October 18, 2024
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Apollo Theater lights up Princeton with new look

By Kim Shute

The beloved Apollo Theater is now shining brighter than ever with its new neon lights. The marquee was showcased during Princeton's Down on Main Street Concert Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021. Everyone's attention was diverted to the marquee during the event as it was lit up for all to see. This caught everyone by surprise and some became overwhelmed with emotion seeing the fully lit marquee for the first time in their lives. (BCR Photo/Mike Vaughn)

PRINCETON — The neon lights of the Apollo Theater are once again lighting up Main Street,

The marquee of the historic theater was a big selling point of the Apollo Theater for owners Jay and Lara Schneider; it was one of the main selling points when they took over the business in 2009.

At that time, Jay said only one strip of neon was in working condition and though he had plans to fix it, other projects always took precedence.

“We had the top row of lights fixed in 2009 or 2010,” Jay said, “And I got a quote to fix the entire set of lights for about $10,000. Every time I saved the money to do it, something else would break in the theater and I’d have to put it off. This happened two or three times over the years and then COVID happened and wiped out the extra savings we had.”

Jay said in 2020, just after Christmas, Princeton Mayor Joel Quiram called him to check in, asking how things were going.

“I told him we were doing OK, but the marquee had again been put on hold. He told me he thought the city may have some funds available for improvements, and the Chamber of Commerce may also have some funds available.”

The city and Chamber offered the Schneiders combined $5,000 in capital and as luck would have it, he was able to get a quote from a different vendor that came in at $6,000 to complete the marquee project.

“I had hoped to have it completed to coincide with one of the street concerts,” Jay said. “As it turns out, it was completed Homestead Thursday, which couldn’t have worked out better.”