Loew's Victoria Theatre
233 West 125th Street,
New York,
NY
10027
233 West 125th Street,
New York,
NY
10027
5 people
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Showing 51 - 75 of 94 comments found
While its true that you don’t need to include the neighborhood name in the address for NYC theaters, it doesn’t really do any harm. Google will map this theater correctly with or without “Harlem” in the address. Keep in mind that people from all over the world use this site and they might be interested in which neighborhood the theater was located. I’m more concerned with theaters that are missing zip codes. It would make searching alot easier if every U.S. theater listing included a zip code.
Warren is correct. That goes for all of NYC except Queens. While including the neighborhood is nice for folks looking to narrow down a search or those interested in a specific geographic locality, it doesn’t help to map the theater at all. Perhaps in some future update of the website, a seperate neighborhood tag can be included for searching purposes. I have noticed that many of the theater updates going on lately have been to include a zip code in the address. Ultimately, searching by zip will probably be the best way of targeting neighborhood theaters in a search.
Nice photo’s, Ken. I took the liberty of clicking through the album for a nice little tour of former theater sites in upper Manhattan.
Postal addresses in Manhattan don’t use the names of neighborhoods (such as Harlem, Greenwich Village, Washington Heights, Chelsea, or whatever). The address for this theatre is 233 West 125h Street, New York, NY.
Two photographs taken in July 2003:
Facade and marquee:
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/142173254/
Detail in close-up:
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/142173666/
Thanks Warren. And without a single square inch of the Victoria granted landmark designation, the developers are beholden to no one as to their vision of “preservation.”
Two proposals have been accepted for consideration. One is from Victoria Tower Development, which plans a $115 million design of 25 stories that would include a hotel with condos, a ballroom, community theatre, exhibition space for Harlem’s Studio Museum, and a B.B. King nightclub. The other is from Ian Schrager’s Danforth Development Partners for a $113 million hotel, banquet hall, and spaces for cultural groups. Both finalists said they would “preserve as much of the original classical design of the Victoria” as possible. Seems to me like a sequel to the Keith’s Flushing fiasco. A story by Paul D. Colford was published in the NY Daily News of 1/16/06, and might be viewable at the paper’s website.
I caught the end of an item on the news last night (I think WABC channel 7 here in NYC) about a plan that has been finalized to redevelop the Victoria building. I didn’t catch the details at all, but there will be a building rising above the theater and – while it will not be restored to single screen theatrical use – as much of the architectural elements and detail work will be retained and restored as possible. Not sure if this will prove to be another RKO Keith’s project in the making. I know that they’ve been looking for a developer and taking bids on this site for at least the past year or more. I couldn’t find the story on the net, but I admit I didn’t really search all that hard. I tried the NY Times sight, as well as WABC and WNBC sites. I also Googled a few variations on the topic, but didn’t find anything. Anyone have details on the current plans?
This photo from the Depression era (1938) reportedly shows a homeless person lodging in a side exit of Loew’s Victoria, but it looks more to me like someone who had passed out drunk. I suppose that he could have been both:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/lovic.jpg
This theatre was last known as Movie Center 5 so that should at least be the alternate name.
lostmemory: – could it be that in 1917 theatres were not specifically designated as motion picture theatres? It probably had a working stage and presented vaudville as well as movies. Modern NYC C of O’s indicate motion picture theatre when there is no stage, fly-loft, scenery, an abundance of draperies and high-voltage stage lighting boards, or performers using candles or cigarettes. The combination of those elements in the past have been the source of many disasterous theatre fires that resulted in large losses of life. A C of O for a motion picture theatre requires less in the way of fire supression equipment and slightly less restrictive regulation by the FDNY.
There is another glaring error in the introduction. This was known from the start as Loew’s Victoria. It was never called Loew’s 125th Street.
The introduction has some incorrect information. Loew’s Victoria first opened on the night of October 1, 1917, with stage luminary Elsie Ferguson’s debut film, Artcraft’s “Barbary Sheep,” and eight acts of vaudeville. Miss Ferguson, comedian Fatty Arbuckle, and composer Irving Berlin were among many celebrities attending as guests of Marcus Loew. The movie was second-run, having previously been shown at the Rialto Theatre in Times Square.
The theaters did not do well because the former owners and those who leased it did not conduct business intelligently. They were more for profit and let the theatre go, so the state got a hold of it and here we are.
Warren, thank u for that piece of info, I have been looking for that for a while now. Can u elaborate on where u got it?
Also, it is rumored that the theater is to be sold to the Apollo Group for development. They will destroy the theater and cut it up. Harlem needs this theater to be Landmarked and restored. Please log on the www.haarlemvictoria.com and sign the petition and write to the representives and HCDC. We can’t let them get away with this.
Those were pretty good size auditoriums as a five-plex. Anyone know why it did not do well? It closed quite a while before the Magic Johnson opened up.
In April, 1940, “Buck Benny Rides Again” had its world premiere at Loew’s Victoria, one night prior to the film’s opening engagement at the Times Square Paramount. Jack Benny and Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, two of the film’s stars, headed a contingent of celebrities that traveled to Harlem’s 125th Street Station via a charted train from Grand Central Terminal. “Rochester” wore an all-white cowboy outfit and rode horseback in a parade to the theatre.
There was a theater at this address in 1917. A C/O was issued to a building at this address on November 10, 1917. The certificate only reads, a 2499 seat theater. It doesn’t specify a motion picture theater. I don’t know why it is listed that way. As a five screen theater the seating is given as:
Theater#1—449 seats
Theater#2—465 seats
Theater#3—350 seats
Theater#4—359 seats
Theater#5—340 seats
Total—1963 seats
An article about Vicotria 5 was featured in this day’s, 9/23/05, Daily News.Plans are being considered to convert the theatre into some combination of hotel or condos with a cultural component. The Victoria was built by the Loews theatre chain as a classical beauty, with a domed ceiling, large murals and a deep balcony. Silent screen star Elsie Ferguson was the guest of honor on opening night in 1917. Irving Berlin and Fatty Arbuckle were also there that night.
Thanks KenRoe. It was suprising it was shot here. The theatre definitely fit in and looked like it would be in India. The gold, the carpets and huge carved doors. Kudos to the location scout. Gonna check out the Loew’s 175th Street Theatre posts.
BobT;
The location work done for “The Guru” (2002) UK/France/USA was filmed inside the Thomas Lamb designed Loew’s 175th Street Theatre, Manhattan.
Exterior shots and some scenes in the earlier part of the movie were filmed on location outside and around the RKO Keith’s Richmond Hill, Queens. The marquee was renovated on this theatre by the film production company.
Both theatres are listed on Cinema Treasures.
I love this movie, it’s fun and light hearted and it’s got great shots of the theatres too!
Does anyone know if this is the theatre used in the movie “The Guru”?In the film Jim Mistry and Heather Graham do a fanatasy paraody of Bollywood films to a song from “Grease” and it takes place in a huge gilded theatre. On the commentary tract Mistry says the theatre is in Harlem but doesn’t name it nor do the closing credits. It’s a huge place with a grand staircase.
Here’s a May, 1948 image of the exterior. On the front of the marquee, the bottom line reads: MODERN COOLING SYSTEM NOW BEING INSTALLED. I wonder if the theatre had any air conditioning before this?:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/130-3069_IMG.jpg
This was still Loew’s Victoria when “Williard” opened
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THANK YOU M_ACEVEDO & CHRISTABEL GOUGH for the information
Club Isis/ Haarlem Victoria
An illustrated article about the history of the Victoria with comments by Michael Henry Adams is on line at www.villageviews.org Christabel Gough
See Stanley Crouch’s column of March 27 in the NY Daily News regarding a proposed interactive Jazz Museum bidding for the use of the Victoria (against several hotel chains…. who, I’m guessing, would be much less likely to preserve the existing strucure in any meaningful way…)
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