Art East Cinema
1105 1st Avenue,
New York,
NY
10065
1105 1st Avenue,
New York,
NY
10065
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A good article about this theatre and other art cinemas becoming adult cinemas
The First Avenue Screening Room opened on January 25th, 1973.
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtCJz7ew6OKIh9dWvgdRKmIWsrrONA?e=dvk0Yl
I definitely remember this place as the York in late 91/early 92. I was at NYU living in the east village and at the time there were no 2nd run theaters. The Worldwide Plaza didn’t convert for a couple more years, so when this was announced, I was super excited to save some money, being a starving student and movie freak.
I only went three times because it was a trek. I used to walk everywhere and I’d head up 1st Ave (which was really a beautiful walk when the weather was nice) and catch a weekday matinee for $2. The theater was kind of a pit at that point, and I want to say that 2 of the three times I was there, I was the only one in the house. I saw 29th Street, Frankie & Johnny and The Addams Family there. Not sure why I never went back after that.
Also, “Dodes'ka-den” premiered at the First Avenue Screening Room in 1974. It was a sign of how far Akira Kurosawa’s reputation had fallen that a) it took four years for this movie to get shown in the U.S., and b) it could only get a showing in this incredibly tiny theater with a tiny screen.
“The Harder They Come” (which went on to become a classic) premiered at the First Avenue Screening Room. At the time, few of us knew about this Jamaican music known as ‘reggae.’ or had even heard of Jimmy Cliff.
I visited this place on June 8, 1973 to see the Japanese film “Funeral Parade of Roses” by Toshio Matsumoto. It was the First Avenue Screening Room then.
1973-1974 First Avenue Screening Room
1975-1979 Byron Cinema
1980-1981 EastWorld
1982-1990 Art East
1991 York
1992-1994 back to Art East
The transition to the York had to be very very brief…was it ever the EastWorld as well as the Art East?
I was either the first or one of the first doorman/ushers who worked at the FIRST AVENUE SCREENING ROOM. ED SULLIVAN, went by one night to view on of the movies. Mr. Abe Mansfield was the manager at that time and Jim Dalmedo was the assistant manager. The projectionist was New York City’s second or first female projectionist. I saw some great and very interesting movies there.
Interesting. I don’t recall the First Avenue Screening Room being renamed York Cinema, but I do remember a York Cinema from the 1960s a few blocks uptown, at about 64th St. (on the same side of First Avenue). That York Cinema was a revival house owned and operated by Warner LeRoy, until he used the space to expand his then-booming restaurant – Maxwell’s Plum.
I have added an ad from the 1991 incarnation as the York mentioned by KingBiscuits in September 2009.
New ad in photo section claims 220 seats.
I’ve got the very 16mm print used for the premier of the first X rated film ever screened here, it was THE DEVIL IN MR. JONES (a gay knock-off of the classic by Gerard Damiano). I ran in early ‘75, IIRC.
Current occupant is the dog spa/gym as mentioned last October. Not good reviews of the spa on the web.
O.K.
I was here once, when it was the porno-chic Eastworld – late ‘70s I think? My only memory is of buying popcorn , then climbing a very narrow (spiral?) staircase to the small and mostly unoccupied auditorium…..
My recollection is that this site originally opened as the York Cinema in the ‘60s and premiered the coming of age Greek language film “Young Aphrodites”.
Looks like the theater is gone. I passed by a couple of days ago and they have the Running Paws Athletic Club in it’s place. I guess it was inevitable that it’s days as a theater we long gone.
This theatre was also known as the York Cinema back in 1991/1992 and played second-run films ($2.00 on weekday matinees, $3.99 at night and on weekends).
Renewing link.
This theatre last showed movies as the Art East in 1994. First Avenue Screening Room, Byron and East World were former names.
I walked by what is left of this theatre on Saturday for the first time since April ‘05 and it is still here, looking awful shopworn. The marquee is still there, but there is a for rent, ideal for retail space banner draped over it. It doesn’t look like they are having too much luck renting the space. I never stepped foot inside the theatre and can only imagine what it looks like. The slot where you slipped the money to the cashier is still open to th elements.
I had only been here once, in the early 1990s to see a foreign film, I believe it was Europa Europa. It was perhaps a bit run down, andmy lasting impression was that it because it was on First Avenue, it was so out of the way for me.
Back in 73-74, they had a Marx Brothers festival. The first one I remember is a double feature of “A day at the Races” and “ At the Circus”. Went back the next week and it was, I think, “A Night at the Opera” and can’t remember the other one. In between movies, they played the audio to the Groucho album Live at Carnegie Hall.
When it was a gay porn house in the mid-70s, it was called the Byron (as in Lord Byron, not, as some wags had it, Stuart Byron).