TheRoyal Theatre, located at 1329 Pennsylvania Avenue inBaltimore, Maryland, first opened in 1922 as theblack-ownedDouglass Theatre. It was the most famoustheater along West Baltimore's Pennsylvania Avenue, one of a circuit of five such theaters for black entertainment in big cities. Its sister theaters were theApollo inHarlem, theHoward Theatre inWashington, D.C., theRegal Theatre inChicago, and the Earl Theater inPhiladelphia.[1]
All of the biggest stars in black entertainment, including those injazz andblues such asCab Calloway, performed at the Royal.[2]Ethel Waters debuted there, as didPearl Bailey, who sang in achorus line.Louis Armstrong andFats Waller worked asaccompanists. SingerLouis Jordan,Duke Ellington, TheTympany Five,Etta James,Nat King Cole,The Platters,The Temptations, andThe Supremes, as well as a 40-piece, all-female band touring withCount Basie calledthe Sweethearts of Rhythm, were all performers at the Royal.
Baltimore's first talkingmotion picture was shown there in 1929 whenScar of Shame, was shown, featuring a black cast. It was here thatSolomon Burke was crowned the King of Rock 'n" Soul in November 1963.[3][4]
Asmiddle-class,white flight from Old West Baltimore continued during the 1960s and 1970s and accelerated after Pennsylvania Avenue was damaged during thecivil rights riots, the entire community began a period of long decline. At the time of the riots, the Royal Theatre was owned by theJF Theatres chain.[5] In 1971, the Royal Theater was demolished.[1]
The Royal Theater Marquee Monument was to be phase one of an ongoing series of projects that the Pennsylvania Avenue Redevelopment Collaborative (PARC) would lead. PARC and the Pennsylvania Avenue Committee worked closely with the Mayor's Office, the Upton Planning Committee, and 14 community groups over seven years to erect the Royal Theater Monument in 2004. However, widespreadurban blight still remains: the entire Pennsylvania Avenue corridor has long since been razed, and nothing survives there today insofar as theaters. In the vacant lot where the Royal Theatre once stood, there is a sign declaring the Royal Theatre Memorial Park, but nothing has come about to make the "park" anything other than a fenced-in area.[citation needed]
39°18′4″N76°37′53″W / 39.30111°N 76.63139°W /39.30111; -76.63139
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