Movieland
1567 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
1567 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
9 people favorited this theater
Showing 126 - 140 of 140 comments
I think I saw “Ape” here, with the memorable notice posted *Not to be confused with King Kong. By this time the theatre had very little charm but it still had an open balcony.
Sex! Drugs! Nurses' Uniforms! Only in Gotham.
Bow tie cinemas is a part of the original Moss chain?
I am the General Manager of the Moss Family’s theater chain, Bow Tie Cinemas. We would love to see the picture—please e-mail it to me at Thanks!
I have a photo of Movieland days before demolition. I’ll e-mail it to someone if they want to post it.
Moss loved that name, he used it on many of his theatres.
In the ‘40s as the “Gotham,” it showed mostly B-films. In the early '50s, one of its live reviews was “Bagels and Yox,†for which patrons were treated to fresh bagels during the intermission (the yox was up to the audience to provide). As the “Holiday” with an early ‘50s widescreen for the Tony Curtis/Janet Leigh “Houdini†film, it advertised “NY’s largest screen (from our seating perspective),” meaning that in this small house, the screen overwhelmed the viewer’s vision, though it was by no means the largest one anywhere. In the late '50s, I remember seeing Olivier’s “Henry V” there, retooled and grotesquely cropped as it opened up to fill a CinemaScope ratio. In the '60s after its name had changed to the “Forum,” I remember seeing the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” during its first run there. With “Chariots of Fire” and “ET” mentioned above, its movie product appears to have improved in its final years, though the name “Movieland†strikes me as tacky.
I always liked this theater, but it was the step child of Broadway.
The Movieland’s days as a film venue ended in March of 1988 with an engagement of the kids' flick ‘The Land Before Time’.
Looking at the southwest corner of Broadway and 47th, it’s pretty obvious the building which housed Movieland (and, later, the Roxy Delicatessen) was demolished, which it was, in January and February of 1998. After that parcel of land was cleared, construction began on what was to have been a hotel owned and operated by Planet Hollywood, but they pulled out due to financial problems and Ian Schrager took over, converting the then-mid-development project into one of his W Hotels. (The Roxy Delicatessen, meanwhile, lives on to this day, next door, at 1565 Broadway.)
The Roxy Deli is still very much alove in the lobby of the old Movieland. The information above is very incorrect> I don’t know about the disco part.
i remember that they also had the highlander series
This was BS Moss' Movieland from the very late 70s onward…ET first ran here in 1982 for nearly a year
was this ever run by MOSS?
I remember this well as the Forum 47th St primarily a Paramount and MGM showcase theater…My last visit when it was Movieland was to see Chariots of Fire in 1981