Andrew Paul Keith (January 3, 1875 – October 30, 1918) was an American vaudeville theater owner who took over the B. F. Keith Circuit following the death of his father,

Benjamin Franklin Keith Benjamin Franklin Keith (January 26, 1846 – March 26, 1914) was an American vaudeville theater owner, who played an important role in the evolution of variety theater into vaudeville. Biography Early years Keith was born in Hillsboro Br ...

Biography

Keith began working in the theater at a young age and in 1893 was put in charge of bookings for Keith's Theatre, which opened the following year. He graduated from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

in 1901. By 1905, he was the assistant general manager of the Keith chain. When he turned 30, his father gifted him the Bijou Theatre in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. In 1906, B. F. Keith combined his New York and New Jersey assets with those of F. F. Proctor to create the Keith and Proctor Amusement Company. A. Paul Keith served as treasurer of Keith & Proctor until the partnership was dissolved in 1911. In 1907, Keith became secretary–treasurer of the United Booking Office of America, which was a partnership between Keith & Proctor and Percy G. Williams and Oscar Hammerstein. In 1908, Keith served as acting general manager of the United Booking Office while E. F. Albee recovered from injuries suffered in an automobile accident. Prior to his father's death in 1914, Keith and Edward F. Albee acquired control of the Keith circuit's 29 theaters. The pair also owned a chain of

movie theater A movie theater (American English) or cinema (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as a movie house, cinema hall, picture house, picture theater, the movies, the pictures, or simply theater, is a business ...

s. In 1915, Keith was elected president of the

Boston Athletic Association The Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) is a non-profit dedicated to organized sports, with a focus on running, in the Greater Boston area. The B.A.A. hosts such events as the Boston Marathon, the B.A.A. 5K, the B.A.A. 10K, the B.A.A. Half Mar ...

. On October 25, 1918, Keith came down with the

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 subtype of the influenza A virus. The earliest docum ...

. He died on October 30, 1918, at the home of a business associate. He left an estate worth $3.8 million.($ in dollars), A lifelong bachelor, his business holdings were inherited by Albee and other business partners, while his personal assets were given to Cardinal

William Henry O'Connell William Henry O'Connell (December 8, 1859 – April 22, 1944) was an American cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Boston from 1907 until his death in 1944, and was made a cardinal in 1911. Early life William O'Connell ...

and Harvard College. O'Connell used the money to create the Keith Academy and Keith Hall in

Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, United States. Alongside Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, it is one of two traditional county seat, seats of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keith, A. Paul 1875 births 1918 deaths American theatre managers and producers Businesspeople from Boston Deaths from the Spanish flu pandemic Harvard College alumni Presidents of the Boston Athletic Association Vaudeville producers