I can clarify some of this. I built and owned the Pocket Theatre at 100 Third Avenue, an Off Broadway house. Our company, Sans Souci Theatre Corp took over the old Comet Theatre.
At the time, 1962, the Comet occupied the space on Third Avenue, AND the space behind it, now the Classic Stage Co. at 136 East 13th Street. The projectors were in the Third Avenue space and the screen was on the far west wall of the 13th Street space.
We put the wall back up between the two spaces, intending to have 2 Off Broadway Theatres, one on Third Avenue and one on 13th Street.
We didn’t enough money to do both so we ran the Pocket Theatre at 100 Third Avenue and rented out the big space in back to some scenery builders who used the space for a workshop and storage.
The Pocket Theatre had a variety of shows in it over the ten or so years we ran it. “America Hurrah” was the hit that ran there for over two years. John Cage and I produced the first performance of Erik Satie’s “Vexations” there in 1962. You can read about it in Wikipedia.
The history of the two spaces is this. Back before the turn of the last century this area was the German community in New York City. The space in back of 13th Street was an open beer garden, accessed through a bar at 100 Third Avenue. When nickelodeons became popular the owner walled off the beer garden and opened a nickelodeon at 100 Third Avenue. Later as films became more and more popular he took the wall down, roofed over the beer garden and created the odd T shaped movie house. When we took it over it was showing a western and a feature every day, for 25 cents admission.
These owners, the Ansons, from whom we bought the Comet, also owned the Star at 15th Street and Third Avenue. They ran both theatres with the same program. While the Comet showed the western, the Star showed the feature. A “reel boy” ran between the theatres at the break, carrying the western uptown to the Star then bringing the feature down to the Comet.
Mrs. Anson, who was living at 100 Third Avenue when we bought the place, told me this history. Her husband is mentioned in the news articles logged on to the EVGrieve website.
We sold the Pocket Theatre in the early 70s to some shady lads from 42nd street. They, Arista Theaters Inc., closed the Pocket, I took our sign down, they put up theirs, The Jewel.
An error in the above. The box office magazine articles noted above by tinseltoes refer to the Ansons.
I can clarify some of this. I built and owned the Pocket Theatre at 100 Third Avenue, an Off Broadway house. Our company, Sans Souci Theatre Corp took over the old Comet Theatre. At the time, 1962, the Comet occupied the space on Third Avenue, AND the space behind it, now the Classic Stage Co. at 136 East 13th Street. The projectors were in the Third Avenue space and the screen was on the far west wall of the 13th Street space. We put the wall back up between the two spaces, intending to have 2 Off Broadway Theatres, one on Third Avenue and one on 13th Street. We didn’t enough money to do both so we ran the Pocket Theatre at 100 Third Avenue and rented out the big space in back to some scenery builders who used the space for a workshop and storage. The Pocket Theatre had a variety of shows in it over the ten or so years we ran it. “America Hurrah” was the hit that ran there for over two years. John Cage and I produced the first performance of Erik Satie’s “Vexations” there in 1962. You can read about it in Wikipedia.
The history of the two spaces is this. Back before the turn of the last century this area was the German community in New York City. The space in back of 13th Street was an open beer garden, accessed through a bar at 100 Third Avenue. When nickelodeons became popular the owner walled off the beer garden and opened a nickelodeon at 100 Third Avenue. Later as films became more and more popular he took the wall down, roofed over the beer garden and created the odd T shaped movie house. When we took it over it was showing a western and a feature every day, for 25 cents admission. These owners, the Ansons, from whom we bought the Comet, also owned the Star at 15th Street and Third Avenue. They ran both theatres with the same program. While the Comet showed the western, the Star showed the feature. A “reel boy” ran between the theatres at the break, carrying the western uptown to the Star then bringing the feature down to the Comet. Mrs. Anson, who was living at 100 Third Avenue when we bought the place, told me this history. Her husband is mentioned in the news articles logged on to the EVGrieve website. We sold the Pocket Theatre in the early 70s to some shady lads from 42nd street. They, Arista Theaters Inc., closed the Pocket, I took our sign down, they put up theirs, The Jewel.