Uptown Theater (Philadelphia)

Opened on February 16, 1929, the 2,040 seat, 50,000 square foot[2] Uptown Theater was built for sound, specifically the new talkies of the time, made by Warner Brothers.[3] Designed by Louis Magaziner, it featured a lavish interior, with four floors of office space above. The interior consisted of stained glass, high ceilings, and terracotta. As the industrial age peaked in America, North Philadelphia became a working man's town. A large influx of European immigrants moved to the northern part of the city, and moved into the newly developed rowhouses.

In addition to the new immigrants, North Philadelphia also became the home to many fashionable mansions of the upper and upper-middle class. Executives from nearby factories lived in Victorian brownstones, some with turrets and mansard roofs, which lined the streets of North Philly. Along Broad Street were the grand mansions of many industrialists.[4] Lower North Philadelphia in particular housed a number the nouveau riche; ambitious first or second generation immigrants or that had made their fortunes starting manufacturing firms.

The theater was originally built for the nouveau riche of the area. Unknowingly, it opened up on the eve of the Great Depression, which in turn had a great effect on the neighborhood. Over the next few decades The Great Depression, outsourcing, and white flight took their toll on North Philadelphia in a fashion similar to other major US cities of the mid to late 20th century, if not in a more pronounced fashion. While some small areas had long housed primarily African-American residents, redlining, racist loan companies, and rising unemployment led white residents out of the city, and forced blacks in. Black doctors, lawyers, politicians and preachers took over the grand mansions along Diamond Street, while middle and lower class blacks moved into the rowhouses that were once predominately white.[5]

The theater in 2014

In 1951 the Uptown Theatre was bought by Sam Stiefel, who also owned Washington's Howard Theatre and Baltimore's Royal Theatre, and became part of the "chitlin circuit," hosting live music shows that were primarily rhythm and blues, soul, and gospel directed towards an African American audience. The performances at the Uptown Theater came to rival those at Harlem's Apollo Theater.[3] In 1957, Georgie Woods of WDAS (AM) fame started to produce shows at the Uptown Theater. In 1960, Sid Booker became the manager of the theater, and remained so until 1979.[6] In 1961, the venue was sold by Mrs. Bert Steifel to a large chain corporation, after managing it for only two months following the death of the Steifel brothers, who owned it for many years [7]

Eventually, the riots and the manufacturing exodus of the 1960s occurred, and the gang wars of the 1970s. By 1978, the Uptown was too small for the major acts, in an area with high crime. In 1971, Sam Reed, who was leader of the house band in the 1960s stepped down. In December 1971, there were frequent concert gang fights that broke out. In 1972, Georgie Woods stopped producing shows at the Uptown Theater, mainly because of the drugs and violence in the surrounding neighborhood of the theater. In May 1972, shows stopped playing at all at the venue, and in 1978 the Uptown Theater ultimately closed.

Other reasons led to the decline of theaters similar to the venue. The music industry had changed significantly from when the theater was in its prime. Black artists were now able to cross over, and play in venues such as ones in Atlantic City and Las Vegas. Musicians that played there were able to perform at larger venues and make more profit. Georgie Woods also stated in an interview that the existence of booking agencies made it harder to book acts because they would ask for more money.[11]

There was a point in time when black artists could only be heard if they went to Georgie Woods, but once music became integrated. Also, the decline of independent record stores disabled local artists from being able to promote their music. On the other hand, music became more integrated, so many radio stations only played a sampling of rhythm and blues, as opposed to stations that used to solely play rhythm and blues. Many artists started to cross over into pop, so they were less inclined to play at theaters such as the Uptown.

The neighborhood also changed dramatically. Many of the businesses started to decline because they catered to the Uptown clientele and lost them once the theater closed.

The Uptown briefly reopened in the 1980s as a church. A church group held services there until a 1991 storm damaged the roof, allowing water to pucker the painted walls and corrode the gilded auditorium. After the congregation left, the only people who entered were thieves, crackheads and taggers[5] More recently, members of the community gathered at the Uptown to mourn the death of Michael Jackson.

The Uptown Entertainment and Development Corporation (UEDC) is a Community Development Corporation that was incorporated as a nonprofit in 1995. It acquired the theater building in 2001. Fund raising and renovation work were ongoing in 2018 and a 2020 re-opening was anticipated.[12] However the work stalled due to Covid-19 shutdowns and an attrition of board leadership.[13] In February 2022 the UEDC had new leadership and was restarting the renovation work. The group declined to anticipate a new opening date after having missed that goal in the past.[14]