Guild Theater
33 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
33 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
10 people
favorited this theater
The Guild Theater opened on December 2, 1938 as a newsreel house, with an entrance on the south side of Radio City Music Hall in the Associated Press Building. Furniture was designed by Finnish designer Alvar Aalto, and aisle carpeting had a motif of ‘unwinding movie reels’ in an Art Deco style.
The Rockefeller Center landmark was later taken over by the Trans-Lux circuit in 1949. Operating under successive 25 year leases, when the most recent term expired in 1999, the Guild Theatre was closed and gutted.
After first becoming a Nautica retail store, it is now occupied by the clothing chain Anthropologie, which is primed for the millions of tourists who pass by the area.
The marquee of the Guild Theater remains, though little other evidence exists that a theater once entertained moviegoers.
Contributed by
Ross Melnick
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Recent comments (view all 103 comments)
I went once when I first moved to the city, in 1988, to see a late run screening of “She’s Having a Baby,” on a Thursday night, last show. Between the empty theater and the desolate streets, it was like a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and kind of scary for someone young and new to the city.
I attended this theater once when I was living in Queens. Couldn’t even tell you what I saw because I fell in love with the theater. What I rememeber most is that the auditorium opened into the concession area and they closed curtains at the back of the auditorium as the presentation started.
Does anyone have pictures of the interior of the Guild? I never had the chance to see a film there, but I was always curious as to what it might be like inside.
Fifty-seven years ago today, “Out Of This World,” a feature-length travelogue filmed in Tibet by Lowell Thomas and his namesake son, opened its world premiere engagement at the Guild 50th. Advertising prominently mentioned Lowell Thomas' connection with Cinerama, but made no claims about wide screen projection for “Out Of This World,” which had a print by Technicolor. The booking was obviously intended to capitalize on crowds flocking to adjacent RCMH for the Easter holiday show with “Rose Marie” on screen. The 50th Street waiting line for RCMH had a roped-off gap to permit access to the Guild.
Under its original Newsreel name, the house is profiled in ‘The Exhibitor Catalogue 1940’, and features pictures of a doorman standing in front of the stainless steel doors, an ad showing ‘before and after’ pix of the marquee comparing its makeover, and in the auditorium, the most memorable feature was the carpeting, which had ‘unwinding reels’ in a Radio City Art Deco-type pattern. The lounges featured original bentwood furniture by the renowned Finnish architect/designer Alvar Aalto. All in all, a pretty restrained but elegant house, completely uniform with Rock Center.
On those rare occasions when the Radio City Music Hall, largely unknown, subway box office was closed spent time on line by the Guild to go in thru the main entrance.
Fifty years ago today, Francois Truffaut’s B&W “Jules and Jim,” with Jeanne Moreau, Oscar Werner, and Henri Serre heading the cast, opened its American premiere engagement at what was then known as the Guild 50th. The Janus Films release was shown in its original French, with English subtitles…Down the block, Radio City Music Hall was in the midst of an all Disney Easter Holiday program, with “Moon Pilot” on screen and a tribute to Disneyland following the traditional Easter pageant.
Is the first sentence of the introduction’s second paragraph correct? I don’t think that Trans-Lux ever ran the Guild. The longtime management was by Embassy Newsreel Theatres, which took its name from the Embassy Newsreel on Broadway next to the Palace Theatre. Embassy eventually dropped the word from its name when newsreel theatres became passe.
The 1950 edition of Film Daily Yearbook lists the Embassy (Rockerfeller Plaza) as being operated by The Newsreel Theaters, Inc.
I think the confusion comes from this NYT article.
[In 1949, Norman Elson, who was then the president of the competing Trans-Lux chain, took over the Newsreel theaters.
‘'That was just the beginning of TV,’‘ Peter Elson recalled, ’‘and he saw that newsreels were not much longer for the world.’‘ Norman Elson remodeled the theater and reopened it as the Guild.]