Proctor's Palace
53 S. Broadway,
Yonkers,
NY
10701
53 S. Broadway,
Yonkers,
NY
10701
1 person
favorited this theater
The theatre first opened on January 16, 1916, primarily as a vaudeville house, with short movies shown only as a prologue to the live programs. Architect W.E. Lehman used a blend of French, Italian and Flemish styles for the auditorium, which was situated behind a six-story office building that contained the theatre’s entrance and lobby.
Movies gradually took over at Proctor’s Palace, which became part of the RKO circuit in 1929. At that time, “Palace” was dropped from the name and the theatre became known as RKO Proctor’s, though in the circuit’s newspaper advertising it was listed as the Yonkers to denote its location. Of four RKO theatres in Westchester County, all but the White Plains were built by F.F. Proctor.
RKO Proctor’s Yonkers closed around 1975 or 1976, and was later converted into office and retail space.
Contributed by
Warren G. Harris
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Recent comments (view all 11 comments)
CORRECTION: This theater did not close in 1973. Closed around 1975 or 1976. I saw “Snuff” in this wonderful theater that supposedly still has it’s stage intact per comments from city officials who are exploring reopening it as a playhouse. This theater ran some big first runs into the early 1970’s like “The Exorcist” and “The Godfather” etc. On the north side of the building, “RKO Proctors” is still painted in white and visible to this day.
To promote his new film “The Ladies Man,” Jerry Lewis appeared on stage at this theater on July 12, 1961.
I saw Robert Mitchum and Shirley MacLaine onstage at the Proctor’s to promote “Two for the Seesaw.” Also saw “House of Wax” in 3-D and “House on Haunted Hill” where a skeleton slid down a wire from the balcony to the stage toward the end of the movie.
A Wurlitzer theater organ opus 1467 style H NP was installed in Proctor’s Theater on 10/5/1926.
On Friday January 26, 1962, the Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly-Joe DeRita) embarked on a three day promotional tour for their latest feature film, THE THREE STOOGES MEET HERCULES. They were accompanied by “The Herculean Giant” (almost 8 foot tall Dave Ballard) and popular DJ Clay Cole, who was one of the stars of the co-feature, TWIST AROUND THE CLOCK.
On Saturday January 27, they appeared at the RKO Yonkers at 3:10 PM.
Scenes for “Sweet Daddy” starring Tweedy (a/k/a Marcel Perez), a comedy short made at the Mittenthal studios in Yonkers, were shot in the theater in May 1921 at a big event honoring the Shiller Bros. “Sweet Daddy” survives in 35mm at the Library of Congress. I’ve seen the film a couple times; the footage of the interior of the theater show a packed house and views of the theatre and state.