Proctor's Theatre (officially stylized as Proctors since 2007; however, the marquee retains the apostrophe) is a theatre and former vaudeville house located in Schenectady , New York , United States . Many famous artists have performed there, including Mariah Carey (whose 1993 top-rated Thanksgiving special was taped there), Britney Spears , Hal Holbrook, Ted Wiles, and George Burns, as well as many others. It has one of the largest movie screens in the Northeast .
24-490: The theatre was opened on December 27, 1926. It was designed by architect Thomas Lamb . In 1979 the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places , shortly before being renovated after a long period of decline and neglect. A renovation completed in 2007 added two theatres to the complex, providing a variety of performance spaces. The theater building is located on the south side of State Street ( NY 5 ), in
48-459: A densely developed commercial area. The exterior of the building and its interior arcade are included in the Register listing. It is a three-story building with attic . The North (front) facade is faced in stucco , with engaged Doric pilasters . Ornamentation includes garlands and paterae on the friezes . A large marquee covers the sidewalk in front. Inside, the arcade that connects
72-613: A live concert later broadcast on television featuring jazz vocalist Susannah McCorkle . Artist Hiroshi Sugimoto visited the theatre to photograph it in 1996. The resulting work was published in his Theaters book in 2000. In the fall of 2007, Proctors finished a $ 24.5 million expansion. Several local firms were involved, including Stracher Roth Gilmore (architectural), Ryan-Biggs Associates (structural), M/E Engineering (mechanical, electrical, plumbing) and Adirondack Scenic (theatrical & rigging designers). The renovation added two theatres, making three separate theatre venues available for
96-606: A private summer home in the Adirondacks in the village of Elizabethtown, New York . The house, which is still extant as a residence, is situated on the Boquet River . The eight-bedroom manor, referred to today as Cobble Mountain Lodge, is a shingle and cobble stone design marked by the inclusion of a stone turret. WMHT (TV) WMHT (channel 17) is a television station licensed to Schenectady, New York , United States, serving
120-961: The Boston Opera House ), Warner's Hollywood Theatre (1930) in New York (now the Times Square Church ), the Hippodrome Theatre (1914) in Baltimore, and the Loew's Ohio Theatre (1928) in Columbus, Ohio. Among Lamb's existing Canadian theaters are the Pantages Theatre in Toronto (1920) (now the Ed Mirvish Theatre ). and Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres . The Cinema Treasures website, which documents
144-835: The Capital District as a member of PBS . It is owned by WMHT Educational Telecommunications alongside NPR member WMHT-FM (89.1). The two stations share studios in the Rensselaer Technology Park in North Greenbush (with a Troy mailing address); the TV station's transmitter is located in the Helderberg Escarpment in New Scotland . WMHT operates digital translator W23ER-D (channel 23) in Poughkeepsie (part of
168-578: The New York City market ). The translator's ownership was transferred from Dutchess Community College to WMHT in 2014. The Mohawk-Hudson Council on Educational Television was formed in 1953, through financial support from commercial station WRGB (channel 6), its then-parent company General Electric (which was based in Schenectady) and many supporters and local businesses in the Albany /Capital Region. In
192-624: The 1916 Rialto Theatre and the 1917 Rivoli Theatre , all in Times Square , set the template for what would become the American movie palace. Among his most notable theaters are the 1929 Fox Theatre in San Francisco and the 1919 Capitol Theatre in New York, both now demolished. Among his most noted designs that have been preserved and restored are the B.F. Keith Memorial Theatre in Boston (1928) (now
216-534: The air three years later under the call letters WMHQ. In the late 1990s, WMHQ's commercial license became attractive and WMHT sold it to the Tribune Company for $ 18.5 million in 1999 with the station becoming WB affiliate WEWB that September (it is now CW affiliate WCWN , owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group ). The money from this sale allowed WMHT to expand into digital television. It also allowed
240-491: The arches and heavy velvet drapes. Light is provided by a central black and gold chandelier with 192 lamps, flanked by six smaller fixtures. The arrival of General Electric led to rapid growth in Schenectady through the late 19th and early 20th century. The city's streetcar network made its downtown more accessible to the city. The vaudeville impresario Frederick Freeman Proctor chose to build his first theater in 1912. In
264-534: The beginning, Mohawk-Hudson produced educational programs on WRGB; however, due to the station's tight scheduling, the council decided to form a non-commercial educational television station of its own. WMHT signed on the air on March 26, 1962, on UHF channel 17 as the second educational TV station in the state of New York (after WNED in Buffalo ). From the outset the station was a member of National Educational Television (NET) and became one of PBS' charter members after
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#1732844886809288-452: The entrance to the theatre features space for (originally) 14 boutiques , with five copper-framed glass windows. A marble staircase leads to the upstairs offices, and the box office and showcase are paneled in Walnut . The foyer is carpeted in red, with men's and women's smoking rooms on either side. Two more marble staircases lead to the balcony level. A pastoral mural in sepia decorates
312-680: The history of film theaters, lists 174 theaters designed by Lamb's company. Aside from movie theaters, Lamb is noted for designing (with Joseph Urban ) New York's Ziegfeld Theatre , a legitimate theater, as well as the third Madison Square Garden and the Paramount Hotel in midtown Manhattan. Lamb died in 1942 in New York City at the age of 71. His architectural archive is held by the Drawings and Archives Department of Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University . During
336-471: The last ten years of his practice, Lamb's associate was the architect John J. McNamara. After Lamb's death, McNamara continued as an architect of theaters under his own name. McNamara was responsible for renovating some of Lamb's older New York theaters, and among his original designs was one for the 1969 Ziegfeld Theatre in Manhattan, which replaced Lamb's original building. In 1920, Lamb designed for himself
360-491: The last years of his life, he decided to replace it. It cost $ 1.5 million ($ 25.8 million in contemporary dollars) to build and opened on December 27, 1926, with a showing of the silent film Stranded in Paris . The audience was so impressed by the lavish facilities that no one complained about the malfunctioning Wurlitzer theatre organ , an "F 3M" style, model# Opus 1469. Proctor had sound equipment installed two years later for
384-510: The leading architects of the boom in movie theater construction of the 1910s and 1920s . Particularly associated with the Fox Theatres , Loew's Theatres and Keith-Albee chains of vaudeville and film theaters, Lamb was instrumental in establishing and developing the design and construction of the large, lavishly decorated theaters, known as " movie palaces ", as showcases for the films of the emerging Hollywood studios. As early as 1904, Lamb
408-464: The new sound films . Shortly before his death in 1929, Proctor sold his theater chain to RKO Pictures . On May 22, 1930, the theatre hosted Ernst Alexanderson , who conducted an early public demonstration of television, utilizing his closed-circuit system and projecting a large screen image on a six by six foot screen. The theatre had fallen into disrepair throughout the 1960s and '70s while population shifted and moved out of Schenectady. The theatre
432-731: The public: In September 2007, upon completion of the expansion project, Proctor's Theatre changed its name to "Proctors" to reflect its three theatres. On July 18, 2009, the theatre won the Outstanding Historic Theatre Award, presented by the League of Historic American Theatres at their annual meeting in Cleveland . Proctors hosted the group's convention in 2011. 2004: 2005: 2006: 2007: 2018: 1st Floor: 2nd Floor: 3rd Floor: TBD Thomas W. Lamb Thomas White Lamb (May 5, 1870 – February 26, 1942)
456-542: The station to replace its original facility in Rotterdam with a state-of-the-art facility in the Rensselaer Tech Park in town of North Greenbush, New York . Programming produced by WMHT includes the state public affairs show New York NOW . The program is also aired on all public Television and radio stations across the state of New York in addition to being aired online and in a podcast format. The station's signal
480-476: The two stations merged in 1970. In 1972, WMHT expanded into FM radio by launching the first non-commercial classical music station in the United States (a format that continues to this day). In 1987, WMHT purchased the assets of independent station WUSV (channel 45) and made it a secondary programming service under the calls WMHX. Due to financial difficulties, WMHT shut WMHX down in 1991 and returned it to
504-437: The wall. The staircases lead to a balcony promenade with an authentic Louis XV style sofa. Decoration includes Corinthian columns, iron railings and extensive gold leaf detailing. Corinthian columns also flank the proscenium arch over the stage. Gold leaf detail is all over the domed ceiling and entrance arches, in contrast to the black and silver damask wall coverings. The side loges are trimmed with iron grilles in
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#1732844886809528-588: Was a Scottish-born, American architect . He was one of the foremost designers of theaters and cinemas of the 20th century. Born in Dundee, Scotland , United Kingdom, Thomas W. Lamb came to the United States at the age of 12. He studied architecture at Cooper Union in New York and initially worked for the City of New York as an inspector. His architecture firm, Thomas W. Lamb, Inc., was located at 36 West 40th Street in Manhattan, New York. Lamb achieved recognition as one of
552-559: Was credited with renovations for two existing theaters in the city: the Weber and Fields' Broadway Music Hall at 1215 Broadway, and the Dewey Theater on East 14th Street, the latter owned by Tammany Hall figure "Big Tim" Sullivan . His first complete theater design was the City Theatre, built on 14th Street in 1909 for film mogul William Fox . His designs for the 1914 Mark Strand Theatre ,
576-955: Was going to be torn down for use of the plot as a parking lot until a group of activists joined together and created the Arts Districts of Schenectady. In 1984, the Golub Family donated "Goldie" a 1931 Wurlitzer theatre organ to the theatre, replacing the long-lost original organ. The project to restore and install Goldie was undertaken by the Hudson-Mohawk chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society . That year, Proctors named organist Allen Mills as its first artist in residence. The theatre produced two albums of music with Mills: Allen Mills Plays Proctor's and An Old Fashioned Christmas . In 1988, PBS affiliate WMHT recorded Susannah McCorkle and Friends: Jazz Meets Pop at Proctors,
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