RKO Proctor's Twenty-Third Street Theatre
139 West 23rd Street,
New York,
NY
10011
139 West 23rd Street,
New York,
NY
10011
2 people
favorited this theater
Its opening delayed by the discovery during excavation of flowing springs with water of such “remarkable purity” (according to The New York Times) that it would be used both to fill the rooftop water tanks and for drinking purposes, Proctor and Turner’s Twenty-Third Street Theatre presented the stage production “A County Fair” on March 6, 1889.
Frederick Francis Proctor’s intention, upon entering the New York City market, was to present legitimate theatre at prevailing Broadway prices. For this venture, his theatre design included electric lighting throughout (with gas fixtures installed in case of equipment failure), a gray-blue ceiling supported by walls of reddish gold, rails and a proscenium arch of gilded gold, and draperies of stamped velvet. Within a few short years, Proctor was exclusively presenting vaudeville at this 1,500-seat venue and the later additions to his NYC empire.
By 1896, this theatre was presenting projected moving pictures via Edison’s Vitascope. It continued to feature motion pictures, as part of a vaudeville program in the first decades of the 20th century, until March 7, 1937, when the damage caused by a fire forced its closure.
The following year, the RKO circuit, which had acquired Proctor’s holdings a decade earlier, opened the RKO 23rd Street Theatre, listed elsewhere on this site.
Contributed by
Damien Farley
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Recent comments (view all 18 comments)
Bijou Dream must have been a storefront nickleodeon somewhere in the vicinity. In 1908, Keith & Proctor’s 23rd Street was one of the top vaudeville theatres in New York City. I can’t imagine it suddenly becoming a movie house called the Bijou Dream.
According to the NYT it did just that while the 14th Street location still ran Vaudeville. The article specific states “Keith & Proctors Twenty Third Street”.
Please see my post above of 9/1/06. Apparently it was called Bijou Dream from 1908 until 1911, when the name reverted to Proctor’s 23rd Street.
“Bijou Dream” seems to have been more of a concept than an actual re-naming of theatres. Its arrival at the 23rd Street Theatre turns up at the bottom of this January 1908 ad. “Bijou Dream” proved so popular that by summer, it had also been installed at Keith & Proctor’s Union Square, 58th Street, and Harlem Opera House. Programs changed three times per week, and included movies as well as “illustrated songs.” When “Bijou Dream” no longer proved a lure, the name was dropped, but movies continued to be shown, along with a resumption of vaudeville: View link
Here’s an interesting souvenir from this theater from 1891:
View link
For many years into the seventies and eighties, the brass letter “Proctors” remainded imbedded in the sidewalk delineating the width of the original entrance.
Listed in the 1941 Film daily Yearbook as the BARCLAY.
The Bijou Dream theatre mentioned in comments above, was located at 145 W. 23rd Street in in American Motion Picture Directory 1914-1915.
The address for this theatre covered from 139 to 145 so Bijou Dream should be added as an aka name.
An old picture of the theater as Proctor’s Twenty-third Street:
View link