{{Short description|American vaudeville impresario}} {{Other uses|Proctor (surname)}} {{Infobox person | name =Frederick Freeman Proctor | image =Frederick Freeman Proctor 001.jpg | caption =Proctor circa 1909 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1851|03|17}} | birth_place = Dexter, Maine, US | death_date = {{Death date and age|1929|09|04|1851|03|17}} | death_place =Larchmont, New York, US | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | other_names = | known_for =Vaudeville | education = | employer = | occupation = | relatives =John William Merrow, nephew }}
'''Frederick Freeman Proctor''' (March 17, 1851 – September 4, 1929), aka '''F. F. Proctor''', was a variety theatre impresario known as "The Dean of Vaudeville," pioneered "continuous vaudeville" at his 23rd Street Theater in New York City as well as the introduction of motion pictures into vaudeville theaters.<ref name=obit>{{cite news |title=F. F. Proctor Dead. Dean of Vaudeville. Founded a Chain of Theatres Recently Sold to RadioKeith-Orpheum Circuit. Gymnast of Note at First. Had to Help Support Family as Boy at Father's Death. Fortune Estimated at $16,000,000. Starts a Chain of Theatres. Introduced Continuous Shows. Tributes From Associates. |quote=Frederick Francis Proctor, prominent for more than half a century in New York theatricals and dean of vaudeville managers, died at his home in Larchmont, New York, yesterday, at the age of 78 years, after an illness of several months. Death was due to congestion of the lungs.|work=The New York Times |date=September 5, 1929 }}</ref>
==Bio== Frederick Freeman Proctor was born to Alpheus Proctor and Lucy Ann Tufts in the mill town of Dexter, Maine, where his father was a doctor.<ref>1880 US census; Dexter, Maine</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Cullen |first=Frank |title=Vaudeville, Old & New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America. |year=2007 |publisher=Psychology Press | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XFnfnKg6BcAC&q=%22Frederick+Freeman+Proctor%22&pg=PA899 |isbn=978-0-415-93853-2 }}</ref><ref>Ancestry.com Proctor family tree</ref> As a boy at home and later in Boston, where he worked in a dry goods store, young Proctor practiced tumbling, trapeze and juggling barrels and boxes with his feet. He joined the Tremont Gymnasium, a training facility for professional and would-be professional acrobats, where he was recruited to join another performer who had purchased the established name "The Levantine Brothers" from a retiring team of acrobats.
Variety show producer M.B. Leavitt visited the gym c. 1866 and was impressed by Proctor, but not his partner, so young Fred was paired by the Tremont gym's "professor" with George Mansfield, another acrobat and future theatrical producer. Proctor and Mansfield traveled as "The Levantine Brothers" with the L.B. Lent Circus for more than five years. Mansfield left to tour in Europe, and Proctor did the same in 1872. He continued to perform with various partners and as a solo "equilibrist" in Europe and North America before launching his career in theatrical management.<ref>Albany ''Times'', December 20, 1886</ref><ref>''Billboard'', August 5, 1911, p. 16</ref><ref>Ancestry.com Proctor family tree.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Marston |first=William Moulton |title=F.F. Proctor: Vaudeville Pioneer |year=1943 |publisher=New York: Richard R. Smith}}</ref>
In 1881, Proctor took over the Novelty Theatre, on Green Street in Albany, NY., running it as "Levantine's Novelty Theatre." In 1883, he made his last appearance as a performer and, in partnership with circus owner William Coup, opened a museum and theatre in Rochester, New York, where the Grau company presented comic operas.<ref>''The Argus'' (Albany), March 13, 1881; Albany ''Evening Times'', August 3, 1883; ''Billboard''s, August 5, 1911, p. 16</ref><ref>Ancestry.com Proctor family tree</ref>
In 1884, Proctor launched a partnership with dime museum operator Henry R. Jacobs, and together with him turned the Martin Opera House in Albany into "Jacobs & Proctor's Museum" (later upgraded to "Jacobs & Proctor's Theatre"). The partnership's empire of bargain-priced (10¢,20¢,30¢) museum/theaters expanded to include a host of venues in Schenectady, Rochester, Utica, Buffalo, Syracuse, Brooklyn, Troy, New Haven, Bridgeport, Hartford, Lancaster, Lynn, Wilmington, Worcester and other cities.<ref>Albany ''Evening Journal'', June 4, 1884; <https://grainoncescattered.org/2017/12/07/the-albany-theatre-on-south-pearl-street//</ref><ref>Albany ''Times'', December 20, 1886</ref> After breaking up with Jacobs, Proctor in 1889 opened his most famous theater, Proctor's Twenty-third Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in Manhattan, initially for "legitimate" productions and later, emulating B.F. Keith in Boston, for "continuous vaudeville."<ref>Leavitt, M.B., ''Fifty Years in Theatrical Management'', p. 195, New York: Broadway Publishing, 1912.</ref><ref>''The Clipper'', June 16, 1900, p. 350</ref> He teamed up with Keith in 1906 but the partnership broke up five years later.<ref>''Billboard'', August 5, 1911, p. 7, p. 16</ref><ref>Grau, Robert. ''The Business Man in the Amusement World'', New York: Broadway Publishing, 1910.</ref><ref>"Keith-Proctor Co. To Be Dissolved," ''The New York Times'', July 28, 1911.</ref> At his height, Proctor had a chain of fifty theaters. In 1929, he sold his remaining eleven to RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum).<ref>Laurie Jr., Joe. ''Vaudeville From the Honky-tonks to the Palace'', New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1953.</ref>
In 1872, Proctor married the "serio-comic" singer Mary Ann "Polly" Daly (1853-1901), who performed with him until 1880. The couple had a son, F.F. Freeman, Jr., and three daughters, Ellenor, Henrietta and Emma. In 1904, Proctor married Georgena Eliza Miles (1861-1965). He died on September 4, 1929 of lung cancer.<ref> see Grau, above. Ancestry.com Proctor family tree.</ref>
==Schenectady, New York== Proctor opened his first theater in Schenectady, New York in 1912, near the Erie Canal. On April 14, 1925, ground was broken for the "new" Proctor's Theatre in Schenectady, New York at its present site. Designed by famed theater architect Thomas W. Lamb, the theater cost $1.5 million to build and had a seating capacity of 2,700. On December 27, 1926, Proctor's Theatre opened with a showing of ''Stranded in Paris'', a silent film starring Bebe Daniels.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-02-08 |title=Proctors History - Proctors Insider - Proctors Theatre |url=https://proctorscollaborative.org/history/ |access-date=2025-11-24 |website=Proctors Insider |language=en-US}}</ref>
Inside was a $50,000 Wurlitzer organ. Over 7,100 paid admissions were collected. In 1928, sound equipment was installed for the "talkies". On May 22, 1930, Proctor's was the site of an early demonstration of wide-screen television. An orchestra led by the image of a conductor that was sent from the General Electric laboratories over a mile away, and projected onto a seven-foot screen. The experiment was by Ernst Alexanderson.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stashower |first1=Daniel |title=The Boy Genius and the Mogul The Untold Story of Television |date=2002 |publisher=Crown |page=128 |isbn=978-0-7679-1321-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zS4Hja2a6PYC&dq=ernst%20alexanderson%20Proctor's&pg=PA128 |access-date=11 December 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Richards |first1=Rashna Wadia |title=Cinematic TV |date=2021 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=5 |isbn=978-0-19-007128-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EkIrEAAAQBAJ&dq=ernst%20alexanderson%20Proctor's&pg=PA5 |access-date=11 December 2023}}</ref>
==RKO== In 1929, the chain was sold to the Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corporation (RKO).{{cn|date=November 2021}}
==Death== Frederick F. Proctor died in 1929 at his home in Larchmont, New York, aged 78 years; death was due to congestion of his lungs.<ref name=obit/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== *William Moulton Marston; and John Henry Feller; ''F.F. Proctor, Vaudeville Pioneer'' (1943) *Richard Butsch; ''The Making of American Audiences: From Stage to Television, 1750-1990'' {{ISBN|0-521-66483-7}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Proctor, Frederick Freeman}} Category:1851 births Category:1929 deaths Category:American businesspeople in the entertainment industry Category:Deaths from lung disease Category:People from Dexter, Maine Category:Businesspeople from Schenectady, New York Category:People from Larchmont, New York Category:Vaudeville producers Category:Businesspeople from Maine Category:Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)