Shea's Performing Arts Center
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Shea's Performing Arts Center is a theater for touring Broadway musicals and special events in Buffalo, New York. Originally called Shea's Buffalo, it was built in 1926 to be a theatre house that played silent movies. It took one year to build the entire theatre. Shea's boasts one of the few theatre organs that are still in operation today in the country. The Mighty Wurlitzer is a typical theatre organ that has all the traditional stops as long as other sounds like a full percussion section. The organ has four manuals.
In 2006, to commemorate the theater's 80th birthday, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of the world-renowned JoAnn Falletta played a concert there with Anthony Neuman playing the organ. Highlights of the program included Camille Saint-Saëns "Organ" Symphony 3 in C minor, Phantom of the Opera, Bach's everlasting Toccata and Fugue in D minor, and Louis Vierne's Carillon on Westminster Chimes.
Shea's Buffalo (now Shea's Performing Arts Center), flagship of the theater chain, was designed by the noted firm of Rapp and Rapp, modeled in a combination of Spanish and French Baroque and Rococo styles, the lobby was designed to resemble the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Originally the seating accommodated nearly 4,000 people, several hundred were removed in the 1930s to make more comfortable accommodations in the orchestra area. The interior, designed in the Tiffany style, contained furnishings and fixtures supplied by Marshall Field in Chicago, and immense Czechoslovakian crystal chandeliers of the finest quality. The interior contains over one acre of seating. The cost of construction and outfittng of the theater in 1926 was a staggering $3,000,000. This at a time when a new house could be purchased for $3,000 and a new Model A Ford was $1,000. Opening January 16, 1926 with the film "King of Main Street", starring Jimmy Cagney the movie palace really was the king for decades. When Michael Shea retired in 1930 Shea's interests were headed by V R McFaul, who owned and managed several dozen Shea's Theaters from Ashtabula, Ohio to Erie and Bradford, PA, to the nearly dozen movie houses and lesser movie palaces located in the metro Buffalo area until his death in 1955. Loew's Corp took over the chain's interests in 1948, upon the Deregulation of the Movie and Theater Industry adjudicated by the Supreme Court.
In 1974 the city foreclosed for back taxes and after three decades of great struggle Shea's Performing Arts Center remains one of the finest movie palaces, as well as, a shining example of urban reuse and renewal. It has again become the cornerstone of Buffalo's thriving nightlife and burgeoning theater district.
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Categories: Cleanup from March 2007 | All pages needing cleanup | Articles needing sections | Articles lacking sources from March 2007 | All articles lacking sources | Buffalo, New York culture | Buildings and structures in Buffalo, New York | Theatres in New York | Concert halls in the United States
