The Astor was first managed by Lincoln A. Wagenhals and Collin Kemper, then by
George M. Cohan and
Sam Harris, and later by the
Shubert Organization. The theater was designed by architect
George W. Keister. Among the plays that debuted at the Astor were Cohan's
Seven Keys to Baldpate (1913) and
Why Marry? (1917) by
Jesse Lynch Williams, the first winner of the
Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In 1925,
Loew's Theatres bought the Astor and converted it into a movie house in order to have a Times Square "
road show" showcase for first-run films from the
MGM film studio.
The Big Parade (1925) was the first film shown at the Astor where it ran for a continuous 96-week engagement. Other films to make their Times Square debuts at the Astor include
The Phantom of the Opera (1925),
The Broadway Melody (1929),
Grand Hotel (1932),
The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and
Gone With the Wind (1939) for MGM;
Alfred Hitchcock's
Spellbound (1945) and
the Beatles in ''
A Hard Day's Night'' (1964) for
United Artists; and
Walt Disney's
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). It was demolished in 1982 to make way for the
Marriott Marquis Hotel. ==References==