Loew's American Theatre
260-62 W. 42nd Street,
New York,
NY
10036
260-62 W. 42nd Street,
New York,
NY
10036
2 people
favorited this theater
Built for theatrical manager T. Henry French on 8th Avenue between 41st and 42nd Streets in 1892-3 by architect Charles Coolidge Haight, the American Theatre at the time featured one of the largest seating capacities in New York, with almost 2,070 seats, not including the rooftop garden theatre.
Though its 42nd Street entrance was rather small and simple, the main entrance and facade on 41st Street was just the opposite, towering and highly ornate. It resembled a Neo-Italian Renaissance palazzo, with red brickwork with white terra-cotta trim, including three sets of two-story high windows above the triple doorways of the main entrance, and a row of arched and terra-cotta lined windows just below the cornice.
Its auditorium, however, was fairly plain, a Victorian music hall with minimal decoration, and, unfortunately, six columns supporting each balcony, which obstructed the views of many theatre-goers, much to their frustration.
The American Theatre opened in May of 1893 with a long-running hit, however, “The Prodigal Daughter”, produced by French himself, but after this show’s run, a run of flops followed, and in 1897, the theater was sold to another manager, and then another, and so on, until 1908, when William Morris changed the theater’s name to the American Music Hall, and began staging vaudeville acts. That same year, Morris hired Thomas W. Lamb to convert the open-air rooftop theater into an indoor second auditorium, seating another 1400. Lamb decorated the new auditorium in semi-atmospheric style, with twinkling “stars” on the blue ceiling, and forest scenes decorating the side walls. However, despite its charming decor, the new auditorium never caught on with the public, and the American languished for a couple years, until Morris sold it to Marcus Loew in 1912, and it was renamed Loew’s American.
After Loew’s took over, both auditoriums were switched over to vaudeville, stage revues and movies. Loew’s closed the American in 1929, and shortly thereafter it was announced the former theater would be torn down and replaced with a large office tower. However, due to the Depression, this plan never came to fruition, and instead, the theater was reopened for burlesque acts for another year. In 1930, a disastrous fire destroyed a large portion of the American, but the 8th Avenue side of the building, which mostly held offices, was converted into bachelor apartments, but within a couple years, this section was also demolished, and the site used for circuses for many years.
However, for the past half century, the site has been used as a parking lot.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 17 comments)
While I had read about this theater before (mostly in the Mary Henderson book, “The City and the Theater”), I had never really placed it on a “mental map” of the area. But recently I came across some interesting info about it (and some fascinating photos too!) in William Morrison’s “Broadway Theatres, History and Architecture,” and the theater has become a lot more “real” and interesting.
Apparently the theater had a somewhat unusual layout. It seems as though the main body of the theater — including the main facade and main entrance — was along 41st St. This was very unusual, as most theaters had their main entrance and most decorated facade on 42nd St., even if the main body of the theater was on either 41st or 43rd St. (The other exception to this “rule” may be the grand and beautiful 43rd St. facade of the Lyric Theatre.)
It also appears that the American had a third entrance (another tunnel entrance?) on Eighth Ave. This is also unusual. Although there appear to be many theaters that at one time had two entrances on two different streets, I can’t really recall reading about a theater that had three entrance on three different streets!
In the Morrison book, there’s a remarkable photo of the 42nd St. tunnel entrance to the American Theatre. At the time of the photo, neither the Lew Fields Theatre (later the Anco) nor the bank on the corner of 42nd and Eighth Ave. had been built yet. So on either side of the tunnel entrance are brownstones that still appear to be used as residences! In this photo, the 42nd St. tunnel entrance to the American Theatre actually looks like a large townhouse or small apartment house.
The book also includes a picture of a rendering of the much more imposing 41st St. facade of this theater. This facade looks like a mini-version of the Roxy that was built 20 or so years later. (When the American Theatre was built, it was the fifth largest theater in Manhattan.)
In the chapter on the Lew Fields Theatre (which eventually became the Anco) there is another wonderful shot of the 42nd St. tunnel entrance to the American Theatre. I wrote a description of that photo on the Anco page of Cinema Treasures.
By the way, the Morrison book is one of those inexpensive Dover paperbacks. (Brand new copies of the book were $12.71 each at the Strand Bookstore on Bdwy and 12th St. a month or two ago.) It also has many other wonderful photos of old Broadway theaters. Although the primary focus is on Broadway “legit” theaters, many of the theaters in the book also showed movies at one time or another and are thus listed on the Cinema Treasures website.
One Amazon reviewer said the book contained a good number of factual errors, which may be true since I believe I was able to detect a few myself. (But to be fair to the author, I don’t know how the number of errors in his book compares with the the number found in other books — all these books seem to have at least some errors. And the pictures alone are well worth the price, in my opinion.)
This would appear to be the forerunner of the Elgin & Winter Garden Theatres in Toronto, Canada.
“A” forerunner rather than “the.” There were numerous “piggy-back” theatres prior to the Elgin/Winter Garden in Toronto.
According to an article in the June 20th, 2006 edition of the NY Post, this vacant parcel of land on the now-very-desirable eastern block-front of 8th Ave between 42nd and 41st Streets has been sold and will likely be developed into a residential/commercial mixed use tower. The current owners (Howard and Edward Milstein) bought out other family members to gain full control of the lot in early 2001 for $77.7 million. The property was valued at the time at approximately $111 million. A company out of Parsippany, NJ, named SJP Properties has purchased the lot for an undisclosed amount, though speculation is that the deal could top the 2001 price tag by three to five times. According to Empire State Development Corp Chairman Charles Gargano, any development deal would be subject to per diem penalties if construction did not begin within 12 months of closing. The following link only gives one a summary of the article, as the Post apparently charges a fee for the full text:
Post Article Summary
The old American Theatre is listed in the 1897-98 edition of Julius Cahn’s Official Theatrical Guide, an annual reference for roadshow managers. The seating capacity is: Orchestra: 671, Balcony: 593, Gallery: 800, Total: 2,064 seats. Ticket prices ranged from 25 cents to $1.50. The proscenium opening was 38 feet wide x 39 feet high. The stage was 58 feet deep. The theatre was on the ground floor and had both electric and gas illumination. There were 15 members of the house orchestra.
The office tower is being built on spec as there are no committed tenants as yet. Construction has commenced and, when completed, the tower will have 1,000,000 square feet and is expected to cost about one billion dollars. The New York Times tower across the street on 8th Avenue btn 40th and 41st has leased extremely well at very high rates. It’s too bad that a legit theater has not been included as part of the development; especially considering the history of the site and the area. The new Bank of America tower on W. 43rd St. will include a new Broadway legit theater in its base. The new Henry Miller Theater is expected to open late in 2008.
A Moller theater organ opus 2574 size 3/16 was installed in the Loew’s American Theater in 1918.
At the time of this ad in September, 1912, the American Theatre Building was also home to the executive offices of Marcus Loew Enterprises, which eventually became a conglomerate called Loew’s, Incorporated. Some of the theatres listed in the ad were only booked by Marcus Loew, and not actually part of the Loew circuit:
View link
Marcus Loew had it going on.So did his buddy William Morris.
Too bad no photos.