I wish the Roxy could have held out just a little bit longer. I was only six when they called it quits, and at that point, nobody had thought to bring me downtown to check it out.
Only one open movie theater! When I lived in the Bronx (‘63 to '70) I counted ten theaters I could walk to from my apartment. And this was after many theaters had already closed due to falling attendance.
We moved to the Bronx in 1963, when I was nine. I don’t know what redevelopment plans they had for the site, but the Loews Burnside was still standing — a dark and abandoned movie theater that my friends and I would sneak into as if it were a haunted house.
bigjoe59 - Good call with the arthouse roadshow engagements. One trivial point: My memory is that Taming of the Shrew at the Coronet was ‘Reserved Performance’ (rather than Reserved Seat). But I guess that still qualifies as a ‘roadshow.’ And at the Trans-Lux East: Marat/Sade (reserved performance) and Last Tango in Paris (Reserved Seat)
When I was a child living on Creston Ave in the ‘60s, I counted ten movie theaters I could easily walk to. This was the farthest away - a mile long hike. I only went here once, when I was 10 or 11, to see a double bill of “Pink Panther” and “A Shot in the Dark,” and what I recall was the darkest theater I’d ever entered. I may have been the only customer that Sunday afternoon and why spend more on electricity than I spent on admission (25 or 35 cents)?
Re the dave-bronx post: Thanks! Until now, I’d heard about that 35/70mm projector, but I didn’t know it had a name (Cinemeccanica). Back in 1982 I had a meeting with Nestor Almendros about a project he was trying to get off the ground, but he had just come from viewing “Sophie’s Choice”(he was the DP) at the Cinema I and was screaming bloody murder about these awful dual 35/70 projectors which he thought made both formats look terrible. (It was the first I’d heard about them.)
I lived two blocks uptown from the Empress between the ages of 3 and 10 (1956-63). I recall going with my father to see double bills that included B-movies from the ‘40s, like “Criss Cross.” PS - I just saw a tiny display ad for the Empress in a 1958 NY Times movie page
The Paris Theatre is the last one standing among the dozens of Times Square and east-side arthouses in which I spent my teens, twenties, and thirties. (There’s still the remains of what was the Cinema I and II, but those are soon to be history.) Forgive me, but I have to add one discordant note: Out of all those theaters that showed the latest foreign films, the Paris had the worst sightlines for reading subtitles (and I’m 6'2")
I just came across a NY Times ad from June of ‘67 that has the Royal listed as one of many RKO Theatres showing a bizarre double-bill of “Easy Come, Easy Go” and “Hud.”
I wonder how Ben-Hur did on its second go-round as a reserved seat attraction. (Wasn’t this rather unusual? The only other example I remember is Gone with the Wind).
This must have been 1948, right before movie attendance its inexorable plummeting. By the time I moved to Burnside Ave. in 1963, this theater was deserted.
I went to the Valentine in the ‘60s, and my memory is that they always (or almost always) broke up the film with an intermission, no matter how short it was
Also, “Dodes'ka-den” premiered at the First Avenue Screening Room in 1974. It was a sign of how far Akira Kurosawa’s reputation had fallen that a) it took four years for this movie to get shown in the U.S., and b) it could only get a showing in this incredibly tiny theater with a tiny screen.
“The Harder They Come” (which went on to become a classic) premiered at the First Avenue Screening Room. At the time, few of us knew about this Jamaican music known as ‘reggae.’ or had even heard of Jimmy Cliff.
Trivia question: I think (but I’m not sure) that he high-rise that these theaters are located in is where the Jill Clayburgh character lived in “An Unmarried Woman”
A nifty little revival house. On my last visit I saw a double bill of The Birds and Marnie
I wish the Roxy could have held out just a little bit longer. I was only six when they called it quits, and at that point, nobody had thought to bring me downtown to check it out.
Only one open movie theater! When I lived in the Bronx (‘63 to '70) I counted ten theaters I could walk to from my apartment. And this was after many theaters had already closed due to falling attendance.
We moved to the Bronx in 1963, when I was nine. I don’t know what redevelopment plans they had for the site, but the Loews Burnside was still standing — a dark and abandoned movie theater that my friends and I would sneak into as if it were a haunted house.
bigjoe59 - Good call with the arthouse roadshow engagements. One trivial point: My memory is that Taming of the Shrew at the Coronet was ‘Reserved Performance’ (rather than Reserved Seat). But I guess that still qualifies as a ‘roadshow.’ And at the Trans-Lux East: Marat/Sade (reserved performance) and Last Tango in Paris (Reserved Seat)
I was surprised to learn recently that the Bronx was over 40%^ Jewish in the 1930s
According to J. Hoberman’s book - Bridge of Light - the Belmont was a showcase for Yiddish language films in the 1930s.
When I was a child living on Creston Ave in the ‘60s, I counted ten movie theaters I could easily walk to. This was the farthest away - a mile long hike. I only went here once, when I was 10 or 11, to see a double bill of “Pink Panther” and “A Shot in the Dark,” and what I recall was the darkest theater I’d ever entered. I may have been the only customer that Sunday afternoon and why spend more on electricity than I spent on admission (25 or 35 cents)?
Re the dave-bronx post: Thanks! Until now, I’d heard about that 35/70mm projector, but I didn’t know it had a name (Cinemeccanica). Back in 1982 I had a meeting with Nestor Almendros about a project he was trying to get off the ground, but he had just come from viewing “Sophie’s Choice”(he was the DP) at the Cinema I and was screaming bloody murder about these awful dual 35/70 projectors which he thought made both formats look terrible. (It was the first I’d heard about them.)
I lived two blocks uptown from the Empress between the ages of 3 and 10 (1956-63). I recall going with my father to see double bills that included B-movies from the ‘40s, like “Criss Cross.” PS - I just saw a tiny display ad for the Empress in a 1958 NY Times movie page
The Paris Theatre is the last one standing among the dozens of Times Square and east-side arthouses in which I spent my teens, twenties, and thirties. (There’s still the remains of what was the Cinema I and II, but those are soon to be history.) Forgive me, but I have to add one discordant note: Out of all those theaters that showed the latest foreign films, the Paris had the worst sightlines for reading subtitles (and I’m 6'2")
Mike (saps) is correct. The GLOBE theater pictured here is on the west side of Broadway (I’m guessing between 46th and 47th Sts.)
Great photo. I’m going to assume that this is 1948.
Great photo! But 1942, not 1939.
I just came across a NY Times ad from June of ‘67 that has the Royal listed as one of many RKO Theatres showing a bizarre double-bill of “Easy Come, Easy Go” and “Hud.”
To be more specific, according to the movie marquees, this photo is from the summer of ‘77 (also known as the Summer of Sam)
I wonder how Ben-Hur did on its second go-round as a reserved seat attraction. (Wasn’t this rather unusual? The only other example I remember is Gone with the Wind).
This must have been 1948, right before movie attendance its inexorable plummeting. By the time I moved to Burnside Ave. in 1963, this theater was deserted.
Even a second-run, working-class theater like the Art was designed for a special night out
And Griffith only had one more feature in him – the even less successful “The Struggle” (which I think opened at the Rivoli)
I went to the Valentine in the ‘60s, and my memory is that they always (or almost always) broke up the film with an intermission, no matter how short it was
Also, “Dodes'ka-den” premiered at the First Avenue Screening Room in 1974. It was a sign of how far Akira Kurosawa’s reputation had fallen that a) it took four years for this movie to get shown in the U.S., and b) it could only get a showing in this incredibly tiny theater with a tiny screen.
“The Harder They Come” (which went on to become a classic) premiered at the First Avenue Screening Room. At the time, few of us knew about this Jamaican music known as ‘reggae.’ or had even heard of Jimmy Cliff.
Trivia question: I think (but I’m not sure) that he high-rise that these theaters are located in is where the Jill Clayburgh character lived in “An Unmarried Woman”
This is a photo of people (including me somewhere) lined for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young tickets – April or May of 1970