Little Carnegie Playhouse
146 W. 57th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
146 W. 57th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
6 people
favorited this theater
Opened in 1928, the Little Carnegie Playhouse was for many decades one of the premiere art houses in Manhattan, along with the Paris, Beekman, Sutton, Plaza, Fine Arts, Baronet. It was located on 57th Street, adjacent to Carnegie Hall and the Russian Tea Room. It had a very sizable lobby and waiting area for a theatre its size, and the plush seats and eveything about the theatre spelled Class…with a capital C.
It was remodeled in 1952 to the plans of architect John J. McNamara. The Little Carnegie Playhouse was closed in April 1982. It is sorely missed.
It is not to be confused with the Carnegie Hall Cinema, which was around the corner on Seventh Avenue.
Contributed by
Gerald A. DeLuca
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Recent comments (view all 71 comments)
To answer the query above by Ed Solero on 9/15/06, the Little Carnegie did become a newsreel theatre, closing on June 30th, 1941, for re-modeling by Thomas Lamb’s firm, according to reportage in The New York Times. The seating capacity was reduced from 470 to 350 to permit installation of larger upholstered chairs and more space between rows. The auditorium walls were newly covered with rust-and-cream brocades, with gold-tufted walls in the main lounge. A new area was created off the main lobby where free tea and coffee were served. The Little Carnegie Newsreel Theatre opened on September 26th, 1941, charging 25 cents at all times for programs of newsreels and shorts that could run from 75 to 90 minutes in length. But competition from newsreel houses in the heart of Broadway/Times Square proved too much, and the theatre switched back to features as the Little Carnegie Playhouse on December 5th, with the subsquent-run “A Yank in the R.A.F.” This turned out to be only days before the USA entered WWII, but there was no turning back to the newsreel policy. Sub-run features continued into late December, when the Little Carnegie obtained a first-run booking with the British import, “Quiet Wedding,” which proved very successful and enabled the theatre to remain first-run with a mix of British imports and American independent releases, sometimes punctuated by revivals of “quality” foreign and American films.
World’s Wonder News theatre:
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On this day in 1942, United Artists' “New Wine,” a B&W biography of the great classical composer Franz Schubert, opened its NYC premiere engagement at the Little Carnegie. Though Schubert was known to be obese and unattractve, he was portrayed on screen by handsome ex-model Alan Curtis, whose real-life spouse, Ilona Massey, played his aristocratic patroness. A scene where the Countess tries to persuade Beethoven to hire Schubert to complete “The Unfinished Symphony” must have raised gales of laughter loud enough to carry into adjacent Carnegie Hall.
Here is a fresh link to the picture of the Little Carnegie on the cover of Boxoffice, October 4, 1952.
I was very fortunate to work at the Little Carnegie as a teenager in the late 70s/early 80s. What a magnificent place! Like a smaller version of the Beekman but even better. The doors to the theater were amazingly deco. Seeing the photo of the interior posted in one of the comments was shocking. In my mind, this place was huge. It was actually quite teanie. But what programming! Because they were a premiere platform theater, everything opened here to huge crowds, celebrities, and very long runs. I worked there for several years during high school and the only 2 films I remember are PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK and MANHATTAN. They were hugely successful and played for months.
Fifty years ago today, Rene Clement’s “Purple Noon,” with Alain Delon, Marie Laforet, and Maurice Ronet, opened its American premiere engagement at the Little Carnegie. Curiously, a large display ad in The New York Times for the Times Films release neglected to mention color photography (by Eastman). But perhaps the public would assume that from the title, which had been “Plein Soleil” in the suspense drama’s European release.
“Plein Soleil” was later successfully remade in English as “The Talented Mr. Ripley”.
Loved Purple Noon. Didn’t see the English remake. They never hold up.
“The Talented Mr Ripley” is actually a very fine movie.
Most of the films that Played at The Little Carnegie Theater in the seventies and eighties, were a big sucess: Annie Hall, Tess, Tommy, The French Lieutenant’s Woman. I would like to see a photo.