Victoria Theatre
1547 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
1547 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
8 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 75 of 94 comments
Jerry Lewis runs amuck at the Victoria:
Who’s Minding the Store – Daily News 11/25/63
This trash at The Victoria and GINGER at the Astor.
Rock on a Red Carpet run
View link
Laffmovie should be added to previous names (1942-1943).
Yes, Vincent… the entrances for the Astor and Gaiety/Victoria were located in seperate buildings. Years later, as each building’s facade was covered in giant billboards and signage, that fact might have been obscured. At the far left of the photo at the top of this page, you’ll see that the column of windows is actually a building adjacent to the Gaiety building, facing Broadway. Because of the contrast in the old B&W shot, it only appears to be a sliver of the Astor – whose mansard roof line on its 45th street profile can be seen rising above it. As I said, compare the image to the photo at the top of the Astor page and you’ll see what I’m talking about. The Astor entrance is in a completely different building. The one you can just make out along the left edge of the photo above.
I am referring to the above photo and I’m just wondering why I don’t see any sign that there is another theater to the left. It looks like the Gaiety is the only theater in the building facing onto Broadway.
I think Vincent is referring to the photo at the top of the page. If you look all the way to the left, Vincent, you’ll see just a slice of the adjacent building (which ran to the 45th Street corner) that housed the Astor Theater entrance and lobby. You can see the roofline of the Astor Hotel running down 45th because it was several stories higher than this corner structure.
Here’s a link to the Astor’s page. If you compare the row of windows that is just visible at far left in the photo above with those on the facade in the photo at the top of the Astor’s page, you’ll see it’s the same building.
Warren it seems strange because one can see a sliver of the Astor Hotel to the extreme left. There is certainly plenty of room for the Astor theater in the photo.
Here’s a shot of both. jerry
View link
BOB I won’t go there, its too easy.
Why in the above photo on this page is there no Astor theater?
RobertR—
Who would want to live under David Niven?
“I Want to Live”
View link
Wonderful picture!
“The Fourposter” day-dated at the Sutton. “Limelight” day-dated at Trans-Lux 60th Street. The jet under construction on the Victoria’s magnificent billboard advertises David Lean’s “Breaking (Through) the Sound Barrier,” with Ralph Richardson, which followed the Harrisons' vehicle at the theater on 6 Nov. ‘52.
That’s it
That’s the one, Lost Memory.
Yes, RobertR, good shots.
The “Baby Doll”/“Best Things in Life Are Free” is the only shot of the Victoria. “Separate Tables” and “The Strange One” played next door at the Astor. “A Face in the Crowd,” above the Mayfair marquee, played at the Globe diagonally across the street. The oyster shucker at Tofanetti’s (third from last) exactly captures the tone of the real thing.
Some good shots here
View link
During the run of “Joan of Arc,” the Victoria displayed the left half of the same illuminated sign in its customary space above the marquee. The colors were amazing, from the iron mesh and gleaming metal of Ingrid/Joan’s armor to the blue and white medieval French flag and the amber flames of military destruction, fifteenth-century style. The sign was the most spectacular one I remember from the Victoria (the Astor’s signs usually topped those of its Times Square’s mate).
By the time I got to see films in this theatre it was very plain looking. Most of its charm had been removed.
Interesting Joan of Arc ad, Robert – that may have been one of the first times a director of photography was given credit in a newspaper ad.
In Stanley Kubrick’s 1955 film Killer’s Kiss available on a nice DVD, there are extended night scenes of the Times Square area and its theatres. One gets clear views of the Victoria with a large display for The Man Between, the Astor with Queen of Sheba, and the Embassy Newsreel Theatre. There are snippets of more. That part must have been shot around November of 1953.
Joan of Ark day and dating with the Fulton
View link
I always remember that theatre as just the Embassy, never Embassy 46th St.
Here is the link to the Embassy’s page on Cinema Treasures:
/theaters/7212/
The New Embassy 46th was across the street and slightly uptown from the Victoria, between the Palace and the Loew’s State. It’s now the Times Square Visitors Center. where you can still get an idea of what the theater looked like back then.