I’m surprised this place is still in business with the Union Square 14 up and running. It was okay in its day when there was little competition (I can remember going here the first time and seeing She Devil on a very snowy day) and when I lived at Carlyle Court during my NYU days, it was a very close by place to catch a movie, but I can’t imagine it does much business these days. Anyone know?
I remember going to this theater the day it opened to see Thelma and Louise with two of my friends. We then snuck into Drop Dead Fred and then pushed our luck further and snuck into Truth or Dare. It began a long history of the “movie sneak” for me, as this was probably the easiest theater in which to auditorium hop. One Sunday in ‘92, my friend and I paid to see Widow’s Peak in the early afternoon, then snuck into Twin Peaks-Fire Walk With Me and a third film. On our way out, Bob Roberts was about to begin. We looked at each other, shrugged and walked in, only the theater was almost completely sold out. The only seats available were in the front row, so we decided to leave. An usher saw us leaving and asked what was wrong. We told him there were no seats and he said- well, give me your tickets and we’ll refund you. Don’t just leave. So I made this elaborate show of trying to find my tickets, pretended I’d left them in a bathroom stall, went into the bathroom for a few minutes, then came out with a disgusted face and said that someone was “occupying” the stall. So the usher took us downstairs (at this point, we were mortified and just wanted to flee, but this kid was tenacious) brought us to the manager, explained the situation, and the manager very kindly gave us passes for the next showing.
I wound up moving right across the street from the theater shortly thereafter and frequented it for the 8 years until I moved to LA.
What I remember most about this theater, besides the shoddy, exposed air conditioner ducts, was that during the movie, every time someone went in or out of the theater, the light from the lobby would shine on the screen when the door opened. Drove me crazy.
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 used to go to this theater a lot when I first moved to the city in ‘88. I was 16 and I worked at Tower Records at Lincoln Center and would frequent most theaters in that general area. I remember seeing Shame, Kansas, Chicago Joe & The Showgirl, and one one of my first dates in the city, Miles From Home. I used to frequent it a lot between 1996 and 1998 after it was bought by the DGA. I used to love the year end marathons they would hold- a double feature almost every night of the week and four movies on Saturday and Sunday. I remember going to a very bizarre double feature of a pre-release The English Patient and Bill Murray’s circus movie Larger Than Life. The theater was packed for English Patient and within 45 minutes, the whole audience was asleep. You could just feel the energy drain out of the crowd. I remember thinking at the time what a huge bomb it was going to be. After it ended, everyone but myself and five other people left and we had an almost private screening of the Bill Murray film.
I’m surprised this place is still in business with the Union Square 14 up and running. It was okay in its day when there was little competition (I can remember going here the first time and seeing She Devil on a very snowy day) and when I lived at Carlyle Court during my NYU days, it was a very close by place to catch a movie, but I can’t imagine it does much business these days. Anyone know?
I remember going to this theater the day it opened to see Thelma and Louise with two of my friends. We then snuck into Drop Dead Fred and then pushed our luck further and snuck into Truth or Dare. It began a long history of the “movie sneak” for me, as this was probably the easiest theater in which to auditorium hop. One Sunday in ‘92, my friend and I paid to see Widow’s Peak in the early afternoon, then snuck into Twin Peaks-Fire Walk With Me and a third film. On our way out, Bob Roberts was about to begin. We looked at each other, shrugged and walked in, only the theater was almost completely sold out. The only seats available were in the front row, so we decided to leave. An usher saw us leaving and asked what was wrong. We told him there were no seats and he said- well, give me your tickets and we’ll refund you. Don’t just leave. So I made this elaborate show of trying to find my tickets, pretended I’d left them in a bathroom stall, went into the bathroom for a few minutes, then came out with a disgusted face and said that someone was “occupying” the stall. So the usher took us downstairs (at this point, we were mortified and just wanted to flee, but this kid was tenacious) brought us to the manager, explained the situation, and the manager very kindly gave us passes for the next showing.
I wound up moving right across the street from the theater shortly thereafter and frequented it for the 8 years until I moved to LA.
What I remember most about this theater, besides the shoddy, exposed air conditioner ducts, was that during the movie, every time someone went in or out of the theater, the light from the lobby would shine on the screen when the door opened. Drove me crazy.
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 used to go to this theater a lot when I first moved to the city in ‘88. I was 16 and I worked at Tower Records at Lincoln Center and would frequent most theaters in that general area. I remember seeing Shame, Kansas, Chicago Joe & The Showgirl, and one one of my first dates in the city, Miles From Home. I used to frequent it a lot between 1996 and 1998 after it was bought by the DGA. I used to love the year end marathons they would hold- a double feature almost every night of the week and four movies on Saturday and Sunday. I remember going to a very bizarre double feature of a pre-release The English Patient and Bill Murray’s circus movie Larger Than Life. The theater was packed for English Patient and within 45 minutes, the whole audience was asleep. You could just feel the energy drain out of the crowd. I remember thinking at the time what a huge bomb it was going to be. After it ended, everyone but myself and five other people left and we had an almost private screening of the Bill Murray film.