Forgot to mention that I have photos of the UA Lynbrook Theatre in my photobucket album. Feel free to use any of those photos for your website, if youlike. All I ask is that you credit me for any images you take.
Thanks, Warren. Interesting balcony configuration in that one enters via stairs that are open to the auditorium and lead up to the first row. From the first shot I wasn’t entirely sure that it was a separate balcony as opposed to raised loge – even though it seemed far too high for that. I know that much older theatres often had balcony stairs at the very back of the auditorium, but I’ve never seen it designed quite this way before.
Yeah, I guess you’re right. The first row at National Amusements is pretty darn close also, although some people still like to sit up there even when the showing isn’t sold out. Now that I think of it, I can recall theatre managers (or assistant managers) on a very busy night addressing the ticket purchaser’s line to inform everyone that only the first four rows were available for a certain showing. You don’t hear that much these days since “sell outs” often occur well before the auditorium is opened for seating – I guess due to most rooms being so much smaller than they were even 20 yrs ago when triplexes, quartets and even 6-screen plexes were more the norm.
Interesting. Meanwhile, at the Midway in auditorium 5 we’re talking about 20 odd seats! Could there be that many seats that don’t have clean sightlines in a modern stadium-style room? Or is there some other reason at the Midway?
The film advertised in that shot, “The Heart of Jennifer,” was released on August 30th, 1915. I’m sure it would have made its way uptown to the Bunny Theatre before the end of that year.
The name of the theatre as per the marquee is Coliseum Cinemas, so I believe a revision is in order up at the top of this page. I presume that in the evening, the neon comedy & tragedy masks at either side of the theatre name panel are brightly illuminated.
Exhaustive and exhausting, I know. I basically just took a walk around the building and fired away. Hope it’s of interest to some folks. I didn’t have the time to wait for the doors to open and take an interior walk through – but I think the series of stunning photographs on the United Palace’s website offer a nice sampling of interior views (not that that’ll stop me from photographing the interior myself one day and posting them right here)!
I couldn’t say what my first G-rated film would be. Some Disney film, no doubt, when I was a toddler. I wonder if my Mom would remember. Earliest film memories I have are of “Planet of the Apes,” “2001:A Space Odyssey,” and “The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t” – all rated G.
Well… for the sake of completion, my first PG-13 movie was “Dreamscape” – which I probably saw at the Sunrise Cinemas multiplex in Valley Stream, NY. I remember making note of it, since the new rating was a big item in the news that summer. Actually, “Dreamscape” was to have an R rating – but a love scene was trimmed or cut out (I forget which) to take advantage of the new “in-between” rating.
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen an NC-17 film in theatres… but “Dawn of the Dead” in 1979 (at the Rivoli in NY) would have been my first unrated “adults only” film. And “Debbie Does Dallas” (ha ha) would be my first X rated film – at the Flick Theatre in Las Vegas, August of 1980! Hey, what happens in Vegas doesn’t ALWAYS stay in Vegas!
Hmmm. I think my first PG film was the British horror omnibus “The House That Dripped Blood” in 1971 – when I was only six! I remember my Dad taking me to see it because I was already such a horror movie buff (Creature Features and Chiller Theatre on TV were early obsessions – along with Popeye and The Little Rascals!). I can’t remember the theatre, but the supporting feature was the 1966 pre-MPAA ratings system release, “Dracula, Prince of Darkness” with Christopher Lee as the Count. Oddly, while parts of “House” creeped me out (the image of Ferdy Mayne becoming a vampire and defying gravity at the end of his sequence haunted my dreams for years), I think the most brutal sight I saw on the screen that day would have to be the sequence from the Dracula flick where a body, strung up over the Count’s remains by a faithful manservant, is sliced open so that the gushing blood would revive the vampire.
A year later, while my family lived in Miami for a short time, we attended numerous double bills at the local drive-in theatre. While the main features were rated PG or even G, the supporting features were often rated R – and quite deservedly so. I would generally be fast asleep in the back of the car by the time the 2nd feature would role – and perhaps the programmers counted on this being the case for most families who patronized the theatre – and I remember my Dad telling me years later that he and my Mom were often shocked at how brutal some of the supporting genre flicks could be. Had I not fallen asleep, they’d have certainly left early during many of those films.
First R rated movie is harder to pin down, believe it or not. My Dad treated the PG-rated “Jaws” as if it were rated R when he took me to see that in ‘75. I think the first R rated movie I ever saw (again, with my Dad) was the Robert Aldrich thriller “Twilight’s Last Gleaming” in 1977. There’s a movie I’d like to revisit!
Anyway… great topic, Loves movies, and very well written – even though we got off on a bit of a tangent with “first R” and “first PG” recollections! These “news” items offer the best forums on CT for members to pursue random threads of conversation. The theatre pages (and I’m quite guilty of this charge myself) often stray too far from their intended topics – and tempers frequently flare as a result. Thanks!
Remarkable that those decorations were spared the trash bin! Great foresight on the part of the Hymans, if their intentions in storing the items were a matter of thoughtfulness and respect rather than economic haste or efficiency. Thanks for posting, GranadaKeith.
Exactly, Al… That’s what I was referring to with the lack of the supporting genre & exploitation flicks on those bills. You might find one or two programs on the block with an old fashioned B title under the main feature by the late ‘80’s, but for the most part it was a twin bill of major Hollywood product. Sometimes it would be two current films or maybe a current release backed up with an older title from the earlier in the year or the previous season – as evidenced by the 1989 shot of the Victory marquee above with the new “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” backed up with the 1988 release, “Naked Gun.”
Just occured to me that the actress Vanity – whom Prince had “discovered” for his movie “Purple Rain” in 1984 – was the female lead in both of those flicks I reported seeing on the Duece in Feb or March of ‘88. That must have been the programmer’s “theme” when he booked the supporting feature (since “Action Jackson” was a new or recent major release). At least there was still an attempt at creativity – even though I recall some disappointment that the theatre entrances and outer foyers were no longer adorned with the colorful and hyperbolic advertising paraphernalia that had long been the custom up and down the street.
Much as I miss those days (well, before the urine odor set in)… there is no denying that the restoration job on the New Victory is a stunning acheivement – almost as much as the magnificent job that Disney performed on the New Amsterdam across the street (much as I hate to pay them any credit)!
Jerry… I’m thinking that was a last ditch effort to keep the Victory going while the City was ramping up efforts to clean up the strip – probably around 1988/89? It didn’t last long as the Victory was shuttered by 1990.
Last time I saw a movie on the Duece was early 1988 and I recall that the Victory was still showing XXX porn. The other grinders had mostly gone mainstream – with new Hollywood product topping the bill and an older genre flick in support. One or two of the theatres were still showing Kung Fu flicks – I think the Cine 42 was one, maybe the Rialto II. The Harem was still in full porn swing and if I recall, the Empire was already shuttered. In fact, the Liberty may have also been closed at the time – but I can’t remember for sure.
My Duece swan song was a double bill of “Action Jackson” with Carl (Apollo Creed) Weathers supported by a cheapo Billy Dee Williams actioner called “Love You to Death” (or something like that) co-starring Prince “find” Vanity and the immortal Morgan Fairchild. The theatre reeked of marijuana and urine (I’m almost positive it was the Selwyn, but could have been the Times Square) and, while I soldiered on through both features, I pretty much knew about 20 or 30 minutes in to the first flick that this would be my last trip to one of the old 42nd Street grind houses.
By the end, I think it was pretty much Brandt up and down the block. The Anco was operated by Sweetheart Theatres (they also ran the Big Apple nee New York Theatre on B'way & 43rd) towards the end of its XXX days. It was shuttered and converted to retail in the ‘80’s. The New Amsterdam had closed by very early in the '80’s and sat vacant for some 15 years before Disney came in to renovate. The Apollo (with orchestra leveled and seats removed) was operating as a live concert venue before the redevlopment axe fell. I’m not sure who operated the Harris at the end – but it was the last original theatre on the Duece to remain operational by 1993 – shuttered before redevelopment only once the new Movieplex 42 opened at the site of the Roxy Twin porn pit. Oh, and the old Rialto had been operated by Cineplex Odeon for a while as the Warners before it was converted into a Visitors Center kiosk around 1992 or so.
I think Richard Basciano (of Show World fame) operated the Harem until surrendering the property to the City for redevelopment in the ‘90’s. Not sure about the Cine 42 which was adjacent to the New Amsterdam. And let’s not remember that well into the late 1980’s the grinders on the Duece were making the Brandt’s a ton of money. They had to be forced from the Duece, kicking and screaming all the way when the City finally decided to reclaim the street for Disney, Forest City Ratner, Tishman and all the other conglomerate real estate developers.
Interesting to see a shot of the Victory’s marquee advertising mainstream features after so many years on the porn grind! Great shot… I’ve been looking to pick up a copy of this book for some time now.
The address on the ticket form is listed as 1585 Broadway (which is the address of the building that now stands on the site). The address listed above for the Strand is 1579 Broadway. Can anyone confirm if both addresses are valid? Was 1579 the actual theatre entrance address with 1585 serving as an alternative box-office address for mail-in purposes?
Appreciate the encouragement, saps, but there are few things about today’s moviegoing experience that detracts from my enjoyment more than an underwhelmingly sized screen and auditorium.
Forgot to mention that I have photos of the UA Lynbrook Theatre in my photobucket album. Feel free to use any of those photos for your website, if youlike. All I ask is that you credit me for any images you take.
Thanks, Warren. Interesting balcony configuration in that one enters via stairs that are open to the auditorium and lead up to the first row. From the first shot I wasn’t entirely sure that it was a separate balcony as opposed to raised loge – even though it seemed far too high for that. I know that much older theatres often had balcony stairs at the very back of the auditorium, but I’ve never seen it designed quite this way before.
Cool. Good luck with it, Dunn. I look forward to it!
Yeah, I guess you’re right. The first row at National Amusements is pretty darn close also, although some people still like to sit up there even when the showing isn’t sold out. Now that I think of it, I can recall theatre managers (or assistant managers) on a very busy night addressing the ticket purchaser’s line to inform everyone that only the first four rows were available for a certain showing. You don’t hear that much these days since “sell outs” often occur well before the auditorium is opened for seating – I guess due to most rooms being so much smaller than they were even 20 yrs ago when triplexes, quartets and even 6-screen plexes were more the norm.
Interesting. Meanwhile, at the Midway in auditorium 5 we’re talking about 20 odd seats! Could there be that many seats that don’t have clean sightlines in a modern stadium-style room? Or is there some other reason at the Midway?
iRoN… What do you mean by “sells out at 199?” Are there 219 seats or only 199? Is the larger number a fire code max capacity?
The film advertised in that shot, “The Heart of Jennifer,” was released on August 30th, 1915. I’m sure it would have made its way uptown to the Bunny Theatre before the end of that year.
Here are some exterior shots I took a couple of weekends back:
Entrance & 181st Street main facade
Facade over marquee
Main facade arch
Ornamental detail
Ancient window
Marquee
Main facade detail
B'way facade centerpiece
B'way centerpiece detail
B'way facade feature
Broadway & 181st
Display case
The name of the theatre as per the marquee is Coliseum Cinemas, so I believe a revision is in order up at the top of this page. I presume that in the evening, the neon comedy & tragedy masks at either side of the theatre name panel are brightly illuminated.
I was up around the theatre a couple of weeks ago and snapped a number of exterior photos. Probably TOO many, but here goes anyhow:
Broadway & 175th
Facade corner detail
Blade
Main facade
Marquee detail
Smile as you pass
Box office
Facade section
Basketweave detail
Marquee panel
Wadsworth & 175th
Wadsworth facade
Upper facade detail
Wadsworth side wall
Wadsworth & 176th
Stage House Tower
Stage House upper facade detail
Broadway & 176th
Building profile looking south on B'way
B'way entrance & facade
B'way fire escapes
Exhaustive and exhausting, I know. I basically just took a walk around the building and fired away. Hope it’s of interest to some folks. I didn’t have the time to wait for the doors to open and take an interior walk through – but I think the series of stunning photographs on the United Palace’s website offer a nice sampling of interior views (not that that’ll stop me from photographing the interior myself one day and posting them right here)!
I couldn’t say what my first G-rated film would be. Some Disney film, no doubt, when I was a toddler. I wonder if my Mom would remember. Earliest film memories I have are of “Planet of the Apes,” “2001:A Space Odyssey,” and “The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t” – all rated G.
Well… for the sake of completion, my first PG-13 movie was “Dreamscape” – which I probably saw at the Sunrise Cinemas multiplex in Valley Stream, NY. I remember making note of it, since the new rating was a big item in the news that summer. Actually, “Dreamscape” was to have an R rating – but a love scene was trimmed or cut out (I forget which) to take advantage of the new “in-between” rating.
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen an NC-17 film in theatres… but “Dawn of the Dead” in 1979 (at the Rivoli in NY) would have been my first unrated “adults only” film. And “Debbie Does Dallas” (ha ha) would be my first X rated film – at the Flick Theatre in Las Vegas, August of 1980! Hey, what happens in Vegas doesn’t ALWAYS stay in Vegas!
Pronounced, no doubt, “of the pernt!”
Indeed, GranadaKeith!
Hmmm. I think my first PG film was the British horror omnibus “The House That Dripped Blood” in 1971 – when I was only six! I remember my Dad taking me to see it because I was already such a horror movie buff (Creature Features and Chiller Theatre on TV were early obsessions – along with Popeye and The Little Rascals!). I can’t remember the theatre, but the supporting feature was the 1966 pre-MPAA ratings system release, “Dracula, Prince of Darkness” with Christopher Lee as the Count. Oddly, while parts of “House” creeped me out (the image of Ferdy Mayne becoming a vampire and defying gravity at the end of his sequence haunted my dreams for years), I think the most brutal sight I saw on the screen that day would have to be the sequence from the Dracula flick where a body, strung up over the Count’s remains by a faithful manservant, is sliced open so that the gushing blood would revive the vampire.
A year later, while my family lived in Miami for a short time, we attended numerous double bills at the local drive-in theatre. While the main features were rated PG or even G, the supporting features were often rated R – and quite deservedly so. I would generally be fast asleep in the back of the car by the time the 2nd feature would role – and perhaps the programmers counted on this being the case for most families who patronized the theatre – and I remember my Dad telling me years later that he and my Mom were often shocked at how brutal some of the supporting genre flicks could be. Had I not fallen asleep, they’d have certainly left early during many of those films.
First R rated movie is harder to pin down, believe it or not. My Dad treated the PG-rated “Jaws” as if it were rated R when he took me to see that in ‘75. I think the first R rated movie I ever saw (again, with my Dad) was the Robert Aldrich thriller “Twilight’s Last Gleaming” in 1977. There’s a movie I’d like to revisit!
Anyway… great topic, Loves movies, and very well written – even though we got off on a bit of a tangent with “first R” and “first PG” recollections! These “news” items offer the best forums on CT for members to pursue random threads of conversation. The theatre pages (and I’m quite guilty of this charge myself) often stray too far from their intended topics – and tempers frequently flare as a result. Thanks!
Remarkable that those decorations were spared the trash bin! Great foresight on the part of the Hymans, if their intentions in storing the items were a matter of thoughtfulness and respect rather than economic haste or efficiency. Thanks for posting, GranadaKeith.
Exactly, Al… That’s what I was referring to with the lack of the supporting genre & exploitation flicks on those bills. You might find one or two programs on the block with an old fashioned B title under the main feature by the late ‘80’s, but for the most part it was a twin bill of major Hollywood product. Sometimes it would be two current films or maybe a current release backed up with an older title from the earlier in the year or the previous season – as evidenced by the 1989 shot of the Victory marquee above with the new “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” backed up with the 1988 release, “Naked Gun.”
Just occured to me that the actress Vanity – whom Prince had “discovered” for his movie “Purple Rain” in 1984 – was the female lead in both of those flicks I reported seeing on the Duece in Feb or March of ‘88. That must have been the programmer’s “theme” when he booked the supporting feature (since “Action Jackson” was a new or recent major release). At least there was still an attempt at creativity – even though I recall some disappointment that the theatre entrances and outer foyers were no longer adorned with the colorful and hyperbolic advertising paraphernalia that had long been the custom up and down the street.
Much as I miss those days (well, before the urine odor set in)… there is no denying that the restoration job on the New Victory is a stunning acheivement – almost as much as the magnificent job that Disney performed on the New Amsterdam across the street (much as I hate to pay them any credit)!
Jerry… I’m thinking that was a last ditch effort to keep the Victory going while the City was ramping up efforts to clean up the strip – probably around 1988/89? It didn’t last long as the Victory was shuttered by 1990.
Last time I saw a movie on the Duece was early 1988 and I recall that the Victory was still showing XXX porn. The other grinders had mostly gone mainstream – with new Hollywood product topping the bill and an older genre flick in support. One or two of the theatres were still showing Kung Fu flicks – I think the Cine 42 was one, maybe the Rialto II. The Harem was still in full porn swing and if I recall, the Empire was already shuttered. In fact, the Liberty may have also been closed at the time – but I can’t remember for sure.
My Duece swan song was a double bill of “Action Jackson” with Carl (Apollo Creed) Weathers supported by a cheapo Billy Dee Williams actioner called “Love You to Death” (or something like that) co-starring Prince “find” Vanity and the immortal Morgan Fairchild. The theatre reeked of marijuana and urine (I’m almost positive it was the Selwyn, but could have been the Times Square) and, while I soldiered on through both features, I pretty much knew about 20 or 30 minutes in to the first flick that this would be my last trip to one of the old 42nd Street grind houses.
Er.. rather that line should read “and let’s not FORGET…” not “let’s not remember”… Duh!
By the end, I think it was pretty much Brandt up and down the block. The Anco was operated by Sweetheart Theatres (they also ran the Big Apple nee New York Theatre on B'way & 43rd) towards the end of its XXX days. It was shuttered and converted to retail in the ‘80’s. The New Amsterdam had closed by very early in the '80’s and sat vacant for some 15 years before Disney came in to renovate. The Apollo (with orchestra leveled and seats removed) was operating as a live concert venue before the redevlopment axe fell. I’m not sure who operated the Harris at the end – but it was the last original theatre on the Duece to remain operational by 1993 – shuttered before redevelopment only once the new Movieplex 42 opened at the site of the Roxy Twin porn pit. Oh, and the old Rialto had been operated by Cineplex Odeon for a while as the Warners before it was converted into a Visitors Center kiosk around 1992 or so.
I think Richard Basciano (of Show World fame) operated the Harem until surrendering the property to the City for redevelopment in the ‘90’s. Not sure about the Cine 42 which was adjacent to the New Amsterdam. And let’s not remember that well into the late 1980’s the grinders on the Duece were making the Brandt’s a ton of money. They had to be forced from the Duece, kicking and screaming all the way when the City finally decided to reclaim the street for Disney, Forest City Ratner, Tishman and all the other conglomerate real estate developers.
Interesting to see a shot of the Victory’s marquee advertising mainstream features after so many years on the porn grind! Great shot… I’ve been looking to pick up a copy of this book for some time now.
Thanks, Warren. I surmised that might have been the case after posting the question.
The address on the ticket form is listed as 1585 Broadway (which is the address of the building that now stands on the site). The address listed above for the Strand is 1579 Broadway. Can anyone confirm if both addresses are valid? Was 1579 the actual theatre entrance address with 1585 serving as an alternative box-office address for mail-in purposes?
Warren… the Ridgewood Theatre has to be right up there as well. Not sure of the order, but I’d say it’s a good bet that these are #1 and #2.
Appreciate the encouragement, saps, but there are few things about today’s moviegoing experience that detracts from my enjoyment more than an underwhelmingly sized screen and auditorium.