Loew's 72nd Street Theatre
180 E. 72nd Street,
New York,
NY
10021
180 E. 72nd Street,
New York,
NY
10021
8 people
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There are 4 Loews theatres in Manhattan that are built on previous Loews locations, They are the State, Orpheum, 72nd Steet and 84th Street. I wonder when they were doing all this real estate selling, did Loews automatically include a provision in the contract that would allow them to replace the old existing theatre with a new one underneath whatever was being built on top like a condo or office building?
During the time that Loews was owned by the Tisch family their main concern was land. A projectionists' union contract in Cleveland during those years was written as between “I.A.T.S.E. Local 160 and Loews Theatre and Real Estate Corporation” – I don’t think they were ever interested in the theatres, only the land underneath them. Once they had exploited all the prime owned locations by tearing down the big palace-type theatres and building apartment buildings, office buildings or just selling the property to others for redevelopment, they got rid of the remaining theatre operation which for the most part were leased locations.
The Loew’s 72nd Street theatre opened on February 20th, 1932. The large auditorium seated 2,673 patrons. Architect Thomas Lamb based the design on temples in Thailand as well as the Mosque Adinah in Maldah. The theatre was demolished in 1961. An aparment house now occupies the site.
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
A correction is in order. This was not a Wonder Theater. The 5 Wonder Theaters were Paradise(Bronx), 175 th St (NYC), Valencia (Queens), Kings (Brooklyn) and the Jersey In Jersey City
All 5 building are still standing The Jersey is being renovated, the 175 th St is a church for Reverend Ike, The Valencia is a Church, The Paradise is or is not being renovated or is just sitting there ( it keeps changing) and the Kings is regretfully sitting there and rotting away. The 72nd Street was a gorgeous theater which had great backstage facilities which were never used. Between the planning of the theater and it’s opening , Vaudeville died and it never had live shows