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The Bijou Theatre (1882–1943) 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 ...
,
, occupied the second floor of 545
Washington Street near today's Theatre District. Architect
George Wetherell designed the space, described by a contemporary reviewer as "dainty." Proprietors included Edward Hastings, George Tyler, and
B.F. Keith
Benjamin Franklin Keith (January 26, 1846 – March 26, 1914) was an American vaudeville theater owner, highly influential in the evolution of variety theater into vaudeville.
Biography
Early years
Keith was born in Hillsborough, New Hamp ...
. Around the 1900s, it featured a "staircase of heavy glass under which flowed an illuminated waterfall."
The Bijou "closed 31 December 1943 and was razed in 1951."
The building's facade still exists. It is currently a pending
Boston Landmark
A Boston Landmark is a designation by the Boston Landmarks Commission for historic buildings and sites throughout the city of Boston based on the grounds that it has historical, social, cultural, architectural or aesthetic significance to New Engla ...
by the
Boston Landmarks Commission The Boston Landmarks Commission (BLC) is the historic preservation agency for the City of Boston. The commission was created by state legislation i1975
History
Urban renewal in the United States started with the Housing Act of 1949, part of Preside ...
.
Background
The building was constructed in 1836 as The Lion Theatre, and in 1839 was renamed
The Melodeon. In 1878, the name was changed to
The Gaiety. It was also named The Mechanics Institute, Melodeon Varieties, and the New Melodeon. The Gaiety was purchased by George H. Tyler (who also ran
The Park Theatre
The Park Theatre opened in Finsbury Park, north LondonCecilia Sundstrom"Psychopaths, nudity and Maureen Lipman launch new Finsbury Park theatre" ''Hackney Gazette'', 27 March 2013. Retrieved 2013-04-01. in 2013. It describes itself as "a neighbo ...
) and by Frederick Vokes, who had renovated the Gaiety, and wanted to rename it the Bijou Theatre. Vokes would relinquish his share, and Tyler would replace him with E.H. and T.N. Hastings. The Bijou officially opened on December 18, 1882.
The Bijou
![1884 Iolanthe BijouTheatre Boston](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/1884_Iolanthe_BijouTheatre_Boston.png)
The new theatre opened on December 18, 1882 with the
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera, operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinaf ...
and
W.S. Gilbert
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most f ...
(
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...
)
comic opera
Comic opera, sometimes known as light opera, is a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending and often including spoken dialogue.
Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a ne ...
''
Iolanthe
''Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri'' () is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, first performed in 1882. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh of fourteen operatic collaborations by Gilbert ...
''. By September 27, 1886, the theatre became owned by
B.F. Keith
Benjamin Franklin Keith (January 26, 1846 – March 26, 1914) was an American vaudeville theater owner, highly influential in the evolution of variety theater into vaudeville.
Biography
Early years
Keith was born in Hillsborough, New Hamp ...
and George R. Batcheller.
On March 24, 1894, Keith opened a theatre next the Bijou named "B.F. Keith’s Theatre". In 1901, it was renamed the "Bijou Opera House". The Bijou would later be named "Bijou Dream" when it became a movie house in 1927, and also became known as Intown sometime after that.
The Bijou was a distinct theatre for a couple of reasons. The Bijou was the first theatre in the United States to be elementarily lighted by electricity, which
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...
personally installed and supervised.
It also was unique for the fact that it did not have a traditional exit to the outside. Since it was on the second floor, the exits led to the lobbies of the two surrounding theatres, the B.F. Keith Theatre (later the Normandie and Laffmovie) and the newer Keith Memorial (later known as the Savoy and is now the
Boston Opera House
The Boston Opera House, also known as the Citizens Bank Opera House, is a performing arts and esports venue located at 539 Washington St. in Boston, Massachusetts. It was originally built as the B.F. Keith Memorial Theatre, a movie palace in ...
). After the tragic 1942
Cocoanut Grove fire
The Cocoanut Grove fire was a nightclub fire which took place in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, on November 28, 1942, and resulted in the deaths of 492 people. It is the deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history, and the second-deadliest ...
(492 deaths), Boston heavily enforced new fire laws, and since the Bijou did not have adequate exits, it was forced to close.
The Bijou was razed to the orchestra and stage floors, which became the roof of the stores below. Most of what remained of the Bijou building was demolished in 2008, but
Emerson College
Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands ( Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a ...
bought the property and plans to make the Bijou and
Paramount Theatre into theatres and dormitories.
Images
Image:1886 Bijou Theatre Boston map byBromley BPL 12259 detail 2.png, Detail of 1886 map of Boston, showing the Bijou adjacent to the Boston Theatre :''See Federal Street Theatre for an earlier theatre known also as the Boston Theatre''
The Boston Theatre was a theatre in Boston, Massachusetts. It was first built in 1854 and operated as a theatre until 1925. Productions included performances by ...
Image:1911 projection room BijouTheatre BostonMA PhotoEra v27 no2.png, Film projection room, 1911
Image:1915 KeithsBijou theatre BostonEveningTranscript Nov20.png, Advertisement, 1915, for Frank Keenan
Frank Keenan (born James Francis Keenan; April 8, 1858 – February 24, 1929) was an American stage and film actor and stage director and manager during the silent-film era. He was among the first stage actors to star in Hollywood, and he pur ...
, Marie Tempest
Dame Mary Susan Etherington, (15 July 1864 – 15 October 1942), known professionally as Marie Tempest, was an English singer and actress.
Tempest became a famous soprano in late Victorian light opera and Edwardian musical comedies. Later, sh ...
, Bijou String Quartet
Image:2011 no545 WashingtonSt Boston USA.jpg, Facade of former Bijou in 2011; between Paramount Theatre (at left), and Boston Opera House
The Boston Opera House, also known as the Citizens Bank Opera House, is a performing arts and esports venue located at 539 Washington St. in Boston, Massachusetts. It was originally built as the B.F. Keith Memorial Theatre, a movie palace in ...
(at right)
Variant names
* Bijou Opera House
* Bijou Dream Theatre
* B.F. Keith's Bijou Theatre
[Frank Cullen. Vaudeville old & new: an encyclopedia of variety performances in America. NY: Routledge, 2004]
*
RKO
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 ...
Bijou Theatre
[Life, Jan. 10, 1938]
* Intown Theatre
References
External links
* Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University
Boston Bijou Theatre Company records: Guide
* Boston Athenaeum
Theater History Bijou Theatre (1882- 1952), 545 Washington Street
* Historic Boston Inc
543-547 Washington Street
* Boston Landmarks Commission
Photo of 543-547 Washington Street Boston, 20th century
{{coord, 42, 21, 15.52, N, 71, 3, 44.26, W, type:landmark_region:US-MA, display=title
1882 establishments in Massachusetts
1943 disestablishments in Massachusetts
Boston Theater District
Cultural history of Boston
Event venues established in 1882
Former cinemas in the United States
Former theatres in Boston
Demolished buildings and structures in Boston
Buildings and structures demolished in 1951