Costello Theatre
23 Fort Washington Avenue,
New York,
NY
10032
23 Fort Washington Avenue,
New York,
NY
10032
1 person
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The Costello Theatre opened in 1914. It was located on Fort Washington Avenue near 160th Street and today is home to a church.
Contributed by
Bryan
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Recent comments (view all 20 comments)
Thanks! The LOC data says a nitrate negative. I doubt if a print would look much different, since it’s a night scene.
The church is on 159th Street although the theatre sometimes advertised as being off the 157th subway stop. If you look at a map at the way Morgan Place/Riverside Drive curves upward, advertising 157th St makes perfect sense as you could probably spot the building easily from there in the 30’s and 40’s. Does anyone know if this was a German neighborhood before the war?
The LOC image is apparently a print made from a nitrate negative. I’ve added some light to bring out more background detail:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/costellofix.jpg
THEATRE PANIC AVERTED; Policemen Quietly Put Out Fire Uptown and Reassure Audience
NY Times August 9, 1937
Prompt work by the police prevented a panic among an audience of more than 400 persons in the Costello Theatre, a moving picture house at 23 Fort Washington Avenue, near 160th Street, shortly after 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon when fire broke out in several empty barrels stored in a shed in an alley adjoining the theatre.
The Costello first opened in 1914 and had Louis A. Sheinart as architect, according to Craig Morrison’s historical reference book, “Theaters.”
I lived at 160th street and riverside drive and went to the Costello on Satudays (in the 40’s). You could get in for free if you had the right colored card – cards were distributed to kids every week. Otherwise, it cost 25 cents. Later on it did become a spanish movie theatre.
It was located at the very beginning of Fort Washinton Avenue (159th street).
Andrew Craig Morrison’s book “Theaters” identifies Louis A. Sheinart as the architect of the Costello Theatre.
Nice mood picture.
My mom remembers going go the theatre with her friend Ruth schwartzman in 1932. They were thrown out of A Farewell to Arms and apparently a few others due to crying too much.
That would have been the original B&W Paramount version with Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes. “A Farewell to Arms” was later re-made in B&W by Warner Bros. as “Force of Arms” (William Holden-Nancy Olson), and still later in CinemaScope and color by David O. Selznick for 20th-Fox with Jennifer Jones and Rock Hudson.