Baronet and Coronet Theatre
993 3rd Avenue,
New York,
NY
10022
993 3rd Avenue,
New York,
NY
10022
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Look for him spelled “Kieth Kiehl”. I found several listings but I am not sure if they are him. There are also some articles regarding drive-ins in the Tacoma area dated as recent as 2004.
no listing for keith in WA. ANYONE HAS AN IDEA HOW TO REACH HIM PLEASE SEND IT TO MY EMAIL ……………….THANKS
Of the two, the lower level Baronet seemed more enjoyable, although the Coronet(a few seats larger) showcased the prestige premiere features. Saw “Dr. Strangelove” at the B. right after a full renovation; it was plush and comfortable. The C. was always jammed and felt like a sardine can, but with raked seating.
Greg and Keith moved back together (I was part of the packing commitee in LeFrak)and Keith was living in and running a Drive-In in Tacoma, the last time we spoke around 1998.
…but I never heard if Greg went with him or stayed here…
Keith went back home to Tacoma when he left Cineplex – his family ran drive-in theatres in that area…..
Al do you know were Keith keil wound up ………Was very good friends and lost touch with him…………….
Al do you know what ever happened to Kieth Kiel ……..i was very friendly with him and lost touch…………
It was the location that made them highly coveted. As theatres they were never special but did have good 70mm presentations. It is amazing how many little Manhattan houses had 70mm capabilities.
I mean pre-Cineplex Odeon-
Al i get the great movies ,exclusive engagements,i am talking as a theater .(layout,decor,seats)
The Baronet/Coronet never ran roadshows but often ran exclusive engagements in 70mm. It was used to establish films as important rather than as a showcase for pre-sold expensive films. This was where you discovered MIDNIGHT COWBOY and M.A.S.H, not HELLO, DOLLY!.
Never loved this theater as a theater ,showed great movies but never GOT what people loved about it………….
that link to the lost boys newspaper ad showed it in 70mm at the coronet. did cineplex odeon have 70mm and stereo sound installed when they took over from walter reede? or did the coronet show movies in 70mm before that? didn’t they show some important roadshow films in the sixties?
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you can also visit my own website
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to view more material.
The way things work you can’t get even a good 35mm print of My Fair Lady but Warners probably has pristine 70’s of this in the vault :)
View link
Does anyone remember Dean Cronos, manager of the Coronet/Baronet back in the mid 60’s?
During my years with Cineplex Odeon there were always outrageously high offers for this property. The only reason the theatres lasted as long as they did was a combination of the First & 62nd multiplex not opening well and filmmakers still insisting on opening on this block even after the Upper West Side replaced the Upper East Side as the primary Manhattan run. This, like the Cinema 1, II & III are casualties of highly coveted real estate and really nothing more sinister than that.
Those of you who in the industry during the 60’s and 70’s may remember that national releases were delayed just waiting for an opening on this block.
I guess I should also mention that 9-11 sped up the process of the theater’s closing. They had talked about possibly saving it or delaying it’s close, and then on the day of 9-11 we were unable to get to or open the theater for a number of days. Once we did re-open the numbers had fallen drastically, and I don’t think many people were in the movie going mood. We did indeed show films from during it’s run for free admission during it’s last week, at which time I was transferred by the union over to the Leow’s State theater in the basement floor of Virgin Megastore in Time’s Square. Unfortunately, it’s days were numbered as well. At one point, I believe the only thing keeping it alive were the Richard B. Film School screenings, and the Uraban World Film Festival. Once those were moved, the State theater had had it’s last hurrah as well.
I didn’t know if you would find it interesting, but I was actually the final projectionist at the Baronet Coronet theater, and was so for it’s final 2yrs. Seeing the picture above brought back memories because those 2 movies being advertised on the marquee played during it’s last year. The decline of the theater was not only due to lack of funding put into it’s interior, as you said like the escalator, but however also due to Leows and other large chain’s growing greed. They increased the concession prices and lowered the quality at the same time to therefor increase their profit margins further. By doing so I mean they began fizzling the union projectionists like myself out of their theaters by reducing us to very few days a week, while their managers, whom they gave 2 week crash courses on how to run a projection booth, ran the remainder of the week. Generally I would build a print Thursday nite for Fridays open, and when I came back in on my next shift it was already scratched, and generally playing in the wrong sound format. But what can you do, projection isn’t the only craft that’s been fizzled out by big company to increase profits margins. Why pay someone $25hr when you can give an 18yr old a crash course and pay him $7.
Yes, Tess moved over to the Little Carnegie. Per my film log, I saw it there on December 26, 1980…I believe at a midnight showing.
Mike… “Tess” definitely played the Baronet as per that ad for its one-week Oscar-qualifying run. The movie clocks that week confirm it. “Stardust Memories” was still at the Little Carnegie during the week of 12/12/80 through 12/18/80. “Inside Moves” moves into the Little Carnegie (day-and-dating with the 34th Street East) on 12/19/80. Perhaps “Tess” played the Little Carnegie when it was officially released sometime after this qualifier.
The book New York 1960 (Marcacelli Press 1995) reports the Baronet was a nickelodeon, which as the Arcadia was taken over in 1951 by Walter Reade & expanded to 432 seats. The upstairs Coronet was added in 1961, as the 1st of the modern Third Avenue theaters.
This duplex closed 9-13-2001. Posters on the theater announced the following, which I wrote down.
After Four Decades, the Loew’s Coronet is Closing. To Commerorate the Coronet’s Place in NYC History, Loews Presents Classic Films of the Coronet Era. Free Admission.
9/10, 1960’s, Dr. No, 4:30 PM, A Hard Day’s Night 7:30 PM, Breakfast at Tiffany’s 10 PM
9/11, 1970’s, Chinatown 4:15 PM, Taxi Driver 7:30 PM, A Clockwork Orange 10:15 PM
9/12, 1980’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, 4:15 PM, Terms of Endearment 7:15 PM, Raging Bull 10:15 PM (but Raging Bull was crossed off)
9/13, 1990’s, Forrest Gump, 4:15 PM, Get Shorty, 7:30 PM, Silence of the Lambs 10:15 PM
Note from me: Great intent, but an American tragedy on 9-11 may have interfered, at least with numbers attending.
Note that TRIBUTE was produced by Garth Drabinsky, already making an appearance at the Baronet/Coronet’s life before their fateful run-in with Cineplex Odeon!!