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"Show World Pays Tribute to Shea"

"Show World Pays Tribute to Shea"

After over 50 years of show business and and giving his name to no less than 15 theaters, Michael Shea died on May 16, 1934 at the age of 72. His death was widely covered in local newspapers, which emphasized both his impact on the city’s cultural scene and his reputation as a beloved community leader.

From Michael Shea's Last Published Interview:

"I've lived through worse times than these and come out on top, and I'm going to again. You can't keep a young Irishman down - at least, not a young Irishman who'll be 75 next All Fools' Day. Know what I'm going to do? I'm going to book more and better shows and forget about what money I've lost. I'm going to get it back."
"There's just one thing I wish you'd do, Mike." vaudevillian Joe Laurie Jr. urged. "I wish you'd let me write your biography."
"Not a chance, you young jackanapes. I don't want any books written about me. And what do you know about show business?"

“Mike Shea was a decent man and a great showman and the best liked and most popular theatrical manager in America. He was my friend for 40 years. He did all his own booking and in an amazing manner. Now here was a man, a simple soul from upstate, no continental sophisticate, and yet he's come down to New York and pick a foreign act at the snap of his fingers - and that act never failed. Why in those days his bills made his house in Buffalo the finest show shop in America. He had an astonishing flair for picking what the public liked.”

- George M. Cohan

Shea's theaters:

• Shea's Music Hall (1892 - 1893)
• Shea's Tivoli (????)
• Shea's Garden Theatre (1898)
• Shea's Teck Theatre (1900 – 1982)
• Shea's Vaudeville House (1905)
• Shea's Elmwood Theatre (1914 - 1965)
• Shea's Hippodrome (1914 - ????)
• Shea's North Park Theatre (1920 - today)
• Shea's Criterion Theatre (1920 - 1924)
• Shea's Riviera (1920 - today)
• Shea's Century Theatre (1921 - 1980s?)
• Shea's Buffalo Theatre (1926 - today)
• Shea's Kensington (1926 - 1979)
• Shea's Roosevelt (1927 - 1962)
• Shea's Bailey (1928 - 1977)
• Shea's Seneca (1929 - 1970)
• Shea's Great Lakes Theatre (???)
• Shea's Niagara (1940 - 1960)