Max A. Cohen, head of the Cinema Circuit, acquired the Harris Theatre in 1933; the venue was used as a movie theater until 1994.

Forest City Ratner developed an entertainment and retail complex on the site in the 1990s, demolishing the theater to make way for Madame Tussauds.

[7] At the rear of the orchestra level was an oil mural by Herter, which measured 35 by 8 feet (10.7 by 2.4 m) and depicted a fête champêtre.

[6] There was ornate plasterwork around the proscenium arch, as well as an elaborate saucer dome on the ceiling surrounded by twelve metal lighting fixtures.

[2] The theater's proscenium arch was unusually wide, and the ceiling was extremely tall, but the decor and lighting were intended to give an impression of intimacy.

[25][26] The success of On Trial was an anomaly during the 1914–1915 season, when many other Broadway theaters struggled to stage hits because of the outbreak of World War I.

[31][32] The theater became the Cohan and Harris Theatre, or the "C & H" for short, that August;[17][33] one journalist said that the change was prompted by the fact that members of the public had frequently mispronounced the "Candler" name.

[34] The Great Lover opened in September as the first production in the renamed C & H.[35] During the 1916–1917 season, the partners produced the plays Object-Matrimony, The Intruder, Captain Kidd, Jr., and The Willow Tree.

[48] As a direct result of disagreements arising from the Actors' Equity strike, Cohan and Harris had technically stopped producing together after 1919;[49] the men co-produced one more show, the melodrama The Acquittal, before they officially split up.

[47][49] Harris continued to produce shows at the theater by himself, starting with the Albert Von Tilzer and Neville Fleeson musical Honey Girl,[52] which opened in May 1920.

[61] Arthur Hopkins's production of Hamlet, starring John Barrymore, received critical acclaim[52] and ran for 101 performances[a] in late 1922 and early 1923.

[99][100] John Wexley's tragedy The Last Mile opened at the Harris Theatre in February 1930,[101][102] followed by Zoe Akins's comedy The Greeks Had a Word for It in September 1930.

[108] The Harris Theatre's last-ever legitimate production was Pigeons and People, starring the theater's former co-operator George M. Cohan, which opened in January 1933 and lasted for 70 performances.

[111][112] Clare Kummer's play Her Master's Voice, which had been scheduled for the Harris Theatre during the 1933–1934 season, was relocated after the receivership proceeding.

[118][119] Following a renovation that included a new sound system, the theater reopened by November 1933,[115][120] showing "movie hits at popular prices" and changing the programs three times a week.

[127][130] Maidman sold the theater in 1952 to Kastle Amusement Corporation, a holding company affiliated with Cohen, who then extended his lease by 50 years.

[131] By the late 1950s, the Harris was classified as a "move-over house", displaying features immediately after they ran at the New Amsterdam, one of the street's two first-run theaters (the other being the Lyric).

[125] The Cinema Circuit's movie theaters on 42nd Street continued to operate through the mid-1980s, at which point the Harris was alternating between box-office hits and more obscure exploitation films.

[138] The same year, the City University of New York's Graduate Center hosted an exhibition with photographs of the Harris and other theaters to advocate for the area's restoration.

[139][140] One plan for the site, in 1978, called for restoring the Selwyn, Apollo, and Harris for opera and dance, rather than for theatrical purposes.

[148] The LPC started to consider protecting theaters, including the Harris Theatre,[149] as landmarks in 1982, with discussions continuing over the next several years.

[150] While the LPC granted landmark status to many Broadway theaters starting in 1987, it deferred decisions on the interior of the Harris Theatre.

[153] The LPC rejected the designations in February 2016 because the theaters were already subject to historic-preservation regulations set by the state government.

[154] The Urban Development Corporation (UDC), an agency of the New York state government, proposed redeveloping the area around a portion of West 42nd Street in 1981.

[159][160] The Cine Theater Corporation acquired the Harris Theatre from the Cinema Circuit in April 1984 and immediately announced plans to renovate it for $250,000.

As a result, the Brandts and Cine Theater Corp. sued the UDC, claiming that the moves shut out independent theatrical operators,[162][163] but a state court dismissed the lawsuit.

[175] Government officials hoped that development of the theaters would finally allow the construction of the four towers around 42nd Street, Broadway, and Seventh Avenue.

[180] Adie fought the city and state governments' acquisition of his theater, saying: "I'm one of the last legitimate businesses there, but they only want big names.

[182] By 1995, real-estate development firm Forest City Ratner was planning a $150 million entertainment and retail complex on the site of the Empire, Harris, and Liberty theaters.

[188] Because there was so little left of the original Harris Theatre,[189] the developers decided to raze the theater to make way for the Madame Tussauds museum.