Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
205 West 46th Street,
New York,
NY
10036
205 West 46th Street,
New York,
NY
10036
8 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 94 comments found
A February 1, 1998 NYT article on this theatre mentions that it opened with a feature unique to Broadway history. As a tribute to its namesake, the open-air Shakespeare Globe in London, this Globe had a sliding roof that could open up to the sky on hot weather days. They speculate that soot and litter may have limited the use as it was a problem for other nearby roof top operations.
The article also mentions that the theatre had “seats for fat men”.
I was just reading a 1989 NYT article about the Nederlander organization looking for a movie multiplex operator to split it up because the theatre was too narrow and therefore awkward for live musical theatre. Here we are twenty three years later.
Pictured in this two-page trade ad for the 1942 reissue of a Chaplin classic: Boxoffice
The Globe was spotlighted in this 1950 trade ad for a British import that probably promised more than it delivered: boxoffice
“Tarzan’s Desert Mystery” broke all boxoffice records for an opening day at Brandt’s Globe in late December, 1943: boxofficemagazine
Here’s Brandt’s Globe featured in a 1951 trade ad for “The Desert Fox”: boxofficemagazine
I like that you can see a little bit of Horn & Hardart there on the right.
This photo with “Hoodlum Empire” on the Globe’s marquee was incorrectly posted at the listing for the New York Theatre: photobucket
In rememberance of Jane Russell, it should be noted that her first movie to be shown in New York City was Hunt Stromberg/UA’s “Young Widow,” a B&W melodrama co-starring Louis Hayward that opened at Brandt’s Globe Theatre on July 27th, 1946. Russell’s notorious debut film, “The Outlaw,” made in 1941-42, was long delayed by censorship problems, and didn’t reach New York until September 11th, 1947, at the Broadway Theatre. Amazingly, both theatres still exist as “legit” playhouses, while Jane Russell will live on in her films and recordings.
Re-posted from Vito’s post today on the Loew’s State page:
Nov. 10th: On this date in 1953 the second picture released in CinemaScope opened simultaneously at the Loew’s State and Brandt’s Globe.
I believe “How to Marry a Millionaire” was actually the first movie filmed in Scope but Zanuck in his wisdom decided to release “The Robe” first to introduce the miracle you see without glasses.
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Here’s a 1943 view with Walt Disney’s “Saludos, Amigos” on the Globe’s marquee. In the block below, the ex-Gaiety was serving as a Laffmovie, while the Astor had MGM’s “The Human Comedy”: View link
In this 1955 view, the Globe is at left, with “Ulysses” on the marquee. Source material for the Paramount import was Greek mythology, and not the controversial novel of that title by James Joyce: http://www.nfo.net/usa/bway45up.jpg
Check out Stanley Kubrick’s “Killer’s Kiss” where one scene takes place at night in Times Square. The Globe is playing “How to Marry a Millionaire in 1953. The action goes indoors for a minute then is outside again and the Globe is now playing "Beachhead” with Tony Curtis, from 1954. Guess it didn’t take Kubrick two years to shoot the film, but apparently it did take a while.
“Forbidden Planet”, first-run, at the Globe.
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1484101632/tt0049223
This was never a “porno” theatre. The writer of the 11/4/09 item obviously confused it with the New York Theatre, which was re-named Globe after the original Globe had been transformed into the Lunt-Fontanne. Here’s the listing for that other theatre:
/theaters/6604/
Although the intro correctly states that the Globe became a full-time cinema in 1935, from 1927 to 1935 it spent more time each year as a motion picture theatre than as a live venue.
Porno at the Globe all right then.
It’s been submitted Al. Let’s see what happens.
Cool find, LM. It appears these facts were always there if you know where to look.
This site claims that the Ritz was also a porn theater in the 1960s and this site confirms what you posted, “From the late ‘30s and on into the '70s, the theater went through an identity crisis, being used alternately as a radio and TV studio, a performance space, and, at one point, a movie house named the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Theatre”.
Porn and kids movies. Odd combination but that should qualify the Ritz/Kerr theater to be listed on CT.
I just found a blurb in an old copy of MARQUEE (Volume 18, 1986) that mentions the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s theatre which was showing films in 1976. It states that the RFK was actually the Walter Kerr/Ritz at 219 West 46th Street and not this location.
That isn’t a photo of this theater, Cosmic Ray. It looks like the New York Theater.
1971 LIFE image -
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a night time shot of the Howard Johnson’s and Gaiety Burlesque buildings on 46th st shortly before demolition
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The Globe was showing movies between shows at least as early as 1915 when it premiered ‘The Whirl of Life".