Hippodrome Theater

Maryland Historical Society

The Hippodrome Theatre at the corner of West Baltimore and North Eutaw Streets in Baltimore was designed by Scottish architect Thomas Lamb for Baltimore impresarios Marion S. Pearce (1874-1953) and Philip J. Scheck (ca. 1877-1932) on the site of a celebrated nineteenth-century hotel, the Eutaw House. The 3,000-seat theatre was opened on November 23, 1914, by Baltimore's Mayor James Preston. The hall, which had a theatre organ and its own orchestra, presented films and vaudeville acts.

Seating at the Hippodrome

Maryland Historical Society

Isadore Rappaport (1902-1973) renovated and re-opened the Hippodrome Theatre in August 1931. The Hippodrome ran first-run films and hosted appearances by the country's top entertainers through the 1950s. Dinah Shore, the Andrews Sisters, Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb and his band all appeared at the theatre. Cab Calloway, Woody Herman, Paul Whiteman, Guy Lombardo, Fred Waring and Glen Miller all played there during the era of the big bands. The theatre had its own pit orchestra, made up of professional musicians.

Performance at the Hippodrome

Maryland Historical Society

The Hippodrome closed in 1990. The hall was completely renovated with government funding and reopened in 2004 as the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center at the Hippodrome as a Baltimore venue for touring Broadway shows and performing arts.

Note: Much of the information for this entry comes from original source material, including newspaper and microfilm, from the archives of The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, the Maryland Historical Society, and the vertical files at the Enoch Pratt Free Library. The following secondary source may be of help for general background information on American and Baltimore theater:

Engle, Ron and Tice L. Miller, eds. The American Stage: Social and Economic Issues from the Colonial Period to the Present. England; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.