Eastside Cinema

The Eastside Cinema has been preemptively gutted and the theatre floor leveled in anticipation of making the space more immediately attractive to prospective retail tenants.

I thought they closed it because they were tearing down the whole block?

I guess those plans fell through; blame it on the economy, perhaps...

When first taken over by City Cinemas, it was touted as a successor to the 68th Street Playhouse. A rather dreadful theater with no amenities, it never lived up to the reputation of the former art house. The closing of any theater is a loss, but this one minimally so.

My last visit here wasn't pleasant. I caught Francis Coppolla's nephew's film "CQ." A bulb on the projector blew about 80% into the movie. The clueless manager didn't seem to know if she would get a replacement so I and all the other patrons left. We didn't walk about empty-handed, though. They gave us two free passes to any City Cinemas theatres. I never did get to see the conclusion of "CQ" and I am in no hurry to do so.

This is another one United Artists was cordially invited by the landlord to vacate the premises. When UA got the boot from the 8th Street Playhouse, they moved their weekend showings of Rocky Horror to this theatre, of all places. After the show would end the crowd would congregate for most of the night in the plaza-ette in front of the 919 building, and broken windows, graffiti and other damage was done to the property, which eventually led to their eviction.

When it later re-opened as the Eastside Playhouse, it was being run by Meyer Ackerman, and the opening ads stated "From the people who brought you the 68th Street Playhouse" - City Cinemas got involved with it several months later. They were already partners with Ackerman at the Village East, 57th and 68th St. Playhouses.

A high-end carpet showroom has opened in the site, geared for the designer trade.

Times were changing in 1974 when the Eastside Cinema got listed over the Rivoli.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/SavageisLoose.jpg

I remember this theater, I saw "Baby Boom" here in 1987 and a couple of Disney cartoon feature re-releases...I believe "Snow White" and "Cinderella."

There used to be an irish pub across the street called "the Old Stand," and it too is now gone.

Just went by the site on Saturday, looked through the window of the carpet showroom, it is so weird to be able to see the area where I used to sit when it was an auditorium!

RobertR,
Regarding The Savage is Loose...I believe I read that George C. Scott four-walled the Eastside Cinema (or perhaps it was another place in move-over) for an extended period of time to show the film, and it kept playing to a near-empty house. It was a bit of a turkey.

Wasn't there quite some distance from the sidewalk to the box office of this one?
I think I saw 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' here.

The Eastside Cinema actually opened on January 21, 1973. Its premiere attraction was "Under Milk Wood."

Yes, the marquee was by the street but the theatre itself was way off the street. When I ran a UA theatre on Long Island, I went to the UA Eastside at the time to see an Austrailian new wave musical called "Starstruck" and early feature by Gillian Armstrong. I liked it enough to get it booked at mine. As for "The Savage Is Loose", both George C. Scott and wife Trish Vandevere were making personal appearances at certain theatres and Mr. Scott was supposed to be at The UA Bayshore. I attended but Mr. Scott cancelled and never showed up but when I got home, he was on some talk show, Dick Cavett I believe live, so he got well very quickly.

we had a screening of savage at the squire for long island managers

trish was there...[i was manager of squire and playhouse] at that time and shortly after promoted to rivoli where we had world prem.
george did show up.....incest plot killed it.

wally1975

I saw only one movie at this theater; PLEASANTVILLE in 1999.

I too saw only one picture here, James Caan's HIDE IN PLAIN SIGHT in 1980.

Drove by the other day. I'd never attended a movie here, but as we were stopped in traffic, I just happened to gaze out of the passenger window and had some dim sense that there used to be a theatre here. The free standing sign in the shallow plaza in front of the office building is still there - and this feature must have been what jogged my hazy memory. I don't think there is anything on the sign at the moment - it just stands there blank and purposeless, saying absolutely nothing to passersby along Third Avenue.

UA Days
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=CATAdvancedSearch1%2c32%2c3%2c-1&catpageindex=118&ProductID=30975

Belated reply to dave-bronx: Any damage to the plaza outside Eastside was most certainly NOT caused by "Rocky Horror" fans. The following is a quote from one of the major leaders of the RHPS scene:

"No, this was not the real reason at all. When the 8th Street theater closed, the search was on for another theater in Greenwich Village. The print and cast were moved to mid-town on a temporary basis, and the plan all along was to eventually get back downtown where the show belonged.

"In fact, we toned down a lot of our behavior because of the new
location: it was in mid-town, it was NOT a 'Greenwich Village
neighborhood' type atmosphere, and the last thing the cast wanted to
do was lose another theater/endanger the one we had at the moment."

UA deserves a TON of criticism for its management practices, but not in this instance. The NYC "Rocky" fans tend to be very well behaved; any vandalism at 919 Third came from elsewhere.