Crown Gotham Theatre
969 3rd Avenue,
New York,
NY
10022
969 3rd Avenue,
New York,
NY
10022
13 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 39 of 39 comments
I saw “The Towering Inferno” at The Gotham in the 70s, and the last movie I attended here was “Hamburger Hill” in the 80s. It is one of those theaters that I remember well, saw a number of movies in, then stopped going to, and suddenly it’s years later and the theatre no longer exists and all I have is the memories!! Maybe sometime in the future it will be chic and profitable to reopen all our lost neighborhood movie houses in the same spaces, if the spaces have survived. Or maybe we’ll demolish apartment towers to build single screen theatres!!! ;–)
Saw ‘Last Tango In Paris’ here. They used oversized ‘souvenir’ type tickets for this engagement.
I remember this place and I caught “El Cid” when it was revived in ‘93 and also caught that “Sound of Music” revival here in '90 as well. Sad how the whole 59th Street/Bloomindale’s Area is no longer a movie center the way it was up to the turn of the century or so.
I always liked this theatre. THey showed some good arty movies there, like “Enemies, a Love Story,” and “Remember the Paradise.” I used to have a friend next door who worked for Fox, and she gave me passes to premieres, and most of them were at the Gotham. It attracted a nice, well-mannered crowd that went well with the carpeted swankiness of it all.
br1975 you are right about the heavy Paramount and Miramax accent over at the ny 1&2 I think it used to belong to Loew’s not to long ago and at that time they also featured A lot of Paramount product as well. And thanks to Dave-bronx for the update on the Paris the first and only film I saw there was the Woody Allen film Alice with Mia Farrow. that was quite some time ago.
Crown currently operates the New York 1 & 2 at 66th and 2nd, booking it with an odd pastiche of top-run and second-tier major studio product (with a heavy Paramount and Miramax accent), minor indie product, and move-overs from other Midtown East houses.
The heading states this was part of City Cinemas – this is not correct – it was originally owned and operated by Trans-Lux, and later Crown. Since this was Crown’s only New York location they had City Cinemas book the films, because they had a little more clout in the Manhattan film market, but Crown was still operating it up to the end.
I remember seeing Bertolucci’s electifying “Last Tango in Paris” here in March, 1973, during its classy-treatment reserved-seat engagement at the Trans-Lux East. The film had been slightly trimmed by the director after its New York Film Festival premiere the previous fall, which I had also attended.
The Paris auditorium is on the street level with the balcony on the 2nd & 3rd floor, restroom and candy stand in the basement. The Tower East is the only other one I can think of with the Gotham’s set-up.
this theatre if I’m not mistaken had a simmular set up as the Paris a few blocks away wherin you enter on the balcony level and orchestra seating was in downstairs. The Tower East(72nd st east) has the sane set up although the balcony is split with the projection box in between. Can anyone confirm this.
The Crown Gotham closed in the spring of 2001; its final booking actually was the Natasha Richardson comedy ‘Blow Dry’, of which a one-sheet remained on display in one of the exterior poster cases for months following the Gotham’s closing and, if memory serves, even for a time after the space had been gutted.
One reason some theatres close is because the company does not own the property. The theatre was on a long term lease that may have been signed some 10-20 years ago. And most of the times the lease is about to end and the landlord wants to jack-up the rent. In todays times the single screen theatre no longer can make a profit like the larger theatre complexes. The landlord can make more money if he turns the property to retail use.
I saw the 25th anniversary release of “Sound of Music” here in 1990. The house was sold out and the 70mm print was projected superbly. When you think of what an upscale movie area the east side was and now even Cinema 1 and 2 run shlock the same day it opens all over the state.
I was fortunate to see a re-release of “El Cid” in 1993. Why are all the great theaters dying off?? Could it be because the movies of today stink?