Somewhere along the way, the Times picked up an extra 500 seats in its count for the Kings. While the ‘88 article reasonably rounds up the total to 3200, the article from last Sunday’s paper gives that number at 3600. Also… while this was obviously a significant jewel in the Loew’s crown – and no doubt their premiere house in Brooklyn – wouldn’t the Loew’s State in Times Square have been considered the chain’s flagship?
Ziggy… I’d be inclined to agree with you. However, how do you tell the difference between seats being saved for patrons not yet through the theater entance and those who are merely out at the concession stands or rest rooms? I suppose you could keep an eye on the seats in question and then when you see folks arriving who have obviously just arrived from the outside, you could harangue them and start an argument (possibly as the credits begin to roll, if those arriving are doing so at the last minute). It’s really a no-win situation. Folks should arrange to meet each other in the lobby or at the box office and simply advise others that they are on their own once the “curtain goes up”, so to speak. Mike… you should have held firm to your beliefs.
I still wonder about the previous history of this building. Does that 1982 C/O represent a conversion of previous use to theater? Or was this a theater before that? I see no older C/O’s on the NYC Buildings Department site. Lost provided a total 483 seats per that C/O – just to clarify, it breaks down to 354 on the ground floor and 129 in the “mezzanine.”
I was also able to find some history of deed transfers that shows that Rosemary Enterprises acquired the property via deed dated in 1978. Prior to that, there’s a series of individuals and other corporations, but no indication as to use prior to that ‘82 C/O.
Would the Ridgewood be disqualified as a “continuously operating independent” due its history under the Fox banner? “Independent” might be the operative word in this distinction. Check out Warren’s post of March 5th, 2004, near the top of the page… it seems this theater has been run by a succession of “indies” from the start.
Warren… take a look at some of the photos of the Elmwood from my photo album here. I took these in October and included some close-up shots. I tried to look at them optimistically, just as you do now… but the evidence doesn’t look good. I think they’re going for a cheap makeover of the exterior facade and looking to avoid the possibility of landmark designation – which many property owners see as a burden.
I also see that a photo on that page seems to show the ugly acoustic-tile ceiling in the lobby. I still wonder if that’s come down yet… or if it ever will.
By the way, that Times article you posted about on October 15th, “A Preview of the Pix” is an interesting and informative read. Firstly, it erroneously describes the theater as having 1000 seats (as you can see from the C/O, max capacity – which may include employees for fire code – was to be 820 persons). Management intended the theater to be devoted “to the exhibition of French and other foreign pictures.” There was a fall-back plan, however, to switch to first-run Hollywood product should their initial plan prove “impracticable.” Regardless of the fare, Brandt intended to keep admissions at “popular prices.”
The theater opened on Saturday, December 23rd, 1939, with the French drama “Citadel of Silence,” produced in 1937 and starring Annabella – who had made her cinematic debut at age 16 in Abel Gance’s “Napoleon.” The designer of the Pix is listed as Ely Jacques Kahn and the theater was the first in NYC to be constructed in accordance with the “new theater building-code” to ensure the “ultimate in safety measures.” As such, the orchestra was designed with four fire exits, “two on either side of the house, leading directly into brick enclosed passageways which open onto Forty-third Street.” According to the article, the Pix was also the first theater on 42nd Street to be purpose built exclusively for motion picture exhibition.
The interior is described as “intimate” with a small loge and balcony and a color scheme that “is a blend of flame red and dubonnet” with “the upper portions of the acoustically plastered walls…decorated with white Grecian heads.” Brandt was particularly proud of the theater’s flame-red leather “body form” chairs, set in steel frames and guaranteed by Brandt not to “cause runs in milady’s sheerest hose.” The air-conditioning plant occupied most of the basement floor space and circulated fresh, refrigerated air through a network of vents in the orchestra floor. The cost to build was estimated at $300,000, on property that Brandt leased from “Freya, Inc.” for a period of only twenty-one years.
And now, I’m going to see if I can find out what on Earth the color “dubonnet” looks like!!!
I thought 1927 was the date. I think Warren had a specific date and Lost, you posted about a ‘27 C/O you had found. As for the passage you quoted from the website… they are wrong about the place being twinned in the early '70’s. That should be the early '80’s. I remember going to the Cinemart as a single theater to see a double feature of “Young Frankenstein” and “Blazing Saddles” around 1980 or so. I wonder if the “cozy cafe-lounge” refers to the adjacent restaurant. I always thought it was a seperate enterprise, but last time I was in the area, I did notice that the place looked like it was under new management and included some new cinema-themed decor. I believe they have some sidwalk seating during the warm-weather months.
Here’s a shot of the former Pix with it’s Peep-O-Rama signange still in place. The photo is dated 12/9/2003, at which point it’s interior would have already been converted to gallery space for the Chashama art project.
I also found a night shot at the top of this Forgotten NY page also taken during the same period. The old Peep-O-Rama sign is lit up (with some broken letters) and you can clearly see through the street-level glass front at the artwork on the interior walls. If you scroll down just a bit on the Forgotten NY page, you’ll see another shot of the former Pix that is dated 1990. In this image, the space is occupied by a “42nd St. Audio and Photo,” so clearly the Peep-O-Rama must have opened sometime after 1990. I suspect that both the Audio & Photo shop and the Peep-O-Rama occupied the 25foot wide lobby space of the Pix while other use was made of the former auditorium which had a much wider frontage on West 43rd Street.
Just re-reading some of the comments on this theater… So, it opened with 1500 seats all on one level, but now sports an aggregate capacity of 816 per Lost’s post 10/25/2006. That’s some 700 seats lost to the construction of partition walls and foyers leading to the various auditoriums.
As I recall, when one enters the lobby, the concession stand is on the left wall and on the right are entrances to two of the theaters, each on either side of a passageway that leads further back (towards the front of the old auditorium) to a smaller foyer where the entrances to the remaining 3 theaters are located. On either side of the concession stand is a winding stairwell leading up to the rest rooms. The stairwell closest to the lobby entrance doors leads to the men’s room, while the stairwell at the far end of the lobby (and on the other side of the concession stand) leads to the ladies room.
Warren posted some information back on 10/25/2006 regarding the “luxurious lounging rooms” on the second level. Unless that was merely advertising hyperbole, I guess those lounges have been closed off to the public. As best as I can recall, the stairwells I described above currently lead patrons directly into the toilet rooms.
Finally, does anyone know whatever came of the idea to remove the modern acoustic tiles in the lobby and reveal the original 1927 coffered ceiling? Michael Perlman posted some info regarding these plans back in March of this year, including a NY Daily News article on the matter.
I imagine the C/O numbers the theaters differently than they are numbered on site. Perhaps because the balcony theaters were kept in the same configuration as when when it was a quad, the C/O considered the new theaters to be those carved from the older ones on the 1st floor, hence 5 and 6 on the ground floor.
Anyway, thanks for the clarificationm, RCDTJ. So, “back third” means the rear of the auditorium closest to the lobby and “front 2/3” means closest to the screen? Either way, I presume you have 2 theaters with entrances right off the lobby and then a foyer leading to the other 2 theaters on the ground floor. Sounds sort of like how they carved up the Cinemart (though, there was no balcony at the Cinemart).
The notification system for comments seems to be out of whack, lately. I recently noticed that I wasn’t getting any notifications for comments being made in theaters I haven’t made comments in for a while. But now this morning, I had no notifications at all, yet find new comments here on this page as well as on the RKO Keith’s page where I commented only yesterday (and clicked the notification box).
I passed by the theater late this afternoon and had to pull over quickly and park at the curb when I noticed that the left-most store front was wide open to the sidewalk with a view deep into the structure. I immediately cursed the fact that I did NOT have my camera with me. After finding a spot for the car down the block, I hiked back to the theater and tentatively entered into the empty shell of the old commercial space.
There was minor debris all over and the walls and ceilings looked decrepit with a hole (big enough for a fella to climb through) leading into the adjacent store-front. Most interestingly for me, however, was the missing wall at the back of the store front that appeared to give free access into some recess of the Keith’s itself. A few work lights were hung from the ceiling in this space, strung along a series of orange power supply cables, so I ventured forth even more tentatively. The room beyond this missing wall appeared to be a lounge of some kind, with outlines in the faded pale orange (almost pink) paint on the walls indicating where mirrors or other fixutures and ornamentation might have hung. Sub-flooring from the level above was exposed and a curved wall which seemd to be half missing led to a circular chamber to the right.
With my back still to the open storefront and sidewalk on Northern Blvd, I could make out a doorway between the wall facing me and the circular wall remnant to my right. It seemed to lead into another room that was too deteriorated and stripped of detail to identify. The furthest wall back in that chamber, seemed to be missing the finished plaster, with beams and the back of the wall for the area behind it exposed. Interestingly, no one else was around at all… I expected at any moment to be roused from my curiosity by some irate worker or supervisor, but none came.
Unfortunately, the areas beyond where I stood did not appear to be lit and I could not be sure of the soundness of the flooring. Nor could I view any piece of the Grand Foyer space from this corner of the building. The final straw that hastened my retreat was that the deeper I went into these rooms, the further I got from the storefront doorway and the more I feared that if I did not keep it in sight, the construction doors would be shut behind me by returning workers, leaving me to possibly spend the night in the dark with the vermin that currently call the Keith’s home.
Once home, I went back to davebazooka’s excellent posting of September 5, 2006, and poured over his images of the Keith’s original architectural plans and found that I had been standing in what had been one of the theater’s smoking lounges and that the curved wall that was half missing offered me a view into what had been the Ladies Parlor.
Here’s Dave’s image of those blueprints detailing the area I just described. The storefronts are at the bottom of the image. I entered through the left-most store and walked into the smoking room behind it. I could see into the Ladies Parlor to the right and beyond the smoking room into the foyer that led to the ladies powder room and toilets. The place was extremely creepy. The walls so worn and bare – it reminded me of the interior of that abandoned house that the students wind up finding in the woods at the end of “The Blair Witch Project.”
I wonder… had I my camera with me, would I have found the nerve to proceed a bit further and try to snake my way into the Grand Foyer? Probably not. The late hour and darkening skies outside had me convinced the workers would soon be back to lock up and that I best be well on my way before then.
Thanks, Lost. So it’s technically theater’s 3 and 4 up in the old loge area – which I presume based on the identical capacity of those theaters at 72 persons each. The site is acting up again, as evidenced by your C/O comment being attributed to Warren on an entirely different theater page, not to mention Warren’s triple listing above in this page. Anyhow… If the other 4 auditoriums are located on the ground floor, then the disparity in their seating capacities would indicate something other than an even dividing up of the old auditorium space. Anyone familiar with the layout?
Warren… I was at this theater as a single many years ago. I was also at the Utopia Theater a few times during the early ‘80’s. One of these theaters definitely had a proper balcony, because I remember sitting up there to watch the Mel Brooks version of “To Be or Not to Be” in 1983 or thereabouts. I used to get the two theaters confused in my memory, but I’m pretty sure I raised the question on the Utopia page and learned that it was THAT theater that did not have a proper balcony and that the Main Street did.
I’ve seen the theater currently advertised with either the number “7” in its name or the Roman numeral “VII”. I opted to list it with the “7” because this is how AMC lists it on their own website. However, the old Loews signage, which still exists on the building, uses the “VII”. Here are a pair of images from the cinematour website:
The only C/O information on NYC’s Building Department site is the one issued in 1985 for the twinning of the Main Street Theater. Apparently, the theater was divided down the middle with each theater retaining it’s own balcony seating. Each theater is listed as having a capacity of 216 people on the ground floor and 72 in the balcony, for a total of 288 seats each. I imagine that the current theaters 5 and 6 are merely those balcony sections sealed off from the 1st floor, with the twin orchestra theaters each split in half to make current theaters 1, 2, 3 and 4. Unless, did they gut the 1st level and completely re-configure the space for the four current auditoriums there?
OK, the view in all of these photos seems to be from more or less the same vantage point, facing the 48th Street facade with Broadway running along the left. So the Odditorium photo is the corner of B'way and 48th with the dance hall entrance on 48th and the Ripley entrance facing B'way. The Avon 7 location would have been around the corner and out of view on Seventh Avenue.
Thanks Lost. Looks like you can just make out the Dance Hall marquee on the far right of the photo under the “Believe it or Not!” sign. Not sure if that entrance would be on the 48th Street side or the Seventh Avenue side… Do we know for sure what corner we’re looking at in the photo? B'way and 48th or Seventh and 48th?
I’m not sure if any other theaters occupied the Studebaker Building during the ‘70’s, but the information on which I based the seat count for this theater is a C/O issued 11/20/70 for a motion picture theater with a capacity of 266 persons on the cellar level. The C/O also lists “stores, storage from first floor, boiler room, building storage and workshop” so that figure may also represent maximum occupancy for those areas as well. The only other C/O’s for the building (listed as 1600 Broadway on all of these) date back to 1923 for a Dance Hall and then in 1924 for Dance Hall and Restaurant.
The building itself was a fairly large 10-story red-brick and terra cotta structure that was built early in the century as showrooms and offices for the Studebaker Brothers vehicles (both the horse-drawn and horseless variety). Situated on the north side of 48th Street on that small slice between Broadway and Seventh Ave, the building’s rooftop served to hold aloft the giant signs that dominated the north end of Times Square over years – including Maxwell House, Chevrolet, Canadian Club Whiskey and Sony – until its view onto the Square was blocked by the high-rise Renaissance Hotel on the other side of 48th Street, where the low-rise Castro Convertible showroom had once stood.
This is also where the “Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Odditorium” and, later, the Howard clothing store were located. In this building, Jack and Harry Cohn formed the C.B.C. Film Sales Company with Joseph Brandt, which would later be renamed Columbia Pictures and move across Seventh Avenue to a buidling of their own. Finally, National Screen Service Corp, an outfit that produced movie posters, lobby cards and other promotional materials, also called the Studebaker home for many years. When owners of the building stripped the facade of its elaborate copper cornice in 1999, any hopes of having the structure landmarked by the LPC were dashed. Seven years later, yet another high rise condominum project has gone up on the site.
NYC Josh… Did you guys actually see me taking the photos? That would be pretty coincidental, huh? I was there probably around 8:45pm on Friday evening. A showing of “Volver” had just let out and a good number of folks were exiting and discussing it with admiration. As I milled around waiting for the vestibule to get less crowded so I could snap some shots, I was comparing the crowd at the Manhasset to the usual multiplex crowd I have to endure in Queens and thinking that this is the kind of mature audience with which I’d prefer to experience a film. How was the auditorium you were in… was the screen a decent size? Which room was it? And what of the sound?
While I was there, I forgot to look and see if any recognizable traces remain of the Playhouse that was across the street. Perhaps that’s best left to a daytime excursion.
I stopped by this theater tonight to grab some shots of the neon lit marquee signage and was able to get into the ticket lobby where the manager gave me permission to snap a few images. Unfortunately I couldn’t get further into the lobby, which curves in a dog leg around to the right – as pointed out in Vodhin’s terrifcally detailed post of July 7th, 2004. Here are the photos:
I wonder about Vhodin’s claim that the break in the vestibule floor tile pattern represents where the old outside ticket booth was located. I guess I don’t doubt it, particularly given the story about the heat pipe, but it sure seems like a pretty tight place to fit a cashier. Just look at the two women looking over the display cases in that same photo to get an idea of scale.
In any event, the interior appointments of the outer lobby seem to be extremely well kept and faithful to the theater’s art deco heritage. I’d love to get back and have permission to photograph deeper into the theater.
Snapped some evening photos of the Malverne Theater a couple of weeks back. In the first image, I tried to approximate the angle of the shot Warren posted on October 20, 2005. I’ll start off with those two images for comparison…
The old ticket booth is gone (for a long time now, I’m sure), the brick facade and wood-framed display cases have been concealed with more modern material and the old entrance doors updated with glass replacements. Here are the rest of the photos…
RCDTJ… what’s the “Independent Screening Room” adjacent to the theater? There doesn’t seem to be any entry from the street (the door has a door saying as much)… is this a storefront that was converted to one of the Malvern’s current screens?
Somewhere along the way, the Times picked up an extra 500 seats in its count for the Kings. While the ‘88 article reasonably rounds up the total to 3200, the article from last Sunday’s paper gives that number at 3600. Also… while this was obviously a significant jewel in the Loew’s crown – and no doubt their premiere house in Brooklyn – wouldn’t the Loew’s State in Times Square have been considered the chain’s flagship?
Ziggy… I’d be inclined to agree with you. However, how do you tell the difference between seats being saved for patrons not yet through the theater entance and those who are merely out at the concession stands or rest rooms? I suppose you could keep an eye on the seats in question and then when you see folks arriving who have obviously just arrived from the outside, you could harangue them and start an argument (possibly as the credits begin to roll, if those arriving are doing so at the last minute). It’s really a no-win situation. Folks should arrange to meet each other in the lobby or at the box office and simply advise others that they are on their own once the “curtain goes up”, so to speak. Mike… you should have held firm to your beliefs.
I still wonder about the previous history of this building. Does that 1982 C/O represent a conversion of previous use to theater? Or was this a theater before that? I see no older C/O’s on the NYC Buildings Department site. Lost provided a total 483 seats per that C/O – just to clarify, it breaks down to 354 on the ground floor and 129 in the “mezzanine.”
I was also able to find some history of deed transfers that shows that Rosemary Enterprises acquired the property via deed dated in 1978. Prior to that, there’s a series of individuals and other corporations, but no indication as to use prior to that ‘82 C/O.
Wow. Now I know what the interior of the Pix looked like AND what it tasted like!!! Thanks for the entertaining commentary, guys.
Would the Ridgewood be disqualified as a “continuously operating independent” due its history under the Fox banner? “Independent” might be the operative word in this distinction. Check out Warren’s post of March 5th, 2004, near the top of the page… it seems this theater has been run by a succession of “indies” from the start.
Warren… take a look at some of the photos of the Elmwood from my photo album here. I took these in October and included some close-up shots. I tried to look at them optimistically, just as you do now… but the evidence doesn’t look good. I think they’re going for a cheap makeover of the exterior facade and looking to avoid the possibility of landmark designation – which many property owners see as a burden.
I also see that a photo on that page seems to show the ugly acoustic-tile ceiling in the lobby. I still wonder if that’s come down yet… or if it ever will.
That’s the Pix’s C/O, Lost.
By the way, that Times article you posted about on October 15th, “A Preview of the Pix” is an interesting and informative read. Firstly, it erroneously describes the theater as having 1000 seats (as you can see from the C/O, max capacity – which may include employees for fire code – was to be 820 persons). Management intended the theater to be devoted “to the exhibition of French and other foreign pictures.” There was a fall-back plan, however, to switch to first-run Hollywood product should their initial plan prove “impracticable.” Regardless of the fare, Brandt intended to keep admissions at “popular prices.”
The theater opened on Saturday, December 23rd, 1939, with the French drama “Citadel of Silence,” produced in 1937 and starring Annabella – who had made her cinematic debut at age 16 in Abel Gance’s “Napoleon.” The designer of the Pix is listed as Ely Jacques Kahn and the theater was the first in NYC to be constructed in accordance with the “new theater building-code” to ensure the “ultimate in safety measures.” As such, the orchestra was designed with four fire exits, “two on either side of the house, leading directly into brick enclosed passageways which open onto Forty-third Street.” According to the article, the Pix was also the first theater on 42nd Street to be purpose built exclusively for motion picture exhibition.
The interior is described as “intimate” with a small loge and balcony and a color scheme that “is a blend of flame red and dubonnet” with “the upper portions of the acoustically plastered walls…decorated with white Grecian heads.” Brandt was particularly proud of the theater’s flame-red leather “body form” chairs, set in steel frames and guaranteed by Brandt not to “cause runs in milady’s sheerest hose.” The air-conditioning plant occupied most of the basement floor space and circulated fresh, refrigerated air through a network of vents in the orchestra floor. The cost to build was estimated at $300,000, on property that Brandt leased from “Freya, Inc.” for a period of only twenty-one years.
And now, I’m going to see if I can find out what on Earth the color “dubonnet” looks like!!!
I thought 1927 was the date. I think Warren had a specific date and Lost, you posted about a ‘27 C/O you had found. As for the passage you quoted from the website… they are wrong about the place being twinned in the early '70’s. That should be the early '80’s. I remember going to the Cinemart as a single theater to see a double feature of “Young Frankenstein” and “Blazing Saddles” around 1980 or so. I wonder if the “cozy cafe-lounge” refers to the adjacent restaurant. I always thought it was a seperate enterprise, but last time I was in the area, I did notice that the place looked like it was under new management and included some new cinema-themed decor. I believe they have some sidwalk seating during the warm-weather months.
Here’s a shot of the former Pix with it’s Peep-O-Rama signange still in place. The photo is dated 12/9/2003, at which point it’s interior would have already been converted to gallery space for the Chashama art project.
I also found a night shot at the top of this Forgotten NY page also taken during the same period. The old Peep-O-Rama sign is lit up (with some broken letters) and you can clearly see through the street-level glass front at the artwork on the interior walls. If you scroll down just a bit on the Forgotten NY page, you’ll see another shot of the former Pix that is dated 1990. In this image, the space is occupied by a “42nd St. Audio and Photo,” so clearly the Peep-O-Rama must have opened sometime after 1990. I suspect that both the Audio & Photo shop and the Peep-O-Rama occupied the 25foot wide lobby space of the Pix while other use was made of the former auditorium which had a much wider frontage on West 43rd Street.
Just re-reading some of the comments on this theater… So, it opened with 1500 seats all on one level, but now sports an aggregate capacity of 816 per Lost’s post 10/25/2006. That’s some 700 seats lost to the construction of partition walls and foyers leading to the various auditoriums.
As I recall, when one enters the lobby, the concession stand is on the left wall and on the right are entrances to two of the theaters, each on either side of a passageway that leads further back (towards the front of the old auditorium) to a smaller foyer where the entrances to the remaining 3 theaters are located. On either side of the concession stand is a winding stairwell leading up to the rest rooms. The stairwell closest to the lobby entrance doors leads to the men’s room, while the stairwell at the far end of the lobby (and on the other side of the concession stand) leads to the ladies room.
Warren posted some information back on 10/25/2006 regarding the “luxurious lounging rooms” on the second level. Unless that was merely advertising hyperbole, I guess those lounges have been closed off to the public. As best as I can recall, the stairwells I described above currently lead patrons directly into the toilet rooms.
Finally, does anyone know whatever came of the idea to remove the modern acoustic tiles in the lobby and reveal the original 1927 coffered ceiling? Michael Perlman posted some info regarding these plans back in March of this year, including a NY Daily News article on the matter.
I imagine the C/O numbers the theaters differently than they are numbered on site. Perhaps because the balcony theaters were kept in the same configuration as when when it was a quad, the C/O considered the new theaters to be those carved from the older ones on the 1st floor, hence 5 and 6 on the ground floor.
Anyway, thanks for the clarificationm, RCDTJ. So, “back third” means the rear of the auditorium closest to the lobby and “front 2/3” means closest to the screen? Either way, I presume you have 2 theaters with entrances right off the lobby and then a foyer leading to the other 2 theaters on the ground floor. Sounds sort of like how they carved up the Cinemart (though, there was no balcony at the Cinemart).
The notification system for comments seems to be out of whack, lately. I recently noticed that I wasn’t getting any notifications for comments being made in theaters I haven’t made comments in for a while. But now this morning, I had no notifications at all, yet find new comments here on this page as well as on the RKO Keith’s page where I commented only yesterday (and clicked the notification box).
I passed by the theater late this afternoon and had to pull over quickly and park at the curb when I noticed that the left-most store front was wide open to the sidewalk with a view deep into the structure. I immediately cursed the fact that I did NOT have my camera with me. After finding a spot for the car down the block, I hiked back to the theater and tentatively entered into the empty shell of the old commercial space.
There was minor debris all over and the walls and ceilings looked decrepit with a hole (big enough for a fella to climb through) leading into the adjacent store-front. Most interestingly for me, however, was the missing wall at the back of the store front that appeared to give free access into some recess of the Keith’s itself. A few work lights were hung from the ceiling in this space, strung along a series of orange power supply cables, so I ventured forth even more tentatively. The room beyond this missing wall appeared to be a lounge of some kind, with outlines in the faded pale orange (almost pink) paint on the walls indicating where mirrors or other fixutures and ornamentation might have hung. Sub-flooring from the level above was exposed and a curved wall which seemd to be half missing led to a circular chamber to the right.
With my back still to the open storefront and sidewalk on Northern Blvd, I could make out a doorway between the wall facing me and the circular wall remnant to my right. It seemed to lead into another room that was too deteriorated and stripped of detail to identify. The furthest wall back in that chamber, seemed to be missing the finished plaster, with beams and the back of the wall for the area behind it exposed. Interestingly, no one else was around at all… I expected at any moment to be roused from my curiosity by some irate worker or supervisor, but none came.
Unfortunately, the areas beyond where I stood did not appear to be lit and I could not be sure of the soundness of the flooring. Nor could I view any piece of the Grand Foyer space from this corner of the building. The final straw that hastened my retreat was that the deeper I went into these rooms, the further I got from the storefront doorway and the more I feared that if I did not keep it in sight, the construction doors would be shut behind me by returning workers, leaving me to possibly spend the night in the dark with the vermin that currently call the Keith’s home.
Once home, I went back to davebazooka’s excellent posting of September 5, 2006, and poured over his images of the Keith’s original architectural plans and found that I had been standing in what had been one of the theater’s smoking lounges and that the curved wall that was half missing offered me a view into what had been the Ladies Parlor.
Here’s Dave’s image of those blueprints detailing the area I just described. The storefronts are at the bottom of the image. I entered through the left-most store and walked into the smoking room behind it. I could see into the Ladies Parlor to the right and beyond the smoking room into the foyer that led to the ladies powder room and toilets. The place was extremely creepy. The walls so worn and bare – it reminded me of the interior of that abandoned house that the students wind up finding in the woods at the end of “The Blair Witch Project.”
I wonder… had I my camera with me, would I have found the nerve to proceed a bit further and try to snake my way into the Grand Foyer? Probably not. The late hour and darkening skies outside had me convinced the workers would soon be back to lock up and that I best be well on my way before then.
Thanks, Lost. So it’s technically theater’s 3 and 4 up in the old loge area – which I presume based on the identical capacity of those theaters at 72 persons each. The site is acting up again, as evidenced by your C/O comment being attributed to Warren on an entirely different theater page, not to mention Warren’s triple listing above in this page. Anyhow… If the other 4 auditoriums are located on the ground floor, then the disparity in their seating capacities would indicate something other than an even dividing up of the old auditorium space. Anyone familiar with the layout?
Warren… I was at this theater as a single many years ago. I was also at the Utopia Theater a few times during the early ‘80’s. One of these theaters definitely had a proper balcony, because I remember sitting up there to watch the Mel Brooks version of “To Be or Not to Be” in 1983 or thereabouts. I used to get the two theaters confused in my memory, but I’m pretty sure I raised the question on the Utopia page and learned that it was THAT theater that did not have a proper balcony and that the Main Street did.
I’ve seen the theater currently advertised with either the number “7” in its name or the Roman numeral “VII”. I opted to list it with the “7” because this is how AMC lists it on their own website. However, the old Loews signage, which still exists on the building, uses the “VII”. Here are a pair of images from the cinematour website:
Village VII marquee/entrance
Village VII long shot
The only C/O information on NYC’s Building Department site is the one issued in 1985 for the twinning of the Main Street Theater. Apparently, the theater was divided down the middle with each theater retaining it’s own balcony seating. Each theater is listed as having a capacity of 216 people on the ground floor and 72 in the balcony, for a total of 288 seats each. I imagine that the current theaters 5 and 6 are merely those balcony sections sealed off from the 1st floor, with the twin orchestra theaters each split in half to make current theaters 1, 2, 3 and 4. Unless, did they gut the 1st level and completely re-configure the space for the four current auditoriums there?
OK, the view in all of these photos seems to be from more or less the same vantage point, facing the 48th Street facade with Broadway running along the left. So the Odditorium photo is the corner of B'way and 48th with the dance hall entrance on 48th and the Ripley entrance facing B'way. The Avon 7 location would have been around the corner and out of view on Seventh Avenue.
Thanks Lost. Looks like you can just make out the Dance Hall marquee on the far right of the photo under the “Believe it or Not!” sign. Not sure if that entrance would be on the 48th Street side or the Seventh Avenue side… Do we know for sure what corner we’re looking at in the photo? B'way and 48th or Seventh and 48th?
I’m not sure if any other theaters occupied the Studebaker Building during the ‘70’s, but the information on which I based the seat count for this theater is a C/O issued 11/20/70 for a motion picture theater with a capacity of 266 persons on the cellar level. The C/O also lists “stores, storage from first floor, boiler room, building storage and workshop” so that figure may also represent maximum occupancy for those areas as well. The only other C/O’s for the building (listed as 1600 Broadway on all of these) date back to 1923 for a Dance Hall and then in 1924 for Dance Hall and Restaurant.
The building itself was a fairly large 10-story red-brick and terra cotta structure that was built early in the century as showrooms and offices for the Studebaker Brothers vehicles (both the horse-drawn and horseless variety). Situated on the north side of 48th Street on that small slice between Broadway and Seventh Ave, the building’s rooftop served to hold aloft the giant signs that dominated the north end of Times Square over years – including Maxwell House, Chevrolet, Canadian Club Whiskey and Sony – until its view onto the Square was blocked by the high-rise Renaissance Hotel on the other side of 48th Street, where the low-rise Castro Convertible showroom had once stood.
This is also where the “Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Odditorium” and, later, the Howard clothing store were located. In this building, Jack and Harry Cohn formed the C.B.C. Film Sales Company with Joseph Brandt, which would later be renamed Columbia Pictures and move across Seventh Avenue to a buidling of their own. Finally, National Screen Service Corp, an outfit that produced movie posters, lobby cards and other promotional materials, also called the Studebaker home for many years. When owners of the building stripped the facade of its elaborate copper cornice in 1999, any hopes of having the structure landmarked by the LPC were dashed. Seven years later, yet another high rise condominum project has gone up on the site.
NYC Josh… Did you guys actually see me taking the photos? That would be pretty coincidental, huh? I was there probably around 8:45pm on Friday evening. A showing of “Volver” had just let out and a good number of folks were exiting and discussing it with admiration. As I milled around waiting for the vestibule to get less crowded so I could snap some shots, I was comparing the crowd at the Manhasset to the usual multiplex crowd I have to endure in Queens and thinking that this is the kind of mature audience with which I’d prefer to experience a film. How was the auditorium you were in… was the screen a decent size? Which room was it? And what of the sound?
Thanks for the info, saps.
Sorry… here’s the correct link for that first shot:
Squire shot 1
Here are a pair of shots I snagged tonight of the Squire’s illuminated marquee.
[url=http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b110/GuanoReturns/Nassau%20Movie%20Theaters/Squire%20Theater%20Great%20Neck/IMG_3561.jpg}Squire shot 1[/url]
Squire shot 2
While I was there, I forgot to look and see if any recognizable traces remain of the Playhouse that was across the street. Perhaps that’s best left to a daytime excursion.
I stopped by this theater tonight to grab some shots of the neon lit marquee signage and was able to get into the ticket lobby where the manager gave me permission to snap a few images. Unfortunately I couldn’t get further into the lobby, which curves in a dog leg around to the right – as pointed out in Vodhin’s terrifcally detailed post of July 7th, 2004. Here are the photos:
Manhasset marquee 1
Manhasset marquee 2
Manhasset marquee 3
Outer vestibule mosaic tile floor
Tile floor center detail – marks old box office?
Ticket lobby and booth
Ticket lobby towards candy counter
Alt view of ticket lobby towards street entrance
Ticket lobby side wall view towards inner lobby
Outer vestibule
I wonder about Vhodin’s claim that the break in the vestibule floor tile pattern represents where the old outside ticket booth was located. I guess I don’t doubt it, particularly given the story about the heat pipe, but it sure seems like a pretty tight place to fit a cashier. Just look at the two women looking over the display cases in that same photo to get an idea of scale.
In any event, the interior appointments of the outer lobby seem to be extremely well kept and faithful to the theater’s art deco heritage. I’d love to get back and have permission to photograph deeper into the theater.
Snapped some evening photos of the Malverne Theater a couple of weeks back. In the first image, I tried to approximate the angle of the shot Warren posted on October 20, 2005. I’ll start off with those two images for comparison…
Malverne at night 2006
Malverne at night 1946
The old ticket booth is gone (for a long time now, I’m sure), the brick facade and wood-framed display cases have been concealed with more modern material and the old entrance doors updated with glass replacements. Here are the rest of the photos…
Wide shot
Profile shot 1
Profile shot 2
Independent Screening Room
Outer vestibule
Ticket lobby through entrance doors
RCDTJ… what’s the “Independent Screening Room” adjacent to the theater? There doesn’t seem to be any entry from the street (the door has a door saying as much)… is this a storefront that was converted to one of the Malvern’s current screens?