Loew's Commodore Theater
105 2nd Avenue,
New York,
NY
10003
105 2nd Avenue,
New York,
NY
10003
14 people
favorited this theater
Originally opened in 1926 as the Commodore Theater operated by the Meyer & Schneider circuit. This movie house theater was taken over by Loew’s Inc. and opened as the Loew’s Commodore Theater on September 1, 1927. It became a Yiddish theatre in 1963, showing Yiddish movies and vaudeville, and was known as the Village Theater. It can credit Lenny Bruce as appearing on its stage.
In March 1968 it became the Fillmore East concert venue. Over three years, innumerable bands played here including Santana and Chicago. The Fillmore East finally closed in June 1971. On December 7, 1974 it became the N.F.E. (New Fillmore East) operated by Barry Stuart, with the group Bachman Turner Overdrive playing on opening night. This closed in 1975. It then became the Village East.
In the fall of 1980, it was converted into what was to become New York City’s best and most celebrated gay disco ‘The Saint’, which became famous world-wide. This continued until May 2, 1988 when the doors closed following a non-stop 48 hours party. The building was used sporadically for a couple of years for live events, then stood empty for a few years until the auditorium was demolished in around 1996.
Today the narrow facade remains and the lobby is now remodeled as an Emigrant Savings Bank. Apartments/condos called Hudson East were constructed on the site of the auditorium. In the lobby of the bank are pictures of the Fillmore, Village Theater and Loews Commodore Theatre as well as some posters from the Fillmore East days.
Contributed by
Peter Holowczyk, William Gabel, Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 144 comments)
The PBS American Masters documentary on Elia Kazan (mentioned above) was shown again tonight. There was a nice exterior view of the Commodore marquee.
A few older posts (2006) on this site refer to the post-Loews brief incarnation of this as the Yiddish Village Theatre as a result of this 1966 photo of Timothy Leary from Ed Solero’s photobucket:
http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b110/GuanoReturns/Manhattan%20Movie%20Theaters/Loews%20Commodore%20aka%20Fillmore%20East/?action=view¤t=LoewsCommodoreLeary.jpg&sort=ascending.
I found an ad for this period hiding in plain sight in the New York Times.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25725093@N07/6574751901/lightbox/
Great stories to read.I think Al Jolson must have played every theatre in the USA at one timeor real close too.
If you go inside the bank, they have a select # of pix of the theater’s interiors and exteriors, but none show the ornamentation as we’d like. There are a few Youtube videos of bands playing there, but only with shots of the columns and the proscenium.
Until today. Thanx to the Gothamist, this picture of The Doors shows a shot looking up and amazing detail! A rare shot!
http://gothamist.com/2012/03/19/flashbacks.php#photo-3
Here’s a clickable version of the link posted by bicyclereporter. An amazing image.
There’s also a link below that photo with three more shots from the same Doors show, starting with this image. Just click on the thumbnail pics below the photo to see the other shots in the series.
Breathtaking!
Since April 22, 2013 it’s an Apple Bank for Savings branch after the acquisition of 29 Emigrant Savings Bank branches.
http://evgrieve.com/2013/04/bank-branch-become-bank-branch-at.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Bank_for_Savings#Acquisition_of_29_Emigrant_Bank_branches_in_2013
December 1969 photo added, photo credit Amalie Rothschild, via New York Historical.
Link with multiple 1968 Elliot Landy Getty images.
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/photo-of-jimi-hendrix-l-r-jimi-hendrix-mitch-mitchell-noel-news-photo/86203742
A major exhibition honoring Bill Graham, who turned the former Commodore into a rock palace known as Fillmore East, is currently on view at the New York Historical Society. More details here