Venice Theatre

205-209 Park Row,
New York, NY 10038

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Additional Info

Previous Names: Venice Motion Picture Theatre

Nearby Theaters

Rose Gordon's Venice, 1925

The Venice Motion Picture Theatre was in operation by 1914. By 1948, it had converted to Chinese programming.

Contributed by Damien Farley

Recent comments (view all 8 comments)

Ken Roe
Ken Roe on August 29, 2005 at 3:53 pm

The Venice Theatre is listed in the American Motion Picture Directory 1914 -1915. Various editions of Film Daily Yearbook give it a seating capacity of 600. In the 1950 edition of F.D.Y. seating is given as 650.

RickB
RickB on August 29, 2005 at 10:12 pm

In 1940 Joseph Mitchell wrote a profile of the Venice’s co-owner/box office clerk, Mazie Gordon, for the New Yorker. It was reprinted in two collections of Mitchell’s work, McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon (1943) and Up in the Old Hotel (1992). According to Mitchell the theater was opened in an existing building in 1914 and named for a favorite restaurant of the original owner, a gambler and entrepreneur named Louis Gordon. In 1918 Gordon turned the theater over to his wife Rosie, who eventually shared ownership with her sisters. (Mazie was one of the sisters; she assumed Gordon’s last name for reasons she declined to reveal for publication.) In 1940 it was a ten-cent double-feature house, open from 8 a.m. to midnight, with a clientele of Bowery bums and tenement dwellers.

jflundy
jflundy on December 15, 2007 at 9:54 pm

Mazie also owned a Merry-Go-Round in Coney Island in the 1940’s besides being part owner and frequent cashier at the Venice Theater.

CSWalczak
CSWalczak on November 30, 2009 at 3:57 am

There is a picture of the Venice here:
View link

Bway
Bway on August 31, 2010 at 11:14 pm

Here’s a photo of the Venice:

View link

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on November 26, 2015 at 7:04 pm

Below novel “Saint Mazie” released in June 2015 is set in the Venice Theatre. Two links. 1st is NY Times Book review, the 2nd is a link to purchase. Book cover art in the 2nd link will enlarge.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/14/books/review/saint-mazie-by-jami-attenberg.html?_r=0

http://www.amazon.com/Saint-Mazie-Novel-Jami-Attenberg/dp/1455599891

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on November 26, 2015 at 7:09 pm

1964 obituary for Mazie Phillips.

http://www.nytimes.com/1964/06/11/bowery-mourns-mazie-phillips.html

RickB
RickB on May 13, 2017 at 1:13 pm

Mazie in 1946. Identified as “Maise, Queen of the Bowery” on this page of post-WWII New York photographs, about halfway down.

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