Heights Theater
150 Wadsworth Avenue,
New York,
NY
10033
150 Wadsworth Avenue,
New York,
NY
10033
1 person
favorited this theater
The Heights Theater built in 1914 was located in Washington Heights. The theater is gone but the building still stands and is listed as being a store/office.
Contributed by
CJDV & Lost Memory
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Recent comments (view all 23 comments)
I lived in the area from the mid 1950’s through the 1960’s. During that time I would describe the Heights as being an “art” theater. Most of the pictures shown there were foreign films. This is probably why it could compete with nearby theaters like the RKO Colisuem, Loews 175th Street, Lane and Empress (aka Astral).
please does any body have pics of heights
Luis—
I recalled this theater during a discussion of another theater which was in the midst of a change from “ethnic” movies to “XXX” movies (or vice versa, or worse vice):
/theaters/4030/
Reminds me of an ambiguous message on a marquee on a theater in what used to be a Greek neighborhood, just east of the GW bridge or maybe up near 181st street (not the theater at 181st & Broadway). It had begun to show porn movies, but still catered to remnants of the ethnic community, so the sign said:
“Only on Sundays, Greek movies”
Knowing the way different populations might interpret “Greek”, I imagined disparate people lining up at the box office, eyeing each other suspiciously. A wholesome, conservative family group alongside a furtive guy in a raincoat, each wondering what the other was doing there.
Maybe the Fair will show Indian porn. Men and women kissing each other openly, on the mouth?
posted by faberfranz on Mar 31, 2007 at 3:48pm
I subsequently posted a link to photo (a view from above as it is now):
/theaters/4030/
Regarding my earlier reference (March 31) to “only on Sunday: Greek movies”: happened to pass by that area and think I spotted that long-lost theater. Anybody know its name and history (it’s a low-scale women’s clothing store now).
Visible if one knows what to look for on Live Search:
2nd building south of SW corner, Wadsworth Avenue and 181st
street. One bus parallel to it, the other almost aimed at
its front entrance.
View link
Identifiable by a frieze of Tragedy & Comedy masques near
top, a mask at each side of wall beneath, and what appear
to be supports for now-missing marquee.
posted by faberfranz on Apr 14, 2007 at 12:58pm
And somebody responded by sending me here, for exterior photos you’ve probably already seen:
faberfranz….There was a Heights Theater located at 150 Wadsworth Avenue (near West 181st St.) That might be the building that you saw. The Heights Theater is listed on Cinema Treasures here.
posted by Lost Memory on Apr 14, 2007 at 4:12pm
Yeah, that’s it! Just the way it looks today. Or three days ago, anyway.
From Lost Memory’s link (/theaters/11135/),
posted by KenRoe on Jul 18, 2006 at 12:39pm:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/192797148/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/192797605/
posted by faberfranz on Apr 14, 2007 at 7:22pm
But I guess you want photos of how it was ‘way back THEN, when it was still a movie theater…
The Heights.
View link
View link
This is a 1983 photo of the Heights.
My brother and friends would sometimes go to the Heights Theatre in the mid-late 1960s primarily BECAUSE it generally showed foreign films. That was a time when onscreen nudity was very scarce, unless you were old enough to see an “adult” film, but very often an “artistic” foreign film gave a young teenage boy an eyeful! Nowadays, of course, nudity in a PG film is no big deal, but let’s not forget what things were like 45 years ago!
Interesting.
Thanks for your honesty, Gary27. So many on this forum have denied the sex angle of fifties and sixties ‘art house’ success.
Al, most red-blooded American boys are pretty normal in that respect! On the other hand, even though there was unprecedented nudity in such films as the Czech film CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS (in 1967 anyway), often the films, such as that one, were extraordinarily unforgettable. I saw that on TV last year and it holds up as effectively as it did—-lo those 43 years ago!—-in story, acting, direction and cinematography. A true cinema classic. Thank you, Heights Theatre.
The November 15, 1913, issue of The Moving Picture World gave the opening date of the Heights Theatre as October 11. The house was fitted with a Hope-Jones unit orchestra.