Carnegie Hall Cinema
881 7th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10019
881 7th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10019
17 people
favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 90 of 90 comments
Thanks, Gerald. I’d forgotten how closely this film opened upon “La dolce vita” (19 April ‘61, at the Henry Miller’s) and “I soliti ignoti” (22 Nov. '60, at the Fine Arts), cementing Marcello Mastroianni’s fame on this side of the pond. And I’d forgotten that Jean Marais acted in it, too. I’ve long since discarded the Showbills for each—a mistake since, as you say, they were classy booklets. Does the May issue have Eugene Archer’s report on the Cannes Film Festival for '61? What a year that was for films!
Here are two pages from the classy “Showbill” program booklet distributed for the Carnegie Hall Cinema’s opening attraction in May, 1961: Luchino Visconti’s “White Nights,” starring Marcello Mastroianni and Maria Schell.
One: cover page
Two: first page of credits
The images can be enlarged.
To: Gerald A. DeLuca
The director’s name doesn’t ring a bell.
Regards,
T. J. Steenland
T.J. Steenland,
Might that have been “Toto the Hero,” directed by Jaco van Dormael?
Would Carnegie Hall itself make a great cinema?
Saw a movie by a French or Belgian. He was there to explain the movie. One scene showed him shaving. Would anyone remember his name?
Thanks,
T. J. Steenland
This was an excellent repertory house in the seventies and eighties and tied with Bleecker Street Cinema. Their schedules and notes on the programs were contained in “Thousand Eyes Magazine” printed on newspaper stock.
Carnegie Hall had many entertaining programs. Among them was a Marlon Brando festival. Every film the actor appeared in through the
late seventies was shown including obscure titles like “Night of the Following Day”. The copies were all mint with a number of ‘studio vault prints’ of pictures like “One Eyed Jacks” and “Mutiny on the Bounty” in blazing Technicolor. They also had a Hitchcock festival
and played double bills like “The Wizard of Oz” and “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”. Technicolor prints of the Bond features were common too.
The screen was fairly large and the theater comfortable. A great rep house. I was sad when it folded.
Although I don’t believe this theater was the one depicted in the Edward Hopper painting with the usherette by the stairway, whenever I would see this painting I would think of the Carnegie Hall Cinema because of the stairway you used to use to descend to this basement- level auditorium.
I had a very negative — but also somewhat funny — moviegoing experience at the Carnegie Hall Cinema in the mid-1980s. It was Easter Sunday, and they were playing “Gone With the Wind” — which I had never seen. Since the price was right, I decided to go to the first screening that day.
As it turns out, the print was the very worst print of any movie I have ever seen. There were blips and pops and scratches all over the place. I think we even missed the last few seconds of an entire scene at one point when the scene changed too abruptly at one point.
I felt that the entire audience, including me, was sitting there bracing itself and wondering what annoyance we would be subjected to next. But even while sitting there in disbelief at just how awful the print was, I don’t think any of us imagined that during the last few moments of the film, Rhett Butler would say to Scarlett, “Frankly, Scarlett, I d … [da-dee-da-da, da-dee-da-da …].”
As you can well imagine, this provoked a very substantial disbelieving groan from the audience — and after the movie there was quite a hub bub too. For those who stuck around long enough, which I did, the management ultimately gave out free future passes to the theater. They also posted a sign in the window telling cinema classic.
However, even with the sign, I wonder if the audiences during the rest of the day were prepared for what must be one of the most inopportune film breaks imaginable!
Was a member. Some movies would have a director to explain them.
Silent movies would have an organist Lee Erwin? playing.
Cineplex odeon crown jewel first in the chain in the USA to have a cafe.
As both a film lover and a music lover, I can assert that both are important.
Cineplex Odeon (CO) assumed operations of the Carnegie Hall Cinemas in 1987. Initially CO operated only the 237 seat larger theatre; ICN operated the 78 seat screening room. In 1990 or 1991, CO assumed operations of both screens. Cineplex Odeon restored the Canegie Hall and reopened it in 1987 with “Withnail and I”. There was a bit of controversy with this opening. CO established a $7.00 regular admission at the Carnegie Hall, becoming the first Manhattan cinema to charge $7.00. All other Manhattan cinemas charged $6.00 or less in 1987. Even the Carnegie Hall Screening Room charged $6.00 at the same box office. I saw a televised interview with Cineplex Odeon CEO Garth Drabinsky shortly after the Carnegie Hall reopened. He was asked why this theatre was charging a $7.00 admission. He explained that CO had invested over one million dollars in restoring the Carnegie Hall to its turn of the century appearance and that CO needed the extra fare to pay for the renovations/restoration.
I believe “My Life As A Dog” played for a year in the screening room.
This theatre was a historic gem. I really liked this cinema and was extremely saddened to see it close.
The New York premiere run of Alain Resnais' LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD, one of the great must-see works of the French new wave, was at the Carnegie Hall Cinema in early 1962 and constituted one of its finest hours. In the late 1980’s the new teeny-weeny adjunct Carnegie Hall Screening Room featured a continuing series of new Italian cinema, sponsored by RAI and SACIS under the heading “Cinema Italia Roberto Rossellini.” One of the highlights in that series was the N.Y. commercial premiere of the uncut four hour version of Luchino Visconti’s LUDWIG.
At the Time of Carnige Halls renovations the theatre was being programmed by the couple who opeartated the Bleecker Street Cinema. They had a lease and Carnige wanted them to upgrade the theatre to their specs. A compromise was reached that a second screen would be built that they would operate and the hall would take back the main auditorium, which Cineplex would eventually operate. This co-arrangement went on a few years and then Cineplex took over booking both screens.
In the 60’s this was an art house but drifted into some very odd neighborhood programming under a company called Cinecom…some Disney double features at Disney’s nadir…some Carry On’s and some early Wes Craven Last House on the Left…it redeemed itself in the early to mid-70s with $1.00 revivals changing nearly daily…I can remember seeing a Jack Nicholson double feature Five Easy Pieces and Drive He Sais…a D.H. Lawrence double feature Sons and Lovers and Women In Love and the 4 hour French picture The Mother and the Whore here…
Cineplex Odeon did what it could with it but it was never a great location for a theatre…saw the John Lennon documentary Imagine in the big room and a Gerard Depardieu picture Trop Belle Pour Lui in the smaller room in the 88-89