Does anyone know if there are archives or other historical documents pertaining to this theatre when it was a vaudeville house? My grandfather, Harry A. Chick, was a vaudeville entertainer who lived in Washington at the time, and I am hoping to find some information for our family’s geneaology collection.
The first film I saw at Keith’s was THE LONG GREY LINE in 1955. The last was THE ORGANIZATION in 1971. In between were a lot of good flicks (MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, GOLDFINGER, THUNDERBALL and so on. By the early 70’s many of the old stand-by downtown theatres had either closed (Capitol, Metropolitan,) or turned to porn (Playhouse, Trans-Lux, Warner(!)) before closing. In my Army days in the city, I would catch my bus in front of Treasury on 15th Street across the street from Keith’s. I would walk up Pennsylvania Avenue past the Willard Hotel, which, at that time, was in full decline (as was 14th Street) and boarded up. Happily the Willard has come back.
Keith’s is, alas, gone. The space is now occupied by the Old Ebbitt Grill. Could have turned out worse.
Even when this was a vaudeville theater in the early 1900s, there were still early movies on the program. The Silent Film Still Archive has two programs from 1907 and from 1908 showing Vitagraph actuality films on the program.
The keiths was home to all James Bond movies. I hated this theatre for movies. The projrction booth was so high that it projected an very bad Keystone effect.
I saw my first movie at RKO Keith’s sometime betwen April 14th and April 27th of 1954. The film was the re-issue of PINOCCHIO (1940).
James Bond aficionados will probably noticed that I did not see DR. NO or ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE at Keith’s. I saw DR. NO at Warner theater in West Chester, PA on 6/22/63. Didn’t think I’d like George Lazenby as James Bond, so I skipped it.
This last triple bill of AIP-Pam Grier was the final booking at the Keith’s Theater. It played two weeks, and beginning the week of March 1, 1978, the theater was DARK.
My father, Charles Noske, was a manager at Keith’s in DC in the 30s and 40s until he enlisted. He loved working there and used to tell me stories of the ushers, the candy girls, the movies and the stars who came to opening night premieres. He met the likes of Fred and Ginger, Raymond Massey (whom he declared a “regular guy”), and Frank Sinatra (who he says played poker pretty well). I have been looking for more information on this movie house (as he called them) for years. What a find! Thanks to all of you for sharing your pictures and thoughts. Charlie’s daughter, Karen
I believe that RKO operated the Keith’s Theater until the late 1960s when it was merged with the Stanley-Warner circuit, whose theaters included the Avalon, Uptown, and Warner, among others.
Let me politely say that the Kennedy Center doesn’t hold a candle to Washington’s long lost movie palaces such as Keith’s, Loew’s Capitol, Loew’s Palace, Loew’s Culumbia or the Metropolitan and Warner. Don’t take my word for it, visit the stunningly beautiful Warner Theatre, either for real (it survives with prosperity) or by looking at photos on Cinema Treasures. The Crown Jewel was Loew’s Capitol, the theatre that kept the tradition of movie + stage show until the CinemaScope era. The Metropolitan Opera played Loew’s Capitol two days a year, as did big-name ballet. Now that such things play the Kennedy Opera House I frequently say the Ken Cen is like a tar paper shack compared to Washington’s once-great Loew’s Capitol. The thing is that the Capitol was built as the FOX and such FOX survivors as the Fox Atlanta, Fox St. Louis and Fox Detroit are called “The Fabulous Fox.” Fabulous! What an understatement to describe such places.
This was one of several theaters in downtown D.C. all within walking distance from each other which would have made a truly remarkable “Kennedy Center”! This theater had two balconies in the same horseshoe shape as the orchestra, and from the last row one could look down the rows of seats to a clear view of the stage with no obstructions from man or material. Renovations to this and other theaters would have been a lot less than all the money spent on building the Kennedy Center, not to mention subsequent repairs (due to faulty construction!) and later renovations.
Here is another batch of Films that played at the Keith’s Theater, picking up from where my previous post left off:
My research ends here. The Keith’s Theater went on for about another year, then shuttered forever. Most of its last years were just a melange of blaxploitation, kung fu, and horror films—some were brought back over and over in double bills. The house was still the city’s outlet (playing day-and-date with a number of houses in the suburbs) for UA action-type releases, including the James bond series, but the rest of UA’s films mostly played the Avalon on upper Connecticut Avenue.
I had lunch in the place the other week – it’s now the Old Ebbetts Grill, and I wish it well…still, I wish I’d been there once in my life to see a film on its screen. Maybe July 1965, when my favorite spy film, “Masquerade” with Cliff Robertson & Jack Hawkins graced it’s screen. Oh well, that’s what dreams are for.
WALT DISNEY! This was the place where WALT DISNEY’S pictures had their first runs, along with the best of RKO, Universal and later United Artists. KEITH’S had two balconies and all seats had good view of the stage or screen. Study the above list and you’ll see the decline in film quality following the Martin Luther King Riots when vandals burned and looted downtown Washington as police were ordered to keep hands off. That killed first runs eventually, and our beautiful downtown theaters died, as people feared and resented the lawlessness and those who excused it. When THUNDERBALL played here UA also booked it into the PIKE in the suburbs. The success of the suburban booking helped end downtown first runs. President Kennedy supposedly sneaked off-the-job and came here for DR. NO, again for FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. More importantly, I took Sally here for OLD YELLER.
Ron3853, thanks for that listing of films that played the Keith. I saw a number of those UA films there. I worked a few summers in the late 50s and early 60s as a waiter at the old HOT SHOPPES, and would take in a movie on my day off. The Keith was my favorite theatre, maybe because the UA pictures were pretty good too then.
I saw this theatre for the first time when there was a huge picture of Shirley Eaton on the top of it advertising Goldfinger. Being all of 11 or so it was mindboggling…
Part of the history of a motion picture theater is the movies that were shown there. Listed below are the films which played at the Keith’s Theater in Washington, DC from 1957-1971. Due to the extreme number of bookings, the films from 1972 through the end of the theater’s days will be provided in a second posting. Research is from microfilms of The Washington Post and Variety.
For most of this period the Keith’s was the premiere showcase for United Artists' new releases, back in an era when new films premiered at one theater. In 1968, after the rioting following the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, Washington’s downtown theaters began to lose their hold on the first-run openings, and United Artists began to split its films between the Keith’s and the Avalon, with the Keith’s getting the obviously action-oriented films (war films and westerns) and those dealing with black themes.
I saw one of my first movies there without my parents. I was with Ricky Evans and we had taken the T-2 bus in from Potomac, Md and then walked up from the Federal Triangle stop. This must have been one of the last movies they showed (1978?). The movie was about an armageddon after a nuclear war had destroyed most of the world.
I remember the theater as a giant. massive creature, in a partial state of disrepair. But I was captivated by the theater as much as by the movie – I was so used to those shoe-box style theaters (can anyone from DC say “Studio 1-2-3” theater).
Just stumbled across this wonderful website and noticed recognition of the old and lovely BF Keith theater in Washington, D.C. I worked for a time across the street while the Keith was being demolished in 1978, and the sight through my office window simply broke my heart. But let me tell you, the noble Keith was not about to topple like a pile of children’s blocks. I saw the thick, massive brick walls slowly succumb to the wrecking ball over a matter of weeks, revealing the enormous deep-red velvet stage curtain which still hung bravely in place. Eventually that came down, too. Then the titanic supporting I-beams of solid iron were separated and lowered and dragged away. The Keith had been a Parthenon, and now the ants had dissembled it, slowly but surely.