Harry Milton Crandall (1879–1937) was an American businessman who owned a chain of 18 theaters in
Washington D.C.
)
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...
,
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
,
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
, and
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...
. Among the theaters he owned was the Savoy, in Washington, D.C., his fourth acquisition.
[
]
Theater ownership
At the height of his career, Crandall owned eighteen theaters in Washington D.C.
)
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...
, Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
, Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
, and West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...
. His theaters were well regarded in their communities, and many of them featured elegant and opulent designs which were formerly reserved for opera houses. His chain included first-rate movie houses such as the Apollo Theater (WV) theatre in Martinsburg, West Virginia
Martinsburg is a city in and the seat of Berkeley County, West Virginia, in the tip of the state's Eastern Panhandle region in the lower Shenandoah Valley. Its population was 18,835 in the 2021 census estimate, making it the largest city in the E ...
, the Metropolitan, the Apollo Theater (DC), the Tivoli Theatre, the Savoy,[Kent Boese]
Lost Washington: The Savoy Theater
June 9, 2009 The Stanley Theatre Baltimore, and the Knickerbocker Theatre in Washington, D.C.
Crandall opened the Casino Theater at Fourth and East Capitol streets in 1907, though he soon sold it. In 1910, Crandall opened the La Grand Open Air Park, and in 1913 the Joy Theater at 437-439 9th Street. Crandall later identified this period as when he started to take the motion picture business seriously. While operating the Joy Theater, he began to dream of a larger theater downtown and a large theater in each section of the city. To fulfill his vision, he initially purchased and refurbished existing neighborhood movie houses that were generally modest in size such as the Apollo Theater
The Apollo Theater is a music hall at 253 West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh Avenue) and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth Avenue) in the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is a not ...
on H Street NE.
However, Crandall began commissioning entirely new buildings designed by Reginald W. Geare, such as the Knickerbocker
A Knickerbocker is a person from Manhattan (New York City, before 1898). A modern synonym is “New Yorker”.
Knickerbocker or Knickerbockers may also refer to:
People
* Knickerbocker (surname), including a list of people with the surname, and ...
(1917), the Metropolitan (1918), the York (1919), and the Lincoln
Lincoln most commonly refers to:
* Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States
* Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England
* Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S.
* Lincoln ...
(1922). The Metropolitan was located in Washington’s central business core on F Street, a short distance from the Joy Theater. The Knickerbocker, York, and Lincoln, on the other hand, were built outside the business district. Of these four theaters, only the York and Lincoln remain.
Stanley-Crandall company
In 1925, Crandall sold 75 percent of his theater interests to the Stanley Company of Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, forming the new Stanley-Crandall Company. Crandall retained 25 percent ownership and became the executive of the company, which, at the time, was among the four largest theatrical organizations in the country. The Stanley-Crandall Company was purchased in 1927, by Warner Brothers
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American Film studio, film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, Califo ...
. Harry Crandall retired from active theater operation in 1929.
Community involvement
Crandall used his position and his theaters to educate the population, and to provide space for their cultural and civic activities. He created a Public Service and Educational Department and placed it under the direction of Harriet Hawley Locher, a prominent Washington club woman and past chairperson of the Motion Picture Committee of the District of Columbia Federated Women’s Clubs. Crandall and Locher believed that the neighborhood theater could function as a community center, and that it could provide space for educational, cultural and religious activities when not showing movies. In another move to gain the good will of neighborhood children, Crandall provided equipment for boys’ baseball teams.
Death
On January 28, 1922 the Knickerbocker theater owned by Crandall collapsed under the weight of snow from a two-day blizzard
A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds and low visibility, lasting for a prolonged period of time—typically at least three or four hours. A ground blizzard is a weather condition where snow is not falling b ...
that was later dubbed the Knickerbocker Storm
The Knickerbocker storm was a blizzard on January 27–28, 1922 in the upper South and the middle Atlantic United States. The storm took its name from the resulting collapse of the Knickerbocker Theatre in Washington, D.C., shortly after 9 p.m. ...
. 98 patrons were killed and 133 more injured. The disaster ranks as one of the worst in Washington. D.C. history. Former Congressman Andrew Jackson Barchfeld
Andrew Jackson Barchfeld (May 18, 1863 – January 28, 1922) was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.
Barchfeld was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to German immigrants from Prussia.
He attende ...
and a number of prominent political and business leaders were among those killed in the theater. The disaster was said to be the reason for the later suicide of Crandall in 1937. The theater's architect Reginald Geare
Reginald Wycliffe Geare (1889 – August 20, 1927) was an American architect known for his design of theaters. His career was ended by the Knickerbocker Theatre disaster (January 28, 1922), when a record snowfall collapsed the theater's flat ro ...
had died by suicide on August 20, 1927.
References
External links
*
Historic Landmark Nomination for the York Theater 2012
'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crandall, Harry
1879 births
1937 deaths
American theatre managers and producers
Cinema of Washington, D.C.
1937 suicides
Suicides in Washington, D.C.