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 1960’s and 1970’s.
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 162 comments)
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.
This page of Boxoffice of June 7, 1952, has photos of the Baronet Theatre. One photo shows the entrance of house from before the remodeling, when it was the Arcadia Theatre.
In January of 1970 Robert Altman’s MAS*H premiered at the Baronet. I’m looking for any photos or news film reports to use in a documentary about Altman’s life and work.
A photo from April 2000 showing the closed theatres here:–
CORONET CINEMA