpg?itok=gXZrBN7r" width="900" height="729" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/elitchs-gardens-entrance-c-1909" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Elitch&#039;s Gardens Entrance, c. 1909</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Visitors and a park employee stand at the entrance to Denver's Elitch Gardens amusement park in 1909 or 1910. Established in 1890 by John and Mary Elitch, the amusement park is still a popular seasonal attraction today.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2019-08-20T14:40:36-06:00" title="Tuesday, August 20, 2019 - 14:40" class="datetime">Tue, 08/20/2019 - 14:40</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/elitch-gardens" data-a2a-title="Elitch Gardens"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Felitch-gardens&amp;title=Elitch%20Gardens"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Elitch Gardens is an amusement park in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> that opened in 1890 as a zoological garden and amusement park with a renowned summer stock theater. <strong>John Elitch</strong> and his wife, <strong>Mary</strong>, founded Elitch Gardens on land that was formerly Chilcott Farm in northwest Denver. When Elitch Gardens opened, it became the first zoo west of Chicago.</p> <h2>Early Years</h2> <p>Elitch Gardens boasted captive bears and other exotic animals, as well as a summer stock theater that entertained crowds of up to 6,000 on its busiest days. Elitch Gardens is also credited with pioneering the concept of amusement park rides designed specifically for children operated in a section of the park known as “KiddieLand.”</p> <p>Following John Elitch’s death in 1891, Mary Elitch sold her controlling shares of the Elitch Garden stock to investors who founded the Elitch Gardens Amusement Company. The conglomerate retained control of Elitch Gardens until the widow Elitch married the head of the company, Thomas Long, in 1902 to become Mary Elitch Long.</p> <p>In addition to its zoological gardens and amusement park rides, Elitch Gardens became famous for the Elitch Gardens Theatre, a summer stock theater where actors such as Douglas Fairbanks and <strong>Helen Bonfils</strong> made their debuts. For more than sixty years, the Elitch Gardens Theatre employed actors and stagehands, paying cast members as much as $500 weekly.</p> <p>During a brief decline in the Elitch Theatre’s profitability, park owner John Mulvihill erected the Trocadero Ballroom, a partially enclosed outdoor dance floor that hosted weekly formal dances. Elitch Gardens was known for its strict prohibitions on alcohol consumption, and dancers who failed to maintain proper form and attire were promptly ejected from the Trocadero. Famous performers such as Benny Goodman provided live music that was broadcast to thirty surrounding states on the KOA radio program “An Evening at the Troc.”</p> <h2>Relocation</h2> <p>Facing steep competition from a burgeoning Denver theater scene, Elitch Gardens management announced their intentions to sell the northwest Denver parkland in 1986. Six alternative park sites were investigated, including land in rural <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/douglas-county"><strong>Douglas</strong></a> and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/arapaho-county"><strong>Arapahoe</strong></a> Counties, but ultimately they selected the former site of the National Radium Institute Factory, near downtown Denver.</p> <p>The downtown Denver location was a designated <strong>superfund site</strong>, and 100,000 tons of radioactive soil had to be removed before the amusement park would be allowed to relocate. Fifteen original Elitch Gardens amusement rides were relocated to the new site. The former Elitch Gardens Theatre and the carousel pavilion have been restored and are listed on the National Register of Historic places.</p> <h2>Today</h2> <p>When Elitch Gardens reopened in 1994, it became the first and only theme park with boundaries inside a major metropolitan area. In 1998 Six Flags Theme Parks acquired Elitch Gardens, operating it until 2007 when the company sold it to CNL Properties. In 2015 Revesco Properties, with partners Second City Real Estate and <strong>Kroenke Sports Entertainment</strong>, acquired Elitch Gardens for $140 million. Despite multiple changes of ownership at its downtown Denver location, Elitch Gardens continues to operate as a popular seasonal destination.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/west-evan" hreflang="und">West, Evan</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/elitch-gardens" hreflang="en">Elitch Gardens</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/john-elitch" hreflang="en">john elitch</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/mary-elitch" hreflang="en">mary elitch</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/helen-bonfils" hreflang="en">Helen Bonfils</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/kroenke-sports-entertainment" hreflang="en">kroenke sports entertainment</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Theodore A. Borillo, <em>Denver’s Historic Elitch Theatre: A Nostalgic Journey (A History of Its Times) </em>(Self-published, 2012).</p> <p><em>Colorado Exchange Journal</em> 2, no. 39 (October 1889).</p> <p>Jackie Campbell, “Elitch Theatre Lives—For Now,” <em>Rocky Mountain News</em>, May 1, 1986.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Caroline Lawrence Dier, <em>The Lady of the Gardens: Mary Elitch Long </em>(Hollywood, CA: Hollycrofters, 1932).</p> <p>John Eby, <em>Elitch Gardens Historical Museum: 104 Years in the Making, 1890–1994.</em></p> <p>“Elitch Gardens Redevelopment / Interdisciplinary Design Studio 700.” Denver, University of Colorado Denver College of Design and Planning, 1986.</p> <p>“Elitch Theatre,” National Register of Historic Places nomination form, February 6, 1978.</p> <p>Steve Fisher, “<a href="https://www.du.edu/magazine">Elitch’s Trocadero Ballroom Was a Place Where Memories Were Made</a>,” <em>University of Denver Magazine</em>, March 20, 2014.</p> <p>Jeffery Stanton, “<a href="http://lostamusementparks.napha.org/articles/colorado/elitchgardens.html">Elitch Gardens (1890–1994)</a>,” <em>National Amusement Park Historical Association</em>, October 3, 2011.</p> <p>Historic Elitch Theatre Foundation, “<a href="https://historicelitchtheatre.org">Theatre Future</a>,” 2014.</p> <p>Edwin Lewis Levy, “Elitch’s Gardens, Denver Colorado: A History of the Oldest Summer Theatre in the United States (1890–1941),” PhD dissertation, Columbia University, 1960.</p> <p>Rosemary Elaine Lewis,<em> The Elitch Gardens Theatre, 1891–2008: America’s High Plains Summer Playhouse</em>, master’s thesis, University of Colorado–Denver, 2009.</p> <p>Mary Elizabeth Hauck Elitch Long, <em>Experiences of the Only Woman in the World Who Owns and Manages a Zoo </em>(Denver: 1898).</p> <p>Pamela Nowak, “<a href="https://pamelanowak.com/wp/?p=360">The Trocadero Ballroom</a>,” (blog post) May 22, 2015.</p> <p>Jeff Otte, “Radium and Roller Coasters: A Brief, Dirty History of Elitch Gardens,” <em>Westword </em>(Denver, CO), June 6, 2013.</p> <p>Burl Rolett, “<a href="https://businessden.com/2015/06/11/buyers-pay-140m-for-ticket-to-elitch-gardens/">Buyers Pay $140M for Ticket to Elitch Gardens</a>,” <em>BusinessDen</em>, June 11, 2015.</p> <p>Tierra Smith, “Elitch Gardens Stays Open Regardless of Fierce Denver Weather,” <em>The Denver Post, </em>June 12, 2015.</p> <p>Eva Hodges Watt, <em>Papa’s Girl: The Fascinating World of Helen Bonfils</em> (Lake City, CO: Western Reflections, 2007).</p> <p>“Whitfield Connor, Theatrical Producer and Ex-Actor, 71,” <em>New York Times</em>, July 19, 1988.</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p><a href="https://elitchgardens.com/">Elitch Gardens</a></p> <p><a href="https://elitchgardens.com/plan-a-visit/park-history/">Elitch Gardens Timeline</a></p> <p><a href="https://historicelitchtheatre.org/">Elitch Gardens Theatre Foundation</a></p> <p>Betty Lynn Hull, <em>Denver’s Elitch Gardens: Spinning a Century of Dreams </em>(Boulder: Johnson Books, 2003).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Tue, 20 Aug 2019 20:40:36 +0000 yongli 3068 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Holy Ghost Catholic Church http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/holy-ghost-catholic-church <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Holy Ghost Catholic Church</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--1992--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--1992.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/holy-ghost-catholic-church"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/1999_Broadway_in_Denver_Colorado_0.jpg?itok=O_DzKuCY" width="1000" height="1333" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/holy-ghost-catholic-church" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Holy Ghost Catholic Church</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Designed by Jules J. B. Benedict in 1923, the Renaissance-style Holy Ghost Catholic Church was completed in 1943 thanks to a donation from Helen Bonfils.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2016-10-28T10:51:05-06:00" title="Friday, October 28, 2016 - 10:51" class="datetime">Fri, 10/28/2016 - 10:51</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/holy-ghost-catholic-church" data-a2a-title="Holy Ghost Catholic Church"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fholy-ghost-catholic-church&amp;title=Holy%20Ghost%20Catholic%20Church"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Located at 1900 California Street in <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a>, Holy Ghost Catholic Church is known for its long tradition of ministering to downtown Denver’s poor and homeless, as well as for its Renaissance-style church building designed in 1923 by <strong>Jules Jacques Benois Benedict</strong>. For nearly twenty years, however, the church existed only as a basement, until in 1943 the building was completed when <strong>Helen Bonfils</strong> funded the construction as a memorial to her parents. In the 1980s the <strong>Archdiocese of Denver</strong> sold the land adjacent to the church to the developers of the skyscraper at 1999 Broadway and used part of the proceeds to build the <strong>Samaritan House</strong> shelter a few blocks north of the church.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Parish Origins and First Church</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Holy Ghost parish traces its origins to Denver’s first Catholic church, which was established in October 1860 by <strong>Joseph Machebeuf</strong> and John B. Raverdy within what is now the Holy Ghost parish. As the Denver Catholic community grew and developed, that original church became St. Mary’s Cathedral. In 1900 the site of the cathedral was sold as preparations were being made for the construction of the new <strong>Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception</strong>. During the decade before the new cathedral was completed in 1911, services were held in the basement of the Immaculate Conception school and in a building at Eighteenth and Champa Streets.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1905 the cathedral parish was divided, with the downtown portion becoming independent. Frederick Bender was called out of retirement in California to be the new parish’s first pastor. He bought two lots at 1950 Curtis Street and paid for the construction of the first Holy Ghost Church using his own money. The cornerstone for the building was laid on May 7, 1905, and the church was completed later that summer. That building, which had a capacity of about 450 people, served as the parish church for nearly twenty years.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Partial New Building</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In 1911 Bender retired and Garrett J. Burke took over the parish. He remodeled the church, and he also started the parish’s long tradition of ministering to downtown Denver’s needy population. He started the Catholic Workingman’s Club to help feed, clothe, house, and find employment for hundreds of men and women.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By the late 1910s and early 1920s, when William S. Neenan led the parish, Sunday Masses were attracting crowds of more than 1,000 people, far more than the Curtis Street church could hold. In 1922–23, Neenan paid $70,000 for a new church site at Nineteenth and California Streets. Prominent Denver architect Jules Jacques Benois Benedict was hired to design the building.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Completed in December 1923, Benedict’s plan called for a blend of Spanish and Italian Renaissance architecture that would provide the “directness and simplicity” that he believed were desirable in a downtown church. The large church would occupy the entire site and seat 1,200 people. Ground was broken on February 29, 1924, and the cornerstone was laid on October 5 of that year, but funding did not allow for the full building to be completed. Instead, only the basement was built and a temporary tar roof was erected over it. On December 14, 1924, the church was dedicated in its partially finished state, with about one-third of Benedict’s design completed.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the 1930s, John Raymond Mulroy led Holy Ghost parish as well as Catholic Charities, whose Denver branch had started in 1919. He brought energy and urgency to Catholic Charities, making it into a strong organization that continued the kind of ministry to the needy that Garrett Burke had started with the Catholic Workingman’s Club. He started to celebrate funeral Masses for the poor and unclaimed dead, with the parish making caskets for them. He also expanded Holy Ghost, which was still a basement church, by converting a garage on the property into a parish hall and acquiring an adjacent building to serve as a library and rectory.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Bonfils Funds Church Completion</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Mulroy’s tireless work on behalf of downtown Denver’s needy population made him a favorite of <strong><em>Denver Post</em></strong> publisher and philanthropist Helen Bonfils, who often attended services at Holy Ghost. In October 1940, Bonfils announced that she would fund the completion of Holy Ghost Church as a memorial to her parents.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Construction started on May 17, 1941, with architect <strong>John K. Monroe</strong>, one of Jules Benedict’s former assistants, supervising the work. The exterior featured blond bricks, cream trim, and a green tile roof. Inside, the church used about 300 tons of Colorado marble for its walls, piers, and columns, making it the largest installation of colocreme travertine marble in the country. The completed church was dedicated on July 8, 1943, in a ceremony attended by a crowd of 1,500 people.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Samaritan Shelter</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In the 1970s and 1980s, Holy Ghost’s long tradition of serving the poor and homeless in downtown Denver continued under the leadership of John Anderson and Charles Bert Woodrich. In 1974 Anderson started Holy Ghost’s sandwich line, and in 1975 he set up the church’s health clinic.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Woodrich took over as pastor in 1978. In early 1982, when Denver was hit by a blizzard and a streak of cold weather, he decided to leave the church’s doors open to allow the homeless to sleep in the pews. Soon hundreds of people were spending the night in the church, with Woodrich continuing to welcome them until spring arrived a few months later. After this experience, the Archdiocese of Denver opened the Samaritan Shelter at Central Catholic High School in 1983.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>At the same time, the Archdiocese was negotiating to sell the land and air rights adjacent to Holy Ghost Church to the developers of the 1999 Broadway office building. The Archdiocese completed the sale for about $8.5 million and used $2.4 million of that money to buy the block bounded by Larimer and Lawrence Streets between Park Avenue West and Twenty-Fourth Street, where it planned to build a dedicated homeless shelter. In summer 1985 ground was broken for the Samaritan House, which opened in November 1986.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Today</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Today Holy Ghost Church is framed by the soaring 1999 Broadway building, which was completed in 1985. The skyscraper’s modern glass façade offers a stark contrast to the Renaissance church at its base, but its curved shape also makes it look as if the taller building is cradling or sheltering the smaller church. The glass used in the skyscraper was chosen specifically to match and reflect the church’s roof.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Holy Ghost continues to offer daily Masses in English as well as a Latin Mass every Sunday, and it also serves as Denver’s Eucharistic shrine, with daily exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/jules-jacques-benois-benedict" hreflang="en">Jules Jacques Benois Benedict</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/helen-bonfils" hreflang="en">Helen Bonfils</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/catholicism" hreflang="en">Catholicism</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/churches" hreflang="en">churches</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/john-k-monroe" hreflang="en">John K. Monroe</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/1999-broadway" hreflang="en">1999 Broadway</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/samaritan-house" hreflang="en">Samaritan House</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p><a href="https://holyghostchurch.org/about.html">“History of Holy Ghost Church,”</a> Holy Ghost Catholic Church.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Thomas J. Noel, <em>Colorado Catholicism and the Archdiocese of Denver, 1857–1989</em> (Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1989).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Father John Walsh, <em>The History of Holy Ghost Church, Denver, Colorado</em> (Denver: Holy Ghost Church, 1975).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Fri, 28 Oct 2016 16:51:05 +0000 yongli 1990 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Bonfils Memorial Theatre http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/bonfils-memorial-theatre <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Bonfils Memorial Theatre</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2016-10-07T16:34:33-06:00" title="Friday, October 7, 2016 - 16:34" class="datetime">Fri, 10/07/2016 - 16:34</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/bonfils-memorial-theatre" data-a2a-title="Bonfils Memorial Theatre"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fbonfils-memorial-theatre&amp;title=Bonfils%20Memorial%20Theatre"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>The Bonfils Memorial Theatre on East Colfax Avenue was built by <strong>Helen Bonfils</strong> for the <strong>Denver Civic Theatre</strong> in 1953. As the first theater for live performances built in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> in forty years, the cream-colored building staged more than 400 productions before it closed in 1986. It sat mostly unoccupied for two decades before the St. Charles Town Company converted it into a new home for the <strong>Tattered Cover Book Store</strong> in 2006.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>A New Home for the Civic Theatre</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Established in 1929, the University Civic Theatre was an amateur theater company that drew support from wealthy local arts patrons such as <strong>Margery Reed</strong>, Florence Martin, and Helen Bonfils, the publisher of the <strong><em>Denver Post</em></strong>. Originally based out of Margery Reed Hall on the <strong>University of Denver </strong>(DU) campus, the Civic Theatre functioned in its early years as an intimate club with only a few hundred members.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the 1940s Civic Theatre membership rapidly expanded into the thousands, making a new home necessary. Plans for a new building were first drawn up during World War II. In 1942 Helen Bonfils gave a building at 1425 Cleveland Place to DU as the site for the Civic Theatre’s new home. Wartime restrictions made it illegal to build or remodel theaters, however, so in the meantime the university remodeled the building for other uses.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>After the war, Bonfils and the Civic Theatre allowed DU to keep 1425 Cleveland Place and started to search for a new site. By 1948 they had found one at East Colfax Avenue and Elizabeth Street, across from the <strong><a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/city-park">City Park</a> Esplanade</strong> and <strong>East High School</strong>. Soon a ten-room house at the site was moved to a different location, and construction on the new theater began.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Bonfils Memorial Theatre</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>At first the Civic Theatre hoped to have its new home ready in time for the 1950–51 season, but building restrictions during the Korean War delayed the project for several years. The new theater finally opened on October 14, 1953, with a production of <em>Green Grow the Lilacs</em> for 500 guests to kick off the Civic Theatre’s twenty-fifth season. At the same time, the Civic Theatre changed its name from University Civic Theatre to Denver Civic Theatre to mark its move away from the university campus.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent Helen Bonfils a telegram of congratulations on opening night. She had bankrolled the $1.25 million building using funds from her father’s <strong>Frederick G. Bonfils</strong> Foundation, which he established to support educational and cultural organizations. She named the building the Bonfils Memorial Theatre, in memory of her parents, and rented it to the Civic Theatre for one dollar a year.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The building’s architect was <strong>John K. Monroe</strong>, whom Helen Bonfils knew from his work for the <strong>Archdiocese of Denver</strong>, particularly the Bonfils-funded <a href="/article/holy-ghost-catholic-church"><strong>Holy Ghost Catholic Church </strong></a>downtown. For the Civic Theatre, Monroe designed a one-story Art Moderne building with a tall, rectangular stage fly loft structure at the rear. Encased in cream-colored brick and buff-colored terra cotta trim, the building’s exterior was characterized by a clean, almost classical look that was balanced by the curve of the aluminum entrance canopy on Elizabeth Street.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The audience entered the theater under the Elizabeth Street canopy and passed through a travertine lobby with a Prussian blue rug, wood-paneled walls, pumpkin-colored plaster, and tall windows facing Colfax. The west side of the lobby had a shrine to London’s Abbey Theater. A grand staircase led down from the main lobby to the lower lobby, which had a bar and restrooms.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The theater itself sat 550 people and featured gray walls, red carpet, and a Prussian blue curtain that came down behind its proscenium arch. It was the best-equipped amateur theater in the country, complete with nine dressing rooms and an electronic lighting switchboard that was a smaller version of the system used in New York City’s Metropolitan Opera House. Monroe designed it to be used for a variety of productions, including plays, operas, movies, concerts, and lectures. It could also be used as a television studio, making it perhaps the oldest building in Denver designed with television production in mind.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The main artistic force behind the Civic Theatre during its years in the Bonfils Memorial Theatre was <strong>Henry Lowenstein</strong>. Initially hired in 1956 as a stage designer, he later became a producer and influenced a generation of Denver actors, stagehands, and theatergoers.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Changes</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>When Helen Bonfils died in 1972, the theater became part of the <strong>Bonfils Foundation</strong>. <em>Denver Post</em> chairman and publisher <strong>Donald Seawell</strong> controlled the foundation, and in 1974 he pushed for the creation of the <strong>Denver Center for the Performing Arts</strong> (DCPA), a massive complex of theaters and concert halls on Fourteenth Street downtown (now known as the Denver Performing Arts Complex). The Bonfils Memorial Theatre came under the umbrella of the DCPA governing board, which started the professional Denver Center Theatre Company at its downtown complex and kept the Bonfils building as a community theater.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>With the rise of professional theater at the DCPA, interest in community theater at the Bonfils building waned. In 1984 the DCPA governing board, concerned about the Bonfils Theatre’s operating deficit, decided to close the main stage. Cabaret and children’s theater performances continued for a few more years, but without the main stage it had even less hope of balancing its operating budget. In 1986 the theater was renamed in honor of longtime producer Lowenstein, but six months later the DCPA board voted unanimously to close it for good. Lowenstein and the Denver Civic Theatre moved to a former silent movie theater on Santa Fe Drive.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Rebirth as Tattered Cover</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>After the Bonfils Theatre closed, it sat mostly unused for nearly twenty years. Local residents wanted to save the building, but it proved impossible to find a tenant. The building was occasionally used for filming and other short-term projects. When the 1950s television show <em>Perry Mason</em> was revived in the 1980s, for example, it briefly filmed at the theater and other Denver locations.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In May 2005, Charles Woolley of the St. Charles Town Company bought the theater and adjacent parking lot from the Bonfils Foundation for $1.9 million. He got it listed on the National Register of Historic Places the next year. Meanwhile, with the help of preservationists from the Colorado Historical Society (now <strong>History Colorado</strong>) and the National Park Service and financing from the <strong>Denver Urban Renewal Authority</strong>, the company embarked on a $14 million project to preserve the theater as part of a redevelopment that would include a bookstore, record store, and art cinema in one large complex called the Lowenstein Cultureplex.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In 2006 the St. Charles Town Company started to convert the theater into a new home for Denver’s Tattered Cover Book Store. The exterior was cleaned, repaired, and slightly reconfigured for retail use. The interior saw more significant changes—it was, after all, being converted from a theater to a book store—but many historic details and finishes were retained. It is still possible to see the building’s theatre heritage in the book store’s recessed reading area at the foot of the former stage. Offices, dressing rooms, and rehearsal space on the east and west sides of the theater were converted into a restaurant and a coffee shop, respectively. Historic Denver awarded the St. Charles Town Company a Community Preservation Award for its work on the theater.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>On the site of the former parking lot just west of the theater, the company built a new structure that housed the Twist and Shout music store, Neighborhood Flix Cinema and Café, and a 230-space parking garage. Neighborhood Flix closed in 2008 but reopened two years later as the Sie FilmCenter, home of the <strong>Denver Film Society</strong>.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/helen-bonfils" hreflang="en">Helen Bonfils</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/tattered-cover-book-store" hreflang="en">Tattered Cover Book Store</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-civic-theatre" hreflang="en">Denver Civic Theatre</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/denver-center-performing-arts" hreflang="en">Denver Center for the Performing Arts</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/john-k-monroe" hreflang="en">John K. Monroe</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/henry-lowenstein" hreflang="en">Henry Lowenstein</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/donald-seawell" hreflang="en">Donald Seawell</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/bonfils-foundation" hreflang="en">Bonfils Foundation</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>“<a href="https://renewdenver.org/projects/lowenstein-theatre/">Lowenstein Theater</a>,” Denver Urban Renewal Authority.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>John Moore, <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2009/06/26/a-history-of-the-bonfils-theatre/">“A History of the Bonfils Theatre,”</a> <em>The Denver Post</em>, March 20, 2005.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Elizabeth J. K. Morris, “A History of the Denver Civic Theatre, 1929–1968” (master’s thesis, University of Colorado–Boulder, 1968).</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Presenting the Bonfils Memorial Theatre on the Occasion of the Dedication, October, Nineteen-Hundred Fifty-Three</em> (Denver: Bonfils Memorial Theatre, 1953).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Rodd L. Wheaton, Michael Paglia, and Diane Wray, “Bonfils Memorial Theater,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (March 10, 1995).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Eva Hodges Watt, <em>Papa’s Girl: The Fascinating World of Helen Bonfils</em> (Lake City, CO: Western Reflections, 2007).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Fri, 07 Oct 2016 22:34:33 +0000 yongli 1933 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org