City Cinemas Village East

The 1968 movie "Night They Raided Minsky's" was filmed inside the theatre.

This theater was built in 1925-26 by developer Louis N. Jaffe for the actor Maurice Schwartz as a legitimate Yiddish-language theater. In the 30s, the play "Yoshe Kalb" ran a record 300 performances at the Yiddish Art Theatre. The theater was later called the Phoenix, and still later, the Jaffe Art Theatre. It was converted to a six-screen movie house in 1991.

The theatre first opened in 1926 as the legit Yiddish Art Theatre. It then became known as the Yiddish Folks Theatre before switching to movies in the 1930s and 40s, first as the Century and then as the Stuyvesant. In the 1950s, it became the legit Phoenix, followed by several stints with burlesque as the Casino East, Gayety, and Eden. Then there were more attempts at films or legit as the 12th Street Cinema, Entermedia, and Second Avenue. City Cinemas converted it into the current Village East multiplex. Has any NYC theatre survived more name changes?

...and one has to wonder how much longer the Village East will survive under current ownership. Last year City Cinemas filed a lawsuit against Loews Cineplex and Regal Entertainment Group, claiming that the two chains (which operate the Village VII Theatre and Union Square Stadium 14, respectively, within the same booking zone) were conspiring with the major studios to withhold product from the Village East's screens. (City Cinemas may very well have an argument, considering that, of the 7-10 offerings typically booked into the Village East at any given time, only 1-3 are major studio offerings and even those generally aren't the types of films likely to generate gangbusters box office.)

The theatre's exterior is featured in 2002's Unfaithful, starring Diane Lane and Richard Gere. (Photos of Lane and her lover exiting the theatre are part of the evidence of her infidelity.)

Does the Village East still have 7 screens?

It does; on occasion - I suspect during fallow periods - City Cinemas only books six out of the Village East's seven screens.

What kind of condition is the Village East in these days? Have they let it go to hell in a handbasket like their other ones? They better make it last - they're stuck in a 99 year lease there - 13 down - only 86 to go...

I saw a film here last summer and the theatre was still very clean and well maintained. That was a few months ago and things can change in a short time.

That's surprising - I thought the "haven't got a clue" executives at City Cinemas would have turned this place into a sh--house like the others.

The Village East, at best, seems to be hanging on. Along with their usual handful of Angelika moveovers (which, since the opening of the Sunshine as an art-house multiplex in December of '01, have been 'moving over' later in their shelf life), they showcase mostly lower-tier studio product ('Alexander', 'Pooh's Heffalump Movie', and, this upcoming Friday, the oft-delayed Wes Craven-Kevin Williamson flick, 'Cursed'), indie vanity projects, and the occasional major-studio flick that doesn't give off that air of distinctly being a Loews or Regal reject ('The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou' being the most recent such example).

Depending on the film, the theatre still draws decent crowds (much as was the case when I saw 'Zissou' there last month), but it's definitely lost some luster (if 'luster' is the appropriate term to use) over the last 5-7 years. Still, as noted above, it seems to be holding its own and I can't imagine that and/or its mode of operation changing much in the foreseeable future.

In the weekly Angelika Film Center newsletter, the Village East is referred to as the Angelika's 'sister theater'.

Again, time for another info update - the Village East has seven screens (contrary to the info posted within this page's header), not six.

I think this theatre is a bit of a pit. When I attend I always end up in one of the smaller, non-descript theatres in the basement or the second floor and never get to see films in the "main" auditorium, which is nice room, but a weird place to see a movie. I can't imagine sitting in the orchestra in that big room.

I often have to get up and close the door when the films start and find many of the auditoriums dank.

City Cinemas really dropped the ball because I think they were hoping this theatre would be what the Angelika became. The Village East opened a couple of years before the Angelika, but never had the vibe the Angelika had when the Angelika opened. The Angelika became the premier downtown arthouse, primarly because of the cafe and the location, though City Cinemas is in a funky spot.

From what I understand, the owner of the Angelika was getting divorced and that caused him to sell out to City Cinemas. One nice thing about the Village East is that I know that if I miss a film at the Angelika I'll get a chance to see it at the Village East before it heads off to videoland.

The Angelika (after several delays and false starts) opened in the fall of '89, the Village East sometime between the spring and fall of '91.

I could have sworn the Village East opened before the Angelika. The first film I caught at the Angelika was "Hidden Agenda" so that must have been 1990 and do remember reading about the delays in the Angelika's opening. I faintly remember it having something to do with plumbing problems, but I later learned there was a big dispute between UA & Angelika's original owner Joe Saleh (sic).

I always thought the Village East and that Loew's East Village 'plex on Third Avenue opened about the same time and were around before the Angelika opened. I guess my memory is playing tricks on me.

I remember the Village East and the Loews at 3rd and 11th opening around the same time, too, hardbop - if memory serves, I think within, at the most, three months of one another.

Reading/City Cinemas is again experimenting with double-running art house films at the Angelika and the Village East, with films opening first at the Angelika and later adding a run at the Village East, this time with '9 Songs' and 'March of the Penguins'. This type of booking arrangement was last done during a short time in the fall of '03; will it be temporary again or is this now a long-term change? Time, I suppose, will tell...

Another big beautiful theatre cut up into a hodgepodge of small screens. Walk in the front door and you need a tour guide, arrows pointing up, arrows pointing down, and straight ahead. You need a sherpa to find some screens. In one screen upstairs, the entrance door is up front next to the screen so anyone entering or exiting during a show comes in facing the audience and the hall light illuminates the view. Some of the films I've seen there were "Ed Wood" and "Boogie Nights".

I don't think there is enough product to go around. The Angelika can barely fill its screens with prestige product. This cinema is showing 11 films this weekend. 17 Films (and documentaries) opened in NYC this week (1 Wed., 2 Thurs. & a mind numbing 14 today). Most of them will disappear in a week or two at most.

I just looked at some of the scores the 17 films received from crix on metacritic.com. What a joke! It is flotsam & jetsom time until later in the year when we get the good stuff. Each week a new Miramax turkey that has been sitting on the shelf gets released. The reviews are hilarious.

Somewhere along the line the place was a burlesque house, though I don't know under which name, and the infamous Blaze Starr was the headline act. The Woody Allen segment of "New York Stories" was filmed here. Also, once upon a time, a play titled "Once Upon a Mattress" played here. The female lead, a young, unknown actress, Carol Burnett, suddenly became known.

I worked here both before and after the plexing. The decor of the main auditorium is intact. Prior to the renovations, the ceiliing had serious water damage, and a fortune was spent to restore it and the rest of the decorative plasterwork. It was originally a traditional theatre with an orchestra and balcony. The orchestra floor was removed to give height to cinemas 2 and 3 in the basement, making the main theatre look like it has stadium seating. It's actually the balcony which was extended down to the stage. Behind the ceiling panels of the lower cinemas is the decorative plasterwork of the underside of the balcony. The ceiling panels had to be installed for acoustics, but the original plan was to leave the plasterwork exposed. We had been told by Landmarks that all the decorative plasterwork had to be either restored or entombed, but could not be destroyed. As for the other cinemas in the plex, #4 was build under the storefronts, #5 was built in the vaults under the front sidewalk, #6 was built on the stage floor and #7 is in the fly loft over the stage. Projection, storage and restrooms are in the trap room area under the stage.

I haven't been in there in years, but after the renovations were complete and the main house had the curtain closed and the chandelier and stage spots lit up it looked spectacular. The theatres in the cellar were plain boxes and I never really liked them, but the two in the stagehouse with exposed brick walls were more interesting than the 4 in the cellar. I think it was a fair trade-off: the restored main auditorium in exchange for small theatres squeezed into other areas of the building. It seems to have kept the place commercially viable. Otherwise, it would have sat empty and decaying until there was nothing left of it, like the Kieths-Flushing.

Prior to the dual-engagement run of 'The Matrix Reloaded' at the Village East and the Angelika in the spring of 2003, the main auditorium of the Village East, with new seats then recently installed, was sold in ads in the Village Voice as having stadium seating.

Referring to a comment made on 9/10/2005, I believe Once Upon A Mattress played at the Orpheum Theate on 2ND and St. Marks Place before being moved up to a Broadway house. This is based purely on my memory for whatever thats worth.

I may be wrong -- Dave-bronx, maybe you can let me know --- but I believe this is the theatre that in the mid-late 70's had a brief incarnation as the Entermedia. I worked there for a Dance-umbrella series in the spring of either 78 or 77. It felt as if we were the first production to be there in years.

Yup - this was the Entermedia... when I moved to NYC in the early 80s the marquee said Entermedia, but I never saw it open when it had that name.

One of the partners in City Cinemas at the time bought out a production company called M-Square Productions, and they held the lease on this theatre and the Minetta Lane Theater, an off-Broadway house over near the Waverly. When we first went in there to look around, the cellar was literally stuffed with everything imaginable that could be used for stage shows - furniture, costumes, every kind of prop you could think of, light fixtures and cables for the stage. It was offered to other production companies but nobody wanted it, so it was trashed.

They had archetectural plans drawn up to have the Minetta Lane Theater converted to a cinema. Another of the partners, in the meantime, hired someone to operate and book (or whatever you have to do to get shows into a stage theater). It was making money, so the conversion was never done.

Somewhere along the way City Cinemas also aquired the little Orpheum at 2 av & St Marks mentioned above, but we (the cinema group) had less to do with that one than we did with the Minetta. I'm emailing a friend to refresh my memory as to whether it was part of the same deal with M-Square.

Since I haven't been associated with City Cinemas since sometime in the late 20th century (back when they were into movie theatres, not real estate development) I don't know if they still have any involvment with the Minetta or little Orpheum.

Here is a large photo of the Village East Cinemas.

From dave-bronx's comments on September 10, sounds like a theater that's worth keeping an eye out for, as long as the film you want to see is in the main auditorium.

The opening comment on this page (from 2002) says that the movie "The Night They Raided Minsky's" was filmed here. Was the interior of the Victory Theater on 42nd Street so run-down in 1968 that they couldn't have filmed in the real-life location of Minsky's Follies? Or perhaps the owners wouldn't allow filming.

Is it known whether the Village East was ever used as a rock venue? In a commentary track on the recently released New York Dolls DVD entitled "All Dolled Up," photographer Bob Gruen recalls that the first time he ever took a picture of the band was backstage at the Village East Theater. Apparently this was some kind of glam-rock festival with the Dolls, the Magic Tramps, and Teenage Lust on the bill--but is Gruen referring to the same theater as the current movie house?

OK am a little baffled here. before I moved to Arizona from Vermont I came in to the city in Nov of 1999. I could have sworn that what used to be the old Fillmore East had a sign stating that it was taking aplications for a condo complex being built there.

LOL @DC.... Teenage Lust was a band formed from former members of David Peel and the Lower East Side. They did not last long. Yes after the days of the Fillmore they tried to resurect the theatre they change the name to Village East. Prior to the Fillmore it was called the Village Theatre.

This was not the Fillmore East (also known as The Saint) although that location was also pegged to be a Cineplex Odeon multiplex at one time. That location was further south on second avenue near the Hell's Angels headquarters.

The local authorities' reluctance to allow a second avenue entrance and the financial problems of CPO delayed the once active project until it died.

The Fillmore East was 105 2nd Ave, at 6th St.

The Fillmore East was originally the Loew's Commodore.

I was here recently for the first time in years to see Family Stone in their "big" theater. The projection was a bit off. The volume was WAY too low. No one cared. I had low expectations and they were met. They got new seats though. That's all I have to say.

Here is a another photo of the Village East Cinemas.

The Fillmore East was a couple of blocks south of this theatre.

Here's an rather plain ad from December 1980 when the theater was called Entermedia (a name that ought to be added to the list of AKA's above):

Samurai/Wolves 12/14/80

The Samurai Triology is a fairly well known series of Japanese films from the 1950's, but I can not identify the other feature at all.

While this theatre was still known as the Entermedia, it was a house for Off-Broadway theatre performances, particularly those that were Broadway try-out shows. It was the debut house for "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," (1977) and "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." (1982)

Here is a link from the Lortel Archives, a database for Off-Broadway:

http://www.lortel.org/LLA_archive/index.cfm?search_by=theater&id=159

It has a note saying the theatre was also known as the Stuyvesant, the Phoenix, and the Eden.

Here's an ad from 1963 as the Casino East Theater:
Ann Corio in This was Burlesque - LI Star Journal 11/23/63

Going back over the posts here, it looks like we should add a few more AKA names to this listing, including Eden, Casino East, Gayety, Entermedia, 12th Street Cinemas and Second Avenue.

A photograph I took of the Village East Cinemas in May 2006:
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/216027595/

Another photograph I took, this one is from July 2003:
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/216089159/

I saw Tenacious D there last night. The box office is outside. The lobby isn't really ornate, kind of plain except for some nice decor on the ceiling. Saw the movie in theater 6 downstairs, near a small snack stand. Our theater fit 187 people but at 5:30 there were 6 people there. Seats were comfortable. There's a great cushioned bench/couch out in the hallway. They have student discounts on Tuesdays.

A long article and two photographs about the conversion of the Yiddish Art Theatre into a 7-screen cinema can be found on page R15 of the November 4, 1990 issue of The New York Times.

Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985

Yiddish Art Theatre (added 1985 - Building - #85002427)
189 Second Ave., New York
Historic Significance: Architecture/Engineering, Event
Architect, builder, or engineer: Wiseman,Harrison G.
Architectural Style: Other
Area of Significance: Performing Arts, Architecture
Period of Significance: 1925-1949
Owner: Private
Historic Function: Recreation And Culture
Historic Sub-function: Theater
Current Function: Recreation And Culture
Current Sub-function: Theater

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Once Upon a Mattress was first written as a shorter play at the Tamiment adult summer camp resort. The play was later expanded for the Broadway stage. Initial reviews of the play were mixed, but critics and actors alike were surprised by the show's enduring popularity.
Once Upon a Mattress is a popular choice for high school drama programs and community theatre groups.
Stage
The original production opened in May 1959 at the off-Broadway Phoenix Theatre (now closed, located on the lower East Side) and then transferred to several Broadway theaters, finally playing at the St. James Theatre, for a total run of 460 performances.

This is the only movie theater I ever saw a traditional midnight showing of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW.

A tiny ad in the November 19th, 1937 issue of The New York Times shows this as the Century Theatre and in its last four days with a double feature of "3 Women" and "Peasants," both being presented with English subtitles. All seats were 25 cents to 5PM, and then 35 cents until closing.

I remember seeing a Saturday matinee of the original production of Grease here when it was the Eden, back in early May 1972. (I also remember it was the day of the Kentucky Derby.)

I moved to a building just a couple of blocks away in 1988, and I remember the place being closed for a time while they rehabbed it as the Village East. It reopened in at least 1989 -- not 1991 -- because I remember Tango & Cash, a 1989 film, being on the marquee. The only movie I remember actually seeing there was The Hand that Rocks the Cradle. The Loews a block to the west usually had more desirable films.

I hate to slag a theater showing such good films (I just saw Rescue Dawn there), but the projection last night was off the screen by about six inches (so that the subtitle telling the date and place of the action was cut off, and you could see the projection on the wall to the right of the screen and above it), and when I got up and asked the manager to fix it (more than once), he said he looked at it, and that there was no loss of image, and that he was a "licensed projectionist". It's experiences like this that make a man stay home and watch dvds!

In 1964, I saw Ann Corio's "This Was Burlesque" here, but can't remember the name of the theater at the time. In the early 80's I saw a short-lived musical version of Potak's "The Chosen" starring George Hearn here, which had a fantastic set, featuring a bridge that jetted right out into the orchestra. I believe it was then called the Second Avenue Theatre. It was an off-Broadway house with a Broadway feel.
bobmarshall

Bob... take a look at my post back on August 15, 2006, where I linked to a vintage November 1963 ad that ran in the LI Star Journal for "This Was Burlesque." The theatre was called the Casino East at that time. Admissions were $1 and $2!

To the editors: That same post of mine lists a number of AKA's for this theatre that should be considered for inclusion at the top of the page. I'm not sure if ALL of the names listed were in use while the theatre ran motion pictures, but some of them definitely were (Entermedia, is an example).

photos of the exterior (nightime) and main screen when i saw "scenes from a mall" there in 1991
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/2120655811/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/2120658031/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/2121438842/
other films on the marquee The Field, Superstar Andy Warhol, Sleazy Uncle

Here is another photo of the Village East.

What is happening with the exterior above the street level in that photo? What's with those white lines?

This is a crummy theater. Even in the main auditorium, the projection quality is bad and the sound system is awful. As for the small screens -- they're so small you might as well stay at home and download the trailer to your iPod

They were doing some kind of exterior work, Dave (the main entrance door at the far left is or was papered with all kinds of city permits), but it wasn't - and isn't - entirely clear what the work was.

On April 16th, 1941, this was being advertised in The New York Times as the Century Theatre, and in its last three days of "Gone With the Wind," which was shown continuously at 12:30 PM, 4:45, and 9:00 at "reduced prices." I don't know what the prices were "reduced" from, but I think that they were still higher than what the Century normally charged.

Work was being done on the facade. Here are the details.

D.C.
After Bill Graham closed the Fillmore East a couple of other owners tried to revive it as a concert hall for Rock music, but they apparently lacked his skills as a promoter. At first it was renamed the N.F.E. Theater (late '71 or '72), much to Graham's irritation. There is a photo on the Lowes Comodore page of the old F.E as the Village East in '73, when the Dolls might have played there. I don't know how long it operated as such but one witness says he personally saw the theater abandoned with homeless people living in it by '76. A sad end for the Carnige Hall of Rock concerts.

Does anyone know which years this operated as the Stuyvesant and whether it showed movies as that?

Wow! I just looked at the heading for this theatre. I don't believe there is another theatre on the whole CT site that has as many aka names as this one...

Starting June 17, 1969, when this theater was called the Eden, it hosted a long pre-Broadway-area engagement of "Oh! Calcutta." - Ed Blank

The lowlifes at City Cinemas are at it again destroying another theatre facade so they sell off the building.

The following is from the homepage of the Reading Int'l website, here where they describe their business and objectives (note, in particular, the final sentence of the last paragraph below):

Reading International, Inc (AMEX: RDI) is in the business of owning and operating cinemas and live theaters and developing, owning and operating real estate assets. Our business consists primarily of

* the development, ownership and operation of cinemas in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, principally under the Reading Cinemas, Angelika Film Center, City Cinemas and Rialto names;

* the development, ownership and operation of commercial real estate in Australia, New Zealand and the United States, including entertainment-themed retail centers ("ETRC") in Australia and New Zealand and

* the ownership and leasing to production companies through Liberty Theaters, Inc. of "Off Broadway" style live theaters in Manhattan and Chicago

We are different from most other cinema companies due to our real property emphasis. Calculated based on book value nearly 70% of our assets relates to our real estate activities. While most of our cash flow is currently derived from cinemas, our present business plan is to reinvest that cash flow principally in real estate assets, and to be opportunistic in terms of the acquisition and development of additional entertainment properties. Unlike other cinema companies, we are not compelled to continue and redevelop our cinema assets, where higher and better uses become available for such properties.

At least the theater is surviving in some form, albeit all chopped up.

Here is a list of films that were shown at the VILLAGE EAST from 2002 to today.

1/4/02- Impostor
1/18/02- Snow Dogs
2/15/02- Return to Never Land
2/15/02- Super Troopers
3/8/02- All About the Benjamins
3/8/02- The Time Machine
3/22/02- Sorority Boys
4/26/02- Life or Something Like It
5/10/02- Unfaithful
7/3/02- Like Mike
7/3/02- The Powerpuff Girls Movie
7/12/02- Reign of Fire
7/26/02- The Country Bears
8/23/02- Little Secrets
8/30/02- FearDotCom
TBA 2002- My Big Fat Greek Wedding
10/4/02- Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie
10/4/02- Moonlight Mile
10/11/02- The Transporter
11/27/02- Treasure Planet
12/6/02- Empire
12/6/02- Equilbrium
12/13/02- Drumline
12/20/02- The Wild Thornberrys Movie
12/25/02- Pinocchio
1/10/03- Just Married
1/31/03- Biker Boyz
1/31/03- The Recruit
2/14/03- The Jungle Book 2
2/21/03- Gods and Generals
3/14/03- Willard
3/21/03- Piglet's Big Movie
4/18/03- Malibu's Most Wanted
4/25/03- The Real Cancun
5/2/03- The Lizzie McGuire Movie
5/16/03- The Matrix Reloaded
7/18/03- How to Deal
8/6/03- Freaky Friday
8/22/03- My Boss's Daughter
9/26/03- Under the Tuscan Sun
10/17/03- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
11/14/03- Looney Tunes: Back in Action
11/26/03- Bad Santa
11/26/03- The Haunted Mansion
12/12/03- Love Don't Cost A Thing
1/9/04- Chasing Liberty
1/16/04- Disney's Teacher's Pet
2/20/04- Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen
3/26/04- The Ladykillers
3/26/04- Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
4/30/04- Laws of Attraction
5/28/04- Raising Helen
7/9/04- Sleepover
7/23/04- Catwoman
7/30/04- The Village
8/20/04- Exorcist: The Beginning
9/10/04- Cellular
9/24/04- The Last Shot
10/22/04- Surviving Christmas
10/29/04- Birth
11/24/04- Alexander
12/25/04- Darkness
12/25/04- The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
1/14/05- The Merchant of Venice
1/14/05- Racing Stripes
2/11/05- Pooh's Heffalump Movie
2/18/05- Son of the Mask
2/25/05- Cursed
3/18/05- Ice Princess
4/15/05- The Amityville Horror
4/29/05- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
5/13/05- Kicking & Screaming
5/13/05- Mindhunters
5/13/05- Unleashed
6/10/05- Mr. & Mrs. Smith
7/22/05- The Island
7/29/05- Sky High
8/5/05- The Dukes of Hazzard
8/5/05- March of the Penguins
8/17/05- Supercross: The Movie
9/2/05- A Sound of Thunder
9/2/05- Underclassman
9/16/05- Venom
9/23/05- Flightplan
9/30/05- Duma
9/30/05- A History of Violence
10/7/05- Two for the Money
10/21/05- Stay
10/28/05- Prime
11/23/05- Just Friends
12/16/05- The Family Stone
12/23/05- Munich
12/23/05- The Ringer
12/25/05- Casanova
12/25/05- Wolf Creek
2/10/06- Final Destination 3
2/10/06- Firewall
2/10/06- The Pink Panther
3/10/06- The Hills Have Eyes
3/10/06- The Shaggy Dog
3/31/06- Slither
4/21/06- The Sentinel
4/28/06- United 93
5/12/06- Goal! The Dream Begins
6/6/06- The Omen
6/9/06- Cars
6/16/06- The Lake House
6/16/06- Nacho Libre
7/28/06- The Ant Bully
9/1/06- Lassie
9/15/06- The Last Kiss
10/20/06- Marie Antoinette
11/3/06- Borat
11/3/06- The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause
11/22/06- Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny
12/8/06- Apocalypto
12/25/06- Children of Men
12/25/06- Dreamgirls
1/12/07- Alpha Dog
1/26/07- Catch and Release
2/23/07- The Number 23
3/2/07- Zodiac
3/23/07- The Hills Have Eyes II
3/23/07- TMNT
4/27/07- The Invisible
4/27/07- Next
5/4/07- Lucky You
5/11/07- 28 Weeks Later
5/25/07- Bug
6/29/07- Ratatouille
8/3/07- Hot Rod
8/3/07- Underdog
8/17/07- The Invasion
8/31/07- Death Sentence
9/21/07- Resident Evil: Extinction
9/28/07- The Kingdom
10/12/07- Elizabeth: The Golden Age
10/19/07- Things We Lost in the Fire
10/26/07- Dan in Real Life
11/9/07- Fred Claus
11/16/07- Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium
11/30/07- Awake
12/21/07- Charlie Wilson's War
12/21/07- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
1/25/08- Untraceable
2/14/08- Jumper
2/22/08- Diary of the Dead
2/22/08- Be Kind Rewind
2/29/08- Semi-Pro
3/14/08- Doomsday
3/21/08- Drillbit Taylor
4/11/08- Persepolis
5/22/08- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
5/30/08- The Foot Fist Way
6/27/08- Wall-E

The VILLAGE EAST is still one of the coolest theatres in New York City.

I forgot to mention that the Mike Myers comedy THE LOVE GURU was shown at the VILLAGE EAST on June 20, 2008. It's still showing at this theater now along with INDIANA JONES and WALL-E

Here is a July 2008 photo.

I believe for a while it was also called the Intermedia Theatre. Someone correct me if I am wrong.

Rocker, try Entermedia.

Ok I knew it was one or the other. Thanks

A recent exterior view can be seen in this article about the Lower East Side: http://www.forgotten-ny.com/SLICES/eastside/eastside.html

Renewing link.

Here is a photo of the Second Avenue Theater.

That stage production of "The Chosen" surprisingly lasted for just six performances, Jan. 6-10, 1988, although the marquee signage probably was in place for the final month or two of 1987 and may have stayed up for many weeks after the play closed

There are some good comments on this post and a lot of information that is not correct. I was the manager of the venue when it was a legit theatre called The Entermedia Theatre. We were there from 1977 through 1984. There were actually as many film shoots and TV commercials shot there as there was legit live performance theatre. The movie "The Fan" shot there for 6 weeks with Lauren Bacall, James Garner and Michael Biehn. Early music videos were shot there, as well as numerous commercials that included an AT & T commercial with Raul Julia and several Dr. Pepper spots with Mickey Rooney. The ghost light was set on stage each night for Bert Lahr. Yes, he passed away during the filming of "The Night They Raided the Minskies" in the building in '68. The venue had numerous stars perform live on stage in various shows over the years. When it was The Phoenix Theatre '53 - '61, Marcel Marceau performed for the first time in the United States in 1955. Montgomery Clift appeared in "The Sea Gull" in 1956 and Carol Burnnett in "Once Upon A Mattress" in 1959. "Grease" ran for 12 weeks in 1971 and almost closed in trying to outrun mixed reviews before moving to Broadway and running for more than 8 years. Don Murray (the movie "Bus Stop" with Marilyn Monroe) starred in the ill-fated musical "Smith" also at the Eden Theatre (late 60's early 70's). Don's son, Chris, is an actor friend of mine on LA.

During our time at the Entermedia we had many stage plays with performers that had ties to TV & movies. Kurt Vonnegut's "God Bless You Mr. Rosewater" with music by Alan Menken (multiple award winner including great work on Disney films), "El Bravo" (choreographer - Patty Birch - "grease" fame), Milton Berle in the show "Goodnight Grandpa" (not successful show, but Milty was gracious, had a million one liners, and very funny off stage), "Taking My Turn" - the musical about aging - with Tiger Haynes (original Tin Man in "The Wiz") singer Margaret Whiting, singer Marni Nixon (the female lead singing voice of Natalie Wood in "West Side Story", Deborah Kerr in "The King & I", Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady"). Then, of course we had Joes Coat ("Joseph and the .....")in which Margaret Hamilton (wicked witch of the west) was in ill-health and came to see the show and went back stage to talk with the cast and had them in tears - including female narrator Laurie Beechman who passed away in '98. That building and venue is full of such a rich history and so many great stories......

Music too, lots of music. We had the great Wilson Pickett come back concert in 1980... incredible. And the concert called Solid Gold which was groups or bands from New York that only had 1 or 2 hits. So we had Vito and the Salutations, Johnny Meistro and the Brooklyn Bridge, the Angels ("My Boyfiend's Back") and a ton of others.

I lived a few blocks from the theater in the mid-90s. I remember seeing Son of the Shark and Crimson Tide there.

Renewing link.

The conversion of this theater into a seven-screen multiplex was the work of the late John W. Averitt, Averitt Associates, an architect who designed at least two other projects for City Cinemas: the East 86th Street Cinemas and the Murray Hill Cinemas. Averitt was best known for his designs for live performance spaces.

An article about the conversion of the Village East appeared in the June, 1991, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. The article mentioned one of the theater's aka's that is not yet listed above, the Molly Picon.

John Averitt was also responsible for the catastrophic twinning of the Sutton. I didn't know he was dead. What happened to him?

Averitt died of cancer in 2004. Here's an obituary.

John Averitt, around 1991, drew up plans for City Cinemas for a three-screen cinema to be located on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors of the former Liberty Storage Warehouse building at 43 W. 64th St. (the building that used to have the small Statue of Liberty on the roof). As I recall, 2 of the theatres were to have around 200 seats each and the third was to have around 300 to 350 seats. The name of the project was Liberty Walk. The landlord was intending to put in a passageway through to 65th Street on the ground floor, lined with restaurants and clubs, and the theatre upstairs. I don't remember what the plan was for the upper floors of the building were. While the landlord was having studies done in regard to altering the buildings structural system to accommodate the theatre, Loews announced they had signed for a substantial number of square feet in a mixed-use high-rise development to be built on the site of a nearby post office. They were planning 10 screens for what they were, at the time, calling Loews Lincoln Metroplex. This announcement effectively put the kabash on City Cinemas 64th Street project, and the drawings just sat in the drawer at the home office for years.

As Ludwig Satz Yiddish Folks Theatre:

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=772034&imageID=1508671&total=52338&num=600&word=theatre&s=1¬word=&d=&c=&f=&k=0&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&imgs=20&pos=620&e=w