AMC Empire 25

http://www.flickr.com/photos/curtians/2223415300/

How do I e-mail you, Ross?

A couple of wonderful old theaters in Queens and Brooklyn, which are now “adult” theaters, have been removed from this site because Warren instigated inflammatory comments by passing moral judgment on the men who patronize these theaters. That is a shame. His knowledge of old theaters is truly wonderful; it’s too bad he sets himself up as such a moral prig.

Is the 234 West 42nd St the old address or the new address for the Empire? I would assume the current address should be the address given above. Many theaters have had their addresses change over the years, and the current one is usually the one used. For example, many of the theaters in Queens had an old address and a new address, depending on if the theater pre-dated the renumbering of streets/addresses into the Queens numbering system.

The old Empire/Eltinge Theater fully exists in it’s entirety, and is the lobby for the AMC Empire 25 Theater. It’s irrelevant if it was moved down the street or not. The entire auditorium is used, and IS the AMC Empire, even if they don’t show movies in the old auditorium, and instead it’s the lobby of the new multiplex.
It should NOT have a page of it’s own, as the Eltinge/Empire Theater IS the AMC Empire now. The whole building is a part of the AMC Empire Theater, it doesn’t matter if they show the actual movies of the Eltinge inside the current lobby of the AMC Empire (which happens to be the auditorium of the Eltinge/Empire. You walk into the old Theater entrance, and the old theater to enter the AMC Empire. Of course they should be the same listing, as the AMC Empire IS the old Eltinge/Empire theater…., it’s just that they built the multiplex around the old building it after moving it a bit down the block. Just because the entire theater building was moved doesn’t mean that that theater shouldn’t be this page. All the history of the Eltinge/Empire theater survives within the walls of the lobby of the AMC Empire.

Smell-o-Vision appears to be back in Times Square with THE POLAR EXPRESS in 4D at Madamne Tussaud’s theatre.

http://www.nyc.com/people/broadcast/blog/?p=2

When, back on January 2 of this year, Warren G. Harris wondered about who might have actually designed this multiplex, the answer was already available in my comment from May 2, 2006. That’s the problem with long threads. Stuff gets lost. Anyway, to repeat, it was Gould Evans Associates (called Gould Evans Goodman at the time they did this project.)

I see that the “firm” listing at the top of the page now names Beyer Blinder Belle Architects as the designers of the multiplex, and that firm is mentioned in the intro section of the page as well. But the New York Times article to which AlAlvarez was probably referring in his reply to Warren only says that Beyer Blinder Belle “…designed the 42nd Street project.” Indeed on BBB’s web site, they do lay claim to the Hilton Times Square project, of which the AMC Empire is a part, but nowhere on their site do they claim to have designed the multiplex itself.

That honor (or disgrace, to judge from some of the more irate comments above) belongs to Gould Evans Associates, which does include the AMC Empire among their projects, as featured on their web site (you have to click on “Architecture” then “Portfolio” in the left columns, then “entertainment centers” at page center, then “AMC theatres, national and international locations” to reach a photo- or perhaps three photos- I’ve never seen the place and don’t know if the two interior shots depict this theater or other AMC locations- of the AMC Empire. Why do architecture firms have such Byzantine web sites?)

Presumably, AMC insisted on Gould Evans, with whom they already had an established relationship, to design the multiplex itself, while Beyer Blinder Belle probably took care of the actual restoration work on what was left of the historic Empire Theatre. BBB does specialize in restoration and renovation. In fact, they did the renovation of the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, and should probably be credited with that project on the Apollo’s Cinema Treasures Page.

BBB also designed the Hilton Theatre (Ford Center) on 42nd Street, built inside the shells of the old Lyric Theatre and the neighboring Apollo Theatre, using bits and pieces of their interiors for the decoration of the new house.

Oh, and there is one other source for the information that Gould Evans Associates was involved in the AMC Empire’s development. The firm is among sources of information about the project listed on page 109 of an obscure book called “Cinema Treasures”, published in 2004, and written by Ross Melnick and Andreas Fuchs (whoever they are.) I don’t suppose anybody here has read it?

These psuedo IMAX screens are cheapening the format. When will anyone realize they need to once again give the public something that home TV (even the large ones) can’t duplicate. Theatre screens need to be huge curved ones like in the 50’s and 60’s.

Hey saps, when the theatre I worked at a few years back was converted to IMAX, the screen was only marginally bigger than the original 35MM screen, however, they moved the screen about 30 feet closer to the audience, so it appeared to be bigger, and of course, they felt like they in the movie.

That AMC still has Union projectionists working the complex.

Though I am not an official volunteer, I have tried to be of help and I sent in the revisions to the Empire’s Introduction. I didn’t see the address Comment on the Parsons, but it will get done now (within a day or two). There’s no official mechanism for all comments to get read and acted upon. I suppose you could try at the “new theater” or other ways to directly send in updated information to the official webmasters.

You hit the nail right on the head LuisV. Too bad more theatres were not saved the same way. Thats why I’m glad to here at least something is trying to be done to the Kings in Brooklyn, (a real treasure) as well as the Ritz in Elizabeth N.J. The Empire, along with all those other old grindhouses were special, even if they were run down.