Ziegfeld Theatre Sign, May 2007

The Ziegfeld Theatre was a Broadway theatre formerly located at the intersection of Sixth Avenue and 54th Street in Manhattan, New York City. It was built in 1927 and razed in 1966.

The theatre was named for Florenz Ziegfeld, who built the theatre with financial backing from William Randolph Hearst. It was designed by Joseph Urban and Thomas W. Lamb. It opened on February 2, 1927 with the musical Rio Rita, which moved to another theatre when Show Boat opened at the Ziegfeld on December 27, 1927. The theatre became the Loew's Ziegfeld movie theater in 1933 until showman Billy Rose bought it in 1944.

NBC used the Ziegfeld as a television studio from 1955 to 1963. The Perry Como Show used the theatre beginning in 1956. It was one of the locations used for the Emmy Awards in 1959 and 1961.

In 1963 the Ziegfeld reopened to theatre. Rose began to assemble abbutting properties, and the Ziegfeld was torn down in 1967 to make way for the Fisher Bros. skyscraper Burlington House (later renamed the Alliance Capital, and then AllianceBernstein building.) A movie theatre was built down the street (at 141 W. 54th Street) with the name "The Ziegfeld," and houses photographs of the older Broadway theatre.

A fragment of the Joseph Urban facade, a female head, can be seen in front of the private home at 52 E. 80th Street.. The box from the cornerstone, and its contents are in the New York Public Library Billy Rose Theater Collection-Special Collections.

Text from: www.answers.com/topic/ziegfeld-theatre