Academy of Music
126 E. 14th Street,
New York,
NY
10003
126 E. 14th Street,
New York,
NY
10003
19 people
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Pictures/drawings of the Academy of Music as The Palladium can be found at http://www.fda-online.com/projects/palladium.html and the art inside is mentioned at www.marenzi.com/texts/Palladium.pdf
Japanese architect, Arata Isozaki, was responsible for the design.
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http://www.protecservices.com/nyu.html
‘American Picture Palaces’ by David Naylor has the Academy’s seat capacity at 2600, but I believe Kevin is right in his data (above). Proof is that the (early 70’s) film, ‘Taxi Driver’, was filmed nearby, and on the DVD in chapter 20, time 1:15:28 you can see the rear of the Academy, in the upper right hand corner, the 13th Street side, and it looks quite tall! Later in the film, at 1:17:36 and 1:18:12 (I believe) the camera is one block East on 13th, and you see the rear side of the now defunct Jefferson Theatre. I have searched the net for hours trying to find a photo of the Academy of Music, as it features tall in legend as a early 70’s rock hall, many recordings made there, etc. But cannot find any photos of the marquee or the hall prior to it’s Palladium conversion.
Whoa! Am I surprised! I never knew that “The Palladium” (which I visited a couple of times in the mid eighties) was a revamping of the second Academy of Music.
For what it’s worth; The Metropolitan Opera was never based in either of the two Academy of Music theatres.
The Met (Metropolitan Opera Company)was born/originated due to the fact that The Academy of Music didn’t have enough private boxes to accomodate the newly rich population of New York City.
Those newly rich took their bundles of wealth uptown to West Forty-Something Street, and they commissioned the building of a theatre now known as “The Old Met.”
The Old Met was built before anyone had engaged an impresario or a company of singers/orchestral players.
There was a mad scramble to get an opera company together. And the Met suffered through several seasons of financial loss before they finally got their act together.
For a few years, operas were staged at both The Academy of Music and The Met. In the end; the Met won out. The Union Square area (which had been the home for opera and theatre for more than a decade) passed into oblivion. Almost all legit theatre productions were performed mid town (the forty-second street region) by the turn of the last century.
The Band played the very first show as “The Palladium” in the fall of 1976 just before their famous “Last Waltz” farewell concert in San Fransisco. Seeing the Grateful Dead here for 4 shows in early May of 1977 was a life-altering experience. Never caught a movie here. Wasn’t there a pool hall in the same building up a narrow flight of stairs???
Having never experienced the Fillmore (the former Village Theater and Loew’s Commodore on 2nd Ave), this remains my favorite all-time (if now-extinct) place to attend a rock concert. Since it’s conversion to a dance club (and ultimate demolition) The Beacon up on Broadway and 74th has been ably filling the void.
Located on East 14th street opposite Irving Place (between Park/4th Ave and Third Ave). It opened as a concert hall, if I’m not mistaken, before turning to movies and then back to concerts by the 1970’s (though rock and pop, rather than the classical and chamber pieces for which it was intended). It was re-christened the Palladium in 1976 with a concert by The Band, who were on their last tour and just weeks away from their farewell “Last Waltz” concert in San Francisco. By the mid ‘80’s, the concert hall gave way to a discotheque, with the orchestra seats stripped out and the floor leveled for dancing (similar to how Studio 54 was created out of the Gallo Opera House and The Academy out of the 42nd Street Apollo Theater). Like the old Loews Commodore (later known as the Fillmore East) on 2nd Avenue and East 6th, this building was razed to make way for the expansion of a local university.
This theatre was were Aerosmith first got noticed, under the Acamdey Of Music name
Never managed a movie in this theatre (mostly a Fox or Universal programmed grind house) but a few concerts in its pre Palladium days including Hot Tuna
Thomas Lamb was busy in new York as this was another one of his creations pounded to dust in the name of progress