Major Theater
277 Canal Street,
New York,
NY
10013
277 Canal Street,
New York,
NY
10013
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The Major’s marquee and vertical sign can be seen in the center of this vintage photograph: View link
Maybe the Major Theatre was not so major.Just kidding.
Here’s a google street view of the Major Theater. It’s marquee still up:
View link
Did it go to chinese cinema after 1978?
Operating as Cinema Giglio in 1963.
It would be difficult to find an exact closing date for this cinema. Its final bookings were Chinese movies, which weren’t advertised or promoted in the mainstream, English-language press.
This was still operating as the Canal Cinema in the summer of 1978.
A certificate of occupancy dated August 6, 1979 shows a 600 seat theater at 277 Canal Street. That is the last c/o that I could find that shows a theater at this address. This doesn’t mean that the theater was still operating in 1979, it just means that a theater was still located at this address in 1979 and it wasn’t converted to retail yet.
Does anyone know around when they stopped showing movies in this little theater?
Wow, this little theater actually had a Wulitzer!?
A Wurlitzer organ Opus 1786 Style B was installed in the Major Theater on 11/17/1927.
This theatre was designed by and named for David Oltarsh, who held the rank of Major in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during World War I. The 600-seat theatre at the corner of Broadway and Canal Street opened in 1927 and was built in the belief that the opening of the Holland Tunnel nearby would bring business to the only cinema in the area. The Major proved unsuccessful and Oltarsh sold his interest, though the cinema operated under many managements after that into the 1980s…Fred Oltarsh, of course, is best remembered as the architect of the Rahway Theatre in New Jersey, which he built right after the Major and opened in October, 1928.
Does anyone know when the Major theater, and later the Canal Cinema closed to movies? I’m assuming it was probably the late 80’s or 90’s? The way the interior looks, it couldn’t have been “that” long ago, as the mirrors are even still on the walls in the former lobby area.
This may have been the Canal Cinema in its final days, specializing in Chinese-language films.