Coronet 1 & 2
993 Third Avenue,
New York,
NY
10022
993 Third Avenue,
New York,
NY
10022
8 people
favorited this theater
The former Baronet & Coronet was once one of the hottest places to see first run films on New York’s Upper East Side during the 1960s and 1970s.
Sadly, it’s once famous facade and reputation declined in the past 25 years and the theater finally closed in September 2001. The old Baronet & Coronet lettering and crowns could still be seen through decades of dirt caked on to its fading exterior.
The theater has been demolished to make way for an office building.
Contributed by
Ross Melnick
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Recent comments (view all 159 comments)
This is a July 22, 1960 ad for “Psycho”.
I remember that one of these theaters had no doors – the front was just open no matter what the weather and the sidewalk was carpeted. There was a huge modern painting at the far end of the lobby. So sad how film exhibition changed.
This building was showing movies as the Queens Theatre from 1919 to 1925.
The Arcadia from 1926 to 1951.
The Baronet from 1952 to 1996.
The Coronet-1 from 1997 to 2000.
The upstairs theatre was:
The Coronet from 1962 to 1996.
The Coronet-2 from 1997 to 2000.
Newspaper ad great. Abby Hoffman a theatre manager? loved to have been at one of his employee meetings.
Al, I worked at the Baronet /Coronet until 1994, and got licenses for theatre through 2000.
It is my recollection that from 1997-2000:
the UPSTAIRS (larger) theatre was called CORONET-1, and
the DOWNSTAIRS (formerly BARONET, on the right, or north, side) was then called CORONET-2.
A shot of the Arcadia marquee can be seen in the 1950 film “YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN” during the final ten minute montage of Kirk Douglas wandering around Manhattan under the third avenue El.
I loved how all the “Bloomingdales Belt” theaters had their own unique identity/personality. It was so pronounced in most cases—particularly with Cinema 1, the Coronet, the Plaza and the Sutton—that you could almost predict where certain films would open. In the 24-screen multiplex era, that sort of thing is definitely a lost art/charm. The only remaining NY theater that still books films like they used to is the Paris. And even their most recent bookings have seemed oddly discordant (“All Good Things” versus, say, “The King’s Speech”?)
Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be, I guess.
Architect’s cutaway rendering of the Baronet/Coronet plan.
View link
New link to the “GINGER COFFEY” ad;
View link
i wish to correct an earlier post in which a fellow poster
stated that although the Coronet played many an exclusive
engagement in its long storied career it never had a reserved
seat or to use the trade term roadshow film engagement. it
did. THE TAMING OF THE SHREW directed by Franco Zefferelli and
starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton opened at the
Coronet on a reserved seat engagement. the spring of 1967 if
i’m not mistaken.