No, the theatre around the corner was the Gotham Cinema. Wendy’s is not where the Gotham was, it was next door, and it is part of the Sutton’s property. In the winter Wendy’s (although at that time it was Burger King) would call us in the theatre and ask for heat, and we would go in the cellar of the theatre and open a valve for the steam, when they had enough they would call to say so and we would turn it off.
The AVCO Company (I used to know what AVCO meant, but I have forgotten) was some kind of conglomerate and owned that finance company, among other things. Around the late 60s they bought Embassy Pictures, so there was a loose connection between the name of the property and the film operation.
This is another one United Artists was cordially invited by the landlord to vacate the premises. When UA got the boot from the 8th Street Playhouse, they moved their weekend showings of Rocky Horror to this theatre, of all places. After the show would end the crowd would congregate for most of the night in the plaza-ette in front of the 919 building, and broken windows, graffiti and other damage was done to the property, which eventually led to their eviction.
When it later re-opened as the Eastside Playhouse, it was being run by Meyer Ackerman, and the opening ads stated “From the people who brought you the 68th Street Playhouse” – City Cinemas got involved with it several months later. They were already partners with Ackerman at the Village East, 57th and 68th St. Playhouses.
Why is it that kids in NYC feel compelled to put graffiti everywhere? Though not unheard of, it’s not as bad in other cities. I didn’t grow up here and don’t get it…..
This drive-in along with the Eastside, Dearborn and Ypsi-Ann Drive-Ins were operated by General Cinema Corp. for many years, until they sold them in the 1980s (Ypsi-Ann was sold in the mid 70s). Since the company had several with the same name, this was known on the company rolls as Detroit-West, and the Eastside was known as Detroit-East.
Ahh, the Selwyn… a doorman who worked at my theatre also worked at the Selwyn told me they had to close the main floor and make everyone sit up in the balcony because the rats were chasing the customers!
70mm was worth going out of your way to see only if the film was actually shot in 70mm. In the mid-80s we played a couple of films at Cinema I, the titles of which escape me at this moment, that although we had a 70mm print, it was shot in 35mm. The studios objective was to take advantage of the 6-track mag soundtrack in the pre-digital days. The projected image of this type of print was, to me anyway, always a little grainy.
While I haven’t been there lately, I’ve been advised by someone who has that while seated you must keep your feet up off the floor, since the place is infested with rats – once a UA, always a UA…
Warren – it is probably being operated by its independent owner since Creative Entertainment is only a film booking agency and has nothing to do with operations. Another client of theirs is the esteemed [LOL!] City Cinemas chain, a real estate development company masquerading as a theatre operator.
Does anyone know just what it is exactly that the Landmarks Preservation Commission ACTUALLY does, besides drawing salary and expenses from the City of New York?
They aren’t interested in the Cinemas –
They aren’t interested in the Beekman –
They weren’t interested Sutton –
They weren’t interested in the Trylon –
They claimed they were interested in the Keith’s in Flushing, and look what happened to that –
They claimed they were interested in the Loew’s Kings in Brooklyn and look what happened to that –
It seems that for anything to get protected by them, it has to be either huge, like Grand Central Terminal or the Empire State Building, or miniscule, like the old jailhouse window behind the Manhattan Municipal building, or a lamp post in Chinatown. Anything in between is, apparently, fair game for developers and sleazy property owners like ___ (you fill in the blanks).
The 72nd Street East, on 1st Ave and 72nd St, was run by Cinema 5 Ltd. at the time of its closing. The landlord sold it to a developer who knocked it down and put up another apartment building.
There is a black & white photo of the interior of the Aurora Paramount on page 160 of “American Picture Palaces” by David Naylor, and it is indeed the same design as shown in the architects renderings of the Boston Paramount mentioned in Mr. Newman’s post of 2/23/05 above.
I remember seeing the Boston Globe in the late 60s or early 70s where the General Cinema directory ad listed the Paramount. Wasn’t the area known as “the Combat Zone” back in the early 70s? If so, that’s probably why GCC closed the Paramount – not enough people bringing their kidlettes to the area to see ‘101 Dalmatians’.
Lincoln is half the age, and was not originally built “on-the-cheap”, as was 84th Street. Also, with Lincoln being the flagship house combined with the volume of business generated, it receives a little extra TLC than most of the other theatres.
How are they going to squeeze another eight-hundred seats in there? Even with the old Griggs seats, which were much narrower than the Irwins that were there at the end, it was only another hundred. Are they going to hang seats from the ceiling??
This was built as a 2-screen cinema, and during the 70s was listed in the paper as the Northfield Plaza I & II – it was not affiliated with any of the major chains, always appeared to be independent.
We had the grill-walls in the Cinema Southgate in Cleveland (built in 1963)of the same pattern as in this theatre. We also had them in the Mellett Mall Cinema (1967) Canton, Ohio and the Dort Mall Cinema (1968) Flint, Michigan. The latter two, however, were a larger, less-intricate pattern. Those at the Dort Mall Cinema can be seen in a photo here: View link
Before GCC had drive-in theatres and Cinemas all over the place, weren’t they, as Smith Management, running concession stands in other peoples drive-in theatres (hence the term ‘concession’)? They also had Amy Joy Donut Shops, Peter Pan Snack Shops, Richard’s Drive-In Restaurants and bowling alleys (we had several in Cleveland) – and they were all designed by Riseman, who also designed the Cinemas built into the 1970s.
No, the theatre around the corner was the Gotham Cinema. Wendy’s is not where the Gotham was, it was next door, and it is part of the Sutton’s property. In the winter Wendy’s (although at that time it was Burger King) would call us in the theatre and ask for heat, and we would go in the cellar of the theatre and open a valve for the steam, when they had enough they would call to say so and we would turn it off.
Garrett is a regional director for Loews in Washington state.
The AVCO Company (I used to know what AVCO meant, but I have forgotten) was some kind of conglomerate and owned that finance company, among other things. Around the late 60s they bought Embassy Pictures, so there was a loose connection between the name of the property and the film operation.
The Palladium was previously The Academy of Music.
This is another one United Artists was cordially invited by the landlord to vacate the premises. When UA got the boot from the 8th Street Playhouse, they moved their weekend showings of Rocky Horror to this theatre, of all places. After the show would end the crowd would congregate for most of the night in the plaza-ette in front of the 919 building, and broken windows, graffiti and other damage was done to the property, which eventually led to their eviction.
When it later re-opened as the Eastside Playhouse, it was being run by Meyer Ackerman, and the opening ads stated “From the people who brought you the 68th Street Playhouse” – City Cinemas got involved with it several months later. They were already partners with Ackerman at the Village East, 57th and 68th St. Playhouses.
Why is it that kids in NYC feel compelled to put graffiti everywhere? Though not unheard of, it’s not as bad in other cities. I didn’t grow up here and don’t get it…..
This drive-in along with the Eastside, Dearborn and Ypsi-Ann Drive-Ins were operated by General Cinema Corp. for many years, until they sold them in the 1980s (Ypsi-Ann was sold in the mid 70s). Since the company had several with the same name, this was known on the company rolls as Detroit-West, and the Eastside was known as Detroit-East.
no, the lease was up and ABC wanted the space.
Are those UFOs in the sky above the theatre? I should send this to Art Bell….
Ahh, the Selwyn… a doorman who worked at my theatre also worked at the Selwyn told me they had to close the main floor and make everyone sit up in the balcony because the rats were chasing the customers!
70mm was worth going out of your way to see only if the film was actually shot in 70mm. In the mid-80s we played a couple of films at Cinema I, the titles of which escape me at this moment, that although we had a 70mm print, it was shot in 35mm. The studios objective was to take advantage of the 6-track mag soundtrack in the pre-digital days. The projected image of this type of print was, to me anyway, always a little grainy.
While I haven’t been there lately, I’ve been advised by someone who has that while seated you must keep your feet up off the floor, since the place is infested with rats – once a UA, always a UA…
Warren – it is probably being operated by its independent owner since Creative Entertainment is only a film booking agency and has nothing to do with operations. Another client of theirs is the esteemed [LOL!] City Cinemas chain, a real estate development company masquerading as a theatre operator.
Does anyone know just what it is exactly that the Landmarks Preservation Commission ACTUALLY does, besides drawing salary and expenses from the City of New York?
They aren’t interested in the Cinemas –
They aren’t interested in the Beekman –
They weren’t interested Sutton –
They weren’t interested in the Trylon –
They claimed they were interested in the Keith’s in Flushing, and look what happened to that –
They claimed they were interested in the Loew’s Kings in Brooklyn and look what happened to that –
It seems that for anything to get protected by them, it has to be either huge, like Grand Central Terminal or the Empire State Building, or miniscule, like the old jailhouse window behind the Manhattan Municipal building, or a lamp post in Chinatown. Anything in between is, apparently, fair game for developers and sleazy property owners like ___ (you fill in the blanks).
The 72nd Street East, on 1st Ave and 72nd St, was run by Cinema 5 Ltd. at the time of its closing. The landlord sold it to a developer who knocked it down and put up another apartment building.
dwodeyla –
What is in the office space next to the theatre where the Home Office used to be?
For years and years General Cinemas home office was in Boston at 500 Boylston Street. They didn’t move out to Newton/Chestnut Hill until about 1975.
There is a black & white photo of the interior of the Aurora Paramount on page 160 of “American Picture Palaces” by David Naylor, and it is indeed the same design as shown in the architects renderings of the Boston Paramount mentioned in Mr. Newman’s post of 2/23/05 above.
I remember seeing the Boston Globe in the late 60s or early 70s where the General Cinema directory ad listed the Paramount. Wasn’t the area known as “the Combat Zone” back in the early 70s? If so, that’s probably why GCC closed the Paramount – not enough people bringing their kidlettes to the area to see ‘101 Dalmatians’.
Lincoln is half the age, and was not originally built “on-the-cheap”, as was 84th Street. Also, with Lincoln being the flagship house combined with the volume of business generated, it receives a little extra TLC than most of the other theatres.
Didn’t the guy running the Mercury later take over the Southgate Cinema from GCC? I knew what that guys name was, but right now can’t think of it.
How are they going to squeeze another eight-hundred seats in there? Even with the old Griggs seats, which were much narrower than the Irwins that were there at the end, it was only another hundred. Are they going to hang seats from the ceiling??
This was built as a 2-screen cinema, and during the 70s was listed in the paper as the Northfield Plaza I & II – it was not affiliated with any of the major chains, always appeared to be independent.
We had the grill-walls in the Cinema Southgate in Cleveland (built in 1963)of the same pattern as in this theatre. We also had them in the Mellett Mall Cinema (1967) Canton, Ohio and the Dort Mall Cinema (1968) Flint, Michigan. The latter two, however, were a larger, less-intricate pattern. Those at the Dort Mall Cinema can be seen in a photo here: View link
Before GCC had drive-in theatres and Cinemas all over the place, weren’t they, as Smith Management, running concession stands in other peoples drive-in theatres (hence the term ‘concession’)? They also had Amy Joy Donut Shops, Peter Pan Snack Shops, Richard’s Drive-In Restaurants and bowling alleys (we had several in Cleveland) – and they were all designed by Riseman, who also designed the Cinemas built into the 1970s.
An exterior view of the Interboro can be seen here…
View link