Sutton Theater

Rober R – That’s a great ad!

The Sutton was one of my favorite theatres. The audience always seemed to be filled with well informed fellow film lovers which made the experience even more enjoyable. Among the many films I saw there included are: The Sting, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, Joe Hill, The Immigrants, The New Land, Young Frankenstein, Blazzing Saddles, Silent Movie, A Countess From Hong Kong, Dealing, The Group, Animal Crackers, Raging Bull, Don’t Look Now, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Morgan and Little Big Man.

The Burtons day and dated the Sutton and Trans-Lux West.
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I too didn’t know that the Sutton had closed. Thank God I went to see “Broadway: The Golden Age” when it played there recently. One of my happiest memories was rushing with friends to the Sutton to see “Ed Wood.” All the movie buffs were there, so we had to wait till the later show. All the true believers enjoyed it together. Then it opened wide and bombed ! What do they know ? Thank you, Martin Landau ! frankie from Brooklyn

Check out the listing for the Crown Gotham…isn’t that the Gotham Cinema that was around the corner from the Sutton?

Hi Gerald!
I remember the Baronet/Coronet, they have just been replaced by a luxury tower on Third Avenue between 59th and 60th. The theater I recall was on Third Avenue between 57th and 58th, one block downtown from Alexander’s. I used to think it was connected on the inside to the Sutton around the corner but I don’t think it was.

I have been keeping a list of movies I have seen and the theaters I saw them in since 1986, I’ll check tonight and see if any of them have the name of that theater where I saw “Towering Inferno."
It has been driving me nuts for a while now that I can’t remember that theater!
Dave B

Davebazooka,
The theatre directly around the corner on 3rd Ave. would have been the Coronet/Baronet or later Coronet 1 & 2.

Passed by on Third Avenue on Saturday April 9 and saw nothing but a gap between buildings where the Sutton used to stand. The last movie I saw there was “The Lion King” in 1994. Saw quite a few there in the decades before that. Definitely saw “The Bad News Bears” there around 1975. There used to be another movie house directly around the corner on Third Avenue but I do not remember its name. I do know I saw “The Towering Inferno” there. Now it’s a Wendy’s.

I also noted that all the windows on wall of the apartment building adjacent to where the Sutton was are freshly sealed with brick. I guess the original builders were hoping the Sutton would always be there and included windows that viewed out directly above the theater. Now with the new tower coming in they have to go! Major bummer. That’s skyrights and zoning for you. The windows can be seen unsealed in the photo of the Sutton at the top of this page.

Yep, true. This is just a cry of anguish, unrelated to the Sutton except in a general way: Boston now has only two commercial movie theatres. Providence has three. Boston-proper has no art houses left. None, zero. Providence has two. But then Providence doesn’t have a Cambridge.

As I posted above, I’d pass the SUTTON every day for four years on my way to the High School of Art and Design, on the corner of Second Avenue and 57th Street. Whenever they changed films, I’d step into the lobby and pick up a new edition of SHOWCASE – THE MONTHLY MAGAZINE FOR ART THEATERGOERS – so I’d like to fill in some of the blanks in the movie history of the Sutton from 1966 to 1971:

THE BLUE MAX – SEPTEMBER 1966
LOVES OF A BLONDE – NOVEMBER 1966
GAMBIT – JANUARY 1967
TOBRUK – FEBRUARY 1967
A COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG – APRIL 1967
THE JOKERS – MAY 1967
GAMES – OCTOBER 1967
CHAPPAQUA – NOVEMBER 1967
THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE – JANUARY 1968
CHARLIE BUBBLES – MARCH 1968
I’LL NEVER FORGET WHAT’S ‘IS NAME – MAY 1968
BOOM – JUNE 1968
A LOVELY WAY TO DIE – JULY 1968
ZITA – SEPTEMBER 1968
THE BOFORS GUN – OCTOBER 1968
SECRET CEREMONY – NOVEMBER 1968
THE FIXER – DECEMBER 1968
HELL IN THE PACIFIC – MARCH 1969
BEFORE WINTER COMES – APRIL 1969
THE LOVES OF ISADORA – MAY 1969
JOHN AND MARY – JANUARY 1970
and … I guess I went back the following year and saw
LITTLE BIG MAN – JANUARY 1971.

Robert Flaherty’s THE LOUISIANA STORY with its fine musical score by Virgil Thompson opened at the Sutton in 1948. The Film Daily Year Book for 1944 lists the Sutton as having 569 seats.

City Cinema$ has demon$trated on numerou$ occa$ion$ that they have little regard for their theatre$, the New York theatre busine$$, their employee$ or their cu$tomer$ – thi$ i$ ju$t another example. Their only concern i$ the –$$dollar$$–, and $ince their inept management cannot compete in the New York market, whatever need$ to be done to wring a$ many dollar$ out of the operation will be done, bu$ine$$ ethic$ and civic-mindedne$$ notwith$tanding. If they had either of tho$e qualitie$ they would have ju$t sold out to a budding theatre operator to try to make a go of it and then flee to kangaroo-land, where they really, apparently, want to be. Do kangaroo$, koala bear$ and platapu$$e$ go the movie$ more than New Yorker$??

I’d pass by this theatre every day on the walk from the subway to high school. What was rather unique about the Sutton, and other theatre’s managed by Don Rugoff was the absense of normal movie posters advertising the film at the theatre.

Cinema I & II, The Paris and The Plaza all had these wonderful displays that were hand-made for their theatre’s showcase windows that advertised their movies, sort of like the stylish store front windows of nearby Bloomingdales of Bergdorf-Goodman. After the film’s run, these displays were dismantled and thrown out in the dumpster. I was able to save a part of a display for a reissue of 2001: A SPACE ODYSEE which, I think, played The Plaza around 1970-71.