The State Theatre first opened in November, 1927, and was the flagship of the Chakeres Amusement Company. “He wasn’t educated, but he was shrewd.â€He talked often of Bob Hope â€" one of his vaudeville success stories.“He loved to talk about Bob Hope,†Snyder said. She was Sun’s secretary in the 1940s.If there needs to be further justification for the painting of a 6,000-square-foot mural on the back of a downtown building of some guy juggling, try this â€" in 1947, it was reported that Warner Bros. was thinking about making a movie based on the life of that guy.Sun later said that he wanted Bob Hope to play him in the movie, which would’ve been appropriate â€" as the ruler of a vast vaudeville empire centered in Springfield, Sun gave Hope his first break.Only the movie never happened, presumably because it would’ve been a casting nightmare.Sun also helped the Marx Brothers, the Ritz Brothers, W.C. Fields, Al Jolson, Will Rogers, George Burns, Bert Lahr (the Cowardly Lion in “The Wizard of Ozâ€) and Edgar Bergen (and his puppet, Charlie McCarthy) on their way to fame.But the biggest, most logical, question remains â€" who would’ve played his secretary?After all, it only seems fair to include the woman who took his dictation, got him tickets every year to the Kentucky Derby, hired bandleader Glen Gray to play his 50th wedding anniversary and addressed all 500 of his Christmas cards.“I’d love to see that address list now,†said Ginny Snyder, who worked as Sun’s secretary for close to a decade. “If I looked at the list, it’d all come back to me.â€At age 84, Snyder is one of the last links (quite possibly the last) to the Gus Sun Booking Agency, the now-defunct theatrical institution that chose Springfield as its home in 1906.Increasingly, the mural-in-progress on the back of the vacant Regent Theatre â€" home to Sun’s agency from 1920 onward â€" is just another piece of public art dedicated to someone nobody actually knew.“He loved to talk about the old days,†recalled Snyder, who went to work for Sun in 1942. “I’d give the world to have the stuff he dictated to me.â€At the time, it was the twilight of Sun’s dynasty.“When I went up there, the vaudeville days were over,†Snyder said. Please adjust the view until the theater is clearly visible.
Mike Hoyts Description. “He’d get started … â€A Toledo native, he told of opening Springfield’s first movie theater in 1904, and how, in order to convey to people that it was a family-friendly endeavor, he parked a baby buggy outside.“He was shrewd,†said Snyder, who still uses shorthand to this day. Cinema Treasures, LLC “We had the Sensational Kays.â€â€œShe wore pantaloons,†Snyder said, “so nobody could tell she was pregnant.â€There were flying acts, dog acts, juggling acts and more.“One of the most elaborate acts was Will Hill’s Elephants,†Snyder said.“Then there were the Zacchinis,†she said. Cool mural on the rear wall. “They were the people who got shot out of a cannon.â€The agency might’ve just been a shell of its former self, but Sun was still at the helm, although most of the daily work had been overseen since 1930 by general manager Bob Shaw, a former vaudevillian himself.“When I went up there, at 19, (Sun) was getting ready to celebrate his 75th birthday,†Snyder said. Discover and share movie times for movies now playing and coming soon to local theaters in Springfield.