Let’s look at a little history. First, there is no evidence I know of that Duke Ellington ever played at the Lyric Theatre. Nor, to my knowledge, is there any evidence that Ray Charles played there, either. Most of what is told as true about the Lyric comes from a neighborhood oral history project conducted by a UK professor, and the results are exactly what you get from oral history: Some truth, some fiction, and a lot of generalities that have crystalized as truth, but which are questionable. For example, the oral history says that Bessie Smith played at the Lyric. Bessie Smith was killed in an automobile crash in the ’30s, and the Lyric wasn’t opened until 1948.

The fact is that from 1948 until the early ’60s, the Lyric was a movie theatre. In the early ’60s, they had a few live acts, including Count Basie, the only big act, to my knowledge, whose presence at the Lyric is actually documented.

Everybody forgets that the urban county government sought to tear down the Lyric in the early ’80s, and that it was saved by the efforts of the religious foundation that had purchased the theatre for $20,000 in back taxes (at a time when the theatre wasn’t even worth that much to the city). Everybody forgets that the city’s first plan to take the property was dominated by supporters of Ron Berry, and that the investigation that ultimately took down Berry began with an affidavit filed in the Lyric Theatre case. Of course, there is never any mention of including anyone associated with the former owners in the new incarnation of the theatre; perhaps they remind the city too much of the real history of the theatre and its interactions with it.

Well, the city won the right to condemn the theatre, and now owns it. We’ll see what they do with it.