RKO Jefferson Theatre

Here’s a very early photo of the Jefferson Theater:

View link

I’d love to have more information on the theater’s late vaudeville era in the 1940s and perhaps even in the early fifties if it was still happening.

Thanks.

This ad (bottom left) shows the Jefferson still open and showing porn in 1975.

Thanks to everyone who posted on the Jefferson Theater. I grew up in that neighborhood and was practically a weekly patron of that theater and others in that area. I attended many, many vaudeville shows on weekends that were performed after the movies were shown and I would sit right in front of the orchestra. It was absolutely stunning and unforgettable for a kid of 4â€"10 years. And all this for 25 cents! I saw fabulous acts that left indelible imprints in my mind and given me a profound love for live theater. The Academy of Music also had spectacular live shows which I attended.

I would like to know when the last vaudeville show

I came to this site because I’m contemplating producing vaudeville on a very small scale where I now live in Oregon and the authenticity I visualize comes primarily from my experiences at the Jefferson Theater. There are many talented people who, like in the old days, would like an opportunity to showcase their art. A live small orchestra/band with a minimum of piano, trombone, trumpet, drums and bass can pull it off.

Thanks again and keep the information flowing on this site that I’ve bookmarked.

Joe Solano

Al, the above link is to the Hollywood Twin, that you posted earlier.

I live right behind where the theater was and watched it getting ripped down. It was such a sad thing.

In Harpo Marx’s “Harpo Speaks” Marx mentions that he came up with his nonspeaking act while performing on 13th Street, because he had difficulty remembering his lines. It would make sense that he thought it up at the Jefferson.

I think the porn theater mentioned above was Variety Photoplays, which had an amazing old marquee that can also be seen in “Taxi Driver.”

Here is a recent photo of the East 14th street portion of the empty lot,where the Jefferson theatre once stood.

http://www.seanrichards.com/jeff2009.jpg

Here is the East 13th street side of the empty lot,where the Jefferson theatre once stood.

http://www.seanrichards.com/jeff2009back.JPG

Does anyone know if 214 E 14th St was a theatre before RKO opened there in 1913? An actress in my family listed that address as her home in 1908…

Here’s a photo of the Jefferson’s facade taken in the late 1990s, plus two cropped close views, all viewable in very large sizes, posted by Flickr user amg2000.

From the May 10, 1046 NYC edition of the (Communist) Daily Worker RKO Jefferson 14 St. & 3rd Ave.:

Bing Crosby, Ingrid Bergman
“Bells of St. Mary’s”

Question: photos of the facade of the Jefferson posted by Thomas in May 2005: would a theater as famous as B.F. Keith’s Vaudeville house really have been only as wide across as the facade in the photo suggests in its heyday? I will have to change my mental image (or at least the ones provided me by “the movies”) of what the approach to B.F. Keith’s might have been. Thank you.

…with the side of the Palladium looming in the background.

The Jefferson was probably the toughest house in Manhattan because it was adjacent to a very tough neighborhood, the Gashouse District. And its vaudeville attendance would have dwindled when thousands of people were evicted from their homes to make way for Stuyevsant Town beginning in 1945. The first resident in Stuy Town didn’t move in until 1947-1948.

Iremember the huge fish tanks that were in the lobby (circa early 60s) and that I saw a live spook show with “Zacherley”