RKO 86th Street Theatre
1284 Lexington Avenue,
New York,
NY
10028
1284 Lexington Avenue,
New York,
NY
10028
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This Universal release of “The Chalk Garden” played 86th Street after Music Halls 8 weeks. Ever notice any movie that played Radio City was always described as record breaking when it went out on a wide release?
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The building presently occupying the site of the old RKO Proctors 86th Street IS the Gimbels building. Gimbels went out of business about 86 or 87. I was still living in the neighborhood and watched as it was stripped down to the frame with only the concrete floors remaining. Some NYC law says when a vacant property is sold the asbestos has to be removed, and apparently this building had lots of it. When the exterior walls were removed you could see into the auditorium and also see the raked floor as though it was a cross-section architectural drawing. Through all this, the RKO marquee remained, all wrapped up in plastic, on the 86th St. side of the building. Once the offending asbestos was removed, the narrow section was built on top of existing frame, and the brick walls and windows installed (Gimbels was windowless) and the interior rebuilt as apartments with the entrance on 87th St. By the time the theatre was getting ready to re-open, Cineplex had taken over. The RKO marquee had been similar to that of the old RKO Warner-Cinerama-Strand on Times Square: a million little light bulbs cascading down the front of it and across the ceiling to the entrance doors. Cineplex re-did it, and of course it had to have the pink neon, and it was only slightly less dull than the way Duane Reade has it now.
I had heard that Clearview did not want to give up this theatre, but when they received the lease renewal it was put aside and forgotten about until it was too late – so the landlord signed Duane Reade.
Wow finally I found this theater listed here…it is the one I remember from childhood on the upper east side, my mom took me to see a movie here and then it was demolished. Riding by the 86th street façade either in a bus or a car, we looked out and saw the marquee being dismantled but there was apparently a movie still showing because patrons were buying tickets and going inside. This was sometime in the 1960s, I was very young at the time. The marquee stands out in my memory as radiating the color red, either its light bulbs were red, or parts of the marquee’s structure were red. Later of course Gimbel’s occupied the site, and I clearly remember the department store’s opening days as being crowded and hectic.
I asked my mom what movies she saw here and she answered that she can’t even remember last week, and I expect her to remember stuff from the 60s? But after a while she said she thought the film she remembered taking me to see was “Heidi.”
yes, yes, exactly—these photos are great, from the aerial view of the street corner showing the two marquees, to the view of the audio=torium from up-front and rear. But no photo can capture the dusky glow of the house while a film was showing. It had marvelous lighting.
I had a feeling the building which housed the Park & 86th Street Cinemas and Gimbel’s were separate entities; thanks for the clarification, Warren, and for clearing my suspicions. The former HMV space is presently occupied by Best Buy. (HMV, which once had a strong presence with five stores throughout Manhattan – including one at the former Embassy 72nd Street site – has since pulled out of the New York market.)
It’s here, Robert: /theaters/6200/
I don’t think that house is listed on here.
There WAS a movie theatre where Duane Reade is now; the space formerly housed the two-screen Park & 86th Street Cinemas, which closed in the fall of 2002 with ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ and ‘Road to Perdition’ and the marquee is the same used when the property was a theatre, merely with the signage replaced and some other minor (non-structural) alterations.
In our dating days, I remember seeing “A Man for All Seasons” and later “Bonnie and Clyde” there. The theater’s vast space was too big to support either film, both of which cry for more intimate settings.
Right, Warren— Gimbel’s cleared the space completely, and then, in just return, Gimbel’s itself was cleared completely. The current building sprouted in the late 1980’s? Whatever. It bears no relationship to what my spouse knew of the site. She grew up a few unfashionable blocks away, and last weekend we found ourselves unexpectedly there, tracing the past palimpsestically. She still can’t understand why I’m so obsessesed about what movie palace stood where. There couldn’t have been a theater in the building where Duane Reade now stands— but the marquee of Duane Reade (whoever heard of a drug store with a marquee?) roughly shades the spot darkened by the marquee of RKO Proctor’s 86 Street.
86th Street’s RKO was a social institution for Yorkville kids in the 50’s and 60’s. The horseshoe staircase made for some interesting chases and the balcony for intimate interludes. We would go 12, 14 kids at a time and have the time of our lives watching double features on a winter afternoon and eating hot dogs and bon bons. The lobby was grand and when entering we always felt that we were somewhere special. It was thrilling to be there to see movies like “Butterfield 8”, “House of Wax” and “House on Haunted Hill”. We even got to darn 3D glasses provided by the house. On more than one occasion kids would sneak in using the fire escape somewhere around the corner. Some of our favorite memories are there.
This theater, which ended it’s life as a terribly run Cineplex Odeon, is now a Duane Reade. One thing New York DOESN’T need is another Duane Reade!
Whoops! I didn’t notice your mention of the RKO Proctor 58th St when I wrote the message.
Wasn’t there an RKO 58th St theatre at 3rd or 2nd Ave & 58th St? I remember seeing What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? at a big old movie palace at that location and thought it was an RKO.
As mentioned in MARQUEE magazine, vol.6 no.2 second quarter 1994, “Proctor’s 86th St. Theatre at Lexington Avenue;Opened May 16,1927-3160 seats; Architect Thomas W. Lamb; Organ: Wurlitzer Opus 1553 3m/15rk;RKO operated from 1929; Demolished 1965; It was redecorated in 1944. Replaced by RKO 86th St. Twin ( 450 seats each ) December 1971, Closed: 1986 and replaced by Packard 86th St. Cinemas(Cineplex)Opened October 6. 1989.”
The RKO 86th Street Theatre was located at 1284 Lexington Ave. and it seated 3131 people.