Loew's 72nd Street

A correction is in order. This was not a Wonder Theater. The 5 Wonder Theaters were Paradise(Bronx), 175 th St (NYC), Valencia (Queens), Kings (Brooklyn) and the Jersey In Jersey City

All 5 building are still standing The Jersey is being renovated, the 175 th St is a church for Reverend Ike, The Valencia is a Church, The Paradise is or is not being renovated or is just sitting there ( it keeps changing) and the Kings is regretfully sitting there and rotting away. The 72nd Street was a gorgeous theater which had great backstage facilities which were never used. Between the planning of the theater and it's opening , Vaudeville died and it never had live shows

The existing 72nd St theater - it will always be the Tower East to me - is basically with the Ziegfeld and Astor Plaza and Beekman the last single screens in Manhattan...While its lobby and concessions may be dinky in the new Millennium it was in my youth a great place to see a movie...Yellow Submarine, a few stinkers like Caprice and Don't Make Waves, Love Story, The Godfather, Deliverance, All the President's Men, The Great Gatsby, Mississippi Burning...

Amazingly enough the theater has outlasted at least 2 dozen different restaurants in my 30 years including one owned by Paul Sorvino the actor

The Loew's 72nd Street theatre opened on February 20th, 1932. The large auditorium seated 2,673 patrons. Architect Thomas Lamb based the design on temples in Thailand as well as the Mosque Adinah in Maldah. The theatre was demolished in 1961. An aparment house now occupies the site.

An article by theatre historian Frank Cronican in a 1976 issue of MARQUEE Magazine claimed that Thomas Lamb was only the architect of Loew's 72nd Street, and that all of the interior decor was actually the work of John Eberson, the acknowledged master of the atmospheric school. Cronican said that Loew's publicized Eberson's contribution when the theatre opened, and also claimed that he had it personally confirmed to him by Drew Eberson, John Eberson's son and longtime business partner.

I erred in the above. Cronican's article says that the exterior, lobby and foyer were by Thomas Lamb, and that the auditorium, which was the largest and most spectacular part of the building, was by John Eberson. Loew's 72nd Street had one of the biggest loge sections in NYC. Without those larger and roomier chairs, the theatre's seating capacity probably would have been around 3,200 instead of 2,673.

Does the current Loews Cineplex 72nd Street Theatre (originally known as Loew's Tower East) have a listing here? I can't seem to find it under either of those names. But in any case, the current theatre has its entrance on Third Avenue, whereas the demolished Loew's 72nd Street had its entrance around the corner on East 72nd Street.

During the time that Loews was owned by the Tisch family their main concern was land. A projectionists' union contract in Cleveland during those years was written as between "I.A.T.S.E. Local 160 and Loews Theatre and Real Estate Corporation" - I don't think they were ever interested in the theatres, only the land underneath them. Once they had exploited all the prime owned locations by tearing down the big palace-type theatres and building apartment buildings, office buildings or just selling the property to others for redevelopment, they got rid of the remaining theatre operation which for the most part were leased locations.

There are 4 Loews theatres in Manhattan that are built on previous Loews locations, They are the State, Orpheum, 72nd Steet and 84th Street. I wonder when they were doing all this real estate selling, did Loews automatically include a provision in the contract that would allow them to replace the old existing theatre with a new one underneath whatever was being built on top like a condo or office building?

There was usually some provision in the sale to include a replacement theatre in whatever was being built. The old Loews State and the Loew's Building above it on Times Square was sold with the agreement that a new 4-screen theatre would be included and be a tenant. What is now the Virgin music store was to have been a mall, with a number of stores and the theatre. The developer put up the building and before the interior was completed went bancrupt. The incomplete building sat there for 10 years until that situation was settled and the property sold to a new owner and completed. By the time the new State Theatre opened, 4-screen theatres were obsolete, and the plan for a mall was thrown out in favor of a single tenant.

The 84th Street was some kind of exchange - the 84th St. 6-plex was built next door to the 83rd St Quad. When the 84th St. opened, the quad closed and was demolished. The apartment building was built on the ground the quad was on and on top of the new 6-plex. The theatre and ground it's on was owned by Loews, and the apt. bldg. bought the air-rights and built on top of it. It is actually 2 seperate buildings. Loews role there may have changed, but up until a couple of years ago, that's the way it was.

The 84th Street does not occupy the site of the Loew's 83rd Street. It was built one block north of it.

84th St. 6-plex is on the north half of the blockfront btwn 83 & 84 Sts., east side of Broadway. The 83rd St. Quad was on the south half of the blockfront btwn 83 & 84 Sts., east side of Broadway. The first 2 days the 6-plex was open, the quad was open too, and the old and new theatres sat there side by side. The present apt. bldg. sits on the ground that the quad was on AND on the roof of the 6-plex. Trust me, I worked there.

BTW, check the Loews 83rd St. page on this site - there is a photo of the old quad with the new 6plex in the left edge of the pic.

Thanks dave-bronx, I always wondered why one was the 83rd and the other the 84th Street. Unfortunately these replacements could never match any of the original theatres. As we have all said, most of the time the property that theatres sat on was far more valuable than keeping the original theatre operating and open. In all of NYC does Loews Cineplex have any of their original theatres still operating? The Alpine in Brooklyn is the only one that seems to come to mind, and that one went thru some different chains before returning to the Loews chain.

You're right. Is the Alpine still open? If so I can't think of any other of the old ones still operated by Loews in New York.

The old 83rd St. Quad was on that block at the corner of 83rd St., and the new 84th St. 6-plex is on the same block but at the corner of 84th St.

Yes the Alpine still exists as a 7 screen theatre. It has two large auditoriums on the left side and 5 smaller ones on the right, they date back from the late 80's. I don't thing anything inside that was original remains, or it could be hidden by the ugly ceiling panels. The Alpine never had a balcony so they is no second level, only the projection room.

I did see in the photo of the 83rd St. that the condos on top of the 84th St had yet to be built, when they did start construction I wonder if people could hear it watching their movies.

There was a rumor that the 72nd St East was going to receive the seats from the Astor Plaza. Has anyone confirmed this or heard any different?

I spoke with the manager at the Astor Plaza that last weekend, he said yes indeed they were giving them some of the Astor Plaza's seats, but not all of them, he looked very busy so I couldn't ask any further questions.

March 1958 a half page ad in the Times announced the following..." 8 special engagements of the Ten Commandments will start on Friday April 4th to accomodate the millions of New Yorkers who were unable to attend the unprecedented Broadway showing of Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments. The Criterion Theatres record 70 week showing of this motion picture has been terminated to enable it to be shown in limited engagements in eight specially selected, conviently located theatres throughout greater New York. It will be presented uncut and intact exactly as shown on Broadway to 1,344,016. In Manhattan it played Loew's 72nd Street and Loews 83rd Street. In Brooklyn at the Paramount, Bronx at Paradise, Queens Valencia, Staten Island Paramount, Long Island at the Calderone and in Westchester at Loews White Plains. The other interesting thing is the manager of each theatre is listed with their phone number to call to arrange groups and theatre parties.

Here are several early images. In the first, the black areas across the ceiling are only shadows caused by the photographer's flash, and not part of the decor. In the second of the left sidewall, please note the twinkling stars in the ceiling. The third shows that the entrance was west of Third Avenue, permitting corner stores that included a Schrafft's restaurant and provided considerable extra income for Loew's:
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Here's a Loew's circuit ad from the City edition of the NY Daily News for June 6, 1944 (D-Day!). It does not include the Loew's theatres in two other boroughs, which were advertised in the Brooklyn-Queens edition. This being a Tuesday, some of the theatres had two-day bookings of "B" movies or re-issues, and would return to normal on Thursday. The 72nd Street, Lexington, Olympia, and 175th Street, for example, would re-join the Paradise, Ziegfeld and 83rd Street for the first neighborhood run of "Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble" & "Three Men in White." And "Lady in the Dark" & "The Navy Way" would move on to the theatres listed here as showing "Northwest Passage" & "Third Finger, Left Hand":
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Loew's 72nd Street closed forever on New Year's night, January 1, 1961 (a Sunday), after the last complete showing of "The World of Suzie Wong" and its companion color featurette, "Boats-A-Poppin'." The movie had been doing so well on its Loew's circuit break that Paramount arranged for it to stay in the area for two more days by moving it to the RKO 58th Street.

This theatre was very beautiful. The unique latern above the proscenium was especially noticable. Lamb did a wonderful job in designing this atmospheric theatre. The destruction of Loew's 72nd Street-like many others- is a sad commentary on a civlization where financial gain is the top priority. Because of websites such as CINEMA TREASURES, more people will become aware such losses now and in the future.

Correction of above post: Last sentence: ... more people will become aware of such losses- now and in the future.

New direct links to images described above on 7/18/05:
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Here's an ad for the grand opening on February 20th, 1932. Altough it offered "3,200 Seats in a Setting of Oriental Luxury," the 72nd Street operated solely as a cinema and never presented vaudeville or stages shows due to its location in a primarily residential area "Where Park Avenue Meets Hollywood." Programs changed three times per week, and consisted of a second-run movie and shorts until 1935, when double features became the vogue throughout the Greater New York area:http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/72opener.jpg

Warren, thanks so much for the images. What an incredibly beautiful theater. Another tragic loss. I'm truly amazed at how many spectacular theaters existed at the same time in the New York of the 30's, 40's and 50's. Long demolished theaters like Proctor's 58th St, The Center, The Roxy, The Capitol, Loews State, The Triboro, RKO 23rd St, Loew's Sheridan Square,Loew's Orpheum, The Academy of Music, The Forum, RKO Keiths, Brooklyn Paramount, Brooklyn Fox, and of course Loews 72nd Street. I could go on and on. They all existed as movie venues. What a choice! I started my movie going in the 70's and I didn't have the appreciation for architecture in general and movie palaces in particular that I have today. I regret not having ever seen many of these theaters let alone seeing a film in one.

In the past, banks built very elaborate structures that no longer work economically. Very few still serve their original purpose though others survive as "event" spaces.

I wonder if there are any buildings that are in common use today that we will look back on 30 years from now with fond nostalgia because they became "obsolete"?

To test audience reaction, MGM held a "sneak preview" of "Show Boat" at Loew's 72nd Street on May 21, 1951, according to "That's Entertainment," Hugh Fordin's book about the musicals produced by Arthur Freed. A research survey company handed out 400 reaction cards, dividing them equally between men and women. Two thirds were given to people under thirty (considered the core audience) and the rest to those over thirty. The study revealed that 51% of the cards rated "Show Boat" as "excellent," 39% "very good," and 10% "good." To the question of whether they would recommend "Show Boat" to others, 100% answered "Yes." Attending the screening were officials of Radio City Music Hall, who were delighted by the reactions and booked "Show Boat" for that summer. With stage show, the Technicolor musical opened at RCMH on July 19th and ran for a highly successful eight weeks. "Show Boat" finally reached Loew's 72nd Street and other Loew's neighborhood theatres in October, with MGM's Lassie feature, "The Painted Hills," in support.

Renewing link.

Renewing link.

Warrens photbuckets do not work anymore.