Victoria Theatre

VincentParisi on July 18, 2005 at 7:08 am

This was also a premier road show house in the late 20’s and early 30’s roadshowing such films as King of Kings and Cavalcade.

RobertR on June 14, 2005 at 1:45 am

Thanks Saps

Mike (saps) on June 13, 2005 at 7:15 pm

Follies Bergere
206 West 46th Street
Later names: Fulton, Helen Hayes
Built: 1911
Demolished: 1982
Seats: 895
Architects: Herts & Tallant
Owners: Henry B. Harris and Jesse Lasky (1911-1921), A.L. Erlanger (1921-??)
History: Opened as a Parisian-style nightclub, this space soon converted to legitimate theatrical use and renamed the Fulton. It was named for actress Helen Hayes in 1955, and housed many important plays. It was one of five theatres demolished to make way for the Marriott Marquis Hotel.
Musicals: New Faces of 1934, The Me Nobody Knows (1970)

Benjamin on February 11, 2005 at 10:52 pm

Let me say that I agree with those who say that this theater should really be listed under another name — perhaps the Victoria, since that was its most famous, and longest running by far, name as a cinema. Actually, I had a very difficult time finding this listing, as I had no idea that the theater, or any theater, had ever been called the “Embassy Five.” Like a number of posters above, I too thought of this block as being the block of the Astor and the Victoria. (I also believe that most references in theater history books, etc. would be to either the Gaiety or the Victoria, with very few, if any at all, being for the Embassy Five.)

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I seems to me that the picture at the top of this page is “misleading” and that there is a much better, much more “accurate” picture of the Victoria, as the newly built Gaiety, in the Mary Henderson book (pg. 237), “The Theater and the City” (1973 edition).

The theater itself (i.e., the bulk of the auditorium, the main facade and the original lobby) was really on 46th St., just to the east of the Helen Hayes — originally the Follies Bergere and then the Fulton and the Helen Hayes — which was built about two years after the Gaiety. Both theaters had the same architects, Herts and Tallant, and the facades (which were unusually handsome) had strong similarities.

Judging from my knowledge of the Helen Hayes and from what I’ve read about the Victoria, it appears that the Gaiety’s (Victoria’s) auditorium looked south — i.e., the seats faced south, the stage was in the center of the block and the original lobby on 46th St. to the rear of the orchestra level seating. Which makes me wonder how they moved scenery in and out of both the Gaiety and the Helen Hayes theaters — my guess is that they moved in through a very long [and probably inconvenient] alley that was also used for fire egress?

In later years the main 46th St. facade was covered by a billboard, and I remember in the late 1970s noticing that you could peak under the billboard and catch a glimpse of what appeared to be the original facade.

The structure pictured in the photo at the top of the page, however, appears to me to be a separate office structure which contained a “tunnel entrance” to the Gaiety / Victoria. This would make the Gaiety’s tunnel lobby through this office building similar to, for example, that of the Roxy’s (with the Hotel Taft), the Globe’s (with ?), and the Warner Hollywood/Mark Hellinger (with ?).

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I haven’t seen the Morrison book — which sounds quite interesting — but there is similar info about the 1948-1949 remodeling in “New York, 1960” (pgs. 447-448?) by Robert A.M. Stern, et al. There is also a picture of its remodeled lobby entrance and the very unusual remodeled auditorium interior.

According to Stern the capacity of the theater was increased from 700 to 1,100 during this remodeling which more or less follows the descriptions posted above. If I remember correctly, however, Stern et al. describes the aluminum mesh screenwork ,or aluminum medallions, along the lines of it being aluminum “chain mail,” constructed from something like fake (or real?) movie reels (!), and affixed to the walls of the theater. I wonder how they kept it dust free or cleaned it!

By the way, I’m wondering if this unusual alteration (extending an auditorium through the stage and out all the way to the back wall of an adjacent theater) helps explain why the Hagstom map of the theater district shows such unusual footprints for the Victoria (and also for the Astor theater to the south of it). (On my Hagstom map, from around 1960, there is no Bijou theater — although there is an unlabled space left between the Astor and the Morosco, to the south of BOTH the Victoria and the Helen Hayes. Perhaps, the Bijou was in one of those periods when it was “temporarily out of commission” when the map was drawn?) While the footprints on the map don’t seem to quite correspond to the renovations described, perhaps this is what the cartographer was trying to show in any case, but just did not do a good job of it. (Or maybe the map is correct, and the renovation has been slightly misdescribed.)

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By the way, according the architectural historian Carol Krinsky in her book “Rockefeller Center,” Edward Durell Stone was the architect in charge of designing both Radio City Music Hall and, I believe, the Center Theater. Many, many years later he designed the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. So Stone, who was once quite famous (the cover of Time Magazine) but whose career seems to have fallen somewhat into obscurity (I something of a fan, and I’ve only discovered some of these things recently), seems to have quite a diverse roster of theaters to his credit!

I don’t know if I’d really like his redesign of the Victoria if I saw it in person. In photgraphs, it looks uncomfortably like the weirdly decorated interior of a shoebox. And with those white sculptural “do-dads” on the walls — ATOP his chain mail of movie reels (!) — it seems almost Salvador Daliesque! Nevertheless, it’s quite interesting to find out that he’s the one who designed it — especially considering all his other work (e.g., the first international style modern house on the east coast, Radio City Music Hall, the original Museum of Modern Art building, the American Embassy in New Dehli, etc.).

Mike (saps) on January 20, 2005 at 5:52 am

By the time I got here in the mid to late 1970’s it seemed like a big box with not much charm.

BoxOfficeBill on January 19, 2005 at 10:50 am

Warren— Thanks for the deatils about this theater’s transition to film. Did this ‘43 renovation extend the length of the theater by demolishing the stage and breaking through its back wall to add an extension of 10’ or so that then touched the rear wall of the Bijou on W 45? Or did yet another renovation bring that addition in the later ‘40s? The main floor consequently raked downwards and upwards and then downwards again as it inclined toward the old orchestra pit, rose over the pit, and finally dipped toward the screen. The side boxes were removed and the ornamented plaster walls were covered by velvet-lined boards (red, matching the traveller curtain) and fronted by a veil of aluminum medallions that gleamed in the screen’s reflected light. That’s how I remember the Victoria, from the first film I saw there (“Joan of Arc” in Winter '49) to the last (“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” in Winter '68).

BoxOfficeBill on July 21, 2004 at 12:37 pm

EdwinM—

Thanks for the cross-ref to the Casino in B'klyn. And, yes, the Astor and Vistoria were indeed the Laurel&Hardy, Abbott&Costello, and Martin&Lewis of Times Square! Well put.

Box Office Bill

BoxOfficeBill on July 20, 2004 at 1:28 pm

Erwin—
See my comment in the listing for the Victoria’s mate, the Astor Theater— I had forgotten that the Embassy Five name presided over the theater’s declining years.
Box Office Bill

William on November 14, 2003 at 5:57 pm

The old Loew’s Victoria on 125th Street was slit-up into a 5 plex. That theatre seated 2282 people. But the Victoria in Times Square only seated 811 people. That would make 5 really small theatres. I think he got the two Victorias mixed up.