recordsandfilm:
All that remains from Buffalo’s first movie theatre, “Edison’s Vitascope Theatre”, is this grate in the wall.
Recently I had the chance to go into the basement of the Ellicott Square building in Downtown Buffalo in hopes of seeing some of the remnants of the first ever movie theatre in Buffalo (and quite possibly the United States, as rumor has it). The worker who took me down told me that unfortunately this is all that remains of the room, and everything else has been turned into workshops for the building.
Check out this description of it from an 1897 newspaper article:
“There’s a theater in Ellicott Square now - a new Bijou theater, beautifully decorated in white and gold, with an inclined floor carpeted in Wilton velvet, nine rows of luxurious orchestra chairs arranged in sets of four on either side of the central aisle-72 in all - a handsome stage with an elaborate proscenium arch, lavishly carved and daintily decorated, rich maroon plush hangings, incandescent electric lights flooding the place with radiance, perfect ventilation and all the other accessories of a delightful place of entertainment.”
The theatre was also the first in the country to show films from Pathe, a French film company that also owned the films of the infamous Lumiere Brothers (and quite possibly showed them for the first time in this theatre as well!)
It’s really unfortunate that all that is gone, and this is ornate vent is all that remains from such a historical piece of Buffalo and American film history.
For more history about the theatre, along with some great old photographs from when it was still around, check out this great website: http://buffaloah.com/h/movie/vita/index.html
Nice historical post from my friend Mike
