City Cinemas Village East
181 Second Avenue,
New York,
NY
10003
181 Second Avenue,
New York,
NY
10003
15 people
favorited this theater
City Cinema’s beautifully restored Village East was once the home of Yiddish theater. Legend has it that Walter Matthau began his film career here as a young boy working at the concession counter.
Its past is still evident in the Moorish designs that adorn both the inside and outside of the theater. Yiddish writing outside the lobby and a large star of David in the dome of the main auditorium further infuse atmosphere into the historic building.
Below the original ornate theater and lobby, four screening rooms have been added. A further two screens have been added on the former stage area of the theatre, which are stacked one on top of the other. The screen on top has wonderful stadium seating, a decent size screen, and is a very nice theatre in itself. It is not as beautiful as the main auditorium, but does have exposed brickwork and some character.
With New York City’s lack of a still-operating historic movie palace, the Village East is the closest thing around, especially in the 1,200-seat original main auditorium.
Contributed by
Ross Melnick
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Recent comments (view all 93 comments)
As Ludwig Satz Yiddish Folks Theatre:
View link
The theater facade got a bit of a facelift recently; this article has a picture and a link to another one showing what it looked like before the recent work began: View link
The stonework looks very good. It had been covered with paint long before City Cinemas renovated it into a plex. The question is: How long will it remain unpainted? The lower portions of the building were always a canvas for the local graffiti artists. Before the renovation was complete in 1990, the security shutters on the windows on the n.e. corner and the 3 storefronts on the south end were completely covered with the work of the neighborhood “artists” less than 24 hours after they were installed. At that time the neighborhood was in the process of being yuppified, but is it much better now?
The big theatre here was the most PERFECT location for “Rocky Horror”!! The famous NYC cast made great use of the old boxes flanking the proscenium. I have numerous pics of the Halloween 1996 show, and someday I’ll scan them and post them on the web.
Unfortunately, “Rocky” was usually relegated to one of the teensy houses…
Not for nothin', but isn’t that Rocky stuff getting a little old? Thirty years ago it was sort of an amusing way to spend one or two uneventful Saturday nights, but time marches on and most people grow up. Are the same ‘performers’ still ‘performing’ along with the film? Do their walkers and canes get in the way?
Man this theatre has had a lot of A.K.A. names.
I was just there in the main auditorium to see LEAVES OF GRASS. The place was clean, looked fresh, smelled good and the stars of the picture were doing a talk-back after the show. The main screen retains the decor and feeling of the 1920s while the smaller screens are simple modern screening rooms. I don’t much care for the smaller screens because they don’t have much in the way of character, but I prefer them to any screen at the Angelika—those long shoebox rooms with small screens are unappealing. I very much like going to this theatre—especially if I can sit in the main auditorium. Also the lobby is beautiful.
Advert as the Gayety in 1966.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=E_ZDAAAAIBAJ&sjid=KLAMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2707%2C98720
By the way, the Mayfair theatre listed in the same ad later became the Mayfair Yiddish theatre and is NOT the Embassy 1, 2, 3.
Here’s a 1937 view as the Century Theatre: lunaimaging