5th Avenue Cinema

My mom and I saw Dr.Strangelove here, after my Saturday morning children’s theater group at Mills College of Education, and lunch at the Schraffts 13th st. We saw other films, but Dr.Strangelove created the memory. The mural was fascinating to look at, at least for a child.

I lived @ FIFTH AVENUE CINEMA mid-1960s-70s. Living 4 blocks south, at the Hotel Marlton 5 West 8th St., it was the movie theater of choice—-the Art and the 8th St.Playhouse were for the fairies & débutantes at NYU and the bridge-&-tunnel mutts who got off on “Rocky Horror Show” [hawk-ptoo]. I saw a double-bill here that can’t be beat—–“L'Aventura” / “Last Year At Marienbad”. Saw them again recently—-after all the jokes, these two are among the very few from the ‘60s to have survived, their power intact. The snapper here is that not only has Parson School Of Design taken over the 5th Ave. for an auditorium, they’ve taken over my old home, the Hotel Marlton for dorms !!! Am I to be spared nothing ??

This stopped showing films in 1973.

It was called 5th Avenue Playhouse, according to Kristin Thompson!

An article about pioneer “art” theatres in a 2005 issue of Film History Magazine claims that this was a “legit” playhouse prior to opening as a cinema in late 1926. Michael Mindlin, who’d been a stage producer, received encouragement from the then powerful National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, which had its headquarters in the building next door. The first program consisted of an educational one-reeler from Germany, “The Parasol Ant”; Chaplin’s three-reel comedy, “A Dog’s Life”; a short about early French cinema, and a revival of “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.”

Thomas Lamb had a large company with many architects working under him. Lamb himself was often not the actual achitect of projects that have been credited to his company.

Warren— Thanks for the info on the Freudian double-bill, timely for this week’s celebration of Sigmund’s 150th birthday. As an unabashed Freudian, I delighted in it. One of my movie-going buddies from the ‘60s wrote an homage to Freud in last week’s Wall Street Journal, which tickled me even though it missed the point. We owe a lot to F because his approach (though not conclusions) were so wonderfully counterintuitiveâ€"a healthy psyche is not always a happy psyche, but its tensions are good because the simplistic alternative is worse.

“Secrets of a Soul” is a 1927 film directed by GW Pabst about a grown man’s phobia of knives (sounds silly, but Pabst is, well, Pabst and appropriately named for his papally blue ribbon distinction). “Eternal Mask” is a 1937 Swiss film about guilt obsession directed by Werner Hochbaum (I don’t know whether phallic Hochbaum is appropriately named). In both cases, the psychoanalysis is dumb (there is no talking cure). Freud’s social theory is what sets him apart, and a good reason to celebrate his 150th. Cheers to the Fifth Avenue for celebrating him.

Lost Memory: Lamb, the architect of the Fifth Avenue? The mind boggles.

“The mind boggles at this 1941 double feature”
That kind of “psychoanalytical film program” also made its way into many of the “today only” Thalia offerings of the 1950s, and perhaps before and after.

The mind boggles at this 1941 double feature, which apparently was inspired by the popularity of the Broadway musical, “Lady in the Dark”:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/5thave1941.jpg

I remember going to this cinema only once, however, unfortunately I cannot remember what film I saw. What I really want to ask is does anyone remember the Cinemabilia bookstore that was located on 12th street? This was a great bookstore dedicated to films. Books, current and out-of print, magazines, posters, and thousands of stills. Originally, they were located on Corneila Street in the Village. A great place where I spent a lot of time.

THESE THEATRE ADS appeared in a program booklet “Stadium Concerts Review” for Lewisohn Stadium, College of the City of New York, for July 29 to August 4, 1936. The concerts were by the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra. The small ads tout what was playing at several New York movie theatres. One of them was the Cinema de Paris, which, given the address, seems to have been another name for the 5th Avenue Cinema/Playhouse.

The Apu trilogy really is sublime. Remember how at the end of “Manhattan” Woody Allen, suicidal beyond repair, makes a list of things that would help to keep him alive? The Apu trilogy ranks high on the list, and generates a laugh because of its funny sound in Allen’s Brooklynese pronunciation. But its inclusion is so appropriate.

Here’s a Showbill program from the Fifth Avenue Cinema in March, 1960:

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Some of Bergman’s best films opened in NYC within a period of three years or so: “Smiles of a Summer’s Night,” “The Seventh Seal,” “Wild Strawberries,” “The Magician,” and “The Virgin Spring.” The buzz about them was loud enough, but I remember that many movie-goers were still caught off-guard. I recall sitting in the Beekman at “Wild Strawberries” and over-hearing a middle-aged couple behind me mid-way through the film: Heâ€"“How long is this picture anyway?” Sheâ€"“And why hasn’t Ingrid Bergman come on yet?”

I O.D.’d on these films pretty quickly, and was reaching the point of fatigue with “The Magician,” but that didn’t prevent me from scribbling all over my program all sorts of profound thoughts that I believed I’d found in the film. I remember seeing “The World of Apu” later that year at the Fifth Avenue Cinema. I’d already seen (or would soon see) “Pather Panchali” at the Thalia; but neither film made much of an impression on me then. Nearly thirty years later I would view all three films of the Apu trilogy in one sitting, when they finally hit me for what they are worth. The impact was staggering. For days afterward, I found it hard to concentrate on anything else.