This theatre has a much richer past than would be indicated here. It was home to Tony Pastor’s New Fourteenth St Theatre, the home of vaudeville in NYC.
In 1881 Pastor leased the Germania Theatre and renamed it Tony Pastor’s New Fourteenth Street Theatre, announcing that it would be “catering to the ladies, and presenting for the amusement of the cultivated and aesthetic Pure Music and Comedy, Burlesque, and Farce.” Tony Pastor’s, as it came to be known, played variety shows until 1908. It was the most popular New York theatre of the 1880s, paving the way for the theatrical ventures of the impresarios B. F. Keith and Oscar Hammerstein, but by the first years of the twentieth century theatergoers had gone northward to venues in Times Square. In 1908 the Fourteenth Street Theatre became a motion picture theater; the same year, Pastor decided not to renew the lease.
Also from the website.
1875 when he took over the Metropolitan Theatre at 585 Broadway. It was here that he worked to perfect the form of entertainment known as legitimate vaudeville, variety which was suitable for women and children as well as the traditional male audience.
Although not a movie house that I am aware of, perhaps we could restore the Metropolitian entry at that address until more research can be done. And we could add Germania as an entry to this address.
Although I was never inside, I can remember the thrill I got when walking on 14th St in the late 70’s, I came across a slab of sidewalk that had “Tony Pastor’s” inset in white tiles. I never saw it again and had since wondered where it was but even at the time, I knew I was somewhere historic.
There are two existing, original lighting bays in the ceiling along with duct work for ventilation. And during an earlier renovation the ornate plaster work behind the original balcony lighting rail was boxed in. Perhaps more pleasing to the eye but greatly reducing the utility of the auditorium.
As for the landmarking of the interiors downtown. Multi-million dollar productions go into those houses with a great deal of time and planning. The management of the theatres there have generations of dealing with them. The Paradise is being promoted as a Road House of sorts but there is no house crew to protect it. As a promoter, I look for the easiest way to make a buck and often decisions are made on the fly by people with no long term interest in the theatre. Bearing this in mind, do I sign a contract if I have read this from the Landmarks Commission about how long it will take to get a decision about alterations? Or do I go ahead and sign and do what I want, then pack up and be gone and let the process repeat itself while the theatre bears the brunt of the damage?
When will the Landmarks Commission make a decision about my application?
Once the staff has confirmed that an application is complete, the Landmarks Commission will make a decision as quickly as possible. The Commission must make its decision within the following time periods:
Certificate of No Effect – 30 working days
Permit for Minor Work – 20 working days
Certificate of Appropriateness – 90 working days
With a Broadway show, it’s one thing, with MTV and Yankee Daddy, it’s another.
I’m not looking for a fight or to criticize anyone. I only say this because I want the place to work. it’s terrific space in a terrific location. I’m lucky enough to make my living in the business and I want to add my perspective as a someone from backstage.
From a production standpoint, designating the interior of a landmark theatre is a two-edged sword. No one argues that the exteriors and lobby areas need to perserved intact but it’s been found that in most cases a landmarks designation of the auditorium will harm the rentability of the designated theatre. It’s the argument between the practical needs of the production and the requirements of the law. The Paradise now has a most impractical maple deck thats varnished. With strict enforcement of the landmarks designation, a touring show cannot come in and paint the deck, a common requirement for their production. The same is true for,say, a tour of “Phantom Of The Opera” with it’s large chandelier that needs to be rigged over the orchestra seating. Without the ability to secure the main elements of the production, the show will go elsewhere. Lighting, sound, cables, trucking all have modern requirements that can be hampered by the landmarking of the auditorium. This is why experienced theatre owners will accede to landmarking exterior and lobby areas but fight landmarking auditoriums. You won’t find it on Broadway or Radio City or any of the large older houses. The Paradise is a jewel and every effort must be kept to maintain what is there and upgrade it to match modern theatrical needs. Landmarking tends to make it a fly in amber situation which will not promote the venue or help the Bronx.
A fairly common way to cool a theatre was to fill the plenum (the space under the auditorium) with ice. It could be brought in from the street, packed in blocks and small openings under the seats would let convection do the rest. When re-doing seats in an auditorium you will see these openings, about a foot across with decorative covers, scattered across the floor. If you explore in the old theatre you will notice the the floors in the plenum are often sloped toward drains. Thus the signs that read “Ice Cooled”.
Ed, “but the United Church is not a functioning theater but a church.” To clarify, the space at 175th and Bway functions as both Church (Palace Catherdral) and Theatre (United Palace). From their website.
Don’t let “ungodly†costs run you away from New York!
At the fraction of the cost of what other locations would rent for, you can utilize the most opulent, restored theatre on Broadway, at 175th Street, in New York City. In Washington Heights at the George Washington Bridge. Easy access from the TRI-STATE AREA, (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut) without encountering the congestion and expense of “midtown madness!â€
Movies • TV Production • Sound Recordings
Videos Concerts • Special Events • Theatre • Pipe Organ
Note Bene: Concerts of various kinds play there occasionally and stagehands report that church members take terrific care of the space.
In Amsterdam Video v. The City of New York, 146 F.3d 99; 1998 U.S. App. LEXIS 11593 (2nd Cir., 1998, cert denied. the defendants are RACHEL HICKERSON, DEREK JONES, TY MCCONNELL, and ELLIOT STAMLER, Plaintiffs-Appellants, AMSTERDAM VIDEO INC., A & X ENTERTAINMENT INC. A and X ENTERTAINMENT is listed as the operator of the Playpen. RACHEL HICKERSON is also the Executive Director of Feminists for Free Expression, who had challenged New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s draconian anti-pornography ordinance, which seeks to zone “adult entertainment” out of existence. Other venues operated are ADULT VIDEO, INC., ASCOT SPACE AMUSEMENT, INC., d/b/a Ascot Theatre, BIG APPLE CINEMAS INC., d/b/a Show Follies Theater, BRETT DISTRIBUTORS, INC., d/b/a Media Distributors, CAPRI CINEMA INC., CAPWELL ENTERTAINMENT, INC., d/b/a Legz Diamond’s Playhouse, CHURCH STREET CAFE INC., d/b/a Baby Doll Lounge, COLLEGE PT. REST. CORP., d/b/a Gallagher’s II, CRAZY FANTASY VIDEO, INC., CUPID’S TREASURES, INC., d/b/a Banana Video and Unicorn, DARA DISTRIBUTORS INC., d/b/a Love Shack, DESIRE VIDEO INC., E & A BOOKS, INC., E & A VIDEO AND MAGAZINE INC., ED-MART BAR & GRILL INC., d/b/a Penny Whistle, FOR THE PEOPLE THEATRES OF N.Y., INC., d/b/a Fair Theatre, FOUR KEYS ENTERPRISES, INC., d/b/a Hollywood Peepshows, FOURTEENTH ST. ENTERPRISES INC., d/b/a All Male Adult Video, FUN CITY VIDEO CORP., G & D MERCHANDISE CORP., d/b/a Peepland, GOTHAM EXHIBITOR INC., d/b/a Peep O Rama,
In 1978, I helped to reopen the Orpheum. The balcony had been floored over and was being used as a carpentry shop. We took out the asbestos slate projection booth that showed quite a bit of fire damage. The early film stock was quite flammable and made life for the projectionists hard. We also took out the crank that ran a cable up from the booth to the ceiling and out to the roof. This opened three five foot by ten foot hatches in the ceiling for ventalation. There was no room for ice in the plenum as there was only a basement.
Catwalks had been hung running from upstage to the balcony. I’m not sure what show this was for. A rudimentary steel grid had been installed for rigging, well after original constuction, probably from the 50’s. We had to dig out the rubble from under the stage in order to create additional space needed for production.
It is extremely hard to believe that this space ever contained enough seating for 600 people. Some of the marble rubble and the stories from the neighborhood indicated that this space had been a converted public bathhouse before conversion to a theatre.
Since the 50’s some of the players who have acted at the Orpheum include Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson, Martin Sheen, Morgan Freeman, Meatloaf, William H Macy, Sylvia Miles, Katherine Ross, Brooke Adams, Priscilla Lopez, Mark Blum and many others. View link
Doing an ACRIS search of city records reveals the the corporate name of the new owners of tax block 3165, lot 44 is First Paradise Theatres Corp. They could call the building anything they want, including selling the naming rights, ala the Cadillac WinterGarden or the Hilton (formerly American Airlines) on 42nd St. The Grand Concourse Paradise isn’t really poetry while the Bronx Paradise seems a little better. Will it be a mixed road hall, Latin, Rap, Rock? All tough on the facilties. The Apollo is getting a little beat up. Will it do more culturely oriented productions? Tough to fill 3500 seats with ballet. Look for media cross promotion, satillite radio broadcasts, webcasts, pay per view. The owners will look to recoupe quickly. A lot of liquor promotions. Could be a very “event” oriented place like some of the hotter clubs downtown. Is there a projected opening date yet with a bill? Any list of acts for the following weeks. That will tell you a lot about whats going on.
Here is a picture of Tammany Hall and Bryants Minstrals in 1868 just after opening of the building.
View link
I stand corrected and apologize for posting incorrect information. Thank you for clarifying.
This theatre has a much richer past than would be indicated here. It was home to Tony Pastor’s New Fourteenth St Theatre, the home of vaudeville in NYC.
http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/fa/pastor.html
In 1881 Pastor leased the Germania Theatre and renamed it Tony Pastor’s New Fourteenth Street Theatre, announcing that it would be “catering to the ladies, and presenting for the amusement of the cultivated and aesthetic Pure Music and Comedy, Burlesque, and Farce.” Tony Pastor’s, as it came to be known, played variety shows until 1908. It was the most popular New York theatre of the 1880s, paving the way for the theatrical ventures of the impresarios B. F. Keith and Oscar Hammerstein, but by the first years of the twentieth century theatergoers had gone northward to venues in Times Square. In 1908 the Fourteenth Street Theatre became a motion picture theater; the same year, Pastor decided not to renew the lease.
Also from the website.
1875 when he took over the Metropolitan Theatre at 585 Broadway. It was here that he worked to perfect the form of entertainment known as legitimate vaudeville, variety which was suitable for women and children as well as the traditional male audience.
Although not a movie house that I am aware of, perhaps we could restore the Metropolitian entry at that address until more research can be done. And we could add Germania as an entry to this address.
Although I was never inside, I can remember the thrill I got when walking on 14th St in the late 70’s, I came across a slab of sidewalk that had “Tony Pastor’s” inset in white tiles. I never saw it again and had since wondered where it was but even at the time, I knew I was somewhere historic.
Formerly home to Miracle Temple Pentecostal Church.
There are two existing, original lighting bays in the ceiling along with duct work for ventilation. And during an earlier renovation the ornate plaster work behind the original balcony lighting rail was boxed in. Perhaps more pleasing to the eye but greatly reducing the utility of the auditorium.
As for the landmarking of the interiors downtown. Multi-million dollar productions go into those houses with a great deal of time and planning. The management of the theatres there have generations of dealing with them. The Paradise is being promoted as a Road House of sorts but there is no house crew to protect it. As a promoter, I look for the easiest way to make a buck and often decisions are made on the fly by people with no long term interest in the theatre. Bearing this in mind, do I sign a contract if I have read this from the Landmarks Commission about how long it will take to get a decision about alterations? Or do I go ahead and sign and do what I want, then pack up and be gone and let the process repeat itself while the theatre bears the brunt of the damage?
View link
When will the Landmarks Commission make a decision about my application?
Once the staff has confirmed that an application is complete, the Landmarks Commission will make a decision as quickly as possible. The Commission must make its decision within the following time periods:
Certificate of No Effect – 30 working days
Permit for Minor Work – 20 working days
Certificate of Appropriateness – 90 working days
With a Broadway show, it’s one thing, with MTV and Yankee Daddy, it’s another.
I’m not looking for a fight or to criticize anyone. I only say this because I want the place to work. it’s terrific space in a terrific location. I’m lucky enough to make my living in the business and I want to add my perspective as a someone from backstage.
From a production standpoint, designating the interior of a landmark theatre is a two-edged sword. No one argues that the exteriors and lobby areas need to perserved intact but it’s been found that in most cases a landmarks designation of the auditorium will harm the rentability of the designated theatre. It’s the argument between the practical needs of the production and the requirements of the law. The Paradise now has a most impractical maple deck thats varnished. With strict enforcement of the landmarks designation, a touring show cannot come in and paint the deck, a common requirement for their production. The same is true for,say, a tour of “Phantom Of The Opera” with it’s large chandelier that needs to be rigged over the orchestra seating. Without the ability to secure the main elements of the production, the show will go elsewhere. Lighting, sound, cables, trucking all have modern requirements that can be hampered by the landmarking of the auditorium. This is why experienced theatre owners will accede to landmarking exterior and lobby areas but fight landmarking auditoriums. You won’t find it on Broadway or Radio City or any of the large older houses. The Paradise is a jewel and every effort must be kept to maintain what is there and upgrade it to match modern theatrical needs. Landmarking tends to make it a fly in amber situation which will not promote the venue or help the Bronx.
A fairly common way to cool a theatre was to fill the plenum (the space under the auditorium) with ice. It could be brought in from the street, packed in blocks and small openings under the seats would let convection do the rest. When re-doing seats in an auditorium you will see these openings, about a foot across with decorative covers, scattered across the floor. If you explore in the old theatre you will notice the the floors in the plenum are often sloped toward drains. Thus the signs that read “Ice Cooled”.
Ed, “but the United Church is not a functioning theater but a church.” To clarify, the space at 175th and Bway functions as both Church (Palace Catherdral) and Theatre (United Palace). From their website.
http://www.revike.org/history.asp
Don’t let “ungodly†costs run you away from New York!
At the fraction of the cost of what other locations would rent for, you can utilize the most opulent, restored theatre on Broadway, at 175th Street, in New York City. In Washington Heights at the George Washington Bridge. Easy access from the TRI-STATE AREA, (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut) without encountering the congestion and expense of “midtown madness!â€
Movies • TV Production • Sound Recordings
Videos Concerts • Special Events • Theatre • Pipe Organ
Note Bene: Concerts of various kinds play there occasionally and stagehands report that church members take terrific care of the space.
In Amsterdam Video v. The City of New York, 146 F.3d 99; 1998 U.S. App. LEXIS 11593 (2nd Cir., 1998, cert denied. the defendants are RACHEL HICKERSON, DEREK JONES, TY MCCONNELL, and ELLIOT STAMLER, Plaintiffs-Appellants, AMSTERDAM VIDEO INC., A & X ENTERTAINMENT INC. A and X ENTERTAINMENT is listed as the operator of the Playpen. RACHEL HICKERSON is also the Executive Director of Feminists for Free Expression, who had challenged New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s draconian anti-pornography ordinance, which seeks to zone “adult entertainment” out of existence. Other venues operated are ADULT VIDEO, INC., ASCOT SPACE AMUSEMENT, INC., d/b/a Ascot Theatre, BIG APPLE CINEMAS INC., d/b/a Show Follies Theater, BRETT DISTRIBUTORS, INC., d/b/a Media Distributors, CAPRI CINEMA INC., CAPWELL ENTERTAINMENT, INC., d/b/a Legz Diamond’s Playhouse, CHURCH STREET CAFE INC., d/b/a Baby Doll Lounge, COLLEGE PT. REST. CORP., d/b/a Gallagher’s II, CRAZY FANTASY VIDEO, INC., CUPID’S TREASURES, INC., d/b/a Banana Video and Unicorn, DARA DISTRIBUTORS INC., d/b/a Love Shack, DESIRE VIDEO INC., E & A BOOKS, INC., E & A VIDEO AND MAGAZINE INC., ED-MART BAR & GRILL INC., d/b/a Penny Whistle, FOR THE PEOPLE THEATRES OF N.Y., INC., d/b/a Fair Theatre, FOUR KEYS ENTERPRISES, INC., d/b/a Hollywood Peepshows, FOURTEENTH ST. ENTERPRISES INC., d/b/a All Male Adult Video, FUN CITY VIDEO CORP., G & D MERCHANDISE CORP., d/b/a Peepland, GOTHAM EXHIBITOR INC., d/b/a Peep O Rama,
In 1978, I helped to reopen the Orpheum. The balcony had been floored over and was being used as a carpentry shop. We took out the asbestos slate projection booth that showed quite a bit of fire damage. The early film stock was quite flammable and made life for the projectionists hard. We also took out the crank that ran a cable up from the booth to the ceiling and out to the roof. This opened three five foot by ten foot hatches in the ceiling for ventalation. There was no room for ice in the plenum as there was only a basement.
Catwalks had been hung running from upstage to the balcony. I’m not sure what show this was for. A rudimentary steel grid had been installed for rigging, well after original constuction, probably from the 50’s. We had to dig out the rubble from under the stage in order to create additional space needed for production.
It is extremely hard to believe that this space ever contained enough seating for 600 people. Some of the marble rubble and the stories from the neighborhood indicated that this space had been a converted public bathhouse before conversion to a theatre.
Since the 50’s some of the players who have acted at the Orpheum include Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson, Martin Sheen, Morgan Freeman, Meatloaf, William H Macy, Sylvia Miles, Katherine Ross, Brooke Adams, Priscilla Lopez, Mark Blum and many others.
View link
There is a parking lot at this address.
Doing an ACRIS search of city records reveals the the corporate name of the new owners of tax block 3165, lot 44 is First Paradise Theatres Corp. They could call the building anything they want, including selling the naming rights, ala the Cadillac WinterGarden or the Hilton (formerly American Airlines) on 42nd St. The Grand Concourse Paradise isn’t really poetry while the Bronx Paradise seems a little better. Will it be a mixed road hall, Latin, Rap, Rock? All tough on the facilties. The Apollo is getting a little beat up. Will it do more culturely oriented productions? Tough to fill 3500 seats with ballet. Look for media cross promotion, satillite radio broadcasts, webcasts, pay per view. The owners will look to recoupe quickly. A lot of liquor promotions. Could be a very “event” oriented place like some of the hotter clubs downtown. Is there a projected opening date yet with a bill? Any list of acts for the following weeks. That will tell you a lot about whats going on.