Art Greenwich Twin

The Greenwich Theatre was located at 97 Greenwich Avenue and originally had 590 seats. It was re-named the Art Greenwich in honor of the 599-seat Art Theatre, which closed in the 1980s (90s?) and was converted to other use. The Art was at 36 East 8th Street, and, IMHO, a much "classier" theatre than the Greenwich.

The ART became Movieland 8 ST. operated by Moss and then by UA, it is now part of the college complex there and may still be used as a theatre.

The former Art (and Movieland 8th Street) is indeed still used as a theatre, often serving as a showcase for various film festivals and screenings, with NYU connections and otherwise, under the aegis of the Cantor Film Center. Surprisingly, while the lobby was completely renovated, from what I've heard, the three auditoriums within the complex - a result of the renovation BS Moss engineered prior to its reopening as the Movieland 8th Street in June of 1986 - haven't been. (One of my strongest moviegoing experiences stems from my only visit to the Movieland, in July of 1993, when, prior to a screening of 'Sleepless in Seattle' in the upstairs auditorium, a female co-patron fell into a heap when her seat gave out under her. Somehow I don't think it would be THAT difficult for NYU to find the money within its budget to replace the seats within the three Cantor auditoriums... )

Movie star Paulette Goddard left something like $8 million to NYU when she died. Perhaps they could use some of that money to replace the seats!

You need to update the address and the seating from the statment that was entered by Warren on Mar., 12. 2004.

I think it was actually a lot more than $8 million. In any event, the Greenwich Theatre appears in the 1947 Joan Crawford/Henry Fonda film, "Daisy Kenyon". I don't know if they actually shot on location or copied it in the studio, but it is clearly the Greenwich. They are shown outside it, and I think going into it.

I passed by here the other day and recalled many fond days seeing films here. The theatre was a great single but was an awkward twin. Still it had the flavor of a true Greenwich Village cinema.

Spent a lot of my puberty years here, in the early 60s. Watching foreign films and an occasional "risque" film like Russ Meyer's Lorna. Seemed like it was dedicated to all Jean Paul Belmondo at times. Great stuff. Jerry from 42nd Street Memories

a great theater that always did big box office # for its ,Kiss of the spider women played here for a year or so.

The Art Greenwich closed in June of 2000, its final two offerings being Ridley Scott's 'Gladiator' and the Sex Pistols documentary 'The Filth and the Fury'.

After many years as a listed building (even the battleship gray exterior was untouchable) this appears to have been demolished and replaced by an awkward glass fronted gym.

The Art Greenwich had poor presentation as a twin and was home to rats the size of cats. One particular rat (named Ben by theatre staff)had gray hair and used to sit on its hind legs and eat popcorn at the stand, sometimes on busy nights.

The basement boiler was a nightmare of disrepair causing several winter closings. The Art Greenwich had a lot a personality but was truly past its sell-by date.

RATS?I ran this theater as manager and dm for years and never had a one,and i have to say the presintation for and odd twin was pretty good. Theater # 1 was to cold theater #2 to hot ....The locals could not get enough......

LImovies, wanna run that by us again?

Twin one projection (the old balcony) shot over the ceiling of twin two creating a fuzzy picture. The air conditioning and heat never really worked correctly, at least as a twin.

The entrance cove was a haven for the homeless until we were allowed to gate the front at the request of local residents. The place had a lot of character and was great arthouse even though Cineplex booked both this and the Waverly as mainstream.

LImovies, I was a regional manager for Cineplex Odeon. When were you there?

In November of 1969 Russ Meyers "Vixen" had been doing boffo business for almost 6 months at the 72nd St Playhouse and the Globe. The film then began it's first wider run opening at the Greenwich, Liberty, Midtown 99th St. In Brooklyn at the Astor and Elm. In the Bronx at the Ascot. In Queens Continental, Earle and Little Neck. STaten Island at the Island. In Nassau at Bar Harbor, Salisbury and Malverne. In Suffolk at Islip, Hampton Arts and Ronkonkoma.

RobertR,

You bring back a great memory (or great mammary) of seeing Meyer's "LORNA" there in '65. My research of my mis-spent youth shows that the co-feature was "LOVE THE ITALIAN WAY" with Elke Sommer. Great stuff for a 15 year old. j

Those Meyer films are a blast, they seem almost innocent now.

A C/O was issued for this address in November of 1936. It does not indicate if it was a new building or not. It is listed as a 599 seat motion picture theater owned by S.B. Moss.

I just saw the Joan Crawford picture "Daisy Kenyon" (1947) and her character lived on 12th Street; there was one scene where she looks in the newspaper to see what's playing at "the Greenwich," and then there was a long, long look at its lovely wraparound marquee. I couldn't make out what was supposedly playing, but it was cool to see this theatre so prominently feaured.

1978 (pre-twinning):
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/greenwich.jpg

Did the Greenwich run revival or retrospectives in the late '70's? My father once took me to a theater downtown in the Village area to catch a then rare showing of The Beatles' psychedelic 1967 TV special "Magical Mystery Tour." I was into the Beatles big time as a child and was about a year and 1/2 from being allowed to venture into the City on my own to catch a movie, so I coaxed my Dad into taking me. I remember giving him a choice of going to see Mel Brooks' "High Anxiety" (which had just opened and which he had just seen with my Mom the night before) or to see the Beatles film - which was playing in an advertised triple feature along with "Sympathy for the Devil" featuring the Rolling Stones and "We're An American Band" an early 70's promotional short film about the rock band Grand Funk Railroad. Coming from Laurelton, Queens, we had to grab a bus to Jamaica and then grab a subway into Manhattan - and I recall there was also a subway transfer involved once in the City. We were running late and wound up seating ourselves (in the balcony) about 15 minutes into "Magical Mystery Tour."

After the film ended, I convinced my Dad that we had to stay through the next two features to catch what we had missed in the first film. He reluctantly agreed. The Grand Funk Railroad film was boring to me (as I'm SURE it was to my Dad) but thankfully, it was only about 25 or 30 minutes long. Then came "Sympathy for the Devil", which was the USA title and re-cut version of a didactic Jean Luc Godard polemic entitled "One Plus One." This movie was just about unwatchable!!! It intercut film of the Stones' recording session for their famous song with bizarre avant-garde sequences involving some African American militants and a neo-fascist political group that operated behind the front of a porno book store. About 30 minutes or so into this film was about all my Dad could stand, and - while I was ready to argue with him initially - I was secretly thankful to be spared watching any more of the movie!

Anyway... I've been trying to piece together where it was that we saw these movies (or portions thereof, anyhow) and the Greenwich seems like a likely candidate. It had a balcony and the image I’ve seen of the marquee looks familiar. Did the Art on 8th Street have a balcony? If so it is a possibility. The Waverly is a long shot and I know for sure it wasn’t the 8th Street Playhouse. Anyone have access to newspaper clippings from that time and willing to check for me? "High Anxiety" was released during the Christmas vacation from school in December of 1977 so the date would have been shortly after that - most likely during the school break, but possibly the 1st week of January 1978.

Perhaps one of the last views of the Greenwich... Sarah Jessica Parker meets the girls outside of the Greenwich in one of the first episodes of "Sex and the City".

Greenwich Theatre and Greenwich Playhouse should be listed as alternative names for this location.

No relation to the Greenwich cinema in Connecticut.

While I'm never happy to see a theater close, I make a big exception in this case! The Greenwich Twin (where I remember seeing Bullets Over Broadway...."Don't Speak!".....) was demolished and replaced by an Equinox Gym. One day, the man who is now my partner was having a protein drink at the ground level cafe when he spotted me passing by outside. He followed me down the street and introduced himself to me. We have been together ever since and will celebrate 4 years together in May. We are also engaged to be married! So, I'm very happy that this particular theater is gone! :-)

HAPPY FOR YOU..... BUT..I MANAGED THIS THEATER AND NEVER THOUGHT THIS WOULD CLOSE....The numbers here were always the best ....

Was only in this theater three times, I think - two of them after the twinning. Can't remember what I saw, but I do remember going back to the lobby during one visit to tell them it was so cold in the auditorium that I could see my own breath. I was already wearing a suit coat, overcoat, scarf and gloves. As I recall, they never did correct the problem. - Ed Blank

Renewing link.

As an RKO Twin.

http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=new+york&catpageindex=30&catpagesize=25&ProductID=31142

Thanks for the many fine Manhattan marquee shots, Al.