This closing was a shock…Remember seeing Last Picture Show the opening attraction here in a crowded Saturday afternoon show…also over the years Images & The Three Musketeers (back to back in both screens), The Last Detail, then as the Gemini Buddy Holly Story, Midnight Express, Air America, Total Recall
The marquees when it was the Columbia and Gemini were quite primitive and they were always trying to wedge on coming attractions…the poster cases were often filled with homestyle posters rather than the studios 4 sheets but this was a reliable house with mostly Columbia, then later Universal, Fox and Warner product with the odd indy as filler
Was never a fan of United Artists as opposed to the local chains Rugoff and Walter Reade…they never felt as sophisticated but am genuinely sad to see another Upper East Side haunt of my youth going
Vivid memories of this as a single screen with How the West Was Won in Cinerama, Cat Ballou, Major Dundee in the 60’s then of the twin with both the Orpheum and Cine providing good old school movie going experiences…Among the picture I saw in the Orpheum – See No Evil (after its Music Hall run), Ryan’s Daughter (after the Ziegfeld), French Connection (at least 4 times), The Anderson Tapes…then much later The Abyss (in 70 MM), Farewell to the King, U2 Rattle and Hum, Lethal Weapon 2…At the Cine – Valachi Papers with Charles Bronson, Johnny Handsome, License to Kill
The Loews theatres were in their day at different times Columbia, Paramount, Warner Bros and Universal showcase houses with some Fox product in the 80s and 90s
Trailer kiosks were visible from the mid 70s onwards in my memory on Broadway and the Deuce…concur with NYer about the ones at the Warner/Penthouse/Cinerama, DeMille, Criterion, Forum, Movieland and National…they were cheap and cheerful
If Cablevision is looking to sell off Clearview, our concerns should also range to the number of small community cinemas (lots of ex UA houses in there) that could be endangered too (Manhasset, Mt Kisco etc)
The Ziegfeld should be landmarked for purpose only but I like the idea of Disney buying it!
The reality is that Manhattan is badly underscreened and needs a couple of modern plexes like the ArcLight.
I grew up on the UES in the 60’s and 70’s in a lot of now defunct houses – the Tower East, Plaza, 68th St Playhouse, Fine Arts…and when we needed to cross town or head downtown the Symphony, Thalia, Regency, Lincoln Art, Embassy 72nd and 8th St Playhouse
This is a handy neighbourhood quad useful for local residents and conventioneers who don’t want to trek to the nearby Champs Elysees…to my mind UGC cinemas are slightly better run than Gaumont
This was an art house for maybe its first year…Then it went mainstream UA showing mostly United Artists product on showcase with a smattering of pictures from other studios…It was more of an art house under City
Saw Steppenwolf, The Return of the Pink Panther, Moonstruck here…probably a couple of other pictures
Distinctive also because its housed in the famous Drugstore Champs Elysees – combination drugstore bookstore grocery (keep in mind very little open in Paris for many many years late night or on Sunday) and American style restaurant
Through its first incarnations a lot of really distinctive product in first run came through these screens…going back into the 60s remember small ads even in the International Herald Tribune indicating this was the Paris equivalent of say Cinema I in NYC…
Saw Chaplin Modern Times New Year’s Eve 71 or 72 here…Name of the Rose in 86…
Current programming is nowhere in the same league a mix of arthouse and poor relation first run
Had the joy and honour of working at the Grand Hotel, two blocks from here 2006-2008…At this point this is the slightly poor relation of the three Gaumont theatres in the neighborhood…serviceable but without the modern functionality of the Premier across the way and the glamour of the old Paramount Opera now Gaumont Capucines
Friendly staff that would gladly just sell me a box of popcorn when I didn’t have time for a film…saw mostly middle of the road French product here
I moved back to the States from Asia in 1987 and spent several months in Southern California…Never having experienced an American multiplex I have to day I was wowed at the time…clean organized with a good mix of screens and product…Saw Wall Street and the great John Boorman picture Hope and Glory and a bit of a Spike Lee picture here
From a bookings point of view, the theatre seemed to pick up a lot of small stuff that was here for a week to satisfy distributor’s expectations…sort of the penalty for having 14 screens…today it’s big releases on 3-4 screens so a lot less product filling up the marquee
Downtown Philadelphia in the 60s had to have been a vibrant moviegoing place…By the time I got there in the mid 70s the Goldman was twinned (and atrociously)…the Studio was showing Deep Throat and the Mark 1 – a great screen in the basement of the Holiday Inn on Market Street was on dollar shows
Saw Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream in the larger of these screens in 2007…tight grading of the seats but a nice small town French art house experience…the great thing about France is that smaller cities – Cannes has a slightly different profile because of its connection to the film world – will support art house programming and community cinemas
I was living abroad when this was triplexed into the Mark 1,2,3…Was the first booking as a triplex the move over of Apocalypse Now in 1979 from the Ziegfeld. Wouldn’t that have been great and appropriate in the original DeMille.
I can testify to Walking Tall having played everywhere before NYC. My memory of it was at the Gateway in Ft. Lauderdale on a very long first run. The Cinerama Releasing Corporation ads (their product was mostly showcased at RKO’s – in Manhattan at the 86th St, 59th St and Cinerama) were the pokiest slimmest in memory…
I was living abroad when this was triplexed into the Mark 1,2,3…Was the first booking as a triplex the move over of Apocalypse Now in 1979 from the Ziegfeld. Wouldn’t that have been great and appropriate in the original DeMille.
I can testify to Walking Tall having played everywhere before NYC. My memory of it was at the Gateway in Ft. Lauderdale on a very long first run. The Cinerama Releasing Corporation ads (their product was mostly showcased at RKO’s – in Manhattan at the 86th St, 59th St and Cinerama) were the pokiest slimmest in memory…
This theatre was open in the first half of 1979 when I lived in Brussels showing 2nd run Fox product e.g. An Unmarried Woman, Mel Brooks' Silent Movie…It was a the back end of a good street tipping into a rougher area…A small old house it had the kind of character that Eddy Mitchell sang about in La Derniere Seance
Brussels that year was a fun place to see movies with shows from 11am onwards throughout the day at the Leroy, Vendome, Avenue,Capitole and Acropole all bunched up around the Avenue Louise
This was bound to happen…Single screen theatres aren’t in AMC’s DNA…Even though I haven’t lived in the area for many many years, I remember this screen vividly from my youth as per my previous post. You would have to believe that the Upper East Side can support a properly booked large single screen theatre with a mix of mainstream and arthouse programming…let’s hope Regal or City step in
Without dating myself, the great thing about entertainment concepts is that good ideas never go out of style and do come around again…My dad Alan Lewis one of the great New York restaurant operators from the 50’s with Restaurant Associates to Windows and the Rainbow Room developed a car themed restaurant in the General Motors building based on the Pub Renault in Paris called the Autopub…the space is now the Apple Store…the rooms were connected car themed rooms including a “drive-in movie” where classics were screened with food service – saw Pal Joey there, the Marx Bros (for the nth time) and quite a few others
Good luck with your new venture. I have fond memories of DC from the mid 90s and have to believe that it is a market with potential now that the Dupont (5 tiny rooms that were always full), Key, Biograph, the “hainous” Janus with the pillar down the middle, the discounted Foundry are gone…While the West End is not the easiest location, it is a walkable distance from both Georgetown and Dupont…Now all you need is distributors to play ball, and the engagement of film clubs (another thing that was special about DC)
It’s great to see cinemas come back!
I was there opening day at the Rex in Kuala Lumpur! A great date movie of its time that still stand up well. Amazing that it only cost $19 million – it’s all on the screen…and an amazing Hollywood decision to replace Eric Stoltz with Michael J. Fox …Skipped Number 2 but Number 3 actually decent
Saturday night 10:30 pm show at the UA Rivoli in New York. A great great full house crowd. As good as The Godfather at Loews Tower East on opening Saturday morning.
Forgive me for going slightly off topic on this occasion, the great thing about France is that even smaller and medium sized cities can support an art house multiplex…the down side is the gradual infiltration of Subway sandwiches
This closing was a shock…Remember seeing Last Picture Show the opening attraction here in a crowded Saturday afternoon show…also over the years Images & The Three Musketeers (back to back in both screens), The Last Detail, then as the Gemini Buddy Holly Story, Midnight Express, Air America, Total Recall
The marquees when it was the Columbia and Gemini were quite primitive and they were always trying to wedge on coming attractions…the poster cases were often filled with homestyle posters rather than the studios 4 sheets but this was a reliable house with mostly Columbia, then later Universal, Fox and Warner product with the odd indy as filler
Was never a fan of United Artists as opposed to the local chains Rugoff and Walter Reade…they never felt as sophisticated but am genuinely sad to see another Upper East Side haunt of my youth going
Vivid memories of this as a single screen with How the West Was Won in Cinerama, Cat Ballou, Major Dundee in the 60’s then of the twin with both the Orpheum and Cine providing good old school movie going experiences…Among the picture I saw in the Orpheum – See No Evil (after its Music Hall run), Ryan’s Daughter (after the Ziegfeld), French Connection (at least 4 times), The Anderson Tapes…then much later The Abyss (in 70 MM), Farewell to the King, U2 Rattle and Hum, Lethal Weapon 2…At the Cine – Valachi Papers with Charles Bronson, Johnny Handsome, License to Kill
The Loews theatres were in their day at different times Columbia, Paramount, Warner Bros and Universal showcase houses with some Fox product in the 80s and 90s
Trailer kiosks were visible from the mid 70s onwards in my memory on Broadway and the Deuce…concur with NYer about the ones at the Warner/Penthouse/Cinerama, DeMille, Criterion, Forum, Movieland and National…they were cheap and cheerful
If Cablevision is looking to sell off Clearview, our concerns should also range to the number of small community cinemas (lots of ex UA houses in there) that could be endangered too (Manhasset, Mt Kisco etc)
The Ziegfeld should be landmarked for purpose only but I like the idea of Disney buying it!
The reality is that Manhattan is badly underscreened and needs a couple of modern plexes like the ArcLight.
I grew up on the UES in the 60’s and 70’s in a lot of now defunct houses – the Tower East, Plaza, 68th St Playhouse, Fine Arts…and when we needed to cross town or head downtown the Symphony, Thalia, Regency, Lincoln Art, Embassy 72nd and 8th St Playhouse
Shame…one more Upper East Side theatre goes dark…have to like their mostly art house programming for the last few years…but a hard theatre to twin
This is a handy neighbourhood quad useful for local residents and conventioneers who don’t want to trek to the nearby Champs Elysees…to my mind UGC cinemas are slightly better run than Gaumont
This is a shame. When I lived in the DC area saw Nobody’s Fool with my wife who lost an earring here.
With a ton of AMC operated screens in the area, this should have been a no-brainer as an art house
This was an art house for maybe its first year…Then it went mainstream UA showing mostly United Artists product on showcase with a smattering of pictures from other studios…It was more of an art house under City
Saw Steppenwolf, The Return of the Pink Panther, Moonstruck here…probably a couple of other pictures
Remember the ad vividly
Love the very very literal translation from English to Quebecois French
Distinctive also because its housed in the famous Drugstore Champs Elysees – combination drugstore bookstore grocery (keep in mind very little open in Paris for many many years late night or on Sunday) and American style restaurant
Through its first incarnations a lot of really distinctive product in first run came through these screens…going back into the 60s remember small ads even in the International Herald Tribune indicating this was the Paris equivalent of say Cinema I in NYC… Saw Chaplin Modern Times New Year’s Eve 71 or 72 here…Name of the Rose in 86… Current programming is nowhere in the same league a mix of arthouse and poor relation first run
Had the joy and honour of working at the Grand Hotel, two blocks from here 2006-2008…At this point this is the slightly poor relation of the three Gaumont theatres in the neighborhood…serviceable but without the modern functionality of the Premier across the way and the glamour of the old Paramount Opera now Gaumont Capucines
Friendly staff that would gladly just sell me a box of popcorn when I didn’t have time for a film…saw mostly middle of the road French product here
I remember this very well in various configurations in the 70’s to as late of the early 80’s
Saw L'aventure c'est l'aventure and Tootsie here
I moved back to the States from Asia in 1987 and spent several months in Southern California…Never having experienced an American multiplex I have to day I was wowed at the time…clean organized with a good mix of screens and product…Saw Wall Street and the great John Boorman picture Hope and Glory and a bit of a Spike Lee picture here
From a bookings point of view, the theatre seemed to pick up a lot of small stuff that was here for a week to satisfy distributor’s expectations…sort of the penalty for having 14 screens…today it’s big releases on 3-4 screens so a lot less product filling up the marquee
Downtown Philadelphia in the 60s had to have been a vibrant moviegoing place…By the time I got there in the mid 70s the Goldman was twinned (and atrociously)…the Studio was showing Deep Throat and the Mark 1 – a great screen in the basement of the Holiday Inn on Market Street was on dollar shows
Saw Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream in the larger of these screens in 2007…tight grading of the seats but a nice small town French art house experience…the great thing about France is that smaller cities – Cannes has a slightly different profile because of its connection to the film world – will support art house programming and community cinemas
I was living abroad when this was triplexed into the Mark 1,2,3…Was the first booking as a triplex the move over of Apocalypse Now in 1979 from the Ziegfeld. Wouldn’t that have been great and appropriate in the original DeMille.
I can testify to Walking Tall having played everywhere before NYC. My memory of it was at the Gateway in Ft. Lauderdale on a very long first run. The Cinerama Releasing Corporation ads (their product was mostly showcased at RKO’s – in Manhattan at the 86th St, 59th St and Cinerama) were the pokiest slimmest in memory…
I was living abroad when this was triplexed into the Mark 1,2,3…Was the first booking as a triplex the move over of Apocalypse Now in 1979 from the Ziegfeld. Wouldn’t that have been great and appropriate in the original DeMille.
I can testify to Walking Tall having played everywhere before NYC. My memory of it was at the Gateway in Ft. Lauderdale on a very long first run. The Cinerama Releasing Corporation ads (their product was mostly showcased at RKO’s – in Manhattan at the 86th St, 59th St and Cinerama) were the pokiest slimmest in memory…
This theatre was open in the first half of 1979 when I lived in Brussels showing 2nd run Fox product e.g. An Unmarried Woman, Mel Brooks' Silent Movie…It was a the back end of a good street tipping into a rougher area…A small old house it had the kind of character that Eddy Mitchell sang about in La Derniere Seance
Brussels that year was a fun place to see movies with shows from 11am onwards throughout the day at the Leroy, Vendome, Avenue,Capitole and Acropole all bunched up around the Avenue Louise
This was bound to happen…Single screen theatres aren’t in AMC’s DNA…Even though I haven’t lived in the area for many many years, I remember this screen vividly from my youth as per my previous post. You would have to believe that the Upper East Side can support a properly booked large single screen theatre with a mix of mainstream and arthouse programming…let’s hope Regal or City step in
Without dating myself, the great thing about entertainment concepts is that good ideas never go out of style and do come around again…My dad Alan Lewis one of the great New York restaurant operators from the 50’s with Restaurant Associates to Windows and the Rainbow Room developed a car themed restaurant in the General Motors building based on the Pub Renault in Paris called the Autopub…the space is now the Apple Store…the rooms were connected car themed rooms including a “drive-in movie” where classics were screened with food service – saw Pal Joey there, the Marx Bros (for the nth time) and quite a few others
Good luck with your new venture. I have fond memories of DC from the mid 90s and have to believe that it is a market with potential now that the Dupont (5 tiny rooms that were always full), Key, Biograph, the “hainous” Janus with the pillar down the middle, the discounted Foundry are gone…While the West End is not the easiest location, it is a walkable distance from both Georgetown and Dupont…Now all you need is distributors to play ball, and the engagement of film clubs (another thing that was special about DC)
It’s great to see cinemas come back!
I was there opening day at the Rex in Kuala Lumpur! A great date movie of its time that still stand up well. Amazing that it only cost $19 million – it’s all on the screen…and an amazing Hollywood decision to replace Eric Stoltz with Michael J. Fox …Skipped Number 2 but Number 3 actually decent
Saturday night 10:30 pm show at the UA Rivoli in New York. A great great full house crowd. As good as The Godfather at Loews Tower East on opening Saturday morning.
Forgive me for going slightly off topic on this occasion, the great thing about France is that even smaller and medium sized cities can support an art house multiplex…the down side is the gradual infiltration of Subway sandwiches