Audubon Theatre

The Audubon Theatre was situated at 3950 Broadway, and had 2,368 seats. This area of Manhattan's Upper West Side is Washington Heights, not Harlem. During construction, the building was known as the Washington Heights Hippodrome, but prior to opening, the name was changed to Audubon Theatre & Ballroom in honor of naturalist John James Audubon, who had lived in the neighborhood. In the auditorium, a ceiling mural above the proscenium depicted George Washington leading the famous Revolutionary War battle that later caused the area to be named in his honor.

New York's black community (the political part of it anyway) was extremely pissed off when Columbia took over the Audubon, turning it into a research facility for biotech or something, instead of preserving it as a cultural center and historic landmark dedicated to the memory of Malcolm X. Radio station WBAI discussed this endlessly for a year or so. It's nice the restored facade is beautiful, and it's nice that Columbia saw fit to give it the name and memorial. But it's still part of the process of gradual, inexorable gentrification (and bleaching) of Harlem, whose black residents never did control any of the real estate in their neighborhood.

I found a website with some history on this theater. This theater was also known as the Beverly Hills and the San Juan theater. You can read more about it here:
http://hhoc.org/hist/aud_ball.htm

Here is a 1954 photo of this theater when it was called the San Juan:
http://www.housingauthority.lagcc.cuny.edu/photos/nycha/photos/02.003.19879.jpg

Caption for photo:
"The San Juan concert hall once stood on Broadway at the corner of West 165th Street in Washington Heights, Manhattan, June 1, 1954. It is better known as the Audubon Ballroom, where on February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated while giving a speech at a rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity. The Audubon was built in 1912 as a vaudeville and movie theater by William Fox, who founded the Fox Film Corporation (later 20th Century Fox). When Columbia-Presbyterian controversially tore down the building to construct a medical facility, the Broadway facade of the Audubon was kept intact as a memorial".

I happened on a tradepaper policy ad from July 13, 1921, for "William Fox Greater New York Theatres." Listed, in not quite alphabetical order, were:
AUDUBON, Photoplays & Vaudeville
ACADEMY OF MUSIC [the original], Photoplays & Symphony Orchestra
ALBEMARLE (Brooklyn), Photoplays & Vaudeville
BEDFORD (Brooklyn), Photoplays & Vaudeville
BAY RIDGE (Brooklyn), Photoplays & Vaudeville
CITY, Photoplays & Vaudeville
CROTONA (Bronx), Photoplays & Vaudeville
COMEDY (Brooklyn), Photoplays & Vaudeville
FOLLY (Brooklyn), Photoplays & Vaudeville
JAMAICA (Queens), Photoplays & Vaudeville
JAPANESE GARDEN, Photoplays
NEMO, Photoplays
RIDGEWOOD (Brooklyn), Photplays & Vaudeville
STAR (Lexington Avenue), Photoplays & Vaudeville
WASHINGTON (Amsterdam Avenue), Photoplays.

Here's an image of the original entrance and marquee:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/123-2343_IMG.jpg

I believe that the Uptown, listed elsewhere on this site, is actually a duplicate entry for the Audubon. (According to the NY Times of 4/23/1943, the Uptown was located at Broadway and St. Nicholas Ave.)
Therefore, I'd suggest that, in addition to adding the zip code of 10032 to this entry, the previous names Beverly Hills and Uptown be listed.
(In fact, since this theatre ended its existence as the San Juan Theater, I believe this entry should be renamed and Audubon also listed as a previous name.)
I could be wrong about the conclusions I'm drawing from my research so please feel free to chime in if I'm incorrect about any of this.

The Uptown was NOT the same theatre as the Audubon!

Could this have been the TAPIA in the late sixties?

The theatre was one of the first in Manhattan to present sound newsreels, according to this ad from November 28, 1927:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/movietone.jpg

The project that became the Audubon was first reported in The New York Times on January 14, 1912. A second report on March 3, 1912, suggests that William Fox and Thomas Lamb later changed some of the original design to save on construction costs:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/audbon1.jpg
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/audbon2.jpg

In May, 1923, Fox's Audubon was part of a 30-theatre city-wide engagement of "Down to the Sea in Ships" after the epic ended an exclusive three-month run on Broadway:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/downtosea.jpg

Post the same ad in many theatres. Cool idea. Thanx.

This website has some history of the Audubon Theater.

This theatre is mentioned in Rogelio Agrasanchez, Jr.’s excellent book MEXICAN MOVIES I N THE UNITED STATES.

The Audubon as the SAN JUAN ran Spanish Language films when the going got tough in the late forties often playing day and date with the flasgship PUERTO RICO in the South Bronx.

San Juan should be added as an alternate name here.

The Audubon first started showing Spanish-language films (but not exclusively) in December, 1943, while under Brandt management. In August, 1948, Moe Goldman and Gilbert Josephson acquired the lease and re-named the theatre the San Juan, which remained for the rest of its life as a cinema. All of the movies were now in Spanish (usually without English subtitles) and imports from Mexico, Spain, Cuba, Argentina, and other countries. To fill the gaps, the San Juan sometimes ran revivals of Hollywood films dubbed into Spanish, which could be rented cheaply from the foreign departments of the major distributors. Here's an ad for one such booking in August, 1949. Even if you didn't understand the language, it might have been worth a visit just to hear Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer and Abbott & Costello speaking in Spanish, and probably not in their actual voices: www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/sanjuan849.jpg

A Moller theater organ opus 2015 size 3/24 was installed in the Audubon Theater in 1915.

Here is some architectural detail:
http://tinyurl.com/2kwk8j

Here is a January 19, 1927 article about a fire in the Audubon:
http://tinyurl.com/5dw9gx

It must have been a slow night with 800 people.

Does anyone have any knowledge of a HUDSON theatre in north Manhattan?

It appears in the 1934 Film Daily Year Book as located at 1268 Amsterdam Avenue but newspaper ads in 1921-22 place it close to Audubon Avenue and 167th street.

The 1940 Film Daily lists a Hudson Theater at 1968 Amsterdam Avenue.

The Hudson is also listed in 1935 with an address of 1968 Amsterdam Avenue.

My mistake, LM, it is 1968, but that still maps near Lincoln Center.

Here's a rare individual ad for the Audubon from November, 1948. "Zelane" was a psychic who made frequent tours of neighborhood theatres, advising patrons individually in a section of the lounge and not from the stage: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/audubon48.jpg