Bijou Cinema
100 Third Avenue,
New York,
NY
10003
100 Third Avenue,
New York,
NY
10003
3 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 45 comments found
Only trouble with that supposition, Al, is that the Theatre Unique was on the block bounded by East 13th and East 14th Streets between 3rd and 4th Avenues. An address of 136 East 13th Street would be on the south side of the street in the next block down, bounded by East 13th and East 12th Streets. Since this is the block on which the Bijou was located, it’s possible that the space accessed through that East 13th Street entrance by MarkieS was indeed a part of the old Bijou. Lyric is one of the former names listed above.
MarkieS, sounds like it could have been part of the Theatre Unique but I haven’t seen any sign it was ever called the Lyric.
I was at a playhouse last night, address is 136 E.13th Street. It’s between 3rd and 4th avenues. In the lobby was a placard detailing the history of the place. It dates from the 1850’s when it was a livery stable. It then became the Lyric Theatre, first a Vaudeville then a movie theatre. I cannot find this theatre on this site. Can anyone help? Thanks in advance.
In March 1964 this was shut down (along with the Gramercy) for showing ‘unlicensed avant-garde films’.
It was then known as the Sans Souci Pocket Theatre
The city was still trying to close this down in 1995 and may have succeeded then.
This from the book THE TRANSFORMATION OF CINEMA (Eileen Bowser).
“In September 1910 a WORLD reporter visiting the Comet at Third Avenue near Twelfth Street in New York’s Lower East Side tenement district approved the lighting conditions there. He wrote there was enough diffused light to read by, yet the screen was bright. Men, women and children filled the hall. He also approved the ventilating system and reported that an usher wandered the aisles spraying a sweet-smelling liquid. Unfortunately, he added, they ran ‘junk’ films- a Vitagraph and a Selig missing their titles, recognized by their trademarks on the sets and believed to be a year old.”
This location was advertising as the Star-Comet in 1923.
…and to think that sweet little ‘Annie Warbucks’ went to the Variety in the mid 1990s!!!
Brooklyn Jim asked me to post this photo here….
I originally posted it under the wrong Lyric….sorry Jim! So here it is…
Click here for photo
Sorry for the double post! (And I should have said WHICH the New York Times has for sale…)
Here’s a shot from 1910 when it was known as the Comet, that the New York Times has for sale: View link
I believe back on April 15th, 2005, Lost Memory linked to this 1910 photo when the theater had re-opened as the Comet. Anyway, Lost’s link is now broken, so thought I’d add it again.
1975 “Gay Hawaii"
View link
A 1971 ad from the Jewel days.
View link
In 1989 NYC closed this theater and the Variety Theater at 110 Third Avenue because they were considered “AIDS Threats”. Here is the NY Times article dated February 12, 1989.
Here is a 1930’s photo of the former Lyric Theater.
Here is a 1992 ad from a time is was being called Cinema Village 3rd Avenue
View link
Per RobertR’s comment on 6/7, Pocket Cinema Theatre (and also Pocket Theater) should be listed as a previous name.
In answer to Benjamin’s 1/28 post, the theatre was indeed, an Off Broadway house, showing films on off-nights, in the 1960s.
In 1971 the then Jewel revived the stage and screen policy that had once flourished at the Paramount and Capitol. :) (sorry part of the ad is cut off)
View link
While I was in NYC in early June 2005, I took a peek into the former Bijou/Jewel Theatre and it has been gutted internally back to bare brick walls.
In June of 1968 this theatre announced it’s reopening as The Pocket Cinema Theatre. The opening attraction was The Royal Shakespeare Company in Peter Brooks “Tell Me Lies”.
A film ignited in the Comet’s projection booth on June 21, 1933, burning the operator, Joesph Faccini, who died of his injuries the following evening.
saps was kind enough to point me to this Theater.I originally
posted my comment at the Lyric Theater web page.
If you go to the links you’ll see my posted link to the photo of
the old Lyric there.The link is to the New York Public Library
Digital Collection.Once there you can enlarge the photo which is much
sharper and larger than some of the links I’ve seen here.
I’m going to take a guess at the Comet Theater on Westchester Ave. It was closed before 1926 or it opened around 1926. That is the year that the building at that address was built so it should be one or the other.
Okay, I’m ready for the other Comet Theater in the Bronx.