New Victory Theater

Nice shots, Ed!

There was a Loew’s Victory on 155th Street and 3rd avenue open in the 40’s that does not appear to be listed here. Does anyone have any info on that one?

I was at the New Victory this past Thursday for a show and took this detail shot of the stone banister at the bottom of one of the balcony stairways:

Banister carving

The rough carving is a bit hard to read precisely. It might read “1995” or this could be a remnant from the peak of this theater’s most seedy incarnation in “1975”. I can’t imagine how someone would have had the time to pull this off in the theater’s current well patrolled state of existence.

I attended a show here on Friday with the kids and snapped the following series of interior photos:

Lower Lounge
Foyer
Foyer ceiling detail
Stairway to loge
Left side boxed
Pair of cherubs
Right side boxes
Loge facade fixture
Proscenium
Dome view
Dome long view
Back of house
Seat row end cap

I was never in the Victory during its ‘70’s and '80’s porn days so I don’t know what the interior was like back then. The lower lounge area looks like it was created with the 1990’s renovations (and there is an extension into space under an adjacent building for an concession stand, additional lounge space and a kids “activity” center where children can engage in event-related hands-on play). It is possible that the restrooms were always downstairs, however, since the ground level foyer (as seen in the photo above) is guite small.

You have to walk up a few steps to enter the foyer from the ticket lobby and there are identical staircases leading up to the loge area on either side. It appears that some alterations were made to this space with the renovations (probably to build the twin stairs that lead down to the lounge) as is evidenced in the “foyer” photo above where some original ceiling molding detail can be found mixed in with the obviously modern plain walls and ceilings.

Up the stairs the loge foyer is also quite small, with much of it taken up with the open shallow stairwell that leads to the upper exit doors (these lead to the ornate outer staircase seen in exterior photos, which had been shorn off the building many years ago before being reproducted for the 1995 renovation). The ticket lobby exists under these outer stairs. One must have walked practically right into the auditorium from the sidewalk in the grind house days!

Another set of stairs on either side of the theater takes you from the loge foyer to the balcony foyer. My seats were in the orchestra, and I didn’t venture up to photograph the other levels. Next time I’m seated in the balcony, I’ll be sure to bring the camera along and post some photos here, unless someone else does so before I get the chance.

I’ve been a member of the New Victory for about 5 years now and can’t recall any film series in that time. There was one event that featured a small orchestra accompanying vintage Warner Brothers cartoons, but that’s as much as I can recall. Even so, if you have kids (or are close to someone else’s), I must recommend this affordable and excellent venue for family entertainment. The bookings are from all over the world and are usually excellent. Even if you don’t have kids, some of the fare (particularly the dance ensembles and acrobatic circuses) should prove of great interest to adults as well.

A great 1967 pic
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1971 porno on a showcase run
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I wish the management would better publicize the films shown at the New Victory, no matter how seldom the screenings are. I’ve never been inclined to attend any of the family-geared productions presented there (to my loss, I suppose, based on what I’ve heard and read about them) but would feel differently about catching a flick, knowing what I do about the theatre.

Here is a 1966 shot of the Victory and a partial view of some of the other theaters on The Deuce. Nice program of two 42nd St favorites of the time UA’s Satan Bug & AIP’s Time Travelers. I won the item on ebay and will be loaded it on to my website soon. Here’s the temporary link:
View link

Note the cameraman on the neon sign above the marquee. At night, the display was animated with the camerman cranking the projector.

For those interested, the films showing are:
HARPER & SWINGER’S PARADISE (Lyric), OUT OF THE PAST & TENSION AT TABLE ROCK (Times Square), TROUBLE WITH ANGELS & MYSTERY OF THUG ISLAND (Selwyn), WEEKEND AT DUNKIRK & THAT MAN IN ISTANBUL (New Amsterdam); Apollo appears to have a Gina Lollobrigida film.

The cherubs and the ornimental work remind me of the St James Theatre in Wellington, New Zealand. The St James Theatre was built in 1912 and it’s desginer was Henry Eli White here is it’s website http://www.stjames.co.nz/ it’s a lovely theatre. I think the New Victory is lovely too.

Who was it who handled the booking of the occasional concerts, plays, etc., which were presented in some of the old 42nd Street theatres (specifically the Victory, Lyric, Liberty, and Selwyn come to mind as such venues) between the time they stopped screening films on a regular basis and their renovations and/or conversions into other uses? The city, I know, came to eventually own all the Deuce moviehouses, but did they assume control of each of them as soon as each individual theatre closed for regular business?

Is there any way to retrieve the bookings information on the 42nd Street Theaters, back in the 50s-60s, especially the Empire, Anco, Times Sqaure, Victory, Liberty? I went through the NY Times microfiche at the library and found some mention of the more mainstream New Amsterdam, Lyric, Harris, Selwyn but nothing on the others. Thanks for any info. Jerry 42nd Street Memories

Going off-topic, does anyone know the name of the theatre that is show in the background during the opening sequence of Saturday Night Fever?

The seating capacity may have been reduced from the original. I believe that New York stage theatres with fewer than 500 seats operate under less expensive union rules than bigger houses do, thus the 499 figure.