An “emergency loan” from the Community Chest and Council in 1956 provided the Carver Center with enough space to build the combined 1200 seat gymnasium-auditorium where Pryor emceed a set of talent shows.<\/p>\n
The Center’s expansion was justified by the “extremely high” population density in the area around it, where blacks in Peoria were concentrated, and by the lack of nearby recreational facilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An “emergency loan” from the Community Chest and Council in 1956 provided the Carver Center with enough space to build the combined 1200 seat gymnasium-auditorium where Pryor emceed a set of talent shows. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,206,196,364,377,8,50,24,25,1],"tags":[421,47],"class_list":["post-1674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1953-1962","category-childrens-theater-in-the-era","category-mecca-for-the-black-community","category-onstage-at-the-carver-center","category-4-carver-center-booms-in-the-era-of-reform","category-carver-center","category-juliette-whittaker","category-segregation-desegregation","category-making-of-a-comic","category-uncategorized","tag-carver-center","tag-theater"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n