Theatre Interiors/Architecture — Page 3

Having THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME play the New Amsterdam would pretty much make my life complete.

The Harkness Theatre, Broadway between 62nd and 63rd Streets:

*I was the night doorman there for over a year. I had the keys full-time. I worked there during Sweet Bird (Irene Worth, Chris Walken), 174th Street (Robert Morse, George S. Irving), and a couple of shows that rehearsed, one with Carol Channing, the other with Kate Hepburn. There were other events from time to time.

*The theatre started life as a vaudeville/subway circuit house called the Colonial;

*It became a studio, presumably first for radio then TV. It was home to the original Price Is Right with Bill Cullen, and the old stagehands who worked the house had nothing but nice things to say about him;

*A few other TV shows taped there, game shows for ABC I think. This would have been the late 60s-early 70s;

*Rebekkah Harkness bought it and totally renovated it, renaming in conveniently after herself, and why not, it was her money. And there was a lot of money and she spent it.

Examples:
The bathrooms had black Italian marble stall dividers and had gold plated faucets. More than double the number of faucets had to be bought because the construction crews helped themselves.

Those baby blue velvet seats? That was her favorite color, and the walls were the same shade. The seats were also very flimsy since they had a wooden superstructure and at least one would break every performance. The house carpenter would go nuts on a daily basis.

Backstage there were an enormous number of dressing rooms and none were further than one flight from the stage whether down or up. All were carpeted.

Directly under the huge stage which had a permanenent dance-quality floor was a dance studio of equal size and equal quality flooring that could be used for rehearsals. In the basement was also a recording studio that I don't remember ever being used.

Then there was that mural, a painting actually, which is what killed the theatre. People did not want to compete with it. They knew that the slightest bit of light spill would take focus from the stage. I cannot stress the magnitude of this opus. It was about 10-12 feet wide at the sides of the arch and over the stage was maybe 6-8 feet wide. It was done in oils and worked the wall sconces into the painting and even had 3D hands made of plaster coming out of the 2D painting.

The title was "Homage to Terpsicore" and the goddess of dance was at the center of this huge painting directly over stage center. The dancers paying homage were all gorgeous male and female nudes with carefully draped private areas. Rebekkah herself appeared in the painting house left although fully gowned, thank you God.

The theatre was open about 3 years and was sporadically booked at best. It was built as a dance-specific theatre because Rebekkah was rich enough to fund her own company, The Harkness Ballet. [Harkness House, over in the East 70s, is all that remains of her dance empire.]

Somewhere in my stuff I have a booklet that was given out during the opening that has many photos and copy. I wish I knew where it was. I did not work there when it opened, but I found this booklet there.

The house had about 1200 seats with a mezz and balcony. The front row of the mezz was a dress circle kind of thing with armchairs instead of theatre seats. Yes, they were also in baby blue.

Rebekkah Harkness lost 5+ mil on this folly. That was real money then. When she died, her fortune was substantially depleted. She was a Standard Oil heiress right up there with Doris Duke and Barbara Hutton.

On the other hand, Mrs. Harkness did put her money where her mouth was and few other people have done that over the years.

And this is just an overview.

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Does anyone have any pictues of the Shubert lobby?

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Does anyone have any pictues of the Shubert lobby?

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Does anyone have any pictues of the Shubert lobby?

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You can try Cinema Treasures & Theater Historical Society for tons of photos

Googlr The San Francisco Fox & the photos will tear your heart out. This was San Francisco's Penn Station. I would go to SF just to see it were it still there. Early movie theater architecture of the 20's & 30's is eyepopping. Many are gone but a lot remain such as

1. Loews Ohio - Columbus
2. Chicago - Chicago
3. Oriental - Chicago
4. Uptown - Chicago
5. New Regal - Chicago (Original name Avalon)
6. Loews Kings - Brooklyn NY
7. Roxy - NY
8. Paramount - NY
9. Majestic - San Antonio
10.Aztec - San Antonio
11.5 Th Ave - Seattle
12.Wang Center - Boston
13.Opera House - Original Name - Loews Savoy
14.FOX - St Louis
15.Fox - Brooklyn NY

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You left off the Jacobs, the Broadhurst, and the Schoenfeld.

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Thank you CapnHook for letting me know that 3 theaters got left off the list. I combined folks comments on this thread as well as from others to come up with this list - so that basically means no one had anything to say good or bad about these 3. Are you familiar with their houses & where they might best fit between The Wintergarden & The Ambassador? Of course this is all speculative but fun none-the-less (except for the landlords & people employed at the bottom rankers, I guess.)

"Broadway Theatres: History and Architecture" that Dover put out some time ago is also wonderful.

http://www.amazon.com/Broadway-Theatres-Architecture-William-Morrison/dp/0486402444

The Pantages Theatre in Toronto (I refuse to call it the Ed Mirvish) is incredible. The restoration that went into that theatre for the Canadian production of The Phantom of the Opera is epic in its scope and grandeur. I have seen pictures the cast took just weeks before the show opened when it was still in renovation and they were taken on their first tous. Most were in complete shock as they couldn't imagine it being ready in time.

The lobbies off both the Yonge and Victoria Street entrances are like nothing I have ever seen. My first reaction was that this place was too pretty for a schlep like me to be in.

The house itself is incredible in its beauty. I don't even have words for it. I understand the back half of the expansive mezz has now been halfed with the hanging of a wall or curtain. The mezz size was so large that it is comparable with the orchestra sections of some large houses. Massive. Some great shots on Google images.

I had a similar reaction to the Pantages in Toronto as you did when I first saw it back with Phantom.

At that point I had never been into a 'real' theatre so did not know what to expect. as stupid as it sounds, I could not see how a show like Phantom could fit into a theatre that was so small, because I thought the Younge street entrance was it, that was the size of the building (like thinking the 42nd street entance to the foxwoods was the size of the foxwoods. I didnt even know there was a back entrance.

So going to see the show and pushing through those doors and seeing all that gold everywhere I was florred. Even more excited when the show was over and I left through the back entrance onto Victoria street and saw the whole extent of the other side of the theatre with the larger than life sized posters of Phantom on the outside.

The one drawback I can find about the Pantages is the back of the Mez, it really is FAR FAR FAR away, I don;t think there is a house on Broadway that is so far back. And yes they currently use a drape and some piping to block it off when they don't sell the back half, sort of what they do in the Broadway theatre recently, although their curtain is on a track in the ceiling.

also a little odd, the back row of the Pantages does not have standard seats but something more like a bar stool, lol

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Younger Brother, Does anybody have any photos of the Neil Simon Theatre lobby? A friend of mine was there and described it as "beyond hideous".

The Neil Simon is one of the ugliest theaters on Broadway...it lacks charm and is in dire need of an upgrade as are most of the Nederlander owned theaters.
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Updated On: 3/22/15 at 09:30 PM