Beekman Theatre
1254 2nd Avenue,
New York,
NY
10021
1254 2nd Avenue,
New York,
NY
10021
42 people
favorited this theater
Showing 326 - 350 of 401 comments
Damn, I won’t be able to see it! Too bad for me.
According to a posting by ‘savingtheboyd’ from this past April 18th, Gustavelifting, the final day of the Beekman will be May 31st. It seems likely to go out with ‘The Interpreter’, but who knows? Maybe Clearview will assemble a retro festival of some of the Beekman’s more notable engagements over the years.
When will the Beekman’s Last day be?
I went there Monday to see “The Interpreter” that’ll probably be the last time I get to see a film there I spent most of my time there gazing at the interior before it’s gone. they even have old photos from 1952 in the lobby by the box office that is a clear sign of a memorial to this place even before it’s hit by the wrecking ball.
Savingtheboyd;
I’m more of a lobbyist then a picketer. I’m trying to get the Kings and Paramount in Brooklyn reopen. By the way, I live on Long Island so I can’t really make it in. The way I figure is, and this is the way I do thing generally, encourage people to stand up. I am going to admit that I’ve never been to the Beekman, but, as a theater major, I seem potential in many old movie houses as possible places for live performance. By the way, I used the word “crybabies” sort of as a joke, sorry.
It’s funny you mention the paris, I was thinking last night about what that property must be worth and how much longer they will keep it a theatre.
Hey, Gustavelifting, who you calling a crybaby? You speaking to me?
It is perfectly ok to mourn the passing of the Beekman.
YOU are not picketing, are you? I didn’t see you doing so on Saturday afternoonn. For 3 years, I have led the succesful project to save & restore Philadelphia’s last movie palace, the Boyd. For 7 months in 2002, every Saturday, we picketed. And, we’ve put tons of time into saving the Boyd & ensuring its restoration. But, the Boyd is a 2400 seat ornate movie palace, and can be reused for live shows. How many years would there be films at the Beekman in the era of the megaplex? In case you haven’t noticed, megaplexes are crawling all over Manhattan, destroying the single screens, just as they have nationwide. Also, my group faced a developer whose other downtown project had been to “build” an embarrasing hole in the
ground. Here, the owner proposes a cancer center, and that’s harder to fight. And, as I said, what’s the long term future of a modestly sized single screen theater in Manhattan? Let’s hope the Paris survives, if the landlord likes it & enough people patronize it. And, yes, let people visit the Beekman one last time to enjoy it.
I hate to be defeatist, but if the West Side Stadium is going to be built on behalf of the lowest bidder for the land, than something is fishy around here. And that fishiness is prevailing in the current day NYC. Look how dramatically the landscape of this town is changing, it is literally going into a tailspin. It’s sad, but the current crop of people moving into NYC to live in these brand new luxury condos and apartments DON’T CARE about the Beekman, they care about compact DVD players. This is worse than the 80s. I never thought I’d say this, but it’s pretty much over for New York City. This town is just turning into one big overpriced Urban-Suburb. The culture and life as we knew it here is being sucked out right in front of us. So before you accuse others of being ‘cry babies’, take a good, hard look at the writing on the wall before you go into your community activism mode. Which by the way, in your criticism of others, I didn’t see any suggestion of any action YOU are taking in this matter.
MAN THE CRYBABIES ON THIS PAGE! If you really want the theater do something! Picket! Write letters! The Beekman does not have to go the way of the Automat or Palisades Park! We elect governments to listen to our demands! Maybe someone will listen!
As of Saturday, the employees told me last day of operation is scheduled for May 31. How sad!
On April 3, 2005, I went with 3 other companions on a trip into NYC to visit the BEEKMAN before it is gone forever. WE all wanted to see the newest Woody Allen picture, MELINDA AND MELINDA, and found it an appropriate attraction to be playing in the theater’s last days. The theater was beautiful. Fanastic plush seats and viewing lines. It was reminiscent of a theater that was located in Paramus called the BERGEN MALL THEATER. Same style of seating design. WE were the first on line at the 4:15 pm show that rainy Sunday afternoon and we selected front seating in the mezzanine section. Great seats. We took advantage of their concession stand which was located in a spacious and furnitured area. Nothing like this exists in New Jersey anymore. We did not, however, get the pleasure of seeing the curtain rise for the film, as stated in the essay above re: the theater. They had the same type of slideshow that adorns most screeens today. But, otherwise, THE BEEKMAN is a beautiful theater that I was so happy to visit and will always remember. And I am sad to hear of its coming demise. So much style is missing today in the form of cinematic experience. And isn’t that what the film going experience was about? I salute THE BEEKMAN and will miss it.
Thank you for those wonderful, wonderful photos, Ron!
Those photos could make someone like me cry for the beauty of it.
The studios make absolutely NO money from the theatrical release of films anymore so there’s never going to be buildings like The Beekman" ever again.
Another interesting thing is how completely different the neighborhood is now.
If you go to this Library of Congress page and enter the following into the form:
Enter search terms: beekman theater
Match all of these words
Include word variants
you will be rewarded with 13 photos of the Beekman, both inside and out, taken in April 1952.
I am so glad that I got to see Woody Allen’s “Melinda & Melinda” at The Beekman tonight. I went with a good friend and I thoroughly enjoyed it, mostly because of the film, but mostly because it was at The Beekman. In my almost 20 years of living here in the city I think I may have been at The Beekman a few times previously. I may be mistaken, but I think I saw ‘The Player’ and ‘Shakespeare In Love’ there. Whatever the case may be it was good to have a seat there once again as I understand it will be yet another classic New York City landmark/theater that is scheduled for the the wrong end of the wrecking ball. It is very sad. New York is a city that is always on the move and always evolving, but I seriously question the direction that it’s changes are headed in these days.
This one really hurts. I grew up at 67th Street and York Avenue in the 1950s. Along with the belly-run double bills at the York Theatre, the higher end fare at the Beekman was a major factor in contributing to the fascination with film that led to a career in the movie business. One of my neighbors was the theatre’s projectionist and I have great memories of hours spent in the clinically clean booth of the theatre, learning the basics of the projectionist’s craft….an education that was invaluable when I went on to manage a series of movie theatres in New York. Regards, rudy franchi, Nostalgia Factory (www.nostalgia.com)
This might by the last two months of operation for the Beekman. The company is scheduling a date in May for the projection equipment to be removed.
Going to see new WoodMan at Beekman with J.C, Chris Q, Jen and Frank!
Glorious!!
Fine Arts!!!
Plus the Sutton, D.W. Griffith, Plaza and Lido East.
I lived in NYC in the late 70’s and the east side had tons of theaters, Eastside Playhouse, Trans Lux, Manhattan Twin, 59th St East. Baronet/Cooronet, Cinema 1,2
What theatres are left in the East 59th-60th Street area? Think 1970 and how many theatres were there!
Today’s NY Times has an article on the preservation of buildings from the mid 20th century, including the Beekman and Cinema 1-2-3. Excerpt is below:
In Preservation Wars, a Focus on Midcentury
By ROBIN POGREBIN
Arguing that significant buildings are not getting their due, advocates of midcentury architecture are stepping up pressure on the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission to hold full public hearings on proposals to raze two movie theaters on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Plans have been announced to convert Cinemas 1, 2 & 3, a 1962 International-style theater on Third Avenue across from Bloomingdale’s, into retail space. The Beekman, a 1952 late Streamline Moderne design at Second Avenue and 66th Street, is to be replaced by a breast and diagnostic imaging center run by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The theater is scheduled to be closed down this summer.
[much of the rest of the article focuses on the so-called “lollipop” building at 2 Columbus Circle]
Good idea, fueshd!
People should be aware that the Landmarks Preservation Commission has been dragging its feet regarding a number of potential landmarks recently. It seems to be part of an unspoken “plan”: if you’ve already secretly decided not to landmark something, don’t allow a public hearing (the first step in the landmarking process)on it to be “calendared.”
Recently a very strong potential candidate for landmarking, the Paterson Silk Co. Building on 14th St. (an early design by Morris Lapidus, who is famous for the Fontainbleu Hotel in Miami Beach) was unexpectedly pretty much destroyed. (See the 3/9/05, “New York Times” article, “Wrecking Ball Dashes Hopes for a Lapidus Work” by Robin Pogrebin.) This was another case of where a number of the big names in landmarks preservation asked the LPC to hold a public hearing, and they refused to schedule one.
But perhaps the “stink” over the loss of this building (the LPC seemed to be put on the defensive in the NY Times article) might be useful in the fight for at least a public hearing on some of the others, like the Beekman. So you might want to mention the loss of the Paterson Silk Building in your letter.
All concerned people should contact the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission to express outrage over the potential loss of the Beekman Theater. Request the LPC to designate the Beekman Theater as a New York City landmark. Landmark status will prevent demolition of the building and still allow for a potential expansion of the hospital over the theater. Every letter or email helps.
Robert B. Tierney, Chair
NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1 Centre Street, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10007
F: 212-669-7955
rtierney@lpc.nyc.gov
Please contact Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts for more information.
Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts
20 East 60th Street, #4B
NY, NY 10021
info@friends-ues.org
www.friends-ues.org
212-535-2526
Going to visit in NYC in late March 2005, called my hotel, The Roosevelt, and asked about a movie theater to visit while we are there… His answer “You’ll want to go to the Beekman, definitely the Beekman, they are going to be tearing it down in June”.
Anyone heard the news besides me?