Bleecker Street Cinemas

This place was one of my personal faves... like many of the old NYC revival houses it offered a less than ideal viewing experience (long and narrow like a shoebox and barely a floor slant to speak of... I'm getting claustrophobic even as I sit here recalling it, but hey, that was all part of the expereience: we were roughing it for art's sake), it nevertheless was my second college, offering a terrific education in classic world cinema. I got my first dose of Bergman, Kurosawa, Fassinder and others here. In terms of historic cinema really only the Film Forum is continuing the legacy in New York these days; it's sad. If I were a filmaker I'd create an homage to the bygone days of the truly bohemian Bleeker Street. My characters would meet at the Bleeker Street Cinema, argue about the movies over espressos at Le Figaro and end the evening getting blasted over martinis at the Village Gate while Dizzy Gillespie and Tito Puente jam onstage. No wait, that would be followed by a heavy and meaningful lovemaking scene back at the "pad."

Following is a link to a photo of the building which used to house the Bleeker St. Cinemas (taking during the 30s, when it housed a restaurant).

http://www.mcny.org/Exhibitions/abbott/a046.htm

The name and address of this theatre are spelled incorrectly. It's Bleecker Street, not Bleeker.

The Village Voice, in a June 20, 1989 article on lower Manhattan theatres ,lists the Bleecker main auditorium as seating 200 and the James Agee room as holding 78.

I recall watching one of the Monty Python films here circa mid 70's and may have also watched a Hitchcock film here in the early 70's (memory is a funny things sometimes!)

I remember reading that French director François Truffaut said this was his favorite New York cinema. Truffaut's 1961 film "Tire au flanc," made in collaboration with Claude de Givray, was given its New York premiere at the Bleecker in 1963, and I don't believe it actually received much, if any, U.S. distribution after that. Perhaps it was screened by special arrangement with Truffaut.

I meant to add that the Bleecker, in some of its publicity, used to mention the house cat. The feline was named "Breathless" after Jean-Luc Godard's first feature.

Loosing the Bleecker meant loosing part of the history of Greenwich Village. If any theatre should have lasted it was this one. It had that true shabby chic feel to it that a place like the Film Forum will never have.

This movie house appears in Woody Allen's "Crimes and Misdemeanors"; his character takes his niece to old movies there.

Yes, Breathless was our house cat. I ran the Bleecker Street Cinema in the early 60s (along with the late Marshall Lewis.) I would sometimes get a buzz on the house phone from the projection booth with the terse message "cat's on the screen.:" Breathless, a jet black smallish creature, would escape from the office area and start to climb the movie screen (which like most screens at the time had small holes in it, so it wouldn't billow in a draft. ) I would go out on the small stage in front of the screen and grab the cat, who was usally about two thirds of the way up the screen. Regulars in the audience would root for the cat to get to the top , a goal I don't think he ever reached.
That screen also comes into play with regard to Francois Truffaut. Indeed The Bleecker Street was his favorite theater in New York, along with most of the new wave directors (Godard, Resnias, Colpi were a few of our visitors. ) At that time, The Bleecker Street was the home of The NY Film Bulletin, a small magazine I published. We were the first to present translations from Cahiers du Cinema, the French magazine that was the source of Les Politiques Des Auteurs, known in the U.S. as the auteur theory. Most people remembrer The Bleecker Street as two theaters, but back then it was only one with 199 seats. (It had been an off-broadway theatre and 200 or more seats meant higher union wages.) The space that became the other theatre was a cavernous area that we used as an office. It was also an area that became a salon for the film literati of New York. Andy Sarris, Eugene Archer, Jonas Mekas and many others would just drop in and soon heated dicsussions would get underway. The auteur theory was quite controversial at the time and not at all accepted by most of the movie establishement. Pauline Kael was strongly against and was such other leading lights st Bosley Crowther and Dwight MacDonald. When Truffaut came to New York he would often stop by the Bleecker Street. I did one of the noted interviews with him on the auteur theory in the large backroom. We were fanatical about proper projection and proper screen ratio for the three screen formats. We had evolved a system of mattes that would work by pulleys so as to change from CinemaScope to standard ratio to what was known then as VistaVision (and is now known as wide-screen.). Since we always showed double bills, if they were in different formats, we would have to go backstage and re-arrange the mattes. On one of Truffaut's visits were showinga CinemaScope film (actually it was Jules and Jim) and the second featurre was standard format. I excused myself, telling him I had to change the screen ratio. He asked if he could come and watch. He stepped behind the screen as I worked the pulleys and as soon as finished, the film started. Truffaut was fascinated by seeing the film projected through the screeen and onto this body also by wathcing the audience watch a film. He stayed back there for quite awhile. The result of that expierence can be seen in his next film, The Soft Skin, when the lead actor goes behind a movie screen.
The Bleecker Street was owned by film-maker Lionel Rogosin (On The Bowery, Come Back Africa.) It was because of his documentary on South Africa that the theater came into existence. He couldn't find a theater interested in showing it on his terms, so being quite wealthy, he rented an off-broaway theater which for years had been showing Lorca's Blood Wedding. He opened Come Back Africa to respectful but not great reviews. He dug in his heels and just kept showing it. Finally he realized he had a theatre that was in trouble. He wanted to leave the country to make a film so he hired Marshall and I to run it for him. We did so on the condition that we would only have to
shoe Come Back Africa no more than twice a year.
If I had the time, I could tell dozens of stories about strange events at this theatre. The saga of the U.S. premiere of Kenneth Anger's Scorpio's Rising would take a few thousand words to tell. I'm supposed to be working on my website instead of this, but if anyone has any comments about The Bleecker Street or memories of visits, I'd love to hear them. Regards, rudy franchi

Rudy
Thanks so much for sharing these great memories. What a shame this place could not have survivied.

I remember both Carnegie Hall Cinema and Bleecker Street Cinema with great fondness. I used to go to these two theaters on a regular basis back in the late 70's. It was great. You could see films there you could see no where else in NY. "Big Deal on Madonna Street." "The Bicycle Thief." "Blowup." "Le MIllionaire (Renoir). I saw all these films either at the Bleecker or Carnegie. Lots of silent films. Chaplin. At the Carnegie I remember there was once an organist present to accompany a silent film. If memeory serves me right, Chaplin died around Christmastime 1977. Some of my family was in NY and Bleecker Street Cinema was showing a Chaplin film. We all went. At first, I would just get up and go to the movies. No lines and the theaters were only half filled at most. Price was something like either $1.25 or $1.50. A newletter was started but only a few issues ever came out. Great time in my life.

jboger, I wholeheartedly share your enthusiasm for the Bleecker and Carnegie in that period and I don't want to be a nitpicker, but the film you refer to was "Le Million" and it was not directed by Jean Renoir but by René Clair.

Gerald A. DeLuca, you're absolutely correct. It was "Le Million" that I saw, directed by Rene Clair, not Renoir.

Rudy,

I'm interested in some technical information about Bleecker Street Cinema, if you'd be so kind...

What kind of projectors did you use? When I booked "Space Avenger" there back in 1991, the theater only had one Simplex projector with a 6000 foot capacity. The house lights were left off as they changed reels for the second half of the movie. I know this is after your involvement with the cinema but I was wondering if that was one of the original projectors you used.
I assume you went reel to reel rather than platters. The only rep house that used platters was The Hollywood Twin and they used to trash the prints as a result. I was at a screening when they trashed a near mint Technicolor print of "Thunderball" at Hollywood 2.

Did you use carbon arc or Xenon illumination? I believe the Elgin Cinema used carbon arc and the other rep houses Xenon but I'm
not sure.

What was the typical booking deal? The basic rental price of the prints in the sixties and seventies? I know Zlatkin and Gould shut down the Elgin due to the increase in print rentals in 1977 (among
other reasons).

How difficult was it to get good prints from the exchanges? I know the prints at the Regency were often brand new (i.e. Fox festival). The Carnegie Hall occasionally got studio vault prints for it's festivals (Brando and Hitchcock, "Cheyenne Autumn"). I recall most of the prints at Bleecker Street looked quite good. Other rep houses played worn prints, especially Cinema Village. Did you have to make friends with a specific person at the exchange or were some better at quality control than others (i.e. Kino, MGM/UA)? I do recall speaking to some people there at the theater in the seventies and they told me they were having a tough time getting a long print of "Spartacus". Universal kept sending them prints of the heavily cut 1967 re-issue.

I visited the Apple in 1980 during spring break. Among the week's diversions was our accidental discovery of the Bleecker Street Theatre. A double bill was playing that day - Catch 22 and MASH. Perfect faire for a day long rain in mid March. We ducked into the theatre and emerged a half a day later touched by the shared environment. To my narrow midwestern mind it was another slice of NYC experience to add to the shell gamers of Times Square, Max's Kansas City, CBGB's, some off Broadway in the form of Oh Calcutta!, an evenings entertainment with Johnny Thunders and strung out friends and 4am subway rides. But the Bleecker remains poignant amid the flurry.

The former Bleecker Street Cinemas space is currently available for lease. What a nice pipe dream it is, thinking someone out there could gather together the necessary scratch and bring that space back to its former glory...

There are so many quirky places in NYC that have closed since I've been here. It is part of the homogenization of NYC. The Bleecker Street Cinema was one of those places, owner operated, that had personality. Now there are all the chain stores. I'm sure Duane Reade will be moving in to that space soon to provide competition to the CVS Store in the building where the Village Gate was.

Perhaps DeNiro would be interested....he puts on those film festivals and while Bleecker may not be Tribeca at least it's somewhat of a local landmark and deserves a better fate.

Well, DeNiro might be otherwise occupied because he took control of the old Screening Room on Varick in his beloved Tribeca.

One memorable evening I spent here was in the mid 1980s when Godard's "Hail Mary" was screening here. This film, while not the cause celebre of Scorsese's much more high profile "Last Temptation of Christ," caused some kerfuffle back in the day. I remember attending the other film that was playing with "HM" and leaving the theatre and having to bypass this gauntlet of strange people who were on the sidewalk praying with a great deal of intensity.

It should also be noted the Bleecker Street helped create the cult of "The Toxic Avenger," by picking the film up for Saturday midnight screenings when no other theatre (in town or around the country) would touch the film.

25 years ago, I lived by the schedules of theatres like the Bleecker St, The Carnegie Hall, Thalia, Elgin, and Cinema Village.
I wish I had some of those old schedules now as souvenirs.
I went at least once a week to the great double bills for my education. Showings with themes like French New Wave Tuesday or Samurai Thursday.
Weekday Matinees were the best. I lived on Bleecker and I'd run down the street to make the show on time, and be one of a handful of early spectators, and then later, coming out into the street, my mind would be spinning.
I saw so many films for the first time at the Bleecker.
'Breathless', 'Blow Up', 'Last Year at Marienbad', '8 1/5', and I'll never forget 'In the Realm of the Senses.'
One snowy night in December 1979 I trudged down the street to see Pasolini's 'Gospel According to St. Matthew'.
The last movie I saw there was Wim Wenders' 'The State of Things' in 1983. It was a packed house. but much has changed since then. Most Art House and Revival Theatres have been replaced by the video tape and DVD. How I wish the Bleecker was back.

My time at the Bleecker goes back to the mid-60s and my first time there was for Robert Downing's CHAFED ELBOWS which was like nothing I had ever seen before. I believe it was paired with Kenneth Anger's SCORPIO RISING that Rudy mentioned earlier. I'd love to hear more from Rudy who is a poster on another site that I used to frequent. If he doesn't respond to this posting, I'll email him and ask (plead) for more Bleecker memories; especially the SCORPIO RISING story that he left us hanging with in November. Jerry the K

I spent the better part of my ill-spent youth at the Bleecker seeing "Breathless" and "Shoot the Piano Player" over and over again. I remember how the p.a. system used to play "Sans Toi" And most of all I rememebr Sunday mornings when Warren Sonbert showed his films to all his friends.

The theatre now
http://www.bakerina.com/prepare_to_meet_your_bake/images/bleecker_st_cinema_rip.jpg

I used to go to the Bleecker in the '70s. In 1976 a Bleecker box office woman named Bobbie wanted to take the summer off, but return to the theatre in the fall. I was looking for a summer job, so I worked the Bleeker box office that summer. I loved it-- the eclectic movies; the variety of people.
Hilly, the manager from Memphis, was happy to have help with the papaerwork, so I learned everything that I could about the running of the theatre: box office reports, distributor reports, film shipping.
In the fall, I sadly gave the job back to Bobbie-- there were no other box office openings. But there was a manager opening!
I had done a good job apprenticing over the summer, and was given the job.
I managed the Bleecker til I moved to California in Oct. 1977.
-Meryl

You can see the Bleecker in Paul Mazursky's Willie and Phil. Later in the film the lead characters are shown coming out of the Waverly.

There is new construction at the former Bleecker site. Scaffolding covers the former entrance as well as where "Kim's" was.

They are putting in a Duane Reade. I got a call from one of the construction people asking me about a fountain they found behind a wall. He said it was rather "modern looking" which leads me to believe it dates back to the reconstruction that Raymond Hood carried out when it was Mori's restaurant. He was a frequent customer and friend of the family. The Duane Reade people also wanted information about the site's days as a movie theatre since they had heard it was an important venue. I told them it was responsible for introducing the auteur theory to the United States and that it was also one of the bastions of 60s American independent cinema. Regards, rudy franchi

I'm glad those heartless corporate chains have some sense of preserving history.

On the attached website you will find a couple of photos and short articles on the Bleecker St Cinema.

http://www.wam.umd.edu/~molouns/amst450/village/bleecker.html

Pardon me for being of little faith, but as if the Duane Reade people are going to preserve anything remotely hinting at what formerly occupied that space...

The last movie I saw there was called Frankenhooker.Somewhere around 1987.It was this indy film that paralleled the quiry,off beat and insane vibe that this theatre exuded.I miss it often and I am sad with the prospect that a chain store is coming in.Kim's video left the exterior alone.Hopefully Duane reade will do the same.I hope one day that someone will bring it back to it former glory.It happened in the Bronx with the Loew on the grand concourse so anything is possible..I guess.

Duane Reade opened in early April. There is a dropped ceiling. No indication of previous use.

Nothing's there but the pillars. I cried.

I'm posting nice movie material that are also mostly for sale.
http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n94/irajoel/

you can also view my entire inventory at
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posted by ij on Jul 23, 2006 at 1:52pm

This vintage photo was published today in an article about Greenwich Village in "The City" section of The New York Times:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/bleestreet.jpg

Edward Havens: "It should also be noted the Bleecker Street helped create the cult of "The Toxic Avenger," by picking the film up for Saturday midnight screenings when no other theatre (in town or around the country) would touch the film."

I was working at the Bleecker when Toxic Avenger opened there. The writer, Joe something, used to hang out, amazed that the film was so popular. I remember wild posting for it late at night, along with the concession guy. At the time, I remember thinking it was brilliant. Too much cough syrup, perhaps.

The Bleecker had this great mural hidden away behind the stairway. If you remember the theatre, you had to go through a door to go upstairs to go to the restrooms. If you turned left, you hit the stairsway. If you turned right, you'd see a mural that depicted WW2 Italian soldiers being tended to by medics..the best part of it was the bullet strafing across about 40% of it. I'm guessing a mob hit when it was a restaurant?...They also had that great organ on stage in the theatre on the right, hidden in the wings...

The thing that made me leave the Bleecker and move to the West Coast was when we showed Goddard's "Hail, Mary" and some goofy Catholic group decided to protest us. They had a statue of the Virgin Mary delivered by limo every morning, and said the rosary & stations of the cross all day long. They were protesting me by name on signs, and helped turn a film that was dying a dog's death a week before into a real moneymaker that ran what felt like an aeon...left in September of 1986 and it closed a while later...what a cool place.

This had to a 4 wall booking, how unusual the Bleecker and Apollo day and dating.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/Movie%20Ads/FloatLikeaButterfly.jpg

According to Variety, March 23, 1960, this was the converted Renata Theatre.

I was the General Manager of the Bleecker during the late eighties. There are hundreds of anecdotes worth sharing. The place was special. Twenty years later I can honestly say it was the coolest job ever. Imagine being the G.M. of a legendary Greenwich Village cinema in the wake of its appearance in Desperately Seeking Susan. Suffice it to say, the Bleecker in 1986, was a parade of intelligent, sexy, trustworthy ladies...more Rosanna Arquette than Madonna, thank goodness.
My wonderful daughters are the result of my introduction to a unique woman on Christmas Eve 1988. Jennifer came to see "Wings of Desire" and in time we produced our bright lights Lillian and Sophia.
Nowadays, it's not surprising a discount store sits at 144 Bleecker Street. Everyone pays lip service to art cinemas, but when it comes time to go to the movies, most folks mindlessy line up at the zooplex. Marketing techniques pummel even the astute into sheepish behavior.
There is much more I would love to share about the Bleecker and that includes me being the guy who launched the Angelika in 1989. (I fought against the bad sight lines!)
Until then I leave you with this:
I always tried to have a young lady record our showtimes tape because it's more welcoming regardless of some politically correct buffoon, however, sometimes on a late thursday evening/friday morning the task befell me. Whenever this happened I began the theater's greeting in the same manner.
"Thank you for calling the Bleecker Street Cinemas...the greatest movie theater in the world."

Lorenzo, I felt the same way about the Bleecker. I was manager 1976 - 1977. I only left because... [see Aug. 2005, above!]

I was in New York this summer dropping my daughter off at the New York Film Academy for camp. My first thought when we got to the Village was to find the Bleecker Street Cinema where my sisters and I spent quite a FEW afternoons many many moons ago when we lived in NY. We saw them all "Breathless", "Hail Mary", "Last Year at Marienbad"... How disapointing it was to find that the cinema had closed. Interesting to read all of the comments tonight. Must share this with my sisters! Now another search, "Last Year at Marienbad"! Any suggestion anyone?

Isabelle, MARIENBAD is on DVD and VHS and you can order it on amazon.com

photo taken in march 1991, film on the marquee "from the director of drugstore cowboy Mala noche"
not sure if it was closed by then?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/2120661917/

It closed in 1989.

Someone else, I don't know who, Al, ran the Bleecker as a move-over house for foreign and indie flicks (and the occasional, low-budget first-run film) for a brief time in 1991, before the space's days as a movie theatre officially came to an end.

In 1984 screen two was briefly advertised as the Agee.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25725093@N07/2477911811/

The Agee Screening Room, as it was called, was equipped for 16mm showings only.

Was this one of the theaters that published a schedule regularly, as Film Forum does now, or did films run open-ended? I was in there just once or twice in the late 1960s.

I have seen different closing dates for this film in the Times, but I think it closed on September 2, 1991.

I was one of the managers in 1976 - 1977, and during that time the Bleecker had a different double feature every day!

Are there any "revival" theaters left in Manhattan or anywhere else in NYC?

At least one screen of the three-screen Film Forum is always devoted to revivals.

To answer UFO two and a half years later...

I never got the chance to go to the Bleecker Street Cinemas. Being Los Angeles born and bred, what I knew about New York City in the 1970s and 1980s came from watching Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese movies. When I finally did move to New York City in 2001, the theatre was long gone, although I did make a pilgrimage to the site the day after I moved in to my crappy little railroad apartment in Bed-Stuy, and I learned a bit more about the theatre from "Toxic Avenger" director Lloyd Kaufman from the years I worked for him at Troma.

And to touch on something LorenzoRodriguez said in 2007...

I don't think New Yorkers cinephiles mindlessly line up at the zooplex. For the four years I lived in New York City (Brooklyn 2001-2003, Yorkville 2003-2005), I would regularly go to BAM or Film Forum or Cinema Village or the Quad and see packed houses for revival titles, documentaries, avant-garde, indie and foreign films. I would walk around the neighborhood with my wife and see good crowds going to the UA East 85th for the types of movies that wouldn't play at the Orpheum 7 or the East 86th around the corner.

I honestly think a theatre like the Bleecker could exist today, provided it was operated by a movie lover with very deep pockets. Theatres like the Bleecker closed not because the audiences abandoned them, but because the greed of the people who owned the buildings that housed the theatres who would jack up the rents for the theatre to a price that no longer made economical sense to continue operating. It's what happened to the Bleecker eighteen years ago, it's what happened to the Two Boots Pioneer Theatre eighteen weeks ago.

To: Gerald

During the late 80s the smallish James Agee Room (Bleecker #2) had a 3 tier 35mm platter. The 16mm shared the Bleecker #1 booth with the two 35mm machines/changeovers/6000 ft. reels, etc The larger Bleecker #1 had the best 16mm throw I have ever seen, an utterly perfect image. Eraserhead traumatized the potheads! We had patrons who called up just to find out the film gauge. If it was 16mm they showed up no matter what the title.

To: Edward

I never said anything about New Yorkers and cinephiles. I said "most folks". Here is some perspective:

Drugstore Cowboy was the first bonafide hit at the Angelika. We sold out every show, day and night, in our two biggest auditoriums. If you stood in the lobby of the Angelika on one of those days, you could think there is a lot of money to be made with those kinds of movies and art cinemas are cash cows. Where was Drugstore Cowboy ranked in total box office for 1989? Answer: Not even in the top 100. (4 sequels in the top ten.) Batman was #1. Holy Mass Marketing! Twenty years later,
Batman is still #1.

If you went to a big commercial movie complex like Lincoln Square or Union Square and asked every one on line at the box, "Do you think it's important for every big city to have an independent movie theater as well as a big multiplexes like this?" Pretty much everyone would say "O yes, of course!" How many of those folks would actually go see a movie at the Film Forum? Here is a sign:

A few years ago I managed a multiplex in Brooklyn. I wanted our staff of nice kids to have a good range of movie references. I placed a Film Forum calendar by the time clock. I told every staff person I could get them in for free because the GM at FF was an old friend of mine from Bleecker days. I told every one I would reimburse them for roundtrip subway fare for each Film Forum ticket stub they showed me. I circled in red ink movies it seemed they would find especially exciting and amusing. I reminded them the Film Forum played lots of new movies with cutting edge sensibilities they could relate to. For at least 4 months, I dutifully posted every new calendar as soon as it was available. Finally, having seen no ticket stubs, I went around the theater in between showtimes on a Saturday night and casually asked every one if they had seen any movies at FF and forgotten to get their subway fare reimbursement. The total number of staff members who seriously thought of going to the Film Forum...ZERO.

We have been talking about New York City where there is an above average number of persons who are well educated and have disposable income, yet, the Film Forum, with huge grants, huge donations, devoted patrons and excellent programming, is still in financial trouble. (Since before the current so called bad economy.)

Outside of NYC, there are major metropolitan areas and many medium size cities which have no independent cinema at all. Hundreds of worthwhile movies are relegated to the movie patron's solitary confinement of television watching.

There are plenty of persons on this website who go see all kinds of movies in all kinds of venues, but we are terribly out numbered. One of the main reasons for this is the conflux of mass marketing, advertising, and public relations that is impossible for simpletons to resist. The mainstream endorses and anoints. Here is the ultimate example provided by a frame of reference we can all relate to regardless of our geographical location.

I would say of all the men and women in the U.S. Senate who deserved to be president Obama was near the bottom of the list. Yet, he was moved into position, he was elected, and his inauguration was treated more like a coronation. This is precisely the same kind of media saturation used by Hollywood to pummel even perceptive folks in to endorsing a movie/candidate. I am reminded of a wonderfull quote from a great American.

R. Buckminster Fuller:
"There is nothing more pathetic than the role that has to be played by the President of the United States whose power is approximately...ZERO."

The public relations experts can create any perception for any purpose especially when there is a lot of money at stake like who controls our government and what individuals Americans are thinking about...such as Batman and Barack, not Darwin and Bakunin.

..and on the eve of the Academy Awards, the number one film in America (and so far this year) is a remake of "FRIDAY THE 13TH".

Where was the media saturation for films such as the Seven Samurai, Seventh Seal, 400 Blows? These films found an audience, and went on to become great works of cinematic art. I love the Film Forum, but the filmgoing patrons are changing. Two years ago, I attended a screening of my favorite Woody Allen film, Manhattan, with a new 35mm print. The film was ruined for me, some misguided parent, who should have known better, took about four teenage boys, who sat in front of me. Two of the boys played with their cell phone and video game the whole time, I was detracted by the light of their "toys". Also, too many hipster doofuses are showing up there and laughing at everything, and putting their feet on the chairs. I do not know what President Obama has to do with this, are you talking about our Senate? Iraq war, patroit act? I live in Pennsylvania, we had a bitter nasty primary. The best thing to come out of it was Mr. Obama's speech on race. This is a site for the love of cinemas not Fox News.

al pettiford, I don't believe Lorenzo was making a political commentary. I believe he was referring to the marketing "sexappeal" of Obama vs., for example, Joe Biden.

It would not matter how many marketing dollars you threw out at "DOUBT" or "THE SEVENTH SEAL", they would never come to close to "THE DARK KNIGHT" at the box office.

As anyone who has worked in a movie theatre can tell you, everyone asks for health foods and then buy buttered popcorn, Cokes and chocolate bars while the healthy snacks go out of date.

This is an August 28, 1991 NY Times story about the closing. The Times gives an address of 114 Bleecker Street. Is the address 114 or 144?

And the answer is 144 Bleecker Street. The Times story has the wrong address. Function could be drugstore.

Renewing link.

Hey Rudy! I remember you, and see you now and then on PBS. I enjoyed your comments about the Bleecker Street Cinema. You may remember that I worked for Lionel and Jimmy, primarily to open "Good Times...", later in production and distribution. There about '64 to '68 when Marshall trained Ted to be his assistant. Now, Ted's wife Jessica and I both live in the same town in Northern California. She's looking for a print of Warren's "Ted and Jessica". Tonight, winnowing papers, a letter from Lionel got me started and I'm glad, as I see now there's a site of and about him. Many memories of those days and nights at the BSC live within me, happily. Want to trade stories? Write to me. Mary Kelly

I co-managed the Kim's Video Underground store at 144 Bleecker from 1998 until 2000. Being too young to have frequented the Bleecker Street Cinema, it was nice to at least inhabit the same space. I was at that time putting together a book of New York "scum history" (underground film, music, crime, drug culture, etc) and in my interviews for this book I frequently heard brief anecdotes about the BSC. I often wondered what the legendary cinema was like inside...I've only ever seen a single photo...and the general experience of seeing a film there was something I sorely regretted missing out on. Hearing all of these stories makes me want to re-open my boxes of notes and files collected for this book.

Of course, Kim's Video Underground has a colorful history all its own. During my 2+ years as an employee, I came to be on a first name basis with countless Kim's regulars, all of whom shared a deep affection for the store. The reputation of the store's clerks as disrespectful film school punks may be well-founded, but I don't think too many customers got that impression from the Underground / 144 location of the chain. We were all generally pleasant to deal with, although the odor of alcohol or marijuana in the general area of the rental counter was not unusual. I had the key to the store, and on many nights, after closing Kim's, I would sleep off a heavy drunk in the store's dingy basement stairwell, one of its more memorable characteristics. (Anyone over 5'5" had to be very careful entering that dank little vortex of a store.) In the morning, I'd dust myself off, and re-open for another day of business as usual on Bleecker Street. It was a great and horrible time....and it's the only job I've ever missed. The news of its closing was absolutely devastating to me.

Out of hundreds, if not thousands of crazy stories, the one that seems to dominate is the fungal infestation of the "Pee Wee Room", a cavernous sub-basement at the store's rear where the porno rentals were displayed. Around the summer of 1999, mold spores somehow reminiscent of the facehugger eggs from the ALIEN films began to sprout from the cum-spattered, water damaged, cheaply tiled floor. These spores reached sizes in excess of three feet, and ranged from lime green to burnt sienna in color. The room was closed by the order of NYC HEALTH AND SAFETY, and I believe Mr. Kim was fined. Eventually, the room re-opened. I had many nightmares about these spores, and probably will again tonight. Of course, the store was infested with mice and large "Palmetto" roaches.

I'll also never forget about the time Yongman Kim took me out for lunch at his favorite Village-area Korean restaurant...but I'll spare you.

One last thing....I hope this post isn't out of place. I couldn't find any sort of forum or thread devoted to the old Kim's store....this page is the closest thing to it, I believe. What they've done to that classic entrance and its facade is very much in keeping with the widespread destruction of downtown NY's cultural landmarks over the last 5 years. Still, it came as a brutal shock. Truly the end of a magical era. As another Kim's fan pointed out, "it shines brighter in memory"...I only wish there was a proper website constructed in the memory of both the Bleecker Street Cinema and Kim's Video Underground. Both were extremely important to film culture....in NYC and beyond.

I am interested in any information that might be available regarding an early screening of the Zapruder film at the Bleecker in late November/early December 1964. It was shown following the David Wolper film 1000 Days.

So was it ever BLEEKER instead of BLEECKER?

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Su4QAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NIwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6230,425657&dq=essex+theatre+grand+street&hl=en

The Agee Room opened in November 1980. It became the Bleecker 2 by 1985.