Comments from hardbop

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hardbop
hardbop commented about UA Duffield Twin Theatre on Apr 25, 2005 at 1:17 pm

I remember this place when I was wandering around downtown Brooklyn shortly after I moved to NYC (early 1980s). I never did go it, though I always found that its slightly off the beaten track location to be odd.

hardbop
hardbop commented about Trans-Lux Southstreet Seaport Cinema on Apr 25, 2005 at 1:09 pm

I remember that New York Experience. I remember going there shortly after I moved to NYC back in ‘82, though I couldn’t remember what building it was in. I knew it was in the basement/base of one of those office buildings on the west side of Sixth Avenue. All those buildings look the same anyway. I remember when they closed it. I don’t remember the New York Experience at the Seaport. I also remember that the beautiful Paris Theatre in midtown had one of these New York Experience type shows after it closed as a movie theatre, but it didn’t last long and I didn’t go.

hardbop
hardbop commented about Regal Battery Park Stadium 11 on Apr 25, 2005 at 1:07 pm

What a haul. I was down there for a screening on Friday and it is a bizarre theatre. You take I think three escalators to get to the two floors that still contain the screens. The first floor that had five theatres is now a shoe store or some sort of retail store. You pass by it on the way up to the theatres.

That said, while utilitarian, Regal BPC is a nice place to watch a film. Who knows how long it will be around.

hardbop
hardbop commented about Gaiety Burlesk on Apr 25, 2005 at 1:01 pm

That HoJo’s in Times Square is really an anachronism. It is like time has stood still. I think I may have been in there once, back in the 1980s. I think I went in and bought something just so I could use the facilities.

There are still places like HoJo’s that are spread throughout the city. For example, if you ever go to the American Museum of the Movie Image in Astoria and take the N or W trains when you get off the train walk east (on your way to AMMI) down 36th Avenue and on the north side of the street, around 35th/36th Streets on the corner, there is an old luncheonette with one of those signs with the coca cola logo that were big back in the 40’s and 50’s. You don’t see those often. I saw someone filming the luncheonette as a movie backdrop. There is also a barroom right next door that looks like it hasn’t changed since 1936. The people in there look like they’ve been sitting in there since 1936 as well.

hardbop
hardbop commented about Gaiety Burlesk on Apr 25, 2005 at 11:29 am

Howard Johnson’s will soon be joined The Gaiety as a memory only. The whole building is coming down and a retail box store will replace the Howard Johnsons/The Gaeity. There was a piece about this in this weekend’s Times.

Slowly, but surely, the “old” Times Square is being erased. Soon, there will be nothing left of the Times Square I knew when I moved to NYC in ‘82.

hardbop
hardbop commented about Trans-Lux Southstreet Seaport Cinema on Apr 25, 2005 at 11:27 am

I took a walk down to the South Street Seaport yesterday and took a look at what used to be the Trans Lux. The space is vacant. If there wasn’t the skeleton of an awning on the building you wouldn’t even know the space was used as a theater.

hardbop
hardbop commented about New World Stages on Apr 23, 2005 at 4:27 pm

It looks like someone else may be in the Worldwide very soon. The other day there was an article in the paper about the bath the Dodger organization has been taken lately. Back in ‘04 Dodger lost $7.5 million on the play “Dracula, the Musical.” This year hasn’t been much better because it is expected that “Good Vibrations” is expected to lose $7 million. Ouch!

hardbop
hardbop commented about Beekman Theatre on Apr 21, 2005 at 1:29 pm

I rarely go to this theatre. Most recently I caught Mike Hodges' “I’ll Sleep When I’m dead” last June and James Cox' “Wonderland” back in October of ‘03 when the Crown Cinemas was the last playing it played before heading off to video, or DVD, land.

I agree that this theatre is weird in that the box office is separated from the theatre entrance. It is a weird design because your instinct is to walk toward the theatre and not to the box office, which is tucked away off to one side.

I always wondered why the Upper East Side couldn’t support an art-house like the Lincoln Plaza on the West Side or the Angelika and now Sunshine Theatres downtown. I never go to the Upper East Side and transportation is a problem as only one subway line serves that area. In fact, the multi-plex boom bypassed the Upper East Side altogether.

hardbop
hardbop commented about Plaza Theatre on Apr 20, 2005 at 3:52 pm

One other nice touch I liked about the Plaza and some other theatres was the reception area in the basement. I remember the Biograph on 57th Street and the Gramercy on 23rd Street had these type of rooms as well.

hardbop
hardbop commented about Todd Haimes Theatre on Apr 20, 2005 at 3:45 pm

That sounds right Benjamin. Thanx. It is part of a vanished New York.

hardbop
hardbop commented about Sunshine Cinema on Apr 20, 2005 at 3:42 pm

I never knew there was a theatre on this site, though I never spent much time on this stretch of Houston. Agree a great addition to the NYC movie going experience, but it is competing more with the Angelika than the Film Forum, which is a non-profit chartered to present films that otherwise wouldn’t get screened (though I don’t know who closely they follow that mandate).

I am also surprised to learn that it took three years to get this cinema open; it was worth the time because they did a nice job.

One other tidbit, not related to the Landmark/Sunshine, is that The Sundance people were long rumored to be building an art theatre “downtown” and one was supposed to open in Soho, but never did and plans are now defunct. There were also plans for a new art house in that new building that is going up on Astor Plaza, next to the Public Theatre, but I don’t know if they still plan a theatre in that complex.

hardbop
hardbop commented about RKO Greenpoint Theatre on Apr 20, 2005 at 3:33 pm

Was there ever a theatre in Greenpoint on the street that ran parallel to Manhattan Avenue, one block west or one block closer to the east river? I remember in the 80’s working behind a florist’s shop on Manhattan Avenue. The back of the florist’s shop abutted a the back of a building that looked an awful lot like a movie theatre. I don’t even know if this building was open when I was there back in ‘89, but someone told me it was a roller rink. I don’t know if the building was always a roller rink, but it looked just like a theatre. The street would have been Franklin Ave./Street.

hardbop
hardbop commented about Theatre 80 St. Marks on Apr 20, 2005 at 3:29 pm

One other memory I have of this place was seeing a late afternoon/early evening screening of “The Men” here the night the Rodney King verdict was announced. What a day that was. There was a demonstration in NYC that terminated in the East Village. Tower, on Broadway in the Village, had its windows broken. Many businesses closed early, boarding up its windows and people bailed out from work early. It was a Friday I believe.

hardbop
hardbop commented about Loew's Delancey Theatre on Apr 20, 2005 at 3:19 pm

Like the nearby Essex Theater, I only walked by the Delancey; I never went in. That neighborhood wasn’t so great in the eighties/early nineties. I did walk by there recently after walking over the nearby Williamsburg Bridge. The neighborhood is going upscale, though.

hardbop
hardbop commented about Essex Theatre on Apr 20, 2005 at 2:48 pm

I never attended a film at this theatre, but do remember walking by it. It seemed to be attached or part of an apartment complex. Before all the gentrification, the Lower East Side was a tough neighborhood.

hardbop
hardbop on Apr 20, 2005 at 1:55 pm

I’m surprised this theatre wasn’t listed. I have never been here, but have walked by. It books a mix of art and mainstream fare and I remember once one of the owners was quoted as saying that the mainstream fare paid the bills. Kind of ominous because of the huge multiplex that has opened nearby.

I have to check this cinema out.

The Pavilion name is also used by the owners of the Park slope cinemas, one that just closed, so I assume ownership is the same.

hardbop
hardbop on Apr 20, 2005 at 1:54 pm

I’m surprised this theatre wasn’t listed. I have never been here, but have walked by. It books a mix of art and mainstream fare and I remember once one of the owners was quoted as saying that the mainstream fare paid the bills. Kind of ominous because of the huge multiplex that has opened nearby.

I have to check this cinema out.

The Pavilion name is also used by the owners of the Park slope cinemas, one that just closed, so I assume ownership is the same.

hardbop
hardbop commented about Square Theatre on Apr 20, 2005 at 1:51 pm

I briefly popped in here this afternoon near the end of my run and the employees did know that the building was a theatre. You could see what I believe must have been the projection booth right near the front entrance. The more I look at the building, the more I can see that it was a theatre. I think the employees said the building was for sale.

hardbop
hardbop commented about New Victory Theater on Apr 20, 2005 at 1:47 pm

They occasionally show movies here. I haven’t been in recent years, but do remember attending films here as part of some film festivals. One of them Reginald Hudlin, the filmmaker, was involved with.

I can attest to the beauty of this theatre. In ‘96 I caught Kurosawa’s “Red Beard” here and “Sugar Cane Alley” as part of the same fest. I haven’t been back since.

hardbop
hardbop commented about Todd Haimes Theatre on Apr 20, 2005 at 1:43 pm

I was never brave enough to attend a film in any of the 42nd Street grindhouses in their heyday, but I do remember occasionally venturing on that block of 42nd Street and I remember one of those theatres, on the north side of the street, had a snack bar/restaurant that could be accessed by the general public. You did not have to enter the theatre to patronize the snack bar. It was under the marquee.

Anyone know what the theatre was? The snack bar and maybe the theatre was one of the last to stay open if my faulty memory serves me correctly.

hardbop
hardbop commented about Plaza Theatre on Apr 20, 2005 at 1:37 pm

I can’t remember where I saw “Flirting:"it was "Spanking” that I caught at the Plaza. My bad. In fact, “Spanking” may have been the last film I caught at the Plaza. That was back in ‘94.

I don’t remember any kind of hullabaloo when the Plaza closed. It was done very quietly. I never went to the theatre when it ran that “New York Experience” type of show nor have I been to the restaurant that is there now.

hardbop
hardbop commented about Cameo Theatre on Apr 19, 2005 at 2:49 pm

This block has changed. It is now kind of a little Cairo as it is dotted with Arab-owned businesses, most of them coffee shops where patrons could smoke those hookahs or whatever those huge waterpipes are called. The no-smoking ban in bars really put on a crimp on these businesses.

hardbop
hardbop commented about Regal UA Kaufman Astoria & RPX on Apr 19, 2005 at 2:47 pm

I attend this theatre frequently, usually going in the afternoons to take advantage of the matinee prices and the relative quiet. I suspect these theatres are doing real well. It has spurred a renaissance in the immediate area. Several restaurants have opened since the megaplex arrived.

hardbop
hardbop commented about AMC 84th Street 6 on Apr 19, 2005 at 1:44 pm

I have only been to the Loews 84th Street ‘plex twice to see “The Pope Must Die(t)” and Ollie Stone’s “Heaven and Earth” so I haven’t been there in quite a while, 10 years.

I know the good folks on the Upper West Side were up in arms when they perceived that the Loews moved its higher brow fare down the block at the newer Lincoln Square ‘plex and were booking low brow fare at the 84th Street 'plex and attracting an audience who didn’t live in the neighborhood. Loews denied it, but…

hardbop
hardbop commented about AMC Kips Bay 15 on Apr 19, 2005 at 1:38 pm

I’m surprised to hear that this theatre is doing so well. I’ve never actually attended a movie here because whatever playing here is usually closer to where I am at that moment. And that is Kipps Bay’s problem. It is over on Second Avenue two long blocks from the Lexington Avenue subway.