New Amsterdam Theatre
214 W. 42nd Street,
New York,
NY
10036
214 W. 42nd Street,
New York,
NY
10036
23 people
favorited this theater
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In the made-for-TV movie “Gypsy” (starred Bette Midler, broadcast on CBS-TV 12/12/1993), an black & white image of the New Amsterdam’s facade and marquee is prominently featured and colourfully animated in the opening montage and credits.
Is there a significant connection with “Gypsy”? Did the play ever have a run here, or perhaps just a film version? If so, was it a premiere or exclusive engagement?
Was it ever a major Vaudeville or burlesque venue?(another possible reason for the reference)
Just curious.
In her reminiscence Moments with Chaplin, Lillian Ross recounted her walk with Chaplin around Manhattan, after his long absence from the city, at the time his Limelight was opening in 1952, and before circumstances would induce him to take up permanent residence abroad.
(Quotation follows):
An old woman in a torn dress was standing in front of the New Amsterdam Theatre selling pretzels from a battered baby stroller. “I don’t think the old girl would know whether this is where Ziegfeld had his ‘Follies,’ or whether it had a roof garden,” Chaplin said. He stopped walking. He looked puzzled, a bit hurt.
An elderly man with a pale, freckled face, who was bald except for reddish hair at the base of his skull, came along and stopped beside us. He wore a dirty white shirt open at the collar, and he had a bundle of old newspapers under one arm. “Visiting your old haunts, Charlie?” he said to Chaplin.
“Why, yes,” Chaplin said. “Yes. Yes, I am."
”“I used to come in as a kid, fifteen years old,” the man said. “I used to see you. They were good old days."
"Wasn’t this where Ziegfeld had his ‘Follies’?” Chaplin asked. “And didn’t it have a roof garden upstairs?"
"You’re right,” the man said. “And it still does have a roof garden."
"You see, I was right, wasn’t I?” Chaplin said to me.
I agree with many of the members'opinion that the exterior of the New Amsterdam should have restored to its original appearance. It would have been more consistent to the overall appearance of the renovation.
Some of the movies i saw here in the ‘60’s when I was home from college were “Gypsy”, “Bye Bye Birdie”, “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner”, and after I graduated and went for my army physical, I took in Bette Davis in “The Nanny.” frankie from Brooklyn
As I posted on other 42nd st theatre sites,I would always marvel at the beauty of all those magnificent marquees, the people who changed them week after week were true artists,the lettering was always perfectly spaced and centered.
Truly a lost art form
Photographer Andrew Moore has 2 color photos of the interior of this theatre prior to restoration at www.andrew-moore.info
(Just click on Photography and then Times Square 1995-2005 to bring up the theatres)
The New Amsterdam photos are on the third row.
One is at the far left and another on the far right.
There are also other shots of the Selwyn, Times Square, Liberty and an extrior shot of the Lyric.
Bway – “While I think Disney did a fantastic job on the theater in general, the one thing they should have done differently is restoring the exterior to the original appearance rather than the 1930’s look it has now.”
I personally would have preferred the Art Nouveau tower of Ziegfeld’s regime that predated the Art Moderne tower, but I believe the retention of the current tower was dictated not by Disney, but by the preservation board.
The New Amsterdam is definitely on my list of favorite theatres, though I will confess more for its Ziegfeld connection than as a movie house. Ironically, the only glimpses I’ve been able to have of it in real life were in the late 70s as a grind house and in the 80s when it was shuttered. I have not yet had a chance to get to New York and see it in its restored glory.
It looks like pictures I’ve seen of Tokyo. It all seems so fake and calculated. The thing that’s most disconcerting to me is that there’s absolutely no sense of any kind of organic development from what used to be to what it is now.
What I just said is specifically in reference to the Times Square/Duffy Square intersection. (Now that I think about it, it doesn’t hold quite so true for the Eighth Avenue corridor — yet.)
Stevebob… you make an excellent point. There is something about that clock and signage that tugs at my heartstrings — as a veteran of the Deuce’s grindhouses from 1979 to ‘86 or so. But I find it completely at odds with the magnificent restoration within. I think it would have been nice to have the restored art-nouveau exterior of the New Amsterdam as compliment to the vintage exterior restorations to the New Victory and Lyric facades directly across the street.
Bway… do you feel claustrophobic when you walk around the area these days? Besides the blinding barrage of lights and video-feeds from all the modern signage and displays, Times Square has completely lost its sense of scale at street level. It’s all so vertical now… they’re just developing everything straight up. Think back to the Square and 42nd Street about 15 or 20 years ago – even amidst the shuttering of the grind houses, the squalor of the uncleaned streets and the come-ons from the live-porn barkers there was at least a sense of space and scale. I miss the days when you didn’t have to crane your neck to appreciate the character of the place.
I was on 42nd Street last night (I attended a concert in the old Astor Plaza, now the Nokia Theater that opened up Oct 1), and I haven’t been there in about a year. I couldn’t even recognize Times Square! Nothing’s familiar anymore, it seems to be changing by the day!
It surprises me very much that they left the “modern” clock and vertical as part of the restoration. It certainly doesn’t match the art nouveau interior at all, yet personally I favor it. There are so few vestiges left of the old 42nd St., and it is one of them.
I have to agree with Ed on this one. While I think Disney did a fantastic job on the theater in general, the one thing they should have done differently is restoring the exterior to the original appearance rather than the 1930’s look it has now.
Bob, thanks for the info on the Lion King. I didn’t know it was moving to the Minskoff.
BobT… I agree with you. A magnificent interior restoration, but – as I commented way back in Feb of 2003 – the decision to go with the refitted art deco marquee rather than replicate the original 1903 exterior facade ornamentation and signage was highly questionable. Perhaps they figured that the clock and illuminated vertical sign have been associated with the New Amsterdam for so long now (at least back to the mid-30’s, no?) and fit in better with the current environment of 42nd Street. The folks who run the New Victory across the street did a wonderful job of recreating the original 1900 entrance while incorporating appropriate modern-day signage. Disney should have taken a cue from them.
Here’s that picture that I mentioned earlier and a classic from 1958….with EMERGO! Hey, it seemed at times, that all of the theaters on the Deuce had some kind of audience interaction. j
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Tallulah played here on showcase in 1965.
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Restoration information & photos:
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New Amsterdam Theatre circa 1980's
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saps,
I guess in order to get more 42nd St-ish type fare like Columbia’s 1966 Matt Helm flic, Murderer’s Row and The Professionals (seen in the front of Marc Eliot’s book Down 42nd Street), they had to book Columbia’s ‘Roz & Hayley as nuns’ tripe.
The programming of Out of the Past & Tension at Table Rock was what made 42nd special to me. And those double features were the ones not advertised in the papers, so it was a treat to come up from the subway and scan the marquees. Jerry
Rosalind Russell (as a nun) Hayley Mills on 42nd Street! I guess the times did change after 1966.
Here is a 1966 shot of the New Amsterdam and a partial view of some of the other theaters on The Deuce. Note the COOLED BY REFRIGERATION sign under the marquee. And CONTINUOUS to 4 AM above it. Grant’s bar & Nedicks to the left.
I won the item on ebay and will be loaded it on to my website soon. Here’s the temporary link:
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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.
Thanks, Gerald but as a kid I was given subscriptions to Cue as a Christmas gift by a neighbor. I still had to call each theater to get the programming. And with one phone line at the theater (before recorded messages), this took a while. The New Amsterdam, Lyric may have been listed but definitely not the Empire, Victory, Anco.
I still may try to hunt down Cue archives for other theaters. Thanks.
Jerry Kovar: Perhaps Cue Magazine listed them if it was around then. You might be able to find copies from that era at a library. Just a suggestion.
That’s funny, Warren. How did Jane Eyre ever make it to The Deuce? I’m surprised they didn’t pair the East Side Kids with Career Girl.
I’m still looking for booking information of the 42nd St theaters in the 50s-60s. Newspapers did list some of the New Amsterdam-Lyric-Harris-Selwyn programming but not the others. If anyone can help, please let me know.
Since its magnificent restoration, I’ve brought folks here three times to see “The Lion King.” It is truly a theatre of orgasmic beauty. I’m not from New York but I saw a movie here once upon a time and didn’t register any reaction then.
sorry, corrected link:
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