Loew's Commodore Theater

As a former Loew’s theater you should be able search for this theater when you click on the previos names button, however it does not show up in the listing of Loew’s and former Loew’s theaters. I knew this theater as the Loew’s Commodore. Remember seeing the Three Stooges live on stage as they toured promoting their new movie which I believe was Have Rocket, Will Travel.

The theatre first opened on 9/2/1926. It was a movie theatre.
It was said to have been built at a cost of $2 million and to have contained seating for 4000. It was part of the Mayer & Schneider circuit.

Well, all that I wrote was from the book. Maybe they were making hunches as to what would happen.

As to this comment: “I never understood how Landmarks allowed it to be demolished completely after they wouldn’t allow Cineplex to gut the interior.”

That’s NYC for you. Sleeping with the zoning commission. Say you’ll bring this many (low-wage) jobs to the community and the “promise” of affordable housing (but for whom?) and zoning relaxes to the almighty dollar.

Shoeshoe14-

A few corrections on your history: The Commodore/Fillmore/Saint in fact was never multiplexed after the Saint closed. After The Saint’s closing the building stood empty for at least seven years or so. I know this for a fact because I was in the building in early 1995 not to long before demolition and the interior was still constructed as The Saint. I can tell you that there were definitley no multiplex theaters in there. If I recall correctly, theater multiplexing was an idea for the building post-Saint that never happened.

Also, “The Last Days of the Fillmore” documentary and LP you mentioned was made at, and only about the Fillmore West in San Francisco during the last concerts NOT the Fillmore East. One of the only times, if not the ONLY time camera crews came into the Fillmore East for a program or documentary of any kind was on September 23, 1970 to shoot a special for public television called ‘Welcome to the Fillmore’. It was videotaped and included performances from Van Morrison, The Byrds, Albert King, Sha Na Na, The Elvin Bishop Group and others. It also included some documentary footage of a regular day around the theater. This show was broadcast the day The Fillmore East closed on Sunday June 27, 1971 (the 34th anniversary just passed a few days ago).

Well, all this information came from the book i mentioned in that long post. He seemed to know a lot about it before he bought it. I suggest buying the book and reading it for yourself. The index is quite thorough and you can buy it used on amazon for $5 or so.

More info about the Fillmore and its incarnations from the book “Bill Graham Presents”. Chapter 11 details his decision to close the Fillmore East but gives a good history of the place. Of note is after he sold his rights to the theater, he also sold the building. He regretted it in the book but if he had it until 1991 when he died, who knows what would have happened.
The Loew’s Commodore East held 2,400.

When Bill acquired the theater in 1968, it was just dirty and seats needed repainting and wires fixed but it was in good condition. There were major stage repairs, though. There was soft red velvet on the walls, carpeted floors, mirrored walls and a chandelier above the double balcony, concessions upstairs and a big lobby. It had dressing rooms because in the 20s and 30s it housed the Yiddish Theater. The dressing rooms were on 5 levels which were accessed from up stage left. It was also used as a meeting hall in the 30s and 40s by Bolshevik groups on the Lower East Side. It stood on the corner and was three quarters of a block long. The building looks small from the outside but opened up behind the stores and above was NYU, the theater and technical wing. He bought it for $400,000.
When they fixed it up, they tore down some brick walls and changed the whole back of the theater to get the wiring through. They made alot of changes in the stage area to make it effective to do a variety of production. There was a proscenium and a rococo frieze which they cleaned up and that had been made at the Motoma Amusement Company of Chicago which went broke during the Depression.

Of note about the Saint. It was the largest gay disco in New York at the height of gay liberation, pre-AIDS. It closed when AIDS hit hard but they did keep the place open 24 hours one night a week. The Saint was gutted and turned into an 8-theater complex, known as the Loew’s Octoplex.

Apparently there was a theater across the street called the Anderson Yiddishe Theater (but it didn’t show movies). When the book was written in 1992, someone in the book said it was across the street and closed down and it was located at 4th Street and 2nd Avenue.

Graham allowed a film crew to come in before he closed and there was video documentary of the Fillmore East!!! A documentary called “Last Days of the Fillmore” was released in 1972 along with a boxed, three-record set of the performers, all the hot acts of the late 60s. There was a 32-page booklet with photos, a Fillmore poster and ticket, etc.

I lived in New York from 1982 to 1991 and visited “The Saint” several times while it was in opperation. I was never a big fan of disco clubs, however The Saint was the best club I ever attended. I was always curious about the buildings history and am sad that another theatre treasure has been demolished. Small minds and big bucks seem to have that effect. Too many buildings with rich histories seem to meet the same fate. I just learned today that the building that housed the infamous McGurk’s on Bowery is, or has been signed to the same fate. You would think developers could use some imagination to include history in their projects.

KenRoe-

You are correct sir. In tribute, the Emmigrant Savings Bank still does have some great art which includes collages by an artist that I forgot the name of, and photos from the Fillmore East era by the official/unofficial house photographer Amalie Rothschild. If you are a fan of the theater (which you probably are) and a fan of the Fillmore era music Amalie Rothschild released a book of her photos a few years ago called ‘Live at the Fillmore East’ which not only documents many of the bands that played their but the general environment when it was still a live music venue. Great photos of the interior, the people, and of course Bill Graham at work. If you don’t buy it, it is at least definitely worth a look.

Just another correction to add to the original description here. The apartment building that went up and now stands in the theater space is called the Hudson East, not the Fillmore Apartments. If I recall correctly, the developers were going to try to work the Fillmore name into the new property but couldn’t due to legalities with the name, but don’t quote me on that. Some other vague info somebody else here might be able to add to: after the venue closed as The Fillmore East, there were failed attempts to keep it going as a live music venue with a few concerts being held there in the early 70s but that didn’t work out. And once again, if I’m not mistaken the Saint may have doubled as a concert venue even though the interior had been dramatically changed by that time. The orchestra seats were removed and a second level was attached the length of the theater from the balcony to the proscenium which remained, but the original stage wasn’t there anymore. The Grateful Dead/Jam Band/Hippie magazine Relix held a few shows there, one that I think featured Bob Weir from The Grateful Dead around this time in the late 80s.

If you walk past the apartment building on East 6th Street now they have a plaque near the entrance that notes the history of the building as the Commodore, the Fillmore East, and The Saint. A noble attempt at recognizing the history, but once again a reminder of the shame of Manhattan real estate development.

In February 1995 I was granted permission from the realtors to go inside the buiding, which at that time was shuttered and dormant. To make a long story short, it was a very eerie experience and one I haven’t and never will forget. Later that winter, I watched the building gradually come down to pieces. I walked past it just about every morning peeking inside during the demoliton. Needless to say…sad! It still had potential, and there was in fact one lone businessman from the area that was trying to get backing to re-open it as The Fillmore, with plans to use it as a concert venue and media space. Without being too biased, I think that if things had worked out the theater probably could have been a sucessful live venue again. Since that time new places that didn’t exist at the time of the Fillmore’s demolition like the Bowery Ballroom (which never was a theater to begin with, but an old department store) and the resurected Webster Hall have flourished as live venues, and they are approximately in the same area.

The asking price for the Commodore/Fillmore/Saint building before it was razed was $6 million, but we all know how that story ended. But hey…look on the bright side, we have a wonderful BANK and yet another generic looking luxury apartment building there instead. Can’t ever have too many of them in New York now, can we?…..NOT!!!!!

When it opened in 1926, the Commodore was the largest of the 10 movie theatres in operation on Second Avenue between Houston and 9th Street.

Just to correct… the venue was still called The Village Theater as late as 1967. Bill Graham did not re-open it as the Fillmore East until March of 1968 (with Janis Joplin and Big Brother on the bill).

In 1980 the Commodore/Village/Fillmore East was converted into The Saint, a large discotheque. A dance floor was placed in the middle of the auditorium with a planetarium dome over it. The original theatre had been in a semi-Adamesque style and certain elements had been retained like the proscenium arch, the ceiling dome and plaster reliefs on the side walls. The lobby was left pretty much in tact, but painted black with the relief elements silver-leafed. The disco closed in 86 or 87, sat vacant for years until the auditorium was demolished for yet another unremarkable apartment building.