Carnegie Hall Cinema
881 Seventh Avenue,
New York,
NY
10019
881 Seventh Avenue,
New York,
NY
10019
12 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 98 comments found
hello to Tinseltoes-
you certainly make a valid point. so this past weekend i did some further investigating. the notes of which are posted on the Lyric/Bijou’s own page.
There is so much info about the Lyric on the Lyric page, especially in links that Tinseltoes has already posted.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to discuss the Lyric at its own listing? It had no connection with the Carnegie Hall Cinema that I’m aware of. You might attract more input from people with information or memories about the Lyric.
A shadow would depend on the time of day. On all counts, the Lyric was a small house.
to Al A.–
as always thanks for the info. as i said in my previous post i wasn’t completely ruling out the existence of a Lyric Theater on 3rd Ave. between 12th & 13th i just didn’t see how it was possible. all of the buildings on the left side of 3rd Ave. between 12th & 13th St. are rather small/narrow so i do see how only one building could possible have housed a movie theater of any note. is it possible that when it was the Lyric has captured in the famous photo that the auditorium per se was in fact a combination of two buildings? i only remember it as the Bijou a gay porn house and assumed the Bijou was housed in only half of the original building.
also take a look at the photo again. since it was taken in the late 30s shouldn’t there be a shadow from the 3rd Avenue El?
Direct link here.
bigjoe59, the Lyric is here: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/8371
Hello to Al A.–
you have been most helpful with questions i have had since i discovered this website. now they say if you search the Internet long enough you’ll find what you’re looking for but that’s not strictly true. this where your help comes in.
there is a well known photo i believe by Bernice Abbot of a Lyric Theater on 3rd Ave. between 12th and 13th Sts. the date the photo was taken is given as 4/24/36. the headline film for the day is a Chaplin flick noted by a cardboard cut out of Charlie himself directly to the right of the box office. my point being i don’t think there was ever a movie theater called the Lyric on 3rd Ave. between 12th and 13th Sts.
i was in the area this past weekend so i decided to investigate. if you look at the left side of 3rd Ave. between 12th and 13th Sts. all the building are older than the theater would have been. there is a newer building in the middle of the block but it only occupies the space between the two adjacent older buildings. also the front is way to narrow when you consider how wide the front of the Lyric is in the photo. also the same thing happens if you look at the right side of 3rd Ave. between 12th. and 13th Sts. all the buildings seem as old or older than the theater would have been. again there is a newer building in the middle of the block but it again only occupies the space between the two adjacent older buildings. likewise the front is way to narrow to be be occupying the same space as the theater’s wide front did.
my point being as evidenced by my survey this past weekend there may very well have been a Lyric Theater with a wide front showing a Chaplin film on 4/24/36 in Manhattan but i don’t see how it could possibly have been located on 3rd Ave. between 12th and 13th Sts.
During the 1974-1975 period the Lincoln Art down the street was showing hard core porn, the Paris was showing the x-rated “EMMANUELLE: and the Fine Arts was showing the controversial hard R "THE NIGHT PORTER”. The line between art and smut was very murky then.
Hello-
oddly enough the Bleeker Street Cinema always played porn during its final years. i believe it was gay rather than straight.
I didn’t know this theater had a porn past. Seems like a very odd neighborhood for that. I lived in NYC from Sept 1974 thru 1981 and during that whole period the Carnegie Cinema was a repertory theater showing classic films. I used to look forward to their schedules every month. And the same goes for Bleeker Street Cinema, for that matter.
Big date venue. I saw ‘The Misfits’ there.
This closed in late October 1997 with “MRS. BROWN” and “IN THE COMPANY OF MEN”.
Not sure if the closure dates above are correct cause I definitely watched Unhook the Stars here in ‘96. Can we get a confirmation on its final week in business?
I assume they started as soft core and moved into hard core after DEEP THROAT raised (ahum) the bar.
Al, you sly puss. (Were these hard-core?)
1972-1973
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25725093@N07/7159529458/in/photostream/lightbox/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25725093@N07/7159497570/in/photostream/lightbox/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25725093@N07/7159509116/in/photostream/lightbox/
By mid 1973 both the Carnegie Hall Cinema and the Bleecker St. (same owners) were showing “adult male films” grind.
Hello-
granted posting an old newspaper ad would be proof positive but how about the fact i went there to see a aptly titled porn film(gay)– AMERICAN CREAM.
Nearly 1,000 issues of The Village Voice, which, of course, was and still is a weekly (not daily) publication, can be viewed here: google
Usually one can find ads in old issues of the Village Voice for the porn theaters —any been found showing this house?
as reiterated by AL A. this theater was most definitely a porn house for a short time in the late 70s. as for the Carnegie Hall Corp. i bet they realized $$$ is $$$.
This was indeed a porn house, gay and straight, for several years in the seventies.
Hello-
not mentioned as yet is that for a short period in the late 70s i believe this theater was a gay porn house.
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!
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.