Broadway Theatre
1445 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10018
1445 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10018
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Here’s a two-page trade ad from 1925 featuring the Broadway Theatre. After it was demolished, B.S. Moss moved the name to his Colony Theatre, which is still operating as a playhouse called the Broadway: archive
There’s an old picture of the Broadway here: http://www.josephhaworth.com/broadway_theatre.htm
20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (1916)
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An Austin theater organ opus 872 size 3/16 was installed in the Broadway Theater in 1919. Note: $9,350; Less $2,350 credit for old organ.
B.S. Moss took over the Broadway Theatre in April, 1919. After closing it for a week of redecoration and refurbishment, Moss re-opened the Broadway as a motion picture theatre on May 2, 1919, with the NYC premiere engagement of “The Unpardonable Sin,” starring Blanche Sweet, according to a review in The New York Times of 5/3/19. Background music for the feature and supporting short films was provided by the Broadway’s symphony orchestra, under the direction of S.W. Lawton.
…Many decades later, I had the privilege of meeting Blanche Sweet, who by that time was 87 and lived in a tiny apartment in NYC’s Murray Hill district. She was surprisingly petite, and slightly hunchbacked from age, but she had the vitality and sense of humor of a young person. She also had a remarkable memory, and kept me mesmerized for three hours during an interview for my biography of stage star Marilyn Miller, who had been a close personal friend.
The old Broadway Theatre is listed in the 1897-98 edition of Julius Cahn’s Official Theatrical Guide. The seating capacity is given as: Orchestra: 626, Balcony: 436, Gallery: 538, Total: 1,600 seats, plus boxes. The proscenium opening was 36 feet wide x 36 feet high. The stage was 48 feet deep. The theatre was on the ground floor and had both electric and gas illumination. The house orchestra had 24 members.
In 1908 it was acquired by B.S. Moss it was a film and vaudeville house until it was razed in 1929.
This theater was a “House of Hits” for the first 20 years or so of its existence – the site of many popular musical shows. It was a leading B'way theater during that period. When it became a vaude-filmer, it did not have the same cachet, because of newer and better theatres opening to the north. An interesting point about it is that its right exterior sidewall was very very similar to the left sidewall of the Tremont/ Astor Theatre in downtown Boston, also designed by McElfatrick, which opened in 1889 and which was demolished in 1983.