Uptown Theatre
4037 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10032
4037 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10032
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Contributed by
William Gabel
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Recent comments (view all 31 comments)
The Uptown opened in 1920.
The architect was George M. Pollard.
I think it’s still there. I was biking by towards the GWB before the United Palace and noticed the looming stagehouse on the left (going north) around 170th.
The address is currently used for a Gristedes supermarket. This photo suggests that the Uptown theatre building is now long gone with the proverbial wind: View link
I have been at this supermarket and it was definitely a movie theater. You can just know from the shape of the outside of the building. Which theater? I don’t know.
That photo linked above on 2/25/10 apparently shows only a portion of the building, which looks to me like it’s only one-story high. Perhaps they tore down the entrance/lobby portion of the theatre for the supermarket, and the auditorium housing remains behind as part of some other enterprise.
The photo is the streeet entrance which leads to the entrance/checkout section which looks ilke a lobby and leads you to the store. The supermarket is huge for NYC standards. It was definitely an auditorium, no columns, etc., though the ceiling is low for a theater.
The ceiling was obviously lowered for the supermarket.
I was a frequent moviegoer at the Uptown Theatre in my boyhood, and I recall seeing there, among other films, DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS, THE SILVER CHALICE, THIS ISLAND EARTH, THE LAST COMMAND, HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME (Anthony Quinn version), THE BUCCANEER, DAMN YANKEES, many others. I distinctly recall that around 1960 or early 1961, to the chagrin of everyone in the neighborhood, it was turned into a Sloan’s Supermarket. Years later, as mentioned in these posts, it became a Gristedes market. It was indeed a small theater, but it had a handsome lobby where there was always a large standee cutout or poster of the films being shown. I took a walk through the old neighborhood last year, and did see that the low building itself was still there, but I can’t seem to find any photograph of this theater online.
Another missing intro.
???
The moderate height of the remaining building suggests that the auditorum was of the stadium type, with a raised section of seats at the rear instead of a conventional overhanging balcony(ala the current Ziegfeld in midtown).