5th Avenue Cinema

Grand opening as Cinéma de Paris France-Film Cinéma de Paris Sat, Sep 28, 1935 – 15 · The Tablet (Brooklyn, New York) · Newspapers.com

It was Cinema de Paris for at least eight years.

The closing date is incorrect. The cinema closed in September 1974. After seeing two mentions here of a purported 1973 closing date, I recalled that the last thing I’d seen there was the closed circuit broadcast of the second Ali-Frazier fight — which took place in January 1974. A look into the New York Magazine archives showed the theater was open into the following September. The last showing was apparently a double bill of two erotic French films, Going Places (Les Valseuses) and Le Sex Shop.

My mom and I saw Dr.Strangelove here, after my Saturday morning children’s theater group at Mills College of Education, and lunch at the Schraffts 13th st. We saw other films, but Dr.Strangelove created the memory. The mural was fascinating to look at, at least for a child.

Renewing link.

It was called 5th Avenue Playhouse, according to Kristin Thompson!

This Rugoff coffee house cinema always had creative double bills, insuring packed audiences. A memorable pair were “The Girl With the Green Eyes” & “Billy Liar”. Apart from the Hirschfield mural, a rather plain venue, but the features were truly memorable. Is Parsons still using the space as an auditorium?

It was showing movies from at least November, 1926, starting with a re-release of THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI followed by the first run of MIKAEL (AKA, Chained, The Invert) a German gay drama about aging painter Rodin, his male model and the woman who gets in their way. (Only the village would accept THAT plot line in 1926!)

This was the 5th Avenue Playhouse while the Proctor house on 28th Street operated as the 5th Avenue Theatre.

I remember going to this cinema only once, however, unfortunately I cannot remember what film I saw. What I really want to ask is does anyone remember the Cinemabilia bookstore that was located on 12th street? This was a great bookstore dedicated to films. Books, current and out-of print, magazines, posters, and thousands of stills. Originally, they were located on Corneila Street in the Village. A great place where I spent a lot of time.

THESE THEATRE ADS appeared in a program booklet “Stadium Concerts Review” for Lewisohn Stadium, College of the City of New York, for July 29 to August 4, 1936. The concerts were by the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra. The small ads tout what was playing at several New York movie theatres. One of them was the Cinema de Paris, which, given the address, seems to have been another name for the 5th Avenue Cinema/Playhouse.

The Apu trilogy really is sublime. Remember how at the end of “Manhattan” Woody Allen, suicidal beyond repair, makes a list of things that would help to keep him alive? The Apu trilogy ranks high on the list, and generates a laugh because of its funny sound in Allen’s Brooklynese pronunciation. But its inclusion is so appropriate.

Here’s a Showbill program from the Fifth Avenue Cinema in March, 1960:

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Some of Bergman’s best films opened in NYC within a period of three years or so: “Smiles of a Summer’s Night,” “The Seventh Seal,” “Wild Strawberries,” “The Magician,” and “The Virgin Spring.” The buzz about them was loud enough, but I remember that many movie-goers were still caught off-guard. I recall sitting in the Beekman at “Wild Strawberries” and over-hearing a middle-aged couple behind me mid-way through the film: Heâ€"“How long is this picture anyway?” Sheâ€"“And why hasn’t Ingrid Bergman come on yet?”

I O.D.’d on these films pretty quickly, and was reaching the point of fatigue with “The Magician,” but that didn’t prevent me from scribbling all over my program all sorts of profound thoughts that I believed I’d found in the film. I remember seeing “The World of Apu” later that year at the Fifth Avenue Cinema. I’d already seen (or would soon see) “Pather Panchali” at the Thalia; but neither film made much of an impression on me then. Nearly thirty years later I would view all three films of the Apu trilogy in one sitting, when they finally hit me for what they are worth. The impact was staggering. For days afterward, I found it hard to concentrate on anything else.

Box OfficeBill…Thanks for the update on the mural. Glad that it made it into the 90’s and may still be around. As I recall it was on the right wall of the lobby pretty near where you entered the lobby after buying your ticket. You then had to walk past the mural toward the back of the lobby to enter the auditorium through an entrance on the left, which was close to the screen. In other words the auditorium and the lobby were parallel to each other. It would be interesting to find out how this layout compared to the original 5th Avenue Playhouse.