Carnegie Hall Cinema
881 Seventh Avenue,
New York,
NY
10019
881 Seventh Avenue,
New York,
NY
10019
10 people
favorited this theater
This was a cute cinema tucked under the famed Carnegie Hall. It had a moderate size cinema and then a screening room size cinema on the lobby level all on the side entrance on Seventh Avenue of the landmark. It showed indie films.
It closed for a while and then reopened under Cineplex Odeon management for a five-to-seven year run and then closed again in the early 90’s. It was gutted and turned into added concert hall space.
Contributed by
jamal savage
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Recent comments (view all 76 comments)
Shouldn’t this be listed as OPEN as Zankel Hall?
The underground space was totally gutted and re-built for Zankel Hall, which is a completely new entity. I don’t think it can be considered as a continuation of what was originally the Carnegie Hall Lyceum. It just happens to use some of the same ground beneath Carnegie Hall.
That’s a gray area. Is the IFC Center really the Waverly, or the American Airlines really the Selwyn?
While I probably went here only several times, I only really remember one visit I made to see a German cinematic version of Ibsen’s “The Wild Duck” It was a wonderful production that captured the black humor, the biting irony and the ultimate horror that makes this one of the greatest plays ever written as successfully as I have ever experienced it. The actor, whose name I do not recall, who wonderfully played the hapless “inventor” made a most impressive appearance during the intermission. (The performance was sponsored by the Goethe Foundation.) He also made a major contribution to Syberling’s “Our Hitler” film that I had just seen on the upper West Side.
I just hope this terrific space is succeeding as a concert venue.
I recently saw a 1979 film called “SOMETHING SHORT OF PARADISE” starring David Steinberg and Susan Sarandon that appears to have several lobby scenes filmed at this location before the Cineplex Odeon renovation.
Registering.
It appears that the link in the very first post at the top of this page by Bryan Krefft is no longer an active page (the photo has been removed).
Here is the new page showing a glimpse towards the rear of the house as it looked after the respectful 1988 renovation by Cineplex Odeon.
Looks like the projection booth was built right into the former balcony and the side boxes on the orchestra level were tastefully walled-in. Makes sense, since those seats would have been pretty useless in a cinema and the new walls allowed for surround sound speaker placement and – I would imagine – better acoustics for a film presentation.
The acoustics might have improved, but the white walls and ceiling were a disaster. The reflection of light from the screen made you feel like you were sitting outdoors. It became a cinema to avoid for those who preferred to watch movies in the dark.
Carnegie Hall Cinema was never a great place to see a movie but the programming was staggering. Does anyone remember that it was actually owned by the same team as the Bleecker Street Cinema? That was the heyday for this place when revival houses were on every street corner, the Carnegie Hall Cinema was the best place to see an arthouse or cult double feature. Their programming was better than film school. The renovation by Cineplex was lovely but the new release programming paled. I must say Carnegie Hall has done a magnificent job converting this space into Zenkel Hall but as mentioned above, it’s not a true conversion but a total redesign utilizing the same space. For me, the Carnegie Hall Cinema underscores the issue we probably all have regarding a specific theater, what makes a movie theater a cinema treasure—the building or the programming? For CHC, it was never the theater, it actually became quite a dump but the programming so memorable.
Tinseltoes, those white walls were common in a lot of multiplex jobs during the late ‘70’s and early '80’s. I remember when the multiplex opened on the site of the old Sunrise Drive-In in Valley Stream, I had the same complaint. Movie theater interior walls should be dark, to absorb the light, not painted in such a manner that they reflect light almost as brightly as the screen does!