I heard that the USPS wanted the theater to use as a post office. It would replace the much smaller post office down 146th street. WARREN! that picutre is fantastic. Do you have any more of that one or any othe Lamb theater?
I believe that Peter Weir’s Walabout opened there (or The Riverside) because I saw it accidently when I was 9 with my little bother who was 4 or 5. I do not think the UA staff asked for proof of age at that time.
I have spoken to the people at council member Bill Perkins office. The councilman is very supportive of historical preservation. He had a piece about landmark preservation in his latest newsletter which I coincidently received yesterday.
I asked the people at Mr. Perkins office if there was anything I could do, being a local business owner (Broadway & 105th street anyway), a member of Cinema Treasures.org, the THSOA as well as being the biggest Thomas W. Lamb fan (I took great umbrage when Jim Rankin refered to “the staid designs of Thomas Lamb”). The woman I spoke to was very receptive. We both agreed that Harlem has lost too many of it’s theatres and New York City has lost too much of Thomas Lamb’s work.
Maybe something can come of Mr. Perkins involvement.
Ms.Pogrebin is a customer of mine and our daughters are friends. She might be a help to this cause as well.
thank you for responding. I did find it for sale on eBay but it is the actual film, like on a reel. I did see it once and I vividly remember the interviews with Dorothy Solomon. Her love for the building was palpable. If I am remembering it correctly, there was also interviews with a longtime projectionist and an organist. Again if I am remembering it correctly the organist came up with the console on its lift just to the side of the orchestra pit.
The last manager of Loew’s 83rd was one of those people that had a real love for these buildings. I do not remember his name but he had worked at Shea’s in Buffalo. He gave me a tour of what was left and what had been unseen for years, a tour that reminded of ziggy’s tour of The Kings. I wish I hhad a camera. Incredibly, the stage was intact. There have been so many missed opportunities over the years to document these places in their various states of restoration or decay. I am glad that you have footage of the RKO Bushwick. I have been trying to find a copy of the Don Johnson movie that was shot in the Japanese Gardens (above the Riviera ) in Manhattan. I am very partial to Thomas Lamb and I have been kicking myself for 25 years that I had not explored the Riverside and Riviera Theatres before they were torn down. I wish that I had the foresight to have photographed these places but alas, I was too young. I am so glad I found this site. I cannot tell you, all of you how much this site means to me. I thought I was alone in my love for these buildings. Sorry, if I am rambling but I have been here at work for just under 14 hours. I will try to watch your show. I believe I get RCN Manhattan channel 108.
Thank you again and if you ever lecture any where please e-mail me.
Divinity, my store is called Movie Place. We are located at 237 W 105th Street just off of Broadway in Manhattan. The photo exhibit will go up probably right after the New Year. I am still waiting for pictures of Loew’s 83rd, The New Yorker and the Olympia. I have picures of the Riverside, Riviera, Schyler, Arden (the exterior was an art deco masterpiece)The Nemo and the Carlton which was on Broadway between 99th & 100th streets. It is now ironically occupied by the Griestedes (I forgot how to spell that particular form of hell) that was rumored to be eventually occupying the Metro Twin across Broadway. In addition I do have 2 slides of the interiors of the Riverside and Riviera, which are from very early in their existence. I have slides that were taken by Michael Miller much later. I am thinking about enlarging the older black & white slides. I just want to show people what we once had on the upper westside, what we have lost. Of course I would plug Cinema Treasures as well as the T.H.S.O.A. within the exhibit.
what cable system and what channel does your show appear on? I would love to see your shows about the Kings. I have RCN in Manhattan, so if your show is on anything related to Time Warner I won’t get it. I have been trying to get a copy of the documentary about the Kings Memoirs of a Movie Palace. Ziggy said there was one for sale on ebay but I could not find it. I own a video store in Manhattan and I would transfer the VHS of this film to DVD and loan it out free to my customers. I would also make it available to T.H.S.O.A. members as well as Cinema treasures.org members. I saw this film years ago and have been trying to get it for now 20 years.
I will be doing a photo exhibit in my store called “movie theatres of the Upper Westside” very soon. I have some great and not so great pictures from the municipal archives of theatres long and not so long gone. But all missed.
I have heard from reliable neighborhood sources that the Metro was to become a temporary home for the Gristides store across the street while the new high rise was being built. The “twinning” would be undone and once the new store could open it would be restored as a theater. Unfortunatly only the exterior has been landmarked. The interior would be a simple restoration. If the Rapp & Rapp’s State in Jersey City can be restored then so could this.
I had also heard that the property owner has been trying to put this together for quite some time. The property owner is also the landlord of the art deco building just south of the Metro.
Speaking of art deco, the architects of the Metro also designed the beautiful 315 Riverside Drive.
I did refer to the Empire in Manhattan as the probable source of the Bob Dylan album.
On a seperate note, I must say I do enjoy reading what you have to say. I would love to see the inside of this theater
The reference could also be The Empire on 42nd Street. After being called the Eltinge during it’s legit days, the name changed to Empire and went Burlesque. This is the theater used in “The Last Action Hero” and is where, legend has it, Abbott met Costello.
I have the paperback version from the late 70’s / early 80’s. Warren is correct in that there is no listing in the index for the Fortway which as a kid I was surprised at. I have only been to this theater once, in the mid 80’s. I do not remember it all that well but I knew that this was the Fortway from the Ben M Hall book.
Are there differences in terms of the photos between editions?
The 2 female figures that you speak of can clearly be seen (one of them anyway) in a photo in the chapter about organs and their players in Ben M Hall’s “Best Remaing Seats”. The Organ is up on it’s lift with a player seated at the console. The lift has it up higher than the orchestra. A tympani and a rack of chimes are visible to the console’s left on the orchestra platform.
The Rio was designed by Herbert Krapp. According to a friend in the NYPD there are remenants left of this theater above the false ceiling. The name may have come from a nod to The Hispanic Soceity and Museum nearby.
Sorry, I forgot I posted a comment here. There is a chapter on theatre organs and their players. It is on a page with quite a few shots of players at the console. The caption reads something to the effect of so and so (I forget the name of the musician) “at the Fortway in Brooklyn. With a pilot’s License?”. The organ is on it’s lift and it appears to be higher up than the orchestra. I will look it up tonight and post it soon
The lobby of the Roxy can be seen in Jules Dassin’s “Naked City” from 1946. The Beacon Theater’s lobby was finished before the unfinished theater was sold to Warner’s. It is a ¼ size version of the Roxy’s grand foyer. The Beacon’s layout is the same as the Roxy. The back wall of the stage is not paralel to the proscenium. The stage sort of looks like a lopsided triangle.
I have a program from the Roxy (as well as from THE Paramount) that I could post as soon as I figure out how to do it.
The Olympia Theater on Broadway and 107th as well as the Essex/Edison/Columbia are gone. They were totally altered by the end of their life. The Essex/Edison/Columbia had been gutted and had been a drug store for a while.
The Olympia had been quaded in the 70’s and then cleaned up and twined by the late 80’s.
I have a chunk of the Olympia in my store. When the marquee was removed the original entrance was revealed. The entrance way had a beautiful painted terra cotta arch over it. The demolition crew saved me a chunk and now it is on display.
My grandmother told me that there was a theater upstairs of the Riviera. This was in the early 70’s. I wish I had gone on my own to investigate. I have seen the floor plans of these theaters and there was, as far as I can tell, no way to get from the office building part of the Riviera Building to the theater. I guess that Thomas Lamb wanted to thwart those trying to sneak in for free. I have pictures in my store of these theaters. In one photo you can see the stained glass windows that had been boarded up by the late 30’s. I have 2 pictures, tax ID photos taken in 1938 or 1939 of these theaters and by then the windows where boarded up but the Japanese Gardens was still open.
There was a documentary made about this theater about 20 years ago. Does anybody know the name of this film or better yet how I can obtain a copy? I know that the organ still rose up on it’s seperate lift for the film, however I do not remember if it was playable.
The Fortway did have originally have an organ. There is a great picture of it in Ben Hall’s “The Best Remaining Seats: The Golden Age of the Movie Palace”
I heard that the USPS wanted the theater to use as a post office. It would replace the much smaller post office down 146th street. WARREN! that picutre is fantastic. Do you have any more of that one or any othe Lamb theater?
I believe that Peter Weir’s Walabout opened there (or The Riverside) because I saw it accidently when I was 9 with my little bother who was 4 or 5. I do not think the UA staff asked for proof of age at that time.
I have spoken to the people at council member Bill Perkins office. The councilman is very supportive of historical preservation. He had a piece about landmark preservation in his latest newsletter which I coincidently received yesterday.
I asked the people at Mr. Perkins office if there was anything I could do, being a local business owner (Broadway & 105th street anyway), a member of Cinema Treasures.org, the THSOA as well as being the biggest Thomas W. Lamb fan (I took great umbrage when Jim Rankin refered to “the staid designs of Thomas Lamb”). The woman I spoke to was very receptive. We both agreed that Harlem has lost too many of it’s theatres and New York City has lost too much of Thomas Lamb’s work.
Maybe something can come of Mr. Perkins involvement.
Ms.Pogrebin is a customer of mine and our daughters are friends. She might be a help to this cause as well.
Is the theatre gutted? Is there anything left of the auditorium? I know the lobby is gone but I thought the theatre was intact.
Dear Bruce 1,
thank you for responding. I did find it for sale on eBay but it is the actual film, like on a reel. I did see it once and I vividly remember the interviews with Dorothy Solomon. Her love for the building was palpable. If I am remembering it correctly, there was also interviews with a longtime projectionist and an organist. Again if I am remembering it correctly the organist came up with the console on its lift just to the side of the orchestra pit.
The last manager of Loew’s 83rd was one of those people that had a real love for these buildings. I do not remember his name but he had worked at Shea’s in Buffalo. He gave me a tour of what was left and what had been unseen for years, a tour that reminded of ziggy’s tour of The Kings. I wish I hhad a camera. Incredibly, the stage was intact. There have been so many missed opportunities over the years to document these places in their various states of restoration or decay. I am glad that you have footage of the RKO Bushwick. I have been trying to find a copy of the Don Johnson movie that was shot in the Japanese Gardens (above the Riviera ) in Manhattan. I am very partial to Thomas Lamb and I have been kicking myself for 25 years that I had not explored the Riverside and Riviera Theatres before they were torn down. I wish that I had the foresight to have photographed these places but alas, I was too young. I am so glad I found this site. I cannot tell you, all of you how much this site means to me. I thought I was alone in my love for these buildings. Sorry, if I am rambling but I have been here at work for just under 14 hours. I will try to watch your show. I believe I get RCN Manhattan channel 108.
Thank you again and if you ever lecture any where please e-mail me.
Thank you again,
Movie Place
Vincent, Neil Diamond is from Brooklyn.
Divinity, my store is called Movie Place. We are located at 237 W 105th Street just off of Broadway in Manhattan. The photo exhibit will go up probably right after the New Year. I am still waiting for pictures of Loew’s 83rd, The New Yorker and the Olympia. I have picures of the Riverside, Riviera, Schyler, Arden (the exterior was an art deco masterpiece)The Nemo and the Carlton which was on Broadway between 99th & 100th streets. It is now ironically occupied by the Griestedes (I forgot how to spell that particular form of hell) that was rumored to be eventually occupying the Metro Twin across Broadway. In addition I do have 2 slides of the interiors of the Riverside and Riviera, which are from very early in their existence. I have slides that were taken by Michael Miller much later. I am thinking about enlarging the older black & white slides. I just want to show people what we once had on the upper westside, what we have lost. Of course I would plug Cinema Treasures as well as the T.H.S.O.A. within the exhibit.
Dear Bruce 1,
what cable system and what channel does your show appear on? I would love to see your shows about the Kings. I have RCN in Manhattan, so if your show is on anything related to Time Warner I won’t get it. I have been trying to get a copy of the documentary about the Kings Memoirs of a Movie Palace. Ziggy said there was one for sale on ebay but I could not find it. I own a video store in Manhattan and I would transfer the VHS of this film to DVD and loan it out free to my customers. I would also make it available to T.H.S.O.A. members as well as Cinema treasures.org members. I saw this film years ago and have been trying to get it for now 20 years.
I will be doing a photo exhibit in my store called “movie theatres of the Upper Westside” very soon. I have some great and not so great pictures from the municipal archives of theatres long and not so long gone. But all missed.
Thank you,
Movie Place NYC
I have heard from reliable neighborhood sources that the Metro was to become a temporary home for the Gristides store across the street while the new high rise was being built. The “twinning” would be undone and once the new store could open it would be restored as a theater. Unfortunatly only the exterior has been landmarked. The interior would be a simple restoration. If the Rapp & Rapp’s State in Jersey City can be restored then so could this.
I had also heard that the property owner has been trying to put this together for quite some time. The property owner is also the landlord of the art deco building just south of the Metro.
Speaking of art deco, the architects of the Metro also designed the beautiful 315 Riverside Drive.
Is there any othe rinformation about the Schuyler?
Bway:
I did refer to the Empire in Manhattan as the probable source of the Bob Dylan album.
On a seperate note, I must say I do enjoy reading what you have to say. I would love to see the inside of this theater
The reference could also be The Empire on 42nd Street. After being called the Eltinge during it’s legit days, the name changed to Empire and went Burlesque. This is the theater used in “The Last Action Hero” and is where, legend has it, Abbott met Costello.
Warren,
there is a theatre on 5th Avenue and 116th street. Is this the theatre you are refering to?
I have the paperback version from the late 70’s / early 80’s. Warren is correct in that there is no listing in the index for the Fortway which as a kid I was surprised at. I have only been to this theater once, in the mid 80’s. I do not remember it all that well but I knew that this was the Fortway from the Ben M Hall book.
Are there differences in terms of the photos between editions?
The 2 female figures that you speak of can clearly be seen (one of them anyway) in a photo in the chapter about organs and their players in Ben M Hall’s “Best Remaing Seats”. The Organ is up on it’s lift with a player seated at the console. The lift has it up higher than the orchestra. A tympani and a rack of chimes are visible to the console’s left on the orchestra platform.
The Book you are refering to is “Brooklyn, The Way It Was” by Brian Merils(?).
The Rio was designed by Herbert Krapp. According to a friend in the NYPD there are remenants left of this theater above the false ceiling. The name may have come from a nod to The Hispanic Soceity and Museum nearby.
Sorry, I forgot I posted a comment here. There is a chapter on theatre organs and their players. It is on a page with quite a few shots of players at the console. The caption reads something to the effect of so and so (I forget the name of the musician) “at the Fortway in Brooklyn. With a pilot’s License?”. The organ is on it’s lift and it appears to be higher up than the orchestra. I will look it up tonight and post it soon
The lobby of the Roxy can be seen in Jules Dassin’s “Naked City” from 1946. The Beacon Theater’s lobby was finished before the unfinished theater was sold to Warner’s. It is a ¼ size version of the Roxy’s grand foyer. The Beacon’s layout is the same as the Roxy. The back wall of the stage is not paralel to the proscenium. The stage sort of looks like a lopsided triangle.
I have a program from the Roxy (as well as from THE Paramount) that I could post as soon as I figure out how to do it.
The Olympia Theater on Broadway and 107th as well as the Essex/Edison/Columbia are gone. They were totally altered by the end of their life. The Essex/Edison/Columbia had been gutted and had been a drug store for a while.
The Olympia had been quaded in the 70’s and then cleaned up and twined by the late 80’s.
I have a chunk of the Olympia in my store. When the marquee was removed the original entrance was revealed. The entrance way had a beautiful painted terra cotta arch over it. The demolition crew saved me a chunk and now it is on display.
The stage had basically a brick box built on it. That was the store. The stage house was very much restorable.
The structure was original a beer gardenand restaurant. It was fashioned into a theatre by Thomas Lamb
My grandmother told me that there was a theater upstairs of the Riviera. This was in the early 70’s. I wish I had gone on my own to investigate. I have seen the floor plans of these theaters and there was, as far as I can tell, no way to get from the office building part of the Riviera Building to the theater. I guess that Thomas Lamb wanted to thwart those trying to sneak in for free. I have pictures in my store of these theaters. In one photo you can see the stained glass windows that had been boarded up by the late 30’s. I have 2 pictures, tax ID photos taken in 1938 or 1939 of these theaters and by then the windows where boarded up but the Japanese Gardens was still open.
There was a documentary made about this theater about 20 years ago. Does anybody know the name of this film or better yet how I can obtain a copy? I know that the organ still rose up on it’s seperate lift for the film, however I do not remember if it was playable.
The Fortway did have originally have an organ. There is a great picture of it in Ben Hall’s “The Best Remaining Seats: The Golden Age of the Movie Palace”