The Fargo Theatre in Downtown Fargo, North Dakota
The most photographed spot in Fargo
The glittering Fargo Theatre marquee is the first thing you notice coming into downtown Fargo. With more than 900 twinkling bulbs, it is a beacon, a meeting spot, and the centerpiece of the Fargo-Moorhead community. It turns up on postcards, posters, and paintings, and by the Fargo Forum's account, it is the most photographed place in the city.
What you might not know is that those bulbs are supplied by us. We are a Fargo company, our team calls Fargo-Moorhead home, and keeping our hometown's beacon lit, inside and out, is a point of real pride.
From 1920 to now
The marquee you see today is not the original. The Fargo Theatre, an art-deco movie house, opened in 1926. During a full restoration in the late 1990s, a faithful replica of the marquee was built, and it lit up for the first time on New Year's Eve, 1998.
Keeping it glowing is a job unto itself. Adam Roder, the theatre's technical director, maintains all 900-plus bulbs, and it never really stops. "This is a frequent task," he told us. "We won't use LED, so there are some burning out almost every week."
And that is the interesting part. The Fargo Theatre chooses incandescent on purpose. Nothing pains us more than a burned-out bulb, so we keep the marquee stocked with the incandescent bulbs that give it that unmistakable, sparkling, old-Hollywood flicker, the ones still made and still available today. It is a privilege to help dazzle downtown night after night.
Inside the theatre
The magic continues indoors. The curving yellow "light fountains" and the neon blue and pink stripes carry you straight back to the 1920s. For the interior, we use antique-filament LED bulbs and LED PAR spotlights. And we are working toward the day we can offer a clear S14 LED that flickers and sparkles exactly like the incandescent on the marquee, so the look never has to change even as the technology does.
Thank you, Fargo Theatre, for being a bright spot downtown. Learn more about the theatre here.
See our specialty bulbs → · Ask a Lumen Master →
