[Photo caption: Until just a few weeks ago, the World Trade Center continued to glow at night on the facade of the Playpen cinema. (Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times)]
The homogenization of the Times Square area (yes, The Times has contributed to the phenomenon with its new headquarters opposite the Port Authority Bus Terminal) has claimed another quirky victim: the Playpen, a former cinema that closed recently after 90-odd years.
Very odd years.
The Playpen is part of a larger parcel at the southwest corner of Eighth Avenue and 44th Street that is owned by a partnership including affiliates of the Tishman Realty Corporation. The partners have not gone public with their plans. They may not even have decided yet among themselves. But the future certainly does not include the old theater.
What Eighth Avenue will lose with its disappearance is more than an adults-only emporium with suggestive neon come-ons â€" “Live Girls,†“Preview Booths,†“Leather & Lace.†It will lose the last home of the Funny Store, an almost vaudevillian novelty shop. It will lose one of the most distinctive façades of any surviving theater from the early 20th century, a kind of heroic Palladian composition. And will lose a three-dimensional history lesson in the evolution of Times Square.
The Ideal Theater, designed by Eisendrath & Horwitz, opened in 1916 as a modest movie house, with 598 seats. It attracted some notice in 1935 for showing an Italian-language movie, “Dopo una Notte d’Amore†(â€After a Night of Loveâ€). Briefly known as the Esquire, it stayed in business until early 1937. It reopened a few months later as the Squire. In 1939, it was renamed the Cinecitta and played Italian films for a while.
Once again the Squire in 1941, it showed “The Eternal Gift,†said to be the first feature-length depiction of the Roman Catholic high mass, and the documentary, “Greece on the March.â€
Such serious fare had disappeared by 1946, when “Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors†topped the bill. During a tense moment on screen one evening, a 10-by-20-foot section of the theater’s ceiling fell down, injuring 19 patrons. Those in the front seats were unruffled, thinking they were hearing weird sound effects. By the 1950s, “girlie†films were drawing customers to the Squire.
The theater’s next transformation occurred in 1956, when it reopened as the New Cameo, a theater devoted to Russian films, beginning with the Mosfilm production of “Boris Godunov,†starring Alexander Pirogov. “A casual observer must shudder at the thought of the terrible shock and dismay of a former Squire patron who might wander into the theater looking wistfully for Rose La Rose or Lili St. Cyr,†wrote Bosley Crowther, who was then The Times’s movie critic.
Eventually, the theater became simply the Cameo. This was its most fitting name since the central arch is flanked sculptural cameos, showing women in diaphanous robes, one with a spool of movie film and the other with a camera. The Cameo was the showcase in 1970 for the blue movie, “Sexual Freedom in Denmark.â€
Blue gave way to X over time, and then the “Cameo†on the marquee gave way to the Adonis, when that gay movie theater was pushed out of its home six blocks north on Eighth Avenue. The new Adonis was closed by the city’s Department of Health in 1994 after inspectors observed what they called “high-risk sexual activities†taking place among patrons, without “any attempts to monitor or control them.â€
Lately, the theater was the Playpen, whose marquee loosely traced the New York skyline in red neon. It included the twin towers of the World Trade Center, which still stood and still glowed at night in their uptown incarnation. And yes, Eighth Avenue is losing those, too.
I don’t think there’s a rule against displaying a photo in a post, I think most of us just don’t know how to do it. There are other photos in posts here and there on this site; I wish there were more.
There is an Aztec Theater in the Simpson’s hometown of Springfield, but I couldn’t find a listing for it on Cinema Treasures. You can spot the theater in the Simpsons movie. I didn’t notice a Springfield Theater, though.
I find it very irritating that many studios' newspapers ads in the local papers don’t list the individual theaters anymore — they simply say “check local listings,” like they do in the national editions. Why should I do the distributors' work and look in the movie clock (which isn’t in all papers) or look on line?
I want to look at the ad, look at the bottom for the theater listings, and for Manhattan listings I want to see the times. Is that really too much to ask?
Actually, if the theaters aren’t listed in an ad, then I am less likely to the see that movie. To save a little time or money, they are shooting themselves in the foot.
There is an Aztec Theater in the Simpson’s hometown of Springfield, but I couldn’t find a listing for it on Cinema Treasures. You can spot the theater in the Simpsons movie.
Bosley Crowther didn’t think so, as indicated in his review posted above on 8/14/07 and excerpted here:
“The great values in this lyric drama of the Negro residents of Catfish Row, an old slum quarter in Charleston, S. C., are colorfulness, vitality and the eloquence in the music that expresses its characters' joys and sorrows. These are the essential values that are handsomely and throbbingly put forth in this film, which opened last night at the Warner Theatre for a road-show run.”
And speaking of Pete’s Dragon (were we?) I just saw it on a VHS tape I bought from the Lynbrook Public Library for 25 cents, and boy did I over-pay. Dull story, pedestrian music and lyrics, hammy acting from Mickey Rooney and company — I have no choice but to blame it for almost single-handedly closing the Music Hall. I don’t know what kind of business it brought in, but it must have done wonders for the concessions, because every time Helen Reddy sang a song, I wanted to go to the lobby for popcorn or a souvenir — and I was watching it in my bedroom! (My 3 yr. old daughter’s attention wandered a bit, too, but then she immediately wanted to see it two more times again, anyway…go figure!)
I really liked the first one (with the narration and hopeful blue sky ending, and saw it so many times in the movies, especially at the old St. Marks’s Cinema (/theaters/11089/) that I’ve worried about seeing a new version, even in pristine conditions.
The opening description needs to be re-written as it seems to contain errors in every paragraph — the twinning was later than the early 60s, the theater wasn’t gutted, it was razed, and the woebegone replacement State is already history.
I had the chance to visit this theater about five years ago while staying a few days in Wildwood Crest, but the friend I was with said “I didn’t come to the beach to go to the movies!” Very short-sighted. I’m thinking of dropping her as a friend.
Link to image here (Sorry so big…don’t know/remember how to shrink it)
View link
F*ck!
Here’s the entire article.
September 7, 2007, 10:11 am
A Seedy Eighth Avenue Landmark, Gone Dark
By David W. Dunlap
[Photo caption: Until just a few weeks ago, the World Trade Center continued to glow at night on the facade of the Playpen cinema. (Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times)]
The homogenization of the Times Square area (yes, The Times has contributed to the phenomenon with its new headquarters opposite the Port Authority Bus Terminal) has claimed another quirky victim: the Playpen, a former cinema that closed recently after 90-odd years.
Very odd years.
The Playpen is part of a larger parcel at the southwest corner of Eighth Avenue and 44th Street that is owned by a partnership including affiliates of the Tishman Realty Corporation. The partners have not gone public with their plans. They may not even have decided yet among themselves. But the future certainly does not include the old theater.
What Eighth Avenue will lose with its disappearance is more than an adults-only emporium with suggestive neon come-ons â€" “Live Girls,†“Preview Booths,†“Leather & Lace.†It will lose the last home of the Funny Store, an almost vaudevillian novelty shop. It will lose one of the most distinctive façades of any surviving theater from the early 20th century, a kind of heroic Palladian composition. And will lose a three-dimensional history lesson in the evolution of Times Square.
The Ideal Theater, designed by Eisendrath & Horwitz, opened in 1916 as a modest movie house, with 598 seats. It attracted some notice in 1935 for showing an Italian-language movie, “Dopo una Notte d’Amore†(â€After a Night of Loveâ€). Briefly known as the Esquire, it stayed in business until early 1937. It reopened a few months later as the Squire. In 1939, it was renamed the Cinecitta and played Italian films for a while.
Once again the Squire in 1941, it showed “The Eternal Gift,†said to be the first feature-length depiction of the Roman Catholic high mass, and the documentary, “Greece on the March.â€
Such serious fare had disappeared by 1946, when “Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors†topped the bill. During a tense moment on screen one evening, a 10-by-20-foot section of the theater’s ceiling fell down, injuring 19 patrons. Those in the front seats were unruffled, thinking they were hearing weird sound effects. By the 1950s, “girlie†films were drawing customers to the Squire.
The theater’s next transformation occurred in 1956, when it reopened as the New Cameo, a theater devoted to Russian films, beginning with the Mosfilm production of “Boris Godunov,†starring Alexander Pirogov. “A casual observer must shudder at the thought of the terrible shock and dismay of a former Squire patron who might wander into the theater looking wistfully for Rose La Rose or Lili St. Cyr,†wrote Bosley Crowther, who was then The Times’s movie critic.
Eventually, the theater became simply the Cameo. This was its most fitting name since the central arch is flanked sculptural cameos, showing women in diaphanous robes, one with a spool of movie film and the other with a camera. The Cameo was the showcase in 1970 for the blue movie, “Sexual Freedom in Denmark.â€
Blue gave way to X over time, and then the “Cameo†on the marquee gave way to the Adonis, when that gay movie theater was pushed out of its home six blocks north on Eighth Avenue. The new Adonis was closed by the city’s Department of Health in 1994 after inspectors observed what they called “high-risk sexual activities†taking place among patrons, without “any attempts to monitor or control them.â€
Lately, the theater was the Playpen, whose marquee loosely traced the New York skyline in red neon. It included the twin towers of the World Trade Center, which still stood and still glowed at night in their uptown incarnation. And yes, Eighth Avenue is losing those, too.
I don’t think there’s a rule against displaying a photo in a post, I think most of us just don’t know how to do it. There are other photos in posts here and there on this site; I wish there were more.
There is an Aztec Theater in the Simpson’s hometown of Springfield, but I couldn’t find a listing for it on Cinema Treasures. You can spot the theater in the Simpsons movie. I didn’t notice a Springfield Theater, though.
I find it very irritating that many studios' newspapers ads in the local papers don’t list the individual theaters anymore — they simply say “check local listings,” like they do in the national editions. Why should I do the distributors' work and look in the movie clock (which isn’t in all papers) or look on line?
I want to look at the ad, look at the bottom for the theater listings, and for Manhattan listings I want to see the times. Is that really too much to ask?
Actually, if the theaters aren’t listed in an ad, then I am less likely to the see that movie. To save a little time or money, they are shooting themselves in the foot.
There is an Aztec Theater in the Simpson’s hometown of Springfield, but I couldn’t find a listing for it on Cinema Treasures. You can spot the theater in the Simpsons movie.
Maybe he was ashamed that he lip-synced a role that should have gone to a singing actor.
Bosley Crowther didn’t think so, as indicated in his review posted above on 8/14/07 and excerpted here:
“The great values in this lyric drama of the Negro residents of Catfish Row, an old slum quarter in Charleston, S. C., are colorfulness, vitality and the eloquence in the music that expresses its characters' joys and sorrows. These are the essential values that are handsomely and throbbingly put forth in this film, which opened last night at the Warner Theatre for a road-show run.”
I see that Love Camp 27 was playing at the Liberty. I think that was their favorite second feature, because it seemed to play there for years.
Lines outside a theater do create a kind of excitement, too, sort of an air of exclusiveness.
We’re lucky the Cinerama screen is still on site, although presently folded up.
And speaking of Pete’s Dragon (were we?) I just saw it on a VHS tape I bought from the Lynbrook Public Library for 25 cents, and boy did I over-pay. Dull story, pedestrian music and lyrics, hammy acting from Mickey Rooney and company — I have no choice but to blame it for almost single-handedly closing the Music Hall. I don’t know what kind of business it brought in, but it must have done wonders for the concessions, because every time Helen Reddy sang a song, I wanted to go to the lobby for popcorn or a souvenir — and I was watching it in my bedroom! (My 3 yr. old daughter’s attention wandered a bit, too, but then she immediately wanted to see it two more times again, anyway…go figure!)
I wish that image was bigger because I can’t read the names of the theaters!
That link for St. Marks is /theaters/11089/
I really liked the first one (with the narration and hopeful blue sky ending, and saw it so many times in the movies, especially at the old St. Marks’s Cinema (/theaters/11089/) that I’ve worried about seeing a new version, even in pristine conditions.
It’s a bit odd to see the Liberty advertising a picture at the Harris, since they were in different movie theater chains.
The opening description needs to be re-written as it seems to contain errors in every paragraph — the twinning was later than the early 60s, the theater wasn’t gutted, it was razed, and the woebegone replacement State is already history.
Roloff, nice update on your Flickr photo.
Oddly enough, it’s the Warner (a/k/a Strand) listed here: /theaters/2975/
Mickey Rooney and his wife appeared in their touring show here recently.
Pix, please.
I had the chance to visit this theater about five years ago while staying a few days in Wildwood Crest, but the friend I was with said “I didn’t come to the beach to go to the movies!” Very short-sighted. I’m thinking of dropping her as a friend.
Please don’t forget “The Undertaker and His Pals” http://imdb.com/title/tt0061140/
Many of Grandview’s filmgoers were eventually laid out there.