Little Hippodrome Theater

Most sources credit the Bijou Dream as being Buffalo’s first moving picture theater, but there is some evidence that this theater may have opened weeks earlier. It did open around 1906, in an existing five-story building.

Called the Hippodrome in early years, it had one of the first Wurlitzer Theater Organs. In 1914, when Micheal Shea
opened his Hippodrome Theater up the street, this theater became the Little Hippodrome.

Originally opened by Rudolph Wagner, it
was run by the Bailey family in later years. It was damaged in 1960, by a fire in Keiths Theater, which was next door. When the Little Hippodrome closed two years later, the local newspaper
described it as “a haven where one could keep warm for a nominal fee”. It was torn down shortly after closure.

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