Frederick Freeman Proctor

Frederick Freeman Proctor
Proctor circa 1900
Born	March 17, 1851(1851-03-17) Dexter, Maine
Died	September 4, 1929(1929-09-04) (aged 78) Larchmont, New York
Known for	Vaudeville
Parents	Alpheus Proctor Lucy Ann Tufts
Relatives	John William Merrow, nephew

Frederick Freeman Proctor (March 17, 1851 – September 4, 1929), aka 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. ^[1]

Contents 1 Birth 2 Newark, New Jersey 3 Schenectady, New York 4 RKO 5 Death 6 References 7 External links 8 Further reading

Birth

Frederick Freeman Proctor was born to Alpheus Proctor and Lucy Ann Tufts in Dexter, Maine, where his father was a physician.^[2][3]

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.

Schenectady, New York

Proctor 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.

RKO

In 1929 the chain was sold to the Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corporation (RKO).

Death

Frederick F. Proctor died in 1929 at his home in Larchmont, New York, aged 78 years; death was due to congestion of his lungs.^[1]

References

He built and lived at 90 Park Avenue in Larchmont, New York.

External links

• Frederick Freeman Proctor at Findagrave

Further reading

• 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

Persondata
Name	Proctor, Frederick Freeman
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	March 17, 1851
Place of birth	Dexter, Maine
Date of death	September 4, 1929
Place of death	Larchmont, New York