Loew's Grand Theater

True Mike, comparded to the Loews Grand Atlanta Lots of history and photos on that page.

Here is another view of Loew’s Grand.

A Loew’s circuit ad in the March 1st, 1943 issue of The New York Times says that the Grand Theatre sold $153,000 in U.S. War Bonds in one day. I don’t know why the Grand was singled out for mention, but perhaps just to inspire patrons of all Loew’s theatres to try to equal or suprass that mark.

The auditorium of the Grand was long ago gutted completely and refitted with two or three complete levels. There is a college operating in it. The Wiz was in the former lobby and some of the other retail space.

The 2004 photos show the auditorium portion still standing, but housing at least a portion of a Wiz retail store. However, the Wiz chain has since closed down, so I don’t know the present status of the site. Perhaps one of our Bronx residents could check it out and file a report.

Here are two views of the auditorium of the Grand, which was considered the top Loew’s theatre in the Bronx until the opening of the Paradise: www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/128-2826_IMG.jpg

The auditorium was a combination of the Adam and Empire styles, and very similar to the work of Eugene DeRosa’s mentor and onetime employer, Thomas Lamb. Architectural blueprints of the Grand and photos of the interior can be found in “American Theatres of Today, Volume I,” by R.W. Sexton & B.F. Betts, reprinted in 1977 by the Vestal Press in combination with Volume II.

The Grand was considered the #1 Loew’s theatre in the Bronx until the 1929 opening of the Paradise, when the Grand was demoted to playing the same movies but two weeks later, along with most of the other Loew’s houses in the Bronx (a few played even later than that). Because of its size and luxury, the Paradise was exclusive first-run in the Bronx for all movies booked by the Loew’s circuit. That held into the 1960s, when film distribution began to change to what it is today.