American Airlines Theatre

The theater has been lovingly restored to it's original luster after many years as a typical 42nd Street grind-house. The original lobby occupied the ground floor of the 5 or 6 story Selwyn building, which collapsed while renovations were being made to the theater in December of 1999 (just days before the huge annual New Years Eve celebration in Times Square -- making cleanup and safety concerns a pressing concern). As I recall the theater from the '70's and '80's, there was a huge boxy marquee that ran the entire width of the Selwyn building... and just to the right of the theater entrance (but still under the marquee), one could grab a quick bite or soft-drink at the VERY greasy-spoon diner called The Grand. On the exposed east-side brick wall of the Selwyn theater could be seen a large but fading mural advertising the pleasures of enjoying a fine movie at one of 42nd Street's many air-conditioned theaters. I have a photo of it somewhere. If I can find it and get a good scan, I'll email it to this site's host.

A former doorman at City Cinemas, who had previously worked at the Selwyn in the late 80s-early 90s, told me that at some point while he worked there they closed the orchestra and made all the customers sit upstairs in the balcony. This was because the rats in the orchestra section were chasing the customers away.

The Selwyn of the 50s-60s usually showed the double features that had previously played at the Lyric. The theater was the first one you approached on the southside of the street going from west to east. It was situated next to the Apollo. The Travel Channel has been playing an hour long program on Times Square this week with shots of the Deuce from the 70s. Jerry 42nd Street Memories

In everyday conversation, do New Yorkers actually call it the 'American Airlines Theatre', or do they still call it the Selwyn?

This theatre I think would be called American Airlines Theatre becauce most New Yorkers (except theatre buffs) have no idea anymore which theatre was which from the movie days.

I think that most of us were unable to distinguish between the various theaters even when they were showing films. Ownership did little to establish identities for the grind houses --- the prospective customer simply walked up the street until they were seduced by a triple feature. I think there were few of us that said "Let's go to the Selwyn."

So people did not typically decide to go to these theatres by seeing them in newspaper listings or ads?

I don't think so --- I know I didn't. I believe that these theaters were not even included in specific movie display ads, and the owners certainly didn't spend money on advertising.

Usually the Lyric & New Amsterdam billings (my time....1950s-early 1970s)would be listed in the newspapers because they were showing 1st run (post-Broadway)films and they would appear in the ad taken out by the films' distributor. The Selwyn would show the same double feature as the Lyric but a week later, as the Harris did after the New Amsterdam ran it. So in theory if you missed a double feature one week, you knew that it would be at the Selwyn. No one would say "Let's go to the Selwyn", it was always "let's go to the Deuce" and most likely you'd end up at the Empire, Anco or Victory which didn't advertise at all and had the most creative re-release double features. Jerry 42nd Street Memories

I find it quite interesting how the front of this theatre just happened to "collapse", and now there is bright neon lights on its front, was the current home of Pax a part of the Selwyn's lobby, and was their just office space in the floors above the original and current entrances?

I just found a beautiful color clip of the Selwyn and entire north side of 42nd Street from 1956 on the gettyimages.com website. The Selwyn is showing (3 Coins in the Fountain & Love is a Many Splendid Thing), Apollo (Naked Night & Divided Heart), Times Square (Best of the Badmen & Badman's Territory), Lyric (Man in the Grey Flannel Suit & Magnificent Roughnecks), Victory (Purple Heart & Guadalcanal Diary). Here's the link http://creative.gettyimages.com/source/Film/filmresultsmain.aspx?source=general&masterID=561-55&brandID=14&detailView=1

Jerry 42nd Street Memories

Casper... The original Selwyn Building -- with theater marquee, entrance and front lobby on the ground floor and offices above -- collapsed completely. I suppose the auditorium itself was not structurally attached to this building in any significant way as there was little if any damage to the theater itself. The building that now serves as entrance, lobby and offices, is entirely new construction built in 2000 - 2001.

I love reading the recollections on this site... particularly of how most of these theaters (save the New Amsterdam and Lyric) did not advertise in newspapers nor did their attractions appear in the "movie times" listings. Ads for individual films would list the theaters -- that is, if the main attraction was still in wide release and running ads. Also, the New York Post had an odd feature called "Movie Clock", if memory serves, that ran separately from their more comprehensive "movie timetable" listings. Most of the theaters listed in this column were Porn houses (the Mayfair and Austin Theaters in Queens, The Globe in the Bronx, etc.), but the 42nd Street grind houses found a home here as well.

But as AndyT accurately portrayed in his post, we'd just hit 42nd and check out the movie titles and those lurid cardboard advertising placards that festooned the area beneath the Marquees as well as the publicity stills and lobby cards displayed behind the glass of the outer foyers looking for something that piqued our interests or fit our moods on a particular day. Didn't matter if you walked in half-way through one of the films... you'd just stay until you caught up to where you came in. On an island void of drive-ins, this is where you'd come to see "The Corpse Grinders" and "Count Dracula and His Vampire Brides" or "That Man Bolt" and "Shaft in Africa" or "The Five Deadly Venoms" and "The Streets of Hong Kong".

Those days are gone forever.

I think that New York Post feature I'm thinking of was called "Neighborhood Movie Clock"...

I was never brave enough to attend a film in any of the 42nd Street grindhouses in their heyday, but I do remember occasionally venturing on that block of 42nd Street and I remember one of those theatres, on the north side of the street, had a snack bar/restaurant that could be accessed by the general public. You did not have to enter the theatre to patronize the snack bar. It was under the marquee.

Anyone know what the theatre was? The snack bar and maybe the theatre was one of the last to stay open if my faulty memory serves me correctly.

Coincidentally enough, hardbop, it was this theatre which had that snack bar - the Grand Luncheonette (one of the symbols of the 'old' Times Square which wrongfully went away) - under its marquee.

From the descriptions in the two previous posts (hardbop and br91975), it seems to me that people might get the mistaken idea that the eatery (at one time, I believe, a "Nedick's") was actually intended primarily for the patrons of the Selwyn, and that pedestrians walking by on 42nd St. could somehow go into the theater to patronize it. (And that theater patrons could somehow go to this snack stand without leaving the theater.)

However, if I am remembering the theater entrance correctly, I would describe the relationship between the theater and the snack stand somewhat differently. Basically, if I recall it correctly, the theater had a very wide entrance that was somewhat "arcade-like," and the "Nedick's" storefront opened up onto this "arcade" instead of directly out onto the street. (My fuzzy recollection is that the doorway to the small office building that was located above the Selwyn's "tunnel lobby" was on the other side of this wide entrance.)

So although a Selwyn patron wouldn't have to go out into the rain, for instance, to patronize this Nedick's, he or she still would have to walk down the long ticket lobby and actually exit the theater -- for good -- past the ticket taker to get to this 42nd St. snack stand. And of course, to a 42nd St. pedestrian, the "Nedick's" would appear to be just another 42nd St. snack stand, although one that happened to open off a wide movie theater entrance instead of directly onto the street.

These very wide "arcade" type entrances (which I've always liked) are, unfortunately, rare in New York City. The New Amsterdam (as a movie theater grind house) had a somewhat similarly wide entrance (but no snack stand that I recall). And there are three or four "older" NYC office buildings that come to mind, that also have something that is somewhat similar. But perhaps the best example along these lines was the old Madison Sq. Garden on Eighth Ave. It's arcade entrance (before you got to the ticket takers) seemed to be a recessed "mini-plaza" with a number of stores / snack stands, etc. opening off of it (at least that's the way it seemed to me as a child).

But getting back to the case of the Selwyn, I think it's more accurate to describe the "snack bar/restaurant" as just another 42nd St. snack stand / hot dog stand / luncheonette(?) -- but one that happened, however, to open up onto a very wide theater entrance instead of directly onto the street.

That sounds right Benjamin. Thanx. It is part of a vanished New York.

I don't recall a snack stand inside any of the entrances. There was a Nedicks next to the New Amsterdam (see the photo I posted under the New Amsterdam earlier this week). The only Nedicks that I recall on the north side was in the subway entrance at 8th ave.

See the video clip of the north side from the mid 50s that I posted earlier Here's the link http://creative.gettyimages.com/source/Film/filmresultsmain.aspx?source=general&masterID=561-55&brandID=14&detailView=1

And yes, Benjamin, the old MSG at 50th & 8th had a Davega Sporting Goods and a Nedick's in the arcade entrance. Jerry

Jerry, thanks for the confirmation and added details about MSG! (I know you're looking for photos of 42nd St.; I'd love to run across a photo of the inside of the MSG "arcade." So far, I've only been able to find photos of the exterior that just give a hint of the aracade.)

Regarding, the photo of the New Amsterdam: if I'm looking at the correct photo on the New Amsterdam page (posted on Sun., 4/17/05), the Nedick's shown is on the southwest corner of 42nd and Seventh Ave., a few doors down from the New Amsterdam.

But there used to be a snack stand that was just "inside" the entrance to a theater on the north side of 42nd St. (This snack stand was on the right side of the entrance.) Whether this was the Selwyn Theater, or another theater, I'm not sure. Also, whether it was a true "Nedick's" -- or a Nedick's-"type" place -- I'm also not sure.

I haven't been able to access your video clip to compare it to what I remember. But I'm guessing that perhaps you just never gave the snack stand a second thought because to you it seemed like just another snack stand on 42nd St. "next to" -- rather than "inside" -- a movie theater entrance? This would certainly be a reasonable perception, since it really WAS just another snack stand on 42nd St. next to a movie theater entrance. The "inside" part, while somewhat unusual was also somewhat subtle -- and perhaps more noticeable to people unfamiliar with 42nd St.

Benjamin,
I have a postcard from the Museum of the City of NY with a 1950 shot of a crowd going into the Garden. Send me your email address and I'll try to get a scanned copy to you.

I just tried the link above to the video clip and it worked. After clicking on the link, it should take you to the getty images website then click on "play clip". It's a great clip (from 8mm in a moving car?) of the entire north side. Jerry

Here's a news story confirming the Grand Luncheonette's location underneath the marquee of and to the right side of the entranceway to the Selwyn: http://www.cnn.com/TRAVEL/NEWS/9801/01/times.square/

(The Nedick's made reference to earlier today was located on the southwest corner of 7th and 42nd, on the spot presently occupied by Champs Sports.)

I wonder if anyone knows of a photo on the Internet that shows Bickford's cafe, next to the Apollo.

Ken

The SELWYN or American Airlines THEATRE is a beautifully created and beautifully restored theatre. The lobby and entrance, site of the collapse, are new. The ill-informed staff there think the theatre used to be the "Sullivan" and when asked will either tell you it's brand new/modern or restored classic; whatever you want to hear. Never mind. Great theatre. The show, THE CONSTANT WIFE, was AAA+. LADIES, tell you a secret: Avoid the long line at the Ladies Room near the Bar. Go downstairs to the big lobby down there -- NO LINE at the downstairs (main) rest room.

Old photo of the Selwyn Theater:
http://web.bvu.edu/faculty/whitlatch/42nd/pictures/selwyn.jpg

Here are some Selwyn images from 1953 & 1954 including 3D on the Deuce: j

http://photobucket.com/albums/a56/42ndStreetMemories/?action=view¤t=42Selwyn1954TheRacers.jpg

http://photobucket.com/albums/a56/42ndStreetMemories/?action=view¤t=42selwyn1953.jpg

http://photobucket.com/albums/a56/42ndStreetMemories/?action=view¤t=42Selwyn19532.jpg

Note that behind the Selwyn marquee is the Apollo showing The Lost One (La Traviata). Opera on 42nd Street!

Sorry, something amiss with my earlier post. Here is the 3rd link. 3D on the Deuce: j

http://photobucket.com/albums/a56/42ndStreetMemories/?action=view¤t=42selwyn1953.jpg

Ken,
If you look at the last image above, you get a partial view of Bickford's. j

If you take a look at the third photo in Jerry's post of July 27th, you can also see a "Soda Fountain" sign for the Grand Luncheonette that was located (as discussed above) under the marquee sharing the 1st floor of the now-collapsed Selwyn building with the theater's outer lobby. The Grand might have operated under a different name at the time this photo was taken.

I recently found the negatives for a series of photos I took on 42nd Street and Times Square in October of '93. I'm going to have them transferred onto disc and will link to them on this site as soon as I can post them on my photobucket account.

You can see 2 color interior photos of this theatre in a decayed state in the Vol. 6, No. 2 issue of 2wice magazine.
There are shots of the torn up seats as well as a Matador outfit hanging in a dressing room photographed by Andrew Moore.
Their website is:www.2wice.org
(Just click on the Glow issue)
In addition there are other photos of the rundown 42nd Street theatres on the photographers website at www.andrew-moore.info
(Click on Times Square 1995-2005 and enjoy!)

As cinema: www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/selwyn.jpg

I read on the internet broadway database (ibdb.com) that the Selwyn began a peculiar and short lived policy in 1950 of presenting a 60 minute play before each showing of their feature film. With an average of 4 to 5 shows a day, that meant some 30 live performances each week! Two of these plays are listed as having been a part of this policy (the site does not detail how often the show was changed): "The Respectable Prostitute" written by Jean Paul Sartre and "Ladies Night in a Turkish Bath". Were there ever two more appropriate titles for live theatrical presentation during the height of the Deuce's grind house days?

Here is the ibdb page for the Selwyn.

"Ladies Night in a Turkish Bath" was the original title of a farce-comedy "Good Night Ladies!" by the then-famous comic playwright Avery Hopwood who was active on the Bway stage in the 1910's era. The play was revived in the 1940s and toured into the 1950s. It could easily have been condensed and presented at the Selwyn in 1950. I saw it in 1952 at the Majestic, Boston.

Here is a photo of the American Airlines Theater.

Here are a few images of the Selwyn I've collected on my photobucket site. They include a couple of exterior shots I took myself back in October '93 plus a few images I've found on the web that I haven't seen previously posted or linked to from this page:

1986 sci-fi horror grind
Matt Weber shot 1980's Grand Luncheonette
Old Selwyn Building & marquee 1993 (damn bus!)
1993 - Cooped up?
1990's Grand Luncheonette
Late 1990's auditorium prior to renovations

If I were a more patient photographer back in 1993, I might have re-taken that shot of the facade after the city bus blocked my view under the marquee. I might have even made sure the composition wasn't so crooked! Oh well. My apologies if any of these images are repeats.

Here are a pair clippings from the Movie Clock sections of the Post in 1980 and 1982 showing that quite a number of the 42nd Street grinders were listed in the papers during this period:

NY Post 12/11/80
NY Post 3/10/82

The Daily News only carried the Cine 42 Twin in its Movie timetable. I even found a few ads from both papers that listed a few Duece theaters under the "Now Playing" banner - the Liberty, New Amsterdam, Times Square and even the Anco - but not the Selwyn, alas.

A pioneer saturation booking from January, 1954 of an Ingrid Bergman-Roberto Rossellini stinker. The nearest it got to a Broadway showcase was at Brandt's Selwyn. The nabe houses were predominantly RKO, Skouras, and Randforce:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/loveingrid.jpg

Warren, the Rossellini film, The Greatest Love (also known as Europe '51) is not the stinker you assert it to be. Many now consider it one of his best works, an essay on the nature of goodness and whether its extremes can become insanity. Martin Scorsese admires this film a great deal, and his 35mm print of it was shown at the New York Film Festival in 1980 as a revival-tribute. Vincent Canby in The New York Times of October 12 that year called it "One of this festival's bravest --maybe even finest-- moments." I attended that showing and the audience reaction was a very good one. I have watched it many times in 16mm and on video and am always moved by this key Italian film of the 1950s and its moving, even mystical, qualities. The film is indeed peculiar, has its detractors, but it has great admirers as well. It was a movie very much ahead of its time and had a great influence, along with Rossellini's Voyage to Italy, another trashed masterpiece, on the French new wave directors. Read Tag Gallagher's volume on Rossellini for an elaborate discourse. My point is a simple one...problematic? Perhaps. A stinker? Absolutely not! Absolutely not!

Here's a great B&W night-time shot of the Selwyn marquee and its neighbors to the west along the north side of the Duece, circa October, 1970.

For good measure, here's one more.

This flickr account's photostream is worth a scroll-through as there are a number of similar photos taken on 42nd Street and the Times Square area (Times Squarea?) from this same time. Thanks, Lost Memory, for pointing this one out to me.

NY Times Sep 27, 1920

"LEAGUE FILM SHOWN IN TWO THEATRES; "Uncle Sam of Freedom Ridge" Seen by Invited Spectators at the Selwyn:

Uncle Sam of Freedom Ridge, a motion picture adaptation of the story of the same name by Margaret Prescott Montague which President Wilson praised as setting forth the ideal of the, League of Nations, was shown last night to invited spectators at the Selwyn Theatre. It was simultaneously exhibited at the Cohan and Harris Theatre".

I was at the IFC last night and as anyone who attends films there knows, they screen a short before most features. Well, last night I was delighted to see a short film about "The Grand Luncheonette" that we were discussing above and that was located under the marquee of the theater. The same family owned or ran the luncheonette and it was there for 58 years before closing in October 1997. Fortunately, the filmmaker received the cooperation of the family that ran the luncheonette and was able to make the short film and capture this slice of a now vanished New York. It is places like the luncheonette that made New York New York and one great quote in the film has a family member saying that soon all of American will look alike with MacDonalds and Starbucks on every corner. That comment was made in 1997 and I can't imagine what he would think of "The Deuce" or NYC now. There is a web site by the filmmaker that I will try to remember as I'm going back to the IFC later today.

I was back on the Duece a few nights ago, with my new Digital SLR in hand and snapped this photo of the American Airlines Theater marquee and the new office building that was erected on the site of the collapsed Selwyn Building back in 2000.

I've been searching around the internet for some time trying to find some of the art projects that were allowed installation within or upon some of the dormant grind houses on the Duece in the early '90's. In addition to the "poetic" phrases that graced all the marquees along the strip around 1992, I seem to recall one or two installations in the lobby space and entry foyer space of one or two of the theaters along the north side of the block.

I came across this web site, which describes a work called "Mimesis" by Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel that was installed in the entrance to the Selwyn back in 1993. There is a small image of the installation when you first open the link, and several more if you click on either of the "Mimesis" links at the bottom of the page.

Does anyone recall a similar installation in the Times Square vestibule? I seem to recall an almost holographic image of an blinking eye, but my memory is fuzzy. It might have been another work by Jones and Ginzel (there are many listed on the website, but not all of them have links with images and descriptions).

Just to quickly follow up, I found this web site that seems to have an excellent overview of all the art installations that presided over the ghost town that was 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues in 1993 and 1994. If you click on the colored circles within the text on the page, it will bring you to each installation - some of which occupied theater vestibules and marquees while others adorned the vacant retail units that filled the gaps in between the old movie houses. The page I linked to lists all the 1993 projects, while the bottom-most orange circle along the left pane of the page will lead you to a similar listing of the 1994 installations.

Here is a circa-1978 view of the Selwyn. The film shown on the marquee, "Sex and Violence", is the US name for the Spanish film 'Ensalada Baudelaire'.

Nice shot, Bryan. According to imdb, "Sex and Violence" was released in the U.S. in November, 1979. The co-feature, "The Day After Halloween" is actually an Aussie horror flick from 1979 called "Snapshot" that was released in the U.S. (again, per imdb) in October, 1980. So... that would date the photo to 1980. Of course, release date information is probably pretty sketchy - even on imdb - for films of this nature. I'm sure many Duece engagements flew well under the radar.

A couple of interior pics during the restoration of the theatre in 2000 here :-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12494104@N00/423203337/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12494104@N00/423203342/

In 1990, the Selwyn was still showing movies as evidenced by this image that I captured from a video clip on YouTube about how these grind houses were fast disappearing from the Duece. In fact, by this time only the Selwyn, Lyric, Harris and Rialto (using its Seventh Ave entrance) were still hanging on. By 1992, only the Harris would remain.

This image from the same video shows the Selwyn's marquee beckoning folks to bring the entire family down to 42nd Street to enjoy a movie. Ha! Ri-iiight...

the closed up Selwyn see here in this shot of the north side of 42nd st in 1996 with 42 on its marquee
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/2120645173/
same shot from 2007 showing the american airlines theatre new frontage
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/2121424824/

This is 2008 night view of the American Airlines Theater.

A photo of the Selwyn Theatre and its replacement can be seen here: http://nymag.com/arts/architecture/features/49959/index2.html

Here is a recent photo.

Excerpt from a New York Times review dated January 18, 1968:

"THE BIGGEST BUNDLE OF THEM ALL" ...lasts 106 minutes, of which the last 15 are worth seeing if you are really intent on going to a movie.

The afternoon price of admission at the Selwyn Theater on 42d Street, where the film opened yesterday, is only 85 cents; and although the theater is perhaps not the best ventilated in New York and the audience is not the most reverent, the movie is worth the price of admission, as long as the first 91 minutes are skipped.

Here is a 1944 photo from Life Magazine. Unfortunately the focus was on the blind street musician and not the theater in the background.
http://tinyurl.com/6j942j

Thanks to "misterboo" for the Life Magazine photo link.

That's somewhat interesting that the Rutger Hauer Zatoichi update "Blind Fury" actually ran. I thought that it never ran in New York.

This is a 1986 photo.

Just saw The Philanthropist at this theater last night. I haver to admit that I was was too scared to have ever seen a single film on the Deuce back in it's prime decadent period of the 70's through early 90's so this was my first time in the theater and I have to say that it is a very handsome Broadway playhouse; a beautiful restoration and a joy to see a play in as the chairs had ample legroom.

That said, it didn't have that "movie palace" feeling and obviously it wasn't built as a movie palace but that didn't stop the New Amsterdam or Radio City from feeling like palaces even though they too were built for legit and not movies. Still a great theater though!

The Selwyn is on the left in this February 1954 photo from the NY Daily News:
http://tinyurl.com/m26jpw

Did that photo fall off of the Daily News website too? That's terrible.

1944 Selwyn view from LIFE -
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=62e80704d3dc9751&q=new%20york%20broadway%20source:life&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dnew%2Byork%2Bbroadway%2Bsource:life%26hl%3Den

Warren G. Harris provided this link to a 1952 photo by Ruth Orkin of the Selwyn. An extremely fine image.
http://www.orkinphoto.com/img/early_color/man_marquee-lg.jpg

In Ruth Orkin's photo, the rounded marquee in the foreground with the man on the ladder belongs to the Apollo Theatre, but the view is too close to make out what program was being presented. But it was probably a double-bill of "foreign" imports.

In the summer of 1952,

The Apollo was most probably presenting a double feature of foreign nudie nonsense sold as art, as the pre-porn house really always was.