34th Street East Theatre
241 E. 34th Street,
New York,
NY
10016
241 E. 34th Street,
New York,
NY
10016
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Opening ad;
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It is sad seeing these single screen theatres gone. They had so much more personality than the Monster-Plexes of today.
Pictures.. from a transit site, in the background of the bus..
http://bus.nycsubway.org/perl/show?132
http://bus.nycsubway.org/perl/show?133
The 34th St. East.
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I can remember hanging out in the city for the day as a kid in the summer of 1985 and going to see Pee Wee’s Big Adventure here Or it might have been Real Genius. What I do remember distinctly is falling in love with an extra large movie poster for Dance With a Stranger that was plastered up on a fence near the theater and peeling it off and running like mad because I was afraid a cop would catch me for stealing, then ducking into the 34th Street East to see one of those two movies.
I wonder if there were any Night Of The Living Dead prints in the basement.
I grew up on 36th street so I saw many, many movies here. I’ll always remember seeing Caberet there with my Mom. JAWS opened there and I must have seen that 10 times. War and Peace played there and if you bought a ticket you saw ½ one day and ½ the following day.
The 34th St. East Theatre was/is located closer to 2nd Ave. on the north side of the street. The 34th St. Theatre you are referring to, near the 3rd Ave El, later became the Murray Hill Theatre, which was just off 3rd Ave. to the west on the south side of the street.
There is an excellent color photograph of the marquee of the 34th Street Theater which was located on E.34th close by Third Avenue. You can descend from the EL station and be a few feet from the marquee.
The photo is in the second edition of “By the El” by Lawrence Stelter, photos by Lothar Stelter, currently in print. An excellent book of color photos circa 1949-1953, taken along Third Avenue and adjacent streets.
The photo shows a marquee of 1930’s vintage, outlined in yellow with incandescent bulbs of yellow, name in red neon, white glass attraction board with black letters proclaiming the main feature as “Kangaroo” with Peter Lawford, circa 1953.
Thank you Warren. I thought that might be the building mentioned. I looked something like the other former power station that still survives on Third and 99th Street.
The Shop on Main Street (aka The Shop on High Street)had a long run at the 34th Street East.
Was this theater the building that was once the Third Avenue el substation mentioned in the the book about that line called “By the El”?
I went to only one movie at this theater; David Lynch’s LOST HIGHWAY.
dave-bronx is correct. I began going to the Murray Hill in the early 50’s. It was orgianlly a vaudville house and was there in total for over 100 years. This included at least one fire and one ceiling collapse.
It was only 1 block; but I am responding to William’s 5/2/06 entry above.
The 34th Street East was two blocks east of the Murray Hill Theater.
The 34th St Theatre, mentioned above, was the previous name of the Murray Hill Theatre – Rugoff named it MH when he took over and renovated it. A photo of the old 34th St/MH can be seen here:
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All of the comments mention for the 34Street East are accurate. I was an Usher there from 1964 for about 18 months. Got to wear a Tux and got free passes to any Theatre in Manhattan. Most impressive to the girls.
The day-and-date policy between the 34th Street East and Little Carnegie was alive and well in March of 1982 when Burt Lancaster watched Susan Sarandon bathe her breasts with lemons in this melancholy Louis Malle film:
Daily News 3/6/82
The day-and-date policy between the 34th Street East and Little Carnegie was alive and well in March of 1982 when Burt Lancaster watched Susan Sarandon bathe her breasts with lemons in this melancholy Louis Malle film:
Daily News 3/6/82
Found this ad from a 1980 copy of the Daily News… the film in question had played a sneak preview at both the 34th Street East and the Little Carnegie on 12/12/80 before day-and-dating at both theaters (plus the Baronet) beginning 12/19/80:
Inside Moves Daily News 12/14/80
In those days you got to see the sneak preview and stay for the regular feature (“Elephant Man” here at the 34th Street and “Stardust Memories” at the Little Carnegie).
Just looked up the 34th Street Theatre and found its listed in Film Daily Yearbook’s from 1926, 1927, 1930, 1941 and 1943. Same address and seating capacity as posted above by William. Strange it is currently not listed on Cinema Treasures.
Well the FDY; 1944 edition lists the 34th Street Theatre, 162 E. 34th Street with 600 seats.
I think that 34th Street Theatre was near Macys and I have some signs of it being opening 1949-1950. It tracks where Wendy’s is now.
241 East 34th Street is the 1963 Walter Reade house which was Head Office when I worked for Cineplex Odeon.
Al; The Film Daily Yearbook;1950 edition lists a 34th Street Theatre, 162 E. 34th Street, New York, NY with 720 seats.