Greeley Theatre

This was actually Loew's Greeley Square Theatre, which opened 11/18/1911. The address should be listed as 855 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10001 and the status should be listed as closed/demolished. (Building stood until at least 1944.)

This theater is listed in the 1945 Film Daily Yearbook as the Greeley Theatre and closed, with seating for 1799.

A Moller organ Opus 2308 Size 3/16 was installed in the Loew's Greeley Square Theater in 1917 at a cost of $5,000.

The theatre didn't co-exist with "Avenue of the Americas." It had been demolished by the time that the name of Sixth Avenue was changed. "Avenue of the Americas" has been a disputed name ever since, and about 99.9% of New Yorkers call it Sixth Avenue, which still appears on street signs under the newer one. Recently, there has been much discussion of changing it back to Sixth Avenue. I suggest that Avenue of the Americas be dropped from the Greeley listing. It was still on the NW corner of Sixth Avenue and West 30th Street when it disappeared forever at the end of WWII.

Marcus Loew built this theatre for vaudeville/movies after Oscar Hammerstein refused to sell him the Manhattan Opera House on 34th Street. S.S. Sugar was the architect, with Fleischmann Brothers as contractors. The entrance and lobby were in a corner office building that connected to the auditorium in the rear. The Greeley Square was never successful, and during the Depression Loew's sold it to "indies" who changed the name to simply Greeley, with late-run programs of double features changing four times per week. In 1944, the Greeley was sold for demolition for an office building, but the old buildings to the north of the Sixth Avenue entrance to the corner with 31st Street are still standing. Here are two images:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/greeley1.jpg
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/greeley.jpg

Here's a vintage theater program from Loew's Greeley Square theater from December 20th, 1926.
http://www.silentfilmstillarchive.com/loews_greeley_sq_dec201926.htm

The Loew's Weekly was distributed at all Loew's theatres, and customized to each individual theatre. The publications were identical in contents except for a single column on page two which listed that week's films in that particular theatre. For example, the Loew's Weekly for Loew's Greeley Square was the same as that as the one for Loew's 83rd Street except for that page two column.

I think that you are mostly correct about the Loew's Weekly programs. I have four different ones from three different theaters. However, besides the column on page 2, the articles on page 3 are directly about the films showing that week, and they state the dates that the films are showing. The page 3 articles are certainly the same from theatre to theatre, but the headlines and films profiled were certainly changed depending on the theater.

Here's another program from Loew's Greeley Square from October, 1926.
http://www.silentfilmstillarchive.com/loews_greeley_sq_oct181926.htm

And here's another program from Loew's Greeley Square Theatre from May 10, 1926
http://www.silentfilmstillarchive.com/loews_greeley_sq_may101926.htm

Here are new links to vintage views described above on 10/8/05:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/greeley.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/greeley1.jpg

I find the use of the singular "LOEW" in the programs above interesting. I have not seen that elsewhere.

There was nothing unusual about "Loew" being used instead of "Loew's," especially during the lifetime of Marcus Loew. An apostrophe wasn't really necessary in describing a theatre owned by his company. It was perfectly correct and common, for example, for a newspaper to report that "All Loew theatres will open an hour earlier this week," or "The Loew Greeley has installed a new cooling plant," or whatever.

In 1922 its seating capacity is listed as 2011 as a Loew house.