It still is a great marquee. I grew up on East 68th St a couple of blocks from the Beekman. My fondest memories are of lining up around the block for 10:00 o'clock shows of The Exorcist in darkest winter and Animal House in the heat of summer.
In line with the Rugoff / Cinema 5 theatres of the day, there were no ticket booths. They sold tickets from a small desk in the outer lobby.
The Exorcist somehow cost me three tickets for only two of us…something to do with the ticket taker taking the wrong end of the stub.
I lived in Brussels for a year in 1979 when it was the Eldorado – 6 or 7 screens I believe. Oddly enough I saw most of my movies uptown at the Avenue and Capitole but this was a delight…Marble foyer and comfy seats…Remember seeing Milos Forman’s Hair here
Fond memories of the Rex when I lived in KL in 1985-6 and seeing films such as Terms of Endearment and A Passage to India there. The booking patterns were always a bit of a shock with films you’d never expect ie Annie Hall, Frances, The King of Comedy in there for 1 or 2 day bookings as well. Needless to say, you would always come out into a Night Market and go into a dark alley nearby for some great fried noodles!
I was in this theater the day after it opened for The Poseidon Adventure…a great escalator ride up from the lobby with great window views over Broadway…It opened as a National General theater which became Mann Theaters then RKO Century and finally Cineplex Odeon…The twinning was better than most with the balcony screen being a pretty good theater…As a twin I remember Rocky III, The Missionary and The Dead Pool there
I remember this well as the Forum 47th St primarily a Paramount and MGM showcase theater…My last visit when it was Movieland was to see Chariots of Fire in 1981
This was actually a fun place to see a movie when I was a kid…starting with a ride down the escalator and the circular grey and black corridors…Opened as a Paramount showcase and operated by Rugoff/Cinema 5 before switching to Loews in the late 80s.
I remember seeing Little Big Man, Murder on the Orient Express, Eight Men Out and a revival of The Manchurian Candidate here
The existing 72nd St theater – it will always be the Tower East to me – is basically with the Ziegfeld and Astor Plaza and Beekman the last single screens in Manhattan…While its lobby and concessions may be dinky in the new Millennium it was in my youth a great place to see a movie…Yellow Submarine, a few stinkers like Caprice and Don’t Make Waves, Love Story, The Godfather, Deliverance, All the President’s Men, The Great Gatsby, Mississippi Burning…
Amazingly enough the theater has outlasted at least 2 dozen different restaurants in my 30 years including one owned by Paul Sorvino the actor
Have fond memories of this theater as the DeMille seeing roadshows like Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines and later two great music pictures with my dad – Soul to Soul and The Concert for Bengla Desh…
Before it became the Embassy 2/¾ it had a short life as the Mark ½/3 and had the distinction of having Apocalypse Now on all 3 screens after its debut at the Ziegfeld
I survived a view visits in its later years seeing Airplane and Roger Rabbit in ¾ and Bright Lights Big City in 2
Another one of my local theatres in the 60s 70s and 80s with such classics and non classics as The Maltese Bippy, Lady L, Z, The Paper Chase, Little Murders, The Sorrow and the Pity, The Exorcist, True Believers, Coup de Ville, Talk Radio in the mix. It is nice to see Clearview taking some pride in this which along with the Loews 72nd St (it will always be the Tower East to me) are the East Side’s last remaining single screen showplaces
As an Eastsider in the 60s, lines curving around 60th Street for the Cinema 1 and 2 were a way of life…The flagships of the Rugoff/Cinema 5 chain Cinema 1 did mostly mainstream exclusive programming and Cinema 2 slightly more arty stuff…The theatres had separate entrances and a serious feel to them. As a kid and teenager I confirm seeing things as varied as Casino Royale, Nashville, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Bang the Drum Slowly, Rotten to the Core, Getting Straight, Adele H, Silent Movie, Dog Day Afternoon here.
The triplexing wasn’t bad with Cinema 1 keeping 500 seats, 2 becoming a bit of a shoebox and 3 being too small really for first run although it is used as such. The 3 had to take on the name 3rd Avenue because Cineplex Odeon was still operating the Cinema 3 in the Plaza Hotel at the time.
When it reopened I remember seeing Batman and Cookie in 1, Quick Change in 2 and a Denzel Washington UK made film called For Queen and Country in 3.
It saddens me a bit to see really trashy mainstream product fly through here like Scary Movie 2 but it is one of the few screens left in the area
A great old neighborhood second run house programmed by Brandts when I was a child in the late 50s early 60s – I saw the original That Darn Cat here on a post Music Hall run and now a serious concert theater
It was great to be living in New York again when the Angelika opened and to enjoy a revival of Blue Velvet and a great film by Shuhei Imamura about Hiroshima called Black Rain (not the Michael Douglas Black Rain)there
Never managed a movie in this theatre (mostly a Fox or Universal programmed grind house) but a few concerts in its pre Palladium days including Hot Tuna
This was a theater which very much followed the fortunes of its neighborhood. A gorgeous ornate old palace (I likely saw Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs her in 1961 as a capricious 4 year old) it became a second run and grind house for Loews as the neighborhood faded in the 60s ( I may have seen Lawrence of Arabia here as a revival in the late 60s and if you believe I caught Joe Namath in the spaghetti western The Last Rebel in those days). Loews made into the 83rd St Quad in 1975 (only Manhattans second Quad in those days – I saw Shampoo in half the balcony before the job was completed). As the neighborhood sorted itself out it started taking a number of first runs before being replaced with Loews 84th Street Six one block over.
Unless I’m sorely mistaken the theater was originally the Cine Malibu in the early 70s showing a mix of soft and hard core porn (I was there for a softish session). It then became the DW Griffith launched with a season of Griffith films (I was there for Birth of a Nation with a live organ player)…showing a mix of art and second run quality pictures (I had a date my senior year in high school for a double feature of A Touch of Class and Paper Moon so figure 1973/74)…It then folded into the Rugoff/Cinema 5 chain and later was relaunched by the Cineplex Odeon group in 1989 with Field of Dreams as its first feature as the 59th St Playhouse or Cinema…now mostly a second or third run house with Clearview but a miraculous survivor since the nearby Manhattan Twins (theres another story), Gotham and Coronet are all gone
This theatre has been known as the theatre for people who wouldn’t otherwise go to the movies. Posh, with discerning mostly foreign programming was the Paris for 40 odd years before Loews took it over for a short time in the late 80s early 90s as the Fine Arts (there was a Walter Reade Fine Arts a couple of blocks away which closed in the early 80s).
In peoples minds it was always the Paris and retook that marquee in about 92.
Among the long runs this theater has had are Zeffirellis Romeo & Juliet, much of Merchant Ivory including The Bostonians, A Room with a View and The Remains of the Day, Life Is Beautiful.
My own great nights at the Paris have included Coup de Tete, Romuald et Juliette, a revival of Tom Jones and surely a few others from the early 70s
With the Ziegfeld, Manhattan’s last true single screen movie palace. Long escalators down to a basement lobby and concession area, 1500+ seats, 70mm screen, Manhattan’s first Dolby sound system. Also the first Manhattan theater with a video game area perfect for the PacMan years. Built as the Reade theatre in 1971, it did not open due to union problems and was sold to Loews who opened it in 1973 with Death Wish or For Pete’s Sake as the opening attraction. Due to its location it never did the exclusive attractions the Ziegfeld did but nevertheless is still a great place to see a movie STAR WARS, COLORS, AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN.
A frightening concept is that studios are daring to open a picture like Gladiator at the Ziegfeld and the Astor Plaza at the same time. Broadway must retain a theater like this!
Growing up a block away on 68th and 2nd, this really was my local theatre for many years.
Until the early 70’s a true second run neighborhood house meaning if you waited long enough it would come here. Owned for a good chunk of that time by Walter Brecher who owned the famous Apollo on 125th Street and later by City Cinemas. As a second run house remember seeing BONNIE & CLYDE, A COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG. From then on a solid art house with the occasional commercial first run attraction, LA CAGE AUX FOLLES was here for a year, TAKE THE MONEY & RUN, MONSIEUR HIRE, LACOMBE LUCIEN, THIEVES LIKE US, TOMORROW. Run by City Cinemas until it closed in 97…A tiny single aisle house with barely more than 200 seats and a no waiting area usually with a line going a half a block between 3rd and Lexington Avenues
It still is a great marquee. I grew up on East 68th St a couple of blocks from the Beekman. My fondest memories are of lining up around the block for 10:00 o'clock shows of The Exorcist in darkest winter and Animal House in the heat of summer.
In line with the Rugoff / Cinema 5 theatres of the day, there were no ticket booths. They sold tickets from a small desk in the outer lobby.
The Exorcist somehow cost me three tickets for only two of us…something to do with the ticket taker taking the wrong end of the stub.
I lived in Brussels for a year in 1979 when it was the Eldorado – 6 or 7 screens I believe. Oddly enough I saw most of my movies uptown at the Avenue and Capitole but this was a delight…Marble foyer and comfy seats…Remember seeing Milos Forman’s Hair here
Fond memories of the Rex when I lived in KL in 1985-6 and seeing films such as Terms of Endearment and A Passage to India there. The booking patterns were always a bit of a shock with films you’d never expect ie Annie Hall, Frances, The King of Comedy in there for 1 or 2 day bookings as well. Needless to say, you would always come out into a Night Market and go into a dark alley nearby for some great fried noodles!
I was in this theater the day after it opened for The Poseidon Adventure…a great escalator ride up from the lobby with great window views over Broadway…It opened as a National General theater which became Mann Theaters then RKO Century and finally Cineplex Odeon…The twinning was better than most with the balcony screen being a pretty good theater…As a twin I remember Rocky III, The Missionary and The Dead Pool there
I remember this well as the Forum 47th St primarily a Paramount and MGM showcase theater…My last visit when it was Movieland was to see Chariots of Fire in 1981
This was actually a fun place to see a movie when I was a kid…starting with a ride down the escalator and the circular grey and black corridors…Opened as a Paramount showcase and operated by Rugoff/Cinema 5 before switching to Loews in the late 80s.
I remember seeing Little Big Man, Murder on the Orient Express, Eight Men Out and a revival of The Manchurian Candidate here
The existing 72nd St theater – it will always be the Tower East to me – is basically with the Ziegfeld and Astor Plaza and Beekman the last single screens in Manhattan…While its lobby and concessions may be dinky in the new Millennium it was in my youth a great place to see a movie…Yellow Submarine, a few stinkers like Caprice and Don’t Make Waves, Love Story, The Godfather, Deliverance, All the President’s Men, The Great Gatsby, Mississippi Burning…
Amazingly enough the theater has outlasted at least 2 dozen different restaurants in my 30 years including one owned by Paul Sorvino the actor
Have fond memories of this theater as the DeMille seeing roadshows like Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines and later two great music pictures with my dad – Soul to Soul and The Concert for Bengla Desh…
Before it became the Embassy 2/¾ it had a short life as the Mark ½/3 and had the distinction of having Apocalypse Now on all 3 screens after its debut at the Ziegfeld
I survived a view visits in its later years seeing Airplane and Roger Rabbit in ¾ and Bright Lights Big City in 2
Another one of my local theatres in the 60s 70s and 80s with such classics and non classics as The Maltese Bippy, Lady L, Z, The Paper Chase, Little Murders, The Sorrow and the Pity, The Exorcist, True Believers, Coup de Ville, Talk Radio in the mix. It is nice to see Clearview taking some pride in this which along with the Loews 72nd St (it will always be the Tower East to me) are the East Side’s last remaining single screen showplaces
As an Eastsider in the 60s, lines curving around 60th Street for the Cinema 1 and 2 were a way of life…The flagships of the Rugoff/Cinema 5 chain Cinema 1 did mostly mainstream exclusive programming and Cinema 2 slightly more arty stuff…The theatres had separate entrances and a serious feel to them. As a kid and teenager I confirm seeing things as varied as Casino Royale, Nashville, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Bang the Drum Slowly, Rotten to the Core, Getting Straight, Adele H, Silent Movie, Dog Day Afternoon here.
The triplexing wasn’t bad with Cinema 1 keeping 500 seats, 2 becoming a bit of a shoebox and 3 being too small really for first run although it is used as such. The 3 had to take on the name 3rd Avenue because Cineplex Odeon was still operating the Cinema 3 in the Plaza Hotel at the time.
When it reopened I remember seeing Batman and Cookie in 1, Quick Change in 2 and a Denzel Washington UK made film called For Queen and Country in 3.
It saddens me a bit to see really trashy mainstream product fly through here like Scary Movie 2 but it is one of the few screens left in the area
I saw Planet of the Apes and 2001 here…An awesome multi aisle theatre the likes of which we will never see again
A great old neighborhood second run house programmed by Brandts when I was a child in the late 50s early 60s – I saw the original That Darn Cat here on a post Music Hall run and now a serious concert theater
It was great to be living in New York again when the Angelika opened and to enjoy a revival of Blue Velvet and a great film by Shuhei Imamura about Hiroshima called Black Rain (not the Michael Douglas Black Rain)there
Never managed a movie in this theatre (mostly a Fox or Universal programmed grind house) but a few concerts in its pre Palladium days including Hot Tuna
This was a theater which very much followed the fortunes of its neighborhood. A gorgeous ornate old palace (I likely saw Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs her in 1961 as a capricious 4 year old) it became a second run and grind house for Loews as the neighborhood faded in the 60s ( I may have seen Lawrence of Arabia here as a revival in the late 60s and if you believe I caught Joe Namath in the spaghetti western The Last Rebel in those days). Loews made into the 83rd St Quad in 1975 (only Manhattans second Quad in those days – I saw Shampoo in half the balcony before the job was completed). As the neighborhood sorted itself out it started taking a number of first runs before being replaced with Loews 84th Street Six one block over.
Unless I’m sorely mistaken the theater was originally the Cine Malibu in the early 70s showing a mix of soft and hard core porn (I was there for a softish session). It then became the DW Griffith launched with a season of Griffith films (I was there for Birth of a Nation with a live organ player)…showing a mix of art and second run quality pictures (I had a date my senior year in high school for a double feature of A Touch of Class and Paper Moon so figure 1973/74)…It then folded into the Rugoff/Cinema 5 chain and later was relaunched by the Cineplex Odeon group in 1989 with Field of Dreams as its first feature as the 59th St Playhouse or Cinema…now mostly a second or third run house with Clearview but a miraculous survivor since the nearby Manhattan Twins (theres another story), Gotham and Coronet are all gone
This theatre has been known as the theatre for people who wouldn’t otherwise go to the movies. Posh, with discerning mostly foreign programming was the Paris for 40 odd years before Loews took it over for a short time in the late 80s early 90s as the Fine Arts (there was a Walter Reade Fine Arts a couple of blocks away which closed in the early 80s).
In peoples minds it was always the Paris and retook that marquee in about 92.
Among the long runs this theater has had are Zeffirellis Romeo & Juliet, much of Merchant Ivory including The Bostonians, A Room with a View and The Remains of the Day, Life Is Beautiful.
My own great nights at the Paris have included Coup de Tete, Romuald et Juliette, a revival of Tom Jones and surely a few others from the early 70s
With the Ziegfeld, Manhattan’s last true single screen movie palace. Long escalators down to a basement lobby and concession area, 1500+ seats, 70mm screen, Manhattan’s first Dolby sound system. Also the first Manhattan theater with a video game area perfect for the PacMan years. Built as the Reade theatre in 1971, it did not open due to union problems and was sold to Loews who opened it in 1973 with Death Wish or For Pete’s Sake as the opening attraction. Due to its location it never did the exclusive attractions the Ziegfeld did but nevertheless is still a great place to see a movie STAR WARS, COLORS, AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN.
A frightening concept is that studios are daring to open a picture like Gladiator at the Ziegfeld and the Astor Plaza at the same time. Broadway must retain a theater like this!
Growing up a block away on 68th and 2nd, this really was my local theatre for many years.
Until the early 70’s a true second run neighborhood house meaning if you waited long enough it would come here. Owned for a good chunk of that time by Walter Brecher who owned the famous Apollo on 125th Street and later by City Cinemas. As a second run house remember seeing BONNIE & CLYDE, A COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG. From then on a solid art house with the occasional commercial first run attraction, LA CAGE AUX FOLLES was here for a year, TAKE THE MONEY & RUN, MONSIEUR HIRE, LACOMBE LUCIEN, THIEVES LIKE US, TOMORROW. Run by City Cinemas until it closed in 97…A tiny single aisle house with barely more than 200 seats and a no waiting area usually with a line going a half a block between 3rd and Lexington Avenues