Frederick Freeman Proctor
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Frederick Freeman Proctor (b. 1851, Dexter, Maine – d. September 4, 1929, Schenectady, New York) or F.F. Proctor was a vaudeville impresario who pioneered the method of continuous vaudeville. He opened the Twenty-third Street Theatre in New York City.
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[edit] Birth
He was son of Alpheus Proctor and Lucy Ann Tufts, and was born in Dexter, Maine, where his father was a physician. [1]
[edit] Newark, New Jersey
Warren G. Harris writes:
Proctor's [at 116 Market Street] in downtown Newark was one of the rare 'double decker' theatres. Designed by architect John William Merrow, the eight-story complex had a large 2,300-seat theatre at ground level and a smaller theatre of about 900 seats occupying the top four floors beneath the roof. This fairly narrow building contained only the lobby of the larger theatre, which had its auditorium behind it. Very little has been reported about the operation of the upstairs theatre, which was apparently seldom used until the early 1960s, when it was renovated for the presentation of "foreign" films as the Penthouse Cinema. But the main theatre, with its cavernous two balconies, was always one of Newark's leaders, first with vaudeville only and eventually taken over by movies exclusively. When all of F.F. Proctor's theatres were acquired by Radio-Keith-Orpheum, it became known as RKO Proctor's. The theatre eventually fell victim to the urban decline of Newark and to RKO's merger with Stanley-Warner, which operated the nearby and larger Branford. The new management decided to close Proctor's, and it has been standing more or less derelict ever since.
[edit] Schenectady, New York
He opened his first theater in Schenectady, New York in 1912, near the Erie Canal. On April 14, 1925, ground was broken for the "new" Proctor's Theatre in Schenectady, New York at its present site. Designed by famed theater architect Thomas W. Lamb, the theater cost $1.5 million to build and had a seating capacity of 2,700. On December 27, 1926, Proctor's Theatre opened with a showing of "Stranded in Paris" a silent film starring Bebe Daniels.
Inside was a $50,000 Wurlitzer organ. Over 7,100 paid admissions were collected. In 1928, sound equipment was installed for the "talkies". On May 22, 1930, Proctor's was the site of the first public demonstration of television. An orchestra led by the image of a conductor that was sent from the General Electric laboratories over a mile away, and projected onto a seven-foot screen. The experiment was by Ernst Alexanderson.
[edit] RKO
In 1929 the chain was sold to the Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corporation (RKO).
[edit] Timeline
- 1851 Birth in Maine
- 1880 Owns Albany, New York theatre
- 1886 Owns circuit of 11 theatres
- 1889 Owns circuit of 25 theatres
- 1893 Starts continuous shows
- 1902 Builds Proctor's Park Place in Newark, New Jersey, later renamed the Bijou Dream
- 1906 Partners with Benjamin Franklin Keith
- 1912 Builds Schenectady, New York theatre
- 1929 Death in Schenectady, New York
[edit] References/External Links
- William Moulton Marston; and John Henry Feller; F.F. Proctor, Vaudeville Pioneer (1943)
- Richard Butsch; The Making of American Audiences: From Stage to Television, 1750-1990 ISBN 0-521-66483-7
- New York Times; September 5, 1929. "FF Proctor Dead; Dean of Vaudeville"
