Academy of Music
126 E. 14th Street,
New York,
NY
10003
126 E. 14th Street,
New York,
NY
10003
15 people
favorited this theater
The Academy of Music was built by movie mogul William Fox and opened in 1926. The theater was created to fill the gap left by the demolition of its original counterpart across 14th Street at Irving Place. It was one of the major movie theatres in the Union Square entertainment district.
Until the late-1970’s there was still a (barely discernable) large size painting of a ticket that advertised “two features, cartoon and newsreel” for 5 cents.
With the demise of the legendary Fillmore East in 1971, the Academy of Music found new life as the premier mid-range venue for rock and roll music. During the 1970’s it was far removed from the center of the Manhattan movie district, and had an amazing dual life – – – concert hall by night, and home to cheesy kung-fu movies by day. Three or four evenings a week, the cream of 1970’s rock bands came through, three bands a night, shows at 8 & 11:30 PM.
By the late-1970’s it had become a full-time concert venue, eventually re-christened “The Palladium.” In May 1985 the interior was remodeled to become a multi-story disco club of the same name. It was great to be on the upper levels and get to touch the decorations and cornices that had been so high above me, the same ones I had stared at as a child.
Alas, these stories never have happy endings. As with the NYC landmark Luchow’s restaurant (right next door,) New York University swallowed up the property, as they have so often, and demolished all of the buildings in 1997 to construct dormitories for the children of rich folk. Oh well, time marches on.
Contributed by
Jahn Bonfiglio, William Gabel
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Recent comments (view all 185 comments)
Tomorrow night (October 11th) will mark the 84th anniversary of the grand opening of this Academy of Music, which was advertised as “Built to withstand the Ages— Dedicated to future generations,” but ended up being demolished near the end of the century. William Fox’s “The Family Upstairs,” starring Virginia Valli, was the screen attraction, with a stage presentation including Nellie & Sara Kouns, Borrah Minevitch & His 24 Harmonica Kings, Emil Boreo, Fay Adler & Ted Bradford, the 14 Academy Girls, and the 60-piece Academy Symphony Orchestra. Programs changed weekly.
On this day in 1943, which also happened to be a Monday, the Academy of Music added a stage show to hype attendance for the last three days of its double bill of “Thank Your Lucky Stars” and “Murder on the Waterfront.” Benny Fields, Peg-Leg Bates, and Sharkey the Seal topped the stage portion, performing twice daily at 3:00pm and 9:00pm. Admission was 25 cents during the daytime, and 50 cents at night.
Reposting a new link to the one FrankK posted a few years back of interior photos. Images courtesy of Fischer Dachs Associates:
http://fda-online.com/project_detail.php?id=91
The reno was truly fantastic. What a loss to NYC.
What a wonderful thread! Arrived here because I was researching the old Anderson Theater on Second Avenue. A quick correction to an earlier comment: The Anderson was never the Yiddish Art Theatre. That was on 2nd Avenue and 12th street (yup, later the Fillmore East). The Yiddish Art Theatre was built specifically for the Yiddish actor Maurice Schwartz (“Mr Second Avenue”) in 1926, and the space later became the home of the Phoenix Theatre.
Oh, also a Jan 1978 issue of Billboard (searchable via Google Books) discusses CBGB Second Avenue’s opening (it quotes Hilly) and says that the theater had 1700 seats.
Marjoriei, the Yiddish Art is here;
/theaters/290/
and The Anderson is here;
/theaters/31581/
The Fillmore East was not on 12th. It was closer to 6th street.
/theaters/527/
oops, duh! sorry about that…
Re Warren Harris' 2/11/08 post about Judas Priest vs the Theater Historical Society Conclave: I was there and can vouch for the story. My recollection is that when we didn’t leave at JP’s first demand, they actually turned up the volume. (I’m not sure how—it was already at “11”.)
I haven’t really been following what’s been going on in Manhattan since I left in the mid 80s—the assault on the few remaining Thomas Lamb houses is disheartening. Is it possible that the only intact Lamb theaters in Manhattan are the Mark Hellinger and the 175th Street?
Status needs to be changed from “Closed” to “Demolished.”
A interesting video record of the interior of the Academic of Music midway through its days as the Palladium nightclub, 1985 to 1999. The light wall added by architect Isozaki can be seen at 01:28: Palladium1
Some other shots of the interior of The Palladium nightclub (00:18 to 01:25) during this Andy Warhol interview with Nick Rhodes. Palladium2