Lyric Theatre

172 W. 23rd Street,
New York, NY 10011

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Lyric Theatre

This little-known theatre was showing motion pictures when it caught fire on February 5, 1922. As reported in the New York Times, the patrons left “hats, coats and even a Maltese cat in flight” at this small theatre located on W. 23rd Street near 7th Avenue.

“Panic was averted by the presence of mind of the management and the employees of the theatre, whose efforts enabled the spectators to march out in an orderly manner while the pianist played The Star Spangled Banner”.

The only person injured was the projectionist, who was “scorched”. The cat was assumed to have been brought in by a patron as he had never been seen before.

The Lyric Theatre was still operating in 1924 when it was advertised running a week of Paramount pictures.

Contributed by Al Alvarez

Recent comments (view all 4 comments)

Ken Roe
Ken Roe on March 30, 2007 at 4:59 pm

The Lyric Theatre is still listed as operating in the 1926 edition of Film Daily Yearbook with 600 seats. It has gone from listings by the time the 1930 edition of F.D.Y. was published.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on March 30, 2007 at 5:05 pm

A cat scan of the Maltese was negative for any injuries.

shoeshoe14
shoeshoe14 on April 5, 2007 at 5:28 pm

Was that last comment meant to be funny? Just wondering. I thought it was.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on November 1, 2007 at 10:45 pm

Yes, it was a joke. I make them once in a while.

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