Cinema 1, 2 & 3 by Angelika

The Original Cinema 3 at the Plaza Hotel used to offer “reserved seating” for movies that were otherwised difficult to get into. I seem to recall that this started with the Jane Fonda/Vanessa Redgrave film, “Julia” which was also playing at Cinema I and was a huge hit. While this was commonplace with big “roadshow” movies in the Sixties, and has since resurfaced with the Internet and credit card purchasing of movie tickets, at the time it was unusual.

I worked for the Cinema 5 chain between August 1977 and June of 1981. Cinema I was the flagship theatre of the chain, where “The Exorcist” opened in 1973. Cinema II was the lesser house, (“Exorcist II: The Heretic” opened there in 1977, if that’s any indication of status), much smaller, with an auditorium beneath and turned at right angles to the auditorium of Cinema I. The upstairs waiting lounge of Cinema I overlooked Third Ave. and Bloomingdale’s across the street. The waiting area for Cinema II was negligibly small, and I think I recall plants in oblong planters. The walls of both lobbies were lined horizontally with thin strips of wood, painted white. The carpeting was grey or charcoal. Didn’t Cinema I have an escalator to the lounge, upstairs? In the Cinema I auditorium, between shows, the screen was lit with red lights, from below, I think. The auditorium had a very gentle slope with good viewing and a nice wide feeling that made it seem uncrowded. Aisles were on the sides with a concentration of seats in the middle. By contrast, Cinema II, when it was full, felt a little cramped. Ticket holders' lines for both went up to 60th and around the block toward 2nd Ave. I remember seeing “Nasty Habits” at one of the theatres and, at Cinema I, a revival of “Fantasia,” the restored version of “New York, New York” and the opening of Woody Allen’s dreary “Interiors.” Since Walter Reade’s flagship theatres, Baronet and Coronet “twin” were rivals and next door, it’s sometimes hard to remember which movie I saw where, but I believe one of your contributors is mistaken and he may actually have seen “Nashville” at the Baronet, not Cinema I. The mistake could easily be mine. There was a high concentration of theatres in the area, from the Sutton on 57th, up Third Avenue to the Trans-Lux East (which became the Gotham, later), and on 59th there was the 59th St. I and II that became something else later. And across from that, around the corner from the Baronet/Coronet, a tiny theatre, the name of which I’ve forgotten. Cinema 3 used to be at the Plaza Hotel, a supposedly elegant affair, but while it was attractive, it was always empty and no one seemed to know it was there. I don’t think they served refreshments at the original Cinema 3. I can remember seeing Andre Techine’s “Barocco” there and the Maximilian Schell documentary about Dietrich, “Marlene.”