There also was (and is) a theatre at 1105 First Avenue & 60th Street. It is the long-time home of the Chicago City Limits comedy troupe. The theatre has a marquee and for about a minute in the late 80s/early 90s it was opened as a theatre. I remember the film “Jacquot” by Agnes Varda played there (I didn’t see that film there; I never went) but remember walking by and the theatre had closed. Anyone have the skinny on this theatre?
Anyone notice a few blocks north of Two Boots Pioneer, on Avenue A, on the East Side of a Street a building that looks like it was a theatre. It has been closed for years. There are retail stores on the ground floor. Anyone know the name of that theatre, if it was a theatre?
I went to URI and attended many films here. I remember catching “Star Wars” at the Campus. All the development in Wakefield/South County makes me want to cry.
I also remember that the Paris was one of the few, if the only, commercial theatre in Manhattan that did not have a snack bar. I think that was the policy of the Pathe folks. When Loew’s took over, the snack bar went in.
I’ve been to the Paris many times. They occasionally do revivals. I remember seeing “Purple Noon” with Alain Delon here as well as sitting through a Marx Brothers double-feature. And they did a Merchant-Ivory retro. I also remember getting literally the last ticket to a New Year’s Day, 9:30 a.m. screening of Kenneth’s Branagh’s “Hamlet.”
BAM since it opened its four-‘plex has dedicated one screen to rep fare. I read where Dan Talbot booked BAM. Does he still book BAM. I remember at one point I stopped going to the rep house because they weren’t playing anything of interest. I didn’t even re-up my membership. Than all of a sudden the rep house started showing all sorts of stuff I wanted to see. I have no idea if this is a coincidence or they changed bookers. Anyone know?
This house was weird. I frequently patronized the theatres around Bloomingdale’s but rarely went here. In all my years of movie going, I only went there three or four times. I remember seeing three films here, FEAR with Marky Mark & William Peterson. It might have been the last night it played. I caught Bruce Beresford’s PARADISE ROAD, Baz Luhrman’s ROMEA & JULIET and ONCE UPON A TIME WE WERE COLORED. Last time I was there was ‘98.
It is kind of sad the way that neighborhood around Bloomingdales is now almost bereft of theatres. It used to be quite a movie going destination, but the Baronet, Coronet, & Manhattan Twin all closed, leaving City Cinema’s ‘plex, Cinemas 1,2,3 & ImaginAsian. I don’t even know if the Sutton is still open. It is not listed in today’s Times.
I remember seeing “The Gods Must Be Crazy” here too and waiting in a long line behind some guy who was just divorced who was discussing his sex life. Only in Manhattan. I think “The Gods Must Be Crazy” ran for more than a year at the 68th Street Playhouse.
I could have sworn the Village East opened before the Angelika. The first film I caught at the Angelika was “Hidden Agenda” so that must have been 1990 and do remember reading about the delays in the Angelika’s opening. I faintly remember it having something to do with plumbing problems, but I later learned there was a big dispute between UA & Angelika’s original owner Joe Saleh (sic).
I always thought the Village East and that Loew’s East Village ‘plex on Third Avenue opened about the same time and were around before the Angelika opened. I guess my memory is playing tricks on me.
It is a crime what happened to the Waverly. The Waverly was the first place I caught a movie in NYC when I moved here in ‘82. It was “Diner.” In the eighties I remember this theatre having a real “personality” and was the place to see independent films long before the Angelika opened and became the premier place to see indie films downtown. I assume this film was run by Cineplex Odeon and it completely lost its personality in the 1990s, running mainstream fare.
I remember when this theatre reopened and moved the entrance from “The Deuce” to Broadway. The only film I caught there was “A Fish Called Wanda.” Cineplex Odeon renovated it, but I don’t think it was open for very long after it reopened. Like I said, I only went there once and barely remember it being open.
I think the National was the first of the Times Square cinemas to close with the advent of the AMC & Sony E-Walk ‘plexes. It closed even before the E-Walk and AMC 'plexes opened. The owners no doubt saw the hand-writing on the wall. Last time I can remember being at the National was '96 to see the sole film Tom Hanks directed, the bland “That Thing You Do.”
I think the State did booming business when it first opened and they wished they had even more screens. When the State/Virgin store opened the “new” Times Square was still in its infancy. I know Virgin exceeded its expectations.
What happened to the State is that the E-Walk opened and its 13 screens and there was also the 25-screen AMC ‘plex. I remember talking to a friend and wondering how they would fill 38 new screens with movies, in addition to existing cinemas in Times Square, the two Embassys, the Astor Plaza, the Criterion and The National, which I think was the first of these to close.
Loew’s cannibalized itself. It is no wonder that all the exhibitors ended up in Chapter 11. Loew’s had only been open for a few years before it was marginalized. No way will Loew’s get its money back.
I don’t know where to post this, but does anyone remember a short-lived revival house that was on White Street, just east of Sixth Avenue. It was opened in 1991 or so and lasted less than a year. An Indian guy ran the theatre I think. I remember going down there to see Fellini’s Roma and the place was closed so I popped up to the Paramount Theatre to see “A River Runs Through It.” It must have been open in ‘91 and it was a full-blown revival house. I remember seeing Rossellini’s “Fear” here as well as Kazan’s “The Last Tycoon.”
Is there a listing for the St. Mark’s Cinema, which was on northwest corner of St. Mark’s Place & Second Avenue. I assume it is listed under another name. I remember going to this theatre in the early to mid 80s. It closed and became a Gap Store. The opening of a Gap store in the East Village kind of announced that the funky East Village had either arrived as a neighborhood or declined depending on your viewpoint.
I think the St. Mark’s Cinema was a “moveover” theatre and you’d get to see double-bills for a discount price. They also had midnight screenings I believe.
Oh, I have memories of this theatre, not fond ones though. I grew up in a suburb of Providence, Warwick, R.I. One Saturday or Sunday afternoon in the late 1960s/early 1970s myself and three of my friends were dropped off my one of our parents to see a double-bill of Polanski’s “Fearless Vampire Hunters” and one of the “Dark Shadows” films I think.
In any event, we get there and it is chaos. The place and is packed and the exclusively “urban” audience was going nuts in the theatre, with people milling around in the lobby, people running on stage. No one is paying attention to the film. We are not there for more than five minutes before we get shaken down and we lose our money.
Finally, we sense trouble and the four of us leave and walk to nearby Federal Hill where the family of one of the guys I was with owned a restaurant. The father, when he sees this motley lot come into his restaurant, starts berating us for not “fighting back.”
In turns out it was prescient for us to leave because there was a riot at the theatre that day and the box office was sacked. I think the box office was one of those free standing facilities just outside the theatre. You had to go outside to get to the box office.
Providence really went downhill in the sixties, seventies and eighties before turning around in more recent years. I do remember when the Strand was a porno house, though.
It wasn’t until the early 1990s that I finally got a chance to see “The Fearless Vampire Killers” when it was revived at the Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center.
I think this theatre is a bit of a pit. When I attend I always end up in one of the smaller, non-descript theatres in the basement or the second floor and never get to see films in the “main” auditorium, which is nice room, but a weird place to see a movie. I can’t imagine sitting in the orchestra in that big room.
I often have to get up and close the door when the films start and find many of the auditoriums dank.
City Cinemas really dropped the ball because I think they were hoping this theatre would be what the Angelika became. The Village East opened a couple of years before the Angelika, but never had the vibe the Angelika had when the Angelika opened. The Angelika became the premier downtown arthouse, primarly because of the cafe and the location, though City Cinemas is in a funky spot.
From what I understand, the owner of the Angelika was getting divorced and that caused him to sell out to City Cinemas. One nice thing about the Village East is that I know that if I miss a film at the Angelika I’ll get a chance to see it at the Village East before it heads off to videoland.
I am a regular attendee of the Film Forum and do remember occasionally attending screenings at the Watts Street site in the eighties. Out of curiousity I asked Bruce Goldstein how the long the FF was closed between the time the Watts Street facility closed and the new W. Houston Street site opened. He said they were closed for a about a year. Watts Street closed in ‘89 and W. Houston opened in '90.
I remember those annual “silly” summer fests and remember that the FF took a lot of flak for stopping them. I guess FF felt they had exhausted that fest, but the public didn’t.
I remember going here in the late 1960s/1970s before it became a porno house for 50 cent kiddie matinees on weekends. They may have even been double-bills.
I remember going here many, many, many times in the early 1970s. It was a victim of suburban sprawl. It is amazing how that whole area has developed. The drive-in also had a Merry-Go-Round right down in front of the screen.
There was a multiplex on the site where the AMC moved and I assume it was demolished to make way for the AMC ‘plex. I forget the name of it, but they played first-run films and charged a price a couple of dollars cheaper than other theatres in NYC. And they weren’t strict about allowing people to move to another theatre without buying a second admission. I usually was afraid to walk on that block and wouldn’t step foot in any of those 42nd Street theatres, but do remember seeing one film there in '94 called JASON’S LYRIC. It was probably the only place the film was playing so I was forced to brave the block. I remember the woman in the ticket booth sat there couting and recounting cash as I waiting to buy a ticket, which caused me to miss the beginning of the film. It was the first and last time I went there. Anyone remember this theatre?
I too remember this cinema and remember seeing Ingmar Bergman’s name on a marquee. That is not something you would see too often in a suburban theatre located in a mall.
I remember going there in the 1970s when they revived “House of Wax” in 3-D. And I remember seeing the re-released version of Speilberg’s “Close Encounters.” That was probably the last time I was there.
The Midland Mall has fallen on hard times. Last time I was there it was a pit. I remember how vibrant that place was when I was a kid.
br9175,
I could be wrong, but I thought that I remember reading an article where Harvey Weinstein was interviewed and he talked about the (then) shortage of screens and how he was renting the Thalia to give his films a longer theatrical shelf life. Maybe, I’m conflating that with Fine Line. Or, maybe, Miramax also took a shot at this. In any event, I didn’t seen any Miramax, or Fine Line, films at the Thalia.
There also was (and is) a theatre at 1105 First Avenue & 60th Street. It is the long-time home of the Chicago City Limits comedy troupe. The theatre has a marquee and for about a minute in the late 80s/early 90s it was opened as a theatre. I remember the film “Jacquot” by Agnes Varda played there (I didn’t see that film there; I never went) but remember walking by and the theatre had closed. Anyone have the skinny on this theatre?
Anyone notice a few blocks north of Two Boots Pioneer, on Avenue A, on the East Side of a Street a building that looks like it was a theatre. It has been closed for years. There are retail stores on the ground floor. Anyone know the name of that theatre, if it was a theatre?
I went to URI and attended many films here. I remember catching “Star Wars” at the Campus. All the development in Wakefield/South County makes me want to cry.
I also remember that the Paris was one of the few, if the only, commercial theatre in Manhattan that did not have a snack bar. I think that was the policy of the Pathe folks. When Loew’s took over, the snack bar went in.
I’ve been to the Paris many times. They occasionally do revivals. I remember seeing “Purple Noon” with Alain Delon here as well as sitting through a Marx Brothers double-feature. And they did a Merchant-Ivory retro. I also remember getting literally the last ticket to a New Year’s Day, 9:30 a.m. screening of Kenneth’s Branagh’s “Hamlet.”
I remember patronizing Lupo’s many times in the late 1970s. Hasn’t Lupos moved several times?
I remember my father took me and some friends of mine here and we saw “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight”.
BAM since it opened its four-‘plex has dedicated one screen to rep fare. I read where Dan Talbot booked BAM. Does he still book BAM. I remember at one point I stopped going to the rep house because they weren’t playing anything of interest. I didn’t even re-up my membership. Than all of a sudden the rep house started showing all sorts of stuff I wanted to see. I have no idea if this is a coincidence or they changed bookers. Anyone know?
Damn. It didn’t even know the Sutton had closed. Another one bites the dust.
This house was weird. I frequently patronized the theatres around Bloomingdale’s but rarely went here. In all my years of movie going, I only went there three or four times. I remember seeing three films here, FEAR with Marky Mark & William Peterson. It might have been the last night it played. I caught Bruce Beresford’s PARADISE ROAD, Baz Luhrman’s ROMEA & JULIET and ONCE UPON A TIME WE WERE COLORED. Last time I was there was ‘98.
It is kind of sad the way that neighborhood around Bloomingdales is now almost bereft of theatres. It used to be quite a movie going destination, but the Baronet, Coronet, & Manhattan Twin all closed, leaving City Cinema’s ‘plex, Cinemas 1,2,3 & ImaginAsian. I don’t even know if the Sutton is still open. It is not listed in today’s Times.
I remember seeing “The Gods Must Be Crazy” here too and waiting in a long line behind some guy who was just divorced who was discussing his sex life. Only in Manhattan. I think “The Gods Must Be Crazy” ran for more than a year at the 68th Street Playhouse.
I could have sworn the Village East opened before the Angelika. The first film I caught at the Angelika was “Hidden Agenda” so that must have been 1990 and do remember reading about the delays in the Angelika’s opening. I faintly remember it having something to do with plumbing problems, but I later learned there was a big dispute between UA & Angelika’s original owner Joe Saleh (sic).
I always thought the Village East and that Loew’s East Village ‘plex on Third Avenue opened about the same time and were around before the Angelika opened. I guess my memory is playing tricks on me.
It is a crime what happened to the Waverly. The Waverly was the first place I caught a movie in NYC when I moved here in ‘82. It was “Diner.” In the eighties I remember this theatre having a real “personality” and was the place to see independent films long before the Angelika opened and became the premier place to see indie films downtown. I assume this film was run by Cineplex Odeon and it completely lost its personality in the 1990s, running mainstream fare.
I remember when this theatre reopened and moved the entrance from “The Deuce” to Broadway. The only film I caught there was “A Fish Called Wanda.” Cineplex Odeon renovated it, but I don’t think it was open for very long after it reopened. Like I said, I only went there once and barely remember it being open.
I think the National was the first of the Times Square cinemas to close with the advent of the AMC & Sony E-Walk ‘plexes. It closed even before the E-Walk and AMC 'plexes opened. The owners no doubt saw the hand-writing on the wall. Last time I can remember being at the National was '96 to see the sole film Tom Hanks directed, the bland “That Thing You Do.”
I think the State did booming business when it first opened and they wished they had even more screens. When the State/Virgin store opened the “new” Times Square was still in its infancy. I know Virgin exceeded its expectations.
What happened to the State is that the E-Walk opened and its 13 screens and there was also the 25-screen AMC ‘plex. I remember talking to a friend and wondering how they would fill 38 new screens with movies, in addition to existing cinemas in Times Square, the two Embassys, the Astor Plaza, the Criterion and The National, which I think was the first of these to close.
Loew’s cannibalized itself. It is no wonder that all the exhibitors ended up in Chapter 11. Loew’s had only been open for a few years before it was marginalized. No way will Loew’s get its money back.
I don’t know where to post this, but does anyone remember a short-lived revival house that was on White Street, just east of Sixth Avenue. It was opened in 1991 or so and lasted less than a year. An Indian guy ran the theatre I think. I remember going down there to see Fellini’s Roma and the place was closed so I popped up to the Paramount Theatre to see “A River Runs Through It.” It must have been open in ‘91 and it was a full-blown revival house. I remember seeing Rossellini’s “Fear” here as well as Kazan’s “The Last Tycoon.”
Is there a listing for the St. Mark’s Cinema, which was on northwest corner of St. Mark’s Place & Second Avenue. I assume it is listed under another name. I remember going to this theatre in the early to mid 80s. It closed and became a Gap Store. The opening of a Gap store in the East Village kind of announced that the funky East Village had either arrived as a neighborhood or declined depending on your viewpoint.
I think the St. Mark’s Cinema was a “moveover” theatre and you’d get to see double-bills for a discount price. They also had midnight screenings I believe.
Oh, I have memories of this theatre, not fond ones though. I grew up in a suburb of Providence, Warwick, R.I. One Saturday or Sunday afternoon in the late 1960s/early 1970s myself and three of my friends were dropped off my one of our parents to see a double-bill of Polanski’s “Fearless Vampire Hunters” and one of the “Dark Shadows” films I think.
In any event, we get there and it is chaos. The place and is packed and the exclusively “urban” audience was going nuts in the theatre, with people milling around in the lobby, people running on stage. No one is paying attention to the film. We are not there for more than five minutes before we get shaken down and we lose our money.
Finally, we sense trouble and the four of us leave and walk to nearby Federal Hill where the family of one of the guys I was with owned a restaurant. The father, when he sees this motley lot come into his restaurant, starts berating us for not “fighting back.”
In turns out it was prescient for us to leave because there was a riot at the theatre that day and the box office was sacked. I think the box office was one of those free standing facilities just outside the theatre. You had to go outside to get to the box office.
Providence really went downhill in the sixties, seventies and eighties before turning around in more recent years. I do remember when the Strand was a porno house, though.
It wasn’t until the early 1990s that I finally got a chance to see “The Fearless Vampire Killers” when it was revived at the Walter Reade Theatre at Lincoln Center.
What a day that was!
I think this theatre is a bit of a pit. When I attend I always end up in one of the smaller, non-descript theatres in the basement or the second floor and never get to see films in the “main” auditorium, which is nice room, but a weird place to see a movie. I can’t imagine sitting in the orchestra in that big room.
I often have to get up and close the door when the films start and find many of the auditoriums dank.
City Cinemas really dropped the ball because I think they were hoping this theatre would be what the Angelika became. The Village East opened a couple of years before the Angelika, but never had the vibe the Angelika had when the Angelika opened. The Angelika became the premier downtown arthouse, primarly because of the cafe and the location, though City Cinemas is in a funky spot.
From what I understand, the owner of the Angelika was getting divorced and that caused him to sell out to City Cinemas. One nice thing about the Village East is that I know that if I miss a film at the Angelika I’ll get a chance to see it at the Village East before it heads off to videoland.
I am a regular attendee of the Film Forum and do remember occasionally attending screenings at the Watts Street site in the eighties. Out of curiousity I asked Bruce Goldstein how the long the FF was closed between the time the Watts Street facility closed and the new W. Houston Street site opened. He said they were closed for a about a year. Watts Street closed in ‘89 and W. Houston opened in '90.
I remember those annual “silly” summer fests and remember that the FF took a lot of flak for stopping them. I guess FF felt they had exhausted that fest, but the public didn’t.
I remember going here in the late 1960s/1970s before it became a porno house for 50 cent kiddie matinees on weekends. They may have even been double-bills.
I remember going here many, many, many times in the early 1970s. It was a victim of suburban sprawl. It is amazing how that whole area has developed. The drive-in also had a Merry-Go-Round right down in front of the screen.
There was a multiplex on the site where the AMC moved and I assume it was demolished to make way for the AMC ‘plex. I forget the name of it, but they played first-run films and charged a price a couple of dollars cheaper than other theatres in NYC. And they weren’t strict about allowing people to move to another theatre without buying a second admission. I usually was afraid to walk on that block and wouldn’t step foot in any of those 42nd Street theatres, but do remember seeing one film there in '94 called JASON’S LYRIC. It was probably the only place the film was playing so I was forced to brave the block. I remember the woman in the ticket booth sat there couting and recounting cash as I waiting to buy a ticket, which caused me to miss the beginning of the film. It was the first and last time I went there. Anyone remember this theatre?
I too remember this cinema and remember seeing Ingmar Bergman’s name on a marquee. That is not something you would see too often in a suburban theatre located in a mall.
I remember going there in the 1970s when they revived “House of Wax” in 3-D. And I remember seeing the re-released version of Speilberg’s “Close Encounters.” That was probably the last time I was there.
The Midland Mall has fallen on hard times. Last time I was there it was a pit. I remember how vibrant that place was when I was a kid.
br9175,
I could be wrong, but I thought that I remember reading an article where Harvey Weinstein was interviewed and he talked about the (then) shortage of screens and how he was renting the Thalia to give his films a longer theatrical shelf life. Maybe, I’m conflating that with Fine Line. Or, maybe, Miramax also took a shot at this. In any event, I didn’t seen any Miramax, or Fine Line, films at the Thalia.