Waldorf Theatre
116 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
116 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
2 people
favorited this theater
The Waldorf was opened in 1926, designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp. The over-1000 seat theater stood on 50th Street at Sixth Avenue. The Waldorf operated as a marginally successful legitimate house until the end of 1933.
Turning to movies, the relatively small theater was no match for its enormous nearby neighbors, the Roxy and the Radio City Music Hall and lasted as a movie house until 1941, when it was converted over to retail use. The former theater was razed in 1967-68 to make way for construction of the Rockefeller Center’s Exxon Building.
Contributed by
Bryan
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Recent comments (view all 5 comments)
I can’t believe I never heard of this theatre. Was it directly across the street from the RCMH?
Robert, I found this one in Nicholas Van Hoogstraten’s “Lost Broadway Theatres” (pg. 221). He says, “Overshadowed by both the Roxy across the street and Radio City Music Hall down the block, the Waldorf joined its mammoth neighbors in showing movies”.
Beginning on April 8, 1939, the Waldorf presented the American premiere engagement of “Blanche Neige et Les 7 Nains,” the French-dubbed version of guess what Walt Disney cartoon feature? Mr. Disney himself attended the 8PM performance on opening night. This booking was mainly for the sake of French visitors to the New York World’s Fair. There were no English sub-titles, though by that time the movie and its songs were so famous that they weren’t needed. Tickets could be purchased in French currency at the latest rate of exchange.
Here’s an exterior of the closed theatre. At the extreme left, you can see part of a Horn & Hardart Automat, which was always crowded due to its proximity to Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, and the Roxy Theatre:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/waldorf.jpg
This was already listed as a movie house in the 1937 Film Daily Year Book.