Pix Theatre
355 Mamaroneck Avenue,
White Plains,
NY
10605
355 Mamaroneck Avenue,
White Plains,
NY
10605
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Listed in the 1956 Motion Picture almanac.
The Pix Theatre was one of the most respected “art” cinemas in the USA, and was operated for its first 33 years by David Mavity, who had entered the movie industry as an usher at the original Roxy Theatre in New York City. The Pix attracted patronage from all over Westchester County and beyond for its booking policy of foreign imports and quality American films. Illness forced Mavity to retire in 1968, and he died a year later at age 60, according to an obituary in The New York Times of 5/17/69.
The Pix was designed by the architectural firm of Bianculli & Ghiani, according to an article in the October, 1936 issue of Architectural Forum. Here’s a new link to a view of the modernistic auditorium: View link
This exterior of this theater is briefly seen in “Goodbye Columbus” which filmed throughout lower Westchester County.
Here’s an auditorium view from the October, 1936 issue of The Architectural Forum Magazine:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/128-2880_IMG.jpg
The caption says: “The interior is especially commendable for its simplicity, and for the economy of cubage obtained by using the ‘reversed curve’ slope, thereby eliminating the spatially wasteful plenum chamber.” To understand that properly, you need to look at the exterior view that has a link in the introduction to this listing.
Stephen, Loew’s White Plains was situated at 134 Main Street and had 1,830 seats, according to various FDYBs. I’m surprised that it’s not listed here. Must have fallen between the cracks.
Growing up in nearby Bronxville, we attended movie theaters in White Plains on Saturday afternoons (until I was 12, in 1955), including the Pix as well as the RKO, but there is no mention on the CT site of the Loew’s theater that was also in White Plains. It was on Main Street, a few blocks west of the RKO theater and I think it was called Loew’s State. Anyone remember it or have any info about its history?
In other words, was this the first NEW theatre to be built in Westchester County since the introduction of sound movies? Surely by 1935, every movie theatre in Westchester had been equipped with sound.