Yes, during the State Fair, each year, I pump away at the little museum’s player pie-anah (my chosen paino roll is always “Nola,” being, as it is, “of the period”). I believe that this piano, and a nickelodeon there, were originally on loan from the long-gone Deansboro Music Museum (which housed all kinds of nickelodeons, music boxes, you name it).
I wish I could have talked with and known Jim Foley.
But all is not lost : since posting my first letter here, I have been inside another Thomas Lamb theater : Proctor’s in Schenectady, NY. Built in 1926, and beautifully restored and maintained, it’s a VERY close cousin to the Syracuse Keith’s, and, if anything, even more grand. Proctor’s is mostly used for live concerts, and nextdoor is a modern “IMAX”-type facility for current “flickers.”
Great photo – thanks !!! In 1933 I wasn’t born for another 26 years, but even I can sense the atmosphere of it…Sort of “We’ll beat this Depression ‘cuz AINT’T WE GOT GLITZ.”
Here in Syracuse, we still have the honor of a 1928 Thomas Lamb theater, the Landmark (i.e. Loew’s). It was one of 5 or 6 theaters that once made South Salina Street an Upstate Broadway. But just a few doors South of it was another Lamb theater – the B.F. Keith’s. It was as beautifully Neoclassic as Loew’s is posh Baroque/Near Eastern exotic. (I’m not a formally trained student of architecture, so no doubt I’m getting my stylistic categories wrong, but I’m sure you get my drift.) Anyhow, I remember the Syracuse Keith’s – God, she was a beauty. It’s “face” on the west side of South Salina Street was a huge, fan-shaped set of windows. Its interior was mostly white wood (?), and its acoustics were known to be fabulous. It opened on January 26, 1920 with vaudevile star Belle Baker as the main attraction. It remained till 1967, when, during the ugly, bone-headed days of Urban Renewal, it (she !) and two blocks' worth of lively, varied storefronts were demolished for a big 4-story department store which itself is now “sleeping with the fishes.” (I was 7 years old when it was taken down.) The Keith’s huge Wurlitzer organ was saved, though, and now resides in the Empire Theater on the State Fair Grounds), along with some other Keith’s artifacts. Although the Keith’s seated almost 2000, and there was talk even back then of the need for a new Civic Center to house the Syracuse Symphony, still, the Old Girl was demolshed anyway. So-o-o…less than a decade later, we had to build a new Civic Center which ended up with “OK” acoustics and nowhere near the beauty. It seems that restoration just wasn’t “interesting” enough to the leadership of the time. (On the other hand, laying in new concrete…You get the idea.)
Anyhow, are you (or anyone reading this) aware if the Syracuse Keith’s had any surviving “twins” or “sisters” or even “close cousins” elsewhere? If so I’d love to make a pilgrimage.
Here in Syracuse we still have the honor of a 1928 Thomas Lamb theater, the Landmark (i.e. Loew’s). It was one of 5 or 6 theaters that once made South Salina Street an Upstate Broadway. But just a few doors South of it was another Lamb theater – the B.F. Keith’s. It was as beautifully Neoclassic as Loew’s is posh Baroque/Near Eastern exotic. (I’m not a formally trained student of architecture, so no doubt I’m getting my stylistic categories wrong, but I’m sure you get my drift.) Anyhow, I remember the Syracuse Keith’s – God, she was a beauty. It’s “face” on the west side of South Salina Street was a huge, fan-shaped set of windows. Its interior was mostly white wood (?), and its acoustics were known to be fabulous. It opened on January 26, 1920 with vaudevile star Belle Baker as the main attraction. It remained till 1967, when, during the ugly, bone-headed days of Urban Renewal, it (she !) and two blocks' worth of lively, varied storefronts were demolished for a big 4-story department store which itself is now “sleeping with the fishes.” (I was 7 years old when it was taken down.) The Keith’s huge Wurlitzer organ was saved, though, and now resides in the Empire Theater on the State Fair Grounds), along with some other Keith’s artifacts. Although the Keith’s seated almost 2000, and there was talk even back then of the need for a new Civic Center to house the Syracuse Symphony, still, the Old Girl was demolshed anyway. So-o-o-…less than a decade later, we had to build a new Civic Center which ended up with “OK” acoustics and nowhere near the beauty. It seems that restoration just wasn’t “interesting” enough to the leadership of the time. (On the other hand, laying in new concrete…You get the idea.)
Anyhow, are you (or anyone reading this) aware if the Syracuse Keith’s had any surviving “twins” or “sisters” or even “close cousins” elsewhere? If so I’d love to make a pilgrimage.
Yes, during the State Fair, each year, I pump away at the little museum’s player pie-anah (my chosen paino roll is always “Nola,” being, as it is, “of the period”). I believe that this piano, and a nickelodeon there, were originally on loan from the long-gone Deansboro Music Museum (which housed all kinds of nickelodeons, music boxes, you name it).
I wish I could have talked with and known Jim Foley.
But all is not lost : since posting my first letter here, I have been inside another Thomas Lamb theater : Proctor’s in Schenectady, NY. Built in 1926, and beautifully restored and maintained, it’s a VERY close cousin to the Syracuse Keith’s, and, if anything, even more grand. Proctor’s is mostly used for live concerts, and nextdoor is a modern “IMAX”-type facility for current “flickers.”
Great photo – thanks !!! In 1933 I wasn’t born for another 26 years, but even I can sense the atmosphere of it…Sort of “We’ll beat this Depression ‘cuz AINT’T WE GOT GLITZ.”
Dear Tom,
What a pride you must have in your name !
Here in Syracuse, we still have the honor of a 1928 Thomas Lamb theater, the Landmark (i.e. Loew’s). It was one of 5 or 6 theaters that once made South Salina Street an Upstate Broadway. But just a few doors South of it was another Lamb theater – the B.F. Keith’s. It was as beautifully Neoclassic as Loew’s is posh Baroque/Near Eastern exotic. (I’m not a formally trained student of architecture, so no doubt I’m getting my stylistic categories wrong, but I’m sure you get my drift.) Anyhow, I remember the Syracuse Keith’s – God, she was a beauty. It’s “face” on the west side of South Salina Street was a huge, fan-shaped set of windows. Its interior was mostly white wood (?), and its acoustics were known to be fabulous. It opened on January 26, 1920 with vaudevile star Belle Baker as the main attraction. It remained till 1967, when, during the ugly, bone-headed days of Urban Renewal, it (she !) and two blocks' worth of lively, varied storefronts were demolished for a big 4-story department store which itself is now “sleeping with the fishes.” (I was 7 years old when it was taken down.) The Keith’s huge Wurlitzer organ was saved, though, and now resides in the Empire Theater on the State Fair Grounds), along with some other Keith’s artifacts. Although the Keith’s seated almost 2000, and there was talk even back then of the need for a new Civic Center to house the Syracuse Symphony, still, the Old Girl was demolshed anyway. So-o-o…less than a decade later, we had to build a new Civic Center which ended up with “OK” acoustics and nowhere near the beauty. It seems that restoration just wasn’t “interesting” enough to the leadership of the time. (On the other hand, laying in new concrete…You get the idea.)
Anyhow, are you (or anyone reading this) aware if the Syracuse Keith’s had any surviving “twins” or “sisters” or even “close cousins” elsewhere? If so I’d love to make a pilgrimage.
my web address : [e-mail]
Thanks,
Mark E. Farrington
A SHOUT OUT TO TOM LAMB :
Dear Tom,
Here in Syracuse we still have the honor of a 1928 Thomas Lamb theater, the Landmark (i.e. Loew’s). It was one of 5 or 6 theaters that once made South Salina Street an Upstate Broadway. But just a few doors South of it was another Lamb theater – the B.F. Keith’s. It was as beautifully Neoclassic as Loew’s is posh Baroque/Near Eastern exotic. (I’m not a formally trained student of architecture, so no doubt I’m getting my stylistic categories wrong, but I’m sure you get my drift.) Anyhow, I remember the Syracuse Keith’s – God, she was a beauty. It’s “face” on the west side of South Salina Street was a huge, fan-shaped set of windows. Its interior was mostly white wood (?), and its acoustics were known to be fabulous. It opened on January 26, 1920 with vaudevile star Belle Baker as the main attraction. It remained till 1967, when, during the ugly, bone-headed days of Urban Renewal, it (she !) and two blocks' worth of lively, varied storefronts were demolished for a big 4-story department store which itself is now “sleeping with the fishes.” (I was 7 years old when it was taken down.) The Keith’s huge Wurlitzer organ was saved, though, and now resides in the Empire Theater on the State Fair Grounds), along with some other Keith’s artifacts. Although the Keith’s seated almost 2000, and there was talk even back then of the need for a new Civic Center to house the Syracuse Symphony, still, the Old Girl was demolshed anyway. So-o-o-…less than a decade later, we had to build a new Civic Center which ended up with “OK” acoustics and nowhere near the beauty. It seems that restoration just wasn’t “interesting” enough to the leadership of the time. (On the other hand, laying in new concrete…You get the idea.)
Anyhow, are you (or anyone reading this) aware if the Syracuse Keith’s had any surviving “twins” or “sisters” or even “close cousins” elsewhere? If so I’d love to make a pilgrimage.
my web address : [e-mail]
Thanks,
Mark