Royal Theatre (Baltimore)

The Royal Theatre, which first opened in 1922 as the black-owned Douglass Theatre, was the most famous theater along West Baltimore City's Pennsylvania Avenue, one of a circuit of five such theaters for black entertainment in big cities. Its sister theaters were the Apollo in Harlem, the Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C., the Regal Theatre in Chicago, and the Earl Theater in Philadelphia.

All of the biggest stars in black entertainment, including those in jazz and blues, performed at the Royal. Ethel Waters debuted there, as did Pearl Bailey, who sang in a chorus line. Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller worked as accompanists. Singer Louis Jordan, Duke Ellington, The Tympany Five, Etta James, Nat King Cole, The Platters, The Temptations, and The Supremes, as well as a 40-piece, all-female band touring with Count Basie called the Sweethearts of Rhythm, were all performers at the Royal. Baltimore City's first talking motion picture was shown there: 1929's Scar of Shame, featuring a black cast. It was here that Solomon Burke was crowned the King of Rock 'n" Soul in November 1963.

As middle-class, white flight from Old West Baltimore continued during the 1960s and 1970s and accelerated after Pennsylvania Avenue was attacked during the civil rights riots, the entire community began a period of long decline. In 1971, the Royal Theater was demolished.

The Royal Theater Marquis Monument was said to be phase one of an ongoing series of projects that the Pennsylvania Avenue Redevelopment Collaborative (PARC) would lead. PARC and the Pennsylvania Avenue Committee worked closely with the Mayor's Office, the Upton Planning Committee, and 14 community groups over seven years to erect the Royal Theater Monument in 2004. However, widespread urban blight still remains: the entire Pennsylvania Avenue corridor has long since been razed, and nothing survives there today insofar as theaters. In the vacant lot where the Royal Theatre once stood, there is a sign declaring the Royal Theatre Memorial Park, but to this day, nothing has come about to make the "park" anything other than a fenced-in area.

Sources

Based on "Cinema Treasures: Royal Theatre." Contributions by Charles Van Bibber; subsequent comments provided by "concerned" on Mar 13, 2004 at 3:37am
Kilduffs Theatre Index — picture 1; picture 2

Coordinates: 39°18′4″N 76°37′53″W / 39.30111°N 76.63139°W / 39.30111; -76.63139

Ethnic history of Baltimore

Groups	African Americans Czechs French Germans Greeks Hispanics and Latinos Irish Italians Jews Koreans Lithuanians Native Americans Poles Russians Ukrainians

Ethnic enclaves	Chinatown Corned Beef Row French Town Greektown Koreatown Little Bohemia Little Italy Little Lithuania Little Poland Little Ukrainian Village Otterbein Spanish Town

Institutions	Baltimore American Indian Center Baltimore Hebrew University Bohemian National Cemetery Christ United Church of Christ Concordia Hall Grand Lodge Č.S.P.S. of Baltimore Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation Hebrew Orphan Asylum Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church Holy Rosary Church Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church Jewish Museum of Maryland Lithuanian Hall National Great Blacks In Wax Museum National Slavic Museum Oblate Sisters of Providence Otterbein Church Our Lady of Pompeii Church Polish Home Hall Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture Royal Theatre St. Alphonsus Church St. Casimir Church St. Elizabeth of Hungary St. Francis Xavier Church St. Leo's Church St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church St. Peter the Apostle Church Sts. Peter & Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church St. Vincent de Paul Church St. Wenceslaus in Baltimore Transfiguration of our Lord Russian Orthodox Church Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association Building Zion Lutheran Church

Events	Baltimore riot of 1968 2015 Baltimore protests

Media	Ethnic press in Baltimore (Baltimore Afro-American Baltimore Jewish Times Baltimore Wecker Latin Opinion Telegraf Where What When)

Arts and Entertainment in Baltimore

Districts	Bromo Arts District Highlandtown Arts District Station North Arts and Entertainment District West Baltimore Innovation District

Festivals	Artscape Baltimore Flower Mart Fell's Point Fun Festival HonFest Kinetic sculpture race Maryland Film Festival

Institutions	Baltimore School for the Arts Maryland Institute College of Art Peabody Institute

Museums	American Visionary Art Museum Baltimore Museum of Art Charm City Art Space Peale Museum Walters Art Museum

Venues	Baltimore Theatre Project Center Stage The Charles Copycat Building Corner Theatre ETC Everyman Theatre Hippodrome Theatre Holliday Street Theater Meyerhoff Symphony Hall Mayfair Theatre The Lyric Royal Theatre

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