Beekman Theatre

When will the Beekman’s Last day be?

Savingtheboyd;
I’m more of a lobbyist then a picketer. I’m trying to get the Kings and Paramount in Brooklyn reopen. By the way, I live on Long Island so I can’t really make it in. The way I figure is, and this is the way I do thing generally, encourage people to stand up. I am going to admit that I’ve never been to the Beekman, but, as a theater major, I seem potential in many old movie houses as possible places for live performance. By the way, I used the word “crybabies” sort of as a joke, sorry.

Hey, Gustavelifting, who you calling a crybaby? You speaking to me?

It is perfectly ok to mourn the passing of the Beekman.

YOU are not picketing, are you? I didn’t see you doing so on Saturday afternoonn. For 3 years, I have led the succesful project to save & restore Philadelphia’s last movie palace, the Boyd. For 7 months in 2002, every Saturday, we picketed. And, we’ve put tons of time into saving the Boyd & ensuring its restoration. But, the Boyd is a 2400 seat ornate movie palace, and can be reused for live shows. How many years would there be films at the Beekman in the era of the megaplex? In case you haven’t noticed, megaplexes are crawling all over Manhattan, destroying the single screens, just as they have nationwide. Also, my group faced a developer whose other downtown project had been to “build” an embarrasing hole in the
ground. Here, the owner proposes a cancer center, and that’s harder to fight. And, as I said, what’s the long term future of a modestly sized single screen theater in Manhattan? Let’s hope the Paris survives, if the landlord likes it & enough people patronize it. And, yes, let people visit the Beekman one last time to enjoy it.

MAN THE CRYBABIES ON THIS PAGE! If you really want the theater do something! Picket! Write letters! The Beekman does not have to go the way of the Automat or Palisades Park! We elect governments to listen to our demands! Maybe someone will listen!

On April 3, 2005, I went with 3 other companions on a trip into NYC to visit the BEEKMAN before it is gone forever. WE all wanted to see the newest Woody Allen picture, MELINDA AND MELINDA, and found it an appropriate attraction to be playing in the theater’s last days. The theater was beautiful. Fanastic plush seats and viewing lines. It was reminiscent of a theater that was located in Paramus called the BERGEN MALL THEATER. Same style of seating design. WE were the first on line at the 4:15 pm show that rainy Sunday afternoon and we selected front seating in the mezzanine section. Great seats. We took advantage of their concession stand which was located in a spacious and furnitured area. Nothing like this exists in New Jersey anymore. We did not, however, get the pleasure of seeing the curtain rise for the film, as stated in the essay above re: the theater. They had the same type of slideshow that adorns most screeens today. But, otherwise, THE BEEKMAN is a beautiful theater that I was so happy to visit and will always remember. And I am sad to hear of its coming demise. So much style is missing today in the form of cinematic experience. And isn’t that what the film going experience was about? I salute THE BEEKMAN and will miss it.

If you go to this Library of Congress page and enter the following into the form:

Enter search terms: beekman theater
Match all of these words
Include word variants

you will be rewarded with 13 photos of the Beekman, both inside and out, taken in April 1952.

This one really hurts. I grew up at 67th Street and York Avenue in the 1950s. Along with the belly-run double bills at the York Theatre, the higher end fare at the Beekman was a major factor in contributing to the fascination with film that led to a career in the movie business. One of my neighbors was the theatre’s projectionist and I have great memories of hours spent in the clinically clean booth of the theatre, learning the basics of the projectionist’s craft….an education that was invaluable when I went on to manage a series of movie theatres in New York. Regards, rudy franchi, Nostalgia Factory (www.nostalgia.com)

Going to see new WoodMan at Beekman with J.C, Chris Q, Jen and Frank!
Glorious!!

Plus the Sutton, D.W. Griffith, Plaza and Lido East.

What theatres are left in the East 59th-60th Street area? Think 1970 and how many theatres were there!

Good idea, fueshd!

People should be aware that the Landmarks Preservation Commission has been dragging its feet regarding a number of potential landmarks recently. It seems to be part of an unspoken “plan”: if you’ve already secretly decided not to landmark something, don’t allow a public hearing (the first step in the landmarking process)on it to be “calendared.”

Recently a very strong potential candidate for landmarking, the Paterson Silk Co. Building on 14th St. (an early design by Morris Lapidus, who is famous for the Fontainbleu Hotel in Miami Beach) was unexpectedly pretty much destroyed. (See the 3/9/05, “New York Times” article, “Wrecking Ball Dashes Hopes for a Lapidus Work” by Robin Pogrebin.) This was another case of where a number of the big names in landmarks preservation asked the LPC to hold a public hearing, and they refused to schedule one.

But perhaps the “stink” over the loss of this building (the LPC seemed to be put on the defensive in the NY Times article) might be useful in the fight for at least a public hearing on some of the others, like the Beekman. So you might want to mention the loss of the Paterson Silk Building in your letter.

Going to visit in NYC in late March 2005, called my hotel, The Roosevelt, and asked about a movie theater to visit while we are there… His answer “You’ll want to go to the Beekman, definitely the Beekman, they are going to be tearing it down in June”.

Anyone heard the news besides me?

Robert R: Good point!

Watch what they DO, not what they say. It’s quite easy to see them saying, say, six months from now that conditions have changed and now they’ve decided to close the theater. And by vandalizing the facade they’ve already paved the way for demolition — making an otherwise bumpy road (possible landmark designation) into a smoother one (highly unlikely landmark designation).

Re: Weinstein

While it is obviously good news that a powerful film business “insider” — especially one known for his doggedness — is on the side of the Beekman, I still see it as only a ray of hope, as there are probably many equally powerful and savvy people on the other side (the people on the board of directors of Sloan-Kettering, for example).

Plus, despite its qualifications for landmark status, it seems to me that it is in the “wrong” style (too “middlebrow”) to excite the interest of the landmarks preservation community.

And it also seems to me to be a building with the wrong kind of architectural “pedigree.” Although the architectural firm is, I believe, the firm that designed the glorious art deco Cincinnati railroad terminal and is, I believe, the successor firm to the one that designed Grand Central Terminal, I think they are seen more as “hacks” within the preservation community, rather than distinguished architects whose work deserves preservation.

A theater designed by one of the “gods” of modern architecture (even if it were actually undistinguished) would seem to me to have a better chance at being designated a landmark.