Lyric Theatre
213 W. 42nd Street,
New York,
NY
10036
213 W. 42nd Street,
New York,
NY
10036
11 people
favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 100 of 105 comments found
A Kimball organ Size 2/7 was installed in the Lyric Theater in 1916.
Yes and no. “Elements” from the Lyric and adjacent Apollo were combined into the Ford Center for the Performing Arts.
This website has before and after photos of a Lyric theater aka Ford Center for The Performing Arts located at 213 West 42nd Street. Is this the same Lyric theater as the one listed on this page?
Don – You are correct about “Sometimes Sweet Susan” on the Lyric marquee in the movie “Taxi Driver.” You assumption about moving it over to the Lyric for the “Taxi Driver” shoot is reasonable. It would be in keeping with the mood of the film to have a porn film on the marquee. There are similar thoughts on this in previous comments.
Interesting…the movie “Sometimes Sweet Susan” on the Rialto marquee, was, if I remember correctly, the film on the Lyric marquee in the movie “Taxi Driver”. “Taxi Driver” was filmed around the time the photo was taken. I wonder if the film was moved over to the Lyric for the “Taxi Driver” shoot.
Here’s a photo I took in 1975. The Lyric had a double feature consisting of Report To The Commissioner and That Man Bolt. Porn had taken over some of the other theaters.
View link
After being stripped of certain ornamentation and architectural elements to be later re-used, the Lyric and Apollo were guttted to the bare walls, the roof was removed, the wall between the two theatres was removed, and there you had it: four walls standing, surrounding a dirt pit. From this rose the new theater we lovingly call the Hilton (not). Some of the artwork and other elements in the new theater are originally from the Lyric and Apollo, but there are many recreations done to look as classic as the originals. And I have been to this theater many times since it first opened with Ragtime the 1990’s.
My, my.
NO WAY the HILTON is new. Nobody can construct a new building to look like it’s 100 years old. Nobody can layer 100 years of dirt on art work et cetera. Let somebody who says they’ve actually BEEN THERE and SEEN the HILTON (aka FORD) THEATRE —– let that person say the theatre is “new.”
The Hilton Theatre is an entirely new structure, rlvjr, save for select architectural elements which were removed from the Lyric and Apollo, both of which were demolished (in terms of their interiors) to make way for the then-Ford Center/Hilton Theatre.
I have trouble believing the LYRIC is anything but alive and well. I attended a show there this week, CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG, expecting a stark modern interior of the currently named HILTON Theater. To my happy surprise I found a beautiful old interior, with all of the decorations typical of a grand theatre circa 1901, two balconies, and absolutely looking like a cleaned-up old palace. Go there and see for yourself.
You’ll need to quickly freeze frame to catch this one. In “Midnight Cowboy” when Jon Voight is running down 42nd Street, you have a full screen of the front on the Lyric showing “Hang'Em High” with all the lobby displays.
On 3/10/72 Universal released Paul Newman, Henry Fonda and Lee Remick in “Sometimes a Great Notion” and as a second feature Clint Eastwood in “Play Misty For Me”. Great Notion is billed as “first New York Showing”, but has no Broadway theatre playing it. The Manhattan run was The Lyric, UA Academy of Music, Juliet 1 (which only played the main feature), Kips Bay, UA Riverside and Brandts Cinema Studio. I have noticed in many of the Showcase engagements the top Broadway theatres did not play many of them until the later 70’s when Broadway was pretty much always opening everything on showcase breaks.
Listed as Bijou: /theaters/8371/
There was a Lyric Theater on 3rd Ave between 12th and 13th St.,
Manhattan years ago.You can check out the link section on here to view it.
Thanks for the link; really fascinating stuff. Not completely accurate, and with a typo or two, but well worth a visit.
There is an old photo of the Lyric theater and some history also at this link:
View link
Here is a 1966 shot of The Deuce. Note the billboards over the Lyric. THey would display their coming attractions there. In this case…..THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (10th anniversary re-release) and the remake of STAGECOACH
I won the item on ebay and will be loaded it on to my website soon. Here’s the temporary link:
View link
For those interested, the films showing are:
HARPER & SWINGER’S PARADISE (Lyric), OUT OF THE PAST & TENSION AT TABLE ROCK (Times Square), TROUBLE WITH ANGELS & MYSTERY OF THUG ISLAND (Selwyn), WEEKEND AT DUNKIRK & THAT MAN IN ISTANBUL (New Amsterdam); Apollo appears to have a Gina Lollobrigida film.
saps, I also wondered if the Lyric actually played those films. IMDB lists both as 1974 releases (I thought the titles and posters may have been made up for the film). An IMDB user comment on the second film makes mention of the Taxi Driver connection.
Great tip,lostmemory. Enjoyed the site.
And that’s a very interesting site. Thanks for the tip.
In a word, wow! But I wonder if the Lyric actualy played those two movies, or if it was a mock up for the film.
You can see some photos of the Lyric theater marquee taken from the movie Taxi Driver here:
View link
I just found a beautiful color clip of the Lyric and entire north side of 42nd Street from 1956 on the gettyimages.com website. The Selwyn is showing (3 Coins in the Fountain & Love is a Many Splendid Thing), Apollo (Naked Night & Divided Heart), Times Square (Best of the Badmen & Badman’s Territory), Lyric (Man in the Grey Flannel Suit & Magnificent Roughnecks), Victory (Purple Heart & Guadalcanal Diary). Here’s the link View link
Jerry 42nd Street Memories
I have an exterior photo of the Lyric (circa early 90s). I’ll e-mail it to some if they want to post it.
I recall that the Lyric, like a lot of legit theaters, was not very wide but it certainly was tall. And in the 50s-60s, it was always packed since it was showing some of the newer films on the Deuce, along with the New Amsterdam. Since people did not time the beginning of a showing back then, a lot of the viewing was interrupted by you, or someone else, looking for a seat or two seats together. And if you ended in the top balcony, you were looking down on the screen through the cigarette smoke.
After a week here, the program would move west to the Selwyn.
As always, if anyone know how I can obtain images or booking/programming information for any of the theaters on the Deuce, please let me know. The Lyric did appear in a lot of newspaper ads, since it was showing newer flics, but sometimes they would vary the 2nd feature (as opposed to the RKO circuit)for their “action” audience.
Jerry 42nd Street Memories