Shea's Performing Arts Center
646 Main Street,
Buffalo,
NY
14202
646 Main Street,
Buffalo,
NY
14202
28 people
favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 89 of 89 comments
I can’t say if Kurt Mangel is responsible for the work on the BUFFALO PERFORMING ARTS CENTER all by himself, but I do know that this is but one of many theatres he has helped along, most notably the UPTOWN in Chicago some years back.
Life’s too short: I just emailed a Buffalo friend of mine and asked him about the name Kurt Mangel. He is not familiar with that name, but it would be interesting to know more about this name and whether he, in fact, was responsible for saving the Shea’s.
Vertical sign does make a big difference…so do the replaced exterior details.
I understand that a man named Kurt Mangel(SP?) is responsible for saving this place.
I saw Connie Francis perform here Wednesday night in a benefit concert for the Variety Club. I cant tell you how beautiful and large this theatre is. My friend and I were laughing that they could put 20 shoebox theatres just in the lobby space alone.
I was very pleased to see the vertical sign restored to the Shea’s Buffalo Theatre. All the great restored movie palaces should have great vertical’s signs like Shea’s Buffalo. My parents were married in the Buffalo area during WW11 and attended the big bands at this wonderful theatre which is one of my personal favorites.brucec
There is a good article on the theatre in the Hamilton Spectator’s Saturday September 25th paper by MARY K. Noylan.
If you go to the site named by Jim Rankin (in his comment of July 7,2004), you will see recent photographs (taken on 8/11/04) of the newly replicated vertical sign, and the restoration of the pediment atop the facade.
I heard there are plans to replicate the original vertical sign and to reproduce the terra cotta pediment that used to be on top of the Main Street facade. Now if they could only get rid of the hideous racks of spotlights that mar the organ grills. I can only hope they were some sort of temporary thing and have been removed since I was there last December.
Ironically, one of the finest collections of photos of one theatre on the net, is not on that theatre’s web site, that of the former Shea’s BUFFALO Theatre of Buffalo, NY. It is on an architectural site: “The Buffalo Architectural Index” and “Illustrated Architecture Dictionary” which uses the theatre and many other buildings to illustrate the terms in their extensive Dictionary of Architecture. There are over one hundred enlargeable, color photos at: http://ah.bfn.org/a/main/646/hp.html
My parents attended the Big Bands at the Shea’s during the 1940’s.When I was a teenager in 1967 I saw the James Bond film “You Only Live Twice” at the Shea’s. What a beautiful huge theatre Buffalo has. It was in great condition in 1967 and it does look a lot like the Rialto in Joliet, Illinois. Have they completed work on restoration of marquee?I remember walking downtown at night deciding on which movie we would see and “Taming of the Shrew” was playing at the Loew’s Teck,“Barefoot in The Park” was playing at the Cinema, and a Disney film was playing at the Century and “You Only Live Twice” was playing at the Shea’s.I now know that the large closed theatre without a marquee was the Paramount which closed in 1965.I do remember the Shea’s had a huge movie screen.Shea’s is in my top 20 favroite movie palace’s.
The former BUFFALO is truly a wonderful space, and that is brought out no better than in the ANNUAL of 1994 of the Theatre Historical Soc. where in its 34 pages are the plans in addition to dozens of b/w photos of the theatre in its prime and also present. It is remarkable to see therein just how much this design resembled that other work also by Rapp & Rapp, the RIALTO in Joliet, Illinois. Today, it may not be quite as grand as it once was, but we can rejoice that it is still with us as a performing arts center.
PHOTOS AVAILABLE:
To obtain any available Back Issue of either “Marquee” or of its ANNUALS, simply go to the web site of the THEATRE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA at:
www.HistoricTheatres.org
and notice on their first page the link “PUBLICATIONS: Back Issues List” and click on that and you will be taken to their listing where they also give ordering details. The “Marquee” magazine is 8-1/2x11 inches tall (‘portrait’) format, and the ANNUALS are also soft cover in the same size, but in the long (‘landscape’) format, and are anywhere from 26 to 40 pages. Should they indicate that a publication is Out Of Print, then it may still be possible to view it via Inter-Library Loan where you go to the librarian at any public or school library and ask them to locate which library has the item by using the Union List of Serials, and your library can then ask the other library to loan it to them for you to read or photocopy. [Photocopies of most THSA publications are available from University Microforms International (UMI), but their prices are exorbitant.]
Note: Most any photo in any of their publications may be had in large size by purchase; see their ARCHIVE link. You should realize that there was no color still photography in the 1920s, so few theatres were seen in color at that time except by means of hand tinted renderings or post cards, thus all the antique photos from the Society will be in black and white, but it is quite possible that the Society has later color images available; it is best to inquire of them.
Should you not be able to contact them via their web site, you may also contact their Executive Director via E-mail at:
Or you may reach them via phone or snail mail at:
Theatre Historical Soc. of America
152 N. York, 2nd Floor York Theatre Bldg.
Elmhurst, ILL. 60126-2806 (they are about 15 miles west of Chicago)
Phone: 630-782-1800 or via FAX at: 630-782-1802 (Monday through Friday, 9AM—4PM, CT)
Shea’s Buffalo Theatre is also the home of one of the finest Wurlitzer Theatre Pipe Organs ever built by the neighboring Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, of North Tonawanda.
Factory sales reps. would occasionally use the “Mighty Wurlitzer” as a demonstration instrument to prospective clients that were representatives of many leading theatre chains of the era.
Fortunately, the instrument remains relatively intact in its original installation in the theatre. It must be heard to be believed.
I attended a free screening of “An Affair To Remember” at Shea’s about five years ago. The theatre was full and I was seated in the fifth from the last row of the balcony. The screen was so large I don’t even remember having to look down. A classic theatre, a classic movie, and 3500 people enjoying the ambience — what an experience.
This theatre was known as Shea’s Buffalo Theatre which seated 3498 people when it was a movie theatre. Shea operated 9 other theatre in Buffalo, New York area. Shea’s Elmwood, Shea’s Great Lakes, Shea’s Hippodrome, Shea’s Kensington, Shea’s Niagara, Shea’s North Park, Shea’s Roosevelt, Shea’s Seneca, Shea’s Teck.