Al Ringling Theatre

The Al. Ringling was "America's Prettiest Playhouse" from the very beginning. The American Theatre Historical Society says it "pointed the way to the great palatial theatres of the following decade...One of the finest examples of palatial design applied to a motion picture theatre in this country. The envy of Broadway."

Such are some of the accolades showered onto the theatre, and Baraboo and Sauk County can be proud hosts of this beautiful structure. But how did it all begin? Why a theatre of this magnificence in a town the size of Baraboo?

From the start, Baraboo appears to have always had a theatre, beginning with Taylor Hall in the tiny village in the 1850s. By 1880 there was demand for an Opera House, resulting in a structure seating 1,000. It was described then as a "commodious" place. Fire destroyed it in 1905, and the city soon offered $4,000, a fabulous sum in those days, as an inducement to a builder, but the offer went unaccepted. Several small theatres did exist during the time, the first moving picture being shown on November 12, 1897.