Arena Theatre
623 8th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10018
623 8th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10018
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Consolidated Amusement Company
Firms: Eisendrath & Horwitz
Previous Names: Arena Cinema Verdi
Nearby Theaters
This late-run movie theatre on the west side of 8th Avenue near W. 41st Street depended partially on spillovers from the nearby Loew’s American Theatre. Very little information about the Arena Theatre’s history seems to be available, but it opened in 1918 and was operated by the Consolidated Amusement Company. Various Film Daily Year Books from 1926 list its seating capacity in the 800 to 1,000 range, though the most often cited figure is 953.
In 1944, an Italian-American group that had been running vintage Italian films at the Park Theatre (originally Majestic Theatre) in Columbus Circle under the name of Cinema Verdi switched to the Arena Theatre when the Park Theatre went legit as the re-christened International Theatre. Now known as the Arena Cinema Verdi, the 8th Avenue house operated until 1948-49, when it was demolished to make way for construction of the Port Authority Bus Terminal.
The Cinema Verdi policy was then moved to the Princess Theatre, where it remained until that closed for demolition around 1954-55.
Contributed by
Warren G. Harris
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Recent comments (view all 11 comments)
Thanks for the tip. I will pursue that the next time I am in Manhattan. And I know Italian.
See my previous comment for April 23, 2005 concerning the virtually unknown presentation of De Sica’s I bambini ci guardano / The Children Are Watching Us at the Arena Cinema Verdi under the title of The Little Martyr. And see the newspaper ad here.
According to the January, 1918, issue of the trade journal Architecture and Building, the Arena Theatre was designed by the firm of Eisendrath & Horwitz.
To Lost Memory : I’ve just turned 85 and as a young boy I would frequent the Arena every Sat. that is if I had the 10 cents for the price of admission. 1934 to ? 1940.
You noted : “If both roof and inside theatre are used at the same time,” The roof theatre must have been closed before 1934 as nothing existed above the theatre itself. Trivia…. Adjacent to the entrance, on the North side was a small shop that sold a hot dog and a fairly large stein of root beer for, believe it or not, for a NICKEL!
That site seems to require a log-in, TT.
The magazine referred to by Joe Vogel has a nice pic of the exterior. It is visible here:
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=pCznAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&authuser=0&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA6
Direct link to the above.
Great find, biff33.
The Village theatres below is also a rare photo.
Shame the site won’t allow a print feature.
Could somebody link the Village photo with it’s site on CT.
The Arena marquee can be seen at 1:36 and 2:47 in the below video. Chicago is at the head end, so they have the description reversed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_D8H0WzMHk&t=183s