8th Street Playhouse
52 W. 8th Street,
New York,
NY
10011
52 W. 8th Street,
New York,
NY
10011
23 people
favorited this theater
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Five of the upstairs auditoriums at the Battery Park Stadium are being or have been converted to a DSW Shoe Warehouse outlet. United Artists had an option to surrender that space within a few years' time, an option now-UA owner Regal chose to exercise.
Mikeoaklandpark – the Battery Park theatre, being across the street from the World Trade Center, may have issues remaining from 9/11. While working at the WTC site with the PD from 9/11 until December ‘01, the only damage to the theatre I saw was broken glass. But keep in mind that the area was closed to the public for months afterward, and the theatre sat there with broken windows and open to the elements – there may be mold or other contamination problems in some areas of the building and may be sealed off.
UA had the 8th St Playhouse for a number of years, and true to their reputation let the place run down. around 1988 or 89 they were invited to vacate the premises by the landlord because they also stopped paying the rent. The landlord asked City Cinemas to run it for a while. When we went in there we found UA had taken the projection equipment and the marquee letters, all of which belonged to the landlord, and he had to threaten them with court action to make them bring it back. Since we didn’t have a long-term lease, we fixed it up a little with a good cleaning, new carpet, re-upholstered the old seats and rebuilt the candy stand.
br91975 is correct about the Quad, it was always operated by its owner. Golden (a film booking agency, not a theatre operator) and City Cinemas only booked the films for him.
I rememebr seeing Rocky Horror there for the first time. This theater is also featured in the 1980 movie FAME.
Does anybody know what happened at the UA Battery Park Stadium. It was originally 16 theaters, but now is only 11?
What a remarkable set of photographs; thanks for posting those! After the Film Guild Cinema years, the 8th Street Playhouse was an independent for several more decades, until B.S. Moss took over. Sometime in the late 1980s/very early 90s, B.S. Moss sold the leases to their theatrical properties to two chains which would operate each of those venues until their respective bitter ends – United Artists (Movieland 8th Street Triplex and the Criterion Center) and City Cinemas, in the case of the 8th Street Playhouse. The Quad, contrary to what Robert initially wrote, was never run by City Cinemas; to my knowledge, it’s been independently run at least since Golden pulled out around ‘88.
The Eighth Street Playhouse, the Bleeker Street Cinema and Art D'Lugoff’s nightclub the Village Gate were vibrant hallmarks of my Greenwich Village college days, and I sadly admit that at the time, not that long ago, I took them completely for granted. I thought they’d be around for at least another generation or two! The groovy curved facade of Electric Ladyland Studios (where Hendrix once recorded) next door to the Playhouse has also been completely altered. The main floor of the video store is what is left of the auditorium; turn around after you walk into the middle of the store and you will see the old projection booth above the entrance, complete with the tiny projection windows.
There is a really interesting tidbit of history regarding the old Film Guild Cinema in David Skal’s book on the cinematic Dracula, “Hollwood Gothic.” Apparently this was the venue for the American premiere of F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu” in June 1929; according to Skal, the Film Guild was part of a “little” art cinema movement which arose in reaction to the commercial palaces like the Roxy. The screen of the Film Guild Cinema was surrounded by a CIRCULAR proscenium called a “screenoscope”, with adjustable curved scrims rather than conventional drape curtains, giving the screen the appearance of a giant cat’s eye!! It has to be seen to be believed; fortunately Skal reproduces a rare shot of the interior in his book. Unlike the lavish movie palaces of the 20s (which of course I also love), the original Film Guild interior suggested not the sentimental exoticism of faraway countries and epochs, but the cool mystery and futurism of the art of cinema itself: the projection and perception of black and white, light and shadow. What a place to see Nosferatu for the first time!
I believe I saw Hitchcock’s “Dial M for Murder” here in 3-D during the 1980s series. The cinema had a distinctive history as a mostly second-run art house, although sometimes they did some first-run presentations.
A bit of esoterica follows. As a lover of Italian films, one of the “lost” movies of the 1950s I’d most like to see is something called “Alone in the Streets” (“Soli per le strade.”) It was directed by Silvio Siano and is kind of a minor-league “Shoe Shine,” about orphaned youngsters runnning wild in the Naples area. It had its New York premiere at the 8th Street Playhouse in June of 1956, got a glowing review from A. H. Weiler of the New York Times, was distributed for a time in 16mm by Audio Film Center, then descended into full oblivion in the U.S. as well as in Italy.
The building was designed by Frederick Kiesler and originally called “film Guild Cinema” It opened in 1929 and used some innovative features such as a screen which adjusted in size and shape to counteract angular distortion and was originally planned to have film projected onto the walls and cieling. The original facade was an homage to the DeStijl movement that Kiesler was associated with, although it is difficult to see this now.
The Eighth Street Playhouse was located at 52 W. 8th Street.
I remember Rocky Horror at this theater — midnight showings Fridays and Saturdays. It was as much a theatrical experience as a movie — and the cult grew right here, as RobertR indicates. I remember the screen was set back in a sort of rectangular recess that had a bright zig-zag of neon tubing on either side that would be lit until the movie started. I saw every rock and roll film ever made during the many summer festivals that played here over the years… Woodstock, Monterey Pop, Grateful Dead Movie, Pink Floyd at Pompeii, Ladies and Gentlemen the Rolling Stones… and even an unexpectedly pornographic cult flick called Cafe Flesh. And afterwards, there was a wonderful little pizzeria just across the street that was slightly below street level where one could have a post-screening dissection of the film over a slice and a beer.
Located on the south side of West 8th street not quite midway between 6th and 5th Avenues.