Broadway Theatre
1681 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
1681 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
5 people
favorited this theater
The Broadway Theatre began life as the Colony Theatre, opening December 25, 1924, with “The Thief of Baghdad” starring Douglas Fairbanks and accompanied by an orchestra conducted by Edwin Franko Goldman. B.S. Moss built the theater for movies, and with stage facilities for vaudeville. Architect Eugene DeRosa designed the Colony Theatre. Because of its size, stage presentations were smaller than at the Paramount Theatre(1926) and Roxy Theatre(1927), but continued until December 1930. In that month, Moss changed the Colony Theatre’s name to Broadway Theatre and turned the theater ‘legitimate’. The first booking was a musical comedy, “The New Yorkers” starring Jimmy Durante and with a score by Cole Porter, but it only ran for twenty weeks.
Walt Disney’s “Fantasia” opened in New York on November 13, 1940, at the Broadway Theatre and played as a roadshow for over a year, with a special sound system, ‘Fantasound’. The world premiere of Walt Disney’s “Dumbo” was held at the Broadway Theatre on October 23, 1941.
The Broadway Theatre is best known by movie historians as the first place Cinerama and its inaugural film “This Is Cinerama” played anywhere in the world. After its September 30, 1952 World Premiere at the Broadway Theatre, “This Is Cinerama” ran for 35 weeks and was then transferred to the Warner Theatre, where it was shown for another 88 weeks. The Broadway Theatre returned as a ‘legit’ showcase.
The Shubert Organisation restored the Broadway Theatre in 1985-86, employing the architectural firm of Fox & Fowle. Little of the interior existed when they started. The Broadway Theatre reopened April 10, 1986 with Bob Fosse’s “Big Deal” which was a flop, but the following year struck gold with “Les Miserables”, followed by “Miss Saigon”. Several years ago, the Broadway Theatre received a new entrance and marquee, due to construction of an adjacent skyscraper hotel that cantelevers over it. Tucked away from the razzle dazzle of Times Square, the Broadway Theatre’s deco sign hints at its glory days.
Contributed by
William Gabel, Cinema Treasures
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Recent comments (view all 76 comments)
Tonight (10/23) will mark the 69th anniversary of the gala world premiere of Walt Disney’s “Dumbo” at the Broadway Theatre. Public performances started the next day at 9:30 am, with prices starting at 35 cents until 1pm. Children’s tickets were 25 cents at all times. The Broadway Theatre had previously enjoyed a long run with Disney’s “Fantasia” as a reserved-seat roadshow. For “Dumbo,” mezzaine seats could be reserved at a slight additional charge. Both films were distributed by RKO Radio.
This photograph of the B.S. Moss Broadway Theatre was taken in 1931 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto and Mann.
Sixty-four years ago tonight, Charles Chaplin’s “Monsieur Verdoux” opened its world premiere engagement at the Broadway Theatre. The opening night performance was by invitation only, with continuous performances at “popular prices” starting the next day. Tickets could also be purchased in advance for the Broadway’s 250-seat mezzanine section for $1.80 during the day and $2.50 at night. The B&W United Artists release was a radical departure for Chaplin, who discarded his traditional baggypants character to portray a contemporary Bluebeard who marries and murders for money. Critics and public were generally hostile to the “black comedy,” which became Chaplin’s first financial failure.
Back on Feb 19, 2010, Ret. AKC(NAC) Bob Jensen answered a question regarding Cinerama presentation that I had posed 4 years earlier. I would now like to take this opportunity, more than a year AFTER that response, to say “Many thanks, Sir!”
And re-register for notifications on this page, while I’m at it.
The page for the Broadway Theatre in Roland Lataille’s database of Cinerama theaters has a picture of the ground floor booths for Cinerama at the Broadway. Considering that the center booth shows only a single projection port, my guess would be that the high booth was used for the prologue. See http://cinerama.topcities.com/ctbroadway.htm
Great photos on that site! Thanks for sharing, CWalczak! I love the surreptitious shots of the screen during the film… Really gives an idea as to how overwhelming the image must have been, particularly to those who had until that time been used to standard Academy ratio for so long!
In addition to the renovations mentioned in the opening the Broadway “suffered” a major modification when Candide played there. Basically it was converted to an arena with a large portion of the orchestra seating replaced by the stage.
I’ve found some websites that say that “Steamboat Willie” premiered at the Broadway Theatre in 1928 when it was the Colony and other websites that say it premiered at the 79th Street Theatre which later was renamed the Colony. I am curious to know which is correct.
“Steamboat Willie” opened at this Colony. The 79th Street was not named Colony until 1937.
Note the CINE ROMA verticle sign at the far near corner of the marquee. This name and concept moved around between the Ambassador, Piccadilly and Broadway in the late thirties.