Lane Theatre

I grew up at 558 W 181st from 1954 to 1971. The Lane had an entrance on 181st at 560 W 181st that went into the block with a majority of the theater on the 180th street side. The Gem was gone before I could remember it but I have a map of the Heights from 1932 that shows the entrance was on St. Nick about mid block and next to the apartment building at the corner of 180th.

The ticket window was to the right of the entrance, there was a stairway to the left before the doors to the lobby at street level, going down to the orchestra seats. The R.K.O. Coliseum was also another nearby theater.

sulane, Do let us please have more info about the Lane and the Gem.

Would be nice to actually have pictures of the theatres on Cinema Treasures.

Ed, Then from east to west on 181st Street, the Empress was first at 544 with the back of the auditorium to the east on Audubon Avenue, the Lane was next at 560 with the auditorium straight south the back on 180th Street and the Gem was last at 564 with the back of the auditorium to the west on St. Nicholas Avenue. None of the used book shops have answered me about old telephone directory yellow pages.

If you were on West 180th between Audobon and St Nicholas, you were definitely looking at the auditorium wall of the Lane Theater, Guarina. I think we have the location nailed down. Just a bit of research on NYC Department of Buildings website found the following:

On March 22, 1918, an alteration of an existing building at 549-559 West 180th Street was approved as a skating rink, with an entrance at 560 West 181st.

On October 2, 1928, the same buidling was again altered, this time with a restaurant and cabaret (as well as with stores and “passage”).

On November 1, 1933, a new alteration at the same location for a motion picture theater (with max capacity of 1570 for fire code – not necessarily the number of seats) on the first floor and offices & restaurant on the 2nd floor.

Finally, on August 4, 1959, the alteration to Post Office in the 180th Street “wing” and stores & offices in the 181st Street portion.

Since all of these were alterations, we know that the theater was not purpose built, nor was it demolished. Seems that, at worst, it was gutted to the steel and repurposed. This also supplements br91975’s original comments from 2004 with some actual dates.

Sounds like a match, Al. I hastily accepted the “575 West 181” that shows up when you point the street view correctly without being more diligent. There is no address on the awning, but it appears all the storefronts at ground level in the adjacent apartment building to the left share the address 558 West 181st, according to the awnings. That would make the CUNY building number 560. Come to think of it, 575 would have been located across the street on the odd-numbered side.

In any event, I see the site administrators (that you, Ken?) jumped all over this info and set it all straight. Well done, all.

Despite what the (now defunct) Washington Heights/Inwood website might have indicated, according to br91975’s opening comment on this page, I wonder if the entrance to the Lane wasn’t located a bit further to the west on this block. The address of 550 W 181st Street would put it in the same storefront building as the entrance to the former Empress Theatre (later known as the Astral). The auditorium of the Empress sat right behind and parallel to the this row of storefronts. There would have been no access to any other auditorium from the space at 550 W 181st.

If one moves down the block past the 3 identical 6 story apartment buildings to the west of #550, there is a 2-story building with an awning that reads “City University of New York” at 575 W 181st Street. A satellite view of the block shows that this structure reaches all the way back to the US Post Office that is located on 180th Street, and the two lots have that familiar flag-shape shared by many urban theaters of this size. I would suggest that the Lane Theatre occupied this site, with an entrance at 575 W 181st Street and its auditorium demolished to make way for the Post Office location. Of course, I can’t support any of this as fact.

The Lane is already listed in the 1937 Film Daily Yearbook.

Prior to its closing, the Lane usually showed pictures that were running in the Loew’s theaters in the Bronx and Queens. These pictures usually were shown two weeks earlier at the Loew’s 175th Street Theater a few blocks south of the Lane. On the same side of 181st Street on the same block to the east of the Lane was another theater called the Empress. Its name was changed to the Astral in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. This theater was unique in the sense that you entered it at the side of the auditorium in the middle.

In a 1947 ad the Lane invited people to “sit and smoke in our newly redecorated loge section”.