State Theater
325 Bleecker Street,
Utica,
NY
13501
325 Bleecker Street,
Utica,
NY
13501
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The new organ recently installed in the Bender Theater is mentioned in the September 11, 1915 issue of Moving Picture World: “At the Bender theater, Utica, N. Y., a new $10,000 symphony organ was heard for the first time last week. The organist is Paul Forrester, who also directs the orchestra.”
The Bender Theatre opened on Christmas Day, 1912, according to an item in an early 1913 issue of Variety. Originally operating as a stock house, the 1913-1914 edition of the Cahn guide lists it as playing vaudeville with movies.
Austin Bender, operator of the theater, was sued by the city for showing movies on Sunday. The documentation of the suit gives the address of the theater as 325 Bleecker Street. A newspaper article from the period says that the Bender Theatre was on Bleecker Street at the foot of Academy Street, and that’s just about where 325 is, so the address probably hasn’t changed since that time.
This theater was named Bender first, then Park and closed as the State.