The Sam H. Harris Theatre, originally the Candler Theatre, was a theater within the Candler Building, at 226 West 42nd Street, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, US. Opened in 1914, the 1,200-seat theater was designed by Thomas W. Lamb and built for Asa Griggs Candler, who leased it to George M. Cohan, Sam H. Harris, and George Kleine. Although the theater was intended to host both movies and legitimate Broadway productions, it functioned exclusively as a movie theater after 1933. The theater's auditorium was demolished by 1998. The only remnant of the former theater is its 42nd Street facade, which has been used by the Madame Tussauds New York museum since 2000.
The theater was located in the rear of the Candler Building and was accessed through the building's western wings. The auditorium was decorated in the Italian Renaissance style, with seats across two levels. There were originally four boxes, a proscenium arch with ornate plasterwork, and an elaborate saucer dome on the ceiling. Albert Herter painted six murals for the theater's lobby, as well as another mural at the rear of the auditorium.
A syndicate headed by music publisher Sol Bloom acquired the theater's site in 1913. The Candler opened on May 8, 1914, with the film Antony and Cleopatra and started hosting legitimate shows during the 1914–1915 season. Cohan and Harris bought out Bloom's and Kleine's interests in the Candler in 1916 and renamed it the Cohan and Harris Theatre, hosting several successful shows in the 1910s. After Cohan and Harris's partnership dissolved in 1920, Harris continued to produce shows at the theater, renaming it after himself. Harris sold the theater in 1926 to the Shubert brothers, who struggled to produce successful shows and forfeited the theater after seven years. Max A. Cohen, head of the Cinema Circuit, acquired the Harris Theatre in 1933; the venue was used as a movie theater until 1994. The city and state governments of New York acquired the theater as part of the 42nd Street Redevelopment Project in 1990. Forest City Ratner developed an entertainment and retail complex on the site in the 1990s, demolishing the theater to make way for Madame Tussauds.
Description The Candler Theatre (later Harris Theatre) was located in the rear of the Candler Building at 226 West 42nd Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, US. The auditorium was on 41st Street, but it was entered through the Candler Building's five-story western wing on 42nd Street. Although the building's western wing still exists, the theater was demolished in 1997–1998 to make way for the Madame Tussauds New York museum.
The theater's entrance contained a marble vestibule with a gold-stenciled ceiling, which led to a foyer. There was a "tapestry hall" with six murals by Albert Herter, depicting scenes from William Shakespeare's works. Two of the murals were larger than the others and depicted scenes from Othello and The Merchant of Venice, while the other four murals depicted scenes from Shakespearean comedies. The lobby was clad with Caen stone, which was carved with floral decorations in an 18th-century style.
Auditorium The auditorium was decorated in the Italian Renaissance style and had two levels: an orchestra and a balcony. The balcony was cantilevered over the orchestra, allowing all rows an unobstructed view of the stage. This was in contrast to earlier theaters with two balconies, which often had columns that blocked views from the orchestra level. The theater had about 1,200 seats in total; the orchestra had 625 seats, while the balcony had 575 seats. There were originally four boxes, two of which were removed in the 1930s when the theater was converted to show movies exclusively.
At the rear of the orchestra level was an oil mural by Herter, which measured and depicted a fête champêtre. The proscenium arch measured wide and tall, while the stage measured across. Above the stage was a fly system with counterweights. There was ornate plasterwork around the proscenium arch, as well as an elaborate saucer dome on the ceiling surrounded by twelve metal lighting fixtures. The theater's proscenium arch was unusually wide, and the ceiling was extremely tall, but the decor and lighting were intended to give an impression of intimacy. The theater was painted in what journalists described as "mouse color and orange".
History The Candler Theatre was built as part of the Candler Building, developed by Coca-Cola Company owner Asa Griggs Candler to designs by the firm of Willauer, Shape & Bready. Candler had acquired the site in December 1911. After initial speculation that a theater would be erected on the site, Candler announced he would erect a 16- to 20-story office building for $1 million. Candler took a long-term lease on the Bruce branch of the New York Public Library, directly to the west, in late 1912. Early the next year, a syndicate headed by music publisher Sol Bloom acquired the library building, as well as a school just behind it, with plans to build a theater at the base of the Candler Building. Theatrical designer Thomas W. Lamb was hired to design the new theater. Theatrical personalities George M. Cohan, Sam H. Harris, and George Kleine leased the theater, which was intended to accommodate not only movies but also Broadway plays.
Legitimate use
Cohan and Harris partnership The Candler opened on May 8, 1914, with the film Antony and Cleopatra. Soon after the theater opened, local media reported that the Candler would begin hosting legitimate shows in the 1914–1915 season. Antony and Cleopatra ran for five weeks before the theater screened its next movies, Pierrot the Prodigal and The Naked Truth. The theater's first legitimate show was the play On Trial, the first play written by Elmer Rice, which opened that August and ran for 365 performances. The success of On Trial was an anomaly during the 1914–1915 season, when many other Broadway theaters struggled to stage hits because of the outbreak of World War I. Max Marcin's play House of Glass, which opened in September 1915, was another hit that ran for seven months during the 1915–1916 season. This was followed in early 1916 by the play Justice with John Barrymore, which ran for just over 100 performances.
Cohan and Harris bought out Bloom's and Kleine's interests in the Candler in March 1916 and relocated their offices there. The theater became the Cohan and Harris Theatre, or the "C & H" for short, that August; one journalist said that the change was prompted by the fact that members of the public had frequently mispronounced the "Candler" name. The Great Lover opened in September as the first production in the renamed C & H. During the 1916–1917 season, the partners produced the plays Object-Matrimony, The Intruder, Captain Kidd, Jr., and The Willow Tree. The revue Hitchy-Koo of 1917, which opened in June 1917, ran at the C & H for the first two months of its 220-performance run.
The next three seasons were extremely successful. Harry James Smith's play A Tailor-Made Man opened at the C & H in August 1917 and stayed for one year. This was followed in August 1918 by Anthony Paul Kelly's play Three Faces East, which lasted for several months. Anselm Goetzl's musical opera The Royal Vagabond, featuring Cohan, opened in February 1919. The Royal Vagabond stayed for the rest of the 1919–1920 season, though its 348-performance run was interrupted by the 1919 Actors' Equity strike. Although Harris had signed a contract with the Actors' Equity Association to end the strike, Cohan had refused to sign any such contract, even continuing to stage The Royal Vagabond during the strike. As a direct result of disagreements arising from the Actors' Equity strike, Cohan and Harris had technically stopped producing together after 1919; the men co-produced one more show, the melodrama The Acquittal, before they officially split up. The Acquittal opened at the C & H in January 1920, and Cohan and Harris formally dissolved their partnership that June.
1920s and 1930s Harris continued to produce shows at the theater by himself, starting with the Albert Von Tilzer and Neville Fleeson musical Honey Girl, which opened in May 1920. The theater then screened movies during late 1920. During the run of the play Welcome Stranger, the venue was renamed Sam H. Harris Theatre on February 21, 1921. The renaming followed that of the nearby Lew Fields Theatre, which had been known as the Harris Theatre until 1920. Harris staged a variety of shows at the Sam H. Harris Theatre over the next several years. These included the drama Six-Cylinder Love with Hedda Hopper, which opened in August 1921 and ran for 11 months. Arthur Hopkins's production of Hamlet, starring John Barrymore, received critical acclaim and ran for 101 performances in late 1922 and early 1923. The Harris then staged two plays by Owen Davis in 1923: Icebound, which opened that February, and The Nervous Wreck, which opened that October.
The producer Thomas Wilkes leased the Harris Theatre in September 1923 for ten years. Under Wilkes's management, the theater hosted the musical One Helluva Night in June 1924, which was so negatively received that it closed on opening night. More successful was the Duncan Sisters revue Topsy and Eva, which opened that December and ran for five months. Wilkes subleased the theater to operator Charles Wagner in August 1925. The theater hosted the comedy The Deacon and the play The Monkey Talks later that year, followed by Love 'Em and Leave 'Em in early 1926. Harris sold the theater to the Shubert brothers in September 1926; he received $1 million in cash and gave part of his ownership stake in the nearby Music Box Theatre to the Shuberts. By then, Harris wanted to focus on producing, and the Theater District had shifted northward, so the Music Box Theatre was more centrally located than the Harris Theatre. The Shubert brothers immediately asked Wilkes and Wagner to leave the theater within six months.
The first show under the Shuberts' ownership was the comedy We Americans, which opened in October 1926 and lasted three months. Many of the Shuberts' shows at the theater were not successful. The theater sometimes presented films in between legitimate bookings, such as in May 1927, when William Fox leased the theater and screened the film 7th Heaven there. Harris again gained control of the theater's bookings that September, leasing the venue from the Shuberts. The theater then hosted the musical Yes, Yes, Yvette starting in November 1927, as well as the melodrama The Trial of Mary Dugan in June 1928 and the play Congai that November. The Harris next hosted the plays Scotland Yard in September 1929 and Mendel, Inc in November. By then, increasing competition between producers had resulted in many flops. Furthermore, with the onset of the Great Depression, many Broadway theaters were impacted by declining attendance.