Criterion Theatre
1514 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
1514 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
17 people
favorited this theater
The Criterion Theatre opened September 1936 in the Art Moderne style with 1,700 seats on part of the site of the old Olympia entertainment complex. This originally included Loew’s New York Theatre and Roof (Cinematreasures theater #15178), and the earlier Criterion Theatre (Cinematreasures theater #16481) which was built in 1895 as the Lyric Theatre.
All were demolished to make way for the Criterion Theatre, retail stores and the International Casino nightclub. B.S. Moss built the Criterion, but in 1938 leased the theatre to Loew’s for 20 years. The first film to open at Loew’s Criterion Theatre was MGM’s “Spring Madness” on November 30, 1938.
Due to divestment of theatres because of antitrust litigation, in 1949, the Criterion reverted back to B.S. Moss. The last film to be shown by Loew’s was “He Walked By Night”, which opened on February 5th 1949. During that engagement, Loew’s returned management of the Criterion to B.S. Moss who then operated the theatre until the 1980’s, when it was leased to United Artists Theatre Circuit.
With “Fort Ti”, a Columbia movie that opened on May 29th 1953, the Criterion claimed to be the first theatre in the world to project a 3-D (with glasses) feature on a giant wide screen, with streophonic sound and color by Technicolor.
The Criterion Theatre was host to numerous premieres. After the World Premiere of “The Ten Commandments” on November 8, 1956, that movie was shown (with reserved seats) for 17 months. The US premiere in 70mm of “Lawrence of Arabia” was held on December 15, 1962. World Premieres of other 70mm films included “South Pacific” (March 19, 1958), “My Fair Lady”(October 21, 1964), “Thoroughly Modern Millie”(March 21, 1967), “Funny Girl”(September 19, 1968) and “Patton”(February 5, 1970).
In March 1980, the Criterion Theatre was converted into five screens using some space in the former basement lounge.. Additional seating was added in the front of the former seating area of the balcony so that a new upstairs auditorium had 1,041 seats. The new auditorium in the former orchestra seating area had 1,037 seats, but was later split left/right to create two 400 seat auditoriums. The basement houses seated 156, 198, 193 and 248.
The Criterion Theatre finally closed in the spring of 2000 and was gutted internally to become a massive Toys R Us store. A restaurant occupies the space that held the movie screen and the first rows of the original orchestra seating section.
Contributed by
William Gabel, Don Weber, Howard B. Haas
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Recent comments (view all 430 comments)
I was only in the Criterion once, with a church group, to see the Ten Commandments. My only remembrance of the theatre were the overstuffed seats with very heavy, and uncomfortable, flocking.
I saw Lawrence of Arabia at the Criterion on one of my yearly visits to New York and it was a revelation. I didn’t know movies could be so beautifully sharp and detailed. It was magnificent and I can still see images from the film in my centre row seat about half way back. Only the original IMAX could equal this.
saw my first big roadshow here when i was a kid. 1968 Funny Girl. I loved it. Show curtain overture, intermission,souvenir program, the works. I was hooked on roadshow engagements!
Sat in the lodge, taken to the seats by an usher. Loved it. After Funny Girl I wasnt in the theatre again until they multi-plexed it. A night showing of a Streep film, ruined by screaming, crying kids. I never returned after that.
bigjoe59 -Some roadshow info- at the Criterion- 1967 Thoroughly Modern Millie,1968 Funny Girl, At the Rivoli-1961 West Side Story, 1963 Cleopatra, 1968 Star!, 1969 Sweet Charity, 1970 Hello, Dolly! At the RKO Palace-1969 Goodbye Mr. Chips At Loews State 1- 1968 Oliver! At Loews State 2-1968 Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang In 1968 Finians Rainbow had a roadshow engagement at the Warner which by then had split to 3 theatres-cant recall if Finians played The Penthouse or the Cinerama.
Hope this was helpful
Long holiday hours as the Times Square flagship of the toy mecca: http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/19/pf/holiday_money_toys_r_us/index.htm?source=cnn_bin
Loew’s Criterion was frequently Universal’s choice for the NYC premiere engagements of Deanna Durbin vehicles, including this 1945 “film noir”: blogspot
Finian at Penthouse that’s where I saw it.
I think I saw “Country Girl” here during Christmas break when I was a kid in 1955. How can I be certain that it played here? Is there a list of films somewhere? Thanks.
“The Country Girl” opened its exclusive NYC premiere engagement at the Criterion Theatre on the night of December 15th, 1954.