Audubon Theatre
3950 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10032
3950 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10032
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Doubled as the Magic Club in Desperately Seeking Susan in 1985 The club entrance was created using the back entrance which had similar pillars to the front but this was the part of the building that got knocked down
The San Juan was still operating in 1977.
Click here for an exterior view of the Fox Audubon Theatre in 1929.
Pretty much the same as them ‘jabbering away’ in English to many of us.
any photos of the theater in its early years as the Audubon?
for instance when “Down To The Sea In Ships” played a neighborhood
engagement after an exclusive 3 month run in Times Square?
I believe the reluctance by CT editors to list the aka names (Beverly Hills, San Juan) may come from the fact that these theatre names co-existed with the Audubon ballroom and that the San Juan theatre was reportedly demolished while the ballroom was not.
Please note from the introduction that the ballroom on the northern upstairs end of the building where Malcolm X was shot was a separate entity from the Fox theatre on the southern downstairs end and that the eventual demolition was only a partial remodel of a wrapped building housing both.
While the Audubon Ballroom still stands in some form, the cinema end, the Fox Audubon (Beverly Hills, San Juan) theatre listed here, is for all practical purposes, demolished.
My mistake, LM, it is 1968, but that still maps near Lincoln Center.
Does anyone have any knowledge of a HUDSON theatre in north Manhattan?
It appears in the 1934 Film Daily Year Book as located at 1268 Amsterdam Avenue but newspaper ads in 1921-22 place it close to Audubon Avenue and 167th street.
Here is a January 19, 1927 article about a fire in the Audubon:
http://tinyurl.com/5dw9gx
Here is some architectural detail:
http://tinyurl.com/2kwk8j
This theatre is mentioned in Rogelio Agrasanchez, Jr.’s excellent book MEXICAN MOVIES I N THE UNITED STATES.
The Audubon as the SAN JUAN ran Spanish Language films when the going got tough in the late forties often playing day and date with the flasgship PUERTO RICO in the South Bronx.
San Juan should be added as an alternate name here.
Post the same ad in many theatres. Cool idea. Thanx.
Could this have been the TAPIA in the late sixties?
I believe that the Uptown, listed elsewhere on this site, is actually a duplicate entry for the Audubon. (According to the NY Times of 4/23/1943, the Uptown was located at Broadway and St. Nicholas Ave.)
Therefore, I’d suggest that, in addition to adding the zip code of 10032 to this entry, the previous names Beverly Hills and Uptown be listed.
(In fact, since this theatre ended its existence as the San Juan Theater, I believe this entry should be renamed and Audubon also listed as a previous name.)
I could be wrong about the conclusions I’m drawing from my research so please feel free to chime in if I’m incorrect about any of this.
New York’s black community (the political part of it anyway) was extremely pissed off when Columbia took over the Audubon, turning it into a research facility for biotech or something, instead of preserving it as a cultural center and historic landmark dedicated to the memory of Malcolm X. Radio station WBAI discussed this endlessly for a year or so. It’s nice the restored facade is beautiful, and it’s nice that Columbia saw fit to give it the name and memorial. But it’s still part of the process of gradual, inexorable gentrification (and bleaching) of Harlem, whose black residents never did control any of the real estate in their neighborhood.