Guild 50th Street Theater
33 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
33 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
14 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 102 comments
I remember seing “Eight Men Out” here right after it came out. This was probably the last film that I saw in what was a very fine little theater. I greatly miss it.
Stepale2:
The area where the Associated Press Building (including the Newsreel/Guild Theatre) was an empty lot until it opened in 1938. The only thing on the lot prior to the building of the structure was the truck ramp that goes down to the lower levels of the Rockefeller Center. The theatre was built into the curve of the ramp structure.
The Embassy Newsreel Theatre opened in the Associated Press Building when that office building opened in late 1938. The lot sat empty from 1931 awaiting a major tenant. Prior to that, the area was a owned by Columbia University, which had once used it as its main campus the previous century.
OOPS! The theater was not named the Guild when it opened, but whatever it was called, I was curious as to what was there before it became a theater???
If Radio City Music Hall opened in 1932, and the Guild in 1939, does anyone know what the space was used for in the seven years in between? Too bad NBC did not rent it for broadcasting after Trans-Lux stopped showing films, like NBC did with the Center Theater in 1950. The Guild would be the perfect for the Tonight show or any program that requires an audience.
Here’s a funny 1968 ad for “Planet of the Apes”, which moved over to the Guild from the Capitol when “2001” opened in April:
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In 1986.
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Renewing link.
Because of its Midtown location, and because I was strictly Upper East Side, I was in my 30s before I ever was in this theatre…for Dead Poets …loved the forbidding look of the brass doors and the turnstile
I have fond memories of the Guild my Grandma was the candy lady there in the 60’s & 70’s. What a treat for a kid from Brooklyn.
JCS
The reason all seats are never sold is that seats break, ticket holders show up late and people with hearing devices and sight impairments move around after the show starts to adjust for their specific needs.
Very interesting comments by TomR on 11-22-04.
When I learned that theaters (everywhere) routinely undersell performances without giving their turned-away patrons the option to occupy the less desirably seats upfront, I’m annoyed. Once you’ve gone to all the time and trouble to get to the theater, you don’t want the theater’s management to (secretly) make the decision for you that you won’t want what’s left. At least offer the option, folks.
My other comment concerns the installation of turnstyles at the Guild and a few other houses I frequented in Manhattan when I was going to New York to preview/review movies. The theaters with turnstyles did not issue tickets. But for someone like me who was on expenses, the tickets were my only receipts. I finally gave up trying to get cashiers and house managers to issue me some sort of documentation.
I know it’s a small thing, but those missing ticket halves sure messed up the bookkeeping.
photo i took in 1991 when it was screening “scenes from a mall"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/2120653611/
same(ish) view in 2007
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/2007814057/
close up shot of the front doors and former box office and turnstile
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/2008605442/
Most tourist that I come into contact with usually ask for “Avenue of the Americas”, especially business people loooking for a corporate office on the avenue.
Most likely, Nautica, and it successor store, Anthropologie, had to keep the marquee and box office because of the landmarking of the old Associated Press Building, as part of the overall landmarking of Rockefeller Center.
The SE corner of the 50th Street and 6th Avenue (as we locals call it) is occupied by a Nine West store. Tishman-Speyer had planned to tear down this building along with its conterpart at 49th & 6th for new entrances to the concourse. Those plans, fortunatly, those plans changed.
I think the introductory remarks are referring (erroneously) to the Guild Theatre being located on the southern perimeter of the Radio City Music Hall building. While the Guild is on the southern perimeter of the block on which RCMH is situated, the building itself – although attached to RCMH – is a separate building, erected at a later date.
As for Sixth Avenue… I would agree that the Avenue of the Americas tag never really stuck with most New Yorkers – just as most folks don’t refer to Seventh Avenue as “Fashion Avenue.” However, I’ve seen a number of advertisements and TV commercials that refer to business addresses on Avenue of the Americas. I’d also agree that insofar as NYC is concerned, the words “east” and “west” should correspond with directional movement along the cross streets on the City’s grids, just as “north” and “south” should apply along the borough’s avenues – with all due respect to actual lines of longitude and lattitude! I believe Broadway is the only thoroughfare in Manhattan that actually runs more or less due north and south for any great stretch, though I’m sure other streets in Greenwich Village and lower Manhattan have similar, if shorter, runs.
You cannot disagree with geography regardless of what is practice among New Yorkers. Not everyone looking at this page is local.
The GUILD is still a Nautica store and it says “Avenue of the Americas”, not Sixth Avenue, on that street.
“The Guild Theater opened in 1938 as a newsreel house, with an entrance on the south side of Radio City Music Hall.”
“The Guild’s entrance on the north side of West 50th Street was to the east of RCMH’s entrance…”
Since Manhattan streets do not sit on a true north, both statements are correct. The Guild was (is) SOUTHeast of the RCMH entrance as 50th street sits on a northwest angle.
Saw the excellent film THE QUEEN yesterday and today running through my files, I happened across this booking at the Guild from 1953
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Interesting that a “short” playing at the Thalia at the same time was “GENTLEMEN…THE QUEEN”
Demonstrates what life was before cable TV 24/7 news programming.
Happy Holidays, CTers
The marquee says Anthropolgie and the store is packed with shoppers! Festive holiday music is piped in. Very decorative metal railings go to a downstairs level and an upper level, accompanied by huge ornate metal chandeliers and other ornate decoration.
I love single screen movie theaters, especially ones that use their curtain before the movie as this one always did. I saw a few movies at the Guild 50 in the late 1980’s and 1990’s, and would still travel there to see movies if they were being shown. However, the interior was plain as a theater as a post says above. The most interesting part was going upstairs to look out the windows. The old theater’s interior is actually more entertaining now!
Here is the ad for the 1982 engagement of “Aida"
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Ha… I walked passed here on December 30th on my way to see the tree and that “wet paint” sign shown in the 1st of davebazooka’s photos from December 19th is still taped to the entrance!
But they keep that brass nicely polished, don’t they? Must keep tourists very curious, pondering that well maintained turnstile to nowhere as they walk down the street towards the big Christmas tree.
This space is closed and sealed up, no retail, no theatre, nothing. Pics from December 19, 2005.
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That’s similar to the way Fox, Warners and Irwin Allen handled the billing of Paul Newman and Steve McQueen for “The Towering Inferno” – and it was replicated in a single title card in the opening credits. One name on the left and the other on the right but higher in the frame.
I never attended a film here, but the Guild was featured in a recent re-run of Late Night with David Letterman on the cable channel Trio the other night. Robin Williams was the guest and he was promoting the 1989 movie “Dead Poet’s Society.” For the segment, Letterman sent a camera crew to the Guild to get a glimpse of the movie playing on screen (he was still on NBC and therefore working several floors above the Guild in the RCA Building).
The camera starts on the street and enters through the main doors, past the turnstile into the small lobby and then to the left through the 2nd set of doors leading to the standing-room area at the back of the auditorium. The camera turns right to look over the half-wall at the screen but the end-credits are already rolling. So, Letterman starts interviewing people exiting the theater for their reactions. He follows a few of them through the exit doors located at the back of the auditorium (these doors would have been just a few steps down to the left of the entrance) and on to 50th Street. Very funny stuff and a nice little glimpse into this vanished little Art Deco gem.
Interesting Warren all three theaters are now gone. That is so sad