Star Theater in East Harlem.

This is The Star Theater on Lexington Avenue between 107th and 108th streets. At almost 2300 seats, it was one of William Fox's earliest ventures.  Developed by a Mr. Henry Jackson, the theater was leased to Fox in 1908.  Built as a vaudeville / movie house the Star Theatre was in competition with the big deluxe houses on 86th street, notably Proctor's 86th.

This is obviously during the 1930's. The Star has been reduced to a second run house by this point. Even Lexington Avenue has streetcars (note the tracks). There was a car barn for these trolleys than covered the entire block of 99th to 100th streets from Lexington to Park Avenue.
The theater used existing structures (it appears to be a small commercial building on the corner and a brownstone next to that) as the space for the outer lobby. This set up was not uncommon. The land on the avenue was more expensive than the side street.  On 42nd Street, for example, very often an existing brownstone was used (or the plot of land that the house stood on was used) as the lobby structure. The land on 42nd Street was a good deal more expensive than land on 41rst Street or 43rd Street. Long thin lobbies on 42nd lead to big beautiful theaters built on the cheaper land.  The auditorium was built on the site of a skating rink - or at least that's what is on a map of the area from the late 19th century.
The map also shows a road which no longer existed when the map was published in 1897, the Eastern Post Road, which ran north - south at the western end of the auditorium.

The Washington Theatre on Amsterdam Avenue and 149th Street.

This is the Washington Theater on Amsterdam Avenue between 149th and 150th streets. With a seating capacity of 1432, the Washington opened in August of 1910. It is considered to be the oldest surviving theater designed by, you guessed it, Thomas Lamb. The Washington still stands today as the New Covenant Temple and is, according to rumors, intact.

View from the stage.  Look at all those footlights.

View towards the stage, the house left boxes and the mural on the sound board above the proscenium. It appears that the fire curtain has been lowered.

This is looking at the house left boxes. Thomas Lamb was a genius and always used cantilevered balconies in his theaters. I do not recall one of his houses that had support columns under the balcony ruining the view. The boxes on orchestra level are separated from the orchestra section with a small partition. A real delineation between the box seats and the rest of the world. I know that Lamb's Capitol Theater (the largest theater in the world for a few years) and the Hamilton had boxes very similar to these. I know that I mentioned this before but Mr. lamb was never a licensed architect. Surprising for a guy who was a building inspector for the City of New York.

This is the theater now. In mid May of 2011 the church that owns the theater put it up for sale. There are no Landmark Restrictions and they are asking only 11.5 million dollars. If the rumors that it is intact are true, it should be saved.

More Harlem, more theaters.

This is 143rd Street and Lenox Avenue. The Douglas Theater had, depending on which of my sources is correct, either 600 or 2200 seats (which in 1935 expanded to 2300 which could indicate that an orchestra pit was covered over to add more seating but that is a great many seats to cover over an orchestra pit with). I am going with the source that lists the larger capacity because the smaller capacity source lists the theater as active only until 1922. The picture playing when this photo was taken is a Fox picture, directed by the great Raoul Walsh, from 1927. Around the corner, like the sign says, is the entrance to the Cotton Club.
In a space once used as a club by the legendary African American boxer Jack Johnson, The Cotton Club opened in 1923 after gangster bootlegger hoodlum Owney Madden muscled his way in and forced Johnson's Club DeLuxe out. Although the club launched the careers of too numerous to mention here African American entertainers, the Cotton Club originally had a "Whites Only" policy. Duke Ellington was the club's orchestra leader from 1927 to 1931, replacing the great Fletcher Henderson (if it weren't for him, Benny Goodman would never have become the "King of Swing"). During Ellington's tenure, the racist policy was relaxed. After Ellington left, Cab Calloway took over as the orchestra leader.
Eventually the club moved south, to 47th street in a building just north of Duffy Square (were the TKTS booth is located). The Cotton Club closed in 1940 and then Lou Walters Latin Quarter moved in. The building was torn down in 1989 for a hotel.

I know that this is a stretch and really this is Washington Heights but I am including it here because it is another theater lost and a loss to African American history. It was William Fox's Audubon Theatre of 1912. It was designed by the one and only Thomas Lamb. Named in honor of the naturalist James Audubon, this 2368 seat theater boasted a mural over the proscenium of George Washington leading the battle of Washington Heights. By the end of World War II the name of the theater and the language of the pictures changed. The San Juan had a Spanish Language film policy until it stopped showing movies some time in the late 1960's. It was ultimately torn down by Columbia University when they were expanding their medical facility. The facade was saved and restored and used in the new structure.

The Audubon Theatre had a ballroom in the building. The entrance was on the side. Even though the theater changed it's name, the ballroom remained the Audubon Ballroom and was forever etched in history in 1965 when Malcolm X was assassinated here while giving a speech.

Yet another lost theater on 125th Street

Harlem really starting developing in the late 19th century, as information about were the new subway was to be routed was leaked to those in the development arena. A great deal of Harlem, especially west of the New York Central tracks, was built nice. Like I have said the area close to 125th street, had a large number of theaters. There were theaters that are long gone in east Harlem, theaters that have survived as churches and theaters that are just sealed up. 125th Street was the magnet for all things entertainment. Oscar Hammerstein invested in this uptown theater district. His Harlem Opera House, discussed in earlier posts, opened in 1899 as a legit house, ultimately succumbing to vaudeville, movies and eventually the wrecking ball.
This is the Orient Theater. Located on 125th street just west of Lenox Avenue, it was in operation as early as 1915. It had a seating capacity of only 585. Usually, and I stress usually, a theater with a seating capacity of that size was not built with a stage. However, since my information on this theater is sketchy, it could have been built for legit then went over to motion picture exhibition. By the late 19th century and into the early 20th century you do not find many legit houses that size. There are exceptions and this not a hard and fast rule. There certainly were smaller legit and vaudeville houses and there were theaters with very large seating capacities that were built with out stages.
The picture playing at the Orient is Exclusive Story, starring The Group Theater's very own Franchot Tone. It is an MGM picture released in 1936. Loew's owned MGM but perhaps not this theater. It could have been a second run independent house.

New York Tours By Gary: Loew's Victoria on West 125th Street. A treasure w...

New York Tours By Gary: Loew's Victoria on West 125th Street. A treasure w...: 125th street was lined with theaters. Most of these houses where built for live entertainment. This is the Loews Victoria, built for va...

Loew's Victoria on West 125th Street. A treasure waiting for renewal.

125th street was lined with theaters. Most of these houses where built for live entertainment. This is the Loews Victoria, built for vaudeville and moving pictures. This theater opened in 1917 and it was designed by Thomas Lamb.
West 125th was not only the major commercial strip of the area it was also the border between white and black Harlem. The theaters along 125th catered to a white audience. In the early 20th century one never saw a person of color going into the Alhambra or the Harlem Opera House. 125th street was euphemistically referred to as "The Great White Way", "white" being the operative word. After some time, African Americans were admitted to the balconies. Very Jim Crow southern (not to mention reprehensible and out of step with the very nature of New York) in practice.
Eventually the neighborhood changed. The early 20th century saw some massive construction projects. The original 1904 subway line was being built and that sparked development were there had been not much before.  A large number of speculatively built brownstones and apartment buildings went up all over the Upper West Side and Harlem. In addition to the subway, the late great Pennsylvania Station was under way. The loss of a middle class African American neighborhood that had been displaced by the construction of the old Pennsylvania Station and the blocks close to the subway lines that would open along Lenox Avenue being extensively developed helped turn the tides and shifted the population. Landlords could not fill the apartments or sell off the brownstones.  A forward thinking African American real estate broker convinced the landlords of these big beautiful buildings, buildings that they could not fill as Harlem became over-built to a degree, to rent to African Americans. The landlords needed tenants, the displaced and newly arrived African Americans needed to be tenants.

This is the house left wall. These images were probably taken in the early 1990's. The theater was a single screen for most of it's life. In 1972 the house underwent a renovation and began to show first run films. In December of 1972 "Across 110th Street' starring Anthony Quinn and Yaphet Kotto opened at the Victoria. Other similar pictures followed. In 1977 the Death of Loews Victoria was reported in The Amsterdam News. Loews could no longer operate the Victoria profitably and put it up for sale. After a multi-million dollar plan to restore the Victoria fell apart in 1988, it was not until 1992 that the Victoria was used again.
Retired New York City police detective, and owner of the landmarked James Bailey house on Saint Nicholas Place, Warren Blake took over and after another "face lift" reopened the Victoria as The Harlem 5. Mr. Blake, sensitive to the historical and irreplaceable aspects of this theater, had partitions put in to create 5 auditoriums that would leave no scars and could be easily removed.

Detail of the house right mural. The white sections are areas where there is water damage.

The house right boxes. The Victoria was built with, in addition to vaudeville, motion pictures in mind so the boxes were designed to not interfere with the image on the screen. When wide screen pictures became the norm, the stage was wide enough to accommodate a wider screen. The situation was the same at Loew's 83rd, the boxes remained until the theater was turned into a "quad" ; then they were in the way and had to go.

The projection booth. Unlike the Hamilton, the booth in the Victoria was part of the original plan and does not stick out like sore thumb/projection booth. The Victoria was built 4 years later and during that time, people accepted motion pictures as an inevitability.

This is the dome over the auditorium of the Loew's Victoria. It is missing it's chandelier but it could have been removed much before this picture was taken. In 1972, a benefit performance was held at he newly refurbished Victoria for the Dance Theater of Harlem. In a New York Times article about this star studded celeb-filled, sold out event called "They Came To Harlem in Ermine And Pearls And Jeans" there is a reference to the chandelier lowered slightly to give the theater a more intimate feeling. The Victoria remained in the hands of Loew's until 1977.

This is a very recent photo of the inner lobby (the same space as the picture below. The marble floor is being preserved with a covering of carpet. Warren Blake was the man who did the last renovation on this space and he was sensitive to historic preservation. In the ceiling, on the left and right sides of the center dome, there are decorative panels, probably stain glass panels covering the recessed lighting fixtures that appear ever so faintly in the previous picture but are missing here. I am hoping that Mr. Blake removed them, along with the auditorium chandelier and put them somewhere safe. I vividly remember round stain glass panels used extensively in Thomas Lamb's Loew's 83rd, particularly under the balcony overhang in the orchestra section, casting a subtle amber glow during the Movie.
In the picture is New York State Assembly Member Keith Wright. There has been much talk over the past few years about what to do with the Victoria. There was an attempt to include the Victoria in the renovation of the Apollo. There have been rumblings of a high rise hotel going up on the site that would include, depending on which version one hears and believes, different things. In one scheme, the entire auditorium would be saved and the space turned over to one of a cornucopia of non-profit arts group in return for tax breaks and zoning rules waved. In another plan, part of the theater would be saved and used as part of the lobby of the new hotel (this would also include saving the facade). The last and worst idea is just to save the facade and incorporate it into the new structure.

 This is the lobby earlier than the above picture.

The outer lobby with it's chandelier still there but not working. Harlem has seen a great deal of redevelopment over the past few years. However nice it is to have a Marshall's, Staples, an H & M and an Old Navy very close by, one must evaluate the cost. The price Harlem has paid is the loss of some historically important buildings, a loss to not only theater history but African American history as well. Always remember that "we will not be judged by what we have built, but by what we have destroyed".

 I found this picture while looking for more interior photos of the Victoria. The caption of this undated photo stated that this was at the Victoria, a Jitterbug performance. Given the eagle and flags in the background I would guess World War Two era.

More 125th Street and Weber & Fields West End Theater

Weber & Fields were very much part of the vaudeville and variety show world for decades. Both men were born in New York in 1867, both men were Jewish performers who removed (or tried to anyway) any trace of ethnicity from their names (Moses Schoenfeld became Lew Fields and Joseph Morris Weber dropped the Morris), teamed up and became one of the most successful acts of the 19th century. After many years of touring in circuses, variety shows and vaudeville, the duo the duo settled back in New York. Lew Fields had a theater named for him by Oscar Hammerstein (it was to be his final Times Square project) in 1904. Fields did open the theater with a successful production of Victor Herbert's It Happened In Nordland but the theater was a flop. Badly designed, cramped and full of building code violations, the theater changed hands too many times to mention. It was here, however, when the theater was owned by Harry Frazee, that Lynn Fontanne played her first starring role in 1921. Harry Frazee was not only a producer and theatrical agent but he owned the Boston Red Sox and traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920. He claimed, then later denied, he did this to finance the Broadway production My Lady Friends which was the play upon which No No Nanette was based.  The trade by Frazee of Babe Ruth to the Yankees gave birth to The Curse of the Bambino which prevented a World Series win by the Red Sox for 86 years.

This is the West End Theatre. It was at the western end of the Harlem's Broadway, 125th street. It was built by a man named Meyer R. Bimberg, who was known popularly as “Bim the Button Man” for supplying customized buttons and banners to political candidates. The West End opened on November 3, 1902, in what was then a largely German Jewish and Irish Neighborhood. It was the built on the northern border of "white Harlem" and along the principle commercial street in the area and one of the world's most important entertainment meccas ever created. Within months of opening, Bimberg was been arrested for embezzlement and the theater was sold to the vaudeville team of Weber and Fields.
Never a hugely profitable venue, the West End was a high end vaudeville and subway circuit house. A large number of theaters in Harlem were on the subway circuit. In the early 20th century, before sound movies, way before TV, live theatrical presentations were the thing. To satisfy an ever increasing demand for new shows and to further and to satisfy the entertainment needs of the rest of the country, a Broadway show would play it's 300 performances then would move out to a neighborhood house (the previously mentioned Riviera on 97th street and Broadway for example) then would go out on the road. The Shuberts were among the big time Broadway producers who had lease deals with various theaters around New York City. According to the Shubert Archives, the West End was leased by United States Amusement Company, a Shubert-Erlanger vaudeville venture in 1907-08. From 1908 to 1912 it was booked as a part of the Shubert's "subway circuit" by the Sam S. Shubert Booking Agency.
Early headliners at the West End included the Four Cohans (which included George M.), the great African-American vaudeville team of Bert Williams (who W.C. Fields called "the funniest man I ever saw and the saddest man I ever knew") and George Walker and, in her final New York appearance in November of 1903, Adelina Patti, the Italian soprano.

This the West End Theatre today, however it is now known as the LaGree Baptist Church. I have peeked in through the doors on several occasions and the interior seems to be in good shape. As with too much of Harlem, a building such as this is not landmarked.
The West End stopped showing pictures in 1975. In the years prior to that, it was home to an African American repertory company (in the 1920's), in 1937 underwent a renovation and reopened with vaudeville and movies.
There was a Weber & Fields Theater in Times Square. It stood on 44th street between Broadway and 8th Avenue.  It did not last long as Weber & Fields. The Shuberts bought it and renamed the 44th Street Theater in 1913. The Marx Brothers performed Animal Crackers here in 1928 while shooting their first picture Coconuts during the day out at what is now Kaufman Astoria.