Eastside Cinema
919 3rd Avenue,
New York,
NY
10022
919 3rd Avenue,
New York,
NY
10022
4 people
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Please update, theatre reopen on April 16, 1993 under City Cinemas and closed June 10, 2003. Better grand opening ads in photos section
There was nothing terribly spectacular about this theater, but I did find it charming, nonetheless. It was a nice walk when I used to live on 11th street & 3rd Ave. I know I saw quite a few films here, but my memory is fading. Belle Epoque, Metroland, Gods and Monsters, Sirens, and others. Do I remember correctly that the doors from the lobby into the theater were on the side of the house as opposed to the back of it?
Saw Annie Hall here in 1977
I was very little but I remember seeing Great Mouse Detective and a rerelease of Cinderella here. It looks pretty much the same but it’s now a rug shop.
I want to the staff / cast screening of “Day of the Dead” here at the end of May in 1985. It was a private screening. A fantastic night overall. My first time to meet director George Romero. This night is written about in the book, “The Zombies That Ate Pittsburgh” by Paul A. Gagne.
Well, I always knew this theater as Eastside Playhouse. It had a bit of a old-school feel with a ticket window at the sunken entrance and a long, narrow auditorium. I saw quite a few films there actually. Last one I recall was The Others… Now it’s a giant carpet store, sadly.
I saw Annie Hall here in 1977.
This was an art house for maybe its first year…Then it went mainstream UA showing mostly United Artists product on showcase with a smattering of pictures from other studios…It was more of an art house under City
Saw Steppenwolf, The Return of the Pink Panther, Moonstruck here…probably a couple of other pictures
Opening ad now in the photo section.
Unaccompanied, I saw “Word Is Out” — the greatest gay/lesbian consciousness-raising film ever made — there in the spring of 1978. It was commercially courageous, even in cosmopolitan New York, to show such a film in that era, and I was so blown away by by this title that I went back for a second screening on another day. It was even better the second time around. Seeing “Word Is Out” (soon to be released for the first time on DVD in spring 2010) was for this viewer a kind of life-changing event and I’ve always identified the joyous experience of the film with its venue.
By the photo of the entrance it looked rather plain.
This intro needs to updated.
“The Eastside Cinema actually opened on January 21, 1973. Its premiere attraction was "Under Milk Wood."
posted by DamienB on Nov 10, 2005 at 12:58pm”
Belated reply to dave-bronx: Any damage to the plaza outside Eastside was most certainly NOT caused by “Rocky Horror” fans. The following is a quote from one of the major leaders of the RHPS scene:
“No, this was not the real reason at all. When the 8th Street theater closed, the search was on for another theater in Greenwich Village. The print and cast were moved to mid-town on a temporary basis, and the plan all along was to eventually get back downtown where the show belonged.
“In fact, we toned down a lot of our behavior because of the new
location: it was in mid-town, it was NOT a ‘Greenwich Village
neighborhood’ type atmosphere, and the last thing the cast wanted to
do was lose another theater/endanger the one we had at the moment.”
UA deserves a TON of criticism for its management practices, but not in this instance. The NYC “Rocky” fans tend to be very well behaved; any vandalism at 919 Third came from elsewhere.
UA Days
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Drove by the other day. I’d never attended a movie here, but as we were stopped in traffic, I just happened to gaze out of the passenger window and had some dim sense that there used to be a theatre here. The free standing sign in the shallow plaza in front of the office building is still there – and this feature must have been what jogged my hazy memory. I don’t think there is anything on the sign at the moment – it just stands there blank and purposeless, saying absolutely nothing to passersby along Third Avenue.
I too saw only one picture here, James Caan’s HIDE IN PLAIN SIGHT in 1980.
I saw only one movie at this theater; PLEASANTVILLE in 1999.
we had a screening of savage at the squire for long island managers
trish was there…[i was manager of squire and playhouse] at that time and shortly after promoted to rivoli where we had world prem.
george did show up…..incest plot killed it.
wally1975
The Eastside Cinema actually opened on January 21, 1973. Its premiere attraction was “Under Milk Wood.”
Wasn’t there quite some distance from the sidewalk to the box office of this one?
I think I saw ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ here.
RobertR,
Regarding The Savage is Loose…I believe I read that George C. Scott four-walled the Eastside Cinema (or perhaps it was another place in move-over) for an extended period of time to show the film, and it kept playing to a near-empty house. It was a bit of a turkey.
I remember this theater, I saw “Baby Boom” here in 1987 and a couple of Disney cartoon feature re-releases…I believe “Snow White” and “Cinderella.”
There used to be an irish pub across the street called “the Old Stand,” and it too is now gone.
Just went by the site on Saturday, looked through the window of the carpet showroom, it is so weird to be able to see the area where I used to sit when it was an auditorium!
Times were changing in 1974 when the Eastside Cinema got listed over the Rivoli.
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A high-end carpet showroom has opened in the site, geared for the designer trade.
This is another one United Artists was cordially invited by the landlord to vacate the premises. When UA got the boot from the 8th Street Playhouse, they moved their weekend showings of Rocky Horror to this theatre, of all places. After the show would end the crowd would congregate for most of the night in the plaza-ette in front of the 919 building, and broken windows, graffiti and other damage was done to the property, which eventually led to their eviction.
When it later re-opened as the Eastside Playhouse, it was being run by Meyer Ackerman, and the opening ads stated “From the people who brought you the 68th Street Playhouse” – City Cinemas got involved with it several months later. They were already partners with Ackerman at the Village East, 57th and 68th St. Playhouses.