Harry Milton Crandall was an American businessman who owned a chain of 18 theaters in Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.
13 Facts About Harry Crandall
1.
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At the height of his career, Crandall owned eighteen theaters in Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.
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Harry Crandall's theaters were well regarded in their communities, and many of them featured elegant and opulent designs which were formerly reserved for opera houses.
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Harry Crandall's chain included first-rate movie houses such as the Apollo Theater theatre in Martinsburg, West Virginia, the Metropolitan, the Apollo Theater, the Tivoli Theatre, the Savoy, The Stanley Theatre Baltimore, and the Knickerbocker Theatre in Washington, DC.
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Harry Crandall opened the Casino Theater at Fourth and East Capitol streets in 1907, though he soon sold it.
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Harry Crandall later identified this period as when he started to take the motion picture business seriously.
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However, Crandall began commissioning entirely new buildings designed by Reginald W Geare, such as the Knickerbocker, the Metropolitan, the York, and the Lincoln.
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In 1925, Harry Crandall sold 75 percent of his theater interests to the Stanley Company of Philadelphia, forming the new Stanley-Harry Crandall Company.
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Harry Crandall retained 25 percent ownership and became the executive of the company, which, at the time, was among the four largest theatrical organizations in the country.
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The Stanley-Harry Crandall Company was purchased in 1927, by Warner Brothers.
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Harry Crandall used his position and his theaters to educate the population, and to provide space for their cultural and civic activities.
12.
Harry Crandall created a Public Service and Educational Department and placed it under the direction of Harriet Hawley Locher, a prominent Washington club woman and past chairperson of the Motion Picture Committee of the District of Columbia Federated Women's Clubs.
13.
On January 28,1922 the Knickerbocker theater owned by Harry Crandall collapsed under the weight of snow from a two-day blizzard that was later dubbed the Knickerbocker Storm.