Art Greenwich Twin

Did the Greenwich run revival or retrospectives in the late ‘70’s? My father once took me to a theater downtown in the Village area to catch a then rare showing of The Beatles’ psychedelic 1967 TV special “Magical Mystery Tour.” I was into the Beatles big time as a child and was about a year and ½ from being allowed to venture into the City on my own to catch a movie, so I coaxed my Dad into taking me. I remember giving him a choice of going to see Mel Brooks' “High Anxiety” (which had just opened and which he had just seen with my Mom the night before) or to see the Beatles film – which was playing in an advertised triple feature along with “Sympathy for the Devil” featuring the Rolling Stones and “We’re An American Band” an early 70’s promotional short film about the rock band Grand Funk Railroad. Coming from Laurelton, Queens, we had to grab a bus to Jamaica and then grab a subway into Manhattan – and I recall there was also a subway transfer involved once in the City. We were running late and wound up seating ourselves (in the balcony) about 15 minutes into “Magical Mystery Tour.”

After the film ended, I convinced my Dad that we had to stay through the next two features to catch what we had missed in the first film. He reluctantly agreed. The Grand Funk Railroad film was boring to me (as I’m SURE it was to my Dad) but thankfully, it was only about 25 or 30 minutes long. Then came “Sympathy for the Devil”, which was the USA title and re-cut version of a didactic Jean Luc Godard polemic entitled “One Plus One.” This movie was just about unwatchable!!! It intercut film of the Stones' recording session for their famous song with bizarre avant-garde sequences involving some African American militants and a neo-fascist political group that operated behind the front of a porno book store. About 30 minutes or so into this film was about all my Dad could stand, and – while I was ready to argue with him initially – I was secretly thankful to be spared watching any more of the movie!

Anyway… I’ve been trying to piece together where it was that we saw these movies (or portions thereof, anyhow) and the Greenwich seems like a likely candidate. It had a balcony and the image I’ve seen of the marquee looks familiar. Did the Art on 8th Street have a balcony? If so it is a possibility. The Waverly is a long shot and I know for sure it wasn’t the 8th Street Playhouse. Anyone have access to newspaper clippings from that time and willing to check for me? “High Anxiety” was released during the Christmas vacation from school in December of 1977 so the date would have been shortly after that – most likely during the school break, but possibly the 1st week of January 1978.

Those Meyer films are a blast, they seem almost innocent now.

In November of 1969 Russ Meyers “Vixen” had been doing boffo business for almost 6 months at the 72nd St Playhouse and the Globe. The film then began it’s first wider run opening at the Greenwich, Liberty, Midtown 99th St. In Brooklyn at the Astor and Elm. In the Bronx at the Ascot. In Queens Continental, Earle and Little Neck. STaten Island at the Island. In Nassau at Bar Harbor, Salisbury and Malverne. In Suffolk at Islip, Hampton Arts and Ronkonkoma.

LImovies, wanna run that by us again?

After many years as a listed building (even the battleship gray exterior was untouchable) this appears to have been demolished and replaced by an awkward glass fronted gym.

The Art Greenwich had poor presentation as a twin and was home to rats the size of cats. One particular rat (named Ben by theatre staff)had gray hair and used to sit on its hind legs and eat popcorn at the stand, sometimes on busy nights.

The basement boiler was a nightmare of disrepair causing several winter closings. The Art Greenwich had a lot a personality but was truly past its sell-by date.

a great theater that always did big box office # for its ,Kiss of the spider women played here for a year or so.

I passed by here the other day and recalled many fond days seeing films here. The theatre was a great single but was an awkward twin. Still it had the flavor of a true Greenwich Village cinema.

The former Art (and Movieland 8th Street) is indeed still used as a theatre, often serving as a showcase for various film festivals and screenings, with NYU connections and otherwise, under the aegis of the Cantor Film Center. Surprisingly, while the lobby was completely renovated, from what I’ve heard, the three auditoriums within the complex – a result of the renovation BS Moss engineered prior to its reopening as the Movieland 8th Street in June of 1986 – haven’t been. (One of my strongest moviegoing experiences stems from my only visit to the Movieland, in July of 1993, when, prior to a screening of ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ in the upstairs auditorium, a female co-patron fell into a heap when her seat gave out under her. Somehow I don’t think it would be THAT difficult for NYU to find the money within its budget to replace the seats within the three Cantor auditoriums… )