Warners' Theatre

It is on YouTube too, albeit with time codes and watermarks…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYDY9MlQlio

The theatre re-opened as Warners on August 29th, 1925, with “The Limited Mail” on screen. For verification, please note the opening day ad that I posted in the Photos Section on January 31st of this year.

Hollywood hype control.

The popular photos of the premier of “The Jazz Singer” featuring Al Jolson and the Warner brothers in front of the theatre were for an invitational sold out live performance by Jolson several days before the movie opened, designed as a publicity stunt. The movie was not shown that night.

On the real premier opening night, not only was Al Jolson not present, neither were the Warner brothers who had gone to California for the funeral of Sam Warner, who had died the day before.

More recent research has shown that not only was opening night not a sensation but that the film did not sell out. It was not even the most popular film of the week in Times Square and acceptance of sound hardly an overnight revolution caused by “The Jazz Singer”. Not only had “Don Juan” had already played this theatre with sound earlier in the year and done better than “The Jazz Singer”, but audiences had already been watching sound newsreels for several years.

The stories that have been repeated since have mostly been fabrications created in later years and fueled by Vitaphone publicity and Warner Bros. multi-picture deal with Al Jolson. “The Jazz Singer” was a mild success in big cities and failed in most smaller markets. The lack of sound theatres (there were only 400 nationwide at the time) made it impossible for it to make much of an impression and the Jewish cantor plot left most audiences outside the larger markets cold. In Boston, for example, the film had to be quickly pulled after a poor opening.

Much of the phenomena repeated today comes from the fictional plot of the movie “Singin’ In the Rain”. There was no audience hysteria, no Variety headlines, no sound hoopla in the opening ads, no rush to wire theatres, and no rush to train actors to speak. Silent movies continued to be made for several years and were among the most profitable. Sound caught on because Hollywood pushed it on theatres in order to create demand for weak product during the depression, not unlike the way they push 3D today.

I believe this closed as the Republic, not the New Yorker.

ken mc, the photo you posted on April 17 is actually of the Oriental Theatre in Chicago. Great photo, but wrong page.

Here is a 1946 photo from Life magazine:
http://tinyurl.com/dcjn46

In 1947, when the theatre was known as the Republic, This Anna Magnani film from Italy had its American premiere here.

Warner aka Strand:
/theaters/2975/

Here’s a photo from the opening night of “The Jazz Singer,” October 6, 1927. Enjoy!

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/7135/wb7gq0.jpg

This must hold the record for most name changes in Manhattan. Following this theatre is like tracing someone on a witness relocation program.

1924 Piccadilly
1925 Warner's
1935 New Yorker
1936 Oriental
1938 Continental
1943 Abbey
1944 Manhattan
1945 Republic

Interestingly this theater was a classy first run roadshow house in the late twenties and by the early thirties it was grinding out double features at pop prices. The same thing with the Gaity which was roadshowing in the early 30’s and then by the mid was presenting burlesque.
I thought this only happened in the late 60’s when the theaters that were showing top Hollywood roadshow product in only one or two short years would be showing porno and exploitation films.

Fellas: I think we are talking about two different theatres. This place was at 1664 Broadway. The Warner where Cinerama was installed was at 1585 Broadway. The later was open at least through the 60’s. From the looks of pictures at the link below it had many more than 1322 seats as well. I don’t see any listing for the Warner Cinerama on this site. But it could be disguised under another name.

http://cinerama.topcities.com/ctwarner.htm