34th Street East Theatre
241 E. 34th Street,
New York,
NY
10016
241 E. 34th Street,
New York,
NY
10016
7 people
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Showing 1 - 25 of 64 comments
Please correct, total seats 359 based on Dept of Buildings NYC website
Hello-
to Al A.- could you do me a favor and go to the page for the Cinema ½/3. I would appreciate your reply to my recent post. thanks.
bigjoe, this small drop may have resulted from some duplicate entries of old Bowery theatres from the early days of cinema being combined. For example the M & S New Delancey was listed as both the M & S as well as the New Delancey.
Hello-
to Al A.
a question your considerable font of knowledge I bet can answer. for the longest period of time the number of theaters under ALL was 492 but all of a sudden its 490. what gives?
Hello-
to Al A.- as always thanks for your reply. I assumed the 491 figure mentioned in my previous post was for the number of theaters not the number of auditoriums. the point I was making was its amazing the number of theaters that people alive today went to that I had no idea ever existed. for instance the Parkwest on W. 99 St. which people alive today that aren’t that old attended.
bigjoe, I have been keeping track of Manhattan screens rather than theatres or seats. I show 237 screens currently operating, down from a high of 266 in 2001. The highest theatre count year would be 1940 with 227 theatres. The all-time screen count is around 1215 since around 1915. The nickelodeon count prior to that is pretty murky. Purpose built theatres and conversions like the 34th street East, are included. Allowing for name changes and fly by night porn houses, the all-time theatre count would be closer to 600.
Hello-
to Al A.-
as always I thank you for answering my posts with your apparently bottomless font of knowledge. this time its an interesting comment. it seems whenever I look at this site’s page for Manhattan another movie theater I never knew existed is listed. for instance the Parkwest Theater which was on W. 99 St. the all time count for Manhattan is currently 491 theaters. one winders how much more it will increase.
Please update, theatre closed September 11, 1997. Updated grand opening ad
bigjoe, Ken Roe has now added the Booth here.
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/64820
Hello-
see you are a endless fond of knowledge. I have question not about theaters but home video that I don’t know where to ask it but I bet you can. I bought a 4K played and tv. you can tell the vast majority of the 4K discs I bought online are brand new factory sealed never opened discs. but a few I bought online are clearly opened returned discs re-shrink wrapped and sold as new. yet when I contacted the online sites they swore they were NEW copies though a blind person could tell they weren’t. do you know of an online site where if I ordered a 4K disc I would be guaranteed to get a brand new factory sealed never opened copy?
Hell0-
to Al A.- as always thanks for your reply. if by floating you mean they just put the screen right in front of the proscenium arch did they remove the first few rows of seats. if they didn’t even a 1.33.1 aspect ration screen would be right in your face if sitting in the first row. how would that possibly be enjoyable?
Hello-
to Al A.- you are a font of knowledge so here goes- other than the current Booth Theater which is a legit house and the 1871 theater built by Edwin Booth on 6th Ave. and 23rd St. do you know of any other theater in Manhattan ever called The Booth? the reason I ask is simple. the 1953 Oscar winning film version of Julius Caesar opened at the Booth. the theater Booth built had been razed by 1953 and the current legit house is too small for even a 1.33.1 aspect ratio screen.
It’s listed as Crown Gotham.
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/2792
another Trans Lux might fit the bill- http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/6377
Hello-
to Al A.-
I have been searching these pages and can’t find the Trans Lux East. its not listed under the Gotham either. do you know what name its listed under?
Thanks, Bigjoe. I had an office here for a few years during my Cineplex Odeon days.
Hello-
to Al A.– as I have always said your font of knowledge
never ceases to amaze me. and I thought I knew a lot.
thanks of the info. I don’t have a degree in theater
design or anything close but the exterior always seemed
a bit un-movie theater-ish to me. so my instincts were
right.
It was a power station.
Hello-
was the 34th St. East built as a movie theater or was it a conversion of a existing building? when ever i went to it or the 34th St. Showplace across the street the facade of the 34th St. East(minus the marquee) impressed me has a tad industrial and not looking like a movie theater at all.
My aunt took me to see An American Werewolf in London at this place!!!
Pretty sure this was where I saw Star Trek – The Motion Picture in ‘79. I know I visited several times in my youth.
I actually watched ‘Kull the Conqueror’ here. Never imagined it would be the last time I’d see a film there. It’s undergoing a total gutting now, after having served as a lecture hall(?) for Yeshiva U.’s girl’s division. It will become another tasteless piece of dreck high-rise like everything else in the area.
Demolished Fall 2015. It closed as a performance space about 2-3 years ago and the entrance doors were replaced by a metal roll gate. This past fall it was demolished for a residential tower. (My workplace shuttle van route frequently passes this area.)
Half a dozen photos of the 34th Street Theatre appear on this page of the April, 1964, issue of International Projectionist. (Enlarge the images by clicking on the + sign in the toolbar at lower right corner of the page.)
Nice marquee photos.