Sunday, September 05, 2010

From Chic Silber #1


BWAY1, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.


In response to Ol Whitey I offer

The Martin Beck Theater on West 45th Street

opened in 1924 by Beck who lived there in an

opulent apartment adjacent to the upper lobby

until his death in 1940

His estate sold it to James Binger (3M family heir)

in 1958 who established Jujamcyn Theaters named

for his 3 children (Judith James Cynthia)

In June of 2003 the name was changed to Al Hirshfeld

in honor of the famous N Y Times caricaturist who

had died in January of that year just shy of 100

(my very favorite N Y theater)

Chic

Posted by Buckles at 9/05/2010 05:57:00 AM

9 comments:

Ole Whitey said...

Thanks, Chic.

This is where David Copperfield played in late 1996.

05 September, 2010 09:08
Chic Silber said...

Correction

It was actually James Binger's

father in law William McNight who

bought the Beck & Binger took it

over in 1970 & later renamed the

"Anta" (which was the "Guild")

for his wife "Virginia" (and is

now the "August Wilson")

A popular theater myth is that

Binger renamed the "Erlanlger"

for himself but the "St James"

was renamed by the Astors when

they took it over from Abraham

Erlanger in 1930

It was bought by the Shuberts

in 38 & sold to McNight in 57

Maybe half of the 34 Broadway

houses have their original names

05 September, 2010 10:12
Chic Silber said...

The house crew (stagehands) at

the Beck are all good friends

They were asked to sign elaborate

boiler plate agreements to not

disclose the setups & gimmicks

About 4 gazillion miles of black

thread made navigation in the

dark quite hazardous & they were

not treated very well by him

05 September, 2010 10:29
Mike Naughton said...

Chic-

I don't like renaming of theaters.

When a theater is named in honor of a prominent member of the industry the honor appears to be only temporary.

Just wait a few years and it will be renamed.

For the record, I believe Hirschfield should be honored, but why push Martin Beck out to the picture.

This is a kin to moving Grant from Grant's tomb and hosting another dead body with new naming rights.

Just my opinion.

Mike

PS You missed a great night at the club!

05 September, 2010 12:06
Chic Silber said...

Sorry about last night Mike

I got tied up in show negotiations

They are intent on remounting the

musical "Wonderland" that played

Tampa & Houston earlier this year

Some "big" money (maybe) seemed

to come forward & the new plan is

to run the revised version for a

couple of weeks in January then

take it in (to N Y) (again maybe)

There are many stories about the

renaming of the Broadway houses

but more recently it's just money

Anybody want a theater named ?$?

But I'm with you on the subject

(some of us older crusties still

refer to the houses by old names)

05 September, 2010 13:25
Chic Silber said...

Worse than changing names so many

are gone or in the case of the

"Mark Hellinger" became a chuch

The "Hudson" was beautifully

restored by the hotel that bought

it (Millenium) but keeps it as a

private function facility only

"Henry Miller's" was torn down

with only the facade kept intact

A new theater was built behind it

& it's about to reopen as the

"Stephen Sondheim"

05 September, 2010 14:40
Frank Ferrante said...

Chic -

Do you any idea as to how many theaters were changed back to their original names after a renovation? ~frank

06 September, 2010 01:42
Chic Silber said...

None in N Y of the major houses

In a few cases there were added

titles such as "Mercedes Minskoff"

& reverted at the end of contract

I believe there were (& are) some

of the old road houses

06 September, 2010 09:07
Chic Silber said...

Doing a rough count it seems that

20 of the 34 Broadway houses still

have their original names

06 September, 2010 09:10

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