Bleecker Street Cinemas
144 Bleecker Street,
New York,
NY
10012
144 Bleecker Street,
New York,
NY
10012
19 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 70 comments
In 1984 screen two was briefly advertised as the Agee.
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Someone else, I don’t know who, Al, ran the Bleecker as a move-over house for foreign and indie flicks (and the occasional, low-budget first-run film) for a brief time in 1991, before the space’s days as a movie theatre officially came to an end.
It closed in 1989.
photo taken in march 1991, film on the marquee “from the director of drugstore cowboy Mala noche"
not sure if it was closed by then?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/2120661917/
Isabelle, MARIENBAD is on DVD and VHS and you can order it on amazon.com
I was in New York this summer dropping my daughter off at the New York Film Academy for camp. My first thought when we got to the Village was to find the Bleecker Street Cinema where my sisters and I spent quite a FEW afternoons many many moons ago when we lived in NY. We saw them all “Breathless”, “Hail Mary”, “Last Year at Marienbad”… How disapointing it was to find that the cinema had closed. Interesting to read all of the comments tonight. Must share this with my sisters! Now another search, “Last Year at Marienbad”! Any suggestion anyone?
Lorenzo, I felt the same way about the Bleecker. I was manager 1976 – 1977. I only left because… [see Aug. 2005, above!]
I was the General Manager of the Bleecker during the late eighties. There are hundreds of anecdotes worth sharing. The place was special. Twenty years later I can honestly say it was the coolest job ever. Imagine being the G.M. of a legendary Greenwich Village cinema in the wake of its appearance in Desperately Seeking Susan. Suffice it to say, the Bleecker in 1986, was a parade of intelligent, sexy, trustworthy ladies…more Rosanna Arquette than Madonna, thank goodness.
My wonderful daughters are the result of my introduction to a unique woman on Christmas Eve 1988. Jennifer came to see “Wings of Desire” and in time we produced our bright lights Lillian and Sophia.
Nowadays, it’s not surprising a discount store sits at 144 Bleecker Street. Everyone pays lip service to art cinemas, but when it comes time to go to the movies, most folks mindlessy line up at the zooplex. Marketing techniques pummel even the astute into sheepish behavior.
There is much more I would love to share about the Bleecker and that includes me being the guy who launched the Angelika in 1989. (I fought against the bad sight lines!)
Until then I leave you with this:
I always tried to have a young lady record our showtimes tape because it’s more welcoming regardless of some politically correct buffoon, however, sometimes on a late thursday evening/friday morning the task befell me. Whenever this happened I began the theater’s greeting in the same manner.
“Thank you for calling the Bleecker Street Cinemas…the greatest movie theater in the world.”
According to Variety, March 23, 1960, this was the converted Renata Theatre.
This had to a 4 wall booking, how unusual the Bleecker and Apollo day and dating.
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Edward Havens: “It should also be noted the Bleecker Street helped create the cult of "The Toxic Avenger,” by picking the film up for Saturday midnight screenings when no other theatre (in town or around the country) would touch the film."
I was working at the Bleecker when Toxic Avenger opened there. The writer, Joe something, used to hang out, amazed that the film was so popular. I remember wild posting for it late at night, along with the concession guy. At the time, I remember thinking it was brilliant. Too much cough syrup, perhaps.
The Bleecker had this great mural hidden away behind the stairway. If you remember the theatre, you had to go through a door to go upstairs to go to the restrooms. If you turned left, you hit the stairsway. If you turned right, you’d see a mural that depicted WW2 Italian soldiers being tended to by medics..the best part of it was the bullet strafing across about 40% of it. I’m guessing a mob hit when it was a restaurant?…They also had that great organ on stage in the theatre on the right, hidden in the wings…
The thing that made me leave the Bleecker and move to the West Coast was when we showed Goddard’s “Hail, Mary” and some goofy Catholic group decided to protest us. They had a statue of the Virgin Mary delivered by limo every morning, and said the rosary & stations of the cross all day long. They were protesting me by name on signs, and helped turn a film that was dying a dog’s death a week before into a real moneymaker that ran what felt like an aeon…left in September of 1986 and it closed a while later…what a cool place.
I’m posting nice movie material that are also mostly for sale.
http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n94/irajoel/
you can also view my entire inventory at
www.cinemagebooks.com
I have over 5,000 items including many books in non-film such as
gay and lesbian, African American, posters, graphic design, fiction, poetry and much more.
posted by ij on Jul 23, 2006 at 1:52pm
Nothing’s there but the pillars. I cried.
Duane Reade opened in early April. There is a dropped ceiling. No indication of previous use.
The last movie I saw there was called Frankenhooker.Somewhere around 1987.It was this indy film that paralleled the quiry,off beat and insane vibe that this theatre exuded.I miss it often and I am sad with the prospect that a chain store is coming in.Kim’s video left the exterior alone.Hopefully Duane reade will do the same.I hope one day that someone will bring it back to it former glory.It happened in the Bronx with the Loew on the grand concourse so anything is possible..I guess.
Pardon me for being of little faith, but as if the Duane Reade people are going to preserve anything remotely hinting at what formerly occupied that space…
On the attached website you will find a couple of photos and short articles on the Bleecker St Cinema.
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I’m glad those heartless corporate chains have some sense of preserving history.
They are putting in a Duane Reade. I got a call from one of the construction people asking me about a fountain they found behind a wall. He said it was rather “modern looking” which leads me to believe it dates back to the reconstruction that Raymond Hood carried out when it was Mori’s restaurant. He was a frequent customer and friend of the family. The Duane Reade people also wanted information about the site’s days as a movie theatre since they had heard it was an important venue. I told them it was responsible for introducing the auteur theory to the United States and that it was also one of the bastions of 60s American independent cinema. Regards, rudy franchi
There is new construction at the former Bleecker site. Scaffolding covers the former entrance as well as where “Kim’s” was.
You can see the Bleecker in Paul Mazursky’s Willie and Phil. Later in the film the lead characters are shown coming out of the Waverly.
I used to go to the Bleecker in the ‘70s. In 1976 a Bleecker box office woman named Bobbie wanted to take the summer off, but return to the theatre in the fall. I was looking for a summer job, so I worked the Bleeker box office that summer. I loved it— the eclectic movies; the variety of people.
Hilly, the manager from Memphis, was happy to have help with the papaerwork, so I learned everything that I could about the running of the theatre: box office reports, distributor reports, film shipping.
In the fall, I sadly gave the job back to Bobbie— there were no other box office openings. But there was a manager opening!
I had done a good job apprenticing over the summer, and was given the job.
I managed the Bleecker til I moved to California in Oct. 1977.
-Meryl
The theatre now
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I spent the better part of my ill-spent youth at the Bleecker seeing “Breathless” and “Shoot the Piano Player” over and over again. I remember how the p.a. system used to play “Sans Toi” And most of all I rememebr Sunday mornings when Warren Sonbert showed his films to all his friends.
My time at the Bleecker goes back to the mid-60s and my first time there was for Robert Downing’s CHAFED ELBOWS which was like nothing I had ever seen before. I believe it was paired with Kenneth Anger’s SCORPIO RISING that Rudy mentioned earlier. I’d love to hear more from Rudy who is a poster on another site that I used to frequent. If he doesn’t respond to this posting, I’ll email him and ask (plead) for more Bleecker memories; especially the SCORPIO RISING story that he left us hanging with in November. Jerry the K