Criterion Theatre
1514 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
1514 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
27 people
favorited this theater
Showing 376 - 400 of 611 comments
From what I saw in my last visit to the theatre. It’s very much like what EdSolero posted at 7:15 this morning about the balcony. It was a small balcony at one time, but the floor was extended to make a new main floor. That would only show what the floor plan was during that time frame, like the old programs years earlier showed the fire exits floor plans too. But the theatre was remodeled/cut-up later. The Loews Jersey City put two theatres under the balcony area and left the balcony as one in that tri-plexing, Warner Theatre on Hollywood Blvd., put two theatres in the balcony area and left the downstairs area as one. And the old Fox California Theatre in Huntington Park was tri-plexed with two small theatres in the balcony and one large one downstairs. It all depends on what the chain and design team can do with the location. I’ve seen many different jobs done and some are good and others are just crap.
If you can locate a copy of an old “Stubs” guide to theater seating, you’ll see that the Criterion’s balcony was extremely shallow. (“Stubs” published floor plans of legit theaters for purchasers of reserved seats to check their seating; in the 50s/60s, it included floor-plans of road-show movie-houses for the same purpose; I deeply regret having discarded my copies over the years.)
From my memory of the Criterion, I’d find it inconceivable for the shallow balcony to function as a single theater: its wide screening/playing area would have projected to just a few rows of seats stretching expansively from wall to wall, giving patrons at either end a radically slanted view and wickedly stiff necks.
Also… sorry to mislead you ken mc… William’s listing is correct for the old Criterion. I didn’t realize that Warren had separately listed the Olympia Music Hall/Loew’s New York and the old Lyric/Criterion.
Seems that the upstairs theater at the Criterion must have been a lot bigger than the old balcony was when it was a single screener. I’m guessing that this was because they installed seats on the new floor that was extended to seal off the old balcony from the orchestra section below. Perhaps it was in this largest of auditoriums that the legendary Dream Street performance was held – utilizing some sort of temporary platform stage in front of the screen.
This was one of the few Times Square theaters I never set foot in – at least as far as I can recall. I don’t believe I was ever in the National or the Embassy 2,3,4 either.
I reposted on the correct page. The links from the old newspapers are great but they fail within a day, which I learned after posting a dozen of them. It’s too bad as the old theater ads are interesting.
The last time I was in the upstairs theatre in 1994 it was a large house still.
ken mc you posted this under the wrong Criterion Theatre. The original Criterion lasted till 1935 when the new one was built.
/theaters/16481/
Ken mc… you forgot to add the link. However, your post is better suited to the Loew’s New York theater complex, which was demolished to make way for the new Criterion in 1935. The Criterion theater being discussed on this page was not even in existence in 1922.
Here is an ad from a 1922 Ohio newspaper which mentions the Criterion. Hopefully the scenes of love between the boy and mom were not too graphic:
Direct from its sensational run at the famous Criterion Theater, Times Square, New York, comes the picture beautiful, the picture extraordinary, the picture you’ll never forget-“WHERE IS MY WANDER- ING BOY TONIGHT”-the picture that tells in graphic scenes of a mother’s love for her boy and a boy’s love for his mother. The picture packed with thrills, adventure, romance, tenderest sentiment. The picture of Main Street and Broadway, of soda fountains and swell cabarets, of dance halls and a little church of a mother and her wayward boy, of a country lass and a chorus girl – the picture of smiles, tears, pathos, laughter.
The Picture that packed the famous CRITERION THEATRE, Times Square, N.Y. to capacity for two solid weeks at its world premiere
Were there eight theaters by the time the Criterion was done being carved up in the ‘80’s? I always thought the final number was seven screens at the very end.
Lost… There was also an off-Broadway sized facility that was part of the Criterion Center complex and was used by the Roundabout Theatre organization. I believe it was in the former International Casino space upstairs. I still wonder if Dream Street performed in that space as opposed to one of the 5 Criterion movie theater auditoriums. I can’t recall ever being in the Criterion… was the orchestra level auditorium intact with stage space? Was there ever any stage space?
Just out of curiosity, do you have any C/O info on what kind of capacity each auditorium had after the multiplexing?
Thanks Bob! I had not noticed.
AlAlvarez, I don’t know if you ever noticed, but the first Criterion is now listed as a seperate theatre.
A forgotten roadshow
View link
“One of the 10 best” of 1977 according to Time Magazine, this film was about two months into its release by the time of this early ‘78 clipping:
Semi Tough – Daily News 1/25/78
It must have been a pretty fast climb from single screen in 1978 (a photo that RobertR posted on May 21 shows a single screen Criterion as late as August, 1978) to 5 screens as early as December, 1980:
Movie Clock – NY Post 12/11/80
Curious that theater 1 is listed as “closed for repairs”. The films playing in the other auditoriums are at least a month or two old with a few late runs dating back to before the summer.
Thanks Al. I guess LOA finished up before the end of October. “Take Her…” opened 11/13/63 (a Wednesday) per imdb.com. I show LOA hitting the Drive-In circuit by at least May of ‘64. I suppose it must have gone into a short 35mm nabe run in November of '63, as I have an ad from 11/25/63 advertising LOA’s “last two days” at the Loew’s Metropolitan in B'klyn, and possibly later runs in the deep suburbs prior to the Drive-In engagements.
Ed, I show the Criterion was closed for about three weeks between the two runs.
Ed, I show the Criterion was closed for about three weeks between the two runs.
This Jimmy Stewart/Sandra Dee comedy opened as a “Premiere Showcase” presentation at a number of area theaters:Take Her She’s Mine – Daily News 11/25/63
Here’s a clipping from a couple of months earlier featuring a small ad for “Lawrence of Arabia” in the lower right corner – still in it’s reserved-seat engagement here:
Daily News 9/21/63
LOA had premiered at the Criterion in December of ‘62. Was it playing all the way up to the Showcase booking for “Take Her She’s Mine”? As the ad indicates, this run was an “Exclusive Greater New York Engagement” even though 70mm prints had been rolled out by this time to Asbury Park, Nanuet and Upper Montclaire, NJ, as well as Huntington, NY, out on Long Island according to the great 70mm in New York web page compiled by Michael Coate and William Kallay.
I can’t recall the theater, but I saw a Three Stooges 3-D short (probably this very one) along with a Woody Woodpecker animated 3-D short sometime back in the early ‘80’s. I don’t think it was the “House of Wax” revival in '82. It might have been at the 8th Street Playhouse and the main feature may have been Andy Warhol’s twisted “Flesh for Frankenstein”… but the billing of that film with the Stooges and Woody Woodpecker seems almost too far beyond the pale to believe possible.
Here are some nice pictures of rare movie material. http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n94/irajoel/
I also have a website, please feel free to visit.
www.cinemagebooks.com
and if you don’t care to view them, keep your stupid nasty remarks to yourself.
I just noticed the amount of screens here is still showing 1.
RobertR—
That’s a great photo, with a marvelous feel for the era and superb detail on the Loew’s building in the left background.
Here is a shot of the still single screen Criterion.
View link
Great to hear that, Warren!