Loew's Delancey Theater

Another gem I remember fondly. My grandmother and I used to go to church down the block. After the service my grandmother would buy a Knish for my older sister. She would grab me by the hand so we could cross the street to catch the B39 bus across the Williamsburg Bridge and then hop on the B53 (now Q54). I was able to gaze at the lobby of the theater. It wasn't as big as other theaters but it made an impression on me.

I was on inside of theater. It has been gutted. Both balconies have been about 90% removed. Just hallways that were under the backs of them are there. Entry before present construction was from back of store on left facing theater (Dollar store at time). You entered the stage dressing room stairway. At about the third floor you climbed out of door that lead to stage flyway. You are now on top of the ceilings of all the stores. It is made of a sheetmetal with a thin coat of mortor for fire proofing. You walked toward Canal street or front of store. Where balcony was is cut steel I beams. There is a hole cut in the wall of the hall way that was under the balcony. From here you can take back of balcony stairs up to next balcony level and finally the projection room. There was some store rooms and bath rooms in this space. Also from projection room there is access to space above the ceiling. Again there are rooms with some fans. The top floors of the dressing rooms contained old air conditioning compressors and equipment. Well stripped by past junkies. There is more equipment under stage stand pipe pumps. I have worked as a projectionist for twenty five years. I also do repair work on side and visit these old joint to find parts for repairs. Every now and then they left a complete booth or part of one. The best one I found was years ago in the Bronx. The Bainbridge theater had at one time an open air theater on the roof. You accessed the roof theater booth by a ladder in a back room. When you got up there all the 1920's machines were in there complete with turntables on the sides of the projector bases. The first movies had the sound track on records. This all gone now. A collector took evry thing. Thats all.

As of 1923, this theatre was known as Loew's Delancey Street Theatre. The full address was 140-146 Delancey. In February of '23, the theatre's manager was busted in a "Blue Law" raid.

Like the nearby Essex Theater, I only walked by the Delancey; I never went in. That neighborhood wasn't so great in the eighties/early nineties. I did walk by there recently after walking over the nearby Williamsburg Bridge. The neighborhood is going upscale, though.

Does anyone know when this theatre opened and closed??? And what is a "blue Law"?

One of the 'Blue Laws' in the state of Massachusetts (where I grew up) prohibited up until around 1983 or so most types of businesses except for a handful (i.e., gas stations, convenience stores, etc.) from opening for business on Sundays. Blue laws, I'd have to think, probably varied from state to state, so those in effect in New York State (or in the city) back in 1923 were probably different from the ones on the books in the Bay State. (I can't imagine they affected movie theatres being open for business on Sundays; I know of no such law and the very notion sounds absurd, to say the least.)

Blue laws did indeed prevent theatres from operating legally on Sundays, both in NY and many other jurisdictions. Religious 'crusaders' often forced local police and prosecutors, who were usually content to turn a blind eye to infractions, to enforce such laws by swearing out complaints against offenders.
(Such laws also prevented Sunday baseball games in many cities in the early part of the twentieth century. Christy Mathewson and John McGraw of the New York Giants were arrested for participating in a benefit game on Sunday, August 19, 1917.)

The history timeline of the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, MA includes this item:

1955: [Bryant Haliday and Cyrus Harvey Jr.,, the theatre's owners] challenge Massachusetts's blue laws when the state's Public Safety Commissioner attempts to halt the Sunday showing of the film Miss Julie on the grounds that it "would disturb the peace of the Lord's Day." The Brattle wins, and the Massachusetts Supreme Court lifts the 1908 laws.

On June 3rd 1977, Loews Theatre and Realty Corporation transfered ownership of the Loews Delancey Theatre Property from itself to the Paws Realty Corp. There have been several transfers of ownership of the former Loew's Delancey theatre since then.

I don't know when this theater opened, but the current building has a build date of 1912. An address search shows:
Bate Record Distributor Inc.
140 Delancey Street, New York, NY 10002
(212) 677-3180

140 Delancey Street, Lower East Side, New York 10002

Block & Lot #: 00353 - 0075
Building Class: Miscellaneous Store Building (K9)
School District: 1 map/schools
City Council District: 1
Police Precinct: 7 (Crime Statistics)
Political Contributions: search
BUILDING CHARACTERISTICS
Zoning C6-1
Building Size (F x D): 100.00ft x 118.00ft
Lot Size (F x D): 100.00ft x 125.17ft
Building Height: -
Total Gross Area of Building:
Year Built: 1912
Historic District?: No
Corner Lot?: No
Has Garage?: No
Number of Floors: 3
# Units: 0
FAR as built: 1.60
Allowable FAR: 6.00

Jun 01, 2005 $4,800,000
May 01, 2004 $3,880,000
Apr 01, 2003 $3,610,000
Mar 01, 2002 $3,000,000
Feb 01, 2001 $3,690,000
1 Market value obtain from the NYC Department of Finance

This was built by Loew's and for most of its theatrical life was known as Loew's Delancey. I think that the name in the intro should reflect that.

I agree with Warren. This should be listed under Loew's. I was there a couple of times as a youngster with my parents. We saw the Bridge on The River Kwai and The King and I.

Does anyone know when this theater closed?

A Moller organ Opus 2307 Size 3/16 was installed in the Loew's Delancey Street Theater (that is the exact name on the organ list) in 1917 at a cost of $5000.

I'm still confused by this "organ list." Was it published at the time of the actual installation, or are the entries part of a massive list published at a much later date by some theatre organ historian?

The organ list is a searchable database that lists theaters from the U.S. and a few other countries. I don't know what their source is but it appears to be fairly accurate. Check your email.

Loew's Delancey first opened on March 28, 1912. It was one of the first theatres that Marcus Loew actually built, and not a take-over of an already existing one. The Delancey's original policy was eight acts of vaudeville. Movie shorts and newsreels were shown just as "fillers."

My Grandmother lived on Orchard St. & we used to visit her with my Parents during the late 1940's & early 1950's. At that time there were two theaters on Delancey St. that were called the Delancy Theater. The one pictured above was called the Loews Delancey and the other just Delancy. Cinema Treasures makes no mention of this other Delancey Theater and I hope someone out there knows about it.
In any event, the Loews Delancey showed first run features while the other Delancey showed really old films. In fact, my Grandmother used to give my brother and I a quarter apiece which would buy us admission to see....three feature films, five cartoons, coming attractions and Movietone News. We were in the theater for seven hours. One weekend they were showing instead of three features all the chapters of Nioka, Queen of the Jungle back to back. Instead of editing all the chapters into one film they showed all the chapters with their respective credits one after another. We had to watch the credits every fifteen minutes fifteen times in the day. By the time it ended I could tell you who directed, produced, wrote the music, the makeup, etc. etc. At least thirty minutes of this showing we watched nothing but credits. But it was fun.
asbag

There were two "Nyoka" serials, both made by Republic Pictures. Which one do you mean? The first was entitled "Jungle Girl" and starred Frances Gifford as Nyoka. The second was "Perils of Nyoka" and had Kay Aldridge in the title role.

Asbag....the other Delancey that you refer to is indeed listed on this site. Check under the New Delancey Theater page. Do you have any recollections about the interior of the New Delancey? Did it have a balcony?

To Warren....the serial I saw as Nyoka (got the spelling right this time) Jungle Girl. Not only did I sit through the credits some fifteen times but I got to see the previous ending of the chapter over each time as well.
To ErwinM (your last name is not Marcus, is it?) thanks for reminding me that the theater was named New Delancey. On the web site for the New Delancey most everyone thinks that the New Delancey was only a Spanish language theater. It definitely had another life in the 40's and 50's. I really don't remember if it had a balacony.
On another subject it is amazing how with all the things that we remember the names of all the movie theaters we attended during the course of our lives.

To Asbag....My last name is Markisch, which is fairly close to Marcus. Do we know each other? If so, please e-mail me at emarkisch@msn.com

There seems to be a little confusion over dates here;Lost Memory has a build date of 1910 (posted July 12 2005) and Warren has a specific date of opening March 28 1912, built by and operated by by Marcus Loew (posted Oct 13 2005). Would it take over a year to construct?

It is not listed in the American Motion Picture Directory 1914-1915, so it could be possible it was not operating as a 'full time' movie theatre until 1917 when the Moller organ was installed. The 3rd June 1977 transfer of ownership from Loews (Theatrefan posting June 12 2005) could be the closing down of the Loew's Delancy. The conversion to retail shops happened in 1979.
Here is a June 2006 photograph of Loew's Delancy Theatre:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/189035868/

Well, they could have been union workers and that would explain why it took over a year to construct this theater. Just kidding. Ken, my post on Jul 12, 2005 actually gives a 1912 build date. Here is my entire comment from that date:

"I don't know when this theater opened, but the current building has a build date of 1912. An address search shows:
Bate Record Distributor Inc.
140 Delancey Street, New York, NY 10002
(212) 677-3180

140 Delancey Street, Lower East Side, New York 10002

Block & Lot #: 00353 - 0075
Building Class: Miscellaneous Store Building (K9)
School District: 1 map/schools
City Council District: 1
Police Precinct: 7 (Crime Statistics)
Political Contributions: search
BUILDING CHARACTERISTICS
Zoning C6-1
Building Size (F x D): 100.00ft x 118.00ft
Lot Size (F x D): 100.00ft x 125.17ft
Building Height: -
Total Gross Area of Building:
Year Built: 1912
Historic District?: No
Corner Lot?: No
Has Garage?: No
Number of Floors: 3
# Units: 0
FAR as built: 1.60
Allowable FAR: 6.00

Jun 01, 2005 $4,800,000
May 01, 2004 $3,880,000
Apr 01, 2003 $3,610,000
Mar 01, 2002 $3,000,000
Feb 01, 2001 $3,690,000
1 Market value obtain from the NYC Department of Finance

posted by Lost Memory on Jul 12, 2005 at 6:28am"

Lostmemory;...Sorry for the confusion, my eyes are tired...must get out more and off this web-site! lol
So we can now establish that the building was completed in 1912, opening on 28th March 1912. Marcus Loew built it and operated it as a vaudville theatre with short movie interludes in the programme until it became a full time cinema in around 1917.

Don't worry about it Ken. Its probably just jet lag. :)

RKO was not the only chain to book ballet in the mid 60's. Here is Sleeping Beauty in 1966 on the Loew's run. Even in 1966 im sure they were not breaking the doors down for this at the Delancey.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/Movie%20Ads/TheSleepingBeauty.jpg

I notice the property value has jumped markedly from 2001-05. With the continuing upward spiral in NYC property values, I'd imagine the land is worth about $5 million-$6 million now. Here comes an ugly, blue-glassed hi-rise condo!

The delay in building might have been due to changes in the business partnership between Marcus Loew and Adolph Zukor. On April 24th, 1910, The New York Times reported that Zukor (then spelling his name as Zucker) had just purchased the plot at the northwest corner of Delancey and Suffolk Streets from the Gilbert estate. The plot had a frontage of 150 feet on Delancey and 100 feet on Suffolk: "The purchaser, who is at present interested in a number of moving-picture and vaudeville houses, intends to erect a theatre and roof garden, each accommodating 2,500 persons." The article made no mention of Marcus Loew. It seems possible that Loew bought the property from Zukor when they ended their joint business dealings.

This link is to a photo taken under the Bridge showing bills for the Loew's Delancey Theater circa 1917:
http://www.shorpy.com/node/3308?size=_original

Loews stopped advertising this site around May 1976 so that may be the closing date.

New York Times has this description of the theater from 1968:

"Loew's Delancey is an interesting theater with purple pink décor and tiers of seats steeply banked so that it is easy to see. When I was there, two old men, one of whom had apparently sat accidentally on the other in the dark, were having a long, vicious argument that the rest of the audience, rather sparse and lost in the large theater, seemed to enjoy."

http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9901E6DC1F39E134BC4E53DFB0668383679EDE

What a shame that this theater didn't survive to enjoy the revival of the Lower East Side although revival might not be a good term as I don't think that the Lower East Side was EVER known as a nice neighborhood. I have to admit, that of all of the crummy New York Neighborhoods that I remember growing up in the 70's and 80's I would have picked the Lower East Side as dead last in potential for revival. But when I go there today, it is truly astounding! Trendy restaurants, including one of my favorites (Kampuchea), lounges, bars, boutiques, museums (including the amazing Tenement Museum on Orchard Street) and new Condominiums and luxury rental towers.

Times have changed so much that I feel very comfortable walking home (at night) from the Lower East Side through Chinatown to my home in the Financial District without the least worry for my safety. This is quite a difference from way back when when you made sure your car door was locked when driving through and that is all you did back then.......Drive Through!

The revival of many parts of New York in the last 15 years has been nothing short of spectacular. I'm confident that we won't go back to the bad old days in spite of the current challenging economic environment.

While it is too late for Loews Delancey, I hold out some hope for Loews Canal which I think may be largely intact and quietly hibernating and waiting to be rediscovered.

A real beauty, this one.

http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=new+york&catpageindex=27&catpagesize=25&ProductID=31044

Didn't someone alter the sign on the marquee so the letters OEW and ELANCY were OFF so it read LSD! This was during the psychedelic late 1960's!
--Alan

WOW! What a flash back for me. I grew up on Cherry Street, and my mother still lives there today. Boy, do I remember the Loews Delancey Theater. This theater brings back so many memories. I remember seeing Enter the Dragon and the second movie they show that day was the Green Hornet. I also remember Baits Record shop that use to be right next door. I have Great memories of the Loews Theater. When I look at the picture that AIAlvarez posted above, it puts me back in a time when things were not easy, but much simpler. The Lowes Delancey Theater will always be a special part of my life.

Dan R

Part of this marquee was behind the bar of a Times Square bar that closed and demolished in the last few years. Does anyone know where it went?

Are there any pictures of part the marquee in the bar. Are there any other pictures of this theater, or is there a websit of the old movie theaters of the past of new york. Please let me know.

Thanks
Dan

This website has a photo of Loew's Delancey. You can click on the photo to expand it.

Thank you very much Last memory.

Once again great old pictures and info.

Growing up in NY, you came to distinguish the distinct marquee styles of the Loews & RKO chains. They were recognizable from blocks away, especially if you were riding along the elevated subway lines.

The photo posted last May shows that the theatre's blade sign was in competition with Ratner's. Both added glitz to the busy street below.

The Delancey Street Theatre was designed by architect S.S. Sugar, who also designed Loew's Greeley Square Theatre. An item saying plans for the project had been filed was published in The New York Times of July 2, 1911.