Shea's Teck

The address for the Shea's Teck was 766 Main St., Buffalo, NY.

This was also known as the Loew's Teck. It played both 3 strip and 70 mm Cinerama. 3 strip was played from 3/16/56 thru 2/17/58 and then from 3/16/62 thru 7/28/63. It played the 70mm Cinerama from 3/25/64 thru 9/9/64. The curved screen measured 78ft by 28ft.

The Teck theater died a slow death. The auditorium was one of the buildings demolished when the city seized the property to extend Pearl St to meet Main. That left the lobby, entrance and marquee standing, ending suddenly at a brick wall and with no useful purpose. Even access to the lower level was sealed up with concrete. With the closing of Main St to vehicle traffic, downtown redevelopment came to a halt and no offers came forth for reuse of the remaining property. Eventually the last few buildings at the end of the block, including what was left of the theater were demolished in the late 80's-early 90's. I believe it's still a vacant lot.

Interior photo of Loew's Teck:
http://cinerama.topcities.com/ctbuffalo.htm

The original building opened in 1883 as the Music Hall, a concert venue which burn't down in 1885. It was re-built became first the Teck Theatre, then taken over by the Shubert's in 1908. They operated it as a live theatre until 1933 when it was shuttered.

It remained closed until 1945 when it was gutted internally and most of the front facade was removed and rebuilt and it re-opened as a movie theatre known as Shea's Teck Theatre from 1945. The seating was all on one level and the decorative scheme was described as 'Pompeian Moderne'.

In 1950 it became Loew's Teck and in 1952 Stanley Warner took control and it was converted into a Cinerama theatre from 1956. It reverted to the name Loews Teck for its final years.

I have added an exterior photo of the Teck to my Buffalo Theater gallery at:
http://www.pbase.com/kjosker/image/53099585

There is nothing left now but the emmpty lot it stood on.

Ken: I have the "New Teck" opening on Feb.7,1946 with 1,500 seats. The architect was B.Frank Kelly and the Interior Designer as Theodore P. Vandercoy. My records also show that the Old Teck was gutted Apr.3,1942.

I saw This is Cinerama at the Teck when I was eleven years old. The rollercoaster ride obviously caused a lot of excitement in the theatre, but so did the scent of flowers during the Cypress Gardens sequence. This is something that I never experiened in a cinema again until I saw Scent of Mystery in Smell-O-Vision at the Cinestage in Chicago.

Here is another photo of the Teck before it was demolished.

Interesting site. There are 30 Buffalo theaters, all told.

And one by one I'm going to add all of those not already listed here. :)

JON LIDOTT, the smell of flowers in the Cypress Gardens sequence, how interesting, I never heard of that before, but Michael Todd was connected with CINERAMA and SMELL-O-VISION so it sorta makes scents.
The program for the Buffalo Premire of This Is CINERAMA reads simply TECK THEATRE Wed. Mar 16, 1955, 8:30 p.m.
I found another address of 760 Main Sreeet.
The 3-strip dates listed above are a little mixed up it should be:
From 03/16/55 to 02/17/58 and in 1958 the equipment was returned to Oyster Bay, New York (CINERAMA's Headquarters) and then to Melbourne.
I don't know where the equipment came from, but 3-strip CINERAMA was on again from 08/22/62 to 07/28/63, A strike action caused a six month closure in 1963.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, This is CINERAMA!" Lowell Thomas

Located 760 Main Street, phone number 1960: MOhawk 4628

I am desperately trying to locate a photo of the Teck when it was thriving. I have been unable to locate any and I would think, especially since it was Buffalo's site for Cinerama, that there would be many. Can anyone help? Thanks.

Here try this.

http://cinerama.topcities.com/ctbuffalo.htm

Thanks so much, I have seen this site, but there isn't an exterior photo.

http://www.americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c32%2c3%2c430&catpageindex=8&ProductID=30715

There is a picture of the Teck at the above website taken in 1981.

As I recall, this theater was converted to 3 strip by actually adding the left & right projection booths outside the physical theater building and knocking port windows through the walls! To gain entry to these booth from the center projection room, open air catwalks were hung on the sides of the building from this room - which must have been an absolute joy to the poor projectionists during the Buffalo winters.

Can anyone else add to this?