Building Shea's Buffalo Theatre Archives - Shea's Performing Arts Center

The construction of Shea’s Buffalo Theatre began with a groundbreaking on January 15, 1925, and remarkably, it took only one year and one day to complete. Designed by the renowned architectural firm Rapp & Rapp, Shea’s was built to resemble the grand opera houses of Europe, featuring intricate interior designs by Louis Comfort Tiffany. This architectural gem opened its doors on January 16, 1926, to the delight of Buffalo audiences.

Buffalo, NY in 1926

Buffalo was the City of Lights, the Nickel City. The Pan-American Exposition (with President McKinley's assassination and President Roosevelt's impromptu inauguration) had happened only twenty-five years earlier and our current City Hall wouldn't be built for six more years. Between the railroads and the Erie Canal, Buffalo was the place to be: steel, flour, grain, and coal made fortunes for those living it up on Millionaires' Row (Delaware Avenue). At the time, Buffalo was one of the largest cities in the U.S. with over 500,000 people - an estimated 75% of whom were immigrants like Michael Shea's family.

Aside from Shea's Buffalo Theatre, there are a few other Buffalo institution that remember what is was like back then:

Our Lady of Victory Basilica - May 25, 1926
"Buffalo Municipal Airport" (now Buffalo Niagara International Airport) - September 25, 1926
The Buffalo Common Council - November 2, 1926
The Peace Bridge (while construction began in 1925, it was not opened until 1927)

Photo Credit: The Buffalo Courier-Express - August 19, 1924

Photo Credit: Buffalo Courier-Express - December 1923

This article from 1923 is the very first mention of the theatre that would someday be Michael Shea's greatest legacy.

Michael Shea

"Mike Shea was one of the last of the great showmen of the old tradition. With his name the growth of vaudeville in America is inseparably linked; the greatest stars of stage and screen during the past half century knew and respected him; much of the glamor and color and zest of the most robust period of the American variety stage clung to Mike Shea and made him a more remarkable figure, in most respects, than the most famous of the stars he hired and put upon his stages. He was a peculiar titan in the business of make-believe, a two-fisted Irishman who dealt in lights and laughter, gaiety and song. His career began in the old First War, on the docks among the brawny, brawling stevedores, on the skeletons of bridges among cursing, sweating iron workers, on freight steamers among the toughest of the lake seamen."

"Downtown Buffalo was not long without a sign that spelled out S-h-e-a and proclaimed that refreshment and amusement were on tap within."

- The Buffalo Times

Iron Mike, the smartest April Fool, and the Old Man

Mike Shea was admired by many and known to all, from his immigrant kin in the old First Ward to the heights of Hollywood. In his early days as an ironworker, 'Iron Mike' had a reputation for fighting atop steel bridges. Those same friends from the First Ward stayed close even after his decades of show business, with one remarking on the occasion of Mike Shea's birthday: "Mike, if you're a fool, even if you were born on April Fool's Day, then you're the smartest one I've ever met!"

To the employees of the Shea's theaters, he was "The Old Man" and many had stayed with the Shea's theaters for more than 25 years (although it was a safe bet that he has fired each of those veterans at least once every year as well). One young usher, not recognizing Mr. Shea, told him to put out his cigar in the theater - and Michael Shea took him to the manager's office, insisting on promoting the young man. Performers too, clamored to get a run at Shea's theaters.

To most at Shea's Buffalo though, Mike Shea could be found standing at the back of the theater, wearing an old hat and a mackintosh, always seeing how his show would "go over". One story recounts how seeing his audience bored with the movie playing, he marched into the projectionist booth to stop the film, and gave him a new movie just purchased from New York to put on instead, delighting his audience with the early antics of Charlie Chaplin. Even as his years in show business became decades, Mike Shea enjoyed his routines (swimming before breakfast, boxing, and walking to theaters daily), had a fondness for detective stories, and kept a 'cat account' on the books to feed the "fat and saucy" theater cats - he delighted in the occasional onstage appearances of one "Kitty Shea" at the Shea's Court Street Theatre.

Michael Shea was born on April Fool's Day, 1859 in St. Catharines, Ontario to Daniel and Mary Griffin Shea; the Irish family soon moving to Buffalo's old First Ward where Mike got his first job at age twelve and working as a structural ironworker on railroad bridges. He took his earnings and borrowed $2,500 from a friend to open Shea's Music Hall in 1882. His first theater would burn down 11 years later in a fire but Mike Shea would rise up to create an empire of entertainment in Buffalo, giving his name to no less than a dozen theaters.

"If you've got the show, they'll come in!"

- Michael Shea's 'theory of amusement'

"The people of the vaudeville stage are nomads and they wander ceaselessly from metropolis to tank town, from stage to stage the country over. Their contracts are brief and hurried and they find little time to bestow their affection in passing. And yet Michael Shea, working through many years with hordes of these minstrels and troubadours, left an indeliable impression on each of them. Indeed, in the brightest days of vaudeville there was no such town as Buffalo - they called it Sheatown."

- The Buffalo Times

Photo Credit: Variety - February 27, 1920

Michael Shea was known for his generosity - this advertisement was taken out in Variety in 1920 by a cast of performers to show their appreciation.

"My memory of him goes back to the days of vaudeville. The old tradition used to be that if you were in love and wanted to get married, Buffalo would be the place because Mike was always there to help you. If you were feeling rotten and wanted a rest cure, Buffalo was the place because Mike Shea was there to help you. No matter what you did backstage, your friend Mike Shea was on hand. That's what made Buffalo a good show town. Mike did more for every trouper, including myself, than any other man."

- Eddie Cantor

Winter of 1925

Photo Credit: The Buffalo Courier-Express - January 27, 1925

Photo Credit: The Buffalo Courier-Express - January 27, 1925

Photo Credit: The Buffalo Courier-Express - January 8, 1925

Photo Credit: January 15, 1925

Michael Shea leads the groundbreaking ceremony on January 15, 1925, shovel in hand, as local business owners gather on Main Street to support this monumental project.

Photo Credit: January 19, 1925

Steam shovels were used for the project to dig deep for the basement and sub-basement of Shea's Buffalo Theatre. This view from Pearl Street shows the back of the construction site, where heavy machinery was essential in shaping the foundation.

Photo Credit: January 28, 1925

The original storefronts on Main Street were completely torn down to make way for the future Shea's Buffalo Theatre.

This building, located on Main Street, was also completely removed to make space for the new Shea's Buffalo Theatre.

Photo Credit: February 12, 1925

Despite heavy snowfall, construction on Shea's continued at a steady pace. This view from Pearl Street captures the determination of the crew as they pressed forward, ensuring progress through Buffalo's tough winter weather.

Photo Credit: February 24, 1925

The large mound visible in this photo was intentionally left in place to support the seating in the orchestra level, ensuring a stable foundation for Shea’s audiences.

Photo Credit: February 24, 1925

Spring of 1925

Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - April 4, 1925

Photo Credit: March 10, 1925

Construction reached a significant milestone as workers began pouring the foundation of Shea's Buffalo Theatre.

Photo Credit: March 23, 1925

Photo Credit: March 25, 1925

To support the massive structure of Shea's Buffalo Theatre, builders had to dig down to the bedrock. A wooden platform was constructed, upon which 50 tons of iron ore ingots were piled to achieve the necessary weight, ensuring they reached solid ground. This meticulous process was repeated wherever a steel beam was to be installed, reflecting the careful engineering behind this monumental project.

Photo Credit: The Buffalo Courier-Express - April 3, 1925

Photo Credit: The Buffalo Courier-Express - April 5, 1925

Photo Credit: The Buffalo Courier-Express - May 18, 1925

Oops! Building Shea's Buffalo Theatre wasn't without the occasional accident.

Summer of 1925

Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - June 8, 1925

Michael Shea raising the flag to mark the completion of the iron work on Shea's Buffalo.

Photo Credit: The Buffalo Courier-Express - June 9, 1925

Photo Credit: June 15, 1925

The start of the steel structure marked a significant milestone in Shea's construction, embracing a newer concept in building design. All the steel used in this ambitious project was sourced from Bethlehem Steel's Lackawanna factory, ensuring a robust framework for this architectural masterpiece.

Photo Credit: June 29, 1925

Photo Credit: July 13, 1925

The exterior brickwork of Shea's Buffalo Theatre began to take shape by midsummer.

Photo Credit: July 14, 1925

The façade of Shea's Buffalo Theatre features exquisite glazed terracotta brickwork.

Photo Credit: July 28, 1925

Photo Credit: The Buffalo Courier-Express - August 7, 1925

Fall of 1925

Photo Credit: The Buffalo Sunday Times - November 29, 1925

"It's a tremendous job to build an organ like the one now nearing completion in Shea's new Buffalo theater. These photographs show some of the workers at their tasks. In the upper left, workmen are shown placing the huge pipes in place. Upper right shows an expert workman attaching the electric wires which control the pipes, while the lower right photograph shows a young woman expert placing the 400 miles of wire needed in the organ. Lower center is the keyboard and pedal control."

This contract was signed in September 1925 to have Shea's Buffalo seated at $13 a seat. Adjusting for inflation over a century later, that would be about $238.50 x 3,500 seats = $838,250.00! Even adjusting for our current house count of 3,019 seats, that would be over $700,000 today.

Photo Credit: October 3, 1925

Shea's Buffalo Theatre boasted a seating capacity of over 4,000, "an acre of seats". Notably, the balcony design features no central support; instead, the weight is distributed outward to the surrounding columns. This innovative architectural choice includes a built-in flex of 5/16, allowing for structural integrity no matter how excited our audiences would get!

Photo Credit: The Buffalo Times - May 16, 1934

If you've ever wondered why Shea's Buffalo Theatre lacks an elevator, you can thank Michael Shea. A man who enjoyed physical exertion, he purposefully omitted elevators from the building. To his employees who complained, Michael Shea pointed out that hundreds of people paid every day to walk up those stairs and he was paying them to take the stairs instead.

Photo Credit: October 20, 1925

The Grand Lobby begins to take on a familiar shape by late October.

Winter of 1926

Not-so-Silent Movies

The first 'talkies' wouldn't come to Shea's Buffalo until 1928 - but silent films were hardly quiet. They were accompanied by music to play along with the picture, and at Shea's Buffalo, it was performed by a full orchestra and the Mighty Wurlitzer. "If I could take the entire audience in a little tour behind the scenes they would marvel at the amount of time, money and painstaking effort we take to score a picture." Conductor Harry Wallace was quoted, describing the full week-long process of bringing a movie to life with music:

There is the screen room, where the orchestra leader first views the feature picture. He sits in front of a speedometer which gauges the speed at which the film is being run through and jots down every title, subdivision and descriptive action having a bearing on the story, together with a notation as to the proper type of music accompanying the action.
The cue sheets are taken to a master library where proper types of music are selected through a cross index of 500 classifications. After the conductor part has been complied, the director again reviews the picture with the score and cue sheets before him. This time, it is necessary to read the music, the cue sheet, write in the music abbreviated cues, and watch the films to make proper stops for each separate piece of music. The score is then edited so that each number will finish pleasantly to the ear, so the blend from one number to the next is never jarring on the hearers.
It is necessary then for the librarian and his associates to arrange the corresponding music for each musician, properly marked from the conductor's copy, so that at performance the orchestra plays only the portions marked for them. When completed this score, it many respects hand-written, is a veritable grand opera. So closely does it follow the action that were it played without a picture it would be apparent that an entire story was being unfolded.

Photo Credit: The Buffalo Courier - January 10, 1926

Numbers of Note - Musicians' Edition

$70,000 "Mighty" Wurlitzer Organ
$17,000 orchestra lift
A library of 10,000 complete orchestrations
$2,000 for the orchestra's tuxedos
$1,000 collecting the musical library
Each musician of the orchestra makes no less than $75 a week
For The King of Main Street, the opening feature at Shea's Buffalo, excerpts from nearly 70 musical numbers were used in compiling the scores.
The orchestra lift rises 50 feet to the stage, carrying the musicians up.
There are 45 musicians in the orchestra.
Conductor Wallace spent 6 days creating the hand-written score for The King of Main Street.
Our music library has 5 librarians in residence.
The Wurlitzer has 3 organists to play it.
And 1 celebrated "stunt" player in the orchestra!"

Photo Credit: The Buffalo Courier - January 10, 1926

"I wish that old buzzard would beat it and let us work."

A couple of hours before the doors were to be flung wide, workmen were still busy on the scaffolding in the lobby and the sight of such crude labor going forward on the eve of his grand opening outraged Mr. Shea. He looked up at the workmen and started bellowing purple orders in their direction, exhorting them to hurry up, to realize that this show was about to open, and to get the hell out. Then he stalked off, still fuming and fulminating.
A leisurely painter atop a ladder, believing Mr. Shea to be out of earshot, observed loudly, "I wish that old buzzard would beat it and let us work."
Mr. Shea heard him, and grinned a little sheepishly. "I guess they don't want me around here," said the monarch of all he surveyed. "I better get out." And he did.

Photo Credit: The Buffalo Times - May 22, 1934

The American Seating Company seen here in this vintage advertisement would be responsible for our red velvet seating - although Mike Shea would be less than pleased with their results!

A Christmas Day Delay

The original plan was to open on December 25, 1925 but even after authorizing overtime pay to workers of more than $14,000, the Wonder Theatre wouldn't be ready in time and the opening was delayed till after the new year.

Photo Credit: The Buffalo Courier-Express - December 7, 1925

Photo Credit: December 27, 1925

Just before the grand opening, the finishing touches are being added to Shea's Buffalo Theatre, including elegant drapery that enhances the lobby's opulent design.

Photo Credit: January 16, 1926

January 16th marked the completion of the remarkable one-year-and-one-day construction journey for Shea's Buffalo Theatre.

Next Era

Building Shea's Buffalo Theatre

January 15, 1925 - 1926