Lafayette Theatre
2227 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard,
New York,
NY
10027
2227 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard,
New York,
NY
10027
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1933 map of Harlem after prohibition ended. Library of Congress link. Lafayette right of center at top. Image will enlarge.
https://www.loc.gov/item/2016585261/
why there are no interior pictures.
AlAlvarez: I found another reference to the Grand Street Theater, this in Ruth Crosby Dimmick’s 1913 book Our Theatres To-day and Yesterday. It says that the house opened on February 4, 1903, as a Yiddish theater. It was leased to Bedford Theatrical Company in December, 1909, and as of 1913 was playing “…Marcus Loew attractions.” I don’t know if that means vaudeville only or vaudeville and pictures. Most of Loew’s early houses in New York appear to have presented both.
This theatre/church is being demolished as i write this, Wednesday afternoon, January 30, 2013. It is possible that the facade facing 7th Ave is being preserved. Don’t know.
Joe, The Grand Street theatre on Chrystie and Grand was operating in 1923. I have not entered it to CT as I can find nothing else about it.
The Grant/Jewel at 11 West 116th Street and the Argus/Regent at 385 Third Avenue are already identified as Koehler sites.
According to James Trager’s book “The New York Chronology” the Lafayette Theater opened in November, 1912. It was designed by architect Victor Hugo Koehler. Only white patrons were admitted to the orchestra floor until August of 1913, when the Lafayette became the first New York City theater to integrate.
Incidentally, the Office for Metropolitan History’s Manhattan Database lists three theaters designed by Koehler that I’ve been unable to track down. They are: a 1902 project for a four story theater and loft building, 100x100, at the southeast corner of Grand and Chrystie; a 1913 two story movie theater, 41x90, at 11-13 W. 116th Street; and a one story movie theater, also 41x90, at 385-387 Third Avenue. Maybe somebody familiar with Manhattan will be able to identify these theaters.
View link
http://www.bigapplejazz.com/tree_of_hope.htm
View link great pic among others halfway down…
and the macbeth opening night pic
View link
Looking for a copy of the Play Bill from the Lafayette Theater’s production of “Haiti” My late sister (Sugar Pie Nowlin) (nee:Beatrice Lewis) was in the chorus and took me to see the show.
We are in the process of doing a family history and this would be a treasured addition.
madam gary
The Lafayette is significant as the home of the Lafayette Players, the first black professional theater troupe in the country. Organized by Anita Bush, the troupe first performed at the Lafayette on Dec. 27, 1915 in a play titled “Across the Footlights.” The troupe had begun life a month earlier as the Anita Bush Players, performing at the Lincoln Theater, but soon moved to the Lafayette.
The five original members: Bush, Charles Gilpin, Carlotta Freeman, Andrew Bishop and Dooley Wilson (of ‘Casablanca’ fame). All of them went on to long careers in show business.
A favorite note about the players: In January 1916, they performed ‘The Octoroon" in which most of them performed in white face! It must have been an exciting experience for black audiences accustomed to seeing white minstrel performers in black face.
Here is a current (July 2003) view of the former Lafayette Theatre, in Harlem:
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/142119473/
The Lafayette Theater is listed in the American Motion Picture Directory 1914-1915. In its early years it was a segregated house that had a seperate seating area for blacks. Listed in Film Daily Yearbook’s 1930-1933 and 1940-1949 as a Negro theatre catering for African American audiences, the seating capacity given varies from 1,245 (presumably for motion pictures, minus the black seating area?) to 2,000 seats as a stage theatre with all seats counted when it was de-segregated.
Bill “Bojangles” Robinson played here in 1915. Fats Waller was a regular player on the organ. Other artists who appeared on stage here include Duke Ellington band in 1922, Bessie Smith and Cab Calloway.
The production of “Macbeth” was a black version, directed by Orson Welles for the Federal Theater Program of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), as was a black production of “The Hot Mikado”.