Joyce Theater

When the Elgin Theatre opened it seated 600 people.

I remember attending a midnight showing of "The Harder They Come" here with a girlfriend. And it was part of a triple feature if you got there early enough!

A 1971 (January 5) interior photo of the Elgin Theater (attributed) appears in the new Diane Arbus photography monograph 'Revelations' on page 215.

I miss the Elgin terribly. As a teenager, I would go at least once per week, and I sat through "The harder they come" many a time because I was too stoned to leave (one smoked grass in the theater without any harassment). They had a wonderful selection of films, and some interesting characters in the audience (there was one fellow who would wear a samurai sword to the Toshiro mifune films). I was so sad when it was turned into a useless prance venue (there are enough of those in NYC).

I went to the Elgin many times during the 70s to watch Buster Keaton movies. There's nothing like it!

I'd seen the Elgin movie house advertised but never visted.

Now, better a dance theater than a chuch, or worse.

When I was growing up in Chelsea in the 50s, the Elgin showed only Spanish-Mexican films and American films dubbed in Spanish.
Jerry of 42nd Street Memories

I remember seeing a fun double bill here once of Mamie Van Doren in High School Confidential paired with Jane Mansfield in Three Nuts in Search of a Bolt

What year was that, Robert?

I may be wrong but I believe I attended a Ken Russell Marathon. We would sit in the theatre all night. Pink Flamingos and El Topo were also regulars at this theatre.

Here is some supplimental information about the Elgin Cinema which
I attended from 1975-1977 while I was at NYU.

In the fifties, it was a Spanish language theater. In the sixties
it became one of the first repertory theaters in Manhattan. It's
major success and fame was from 1970-1977 when it was operated by
Steve Gould and Chuck Zlatkin. They implemented a number of innovative venues at this house including "Midnight Shows" ("Pink Flamingos", "El Topo") and "All Night Shows" (Marx Brothers festival).

The cinema had 520 seats and by the time I attended, a large 40 foot
slightly curved CinemaScope screen placed in front of the stage. The screen was unmasked and looked a bit like a large trampoline but was effective for epics like "Lawrence of Arabia" and "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World".

Gould and Zlatkin had topnotch projection and mono sound. They even had variable speed motors on the machines so they could play silent films at the right speed. They were able to secure excellent prints
from the distributors including many Technicolor classics. Aside from the older titles, they also booked quirky off beat titles like
"King of Hearts" and "Harold and Maude" which bombed in first run cinemas but found an audience there. Admission was .75 with a senior discount of .25.

Aside from the large wide screen and art deco architecture, the theater was a bit run down. It was not uncommon to hear homeless people snoring in the side aisles. Never the less, it was a great venue to see good prints of old features. Woody Allen attended the cinema and was one of it's supporters.

In 1977, Gould and Zlatkin were forced to close the cinema due to the increased rental prices of prints by greedy distributors and the emerging home entertainment competition. In the eighties, most of the other NYC repertory cinemas folded too. The Elgin briefly became a porn theater but neighborhood residents complained and it was shut down again.

In 1982 it was re-modeled into the Joyce Theater for dance.

Of all the revival theaters of the seventies, I miss this one the most.

If anyone still has any flyers/schedules from this theater from 1975-1977, I'd love to have copies. Specifically, I'll like flyers that advertise "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and "Lawrence of Arabia" screenings. In return I still have many schedules from the Thalia and Regency I could copy along with vintage Village Voice newspapers
that have movie ads from the era.

Please email me at: Newavedist@aol.com

(A suggested correction to the description at the top of this page: the name of the architect who re-designed the Elgin into the Joyce was Hugh Hardy -- not Hugh Howard.)

I believe I started going to the Elgin in 1968. For me, this was THE quintessential New York revival movie house -- even more so than the Thalia, the New Yorker or the Regency. Perhaps this was, in part, because I was living nearby in Greenwich Village and went there a lot but also, perhaps, because of its hip atmosphere and decor -- which for me was epitomized by its basement lounge which had a 60's "pop art" flavored decor that included a barber's chair and, I think, track lighting and can spots (which were new to me).

I believe the Elgin -- along with the Thalia or New Yorker(?) -- used to run a summer film festival of film classics co-sponsored with a famous art film distributor (whose name I can't recall at the moment). I think both theaters (along with the other revival film houses, also?) used to have these very, very long handbills/flyers where they would list the names of all the films that would be shown for the next few weeks. I, along with others presumably, would then mark off the appropriate dates on a calendar.

You could pull the handbill/flyer off of a string at the theater itself or, I guess, you could also have them mail one to you if you put yourself on their mailing list.

I don't remember all the films I saw at the Elgin, but I do remember seeing "Citizen Kane" and "The Lady Vanishes" on one double-bill. It was such a memorable double-bill because both movies were so entertaining and because I had somehow gotten the mistaken impression that "Citizen Kane" was one of those films that one "should" see to be an educated adult -- but were really excruciatingly boring.

In the late 1960s, the surrounding area, despite some very beautiful streets, was generally seen as a poor relation to Greenwich Village. So even in its pre-Joyce days, people saw the Elgin as providing a shot of vitality to the main shopping street of Chelsea. I think there was a somewhat famous Chinese-Spanish restaurant, "Asia de Cuba," located across the street in an old diner -- maybe it had gotten good reviews in "the Underground Gourmet" feature of "New York Magazine"? And for a while, I think there was a second-hand bookstore located next to the theater's entrance. (I believe the bookstore space was incorporated into the Joyce's lobby areas.) So this part of Chelsea seemed to me to be one of those areas that were the epitome of 60's New York bohemia and chic.

Benjamin
I think Janus Films might have been the film distributor who supplied the films for the summer fest.

The Janus Film Festival used to be a fairly frequent staple of revival houses, at least in the Northeast. I remember that it ran at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Ma. at least once, in the mid-'80s, and, I think, at the Film Forum (either at the Watts Street or the W. Houston Street location - or perhaps both) at some point as well.

Is there any information about the folks who were behind Janus Films? They had a fairly impressive library.

saw 'Satyricon' & 'El Topo' here.

Early 70's I can remember seeing Buster Keaton films every Sunday morning. Also DW Griffith's Birth of A Nation

I never had the opportunity to go here much when I was in New York, but I remember a nice old wave/new wave double bill I caught in April of 1970: Marcel Carné's Le Jour se lève paired with François Truffaut's The 400 Blows. In July of 1969 I had seen Juan Antonio Bardem's Death of a Cyclist at the Elgin. It seemed to be a nice place with good projection and it certainly had great programs.

Janus Films is still alive and kicking, seemingly more as a vehicle to the DVD marketplace (perhaps most notably as a sister company to The Criterion Collection), but, at least on occasion and in some function or form, as a theatrical distributor (their most recent release, in conjunction with Rialto Films, being the re-release of the restored print of Louis Malle's 'Elevator to the Gallows').

The Elgin recently got alot of mention in a documentary airing this month on Encore. It's called Midnight Movies, has some great interviews with film makers, theater owners and managers. Spoke of the Elgin basically starting the Midnight Movie craze with El Topo. Other films discussed were Pink Flamingos, the Harder they come, Eraserhead, Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Its very informative for those who love these movies and theatres.

Showing this month on Encore and also available on the Starz On Demand for those with digital cable.

I remember seeing "I'm No Angel" with Mae West in the late '60s and losing a beautiful white silk scarf given to me by my father's girl friend Rita. The things one remembers !

The Elgin was a lot of fun in the late 60s/early 70s. Caught many great Janus double bills, along with midnight screenings of "The Harder They Come" and "El Topo" (which played for a long time). Seem to recall the theater going a bit downhill later in the 70s. Last film I caught there was a dreary Canadian movies called "Eliza's Horoscope" in the dead of winter with an almost empty house and no heat! However, that doesn't erase the much fonder memories of previous years and shows. The theater promoted a sense of intimacy and even strangers would engage in post-film discussions.
JKane

I'm putting up nice movie material that relate to movie theatres including souvenir programs. check it out

http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n94/irajoel/

you can also visit my own website
www.cinemagebooks.com
to view more material.

Do you have photo's of the various New York theatres? If so how much would a photo of this theatre cost as an example?

A 5/18/69 article in the New York Times written by Vincent Canby features an interview with Jonas Mekas, director of the Film Culture Non-Profit Corporation and co-founder of their Filmmakers' Cinematheque which screened so-called "underground films" at various sites around Manhattan during the mid-late 1960's. Having had his Cinematheque exhiled from their 42nd Street home in the old Wurlitzer Building off 6th Ave, Mekas had been staggering screenings at sites like the Gallery of Modern Art on Columbus Circle and the Jewish Museum at 5th Avenue and 92nd Street. By June of '69, Mekas hoped to be screening avant-garde films at the Elgin on Sunday mornings and Thursday evenings. I'm not sure if these plans came to fruition or, if so, for how long they lasted. Mekas was also struggling to create a permanent home for the Cinematheque in a theater he had converted from existing space at 80 Wooster Street - later to become a home of the Anthology Film Archives in the mid-1970's.

Ed, the appearance of Andy Warhol films at the Elgin in mid 1968 implies he succeeded. The moving around of prints would also explain the patchwork bookings at the New Cinema Playhouse.

Hmmm. The article I read about Mekas' plans for the Elgin screenings was from May of '69, Al. In the interview that accompanies the piece, Mekas remarks how Warhol was already distributing his own films by that time. Do you know whether the mid-'68 run at the Elgin was programmed by Mekas or Warhol himself? This would roughly coincide with the Filmmakers' Co-operative having moved out of the New Cinema Playhouse in mid-'68. I've also seen in articles from this period references to Warhol being the only living American filmmaker to have a cinema named after him in the VIllage. Does anyone know which theater this might be? I see no aka's for a Warhol or Andy Warhol Theater.

Ed, the Film-makers Cooperative booked for Warhol so it may have been Mekas booking the Elgin on films such as THE CHELSEA GIRLS.

The Andy Warhol Garrick theatre was at 152 Bleecker Street.

NY Times Mar 22, 1977
By JUDY KLEMESRUD

Neighbors Assail Elgin's Switch to Homosexual Films

"The Elgin Theater, long a haven for film buffs and residents of the Chelsea neighborhood, was taken over yesterday by a new management that immediately switched to a policy of showing all-male homosexual films".


NY Times Mar 24, 1977
By JUDY KLEMESRUD

Elgin Cancels Homosexual Films After Chelsea Residents Protest; Pickets Cheer Statement

"The Elgin Theater, which became the target of strong community protest this week when it switched Monday to allmale homosexual films, returned last night to its old policy of showing revivals and classics".

Thanks, Al... Is the Warhol Garrick on your list of theaters to submit to CT (be it high or low in priority)?

Lost... isn't searching the TImes' archive thoroughly addicting?!?

Shouldn't the main name be changed to Joyce Theatre? For going on 25 years, the Joyce has been a pillar of New York City's cultural life, and is famous throughout the world. Elgin should be reduced to small type as the theatre's previous name.

The Garrick is listed but it needs to have Andy Warhol added as an alternate name.

Ed...Searching through the archives is both fun and frustrating. Most theaters in that archive are/were located in Manhattan. I found some information on Brooklyn and Queens theaters in the real estate section. The Movie Clock also comes in handy but there seems to be certain months that are missing. I used Ridgewood theater as keywords and I found lots of articles about Ridgewood, New Jersey. I'm going to hang on to those, you never know when they might come in handy. LOL

The Elgin Theater holds very dear memories for me. I grew up in Chelsea and lived on 19th street between 8th and 9th avenues. Being of Puerto Rican descent, my grandmother loved the Spanish movies shown at the Elgin in those days. They were actually Mexican films. My grandmother would take me along and I got to spend some really nice times with her. I still remember those great Mexican "singing cowboys", Pedro Infante, Jorge Negrete, Luis Aguilar and Pedro Admendariz. I also remember the great dramatic actresses, Libertad Lamarque (Argentina),Maria Feliz, Dolores Del Rio. My favorites were of course, the comedians, Cantinflas and Tin Tan. Evita Peron was highly jealous of Libertad Lamarque and blocked all her films from being shown in Argentina. The memomories of the time that I spent with Grandmother watching those films at the Elgin will forever be in my mind. Priceless memories.

Duke, I grew up watching many of those with my family in Miami including the later Spanish films with Joselito, Marisol and Sara Montiel. If you get a chance do pick up a book called MEXICAN MOVIES IN THE UNITED STATES by Rogelio Agrasanchez, Jr.

It is full of ad copy, poster art and anecdotes from that era and was written in English.

Duke, I lived on 24th & 8th and many of my friends were Cuban & Puerto Rican. Whenever we went by the Elgin, I would ask them to translate the titles as I scanned every lobby card. The poster artwork was great.

Thanks for the tip on the book, AlAlvarez.

The first time I made the trip alone from New Jersey to a Manhattan revival house was to see "The Birds" at the Elgin. To this sheltered teenager it seemed a slightly dangerous place, and had a strange smell too (pot?). But that was part of why it was so memorable. And where else in those days could you see "The Birds" on a screen that big? I went back several more times - I recall seeing "Nights of Cabiria" there.

A British newspaper covers midgnight movies and EL TOPO at the Elgin.

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/film/features/article2442667.ece

This is a recent photo of the Joyce Theater.

I remember going to the Elgin a lot during the summer of 1975. I distinctly recall seeing at least a couple of Russ Meyer films during that period.

From the Joyce Theatre website:

Converted from the Elgin Theater, a 1941 movie house, the Joyce theater building required a major renovation to create an elegant, intimate home for dance in New York City.

The Elgin was originally a revival movie house that was closed by the community when it became a pornographic movie theater.

The renovation took two years to complete and was guided by architect Hugh Hardy who preserved and expanded the patterned brick facade of the art-deco building. The entire interior was gutted to create a 472-seat theater with the technical specifications to serve the needs of small and medium-sized dance companies.

Here is a more recent view of the Joyce Theater.

Any photos of this house during its Elgin days?

No Elgin photos, but here is a recent photo of the Joyce Theater at night.

two more distance shots of the exterior taken nov 2007 daytime and night
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/2008461772/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/2008693928/

The champion "midnight movie" at the Elgin was Jimmy Cliff's reggae-filled "The Harder They Come," which by the time of a report in The New York Times of 4/30/76 had been shown for 80 consecutive weekends (approximately 1.5 years). Management claimed that each showing attracted from 150 to 200 patrons, with tickets priced at $2.50. For some, it was their third or fourth viewing of the Jamaican production, which had its first USA release in 1973.

Here are two images from 1980, when the Elgin Theatre was shuttered and awaiting re-development:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/elgin80a.jpg
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/elgin80b.jpg

This is a 2008 photo of the Joyce Theater.

Here are new links to images from 1980, when the Elgin was shuttered and awaiting re-development:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/elgin80a.jpg
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/elgin80b.jpg

I just came upon this thread – is anybody still here?

I worked at the Elgin for many years during the '70s, when I was going to NYU (or not, as the case may have been ...), put up the last marquee (the bogus double bill of “We Have Been Evicted” & “Gone with the Wind”) and was there on its last day as a revival house and, on the outside, its first as a gay porn theater.

It was my second job ever: my first was at a stuffy mid-town first-run theater (the Cinema Studio); that summer some gonzo guys for way downtown four-walled the house for The Janus Film Festival. They loved movies -- talked about them all the time -- but were unpretentious former hippies who were pretty much just like Hawkeye and Trapper John.

These guys -- Chuck Zlatkin and Steve Gould – seemed the epitome of cool. I begged them to hire me away from the drab, pretentious Upper West Side movie house where the manager cursed children under his breath for spilling water on the carpet and we ushers had to wear rayon pants with a stripe down the side.

“We’re assholes too – but different kinds of assholes,” Gould told me on my first day at the Elgin, where the dress code was almost pants optional.

Best job I ever had.

An Elgin memory: Seeing "The Lady From Shanghai," for the first time, in the 1970s. It was on a double bill of revivals, I think with "Gilda."
Was there a balcony? I seem to recall being upstairs.
In any event, I was engrossed in the movie. Suddenly a cat leaped up on the seat beside me, startling the wits out of me. You can imagine what I thought it was at first. But then, that's almost certainly why a cat was in there roaming freely.
Had an identical experience watching "Fade to Black" some time later in one of the steeply raked upstairs auditoriums at the Mayfair/DeMille, which by then was called the Embassy 2,3,4. - Ed Blank

There was a balcony, and in those days smoking was still allowed up there. There was also a house cat in residence for most of the time I worked there.

This photo suggests that the "balcony" was a raised section of seats at the rear of the orchestra level, and not the "traditional" overhanging type:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/elgin80b.jpg

Thanks, John and Warren. That all adds up for me. As a nonsmoker, I would never have made my way up a full flight of stairs to the balcony to sit among smokers. But a few steps up to enjoy stadium seating back then - definitely.
I was only at the Elgin three or four times, always for revivals in the pre-video era. But I remember it being one of the NYC theaters where I was cold to the bone during at least winter visit. I have to assume it was run on the cheap in those final years.

It was not an overhang. The balcony was raised above the street-level lobby, which made it possible to have these extra rows. Going through the balcony was also the only way to get to the projection booth.

Those rear sections of seats in stadium type auditoriums were usually called mezzanines or loges, to differentiate from traditional balconies, which were a floor above the orchestra level. Larger theatres often had two or three balconies, not always designated as balconies. RCMH's balconies, for example, were called first mezzanine, second mezzanine, third mezzanine.

A recent exterior view of the Joyce Theatre can be seen at the beginning of this article:
http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/19/19th.html

Renewing link.

Here is a 2009 night photo.

This is a September 2009 photo.

Photo of the Joyce Theatre courtesy Nick's Classic American theatres.

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s254/Pavy1/Joyce.jpg