RKO 23rd Street Theatre
265 Eighth Avenue,
New York,
NY
10011
265 Eighth Avenue,
New York,
NY
10011
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I am doing some research on the theater from the Grand Opera House days to the RKO 23rd St. If you’d like to share some information or memories please post or email me. Thanks. Jerry
Joe:
A belated thank you. Great pix. Funny how I remembered the color of the carpeting. The place meant a lot to us. Jerry
Here’s another photo from that same engagement of “We’re In The Money” and “Without Regret”:
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Here’s a 1935 view as Grand Opera House with double bill of “We’re In The Money” and “Without Regret”:
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Jerry: The scan is a bit blurry, but Boxoffice Magazine of October 15, 1938, ran an article about the conversion of the Grand Opera House into the RKO 23rd Street, and it has a pair of before-and-after photos showing the foyer and the auditorium.
Here is another 1937 photo by Berenice Abbott:
http://tinyurl.com/mexc7m
According to the front of the Grand Opera House marquee, the double feature playing on September 3, 1937, the date the photo was taken, was displayed as…
MARRIED BEFORE BREAKFAST with
ROBT YOUNG & FLORENCE RICE
BANK ALARM with CONRAD NAGEL
Both were released in mid June of 1937.
Here is a 1937 photo by Berenice Abott. I bought the book of her photos the other day, “Changing New York 1935-1938”, and I recommend it for anyone who enjoys seeing NYC in the 1930s.
http://tinyurl.com/kw3eks
beautiful photo. Thank you.
Thanks to JF Lundy for forwarding this link, which shows the Grand Opera House corner vertical sign in process of removal. The larger vertical above the Eighth Avenue marquee that was shown in my link above of 4/5/09 had already been removed.
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The Grand Opera House can be seen at left background in this vintage view, with a vertical sign that gave more prominence to VAUDEVILLE than to the name of the theatre: View link 023
I should have added that the 23rd Street’s nearest competition with the same programs was the Skouras Academy of Music on 14th Street. Although RKO operated the Jefferson on 14th Street, it had a profit-sharing arrangement with the Skouras circuit for the AOM, which had a larger seating capacity and was also better situated in the Union Square shopping district. After finishing their runs at the AOM, the programs would move to the Jefferson.
Here’s an opening day ad from August 4th, 1938. Descriptions include “Downtown’s only modern air-conditioned theatre. The last word in sound equipment…On the site of the famous ‘Grand Opera House.’” Bookings were first neighborhood run for Manhattan, simultaneous with RKO’s Coliseum, Regent, Hamilton, 125th Street, 81st Street, 86th Street, and 58th Street Theatres. Up until the early 1940s, the RKO Palace near Times Square played the same main feature as these Manhattan RKO theatres, but sometimes with a different second feature. With “Having Wonderful Time,” the Palace ran “Passport Husband” instead of “Sky Giant.” The Ginger Rogers movie was direct from its NYC premiere engagement at Radio City Music Hall, where it was supported by a stage show.
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Easy Mr. Harris. I probably did copy some of yours and I know that you will find many there that you do not “own”.
Imagine me having the nerve to copy a posted image of my childhood theater. I’m disgraced.
Lighten up, we are all in this for one thing, to relive memories. Or so I thought.
All of my RKO 23rd Street images seem to have been copied by Mr. Kovar for his own scrapbook, so there’s no need for me to renew any of my expired links. I don’t recall his asking my permission to do so, but I’ll give him the benefit of a doubt.
Sorry for the confusion. Lost Memory’s link will do it for you.
Hope to hear from folks with memories of the old RKO.
What a revoltin' development this is! Can the webmaster possibly remove the message posted above by Jerry Kovar at 8:53am today? I don’t think that Jerry can do that himself. Jerry could then post a new message with a correct link.
See if this link works for you.
I think that’s because when you copy a link from your own photobucket account thumbnails pages, or certain pages, the link is set to be loggedin, so it will log into your “my photobucket”, which of course is different for everyone. The same thing happened to me, but it has something to do with the cookies on your computer, and the particular “my photobucket” page he linked to.
I think he has to use a different link that is publically accessible, which certain ones in each of our accounts aren’t, so the cookie on your computer sends it to you own logged in page.
Jerry, when I click on your link, it goes directly to MY Photobucket album. How is that possible?
Here is a link to my photobucket album of RKO 23rd St images that I’ve accumulated.
View link
Thanks!
July 8, 2005
Jul 14, 2005
Oct 26, 2005
If you could be more specific, I would be happy to renew any of my own links that might be posted here.
A lot of the links to the historic images of this theater don’t work. Any current links available?
Heartbreaking photo of the fire in 1960. I was a young lad standing with my dad watching from this angle. The theater had already been shut down, tragic enough without this happening. Note the OPERA sign in the window.
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