The B. F. Keith Circuit was a chain of vaudeville theaters in the United States and Canada owned by Benjamin Franklin Keith for the acts that he booked. Known for a time as the United Booking Office, and under various other names, the circuit was managed by Edward Franklin Albee , who gained control of it in 1918, following the death of Keith's son A. Paul Keith .
14-571: Keith entered the vaudeville business in 1893, when he began booking acts at the theater in his curiosity museum. Vaudeville eventually outdrew the museum and became Keith's primary business. In 1886, he obtained a lease on the Bijou Theatre in Boston . He quickly expanded his theater business, acquiring the Providence Museum in 1887 ( Providence, Rhode Island ), Low's Opera House (Providence) in 1888,
28-416: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Bijou Theatre (Boston) The Bijou Theatre (1882–1943) in Boston , Massachusetts , occupied the second floor of 545 Washington Street near today's Theatre District. Architect George Wetherell designed the space, described by a contemporary reviewer as "dainty." Proprietors included Edward Hastings, George Tyler, and B.F. Keith . Around
42-575: The Arthur Sullivan and W.S. Gilbert ( Gilbert and Sullivan ) comic opera Iolanthe . By September 27, 1886, the theatre became owned by B.F. Keith and George R. Batcheller. On March 24, 1894, Keith opened a theatre next the Bijou named "B.F. Keith’s Theatre". In 1901, it was renamed the "Bijou Opera House". The Bijou would later be named "Bijou Dream" when it became a movie house in 1927, and also became known as Intown sometime after that. The Bijou
56-495: The 1900s, it featured a "staircase of heavy glass under which flowed an illuminated waterfall." The Bijou "closed 31 December 1943 and was razed in 1951." The building's facade still exists. It is currently a pending Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission . The building was constructed in 1836 as The Lion Theatre, and in 1839 was renamed The Melodeon . In 1878, the name was changed to The Gaiety . It
70-1078: The Bijou ( Philadelphia ) in 1888, and Union Square Theatre ( New York City ) in 1893. In 1894, he opened Keith's Theatre in Boston. In 1900, he purchased the Princess Theatre in London . In 1906, Keith merged his New York and New Jersey theatres with Frederick Freeman Proctor , but dissolved the partnership five years later. On February 11, 1907, the United Booking Office of America was formed by B. F. Keith, F. F. Proctor , Edward F. Albee, and A. Paul Keith of Keith & Proctor and Percy G. Williams and Oscar Hammerstein . The two sides maintained ownership of their respective theaters and agreed not to compete with each other, with Keith & Proctor controlling vaudeville bookings in Boston and Philadelphia and Williams and Hammerstein controlling New York City . In 1909, Keith, Proctor, Williams, and Hammerstein formed
84-410: The Bijou building was demolished in 2008, but Emerson College bought the property and plans to make the Bijou and Paramount Theatre into theatres and dormitories. 42°21′15.52″N 71°3′44.26″W / 42.3543111°N 71.0622944°W / 42.3543111; -71.0622944 Park Theatre (Boston) The Park Theatre (est.1879) was a playhouse in Boston , Massachusetts , in
98-577: The Normandie and Laffmovie) and the newer Keith Memorial (later known as the Savoy and is now the Boston Opera House ). After the tragic 1942 Cocoanut Grove fire (492 deaths), Boston heavily enforced new fire laws, and since the Bijou did not have adequate exits, it was forced to close. The Bijou was razed to the orchestra and stage floors, which became the roof of the stores below. Most of what remained of
112-575: The United Theatres Securities Co. with fellow theater owners Harry Davis of Pittsburgh , Michael Shea of Toronto , P. B. Chase of Washington, D.C. , James H. Moore of Rochester, New York , and James C. Duffield and James Dyment of Canada . This gave the United Booking Office control over 100 theaters. In 1911, the United Booking Office reached and agreement with Martin Beck , which gave the United Booking Office control of vaudeville theaters in
126-400: The east and Beck's Orpheum Circuit control of the west. In 1912, Keith purchased Williams's eight New York City theaters (Bronx, Greenpoint, Gotham, Crescent, Bushwick, Colonial , Orpheum , and Alhambra ). Prior to Keith's death in 1914, his 29 theaters were acquired by his son, A. Paul Keith, and the circuit's longtime general manager, Edward F. Albee. Albee took full control following
140-502: The late 19th and early 20th centuries. It later became the State cinema. Located on Washington Street , near Boylston Street , the building existed until 1990. In 1879 Henry E. Abbey , proprietor of Abbey's Park Theatre in New York, opened Boston's Park Theatre. Abbey was one half of the theatrical management firm Abbey and Schoeffel , along with his backer John B. Schoeffel . Schoeffel
154-576: The younger Keith's death in 1918. In 1928, the theaters owned by Albee and the Orpheum Circuit merged to form the Keith-Albee-Orpheum circuit. The combined theater chain now had over 700 theaters in the United States and Canada. They had a combined seating capacity 1.5 million. 15,000 vaudeville performers will be booked through the new entity. This United States theatre–related article
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#1732849061679168-418: Was a distinct theatre for a couple of reasons. The Bijou was the first theatre in the United States to be elementarily lighted by electricity, which Thomas Edison personally installed and supervised. It also was unique for the fact that it did not have a traditional exit to the outside. Since it was on the second floor, the exits led to the lobbies of the two surrounding theatres, the B.F. Keith Theatre (later
182-609: Was also named The Mechanics Institute, Melodeon Varieties, and the New Melodeon. The Gaiety was purchased by George H. Tyler (who also ran The Park Theatre ) and by Frederick Vokes, who had renovated the Gaiety, and wanted to rename it the Bijou Theatre. Vokes would relinquish his share, and Tyler would replace him with E.H. and T.N. Hastings. The Bijou officially opened on December 11, 1882. The new theatre opened on December 11, 1882 with
196-693: Was assistant manager. It occupied the building of the former Beethoven Hall , "reconstructed and practically rebuilt;" its 1,184-seat auditorium was "60 feet wide, 63 from the state to the doors, and 50 feet high." The architect of the rebuilt theatre was Abel C. Martin . It sat on Washington Street at the corner of Boylston Street in today's Chinatown/Theatre district. In the 1890s it presented "farcical comedy." Managers and proprietors included Henry E. Abbey; Jack A. Crabtree; Lotta Crabtree ; Charles Frohman , Rich & Harris ; Lawrence McCarty; John B. Schoeffel ( Abbey, Schoeffel and Grau ); John Stetson Jr.; and Eugene Tompkins. Louis Baer led
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