Park Avenue Theatre
487 Park Avenue,
New York,
NY
10022
487 Park Avenue,
New York,
NY
10022
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Located on Park Avenue at 59th Street, the Park Avenue Theatre opened in October 1946. It was a project of Walter Reade Theatres, and was designed to cater for the upscale neighborhood. It was a conversion of the former Anderson Art Galleries. The main staircase wall had a mural ‘The Judgement of Mars’ by the noted Belgium artist Oscar Glas. Seating was provided for 350 in the orchestra level, and 125 double ‘love’ seats in a raised mezzanine stadium section at the rear which was for smokers. The downstairs lounge offered facilities for backgammon, gin rummy or bridge, with cards and games provided by the management. The ladies lounge was supervised by a beauty technician, specially trained by Charles of the Ritz. There were no vending machines or sales of any merchandise in the theatre. Tickets were sold on an annual subsciption basis from $52 per year upwards, averaging $1 a week per person per performance. Any un-reserved seats that wewre available for walk-up customers cost 60 cents. The subscription system was abandoned after a year when new operators took over the theatre, and it became a first run showcase cinema for Universal-International Pictures.
The Park Avenue Theatre opened with “Anna and the King of Siam”, and it played the 1948 Laurence Olivier film of “Hamlet” in a run that lasted well over a year. The theatre was equipped with both 35mm and 16mm projection and programs changed twice weekly. It was closed in 1952.
Contributed by
Gerald A. DeLuca, Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 16 comments)
Yes, that film with the amazing Pierre Fresnay closed the theater after an eight-week run. Here’s a clip from the NYT 12 Oct. ‘52 announcing the theater’s fate:
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The adjoining clip offers an illuminating context. Cinerama had opened two weeks earlier, and already John Ford was champing at the bit to deploy the process “to make the damndest dramatic picture you ever saw.” That portended the end, for a while, of the “small” movie that would have been perfect for the Park Avenue to exhibit (though small movies, in truth, never really went out of fashion in the ensuing revolution). I also like the bit about how, in the event of mechanical failure, Cinerama projectionists would cover the time lapse for repair. I wonder whether anyone at this site experienced such a filler?
In August 1956 the NYT announced plans by Walter Reade to reopen the theatre, an easy reconvert by removing a false floor put in the bank. The theatre is then listed as having 599 seats.
(BY WAY OF REPORT; ‘War and Peace’ Is Due At Capitol—Addenda
By A.H. WEILER. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Apr 15, 1956. p. 121 (1 page))
This plan was scrapped when new zoning laws would no longer allow it, hence the sale of the property to the archdioces soon after.
Here is a Time article about the opening in 1946. As Warren pointed out, the subscription idea was a failure:
http://tinyurl.com/y93c7k
Olivier’s “Hamlet” opened here on September 29, 1948, with all seats reserved. There were two performances daily except on weekends, when there were four on Saturdays (including one at midnight) and three on Sundays (as well as holidays). The engagement lasted 66 weeks, ending in January, 1950, and grossing about $800,000, according to reports in the trade press. More than 500,000 tickets were sold, many to students at a discounted price. The engagement was claimed to be the third longest in NYC cinema history up to that time. #1 was the silent “The Big Parade,” which ran 95 weeks at the Embassy Theatre on Broadway. #2 was the Italian import, “Bitter Rice,” which played 91 weeks at the World-49th Street Theatre.
From LIFE, a June, 1947 ad for a movie “Carnegie Hall” that played Park Avenue Theatre,
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Nice photo.
Boxoffice magazine, in its November 2, 1946 issue, reported on the opening of the Park Avenue Theatre. The article contains an extensive description and a couple of rare photos of the place.
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There’s a nice photo of a lounge area at the Park Avenue featured in an ad for Gulistan carpeting that appeared in Boxoffice of March 29, 1947. There’s also a small inset photo showing the part of the auditorium with the stairway to the mezzanine.
Plexiglas canopy…photo in Boxoffice magazine, January 6, 1951:
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This New York Times article features a photo of an audience at the Park Avenue Theatre in 1946.