Loew's Yorkville Theatre

Ruth Crosby Dimmick’s 1913 book Our Theatres To-day and Yesterday says that the Yorkville Theatre was built in 1902 and was operated by the Shuberts for a while until being taken over my Marcus Loew and reopened as a movie and variety theater on October 1, 1909.

Thanks AlAlvarez.

I must correct an error made above on 2/16/10 at 1:33pm. The Yorkville Theatre was NOT replaced by a Horn & Hardart cafeteria. Reportage and advertising in The New York Times reveals that the cafeteria was situated at 163-165 East 86th Street and opened for business on 12/13/1927. A sketch in an NYT ad shows the cafeteria to be just to the east of Yorkville Theatre, which was still operating at the time but no longer under Loew’s management. But in May, 1928, the NYT reported that the Yorkville Theatre had just been sold for demolition and replacement by a five-story building with street level stores. That report gave the Yorkville’s address as 157-161, and with a ground site measuring 76 by 100 feet. The previous year (1927), an obsolete YMCA at 153-155 was sold at public auction for demolition and replacement by stores/offices. That YMCA building was just to the west of the Yorkville Theatre. So, from the time that Horn & Hardart acquired the cafeteria site, there was considerable re-construction intended for that north side of 86th Street that stretched towards Lexington Avenue. It can probably be assumed that the old-fashioned Yorkville had tested unsuitable for “talkies.” The area had recently added a palatial new Proctor’s 86th Street to compete with Loew’s Orpheum, Loew’s 86th Street, and the Garden Theatre, not to mention other cinemas further east…The photos posted above on 11/7/05 by “davebazooka” suggest that some of the facade of the Yorkville Theatre was retained for the building that currently occupies that site.

It was directly across the street from the other two Loews, between Third and Lexington.

View link

It was on 86th street and what cross street?

The Loew’s 86th Street Theatre is not listed on CT because no one seems to know exactly where it was.

The 1941 Film Daily Yearbook has an 86th Street theatre at 121 East 86th Street.

Could that be the missing Loews?

The links posted by davebazooka on Nov 7, 2005 at 10:05am still work for me.

I lived at 150 E 86th St from 1944 to 1958. There were three theatres on the block between Lexington and Third Ave. The Loew’s Orpheum was on the North side, the Loew’s 86th St was on the South side and next to it to the west was the Grande (86th St Grande). Next to the Orpheum to the West was the Linden Bar and next to it was the Automat. Is there any way of restoring some of the broken links to photos?

Really, the only help needed is for management to change the name of this listing to Loew’s Yorkville or just Yorkville. Then a listing for Loew’s 86th Street could be created…That vintage photo has been on display here for more than two years. Please see my post above of 7/13/05.

The American Motion Picture Directory 1914-1915 edition lists:

86th Street Theatre, 162 E. 86th Street

Loew’s Yorkville Theatre, 157 E. 86th Street
Winter Garden Theatre, 158-160 E. 86th Street
Yorkville Casino Theatre, 210 E. 86th Street

Recent research indicates that this was never called Loew’s 86th Street. The actual Loew’s 86th Street was on the south side of East 86th Street at #162. It was originally called the 86th Street Theatre, and acquired by Marcus Loew in April, 1916, according to a report in The New York Times of 4/4/16. Loew purchased the theatre from a company owned by B.S. Moss and Sol Brill. The acquisition gave Marcus Loew three theatres on the 86th Street block between Lexington and Third Avenues— the Orpheum and Yorkville on the north side, and the 86th on the south side, the NYT claimed. The 86th Street Theatre was three stories high on 86th Street and four stories on 85th Street. It had a frontage on 86th Street of only 27.9 feet, which is probably why the theatre is hard to spot in some vintage photos of the block. No seating capacity was given in the article, but the 1926 and 1941 Film Daily Year Books both say 1,400…As for the Yorkville Theatre, I think it was known as Loew’s Yorkville until it closed and was demolished to make way for a Horn & Hardart Restaurant.

The part of town is confusing enough but I found yet another Yorkville on 96th and Third playing German films in 1933-1934.