BF Keith Memorial Theatre, Boston interior

Benjamin Franklin Keith (January 26, 1846 – March 26, 1914) was an American

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

theater owner, highly influential in the evolution of variety theater into vaudeville.

Biography

Early years

Keith was born in Hillsboro Bridge,

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...

. He joined the circus (as a "candy butcher") after attending Van Amburg's Circus and then worked at Bunnell's Museum in New York City in the early 1860s. He later joined

P.T. Barnum Phineas Taylor Barnum (; July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman, businessman, and politician, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus (1871–2017) with James Anthony Bailey. He was ...

and then joined the Forepaugh Circus, before he opened a curio museum in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, in 1883, with Colonel William Austin. In 1885 he joined

Edward Franklin Albee II Edward Franklin Albee II (October 8, 1857 – March 11, 1930) was an American vaudeville impresario. Early life Albee was born on October 8, 1857 in Machias, Maine to Nathaniel Smith Albee and Amanda Higgins Crocker. Career He toured with P. T ...

, who was selling circus tickets and operating the Boston Bijou Theatre. Their opening show was on July 6, 1885. The theatre was one of the early adopters of the continuous variety show which ran from 10:00 in the morning until 11:00 at night, every day. Previously, shows ran at fixed intervals with several hours of downtime between shows. With the continuous show, you could enter the theatre at any time, and stay until you reached the point in the show where you arrived. Attractions included "The Circassian Beauties".

Moving pictures

Albee and Keith opened the Union Square Theatre in New York City, and it was the site of the first American exhibition of the Lumière Cinématographe. They had obtained the exclusive American rights to the Lumière apparatus and their film output, and the first showing was on June 29, 1896. They then opened theatres in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, and

, and then smaller theatres in the East and Midwest of the United States, buying out rival smaller chains. They signed a contract with Biograph Studios in 1896 which lasted until July 1905 when they switched to Edison Studios as their supplier of

motion pictures A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

. Keith and Albee merged their theatre circuit with

Frederick Freeman Proctor Frederick Freeman Proctor (March 17, 1851 – September 4, 1929), aka F. F. Proctor, was a vaudeville impresario who pioneered the method of continuous vaudeville. He opened the Twenty-third Street Theatre in New York City. Bio Frederick Fre ...

in June 1906.

Death

Keith withdrew from business in 1909 and married for a second time on October 29, 1913, to Ethel Bird Chase (1887-1971). She was 26 years old and Keith was 67. Her father was P. B. Chase. Keith died at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida in 1914. After his son, Andrew Keith, died in 1918, control of the company went to Albee.

Legacy

In 1928, the B. F. Keith Circuit merged with the Orpheum Circuit to form the

Keith-Albee-Orpheum The Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corporation was the owner of a chain of vaudeville and motion picture theatres. It was formed by the merger of the holdings of Benjamin Franklin Keith and Edward Franklin Albee II and Martin Beck's Orpheum Circuit. Hist ...

(KAO) corporation in

Marysville, Washington Marysville is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States, part of the Seattle metropolitan area. The city is located north of Seattle, adjacent to Everett on the north side of the Snohomish River delta. It is the second-largest ci ...

. In a few months, this organization became the major motion picture studio

Radio-Keith-Orpheum RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheu ...

(RKO). Also in 1928 the B.F. Keith Memorial Theatre opened in Boston. Keith Academy and Keith Hall in

Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, It is one of two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as of ...

were named for his family in 1926. His son A. Paul Keith had donated family money to Cardinal William O'Connell.

Timeline

*1846 Birth in Hillsboro Bridge,

on January 26 *1883 Partnered with Colonel William Austin in

*1885 Partnered with

*1894 Opens Keith's Theatre in Boston *1896 Opens Union Square Theatre in New York City *1906 Partnered with

*1909 Retires *1913 Marriage to Ethel Bird Chase (1887-1971) *1914 Death in Palm Beach, Florida on March 26 *1918 Death of his son Andrew Keith (c1870-1918) *1928 His company merges with Orpheum Circuit, Inc. on January 28

References

External links

Benjamin Franklin Keith
at

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keith, Benjamin Franklin 1846 births 1914 deaths People from Hillsborough, New Hampshire Vaudeville producers Film exhibitors