Cinema 1, 2 & 3 by Angelika
1001 3rd Avenue,
New York,
NY
10021
1001 3rd Avenue,
New York,
NY
10021
34 people
favorited this theater
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Here’s hoping that the back-to-back announcements of the closings of the Beekman and Cinema 1-2-3 will prove to be a catalyst in improving the quality of filmgoing on the Upper East Side.
One of the most memorable experiences I had as a moviegoer took place in Cinema 1 on a Friday in the fall of 1980: the opening night showing of “Heaven’s Gate” (Cinema 1 was showing the film exclusively). A section of the auditorium was roped off for United Artists executives, who emerged ashen-faced after the screening ended (the audience booed as the credits rolled). The next day, United Artists announced that the film would be pulled from Cinema 1 the following week.
Thanks also go out to Lou Lumenick, for breaking the Cinema 1-2-3 story and for bringing the potential plight of the Beekman to the attention of the public at-large, and for Fox-5 (owned by News Corporation, as is the Post) for covering the story of the Beekman in their news coverage last night. Excellent job and, again, thank you both.
Not a damn surprise, I really, truly hate to say. With as vocal and as passionate an advocate as Harvey Weinstein getting involved, however, I think there’s a better than fair chance of the Cinema 1-2-3 and the Beekman being saved. (Meanwhile, I would have hoped for a more emotionally engaged response from Woddy Allen, but perhaps stronger words – and actions – will soon follow; below, for the record, is the NY Post article Paul first brought to our attention.)
SAD CINEMA SEQUEL
By LOU LUMENICK Post Movie Critic
January 6, 2005 — A second historic Upper East Side movie theater, the Cinema 1, 2 & 3 behind Bloomingdale’s on Third Avenue, will close this spring and be converted to retail space, The Post has learned.
The latest shocker came as New Yorkers were stunned by The Post’s report yesterday that the prestigious Beekman Theatre, at Second Avenue and 66th Street, will close in June, be torn down and replaced by an outpatient-treatment center run by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital.
Miramax honcho Harvey Weinstein said he will fight to keep the theaters open.
“I spent my formative years as a teenager haunting these movie theaters,” Weinstein told The Post from Paris, where he was attending the European premiere of “The Aviator.”
“I used to take the train from my home in Flushing when movies like ‘Raging Bull,’ ‘Rocky’ and ‘Midnight Cowboy’ would open exclusively at the Cinema 1.”
Weinstein vowed to do “whatever I have to do, including financially” to save the endangered theaters.
“To me, they’re shrines of the ‘70s movie experience, and it would be a great loss to the city’s cultural life for them to close,” he said.
New York’s most famous filmmaker agreed.
“Of course I think it’s sad,” said Woody Allen, who shot a famous scene in “Annie Hall” at the Beekman. “It joins a long list of charming Manhattan landmarks I’ve filmed at over the years that have since vanished.”
Reading International, the parent company of City Cinemas, has filed for a permit with the city’s Buildings Department to demolish the interior.
The company’s executives did not return phone calls.
Seri Worden, executive director of the Friends of the Upper East Side Historic District, said the owners had recently applied a stucco facing over the blue tiles outside the theater â€" apparently to prevent the building from being placed on the landmark list.
See today’s New York Post (January 6) for story of forthcoming spring demolition of Cinema 1-2-3. With the Baronet/Coronet replaced next door by a high-rise, it was inevitable that developers would make the move on Cinema 1-2-3. The glory days of east side movie-going are over. Cinema One was where we saw “Tom Jones,” “A Clockwork Orange,” “The Exorcist.” And in the minds of New Yorkers, pictures like those will forever be associated with that theater.
I had forgotten all about Alexander’s Department Store. Do you remember how it used to say “INCREDIBLE Alexander’s,” in humongous letters on the 60th Street side. Talk about an overstatement. Alexander’s was a poor cousin to “the other Korvettes.”
Just a minor correction to my last post – and anyone familiar with Midtown East, at least until the time the site was cleared a few years ago to make room for the new Bloomberg tower, would know this so well – Alexander’s was actually located on the southwest corner, NOT the southeast corner, of 3rd and 60th.
Thanks for the “woo woo” moment, Br549, I mean 91975, it brings back a memory of what I THINK is of the old Cinema I and II. I remember seeing some movie at one of the cinemas on a bleak winter day, probably 1966. I was in the upper lobby, waiting for — something — and staring idly out the window. I could see the marquee of what I’m pretty sure was the RKO 58th St. I think the RKO marquee had an unusual shape — triangular? And it listed “Juliet of the Spirits”. I was just a kid, had not yet heard of Fellini, and I remember wondering idly during my wait about what that movie might be about.
So, Cinema fans, does anyone remember — COULD you see the 58th St. marquee from Cinema I and II lobby, and did it actually have an unusual shape?
With apologies to Sheryl Crow, apropos of nothing, the Cinema 1-2-3, located, of course, diagonally from the former Alexander’s site on the southeast corner of 3rd and 60th, is currently showing ‘Alexander’. (Weird, little, ‘fun’ useless fact for the day…)
I vividly remember these two cinemas, it was a big deal, think they were the first to be built from scratch in a long time. As a teenager when they opened I loved the look of them, so modern looking and comfortable. What stands out for me is the large display case that would have 3-D and quite nice displays for the film showing. Don’t think this kind of display retailing had ever been done before, but I could be wrong. Also felt very sophisticated going there to see a movie.
BTW, they also changed the marquee signage (but thats a minor problem) – the Cinema 1 Cinema 2 Cinema 3 along the side is gone and replaced with Cinema 1, 2, 3 along the top edge in thin letters that you can barely see from across the street. The Cinema 1 2 3 is the last owned property City Cinemas has in New York – the other 3 are leased. And the primo location on Third Ave. opposite Bloomingdales will command huge bucks if it were to come on the market. I wonder if it is possible to get it landmarked as it is now and then order them to restore it?
These people are a bunch of greedy low lifes, this is a sure sign the cinemas are goners. Not that they have many locations left, but I stopped attending any of their theatres after the Sutton fiasco. I guess they dont care, they can laugh all the way to the bank with the millions they will get from putting another skyscraper there. Any class the cinemas had anyways were destroed with the triplexing and their bookings are no better then a Long Island UA.
It’s very sad to read of the progressive degradation of these once fine theaters. My relationship with these theaters got off to a rocky start though. On Christmas 1965 I was lured from Queens to my first Manhattan movie because that was the only way to see “Thunderball”, and I was a James-Bond-crazed 13-year-old kid. After a childhood of movie houses that ranged from generous to grand, I was shocked at the size and minimalism of the Cinema II. There was no curtain! And I has never seen a movie screen so small, or a theater so narrow. The fact that the screen was recessed into a slot in the wall made everything seem even punier. The dad of a frind of mine regularly showed 35 mm slides of his trips in the basement of his house, and I vividly remember the feeling that this theater felt just like that basement. (And the experience wasn’t helped by the fact that Thunderball was the first Bond film that left me badly disappointed.)
As I grew up, though, I learned to appreciate the wonderful selection of films that the Cinemas showed, and the clean, modern feel of the theater. The Saturday night ritual of standing in a long line with my girlfriend, patiently and eagerly anticipating a film treat, along with hundreds of like-minded fans, is something I’ll always remember. Even when it was cold, it was fun.
Perhaps City Cinemas has caught wind of a possible renewed attempt to landmark the property. The last thing the neighborhood needs is to lose another movie theatre, even one that’s lost a bit of its luster over the years…
—BULLETIN—
Well, City Cinemas is at it again – they are destroying the Cinemas. I went past there last night and the blue tile area above the windows (see the photo above) has been plastered/stuccoed/cemented over – it is now just plain white and no evidence of the columns rising to the roofline. Also, from outside it appears that the copper ‘artichoke’ chandeliers in the upper lobby are missing – God knows what these clowns are doing to the place and what other horrors they may have committed on that building.
I am trying to get in contact with an insider I know to find out what the hell they are doing….
I think it was the fall of 1993 that he left to start his own booking service. I’m not sure when he retired from that and went to Florida. His wife was another very nice person, and would come to premieres and company events. Mr. D. seemed to know everybody in the business. I don’t recall meeting his children, they were grown up and married during the time I was around there.
Why did he leave? Or did he just retire? Did you know his wife and family? If so, what happened to them?
Yup, he was (is) a class act. When I met him there I was impressed that the president of the company came in and stopped to chat with the staff – he knew their names, inquired about members of their families (by name) and was very pleasant and personable. It was a surprise because I had come there from General Cinema where the company executives who came around barely acknowledged the manager and the staff was just furniture in the lobby.
Ralph Donnely allways a class act.
Cinema I and II
(now Cinema 1, 2, 3 Third Avenue)
1001 Third Avenue
Date Completed: 1962
Builder: Rugoff Theaters
Architect: Abraham W. Geller Associates
Consulting Theater Architect: Ben Schlanger
This award-winning art film theater was the first duplex, “piggy-back” movie theater built in the United States. The piggy-back idea was developed by Ben Schlanger, who had pioneered a back-to-back duplex theater for the Information Center at Colonial Williamsburg. Cinema I and II was built by Rugoff Theaters to serve as the core of an East Side International Film Center and as a crosstown complement to Lincoln Center, which was being built at the same time but did not include a movie house.
Artwork was an integral part of Abraham Geller’s International Style design. The interior spaces designed by Geller, James McNair, and Norman Ives include a sloping barrel-vaulted ceiling, Danish copper-leaf chandeliers in the upstairs lounge, and an abstract mural by Ilya Bolotowsky in the ground-floor lobby. In 1983, Geller was again hired to divide the larger upstairs auditorium into two, making the theater a triplex.
Thanks for responding – too bad you do not have a city in Florida?
I heard he retired to Florida somewhere….
Does anyone know how to get in contact with Ralph Donnely?
Nope, wasn’t Ralph…. it was above him. Although I never heard him say so, I don’t think he agreed with certain things that were done there. If he’d had the last word on things, there would have been less radical changes. The Cinemas had a reputation for both programming and design, and nobody was more aware of that than him – he was the one who brought in the original architect to maintain the character of the theatre. However, once the design-phase was underway, higher-ups from out-of-town had other ideas. It used to be a very special place, but with the general-release dreck they play there now, it’s just another plex.
That “someone” talked about above must have been Ralph Donnely.
BTW, it was built at a cost of $750,000. in 1962, and it was sitting on rented land. The 1988 ‘adjustments’ cost $3 million. In the past few years they finally bought the land underneath it.
When they get the photo function working on this site, I have architects photos of it both when it was completed in 1962 and after the 1988 ‘adjustments’ and will post them.