New Amsterdam Theatre

I don’t know if this link has been posted before but there are some photos and alot of history about this theater at this link:
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/MID/MID113.htm

Restoration information & photos:

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saps,
I guess in order to get more 42nd St-ish type fare like Columbia’s 1966 Matt Helm flic, Murderer’s Row and The Professionals (seen in the front of Marc Eliot’s book Down 42nd Street), they had to book Columbia’s ‘Roz & Hayley as nuns’ tripe.

The programming of Out of the Past & Tension at Table Rock was what made 42nd special to me. And those double features were the ones not advertised in the papers, so it was a treat to come up from the subway and scan the marquees. Jerry

Here is a 1966 shot of the New Amsterdam and a partial view of some of the other theaters on The Deuce. Note the COOLED BY REFRIGERATION sign under the marquee. And CONTINUOUS to 4 AM above it. Grant’s bar & Nedicks to the left.

I won the item on ebay and will be loaded it on to my website soon. Here’s the temporary link:
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For those interested, the films showing are:
HARPER & SWINGER’S PARADISE (Lyric), OUT OF THE PAST & TENSION AT TABLE ROCK (Times Square), TROUBLE WITH ANGELS & MYSTERY OF THUG ISLAND (Selwyn), WEEKEND AT DUNKIRK & THAT MAN IN ISTANBUL (New Amsterdam); Apollo appears to have a Gina Lollobrigida film.

Thanks, Gerald but as a kid I was given subscriptions to Cue as a Christmas gift by a neighbor. I still had to call each theater to get the programming. And with one phone line at the theater (before recorded messages), this took a while. The New Amsterdam, Lyric may have been listed but definitely not the Empire, Victory, Anco.

I still may try to hunt down Cue archives for other theaters. Thanks.

That’s funny, Warren. How did Jane Eyre ever make it to The Deuce? I’m surprised they didn’t pair the East Side Kids with Career Girl.

I’m still looking for booking information of the 42nd St theaters in the 50s-60s. Newspapers did list some of the New Amsterdam-Lyric-Harris-Selwyn programming but not the others. If anyone can help, please let me know.

Since its magnificent restoration, I’ve brought folks here three times to see “The Lion King.” It is truly a theatre of orgasmic beauty. I’m not from New York but I saw a movie here once upon a time and didn’t register any reaction then.

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old photo

Re: Benjamin’s comment of Jan 14 on the balcony support rods—your memory is correct. The Upper Balcony of the New Amsterdam has the support rods running up to the ceiling, but they do not actually support anything. Because no one had seen a cantilevered balcony back then, people were afraid it would collapse….so, the owner put the rods up to reassure people. They are still there, and supposedly cannot be removed because they are covered by the landmark ordinance. Under the main balcony there are some columns, so that would have reassured people back then that it had support.
As far as the upper theatre, the current line is still that they cannot meet code and have performances up there.

I have an exterior photo of the New Amsterdam (circa early 90s). I’ll e-mail it to some if they want to post it.

From my recollection, the rooftop theater atop the New Amsterdam was indoors — but with big windows. It may — or may not — also have had some kind of sliding roof that allowed you to see the sky in good weather.

I know this sounds modern, and I’m not sure about the New Amsterdam having such a roof, but Christopher Grey in the “Times” — a pretty reliable source — said that the original Lunt-Fontanne Theater had such a “moon roof.” And I believe the Waldorf-Astoria (the current one, from the 1930s) had some kind of retractable roof for it’s “Starlight Roof” nightclub. (I was in this space once for a function — it’s used for events and receptions — but I believe the retractable roof feature was removed long ago.)

The roof garden / restaurant on top of Hammerstein’s Victoria seems (from the one or two photos I’ve seen of it) to be mostly in the open air — but with some sort of covered area along the sides also. (From photos, it seems to be “multi-leveled” also, with the open air section up a few steps.)

Re: ambient noise

While I assume 42nd St. was not really quiet even then, in 1903 or so when some of these theaters were built, the area was built up differently than it is today. It was mostly low, rowhouses (“brownstones”), churches and horse and carriage manufacturing / trading facilities. So I suppose the kind of noises produced were different — for instance, no loud diesel truck and bus v-a-r-o-o-m noises, no garbage truck compactor whines and, obviously, no car alarms! Also maybe the height (six stories or so above the ground) might have helped distance people from some of the noise?

(Also, maybe the whole thing seemed like a better idea than it was, and the noise helped contribute to the demise of such places — along with the growing city around them!)

Ron, the theatre was enclosed with walls of windows.