Beacon Theatre
2124 Broadway | also 2130 Broadway, 200 West 75th Street | Upper West Side | built 1927
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1926
Construction starts on the Roxy Midway at 2124 Broadway, planned as a smaller sister to the Roxy
Work begins in 1926 on the Roxy Midway at 2124 Broadway, designed by Walter W. Ahlschlager as a smaller sister to Samuel Roxy Rothafel's 6,000-seat Roxy. The Midway is planned with 2,849 seats and a lobby rotunda scaled down from the Roxy's. Producer Herbert Lubin ends up $2.5 million over budget and abandons his idea of a theater chain, leaving the nearly finished house empty until Warner Brothers buys it in 1929.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1929
The Beacon Theatre opens as a Broadway movie palace
Developed by Samuel 'Roxy' Rothafel and designed by Walter W. Ahlschlager with a blend of Renaissance, Roman, Greek and Rococo ornament, the 2,894-seat theater opened on December 24, 1929. Warner Bros. took over its operation and premiered it with the film Tiger Rose, starring Lupe Vélez. The city designated its interior a landmark on December 11, 1979.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1974
Barry Kerr and Steven Singer lease the Beacon and spend $250,000 to restore its movie-palace splendor
Barry Kerr and Steven Singer, partners in Vidicoth Systems, persuade owner Henry Moskowitz to lease the Beacon, which is then a dank, peeling house showing $1 movies. They put $250,000 into regilding the statues and ceiling, re-covering seats and reviving the 19-rank Wurlitzer organ, and Kerr finds Ahlschlager's original plans in the floors beneath the theater. A triple-feature kung fu festival in April grosses $14,000 in its first week.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1976
The Grateful Dead return to the Beacon for two shows sold only to fan-club members
On June 14 and 15, 1976, the Grateful Dead play the Beacon, their first New York-area engagement in two years. Tickets go only to the 78,000 enrolled members of the band's Dead Head fan club, and both nights are sold out well ahead of time. Guitarist Bob Weir explains the break by saying the crowds had grown too big and unruly, and the band adds a July 2 stadium date in Jersey City for the overflow.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1976
New owners turn a movie palace into a concert hall
Into the early 1970s the Beacon was still running as a first-run movie house under Brandt Theatres. New owners Marvin Getlan and Allen Rosoff began booking live concerts there in 1976, bringing acts such as the Grateful Dead, Patti LaBelle and Tina Turner into the old Roxy-circuit palace and setting it on course to become a top concert venue.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1977
Impresario Kazuko Hillyer opens a dance season at the Beacon with Murray Louis and Nikolais
Impresario Kazuko Hillyer begins refurbishing the Beacon and opens a month-long dance season there, opening with a double bill that pairs Murray Louis's troupe with the Nikolais Dance Theater. The Times dance critic welcomes the 2,700-seat house, praising its sight lines, acoustics and adequate stage, and notes plans to bring a Kabuki troupe in the fall. He recalls that Sol Hurok once looked it over for dance but judged it too small and in the wrong neighborhood.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1979
The city designates the Beacon's interior a landmark
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Beacon Theatre's ornate interior a landmark on December 11, 1979, citing its rich Rococo, Greek and Renaissance ornamental detail. The designation protected Walter W. Ahlschlager's 1929 design even as the surrounding movie business declined.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1986
The Beacon's owners weigh turning the landmark into a discotheque and restaurant
The owners of the 2,708-seat Beacon are reported to be considering a discotheque on the first floor with glassed-in restaurants on the lobby and loge levels, open seven nights a week. The hall is then the only mid-size hall in Manhattan with regular rock and pop bookings, and a promoter says it hosted more than 120 shows the year before, filling about 85 percent of its seats. Concert promoter Ron Delsener warns that the alternatives are cramped clubs or a cavernous room like Radio City.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1988
The Phantom of the Opera's opening-night party fills the Beacon with 1,100 guests
After The Phantom of the Opera opens at the Majestic, producer Cameron Mackintosh throws his gala at the Beacon, picked as the closest New York could come to the Paris Opera House. A platform is built over the orchestra seats and another over the balcony to hold dinner tables draped in red velvet, at an estimated cost of $250,000. Beverly Sills, Barbara Walters and Donald Trump are among the 1,100 formally dressed guests, and the buffet features caviar purses and boneless stuffed quail.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1989
The Allman Brothers Band begins its long run of Beacon shows
The Allman Brothers Band played 238 shows at the Beacon between 1989 and 2014. The theater had begun hosting live performances in 1966 and was renovated as a rock venue in 1974. Madison Square Garden took control in 2006 and spent $16 million restoring the building, work completed in February 2009 by Beyer Blinder Belle.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1989
Bob Dylan walks out of the Beacon mid-song and the concert ends on the street
On October 13, 1989, Bob Dylan is partway through "Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat" at the Beacon when he leaves the stage and wanders into the audience. Still singing, he heads out through the doors to the street. His band, as baffled as the crowd, finishes the song, and the show is over.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 2006
The Rolling Stones film their concert movie Shine a Light at the Beacon
The Rolling Stones' concert film Shine a Light was shot at the Beacon in late 2006. The theater has also hosted the Tony Awards, in 2011, 2012 and 2016, alongside its long history of rock residencies.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2009
A $16 million restoration reopens the Beacon with a Paul Simon concert
After Madison Square Garden Entertainment took over the lease in 2006, the theater underwent an eighteen-month, $16 million restoration addressing roof leaks and failing electrical systems. It reopened in February 2009 with the first shows given by Paul Simon.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2014
The Allman Brothers Band plays its last concert at the Beacon, a three-set show ending after 1 a.m.
On October 28, 2014, the Allman Brothers Band closes a six-show run at the Beacon with what looks to be its final concert, after playing the theater nearly every year since 1989 and more than 230 times. The night runs three sets and ends at 1:25 a.m., on the 43rd anniversary of Duane Allman's death, with several of his guitars played. No guests sit in, and the set list leans on hits from the band's first five records.
Source: Internet Archive
Further reading
- Beacon Theatre (New York City)Wikipedia
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