New Yorker Theater
523 Eighth Avenue,
New York,
NY
10018
523 Eighth Avenue,
New York,
NY
10018
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The New Yorker appears in the 1941 Film Daily Yearbook. It is gone after that.
This is a February 1935 ad for the Gem Theater.
I suspect that brief items in Boxoffice were extracted from other sources, including assorted press releases by theater owners, and stuff sometimes got jumbled. I can easily imagine a press release saying that the West End Theatre was getting a De Luxe renovation, and some harried copy editor in Hollywood misinterpreting some other staff member’s hastily jotted notes about it.
Their longer articles appear to be more reliable, and were probably often press releases printed verbatim, or cut down slightly to fit the available column space.
According to the Department of Buildings, 360 W. 125 Street and 362 W. 125th Street are not the same building. 362 W. 125th Street is the address given for the West End Theater and is the current address for the church. The build date for that address is 1902. 360 W. 125 Street is listed as a store building and has a build date of 1904. On the West End Theater page, Al was asking about a theater that was supposed to be located next to the West End Theater and opening in 1904. Something was built next to the West End Theater in 1904 but I can’t verify that it was a theater. I’m still wondering what theater Boxoffice Magazine is referring to.
Thanks Al and Joe. The 1935 Film Daily lists a 542 seat Gem Theater at 523 Eighth Avenue. Gem should be added as an aka name.
I don’t know what to make of the Boxoffice information concerning the De Luxe Theater. There is no De Luxe Theater listed in 1935, but the West End Theater is listed in 1935 with 1672 seats. The address given is 362 W. 125th Street.
The name change apparently took place in 1937. Here’s something from the October 2, 1937, issue of Boxoffice Magazine: “New Yorker, formerly the Gem, 523 Eighth Avenue, is being operated by the New York Amusement, Inc., Ben Shapiro, principal.”
The item listed two other recent name changes for theaters in Manhattan: The Acme, 247 W. 48th St., had become the President, and the De Luxe, 360 W. 125 St., was undergoing renovation and would reopen as the West End. This latter is a bit confusing, as I gather from the Cinema Treasures West End Theatre page that the place opened as the West End Theatre in 1902, and was sold under that name as late as 1932. Maybe the name De Luxe was used between 1932 and the 1937 renovation?
From 1923 to at least 1932, this was possibly known as the GEM.
Free preview from the NY Times November 7, 1937
Small Fire at Movie Routs 60
Some sixty persons quietly filed out of the New Yorker Theatre, 523 Eigth Avenue, near Thirty-sixth Street, at 8 o'clock last night when fire started in a room adjoining the projection booth.