Just saw “Harry Potter” here…thinking back, I believe the last movie I saw here was that Schwarzenegger flick about the colony on Mars, back in the early 90s. Since the Beekman’s closing, I figure Is should go to more movies in theatres before the theatres vanish, so I took in Harry Potter at this one. It was playing in the upstairs theatre, which was quite clean and comfortable. There are colorful drapes on the walls, which under the drapes are plain ugly cinderblock, a little of which was visible. Some of the chairs have graffiti carved or burned into the fabric, but not many. I got a medium beverage and it was HUGE, I had forgotten how large the servings are in theatres. The nachos and cheese were deelish. Unfortunately the lobby and concession areas are very small and uninteresting. I did not see the newest auditorium that made this into a triplex.
Hi dave-bronx, thanks for the information! I think I posted the pics at the page for the East 86th Street Cinemas. It is amazing how many theatres there were in Yorkville that are now vanished.
Thanks for posting your memory, EdSolero…being born and raised right there, I know exactly the route you took to Carl Schurz Park, which I used to call “The Mayor’s House” because when I was very young I could not pronounce “Carl Schurz” easily. I saw all the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies at this theatre and it seems just like yesterday!
Why is the Beekman logo going to be placed in a distant LI theatre instead of right across the street at the new Beekman? That makes no sense.
I don’t see how Sloan-Kettering is going to be able to make that site pay with only a breast cancer clinic. They must be going to include a skinny luxury tower above the clinic from which they can collect massively high rent. Re the Beekman logos on the old building, I would think they belonged to Sloan Ketering and not Clearview, so the hospital folks get to sell the logos for high prices too! Bummer. Is the Greenport a Clearview theatre?
This is an EXCELLENT IDEA!!!!!! The movie theatre venue is VERY important to me. I don’t return to theatres where I have had poor quality of life or bad service. If theatres competed for this Oscar honor, maybe there would be a resurgence in good service, and perhaps theatre builders would once again focus on bringing great beauty to their buildings. Imagine actually creating cinemas that are palatial (or near palatial) again!
This is truly sad. I would love to see more pics of this theatre if anyone has any that they can scan and post. :–(
My eyes are tear-filled for the Cinema 150 as they are for the Beekman in New York.
Ok are these images of this theatre? I originally posted them someplace else asking what theatre name it is listed under here. Many theatres listed for Yorkville/86th street, I was getting confused.
I agree with Lauren. Though many of us find the megaplexes distasteful in some ways, they are part of the current cinema experience, and in a few decades they will have established themselves as part of movie theater history. When they in turn are being replaced by something new, their passing will be mourned by future generations.
OH WOW!! I forgot about this theatre until seeing this entry. I think there was a mezzanine up on the second floor with a glass window overlooking Third Avenue…or else the view from the escalator loked out a window streetside. Can’t remember what I saw here, maybe The Aristocats as mentioned in the entry above, I know I saw that Disney movie in a movie theater when I was a kid, might have been at the Juliet! If anyone has any pics of this theatre please post them. Thanks everyone
Wow, now that 1975 image is the 86th street I remember as a kid. I grew up in Yorkville, 1962-76 then moved to Roosevelt Island.
I just took these pics of one of the buildings there on the left in the 1975 photo. Was this once a theatre? it looks like it might have been once. It seems to have received a facelift, and looks very clean and new. Is it the Yorkville? I apologize, for some reason I am getting confused about the theatres of East 86th Street, there are several listings and some of them refer to each other, etc.
I am so confused about the theatres on East 86th street. i was at the street on Saturday November 5. A beautiful day! I took some pics of this theatre which is on 86th street between Third and Second Avenues, on the downtown side of the thoroughfare, closer to Third. I used to go to this theater a lot when I was a kid. The last show I saw here was “Jewel of the Nile” in the 1980s after attending a party with my cousin. We were drunk and decided for some reason to take in a show. Despite being snookered, I remember this was NOT a great movie.
Is this theatre listed under another name? If anyone knows the name this theatre is listed under, I’ll post these on the correct page.
This is the theatre that was twinned at some point a long time ago, I recall going in for some show either in the late 70s or early 80s and seeing right off the bat that a big dividing wall had been erected right in the middle of the formerly large auditorium, creating two narrow theaters. Also i recall this theater went thru some scary times when troublemakers went up and down the aisles beating up patrons at random, usually on weekends.
Here’s the site of the former RKO 86th. The RKO 86th was completely demolished to make way for the Gimbel’s East department store building. The building in this picture was originally that store, which was closed in the 80s and stripped down to its steel frame, then refurbished into this apartment building. On the far lower left can be seen the marquee for what is now a Duane Reade. I remember that this was a movie theater during the 70s and into the late 80s, but it was not the original RKO palace.
I remember this theatre as The Biograph, and around 1990 it was serving as a replacement for The Regency as a revival house. Over a period of three years I saw “Funny Girl,” “Harold and Maude,” “My Man Godfrey,” and “The Man Who Would Be King” here, all as revivals from 1989 to around 1992-ish. Was a pretty little theater, I don’t remember if there was a balcony, but the orchestra seated a larger crowd than the orchestra at the Regency. I liked the nice lobby that led from the street to the auditorium toward the rear left of the space. Everything seemed new and clean. Then poof! it’s all gone, and an overpriced Food Emporium is there instead of a wonderful theatre.
I saw “Henry V” and “A Midnight Clear” here in the early 1990s. Great theatre but its location was a bit off the beaten path for moviegoers. I just walked by yesterday, it’s some kind of club or restaurant now. I saw some of the comments above saying it is called TAO but I did not see a name. What I recall about seeing both films there is that even though I attended them years apart, the street and sidewalk outside the Plaza theatre were very messy. Trash, dirty gutters, parts of the street barricaded and jackhammering going on, etc. The theatre itself was nearly empty.
Here is a pic of the block where the RKO Proctor’s once stood. Now it’s the site of a bland office tower. All the old structures along both sides of the street have been replaced.
I think this pic is from the same angle as the second pic posted by Warren on July 18, 2005, which shows the marquee advertising Joan Crawford in “Humoresque.”
Warren I admire your knowledge of the city’s history, it is awesome! I am not sure about Alexander’s, my mom used to take me there in the subway from uptown, way back in the 60s. One of my earliest memories is a floor in Alexander’s where there was a section I used to call the “Pretty Lights,” it was an island in the middle of one of the floors where there were mannequins displaying all the wildest 60s wear for women. However I have no recollection of the RKO Proctor’s and neither does my mom. She does recall the RKO on 86th and believes she and my dad saw “Rio Bravo” there around 1960, when they first moved to the area.
Went by October 20. Demolition crews have torn a hole in the wall between the Beekman’s ticket lobby and the space that used to be the ATMs for North Fork Bank. It was dark but I took this pic:
Through that big hole on the right is the Beekman’s ticket lobby, right behind where the ticket agent’s spot was. I peered through a space on the front doors where the blue paper has been torn, and in the dark I could see the metal doors from the ticket lobby into the theater are battered and sealed up with large wood beams. A notice on the doors states that Turner Construction Co. has a city permit to occupy the sidewalk in front of the building from 10/12 to 12/31/2005.
I saw “The Towering Inferno” at The Gotham in the 70s, and the last movie I attended here was “Hamburger Hill” in the 80s. It is one of those theaters that I remember well, saw a number of movies in, then stopped going to, and suddenly it’s years later and the theatre no longer exists and all I have is the memories!! Maybe sometime in the future it will be chic and profitable to reopen all our lost neighborhood movie houses in the same spaces, if the spaces have survived. Or maybe we’ll demolish apartment towers to build single screen theatres!!! ;–)
Saw “Nadine” here and lots of other movies. I remember the small lobby and the downstairs theatre clearly from the 70s and 80s. Pretty sure I saw “Witness” here. I have not returned since it was called the “Gemini Twin,” and for a while I thought it had been demolished when that new luxury tower was built on top of it. I was glad to find out it is still there.
I remember this as the D.W. Griffith. Saw “Sasquatch,” “Singing in the Rain,” and “The Wizard of Oz” here in the 1970s when I lived on Roosevelt Island. This theatre was very convenient for us tramway riders. When this was the Griffith, it was a nice little space though plain, decorated in soft warm colors, modern, utilitarian, etc. On one moviegoing occasion (I do not remember what the film was, it was in the early 80s), a woman and a young boy stood in front of me at the small concession stand, and when she found out how expensive the candy was she said “FORGET IT!!!” I too remember finding the prices for candy and refreshments significantly higher than in the bigger theatres nearby.
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Just saw “Harry Potter” here…thinking back, I believe the last movie I saw here was that Schwarzenegger flick about the colony on Mars, back in the early 90s. Since the Beekman’s closing, I figure Is should go to more movies in theatres before the theatres vanish, so I took in Harry Potter at this one. It was playing in the upstairs theatre, which was quite clean and comfortable. There are colorful drapes on the walls, which under the drapes are plain ugly cinderblock, a little of which was visible. Some of the chairs have graffiti carved or burned into the fabric, but not many. I got a medium beverage and it was HUGE, I had forgotten how large the servings are in theatres. The nachos and cheese were deelish. Unfortunately the lobby and concession areas are very small and uninteresting. I did not see the newest auditorium that made this into a triplex.
Hi dave-bronx, thanks for the information! I think I posted the pics at the page for the East 86th Street Cinemas. It is amazing how many theatres there were in Yorkville that are now vanished.
Thanks for posting your memory, EdSolero…being born and raised right there, I know exactly the route you took to Carl Schurz Park, which I used to call “The Mayor’s House” because when I was very young I could not pronounce “Carl Schurz” easily. I saw all the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies at this theatre and it seems just like yesterday!
You’re very welcome! :–)
A snowy December Beekman:
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Why is the Beekman logo going to be placed in a distant LI theatre instead of right across the street at the new Beekman? That makes no sense.
I don’t see how Sloan-Kettering is going to be able to make that site pay with only a breast cancer clinic. They must be going to include a skinny luxury tower above the clinic from which they can collect massively high rent. Re the Beekman logos on the old building, I would think they belonged to Sloan Ketering and not Clearview, so the hospital folks get to sell the logos for high prices too! Bummer. Is the Greenport a Clearview theatre?
This is an EXCELLENT IDEA!!!!!! The movie theatre venue is VERY important to me. I don’t return to theatres where I have had poor quality of life or bad service. If theatres competed for this Oscar honor, maybe there would be a resurgence in good service, and perhaps theatre builders would once again focus on bringing great beauty to their buildings. Imagine actually creating cinemas that are palatial (or near palatial) again!
This is truly sad. I would love to see more pics of this theatre if anyone has any that they can scan and post. :–(
My eyes are tear-filled for the Cinema 150 as they are for the Beekman in New York.
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This is 66 Fifth Avenue as it appears today. I saw no trace of a Hershfeld mural anywhere in the lobby area.
It is now the entrance to one of The New School’s buildings.
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Barricades going up, about 7:30 a.m. November 17, 2005
All the big glass windows of the former bank have been covered with blue paper from the inside, hiding the interior demolition.
Ok are these images of this theatre? I originally posted them someplace else asking what theatre name it is listed under here. Many theatres listed for Yorkville/86th street, I was getting confused.
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I agree with Lauren. Though many of us find the megaplexes distasteful in some ways, they are part of the current cinema experience, and in a few decades they will have established themselves as part of movie theater history. When they in turn are being replaced by something new, their passing will be mourned by future generations.
OH WOW!! I forgot about this theatre until seeing this entry. I think there was a mezzanine up on the second floor with a glass window overlooking Third Avenue…or else the view from the escalator loked out a window streetside. Can’t remember what I saw here, maybe The Aristocats as mentioned in the entry above, I know I saw that Disney movie in a movie theater when I was a kid, might have been at the Juliet! If anyone has any pics of this theatre please post them. Thanks everyone
Wow, now that 1975 image is the 86th street I remember as a kid. I grew up in Yorkville, 1962-76 then moved to Roosevelt Island.
I just took these pics of one of the buildings there on the left in the 1975 photo. Was this once a theatre? it looks like it might have been once. It seems to have received a facelift, and looks very clean and new. Is it the Yorkville? I apologize, for some reason I am getting confused about the theatres of East 86th Street, there are several listings and some of them refer to each other, etc.
View link
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I am so confused about the theatres on East 86th street. i was at the street on Saturday November 5. A beautiful day! I took some pics of this theatre which is on 86th street between Third and Second Avenues, on the downtown side of the thoroughfare, closer to Third. I used to go to this theater a lot when I was a kid. The last show I saw here was “Jewel of the Nile” in the 1980s after attending a party with my cousin. We were drunk and decided for some reason to take in a show. Despite being snookered, I remember this was NOT a great movie.
Here are the pics:
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Is this theatre listed under another name? If anyone knows the name this theatre is listed under, I’ll post these on the correct page.
This is the theatre that was twinned at some point a long time ago, I recall going in for some show either in the late 70s or early 80s and seeing right off the bat that a big dividing wall had been erected right in the middle of the formerly large auditorium, creating two narrow theaters. Also i recall this theater went thru some scary times when troublemakers went up and down the aisles beating up patrons at random, usually on weekends.
Here’s the site of the former RKO 86th. The RKO 86th was completely demolished to make way for the Gimbel’s East department store building. The building in this picture was originally that store, which was closed in the 80s and stripped down to its steel frame, then refurbished into this apartment building. On the far lower left can be seen the marquee for what is now a Duane Reade. I remember that this was a movie theater during the 70s and into the late 80s, but it was not the original RKO palace.
View link
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I remember this theatre as The Biograph, and around 1990 it was serving as a replacement for The Regency as a revival house. Over a period of three years I saw “Funny Girl,” “Harold and Maude,” “My Man Godfrey,” and “The Man Who Would Be King” here, all as revivals from 1989 to around 1992-ish. Was a pretty little theater, I don’t remember if there was a balcony, but the orchestra seated a larger crowd than the orchestra at the Regency. I liked the nice lobby that led from the street to the auditorium toward the rear left of the space. Everything seemed new and clean. Then poof! it’s all gone, and an overpriced Food Emporium is there instead of a wonderful theatre.
I saw “Henry V” and “A Midnight Clear” here in the early 1990s. Great theatre but its location was a bit off the beaten path for moviegoers. I just walked by yesterday, it’s some kind of club or restaurant now. I saw some of the comments above saying it is called TAO but I did not see a name. What I recall about seeing both films there is that even though I attended them years apart, the street and sidewalk outside the Plaza theatre were very messy. Trash, dirty gutters, parts of the street barricaded and jackhammering going on, etc. The theatre itself was nearly empty.
Here is a pic of the block where the RKO Proctor’s once stood. Now it’s the site of a bland office tower. All the old structures along both sides of the street have been replaced.
View link
I think this pic is from the same angle as the second pic posted by Warren on July 18, 2005, which shows the marquee advertising Joan Crawford in “Humoresque.”
Warren I admire your knowledge of the city’s history, it is awesome! I am not sure about Alexander’s, my mom used to take me there in the subway from uptown, way back in the 60s. One of my earliest memories is a floor in Alexander’s where there was a section I used to call the “Pretty Lights,” it was an island in the middle of one of the floors where there were mannequins displaying all the wildest 60s wear for women. However I have no recollection of the RKO Proctor’s and neither does my mom. She does recall the RKO on 86th and believes she and my dad saw “Rio Bravo” there around 1960, when they first moved to the area.
Went by October 20. Demolition crews have torn a hole in the wall between the Beekman’s ticket lobby and the space that used to be the ATMs for North Fork Bank. It was dark but I took this pic:
View link
Through that big hole on the right is the Beekman’s ticket lobby, right behind where the ticket agent’s spot was. I peered through a space on the front doors where the blue paper has been torn, and in the dark I could see the metal doors from the ticket lobby into the theater are battered and sealed up with large wood beams. A notice on the doors states that Turner Construction Co. has a city permit to occupy the sidewalk in front of the building from 10/12 to 12/31/2005.
I saw “The Towering Inferno” at The Gotham in the 70s, and the last movie I attended here was “Hamburger Hill” in the 80s. It is one of those theaters that I remember well, saw a number of movies in, then stopped going to, and suddenly it’s years later and the theatre no longer exists and all I have is the memories!! Maybe sometime in the future it will be chic and profitable to reopen all our lost neighborhood movie houses in the same spaces, if the spaces have survived. Or maybe we’ll demolish apartment towers to build single screen theatres!!! ;–)
Saw “Nadine” here and lots of other movies. I remember the small lobby and the downstairs theatre clearly from the 70s and 80s. Pretty sure I saw “Witness” here. I have not returned since it was called the “Gemini Twin,” and for a while I thought it had been demolished when that new luxury tower was built on top of it. I was glad to find out it is still there.
I remember this as the D.W. Griffith. Saw “Sasquatch,” “Singing in the Rain,” and “The Wizard of Oz” here in the 1970s when I lived on Roosevelt Island. This theatre was very convenient for us tramway riders. When this was the Griffith, it was a nice little space though plain, decorated in soft warm colors, modern, utilitarian, etc. On one moviegoing occasion (I do not remember what the film was, it was in the early 80s), a woman and a young boy stood in front of me at the small concession stand, and when she found out how expensive the candy was she said “FORGET IT!!!” I too remember finding the prices for candy and refreshments significantly higher than in the bigger theatres nearby.
AHA! I answered my own question, found out the DW Griffith I remember is now the ImaginAsian theatre.