Back
City Comptroller George D. O'Connell

City Comptroller George D. O'Connell

With weeks to go before the wrecking ball would arrive, someone would need to sign off on the city's expense report to pay for the demolition. That someone would be Buffalo Comptroller George D. O'Connell, who wouldn't sign the paperwork, and instead stepped to help the Friends of Shea's Buffalo rally the city.

Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - April 18, 1975

"I feel very strongly about Shea's Buffalo. There's only one Shea's Buffalo in the entire world, and if it's gone, there is no way to retrieve it, or rebuild it. I call it Shea's, rather than Loew's Buffalo, because that's the way I remember it."

- City Comptroller George D. O'Connell
Thanks to the Friends of the Buffalo Theatre, the State Supreme Court ruled in favor of protecting the remaining furnishings still preserved at the Shea's Buffalo Theatre, preventing former owner, Leon Lawrence Sidell, from taking or selling these artifacts -- including the Mighty Wurlitzer organ.

Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - July 2, 1975

Thanks to the Friends of the Buffalo Theatre, the State Supreme Court ruled in favor of protecting the remaining furnishings still preserved at the Shea's Buffalo Theatre, preventing former owner, Leon Lawrence Sidell, from taking or selling these artifacts -- including the Mighty Wurlitzer organ.

Photo Credit: The Buffalo News - June 4, 1976