Loew's Mt. Vernon Theatre
30 Stevens Avenue,
Mount Vernon,
NY
10550
30 Stevens Avenue,
Mount Vernon,
NY
10550
1 person
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I knew Loew’s very well in the 1950’s and early 1960"s. In 1952, I saw two black and white horror features in one afternoon: Frankenstein with Boris Karloff and Dracula with Bela Lugosi. When I was in junior high school, the “Bridge over the River Kwai” was playing and my boy scout troop built a replica of the bridge (lashed wood structure) and it was put atop the ticketbox. I still have the picture from the Daily Argus!
Definitely not Loews…..
The NYPL website shows an undated photo of a Mount Vernon Theatre, but I doubt if it’s the Loew’s Mount Vernon. The outside posters, however, suggest that this Mount Vernon Theatre was being used as a cinema at the time. Perhaps it is listed at CT under a subsequent name?
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Nice pitcure mp775.Never heard of this Loews before.
The link I posted on 9/26/07 no longer works; use this instead:
Loew’s Mt. Vernon, late 1940s
I believe that the architect of the Mt. Vernon was R. Thomas Short. The exterior brick work and design are similar to that used by Short for the Prospect in Flushing, Queens, and the Bliss in Sunnyside, Queens. The Mt. Vernon and Prospect were built by Century but leased to Loew’s. Century also built the Bliss and operated it for its entire lifetime as a cinema. R.Thomas Short designed most of the larger pre-WWII Century theatres, usually working with William Rau as interior designer.
This photo shows the Loew’s Mt. Vernon in the late 1940s.
An Austin theater organ opus 1307 size 3/13 was installed in the Mt. Vernon Theater in 1925 at a cost of $14,300.
The 1934 Film Daily New York lists a Bunny Theatre with 600 seats in Mount Vernon. That might be it. After the fire, it could have closed forever or been renovated and re-named. The name “Bunny” (honoring early film comedian John Bunny) suggests it was probably one of the first cinemas built in Mt. Vernon, and may not have been up to modern safety standards.
This theater was at Park and Elm in Mount Vernon in 1933, but it is unidentified. It doesn’t appear to be one of the three listed to date. Any ideas?
http://tinyurl.com/29gvou
This was a terrific theater that I frequented as a kid in the 60s. The first movie I ever saw was in this theater: Tom Thumb. I also saw the Beatles in a Hard Day’s Night there the first day the film opened. Also, remember vividly Bye Bye Birdie.
The theater had a huge smoking lounge on the second level. Also, the lobby was enormous with two tall staircases that took you to the balcony.
I saw Jerry Lewis appear there on a theater publicity tour for The Nutty Professor.
I believe the theater closed around 1968, as did the wonderful RKO Proctor’s a block away. The latter’s building remained virtually intact up until very recently. Loews, however, was almost immediately razed for an ugly parking garage which still remains an eyesore right across the street from City Hall.
Mount Vernon lost all it charm when these two wonderful places closed.
The photo with the trolley is a view from W. 1st St, which is across the railroad cut that was behind the theatre. The Lowe’s sign in that photo was on the left side of the theatre, facing N. 5th Ave (now aka Sharpe Blvd N). The photo with the marquee is actually the front (and only) entrance to the theatre. (Look closely, you can see the icket booth on the right side of the entrance.) It faced Roosevelt Sq South. Directly across from the theatre is Mount Vernon’s City Hall.
I remember going to a couple of movies there as a very young boy, the most memorable was the local premiere of The Beatles “A Hard Days Night.” Couldn’t hear a thing over the screaming girls! :–)
This was built by pioneer exhibitor A.H. Schwartz with the intended name of the Gramatan Theatre, but Marcus Loew became covetous and bought the project while it was still under construction. This also apparently discouraged Schwartz from building other theatres in Westchester or the Bronx. His empire, which eventually became known as Century Theatres, covered Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island.
These two images suggest that the theatre might have had more than one entrance. The trolley in the first image might be hiding the main entrance. The marquee and vertical sign in the second image are on the far side of the building, and might be a secondary entrance or just used as an exit. Does anyone know if Loew’s Mt. Vernon once had two entrances?
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/LMV.jpg
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/LMV2.jpg