Clifton Theatre
1034 Second Avenue,
New York,
NY
10022
1034 Second Avenue,
New York,
NY
10022
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Situated on Second Avenue near East 54th Street, this was one of Manhattan’s early cinemas, and originally known as the Pastime. Circa 1935-36, it was renovated and re-named the Clifton, with a policy of late-run double features changing several times per week.
More information about its history and the current status of the site is needed.
Contributed by
Warren G. Harris
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Recent comments (view all 12 comments)
You should submit the Pastime theater. NYC shows a 300 seat theater at 336 Eighth Avenue in 1926. In 1928, the same address is now shown as stores. This must have been a short lived theater.
I won’t post about the other Pastime unless I can find more information about it. I would guess that it was there prior to 1926, which was only the first year that FDYBs started listing all cinemas in NYC and their addresses.
The C/O for 1926 shows a two story building with a motion picture theater on the first floor and the second floor is vacant. The 1928 C/O shows a three story building with stores on the first floor, office and factory on the second floor and the third floor is vacant. Both C/O’s show different architects. It appears that not only was the theater gone by 1928, but the building was replaced also. If you want to see the C/O’s, I’ll email them to you.
At the Lincoln Center PAL, I found a paper programme from 1915, when the Pastime claimed to be “A Photoplay Theatre as it should be.” In the schedule for the week of March 27, 1915, the programs changed daily and consisted of a feature film with several short subjects. The admission was 5 cents for all weekday matinees and up until 2PM on Saturdays. Sundays, holidays, and all evening performances were priced at 10 cents, and 5 cents for children. No mention was made of musical accompaniment for the films, but the Pastime probably had a piano or maybe even an organ.
The Pastime Theatre had a 2-manual, 4-rank Wurlitzer “Style B” organ (with piano-style console), Opus 1416 (1925). This organ was moved in 1935 to the Fordham Skating Rink in the Bronx, which would coincide with the ca. 1935-36 renovation and renaming of the theatre.
Disregard the above posting. Further research shows that the Wurlitzer was in the Pastime-Osborne Theatre in the Bronx. Does anyone know of this theatre’s location?
Point of fact, the standard style B Wurlitzer was not equipped with a “piano-style console”. The style B normally had a stock 2 manual “circular” console with 3 pistons per manual. There were around 225 style B organs built.
The style 135 (around 203 built), also 2 manuals and 4 ranks did have a piano console as did the style 1,2,105,108,109,110,120,125,130,160,A,L,V midget style theatre organs by Wurlitzer. Around 500+ piano console Wurlitzer organs were built from 3 ranks to 8 ranks.
About the only real difference between a style B and a 135 was the console type and the fact that the style B had an extra 12 treble pipes for the 2' Flute Piccolo. There were probably some differences in the traps supplied, but those varied from instrument to instrument anyway.
Tom DeLay — I stand corrected. The Wurlitzer Style B had 2 Manuals – 4 Ranks – 3 Tuned Percussions – 17 Traps – Curved Console. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
This is listed in the 1947 Film Daily Yearbook as the Knickerbocker.
From the NY Times, 1946
“‘Naughty-Naught’ will open at the Old Knickerbocker Music Hall (Formerly the Clifton Theatre) on second avenue and fifty-fourth street.”
As “the Knick”, it seems to have been mixture of movies, theatre and cabaret from 1946 to around 1951 when it became abandoned. In 1958 when they looked into re-opening it as a club they found a colony of homeless women living there without heat or water.