Variety Theatre

The Variety stopped showing films in the fall of 1989.

In the Madonna film Desperately Seeking Susan, there are several shots of the theater, including a interior scene of the auditorium. I don’t know if the interior was the actual theater, but from what you could see, it looked very old, with very plain walls.

There was a STAR THEATRE at 136 Third Avenue in the mid thirties, early forties. Does anyone have any info on that one?

Here’s a new link to the vintage photo, whixh was snapped when the Third Avenue El was still operating. The Variety’s marquee can be seen to the left of the supporting pillars: View link

Warren, I can’t open this photo, is the problem at my end? I used to work in the Gramercy Park area and often took a lunchtime stroll past the Variety. It was certainly vintage. The only time I was actually inside was for an off-Broadway performance of, I think, Annie Warbucks. No real memory of the interior – not as impressive as the exterior.

Here is a 1991 photo.

I remember seeing the first off-broadway play that came to Variety in late 80s/90s. Also saw another play and saw Mike Nichols/Diane Sawyer sitting in front of me. This was a theater with charm and personality. Charm and personality are foreign concepts in today’s NYC.

Louis Sheinart, the architect of the Variety, was my great, great (maybe one more great?) uncle. I used to pass by the Variety many times when I attended the OLD Stuyvesant High School at 16th Street and 1st Avenue in the mid 1980s. Little did I know until many years later, that there was a family connection! Louis also designed several other theaters listed on this site. Unfortunately my family knows little about him, such as where he studied architecture, etc. If anyone has more information, it would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for the nice photographs and comments. I know Louis would have been proud! esheinart

I was looking through the collection of “New York” periodicals from 1979 in my college library. At that time their was a column called “Page of Lists” and in one issue it was devoted to the longest running movie theaters. This theater was 1st on the list!

BOYS' PRANK STARTS PANIC IN A THEATRE; Cry to “Fire” to Stone Throwers, Followed by Missiles, Causes Stampede of Crowd.

NY Times May 20, 1915

The Variety Theatre, a moving picture house which seats more than 700, in Third Avenue between Thirteenth and Fourteenth Streets, was well filled at 10 o'clock last night when a gang of boys and young men appeared in front of the place and, at a cry to “fire” from a leader, let fly a hail of rocks and stones which smashed through the glass doors and caused a panic inside.

Just an update, they are building a huge monstrosity on the old Variety Theatre site, 20 stories high, probably another NYU dorm building. Last week there was a huge crane accident, they closed off the surrounding streets around 13 Street & 3rd Avenue, took a couple of days until they removed the all the dangers. I don’t believe anybody was seriously hurt though. What a drastic change to the neighborhood, so sad.

You know I had the same reaction yesterday as I was walking to Loew’s Village East to catch a film in the Tribeca Film Festival and noticed a hole in the ground where the Variety Arts Theatre used to be. I said to myself “was the VAT here or was it on Second Avenue?” Right next door is a Mission and there is a “Jesus Saves” sign on the facade. I guess he couldn’t save the VAT.

Now, here is a question for our mavens. Right before I went to the LVE I caught a documentary that the Tribeca FF screened at the Jewish Heritage Museum in Tribeca called ON THE BOWERY that has recently been restored in Italy. The doc was riveting and there was all this on-location photography of the bars, flop houses and general seediness under the old Third Avenue El. It is beyond belief to watch this and compare it to what the area looks like today with luxury condos built on site of flophouses.

The date of the doc was 1957, but it had to have been shot well before that because I thought the Third Avenue El came down earlier than 1957 but there is a shot of what looked like a theatre on the Bowery, under the El. The front, what looked like a marquee, said “Universal Photoplay.” I didn’t see it listed here under that name so it is possible it is listed, but under another name. It looked like the Variety Arts Theatre, but I didn’t know skid row went all the way up to 14th St. The El must have gone right by Variety Arts so who knows? But there was a theatre or something that looked like a theatre on the Bowery under the El called “Universal Photoplay.”