Guild 50th Street Theater
33 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
33 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
14 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 102 comments
I loved this theater. When “My Fair Lady” ended its run at the Criterion it moved to the Guild for several more months. It was the first film I saw there and I remember being impressed with the sound.
Please correct, theatre closed September 26, 1999, see article in photos section
Theatre closed on September 30, 1999 with Runaway Bride. A few different ads in photos section.
It was the sweetest sh!thouse in town…
Probably because it was part of Rockefeller Center.
Hello-
it certainly had one of the classiest most well appointed men’s rooms.
What sound systems did this theater use?
The Guild premiered the now-classic Japanese film “Gate of Hell" in the 1950s. It played there for quite a long run, and its rich color photography was exhibited in full display on the Guild’s screen. It was also the theater where the Peter Sellers film “The Mouse that Roared” premiered. The Guild was a classic movie theater in the heart of Manhattan, which, like the Sutton, is now lost to time.
I don’t see a link in any of the earlier comments to the January 7, 1939, Boxoffice article by Helen Kent about Rockefeller Centers then-new Newsreel Theatre.
Page one has photos of the exterior and the auditorium.
Page twohas photos of the lounge and Lobby.
Good footage from 1989 of outside & inside this theater from Late Show with David Letterman. http://youtu.be/P8OnsEeZA-M
Ah, the Guild 50th. My first trip to New York was in March 1993. And the first film I ever saw in the US was at the Guild – a showing of Disney’s Aladdin, still some 8 months before it opened in the UK.
Does anyone happen to know or remember whether or not there were attendants in the restrooms of this theatre in the late 1960s?
According to IMDB (and my memory) Brenda Starr opened at the Guild in April, 1992.
I was visiting NYC at the time, and saw BEAUTY AND THE BEAST on Saturday morning, the day before Easter. I recall that BRENDA STARR opened at the Guild on Easter Sunday, with the 70mm print of BATB moving to one of the Embassy 2-3-4 houses.
The NY Times review for BRENDA STARR was in the 4/18/92 edition and confirms it was running at the Guild.
That was a great NYC Theatre day for me…70mm Beauty And the Beast in the morning, 5 Guys Named Moe Broadway show matinee, and finished up with the Easter Show at Radio City…not a day I will ever forget.
I completely forgot about this venue. For some reason, I only came to this area when it was freezing cold? The last film I caught here was the infamous Brenda Starr in ‘89. Great marquee, at least they kept that intact.
Does anyone know anything about the old “News Reel Theater ” emblems which were round bronze colored spheres of the globe with a camera on a tripod overlayed on it? These were on the outside of the Guide theater and were rescued from the trash when the theater was closing.
My father worked there in the 70’s when they were running super simplex’s with magnarcs and had an old huge early b&w vidoe projector inbetween the projectors The theater had an awesome gold curtain with a screen wash and a very nice rake for the time. I remember cutting my projection teeth there showing films like Sounder and Harry and Tonto when I was just a kid.
I think the confusion comes from this NYT article.
[In 1949, Norman Elson, who was then the president of the competing Trans-Lux chain, took over the Newsreel theaters.
‘'That was just the beginning of TV,’‘ Peter Elson recalled, ’‘and he saw that newsreels were not much longer for the world.’‘ Norman Elson remodeled the theater and reopened it as the Guild.]
The 1950 edition of Film Daily Yearbook lists the Embassy (Rockerfeller Plaza) as being operated by The Newsreel Theaters, Inc.
On those rare occasions when the Radio City Music Hall, largely unknown, subway box office was closed spent time on line by the Guild to go in thru the main entrance.
Under its original Newsreel name, the house is profiled in ‘The Exhibitor Catalogue 1940’, and features pictures of a doorman standing in front of the stainless steel doors, an ad showing ‘before and after’ pix of the marquee comparing its makeover, and in the auditorium, the most memorable feature was the carpeting, which had ‘unwinding reels’ in a Radio City Art Deco-type pattern. The lounges featured original bentwood furniture by the renowned Finnish architect/designer Alvar Aalto. All in all, a pretty restrained but elegant house, completely uniform with Rock Center.
Does anyone have pictures of the interior of the Guild? I never had the chance to see a film there, but I was always curious as to what it might be like inside.
I attended this theater once when I was living in Queens. Couldn’t even tell you what I saw because I fell in love with the theater. What I rememeber most is that the auditorium opened into the concession area and they closed curtains at the back of the auditorium as the presentation started.
I went once when I first moved to the city, in 1988, to see a late run screening of “She’s Having a Baby,” on a Thursday night, last show. Between the empty theater and the desolate streets, it was like a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and kind of scary for someone young and new to the city.
I remember passing this theater often when one left Radio City or when we would go each Xmas season to see the tree at Rockefeller Center. It seemed that every holiday season they had a Disney film playing. After many years I got to go to this theater in about 1983 to see a Gene Hackman flick “Uncommon Valor.” The theater was much bigger than I expected. Now when I pass down this street each holiday season, I’m kind of saddened that its not there anymore showing the latest Disney animated film.
While Columbia University owned the land, their midtown campus was actually further east on Madison Avenue. Leasing the land to Rockefeller, Jr was a way to finally start making some money off property that was never developed to its full potential.