Garrick Cinema
152 Bleecker Street,
New York,
NY
10012
152 Bleecker Street,
New York,
NY
10012
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1964 image and description added courtesy Vintage Cinema Ads Facebook page. Indicates it was called Little Fox Theatre at that time.
The original Garrick Theatre in Manhattan was built in 1890 on 35th St. as a Broadway theatre & demolished in 1932. It has a Wikipedia entry. These were different theatres at differnt locations.
I worked with the Off Broadway production of “MacBird!” It ran from February 1967 to January of 1978. We closed our run at the Garrick after first playing the Village Gate (Elizabethan 3-quarter stage), then moving across the street to Circle in the Square (extreme thrust stage). We never left Bleecker St., the Garrick being one block east from our first two theaters, in the same block as the Bleecker St. Cinema. The Garrick was a narrow (“bowling alley”) proscenium house that had ceased playing films. We may have been the last show there.
This theater should be listed as “demolished.” The building that contained both the Garrick Cinema and the Cafe Au Go Go (as well as the old residence hotel on the corner of Thompson) were demolished to make way for a new mid-rise apartment building with a Capital One Bank branch at ground level. The street view above is pointed towards the wrong corner of Bleecker and Thompson Streets. Swing it around 180 degrees to the left to view the current state of the theater’s former location.
The marquee to what is, or is supposed to be, the Garrick Theatre can be seen in the 1967 film “The President’s Analyst,” about 54 minutes into the film, very briefly. I think the movie shot in New York City in June of 1967.
Robbie Dupree, Another detail you might be interested in is that when Zappa was playing the Garrick, the Marquee simply read “MOTHERS ABSOLUTELY FREE”. I think it had something to do with the name of their then current album.
Anyway, I never had so much fun in my life as being in the Village during those times.
Hey Robbie Dupree, I can’t believe anyone wants to know this stuff. I was working in a light show from Seattle. We were downstairs from the Garrick in the Cafe Au Go-Go working with Country Joe and the Fish. Zappa came in and hired us on the spot.
When Joe finished his gig we went upstairs and spent 3 weekdays setting up our screens and equipment. Pretty funny, but he fired us after the first night. He said we took too much attention off the band. We took it as a compliment and moved on. I forget exactly what year it was, but I believe it was the summer of the first Woodstock festival.
concert.
The Garrick was showing films as the NICKELODEON in 1964.
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Footage from the unreleased film “Uncle Meat” by Frank Zappa has footage of Frank and the Mothers of Invention in all their glory performing at the Garrick in 1967 which has a quick shot of the house from the stage and indicates that it was indeed a very small space.
A CASTLE theatre was showing movies at this address in 1919. Could it be the same building as the Garrick?
I believe the photo linked here is the Garrick in question, above the Cafe Au Go-Go, 1969
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It appears to be the same building. By the time I saw it in the mid 1960’s, it had a different look. Also, the angle of the phot doesn’t reveal the lobby area. That would tell me for certain. Thanks for the posting. I would love to know if anyone has later photos ?
I found this vintage color photo of the Garrick Theatre. I presume it is the same one under discussion here. Is it?
I seem to remember that The Mother’s of Invention and The Fugs, two seminal 60’s bands, performed at The Garrick . Each having an extended run. I can’t say for certain but it was probably around 1966.I would love to know if anyone has more information about this.
There is an ad here for the Andy Warhol Garrick
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According to a 5/10/1963 NY Times article, double-decked playhouses were to open at this address in September, 1963. The basement theatre was to be known as the Baby Broadway Theatre, with seating for 204 and devoted to variety acts and cabaret, while the upper theatre, called the Little Broadway, would seat 299, feature a proscenium stage, and host both legitimate theatre and art-house film fare. Irving Kay was the architect. By the time of its opening, the main theatre had been re-dubbed the Little Fox Theatre. In the autumn of 1964, it became known, for a brief time, as the Nickelodeon Theatre, before becoming the Garrick in November of that year.
I saw Paul Morrissey’s Flesh with Joe Dallesandro in 1969. I mean, I didn’t actually attend with Joe Dallesandro. He was in the movie. I noted in my log that the place was the “Andy Warhol Garrick.”
In July of 1969 this was still billed as Andy Warhols Garrick Cinema opening his latest feature, Lonesome Cowboys. It also day and dated with the 55th Street Playhouse.
‘The Fantasticks’ had its run at the nearby Sullivan Street Playhouse, at 181 Sullivan Street.
I’m not positive, but I believe the Garrick was also used as a “legit” theatre and is where the off-Broadway hit “The Fantasticks” ran for many years.
I just found a NY Times ad dated 7/31/68 and this theatre was advertised as The New Andy Warhol Garrick Theatre. They were showing Warhol’s “The Bike Boy” and “Burn The War”.