Proctor's Theatre

The local college, RPI, has just purchased the theatre and has proposed to turn the office building portion of this complex into a boutique hotel. There has been no talk of auditorium restoration as of yet. I was last in the theatre, about 5 years ago, the place was not too bad. There was some major plaster damage, and the window in the back of the projection booth was smashed out allowing many, many pigeons to roost in the booth. The equipment is covered with pigeon droppings. The theatre features two balconies connected by a series of complex ramps, rather than stairs. On one of the landings I saw a vending machine that was still on, believe it or not, that dispensed soda. I decided to see if it worked. I dropped my quarter, the cup came down, no ice filled the cup, no syrup, and a few drops of water came down! There was also popcorn still in the popcorn warmer that was there since the theatre last closed in the 70's! It has since been cleaned out. In the manager's office, there were boxes and boxes of "FILM JORNAL INTERNATIONAL" magazines, some dumped on the floor. Most were from the 60's & 70's.

I have lived in troy my whole life but I have only been in proctors twice .The first time was in 1977 to see the remake of King Kong the second time was around 1989 ,about 12 years after the theater was shut down . At that time it didn"t look that bad . If anyone has any pictures of the inside of this building I would greatly like to see them .My EMail is Chauncey922@msn.com

I have also lived in troy my entire 34 years, and I also saw King Kong in Proctor's Theater. The one thing that stands out in my head is the red velvet seats, this is really all I can remember of the interior of the building besides the balconies which I believe were closed when I was there. I feel it is a crime to let this beautiful building crumble into disrepair. I am a union painter (I. U. P. A. T.) and worked on the Palace Theater Project in Albany which seems to have been a great success. I would be willing to even donate my time to help revitalize this beautiful piece of architecture. Our union has an Apprenticeship Program, and they offer their services to nonprofit organizations, possibly we could work out some kind of arrangement with all the construction trades and their apprenticeship programs and have much of the work done (labor) at no cost, I know this will probably be difficult to accomplish but my brother & I would be willing to work very hard to make this happen. Somebody has got to do something! Mr. Mayor (Tutunjian) if you really want Troy to be a better place then you really need to take this seriously, because over the course of my lifetime here many of the things which made Troy such a Great City! are gone, the only thing left are the people who make this city so great but why should they stay if there is nothing left but ruins! I just feel it is a great sin to let the last Movie Palace of Troy crumble!

Hey Critter, how can one reach you.

From the "Troy Evening Record", September 5, 1929:

"Troy feels a sense of personal loss in the death of Frederick F. Proctor. Mr. Proctor came into this city many years ago and built one of the finest vaudeville houses ever constructed in the United States. He maintained it with a type of vaudeville similar to that which he was offering to his patrons in New York and other large cities. He showed a personal interest in the affairs of the community and was a frequent visitor here.

"Therefore his death, at the ripe age of 78 years, is more than the death of a theatrical king. It comes very near being the death of a successful Trojan, a man with large sums of money invested here, a man who made life in Troy happier and more metropolitan. His career reads like a romance--the Maine farm boy who, through the avenue of the showman, finally became a magnate himself. His personality was attractive and he had many friends. But Trojans will think of him in a civic way as one of themselves who achieved a lasting fame and passes into the unknown full of years and honor."

The huge "PROCTOR'S" neon letters on the roof on the south side of the building are being 'removed' due to bricks falling off the building underneath it. The north side sign will remain, for now. Apparently the college (RPI) that bought the building a couple of years ago with plans of turning it into a 'boutique hotel' have abandoned that idea, and are looking to deed the property back to the City of Troy.

Here are photos of Proctor's Theater in Troy. Click each photo to enlarge.

I hope this theatre can somehow be saved and restored.

Here is a photo of Proctor's Theater.

Has anything happened with this theater? Was the office project approved?

Any of the old proctors theater gang from the late sixtys visit this site? It sure was a fun place to work. I think about the place now and then and would like to get inside to walk through and take a few pictures. I wonder what the projection booth looks like now. Lots of good old memory's.

I'm here John. This site is great. Man I really loved those pictures. Remember when we ran away from home, and stayed in the "STAR" rooms back stage? Spooky times. I wonder if that rickety old red ladder, that I use to change the marquee with is still in the ally under WTRY? We had great times there John. I hope some more of the gang gets on. Looking for some more of the oldies at Proctors.

Something is going on at Proctor's, on Wednesday I was driving around in Troy(lost).
Around the next corner I saw what appeared to be a once great marquee.
When I did get down I saw Proctor's Theatre in a rather poor state, it saddened me to see another Vaudeville house/movie palace in disrepair.
But only for a moment, until I saw a little pink sign that said:
City of Troy
Work Permit
dated sometime in 2007.
I hope it's for the better.

This is the place we would go when the Hollywood Drive-In in Averill Park was closed for the winter. The last thing I saw here was Disney's Love Bug. My grandmother and I enjoyed the movie so much that we sat through the dreadful Gnomemobile just so we could watch Love Bug again. In the 1990s you could rent the marquee; I believe it may have been on a weekly basis.

The photos taken by William Gill (posted by Lost Memory) are amazing in that I didn't think the theater would look as good as it does after sitting for 30 years. If there are any other pictures taken by Mr. Gill, by all means post a link to them!

I'd love to see it brought back to life as a first-run movie house, but think that maybe it would work better if the Proctor's Schenectady plan was followed. It would be nice to see road shows of Broadway plays within 5 minutes of home.

Well, I can't read while driving it seems.
The 2007 I saw was parts of the contractor's license number, not the date on the permit.
It seems all the windows on the upper floors have been replaced as well as the floodlights on the underside of the marquee.(code compliance?)
It look like workers just up and left one day, one worker even left their sweatshirt inside.
I took about 80 pictures of the architectural rejuvenation of Troy today.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v489/avkid/Proctors_Theatre/?action=view¤t=100_2066.jpg

It would be wonderful to see this theatre fixed and reopened. It would probably do well if there is parking nearby.

You forget, this is Troy ny, nothing ever seems to reopen and work in Troy ny.

Too bad, Projectionist 44. Maybe an enterprising group with vision will change this in the near future.

I just moved to troy and would be totally interested in getting involved.

The year given for this photo is 1983.

Went by this theater 2 weeks ago on a bike trip but I arrived at around 10pm. Still looked pretty nice. The rear was a narrow alley and there were 3 square murals of Charlie Chaplin, Elvis (I think) and Marilyn Monroe near the rear doors.

There is a proposal to turn the theater into retail and office space. Troy is giving up on it's history once again. They are going to use a government grant to destroy a building which is listed on the National Register of Historic Buildings.

http://blog.timesunion.com/business/state-backs-proctors-demolition-plan/15020/

Bad news for a VERY reusable theater!

RPI (the college that owns this building) just spent over 100 million dollars building a new sports venue but couldn't possibly find the money to save this piece of history.