Baronet and Coronet Theatre

I found this on the 70mm website referring to the ‘82 release of OK though it does not mention the theater it played in.

‘Major restorations on the film, which has had only limited TV airing and has been theatrically shown only in 35mm since 1956, was done under the supervision of Tom Bodley, Goldwyn’s director of the film department, in conjunction with MGM laboratories and Todd-AO. This marks the first time in 20 years that a print has been struck in 70mm, rather than blown up from the conventional 35mm. The restored version will include the films original overtures, exit music and intermission.’

So what did I see at the Penthouse above the Warner Cinerama in ‘78? Was it an original Todd AO print? Whatever it was it was spectacular and I did not know why I liked it so much when on TV it was such a bore until I found out it really was separately filmed from the 35mm film. So that bit about it only being shown in 35mm since '56 is wrong.

If I could only go back in time and have the sense to talk to the managers and the projectionists of that era.

I still remember the humongous cans of Todd AO South Pacific in the Cinerama lobby.

This theatre was piggy-backed twinned in 1962. The downstairs screen was left intact when a new theatre was built on top. When exactly did “OKLAHOMA” ever play here? I can’t recall this prime first run ever doing retro in the 80’s. Demand was too high for first-run.

Nope. Cinema 1 & 2 opened as an art house twin in 1962. It was triplexed in 1988 and two main screens remained the same because the third screen did not affect screen width in any way. You did not see “OKLAHOMA” here in TODD AO. They had 70mm at best.

Wrong Coronet, Vindanpar. The second screen here was piggybacked on top. The screen size was not affected as there was no split.

Jerdone, the Baronet/Coronet was a prime first run screen since the upper east side became the main movie-going area in NYC in the early sixties and local art houses started grossing more than Broadway theatres with non-action films.

After The Graduate opened at the Coronet in 1967 it became the theater where everyone wanted to open a film. The Walter Reade Organization (WRO) leased the property where they were located and they were indeed torn down.

The theaters pictured were Cinema I and II which were part of the Rugoff Chain and remain.

The Fine Arts burned about 1970 and the producer-screenwriter Dory Schary’s office which was housed there burned.

WRO operated 127 theaters in the late 60’s including drive-ins all along the Jersey shore.

It opened “Night Of The Living Dead” at midnight in a number of its theaters to make sure it wasn’t reviewed by the critics. The film cost slightly more than $100,000 and did about $30,000,000 in its initial run. As they say, the rest is history.

I worked a block away in the 80’s and went to the movies every week – sometimes a couple of times a week. I loved going there. They were clean, played the regular movies, plus the art & foreign movies. Used to catch the 5PM’s to avoid the crazy lines.

Remember getting an invite to the Patch Adams screening while waiting in line for a blockbuster movie, which I can’t recall.

Howard. The Paramount Columbus Circle was definately small. I saw The Blue Lagoon there in 70MM and the screen was also not very large. I saw Brubaker at Cinema 3 and it was about the same size as the paramount.

I worked at the Baronet Coronet as the assistant manager from the opening of Ghostbusters 2 in June 1989 until March 1990. Before the Baronet Coronet I worked at the Manhattan Twin around the corner as an usher. After the BC I was given my own theater. I became the manager of The Regency on the westside in March of 1990. The first movie I showed there was Nuns on the Run.

The Baronet Coronet was an awesome place to work. For Cineplex Odeon, who owned it at the time, it was one of their premiere NYC venues so we got a lot of perks. I remember meeting lots of celebrities while working there. The place was huge and filled with history, even after the renovation.

I’m now a professional screenwriter, but before Hollywood I worked at many, now closed and demolished NYC theaters. The Paramount, a tiny theater that was across from FAO Schwartz that I can’t remember the name. Another tiny theater in the basement of the Plaza Hotel. Can’t remember the name of the that one either. The World Wide Plaza. If anyone has any questions about these theaters maybe I can help. : )

Thanks!

Does anybody remember the little Walter Reade art house that was on 58th St. btwn Lexington and Park, mid-block on the south side of the street? I can’t remember the name of it, and I want to look it up here on CT. At the time that Pathé Cinema lost the lease on the Paris Theatre in the early 90s they looked at this former Reade house as a place to possibly relocate to. It was then being used as a chapel by the Archdiocese of New York, and they weren’t interested in giving it up. Today I think there is a Subway sandwich shop in there.

In January of 1970 Robert Altman’s MAS*H premiered at the Baronet. I’m looking for any photos or news film reports to use in a documentary about Altman’s life and work.

i wish to correct an earlier post in which a fellow poster
stated that although the Coronet played many an exclusive
engagement in its long storied career it never had a reserved
seat or to use the trade term roadshow film engagement. it
did. THE TAMING OF THE SHREW directed by Franco Zefferelli and
starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton opened at the
Coronet on a reserved seat engagement. the spring of 1967 if
i’m not mistaken.

Architect’s cutaway rendering of the Baronet/Coronet plan.

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