This was my neighborhood supermarket when I first moved to NYC; I never would have guessed the building which houses it was once a movie theatre. Thanks to everyone for your memories and the information you posted, and thanks to you, Warren and Ed, for the photos.
Guess this is one of many demarcation points of film nerdom (and it’s not remotely close to being a truly useful exercise), but does anyone else, after certain, presumably beloved theatres close, on occasion wonder or imagine what new releases would have been booked into them? (i.e., it doesn’t seem a stretch for me to conceive, for example, ‘The Constant Gardener’ having been booked into the Beekman… )
Pest control notices = proof that the ‘end’ for the Beekman and the other buildings on its block is near; I’d guess demolition is likely to begin sometime between mid-October to early November.
When the Metro first re-opened, one of the selling points of the management of the theatre by Peter Elson were his ‘connections’ within the film exhibition industry. Question is, what kind of ‘connections’ does Elson have? Just look at some of the highlights of the current slate of art-house films currently in exhibition around the city: ‘The Aristocrats’, ‘Broken Flowers’, ‘The Constant Gardener’, ‘Grizzly Man’, ‘Junebug’, ‘Me and You and Everyone We Know’, and ‘2046’; if Elson truly had meaningful contacts of note, wouldn’t he have been able to book at least one of those films into the Metro?
Isn’t it – hasn’t it long been the time – to tear down the Plaza Theater? It was once worth saving, but in its current, ruinous (and long-deteriorating) state, it’s become a ruin with little of note that could be (and/or, logically, should be) salvaged. If the audience is there to support it, the wisest plan would be to build a new multiplex on the land.
The a**clowns at Reading/City Cinemas also still had listed on their website, TWO YEARS after they were demolished and replaced by the NYU Outpatient Cancer Center, the Murray Hill Cinemas as one of their properties.
Post a query on this site and within a couple of hours or 24 hours and beyond, plenty of helpful individuals answer your questions and provide you with the information you’re seeking – remarkable, but certainly not a surprise. Thanks to everyone for your responses :–)
Pardon me for being of little faith, but as if the Duane Reade people are going to preserve anything remotely hinting at what formerly occupied that space…
‘The Baxter’, the IFC Films release booked exclusively into 47 Clearview Cinemas properties, including the Ziegfeld, experienced a near-total flameout this past weekend, grossing an estimated $37,708 for a per-screen average of $802. Almost needless to say, I think Clearview overestimated what they had on their hands, especially with ‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin’ and ‘Wedding Crashers’ as competition.
This theatre’s name – as detailed on the Beekman’s page on this site – has formally been changed to Beekman One & Two; it’s also, as noted above and, again on the Beekman’s page, now under the operation of Clearview Cinemas.
The then-Baronet and Coronet suffered a minor fire on or around July 28, 1995 (its offering at the time was or was to have been ‘Waterworld’, which was booked in both auditoriums, but was instead moved to the First & 62nd Street Cinemas), reopening that August 11th with one of its two offerings being the Michelle Pfeiffer flick ‘Dangerous Minds.’
More about the Nokia Theatre, from the venue’s website. What’s below is fairly redundant in comparison to the Billboard.com piece, but it does add a few new details and some additional information…
Nokia Theatre Times Square will bring entertainment’s hottest performers to New York’s most famous destination when the new 2100-capacity concert venue, developed and operated by AEG LIVE, officially opens this September. Nokia Theatre Times Square, located at 1515 Broadway, the corner of Broadway and 44th Street in the Viacom/MTV building, will be an innovative, multi-use theater that can be transformed to accommodate a wide array of events including concerts, live television and web broadcasts, live recordings, award shows and cocktail receptions. Currently undergoing a $21 million renovation in the former Loews Astor Plaza movie theatre, the theatre will have a capacity that ranges from 1500 â€" 2100 depending on the event. Tickets for upcoming shows at Nokia Theatre Times Square will be available at www.nokiatheatrenyc.com, through Ticketmaster at www.ticketmaster.com or by phone at (212) 307-7171.
“As I consider myself a ‘programmer’ at heart, it’s hard to get excited about any venue, however, that all changed when I stood on the new stage at Nokia Theatre Times Square,” said Randy Phillips, President & CEO, AEG LIVE. “Our team of ‘industry experts’ has created a very special, unique, spectacular theatre and environment that the artists will clearly appreciate and fall in love with. It is truly the perfect marriage of brilliant talent, incredibly clear and balanced acoustics and unparalleled sightlines blended together in a completely consumer friendly and interactive environment at the “World’s best known address.”
David Rockwell, the award winning architect and designer, and the Rockwell Group are the architects and designers of Nokia Theatre Times Square. It is a theatre that was designed to be user-friendly and give both the fans and artists an overall superior event and concert experience. The auditorium will feature two VIP mezzanines with lounge seating, a state of the art in-house lighting system and an in-house sound system by JBL. Backstage there will be luxury dressing room suites with full bathrooms including showers, flat-screen TV’s and wireless Internet capabilities for band and crew. There will also be a Green room that will be able to seat 30 band, crew and VIP’s, a warming pantry that will tailor to the artists specific catering and cooking needs.
The Nokia Theatre Times Square marquee is an 85 foot long LED, high definition screen, capable of displaying both live and digital video. It is one of the largest marquees on Broadway, directly connected to the MTV marquee and is manufactured by Mitsubishi. It will have interactive text messaging capabilities with the fans and live events will be able to be broadcast live from the stage directly to the marquee in real time. Distributed throughout the venue will be five media panels that will terminate at the marquee, allowing electronic media outlets to plug directly into the marquee to access live footage from inside the theatre. The theatre is also wired directly to the MTV studios.
Included in the theatre will be the Nokia Lounge which will provide a relaxing atmosphere where guests and fans will have the opportunity to charge their wireless phones, get hands-on experience with new Nokia products and services, download mobile content like games, videos and ring tones and enter promotions among other activities. In addition, Studio Red, a division of Rockwell Group, have created a three dimensional connection between great entertainment and the Nokia Mobile experience with the Nokia Lounge, Vision Wall and equalizer.
The Nokia Theatre Times Square is a further expansion of the existing relationship between Nokia and AEG. The partnership already encompasses Nokia Theatre Los Angeles, a recently announced 7,000-seat theater in an AEG -developed sports & entertainment district in downtown Los Angeles, Club Nokia a 2,500 concert venue, also in the district and Nokia Theatre at Grand Prairie (Texas), a 6,000 seat theatre.
Nokia Theatre Times Square To Open In Sept.
By Ray Waddell, Nashville
The 2,100-capacity Nokia Theatre Times Square, AEG’s newest concert venue, will open in September. Tickets for many shows are already set to go on sale Aug. 12.
The venue is being developed and operated by AEG subsidiary AEG Live, who spent nearly $21 million renovating the old Loews Theatre at 1515 Broadway in Times Square.
The debut lineup includes Social Distortion (Oct. 1-5), Nickel Creek (Oct. 7), Steve Winwood (Oct. 10), Danzig (Oct. 17), Norm MacDonald (Oct. 20), Les Claypool (Oct. 21), Rusted Root (Oct. 22), Slipknot (Oct. 30-Nov. 1), Hanson (Nov. 2), Switchfoot (Nov. 3), Simple Plan (Nov. 8-9), Bauhaus (Nov. 11-12), Pat Green/Dierks Bentley/Cross Canadian Ragweed (Nov. 14), Coheed and Cambria (Nov. 16-17), Guster (Nov. 18-19), the Meters (Nov. 25), Donovan (Dec. 1), Rick Springfield (Dec. 2), and Brad Paisley with Sara Evans and Sugarland (Dec. 7).
In an earlier interview, AEG CEO Tim Leiweke told Billboard.biz building such theaters was a high priority “simply because if you look at the music business, there aren’t a lot of new artists that can fill up an arena. Realistically, some of the best music today is [by] people like Norah Jones or Alicia Keys that are more suited for the intimacy of a 6,000- to 7,000-seat theater. So we are clearly focused on trying to build these, and that’s going to continue to be a high priority for our company.”
Designer David Rockwell and the Rockwell Group are the architects and designers of Nokia Theatre Times Square. The auditorium will feature two VIP mezzanines with lounge seating, a state of the art in-house lighting system and an in-house sound system by JBL. Backstage there will be luxury dressing room suites with full bathrooms including showers, flat-screen TV’s and wireless Internet capabilities for band and crew. There will also be a green room that will be able to seat 30 band, crew and VIP’s, a warming pantry that will tailor to the artists specific catering and cooking needs.
The Nokia Theatre Times Square marquee is an 85 foot long LED, high definition screen, capable of displaying both live and digital video. It is one of the largest marquees on Broadway, directly connected to the MTV marquee and is manufactured by Mitsubishi. It will have interactive text messaging capabilities with the fans and live events will be able to be broadcast live from the stage directly to the marquee in real time.
Distributed throughout the venue will be five media panels that will terminate at the marquee, allowing electronic media outlets to plug directly into the marquee to access live footage from inside the theatre. The theatre is also wired directly to the MTV studios.
The Nokia Theatre Times Square is a further expansion of the existing relationship between Nokia and AEG. The partnership already encompasses Nokia Theatre Los Angeles, a recently announced 7,000-seat theater in an AEG -developed sports & entertainment district in downtown Los Angeles, Club Nokia a 2,500 concert venue, also in the district on downtown L.A., and Nokia Theatre at Grand Prairie (Texas), a 6,000 seat theatre.
Word has it that the Beverly Center Cinemas will be closing sometime within the next 6-12 months and replaced by a location of the Loehmann’s clothing store chain.
Reading/City Cinemas is again experimenting with double-running art house films at the Angelika and the Village East, with films opening first at the Angelika and later adding a run at the Village East, this time with ‘9 Songs’ and ‘March of the Penguins’. This type of booking arrangement was last done during a short time in the fall of ‘03; will it be temporary again or is this now a long-term change? Time, I suppose, will tell…
From Lou Lumenick’s NY Post this past January 6th, primarily discussing the closure threat looming over the Cinema 1-2-3:
“Miramax honcho Harvey Weinstein said he will fight to keep the theaters open.
“‘I spent my formative years as a teenager haunting these movie theaters (the Beekman and the Cinema 1-2-3),” Weinstein told The Post from Paris, where he was attending the European premiere of 'The Aviator.’
“‘I used to take the train from my home in Flushing when movies like 'Raging Bull,’ ‘Rocky,’ and ‘Midnight Cowboy’ would open exclusively at the Cinema 1.'
“Weinstein vowed to do ‘whatever I have to do, including financially’ to save the endangered theaters.”
So… what exactly happened, Harvey to your vow to do “whatever I have to do, including financially” to save, for immediate starters, the Beekman? Sure, you’ve been occupied with negotiating the terms of your and your brother Bob’s divorce from Disney and laying the groundwork for your new film company, but the same was true in January, when the danger the Beekman was facing became public news. You’re one of the few New Yorkers who has the financial clout AND the name which could have ensured the Beekman being saved and your words at the time left little room for interpretation… so what’s the story, Harvey?
…and a tip of the hat to you, Phantom, for posting all those great photos of Bay Ridge theatres (accompanied by brief histories) on your blog, present – and, all too sadly – mostly past.
This was my neighborhood supermarket when I first moved to NYC; I never would have guessed the building which houses it was once a movie theatre. Thanks to everyone for your memories and the information you posted, and thanks to you, Warren and Ed, for the photos.
Maybe I’m wrong, but shouldn’t they have been, or weren’t the above comments supposed to have been posted on another part of this site?
Guess this is one of many demarcation points of film nerdom (and it’s not remotely close to being a truly useful exercise), but does anyone else, after certain, presumably beloved theatres close, on occasion wonder or imagine what new releases would have been booked into them? (i.e., it doesn’t seem a stretch for me to conceive, for example, ‘The Constant Gardener’ having been booked into the Beekman… )
Pest control notices = proof that the ‘end’ for the Beekman and the other buildings on its block is near; I’d guess demolition is likely to begin sometime between mid-October to early November.
What’s the layout of the three screens at the Kent?
When the Metro first re-opened, one of the selling points of the management of the theatre by Peter Elson were his ‘connections’ within the film exhibition industry. Question is, what kind of ‘connections’ does Elson have? Just look at some of the highlights of the current slate of art-house films currently in exhibition around the city: ‘The Aristocrats’, ‘Broken Flowers’, ‘The Constant Gardener’, ‘Grizzly Man’, ‘Junebug’, ‘Me and You and Everyone We Know’, and ‘2046’; if Elson truly had meaningful contacts of note, wouldn’t he have been able to book at least one of those films into the Metro?
…all for a social center that could have opened in another vacant building. A shame, indeed…
I can’t speak as to whether New York Life still owns the Meadows, but can say that New York Life does still exist.
Isn’t it – hasn’t it long been the time – to tear down the Plaza Theater? It was once worth saving, but in its current, ruinous (and long-deteriorating) state, it’s become a ruin with little of note that could be (and/or, logically, should be) salvaged. If the audience is there to support it, the wisest plan would be to build a new multiplex on the land.
The a**clowns at Reading/City Cinemas also still had listed on their website, TWO YEARS after they were demolished and replaced by the NYU Outpatient Cancer Center, the Murray Hill Cinemas as one of their properties.
Post a query on this site and within a couple of hours or 24 hours and beyond, plenty of helpful individuals answer your questions and provide you with the information you’re seeking – remarkable, but certainly not a surprise. Thanks to everyone for your responses :–)
Did the auditorium retain its original appearance until the 1999 closing?
The Loews State was closed for quite a few days after 9/11, probably due, in no small part, to those exact concerns.
Pardon me for being of little faith, but as if the Duane Reade people are going to preserve anything remotely hinting at what formerly occupied that space…
‘The Baxter’, the IFC Films release booked exclusively into 47 Clearview Cinemas properties, including the Ziegfeld, experienced a near-total flameout this past weekend, grossing an estimated $37,708 for a per-screen average of $802. Almost needless to say, I think Clearview overestimated what they had on their hands, especially with ‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin’ and ‘Wedding Crashers’ as competition.
This theatre’s name – as detailed on the Beekman’s page on this site – has formally been changed to Beekman One & Two; it’s also, as noted above and, again on the Beekman’s page, now under the operation of Clearview Cinemas.
The then-Baronet and Coronet suffered a minor fire on or around July 28, 1995 (its offering at the time was or was to have been ‘Waterworld’, which was booked in both auditoriums, but was instead moved to the First & 62nd Street Cinemas), reopening that August 11th with one of its two offerings being the Michelle Pfeiffer flick ‘Dangerous Minds.’
Two Beekman tribute sites, posted and created by the same individual and both worth visiting:
View link
View link
More about the Nokia Theatre, from the venue’s website. What’s below is fairly redundant in comparison to the Billboard.com piece, but it does add a few new details and some additional information…
Nokia Theatre Times Square will bring entertainment’s hottest performers to New York’s most famous destination when the new 2100-capacity concert venue, developed and operated by AEG LIVE, officially opens this September. Nokia Theatre Times Square, located at 1515 Broadway, the corner of Broadway and 44th Street in the Viacom/MTV building, will be an innovative, multi-use theater that can be transformed to accommodate a wide array of events including concerts, live television and web broadcasts, live recordings, award shows and cocktail receptions. Currently undergoing a $21 million renovation in the former Loews Astor Plaza movie theatre, the theatre will have a capacity that ranges from 1500 â€" 2100 depending on the event. Tickets for upcoming shows at Nokia Theatre Times Square will be available at www.nokiatheatrenyc.com, through Ticketmaster at www.ticketmaster.com or by phone at (212) 307-7171.
“As I consider myself a ‘programmer’ at heart, it’s hard to get excited about any venue, however, that all changed when I stood on the new stage at Nokia Theatre Times Square,” said Randy Phillips, President & CEO, AEG LIVE. “Our team of ‘industry experts’ has created a very special, unique, spectacular theatre and environment that the artists will clearly appreciate and fall in love with. It is truly the perfect marriage of brilliant talent, incredibly clear and balanced acoustics and unparalleled sightlines blended together in a completely consumer friendly and interactive environment at the “World’s best known address.”
David Rockwell, the award winning architect and designer, and the Rockwell Group are the architects and designers of Nokia Theatre Times Square. It is a theatre that was designed to be user-friendly and give both the fans and artists an overall superior event and concert experience. The auditorium will feature two VIP mezzanines with lounge seating, a state of the art in-house lighting system and an in-house sound system by JBL. Backstage there will be luxury dressing room suites with full bathrooms including showers, flat-screen TV’s and wireless Internet capabilities for band and crew. There will also be a Green room that will be able to seat 30 band, crew and VIP’s, a warming pantry that will tailor to the artists specific catering and cooking needs.
The Nokia Theatre Times Square marquee is an 85 foot long LED, high definition screen, capable of displaying both live and digital video. It is one of the largest marquees on Broadway, directly connected to the MTV marquee and is manufactured by Mitsubishi. It will have interactive text messaging capabilities with the fans and live events will be able to be broadcast live from the stage directly to the marquee in real time. Distributed throughout the venue will be five media panels that will terminate at the marquee, allowing electronic media outlets to plug directly into the marquee to access live footage from inside the theatre. The theatre is also wired directly to the MTV studios.
Included in the theatre will be the Nokia Lounge which will provide a relaxing atmosphere where guests and fans will have the opportunity to charge their wireless phones, get hands-on experience with new Nokia products and services, download mobile content like games, videos and ring tones and enter promotions among other activities. In addition, Studio Red, a division of Rockwell Group, have created a three dimensional connection between great entertainment and the Nokia Mobile experience with the Nokia Lounge, Vision Wall and equalizer.
The Nokia Theatre Times Square is a further expansion of the existing relationship between Nokia and AEG. The partnership already encompasses Nokia Theatre Los Angeles, a recently announced 7,000-seat theater in an AEG -developed sports & entertainment district in downtown Los Angeles, Club Nokia a 2,500 concert venue, also in the district and Nokia Theatre at Grand Prairie (Texas), a 6,000 seat theatre.
From Billboard.com…
Nokia Comes To Broadway
August 03, 2005, 12:00 PM ET
Nokia Theatre Times Square To Open In Sept.
By Ray Waddell, Nashville
The 2,100-capacity Nokia Theatre Times Square, AEG’s newest concert venue, will open in September. Tickets for many shows are already set to go on sale Aug. 12.
The venue is being developed and operated by AEG subsidiary AEG Live, who spent nearly $21 million renovating the old Loews Theatre at 1515 Broadway in Times Square.
The debut lineup includes Social Distortion (Oct. 1-5), Nickel Creek (Oct. 7), Steve Winwood (Oct. 10), Danzig (Oct. 17), Norm MacDonald (Oct. 20), Les Claypool (Oct. 21), Rusted Root (Oct. 22), Slipknot (Oct. 30-Nov. 1), Hanson (Nov. 2), Switchfoot (Nov. 3), Simple Plan (Nov. 8-9), Bauhaus (Nov. 11-12), Pat Green/Dierks Bentley/Cross Canadian Ragweed (Nov. 14), Coheed and Cambria (Nov. 16-17), Guster (Nov. 18-19), the Meters (Nov. 25), Donovan (Dec. 1), Rick Springfield (Dec. 2), and Brad Paisley with Sara Evans and Sugarland (Dec. 7).
In an earlier interview, AEG CEO Tim Leiweke told Billboard.biz building such theaters was a high priority “simply because if you look at the music business, there aren’t a lot of new artists that can fill up an arena. Realistically, some of the best music today is [by] people like Norah Jones or Alicia Keys that are more suited for the intimacy of a 6,000- to 7,000-seat theater. So we are clearly focused on trying to build these, and that’s going to continue to be a high priority for our company.”
Designer David Rockwell and the Rockwell Group are the architects and designers of Nokia Theatre Times Square. The auditorium will feature two VIP mezzanines with lounge seating, a state of the art in-house lighting system and an in-house sound system by JBL. Backstage there will be luxury dressing room suites with full bathrooms including showers, flat-screen TV’s and wireless Internet capabilities for band and crew. There will also be a green room that will be able to seat 30 band, crew and VIP’s, a warming pantry that will tailor to the artists specific catering and cooking needs.
The Nokia Theatre Times Square marquee is an 85 foot long LED, high definition screen, capable of displaying both live and digital video. It is one of the largest marquees on Broadway, directly connected to the MTV marquee and is manufactured by Mitsubishi. It will have interactive text messaging capabilities with the fans and live events will be able to be broadcast live from the stage directly to the marquee in real time.
Distributed throughout the venue will be five media panels that will terminate at the marquee, allowing electronic media outlets to plug directly into the marquee to access live footage from inside the theatre. The theatre is also wired directly to the MTV studios.
The Nokia Theatre Times Square is a further expansion of the existing relationship between Nokia and AEG. The partnership already encompasses Nokia Theatre Los Angeles, a recently announced 7,000-seat theater in an AEG -developed sports & entertainment district in downtown Los Angeles, Club Nokia a 2,500 concert venue, also in the district on downtown L.A., and Nokia Theatre at Grand Prairie (Texas), a 6,000 seat theatre.
Word has it that the Beverly Center Cinemas will be closing sometime within the next 6-12 months and replaced by a location of the Loehmann’s clothing store chain.
Reading/City Cinemas is again experimenting with double-running art house films at the Angelika and the Village East, with films opening first at the Angelika and later adding a run at the Village East, this time with ‘9 Songs’ and ‘March of the Penguins’. This type of booking arrangement was last done during a short time in the fall of ‘03; will it be temporary again or is this now a long-term change? Time, I suppose, will tell…
From Lou Lumenick’s NY Post this past January 6th, primarily discussing the closure threat looming over the Cinema 1-2-3:
“Miramax honcho Harvey Weinstein said he will fight to keep the theaters open.
“‘I spent my formative years as a teenager haunting these movie theaters (the Beekman and the Cinema 1-2-3),” Weinstein told The Post from Paris, where he was attending the European premiere of 'The Aviator.’
“‘I used to take the train from my home in Flushing when movies like 'Raging Bull,’ ‘Rocky,’ and ‘Midnight Cowboy’ would open exclusively at the Cinema 1.'
“Weinstein vowed to do ‘whatever I have to do, including financially’ to save the endangered theaters.”
So… what exactly happened, Harvey to your vow to do “whatever I have to do, including financially” to save, for immediate starters, the Beekman? Sure, you’ve been occupied with negotiating the terms of your and your brother Bob’s divorce from Disney and laying the groundwork for your new film company, but the same was true in January, when the danger the Beekman was facing became public news. You’re one of the few New Yorkers who has the financial clout AND the name which could have ensured the Beekman being saved and your words at the time left little room for interpretation… so what’s the story, Harvey?
…and a tip of the hat to you, Phantom, for posting all those great photos of Bay Ridge theatres (accompanied by brief histories) on your blog, present – and, all too sadly – mostly past.
Thanks for posting your memories of the Jean Renoir, Ray; what was its exact street address?