Symphony Space/Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre

I have many happy memories of catching oup on American and foreign classics on double bills, so often linked by star, director or theme, from 1967 through the 1980s. What an odd little theater with its upward slope and its audience of diehard movie buffs. There was something of an adventure about going there.

The place was PACKED last week (Sunday afternoon) for a couple of Marx Brothers films!

Oddly, I found the Matinee Idol tenor’s singing…moving. Stirred up something deep from my childhood, I guess.

Here’s a B&W photo of the old Thalia marquee & entrance with a nice Eric Rohmer double feature advertised. The photo is mislabled as West 94th rather than West 95th Street. Lots of good B&W photography on this site including theater related shots I’ve been posting around CT.

A good 1973 Times article on the Thalia
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I was a projectionist at The Thalia from 1975 through 1977 and although it had it’s peculiarities, I have fond memmories of the place. At that time, The Thalia had no real focus (no pun intended). We showed everything from mainstream first run films like Woody Allen’s “Love and Death,” to the more obscure indies like “The Night Porter.” Unfortunately, the ticket buying public had lost it’s enthusiasm for this tired old art house, with most weekdays barely seeing a handful of characters, I mean customers. Some of the more interesting entertainment often took place in the back rows where many of our regulars seemed to not realize (or care) that their antics were clearly visible to whomever was in the booth! My biggest pet peeve was the postage stamp screen. My friend Steve worked upstairs at the Symphony at that time (see his post from March 2004) and found an old pair of lenses that he thought might work at The Thalia. I cut new apertures and installed the lenses and voila, we had about a 30% larger screen image on flat format films; (although I sometimes had to chop peoples heads off to squeeze the subtitles into frame.) Man, those were great times!

I was at the Thalia yesterday for STEAMBOAT BILL JR. and I must say that I feel that since the Thalia was renovated & reopened the revival has been half-assed. I saw only three films here in ‘05 and one of them was projected video (PIXOTE). My visit yesterday at a lightly attended 4:30 screening was my first in '06.

One other use for the Thalia, which I don’t think anyone mentioned, was that in the late 90’s someone was running the theatre and using it as a showplace for films that didn’t have distributors. I caught only one film in that series in November ‘98 called CROSSING FIELDS.

Disney must have finally struck a new 35mm print of “Mary Poppins” because I just realized they played it here Feb 26th. Wish I had known in time to attend.

In 1959 the Thalia revived this early John Barrymore film “Topaze”. They said it was the first showing since the original release.
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Yes, for Pete’s sake, these are three (3) separate entities:

Originally and as “renovated” and their interiors incorporated into a new luxury high-rise, two separate entrances and (in the old days) separate marquees: Symphony on Broadway, Thalia on 95th street around the corner from it.

(1) Symphony movie theater (yes, I think I saw a movie there while it and the nearby Riviera(?) (Riverside?) (west side of broadway, 96th-97th street) were both showing movies. (Saw “Yellow Submarine” with my daughter at the now-gone theater on Broadway 96th-97th street.)

(2) The Symphony (movie theater) transformed into “Symphony Space”; same INTERIOR but deprived of a proper marquee, with a luxury apartment building complexly built on top and around it, and used exclusively for STAGE productions. Wonderful. Dance and music from all over the world, readings (e.g. Bloomsday), etc., etc. [i think the site’s http://www.symphonyspace.org ]

(3) The Thalia: “essential” part of NYC cultural life for decades as the place to see foreign films and occasional US “art” films. And then the closing and eventual reopening(s). My last sustained viewings were in 1984, I think, seeing that German serial, week after week (Potzdammer Platz?) during a difficult love affair.

Went once to double feature of excellent old (B & W) Japanese films after renovation (and 2nd new management?) and upward-slant was reassuring, but…

Might pick up again; slightly better programming now?

But yes, puh-leeeeze—separate listings for Symphony and Thalia!!

Somehow, Symphony Space and the Thalia began to be listed togeyher in the early 1980s.Prior to that, the Thalia was its own entity.

The color photo in the introduction above actually shows a conversion of the Symphony Space entrance, which is still there and is separate from the entrance to the Thalia.

The street address of the Thalia was/is 250 W. 95th Street.

Recent photos:

http://www.polshek.com/perf_symphony.htm