New Yorker Theatre

The area above the marquee held a huge iron circle surrounding Diana the Huntress and her hound. It later toppled on to the marquee during a horific storm and remained there until the theater was demolished to make way for a highrise.

I stand corrected. My brother tells me it was formerly the "YORKTOWN". ( Yorkville is an area on the east side, where such lumineries as Cagney and the Marx Bros. grew up. )

It was in the New Yorker lobby that Woody Allen pulled Marshall McLuhan from behind a billboard in Annie Hall.

After the Roxy was razed in 1960, some of it's very plush and comfortable seats were moved to this theater.

As the Adelphi, the theatre had 1,039 seats. When re-opened as the Yorktown, the seating capacity was reported as 955, which is probably what it remained for the New Yorker. The name of Daniel Talbot deserves to be mentioned as the founder of the New Yorker. His policy of reviving Hollywood and foreign movies that hadn't been seen for years started a national trend. He was so successful that in 1965 he started New Yorker Films to distribute foreign and independently-made movies. His involvement in that company was probably why he sold the New Yorker to Walter Reade. Talbot later returned to exhibition with the current Lincoln Plaza Cinemas at 1886 Broadway.

I believe that the name of this theatre was just New Yorker, not The New Yorker. The New Yorker is the name and registered trademark of a weekly magazine, and has been for many decades.

I will forever associate this theatre with the American commercial premiere showing of Luchino Visconti's masterful 1948 LA TERRA TREMA, not shown in the U.S. until 1965. On October 12th I went to the Vatican Pavilion at World's Fair in the afternoon, the New Yorker that evening. So I saw Michelangelo's Pieta' and Visconti's LA TERRA TREMA for the first time in one day! I was overwhelmed by the film, the magnificent uncut print that was shown. I was a frequent visitor to the New Yorker and had a great deal of respect for Dan Talbot, who ran it. He should be canonized for the work he did with that theatre.

The original Adelphi first opened in 1914 and had Rouse & Goldstone as architects. In 1933, the art deco renovation into the Yorktown Theatre was done by Boak & Paris, the same architects responsible for the nearby Midtown.

Did Walter Reade change this from revival to first run? I was only in here one time to see "Diabolique" and another film which escapes me at the moment.

I lived directly across the street from the New Yorker from 1955-1978. I worked at the theatre in the 70's, as a cashier ( we had one turnstyle with a foot break ) and consession stand. In the theatre we had a big book on a little stand, situated under a small light. In that book one could list suggestions and complaints, etc. One can only wonder if the suggestions and complaints were headed. I do remember very often, folks would state to "FIX THE PROJECTORS!" I was in the projection booth a couple of times. The projectors had bakelite handles. The manager's office was under the stairs. Lots of famous upper West Siders came in to the theatre. I watched ( from my 7th floor window ) Woody Allen filming Annie Hall. I took a sad photo of an Art Deco candy machine being loaded on the back of a pick up truck.

Walter Reade bought the theatre from Dan Talbot indeed. I met Dan several times. He can still be reached if you look up New Yorker Films on the web. I was a sad day when Walter Reade took over. The West Side ( to me ) was never the same. Too bad so many of the great theatres on the "Subway Circuit" and other theatres like the Metro and New Yorker, Loew's 83rd, etc. have met their end.

I moved to NYC in 76 and went to the New Yorker one time in the early 80's to see a revial of Mary Poppins. I worked at Walter Reade's Festival which is also gone. When did the theater become a twin? I know the MEtro has reopened, but is the Olympia gone?

The Olympia is gone; it was torn down during spring, 2003.

I thought the Annie Hall scenes were at the Beekman Theatre, not the New Yorker.

Nope, it was the New Yorker. I used to work there and I used to watch the filming from my 7th floor window across the street!

Another NY fixture like the Bleecker and 8th Street that should have been saved.

I see that Warren has already posted that this theater opened as the Adelphi theater in 1914. There should be an aka Adelphi added to the name at the top of the page.

There are four theaters total in Annie Hall:

Diane Keaton's first appearance is when Woody is waiting for her outside the Beekman. Ingmar Bergman's Face to Face is playing. They walk in and because Annie (Diane Keaton) was late, the movie has already been on for two minutes nad Woody "can't walk in in the middle of the movie." So they go to the New Yorker to see Sorry and the Pity, which they've both already seen. Later Woody is seen leaving the Paris, which is playing Children of Paradise. At the end of the movie, Woody is standing with Sigourney Weaver underneath the Thalia's marquee which shows Sorrow and the Pity spelled out in plastic letters.

In Manhattan Woody leaves "Cinema Studio" and I haven't been able to find this theater.

Shade,
Here it is:
http://cinematreasures.org/theater/6498/

This photo of the New Yorker Theater with owner Dan Talbot appeared in The New York Times on April 21, 1972 and is credited to Meyer Liebowitz.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y60/italiangerry/Cinemas/NewYorker-DanTalbot-1972.jpg

I believe their was another Adelphi theater in NYC as the current Ed Sullivan theater (where the Letterman show and previously, the Honeymooners was filmed) was at one time know as Adelphi). See here: http://www.theasc.com/magazine/wrap/1098wrap.htm
Third paragraph

I could be wrong about this but I don't think the Ed Sullivan Theater was ever called the Adelphi Theater. From what I have read on this theater, it was built in 1927 and called the Hammerstein Theater. In 1934 it was remodeled and became Billy Rose's Music Hall. Around 1948 CBS leased the building to use as a tv studio for the Toast of the Town show with host Ed Sullivan. In 1949 CBS purchased the theater and it became Studio 50. It was renamed the Ed Sullivan Theater in 1967.

In response to some of the comments above--Lost is quite right. The Ed Sullivan Theater opened as the Hammerstein in 1927 (Cary Grant, when he was still known as Archie Leach, appeared in Golden Dawn, the first show to play there.) However, CBS RADIO started broadcasting from the theater about ten years later after Major Bowe's switched from NBC to CBS. The CBS Radio Playhouse, or whatever it was called, was converted for televison in 1950 and was called CBS Studio 50. As it happens, The Honeymooners did originate from this facility when it was part of Jackie Gleason's CBS television program, but the stand-alone half-hour version of The Honeymooners were filmed a few years later at the Adelphia on 54th Street (which became the George Abbott Theatre.) And contrarary to popular opinion, in 1948, when Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town first went on the air, it originated from the Maxine Elliott Theater on 39th Street and stayed for a couple of years before moving to Studio 50. I know this is confusing, but I think I have tmy chronology correct. But the question I have is why are these postings on the New Yorker's page???

Sorry for the typos in my post above.I should have spelled it Major Bowes's ... well, nobody is perfect!

The Hammerstein was never known as the Adelphi, which was one of the later names of the legit Craig Theatre at 152 West 54th Street. The Craig switched to Adelphi in 1934. In 1940, it was taken over by the Royal Fraternity of Master Metaphysicians and re-named The Radiant Center, presenting religious entertainment. In 1944, the Shuberts took over and re-named it the Adelphi again. In 1949, DuMont took an eight-year lease and used it as a television studio, for programs including "The Honeymooners." After Dumont left, the theatre went back to "legit" and was re-named the 54th Street Theatre. In 1959, it was re-named again in honor of the legendary George Abbott. As the George Abbott Theatre, its final tenant was a musical version of "Elmer Gantry," which lasted only one performance in February, 1970. The theatre was demolished to make way for an addition to the adjacent New York Hilton Hotel.

The original Adelphi Theatre. Please note that the auditorium was a separate edifice behind a corner building that included stores and upstairs offices (or apartments):
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/adelphi.jpg

The introductory description is in error, I believe, about the closing date of this theater. I never attended a movie here, but during the period in the early '80's when I would frequently take in screenings all over town I can recall being aware of the New Yorker's exsitence on Broadway and 88th Street for revival fare. It was a theater I wanted to visit, but never had the opportunity.

Anyone have specific information regarding the approximate date of its closing?

It was demolished in either late 84 or early 85 - I moved to Manhattan 7/84 and it was only there briefly after I got here.

A 1960 revival of "Sunset Boulevard"
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/Movie%20Ads/Symphony.jpg

I think it was November 1979, attended a Woody Allen film festival three week-ends in a row, seeing a total of 9 pictures. I remember one of those days, I think it was a Sunday, we just waited outside for about an hour because the manager was late in showing up with the key to open the place. Pretty ridiculous.

In the 80s it played the Rocky Horror Show at midnight on weekends, with a couple of comic shorts as intro. The "Savannah" co-op now stands on the property.

I worked at the New Yorker from 1974-76 as a cashier. Lots of memories...lots of stories. Glad I'm not the only one who remembers it!

Can anyone tell me if Elmer Gantry (1960) played at the New Yorker--or any other theater in the same Upper West Side neighborhood--in 1960?

A "Harrison" theatre advertised in 1994 as being on 89th and Broadway. Does anyone know what venue that may have been?

BROADWAY PLOT AT 89TH ST. SOLD; 3 Stores and a Theatre Included in Transaction

NY Times February 22, 1960

The Pamela Amusement Company has contracted to sell 2409-15 Broadway, southwest corner of Eighty-ninth Street, consisting of a three-story business building and the Yorktown Theatre. The property, 85 by 132 feet, is being acquired by R.J.K., Inc., a group including Sam Rosenberg and Albert Kaine.

A Midmer-Losh theater organ was installed in the Adelphi Theater in 1922.

Belated American premiere of a French and Italian film on the same 1965 program. Rouch and Fellini.

I actually own the Coming Attractions art deco glass side piece of the theater. The workers were nice enough to deliver it to me!

When did the New Yorker Theatre close? An exhibit of hand-lettered posters for films that played there is currently on display in the gallery off the lobby of the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center. According to that, the New Yorker ran from 1960 to 1973. This has to be wrong. I moved to NYC in January 1977, and attended many films at the New Yorker for several years. Could they have meant 1983?

The theatre closed sometime in the 80's. I saw a re release of mary poppins there in 1982.

Thanks. I also just remembered that they actually twinned the theater at some point. Remember it as a pretty slapdash job, like they just put in a wall dividing the auditorium and the seats, which were not realigned. At least, that's how I remember it.

New book on Talbot theatres.

http://www.amazon.com/Yorker-Theater-Other-Scenes-Movies/dp/0231145667/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0

One of the best things about Toby Talbot's book is a section reproducing numerous pages from the New Yorker's business ledger, including film rentals, ad-pub expenses, and boxoffice takings. It even inlcudes the final booking for the Yorktown Theatre in March, 1960, which was a three-day subsequent-run engagement of "The Great Man" & "Face in the Crowd" that grossed a total of $1,036.50. The theatre then clossd for a day for refurbishing and opened as the New Yorker on March 17th with Olivier's "Henry V" and "Red Balloon," which grossed $7,048.93 in its first week, meriting a hold-over. A note in the book says that the entire ledger can be viewed on the Internet, but so far that is not possible: www.cup.columbia.edu/talbot

This page has a 1959 magenta-tinted picture of The New Yorker's marquee showing a triple-feature: http://orphanfilmsymposium.blogspot.com/2009/02/new-yorkers-are-abuzz-but-blue-about.html

"Pull My Daisy" was/is a B&W "short" running about 28 minutes, and thus not considered a feature.

For those in the NYC area, Toby Talbot's recent hardcover book about the New Yorker and other Talbot theatres can be found for only $12.50 at Strand Books at 828 Broadway (corner of 12th Street). Today, I spotted a substantial stock of what are probably "review copies" in both the film and New York City sections of the store. The book's list price is $25.00.