Harris Theatre

That might be circa 1960s, not 1983. The films look a little dated.

Loved those busy old marquees on 42nd Street.

In going through some of my father’s relics, I came on a paper measuring 8 ¾" x 4 ¾". It is a copy of something hand drawn to look like currency. On one side there is the following script:
Cohan & Harris
Candler Theatre Building
N.Y.C.

It is signed:
Thos Connolly
Property Master
Candler Thea
N.Y.C.

The other side has:
BANQUE de FRANCE
Paris 1316 Janion 1913

Does anyone have any information regarding this? It appears to be show money.

Thank you

It was not uncommon for film titles to be suitably “spiced-up” for their Duece engagements – though, I wasn’t aware that the practice dated back as early as the 1930’s! Therefore, the matter-of-fact “Biography of a Bachelor Girl” became the more lurid “Bachelor Girl Confesses!”

The marquee advertising the Jack Benny-Patsy Kelly-Gene Raymond feature was that of the Liberty Theater, which was actually located to the west of the Harris heading towards Eighth Avenue.

The Harris was seen in “Taxi Driver”:
http://tinyurl.com/yk4d7j

Below are two 1993 photos I took that feature the Harris Theater while it was still in operation. The main feature on the marquee is being changed over from the Bruce Willis feature “Striking Distance” to the McCauley Culkin flick “The Good Son”. What I can’t figure out is if the co-feature was being changed from the original “Warlock” film (1989) to the sequel “Warlock: The Armeggedon” or if the maintenance guys were just lazy on the one side of the marquee:

1993 Marquee change
1993 Harris Marquee and Times Sq Theater

Note the sign in the top photo annoucning the comming of the Movieplex 42 in the former Roxy Twin location down the block. Also compare this to the current view of the former Harris entrance I posted May 6th… the arched window above had certainly seen better days by 1993, eh?

Here are a couple of shots I purloined from the Harris' page on the ibdb.com site showing the original auditorium, balcony staircase and long marble foyer:

Candler Theater Auditorium
Candler staicase
Candler foyer

Here’s a shot of the Harris & Lyric taken from outside the Victory in 1961. jerry

View link

Hey folks. Just watched the Scorcese flick “Mean Streets” the other night and there is a scene at the end of the film where the Harvey Keitel and Robert DeNiro characters place a call from a public phone in the lobby of a theater where they’ve been watching Roger Corman’s “Tomb of Ligeia.” The theater location is not identified, but I’m thinking it was a Duece grind-house. The wide shot of Keitel on the phone shows a glimpse of the interior decor, including a squared column with a sort of simple Art Deco vertical motif as well as a busy mosiac tile pattern on the flat wall where the pay phone is mounted. There is a soda-vending machine next to the phone and big lobby cards advertising the “Tomb of Ligeia” and “X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes” as co-features. Another set of cards advertise Lee Marvin’s “Point Blank” and another feature I can’t recall as coming attractions. It’s drving me crazy… the decor looks so familiar, but I can’t place it exactly. The thing is, “Mean Streets” was presumably filmed in 1972 or ‘73 (released in '73) and all of the films advertised in those lobby cards (including the “coming attractions”) are from the early and mid 1960’s.

I understand that Scorcese might have fictionalized the films being shown in the theater (after all, the two currently featured movies are Roger Corman productions and Scorcese was fresh from Corman’s school of low-budget movie-making) and I realize that much of the itnerior work for “Mean Streets” was filmed in L.A., but I’d love to nail down the location for the shot one way or the other.

Here’s a shot from 1967 with the Liberty in the background. j

View link

One quirk (or, of course, more accurately, one of SEVERAL quirks) of the Harris and the other 42nd Street grindhouses: the to-the-minute starting times given for their films at each theatre’s box office. While their movie clock listings featured showtimes were, by and large, standard and typical of most other cinemas (i.e. – 10:15, 2:15, 6:10, and 10:10), the times given at the box office gave, what I presume, were the EXACT starting times (10:15, 2:13, 6:11, and 10:09). Does anyone know how far back this ‘tradition’ dated, why this was done, and whether it was due to some type of contractual obligations with the distributors and/or the ‘legitimate’ Times Square moviehouses?

Check this link to the UK Cinema Theatre Association CTA Online Yahoo group.Ive added six photos of 42nd st area cinemas, including a 1995 photo of the Adonis, the David, the Empire, Cine 42, New Amsterdam and Harem
As well as two postcards one of 42nd street in the snow in all its eighties sleazy glory and one very early eighties one of it at night…enjoy!

View link
posted by woody on Jan 29, 2005 at 3:42pm

br is correct. If you look at that John Hermanson photo of the southside in the late 60s that someone linked on cinema treasures, the arrowhead frame between Lion King & McDonalds is very visible at the far eastern end of the building and near the retail shops, the Harris is at the far western point of the building. Jerry 42nd Street Memories