Joyce Theater

I would have to agree with you, Willburg145. Particularly since the interior was gutted and only the facade remains intact.

This article reports that the Joyce’s current principal tenant may have to leave due to proposed rent increases though apparently the name of the theater would remain the same: View link

This is a September 2009 photo.

Renewing link.

Those rear sections of seats in stadium type auditoriums were usually called mezzanines or loges, to differentiate from traditional balconies, which were a floor above the orchestra level. Larger theatres often had two or three balconies, not always designated as balconies. RCMH’s balconies, for example, were called first mezzanine, second mezzanine, third mezzanine.

Thanks, John and Warren. That all adds up for me. As a nonsmoker, I would never have made my way up a full flight of stairs to the balcony to sit among smokers. But a few steps up to enjoy stadium seating back then – definitely.
I was only at the Elgin three or four times, always for revivals in the pre-video era. But I remember it being one of the NYC theaters where I was cold to the bone during at least winter visit. I have to assume it was run on the cheap in those final years.

There was a balcony, and in those days smoking was still allowed up there. There was also a house cat in residence for most of the time I worked there.

I just came upon this thread â€" is anybody still here?

I worked at the Elgin for many years during the ‘70s, when I was going to NYU (or not, as the case may have been …), put up the last marquee (the bogus double bill of “We Have Been Evicted” & “Gone with the Wind”) and was there on its last day as a revival house and, on the outside, its first as a gay porn theater.

It was my second job ever: my first was at a stuffy mid-town first-run theater (the Cinema Studio); that summer some gonzo guys for way downtown four-walled the house for The Janus Film Festival. They loved movies — talked about them all the time — but were unpretentious former hippies who were pretty much just like Hawkeye and Trapper John.

These guys — Chuck Zlatkin and Steve Gould â€" seemed the epitome of cool. I begged them to hire me away from the drab, pretentious Upper West Side movie house where the manager cursed children under his breath for spilling water on the carpet and we ushers had to wear rayon pants with a stripe down the side.

“We’re assholes too â€" but different kinds of assholes,” Gould told me on my first day at the Elgin, where the dress code was almost pants optional.

Best job I ever had.

This is a 2008 photo of the Joyce Theater.

The champion “midnight movie” at the Elgin was Jimmy Cliff’s reggae-filled “The Harder They Come,” which by the time of a report in The New York Times of 4/30/76 had been shown for 80 consecutive weekends (approximately 1.5 years). Management claimed that each showing attracted from 150 to 200 patrons, with tickets priced at $2.50. For some, it was their third or fourth viewing of the Jamaican production, which had its first USA release in 1973.

No Elgin photos, but here is a recent photo of the Joyce Theater at night.

Here is a more recent view of the Joyce Theater.

I remember going to the Elgin a lot during the summer of 1975. I distinctly recall seeing at least a couple of Russ Meyer films during that period.