Theatre 80 St. Marks
80 St. Marks Place,
New York,
NY
10003
80 St. Marks Place,
New York,
NY
10003
10 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 74 comments
No… in a day or so, I will be able to let you know the name of the film… I have seen trailers, and it looks like a really fun film.
Is that “first run, big budget indie film” The Road?
This is terrific news Lorcan. Having attended a theater performance there some years ago I’m delighted to hear that you are bringing movies back to the venue. I’m impressed with your strategy of presenting the new along with 60’s classics. Let us know if you need programming suggestions.
We will be showing a first run, big budget, Indie film at the end of the month, and are in the process of booking a classic film not seen since the 1960s… as soon as contracts are signed, I will let you know.
Congratulations, Lorcan. I hope you have great success with your reinvention of Theatre 80 St. Marks. If I ever get back to Manhattan, I’ll stop by. Will you be doing revival double bills as before? First-run wide release? New art/specialty films?
PS I hear that Jim (mentioned above)– from our coffee bar is alive and well… With any luck, we can bring him back as well… at least for a visit…
I expect it will be welcome news for the readers of this blog, we will be showing film once more. We are in the process of installing high def, digital (not rear projection) as well as presenting opera, ballet, concerts, and musicals. The screen will be set back much farther than in my father’s day, so the sight lines will be improved for film. THanks to all who have remembered us fondly or otherwise here, and we hope to see you all again soon.
Our web address is Theatre80Stmarks.com . All the best, Lorcan Otway
Lorcan, I met and spoke with you briefly a couple of times way back when. Talked with your dad almost every one of the many times I visited 80 St. Marks. (As it happens, my first visit was for the live smash, “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.”) I subscribed to your dad’s film schedules for – whatever – 20-some years.
I appreciate your candid, cogent and articulate explanation of the problems of simply ramping up again. We all remember fondly how it was, not how it could, or couldn’t, be resuscitated today. It was not just chance that all of the many repertory moviehouses in Manhattan died one by one in the video era, including the Regency, Thalia, Hollywood, et al.
Your difficulty getting equipment repaired and maintaining it is something we have all suffered with VCRs, laser disc players, 33 rpm phonographs and so on. It’s annoying and in some respects inexcusable that we’ve become such a disposable culture.
Thank you for your insights. Great success to you.
Dear skeeetz:
Thanks so much for the kind comments… as to a “better way†– I refer not to the audience, or content of the programming, but to the deficits of the combination of rear view projection and 16 mm projection. At the time my father died, we found that – even with three state of the art machines – running full time just put too much wear on them for the declining availability of tech support. Film projectors, next, even to video players, are very difficult machines to maintain. Often film companies coated film with “protective coatings†which would gum up the gate, and even with constant washing between showings, the coatings would bend and destroy the teeth in the gate. So, the quality of our projection declined as fewer and fewer technical repair people stayed with film, and most went into video, now they are into DVD repair…
If someday it were possible to project DVD directly to a storable screen, using a cable rather than through the air projection it is possible to show film here again… the problem with a world of high def and all, is that the expectations of most of the audience change, and the poor quality of an earlier time is much less quaint to most today, and I don’t think we could survive the judgment of a generation grown up on digital projection. Even the comments here show that we suffered from having to project from behind the screen in the eyes of many. But, I am still looking and listening, if a better projection option is found, do email me at, LorcanOtway at Gmail.com
Lorcan, you don’t NEED a better way to project in a small house — the old way was fine! It added to the charm, and was a fantastic way to be introduced to a world of cinema I might otherwise would never have known. Perhaps you should put out feelers, see how many folks would be interested if the theater played movies on, say, one or two nights a week. I bet you’d get a strongly supportive response.
In any event, even if you don’t end up playing film there again, I’m very happy that the theater is still in the family and open for business.
Thanks for the proof reading… It has been a month of three hours of sleep as we restored the old gem to her former glow…
All the best
lor
Howard was irascible but never erasable — he surely left an indelible mark.
Theatre 80 is back under direct management by the Otway family. In keeping with my mother’s wishes, and my dedication to my father’s belief in small, professional theater, we are once again open to present a diverse program of live theater. “The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side†has been in previews here, and will open tomorrow night, after a successful run at PS 122. In order to keep small theater affordable, we are going to open a small café, to help subsidize theater here. Living on the proceeds of a small theater has been a challenge as early as 1968, when the Manhattan Festival Ballet closed. But, I believe that the best way to resist the Disneyfication of New York Theater is a vibrant and professional pool of small theaters.
I hope friends will stop by, often.
I would LOVE to have film some days, but, until a better way to project in a small house is found, we will continue to live in hopes. There are new wonders every day, so who knows?
But, I do not think I foresee a time when we would only present film. My father built the theater as a place to have an intimate live theatrical experience, and it is perfect for that use.
Today, assisted by the remarkably capable and talented Lori Singleton, we are booking into next year already.
My family and I extend our dearest thanks to all who came, and warmest regards to those who found Dad a wee bit erasable at times… he had a lot on his plate.
All the best,
Lorcan Otway
General Manager
Theatre 80 Saint Marks.
One of my favorites.
I went there just a few times before it closed, and remember the first time especially: “what the hell, this is 16mm rear projection!”
Renewing link.
was a projectionist there 1982-83. I lived a block away, on 1rst and 10th.
Shifts were long and busy from the time you got there, assembled the 3 reels into one, loaded the film, then helped at the bar between the shows. You cleaned-up the theater after the last film, when everyone was gone. You mopped the floor, picked-up the left over trash… man, it was a 12 hour shift, from 12 noon til after midnite, for $5 an hour, cash, with a little bonus sometimes, when Howard was in a good mood.
Jim was tending the bar, invariably drunk by mid-afternoon, his old blue eyes glassy and his mouth foaming at the side. The old black man’s hair was all grey. His drink was vodka. He kept it at hand and poured it in a can of coke.
When everyone was in and sitted, I’d go behind the curtain and make the ‘fire compliance law…’ annoucement; then I rushed to the projector to start the film, and go back to pull the curtain open as the credits atarted to roll… Not a bad job, if for Howard chronically suspicious and caustic nature. I saw all the old Hollywood classics there, in series.
10 years later, funny to say, I became a film composer… www.myspace.com/madloon
I’m looking for first hand accounts of seeing The Night Porter at this theater in connection with film history research I am engaged in. Anyone with memories of The Night Porter, however vague, please feel free to get in touch with me. .co.uk
One more memory: It was a revelation to me, in my 20s and 30s, visiting a land of Oz called Manhattan for two or three weeks per year, that you folks not only had upwards of a dozen great (if sometimes dilapidated) revival houses but that the audiences embraced old movies with such passion that they sometimes applauded opening credits. That was especially true at Theatre 80 St. Marks.
I certainly had my own favorite stars, but I was surprised that some stars were in especially great favor (Judy Garland, Ann Miller, Roz Russell – mainly in “His Girl Friday”) and even more surprised that other stars might be booed. The main one I can remember that happening to once was June Allyson. I knew that girls next door had gone out of favor, but to this day I like her a lot – a lifelong crush – and was dismayed by the reaction her name drew.
Can anyone think of other stars who received an especially strong response one way or the other? – Ed Blank
I have innumerable happy memories of this theater. And since I first ventured down there to see a live show, “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” with its original cast, I have to admit mixed feelings that it’s a legitimate theater again. It certainly never was ideal for movies.
I’d seen dozens of double bills of classics there over the years before I arrived early enough once – and with no other patrons behind me in line – to get the gentleman in the box office (presumably Howard Otway) – to explain about the peculiar rear-screen projection process.
I was introduced to countless old movies there, always in imaginatively designed double bills.
My single fondest memory: I had seen “Sudden Fear” when it was new in 1952 and about eight years later on Pittsburgh TV. Then the picture disappeared – totally – even though it was never on those lists of films that had vanished from Planet Earth for decades back then (“Porgy & Bess,” “Annie Get Your Gun,” “The Manchurian Candidate,” the 1956 version of “1984,” etc.)
Anyway, I phoned either Howard Otway or his son once to ask if he could send the next schedule a few days early to me in Pittsburgh because I feared missing it in transit as I headed for NYC. Somehow the subject of “Sudden Fear” came up (I no doubt was cataloging movies aloud), and Mr. Otway said, “But we’ve got it! We’re about to play it for the first time. It’s on the next schedule.” Turned out it was to play the day before I arrived with 100-some theatergoers I was shepherding to Broadway. I could not change my arrival date. Damned if he didn’t say, “Look, the schedules don’t go to the printer for a day or two. If you promise you’ll come to `Sudden Fear,‘ I’ll postpone it a couple of days for you.” He kept his word, and I got to see it for the first time in 30-some years. Not too long later, the film became available on laser disc and then DVD, both of which I bought. But what a kick that he made so kind a gesture for an out-of-towner. – Ed Blank
For the sake of consistency, this name should be changed to The Pearl Theatre Company.
What I remember most about the place were the gorgeous framed black and white shots of stars like Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, and others. I went for a double bill of Fellini Satyricon and La Roma. It was sensory overload! Fun memory.
I was a projectionist at Theatre 80 for about a year. It was a great experience because I saw so many films I had never seen before.
The pay was awful, and Howard could be cantankerous as some have mentioned, but the experience of putting films together while trying not to lose frames (many prints had been spliced and damaged so many times that we often had to remove a frame here and there), watching the films with subtitles in a large mirror behind the screen (rear-projection the words appeared backwards to me), all the free snacks I could eat, and listening to the audience shout and moan when a splice broke or the projector lost a loop, all of that made it well worth the crappy pay.
It was also interesting to be buzzed by Howard (we had an intercom system between the ticket booth and the projection area) and told to chase people out of the restroom who would use it to shoot up their drugs. I usually let them pack up, then politely told them they needed to go elsewhere.
Glad to see others have some fond memories of that theatre.
This from the New York Times August 21, 1971.
EAST VILLAGE THEATRE TO SHOW OLD MUSICAL FILMS EXCLUSIVELY
A refurbished playhouse in the East Village is about to offer something new in vintage screen fare. Starting tomorrow, Theatre 80 St. Marks will become what may be the only showcase ever devoted entirely to movie musicals.
The opening bill …is Jerome Kern’s SUNNY (1930)… and LOOK FOR THE SILVER LINING (1949)…
The 199 seat theatre, whose longest previous tenant was the show YOU’RE A GOOD MAN CHARLIE BROWN, will charge $2.50 admission for the double bills…
At the theatre there will be some other reminders of the past- resplendently attired ushers, a lobby decorated with movie memorabilia and free penny candy.
LADY IN THE DARK and ANYTHING GOES start August 26.
Was LADY IN THE DARK the first feature to be shown at Theater 80 St. Mark’s? If so, what was the co-feature?