Victoria Theater
313 W. Ferry Street,
Buffalo,
NY
14213
313 W. Ferry Street,
Buffalo,
NY
14213
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Originally a smaller theater located a block away, this theater opened in 1915, at a cost of $240,000. Had two Austin organs, and often featured an orchestra through the 1920s. Became part of the Basil Brothers chain in 1933, showing movies after they ran at Basil’s Lafayette in downtown Buffalo. A $50,000 remodel came with sound in about 1928. (Believed to be the first Buffalo community theater with sound).
Running weekends only at the end, it closed in 1961. There is supermarket on the site.
Contributed by
Alan lapp
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
Does anyone know what happened to those Austin Theater Organs? I don’t know for certain, but I think Opus 476 was a 2/14 installed in 1915 and cost $2,000. I think Opus 546 was a rebuild installed later. The one thing for sure is we don’t know what happened to them. Here’s a hint, they are bigger than a bread box, they might still be around??
“Gee Dad, they were Austins!”
There are two organs listed for a Victoria Theater in Buffalo. The first one is an Austin opus 476 size 2/7 installed in 1913. The second is an Austin opus 546 size 2/14. Note: $2,000; Rebuild opus 476. No status given.
This was a Basil Bros. theatre, phone number 1960: LIncoln 0411
I watched the demolition of this theater when I was a kid — went down every day in the summer to see it vanish. It appeared to have a huge water tank – akin to an underground filling station gas tank – on the very top rear of the building. When the wrecking ball hit the wall support that kept in up there, it literally thundered to the ground, bringing everyone from the surrounding buildings outside to see what carnage may have ensued. Luckily, a gigantic dust cloud was the only bad result.
Back in the 50’s, this theater ran the extremely controversial film “Blackboard Jungle” and was picketed by local PTA groups concerned about the “hoodlum” theme of the picture.
Have to make another comment after reading in the Rialto Theater section that this theater, which was less than a block away from the traditionally roudy Rialto, indeed did have ushers that seemed to be imported from Nazi Germany at the time — hence their booking of “Blackboard Jungle” with the assurances of crowd control to the public.
I have 1930s window card posters from the Victoria Theater available. email jerry@countrysideantiquesdotcom