Sutton Theater
205 E. 57th Street,
New York,
NY
10022
205 E. 57th Street,
New York,
NY
10022
26 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 75 of 175 comments
Great theater. Saw Moonstruck here as a 16 year old my first few months in the city. Used to trek up 3rd Ave every so often to catch a movie here; Clara’s Heart, The Good Mother, Hardware (after it had twinned) but not too much more after it split. I really tried to patronize as many single screens as I could. I truly miss them.
Growing up on the Upper East Side in the 60s and 70s, this was an iconic venue, running a mix of Universal, Fox and Cinema 5 (own brand) product in its Rugoff/Cinema 5 hey day…Some of my best Sutton memories include Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, The Sicilian Clan, The Three Stooges, Blazing Saddles, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, Young Frankenstein (several times), High Anxiety, Love & Death, Network…Attended a prevue/trailer day as they launched the twin and remember not fondly the uphill sloping in the smaller screen
Like the Beekman, there would have been a decent case for landmarking this, but only as a single screen
Hi, movies534! I wholeheartedly agree with your phrase “Movies have been on film forever! Leave it (them) on film! Frankly, there are times when I absolutely curse the day that VCRs, video, DVD players, and ultimately DVD’s and all these elaborate home-entertainment systems that many Americans own were ushered in.
Yes, I would imagine the interior of the building had been gutted and rebuilt with each change of use.
Warren, I think the Philipp/Bandbox Theatre, Chatham/Manufacturers Bank and Sutton Theatre are all the same building. The photo in your post of 5/5/08 of the Bandbox has certain similarities to the Sutton theatre that we are all familiar with. The cornice line seems to be the same height, and the alley-way on the east side of the building is there. I think the bank applied the facade with the columns that we are familiar with, a look common to banks of that era. When converted back to a theatre the marquee was added, the street-level store-front modified and the second floor windows closed. What do you think?
City Cinemas' parent company holds a 25% stake in the Place 57, the faux-luxury condominium building now occupying the site of the Sutton.
Another late, lamented Manhattan movie landmark. I have fond memories of “Raging Bull,” “Network” and many other attractions there. – Ed Blank
It saddens me to read over and over about all the great theatres being lost to the wrecking ball. But, as someone who has been a projectionist for almost 33 years now, the sad reality is, money talks, and condo’s and office towers rule. I myself am trying to get an old palace back up and running here in N.J. So far the owners have been renovating and hopefully soon we can get some old time movies going. But this is the exception, rather than the rule. And another thing that gets my goat is all this talk of “digital cinema”. Movies have been on FILM forever, leave it on FILM.
I saw the movie ‘Broadway-The Golden Age’ here and it was just me and 2 very old ladies in the house. They sat 2 rows in front of me and they talked all the way thru the movie but it was just fine with me because it turned out that these two ladies were old Broadway chorus girls and they knew almost everyone in the movie. They were totally charming and very entertaining, it was better than any DVD commentary could ever be!
It closed very soon after and i have been past it in its new life as a new face less New York building!
This is the first theater I went to when I moved to NYC – I saw “The Crying Game” in the smaller theater and was appalled at the tiny screen and the rectangular shaped auditorium – it was almost impossible to see unless you were able to get a seat dead center. BUT I always loved the facade and marquee of this beautiful theater.
The only movie I ever saw at The Sutton was THE FULL MONTY in 1997.
If you zoom in on the photo Lost posted, you’ll see at the bottom of the “Scarlet Street” poster in the first display case to the right of the entrance, a small sign seems to read “USHERETTES WANTED.” Great photo.
The New York State Board of Censors?? While I wasn’t around in those days, I never would have thought that New Yorkers were so delicate and unaware of the concepts of adultery and murder that they had to be protected from the movies by a State board of censors. I’d heard of various private organizations like the Legion of Decency and a few others, but why was the State involved in that stuff? It sounds very ominous to me.
Very cool. If you zoom in to the left of the box office in the photo you can also see the Beekman Radio Shop, a relic of the past.
Variety June 22, 1955
“Biz is holding up so well for "Marty” at the arty Sutton Theatre that film rental on this United Artists release may be sufficient to pay off the $325,000 estimated negative cost.
A 1968 moveover of “Millie"
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In it’s heyday
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An ad like this shows the high regard the Sutton once had
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The Orleans is mentioned on the Strand link as it was part of that theatre originally.
Whatever became of the Orleans Theatre that was located on one of the W. 40’s or 50’s Streets off of Broadway in NYC. I lived in Manhattan in 1969/70. I remember seeing one of my favorites there, “Last Summer” with Barbara Hershey, Bruce Davidson, Richard Thomas and Cathrine Burns. The marquee had two figures sitting on top of it as if they were in a New Orleans outdoor cafe. The Rod Steiger blockbuster “3 Into 2 Don’t Go” with Claire Bloom and Judy Geeson also played there. What is there today?????
The Sutton was already open in 1934. It became a major first run “sure seater” art house in 1947 with Powell & Pressburger’s I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING and for several years specialised in British imports.
The above description of the Sutton states it opened in the 1950s yet THE FILM DAILY YEAR BOOK for 1944 lists the Sutton as being opened in 1944. What year did the Sutton open?
The film with Streep and DeNiro is “Falling in Love.” One of the scenes was filmed at the Rizzoli book store.
ErikH made me think of the time I was lost in my own thoughts walking up 5th Av when Rizzoli was still there when I suddenly look up in front of the store and right in front of me are DeNiro and Streep holding shopping bags of Christmas presents. This was nowhere near Christmas and if there is a movie out there with this scene of the two of them standing in front of Rizzoli’s I’m probably somehwere in the vicinity off camera.
Wow! What a stunningly ordinary building – certainly adds something to the neighborhood – and doesn’t it blend in well with the buildings on either side of it? What is it, by the way – more desperately needed over-priced condominiums?