254 West 42nd Street: The Hackett Theater in 1909, during the run ofA Woman's Way.[1]
TheAnco Cinema was a formerBroadway theatre turned cinema at 254 West 42nd Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues in Manhattan, New York City. It opened in 1904 and was originally named theLew Fields Theatre. It continued to operate as a playhouse under various names until it was converted into a movie theatre in 1930. Its block was famous for its concentration of Broadway theatres turned cinemas. After World War II, the street declined and the Anco Cinema eventually became a pornography venue. It closed as a cinema in 1988 and was gutted for retail use. The building was demolished in 1997.
In 1903, producer Fred R. Hamlin and producer/directorJulian Mitchell had a big Broadway hit withThe Wizard of Oz, a musical staging of theL. Frank Baum story, and they had another withBabes in Toyland, aVictor Herbert[3] operetta, later in the year. In 1904,Oscar Hammerstein I[4] announced plans to build his eighth Manhattan theater (after the Harlem and Manhattan opera houses, the Olympia and Victoria music halls, and the Columbus, Olympia andRepublic theaters), on vacant land he had recently bought at 254–58 West 42nd Street,[5] calling it the National. It would be designed by Albert E. Westover,[6] a Philadelphia architect who designed several theaters in that city for vaudeville operatorB. F. Keith and is credited with Hammerstein's Republic.[7] The same year, comediansJoe Weber[8] andLew Fields[9] ended their decades-long partnership, giving their final show May 28, at theNew Amsterdam Theatre.[10] On May 31, the new partnership of Hamlin, Mitchell, and Fields contracted to lease Hammerstein's (not-yet-built) new house. They announced they would name it for Fields and producemusicals andburlesques.[11]
Their first offering was a new Victor Herbert operetta,It Happened in Nordland, with libretto and lyrics byGlen MacDonough,[12] starring Fields andMarie Cahill,[13] together with a burlesque ofThe Music Master, a current hit play. The Lew Fields Theatre opened on December 5, 1904, eight days after Hamlin's unexpected death.[14] The show was a hit;[15] the production ran through April 29, 1905, went on a road tour,[16] resumed on August 31 with Blanche Ring instead of Marie Cahill, and closed on November 18, for another tour.[17]
Lew Fields Theatre
On May 23, 1906, Fields formed a corporation with Lee Shubert of theShubert Brothers, taking joint possession of theHerald Square Theatre.[18] Fields and Mitchell moved there in August, and the former Lew Fields Theatre was leased by the well-knownactor-managerJames K. Hackett, who renamed it for himself.[19]The Hackett Theater opened August 27 with afarce imported from London,The Little Stranger, starring Edward Garratt.[20] Its first big success was the seven-month run ofThe Chorus Lady, starringRose Stahl, from October 15, 1906, through June 1, 1907. (The play had opened at theSavoy Theatre on September 1.)[21] In the first week of February 1907, Hammerstein sold the theater toHenry B. Harris,[22] the theatrical producer who bought the Hudson Theatre the next year and built theFolies-Bergere in 1911.[23] Hackett retained his lease and the playhouse its name.
Another big success at the Hackett was the Shubert productionThe Witching Hour, a dramatic play byAugustus Thomas, which played from November 20, 1907, to June 27, 1908, and from August 17, 1908, to September 19, 1908 (when it moved to theWest End Theatre on 125th Street).[24] From September 21 through October 10, 1908, Hackett reprised his starring role inThe Prisoner of Zenda, which he had first played on February 10, 1896.[25] (In 1913, he starred in the novel's first film adaption, which was produced byAdolph Zukor and was the first production of theFamous Players Film Company.)
In 1911, Hackett's lease expired and Henry B. Harris took over, making major interior and exterior alterations.[26] The New York City government announced the same year that it would widen 42nd Street, requiring that the Lew Fields Theatre's lobby and marquee be modified.[27][28] Harris named the playhouse theHarris Theatre in honor of his father,William Harris Sr., also a theater owner and producer, and an associate of theTheatrical Syndicate.[29] The Harris opened on August 31 with a new play,Maggie Pepper, again starring Rose Stahl.[30]
Henry B. Harris died in the sinking of theRMSTitanic in April 1912.[31] His estate operated the theater for the next two and a half years, and September 21, 1914, leased it to Selwyn and Company; i.e.,Crosby Gaige and theSelwyn brothers.[32] They mounted several productions at the Harris, the first on October 23:The Salamander, byOwen Johnson (adapted from his book), starringCarroll McComas.[33]
When the Selwyn & Co. lease expired on July 1, 1920, Harris's widow sold the theater toH. H. Frazee, a producer and theater owner and owner of theBoston Red Sox baseball team,[34] who again made renovations and opened theFrazee Theatre with a new play September 7:The Woman of Bronze, starringMargaret Anglin, which ran for 252 performances.[35]Dulcy, a comedy byGeorge S. Kaufman andMarc Connelly, opened on August 13, 1921, madeLynn Fontanne a star, and ran through March 11, 1922.[36]
In late 1924,John Cort leased the theater, naming itWallack's Theatre (hisCort Theatre on 48th Street was already using his own name); in two years he had no hits. Frazee sold it in October 1926, and it was leased out again, housing nothing but flops. The last was calledFind the Fox, and its third performance, on Saturday evening, June 21, 1930, brought the legitimate career of this theater to an end.[37]
In late 1930, the theater was leased to Max A. Cohen's company, Excello Estates, which showed movies in it. According to Henderson, "Cohen bought the land underneath Wallack's in 1940 ... tore out the second balcony, putstadium seating in the orchestra" and replaced the facade "with a windowless sheet of blandstucco."[38] Cohen named itAnco Cinema after his wife Anne.[38] Cohen headed the Cinema Circuit,[39] which was also operating the Harris and New Amsterdam theaters by the mid-1930s.[40] This was part of a decline in the Broadway theater industry in the mid-20th century; from 1931 to 1950, the number of legitimate theaters decreased from 68 to 30.[41][42]
By the mid-1940s, the ten theaters along 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues were all showing movies; this ledVariety to call the block the "biggest movie center of the world".[43] The Brandt family operated seven of these theaters, while the Cinema Circuit operated the other three.[43] The Cinema Circuit theaters, the New Amsterdam, Harris, and Anco, were all on the southern side of the street.[43][44] By the late 1950s, the Anco was classified as a "reissue house", displaying reruns of films and changing its offerings twice a week. Tickets cost 25 to 65 cents apiece, the cheapest admission scale for any theater on 42nd Street. The Anco and the other 42nd Street theaters operated from 8 a.m. to 3 a.m., with three shifts of workers. The ten theaters on the block attracted about five million visitors a year between them.[45]
Cohen retired around 1961, and Mark Finkelstein took over full operation of the Cinema Circuit.[46] By the early 1960s, the surrounding block had decayed, but many of the old theater buildings from the block's heyday remained, including the Anco.[47] The area continued to decline, although Finkelstein said none of the company's 42nd Street theaters showed hardcore pornography.[44] The Cinema Circuit's movie theaters on 42nd Street continued to operate through the mid-1980s, at which point the Anco had been leased to the Sweetheart theatrical chain, which screened pornographic movies.[48]
The 42nd Street Development Corporation had been formed in 1976 to discuss plans for redeveloping Times Square.[49] The same year, theCity University of New York'sGraduate Center hosted an exhibition with photographs of several nearby theaters to advocate for the area's restoration.[50][51] One plan for the site, in 1978, called for razing several buildings in the area, including the Anco, to create a park.[52][53] TheUrban Development Corporation (UDC), an agency of the New York state government, proposed redeveloping the area around a portion of West 42nd Street in 1981.[54][55] The plan centered around four towers that were to be built at 42nd Street's intersections withBroadway and Seventh Avenue, developed byPark Tower Realty and thePrudential Insurance Company of America.[56][57][a] Ultimately, the 42nd Street Redevelopment Project was delayed for several years due to lawsuits and disputes concerning the towers.[58]
The New York state government acquired the sites of eight nearby theaters in April 1990 viaeminent domain.[59][60][61] Government officials hoped that development of the theaters would finally allow the construction of the four towers around 42nd Street, Broadway, and Seventh Avenue.[62] AfterDisney committed to restoring the New Amsterdam Theatre in 1994, most of the other theaters around 42nd Street were quickly leased.[63] By 1995, real-estate development firmForest City Ratner was planning a $150 million entertainment and retail complex on the site of the Empire, Harris, and Liberty theaters.Madame Tussauds andAMC leased space in the complex that July.[64][65][66] As part of the Forest City Ratner development, the Anco Cinema was demolished in 1997,[37] and the Empire Theatre was relocated to the Anco's site the next year.[67] The Empire Theatre's facade and auditorium were converted into an entrance to the AMC Empire 25, a multiplex that opened in April 2000.[68][69]
"Between 14th and 59th Streets"Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide Vol. 64, No. 1658 (December 23, 1899):990, col. 2: item beginning "2113 - 42d st, Nos 207–211 W". (207–211 is the Republic; Westover is named as architect.)
^"Stage Shows of Springtime"The Sun (New York) May 15, 1904, Third Section: p. 5 col. 1 paragraph 12; and advertisement for Weber and Fields farewell, same page, cols. 4–5
^"The Salamander Comes as a Play"The New York Times October 24, 1914. See also the drawing by Dumas, Anthony F.,"Harris Theatre and Loew's American Theatre". Museum of the City of New York Digital Collections, Digital ID: 75.200.54. The playLilac Time, named on the theater, played the Harris May 14, 1917 to June 9, 1917.
^Reports of the sale in two different newspapers include nearly identical statements which conflict with citations above. Among other questionable aspects is the middle initial of the father's name, which does not appear elsewhere in contemporary sources, including his obituary inThe New York Times (cited above). The reports are:
"Frazee Buys the Harris"The New York Times March 27, 1920, which states, "The Harris ... was built at a cost of $500,000 in 1900 by William B. Harris, father of Henry B. Harris ..." and
"Frazee Takes Possession of the Harris Theatre"New-York Tribune July 24, 1920, p. 4 col. 6, which states: "The Frazee Theatre was built as the Harris in 1900 by William B. Harris, father of the late Henry B. Harris, at a cost of $500,000."
^Reilly, James F. (January 3, 1951). "Legitimate: the Disappearing Theatre".Variety. Vol. 181, no. 4. pp. 266, 268.ProQuest1505767801.
^Pihodna, Joe (January 21, 1951). "30 Theaters a Far Cry From Abundant Old Days: But They're Enough to Fill Our Needs, People Claim, Despite TV's Inroads".New York Herald Tribune. p. D3.ProQuest1291337111.
^abc"Pictures: Even 42d St., With Its Unique Films, Faces Shortages".Variety. Vol. 165, no. 12. February 26, 1947. p. 27.ProQuest1285899443.
^Reed, Henry Hope Jr. (October 28, 1962). "Beneath the Squalor, Yesterday's Glamor: the Names of the Astaires, of Barrymore and Belasco, Lawrence and Lillie, Cling to the Cheap Movie Houses of 42nd Street".New York Herald Tribune. p. SM2.ProQuest1325840251.
^McDonough, Jimy (December 11, 1985). "New York Entertainment: 42d St. Grindhouses: Alternative Outlet For Dusty Subruns Facing Extinction".Variety. Vol. 321, no. 7. pp. 94, 116.ProQuest1438444052.
^Morehouse, Ward III (November 9, 1977). "A 'Little white Way' for tawdry 42nd St.: 'Little White Way' planned for tawdry 42nd Street".The Christian Science Monitor. p. 1.ProQuest511943242.
^Stephens, Suzanne (March 2000)."Four Times Square"(PDF).Architectural Record. Vol. 188. p. 92.Archived(PDF) from the original on September 29, 2021. RetrievedOctober 1, 2021.
^Lowry, Tom (July 21, 1995)."Entertaining plans for Times Square".New York Daily News. p. 775.Archived from the original on September 28, 2022. RetrievedSeptember 27, 2022 – via newspapers.com.
photograph:trash world (May 6, 2009)."42nd street Dec 1992".flickr.Archived from the original on March 18, 2016. RetrievedMarch 22, 2016. The Anco, with blank walls, is on the right. The Empire, with the arched window above the marquee, is on the left.
^Kramer, Louise (April 10, 2000). "Multiplexes storm city, and you ain't seen nothing yet".Crain's New York Business. Vol. 16, no. 15. p. 4.ProQuest219191443.
Media related toAnco Cinema at Wikimedia Commons
