I can recall, “The World of Ray Bradbury,” (1965) and, “The Ginger Man,” (1963). Later on came the pre-Broadway run of “Little Shop of Horrors.” “Oleanna,” “Key Exchange,” “Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll,” Check out it’s rich past here:
This old treasure is coming down soon. Just saw scaffolding being put in front of it. Don’t know for sure but it’s GOT to be an NYU project. They are intent at destroying the history and feel and look of New York City, for their own profit. And they have the government, press, media, and every judge in their back pocket. They are the Vito Corleone of Universities.
Sorry to report that I’ve just heard that the theater will not last much longer. The owner of the Korean Deli told me today that his store will close in February and that the owner plans to have the building torn down. A great loss as the interior is extraordinary.
aarfeld,
I grant you certain superficial points. That it became internationally famous is worthy of note. But it ruined a neighborhood, making it unsafe and filthy and helping destroy the purpose the neighborhood served for 100 years. That it served as an incubator for the whole Rock industry is, to me, not. Rock was, and is, a black-eye on the soul of Western Civilization. (but that’s a whole different discussion). That it served it’s neighborhood for 50 years showing films or popular entertainment that held society together, that whole families attended together, giving and reinforcing a sense of community and belonging. This is, to me, much more important. And what is this website about? I think it’s more about the celebration of tradition and a connection to the community and to the past.
As “The Saint,” this venerable old building became a center for the spread of AIDS. I have been told by two gay male friends who frequented the Saint, that the balcony was used for rather open sex acts. “The Saint,” was in reality a loosely organized orgy with music and some dancing. But, of course, you can’t say that. Oops. I just did.
Sadly, both of those two dear friends from long ago are gone, victims of that horrible disease.
So let’s not weep for the closing of the Saint, or romanticize its existence. For me, that location will always be where the great Commodore stood, from 1926 till the mid-sixties. That’s quite a tenure and bespeaks the stability of what was once a grand neighborhood.
But from the amount of praise and focus placed on the building’s tenure as the Fillmore East, you’d think the period of years were reversed, and it was the Fillmore for 40 years.
You asked, “the Filmore East was in existence for all of about 3 yrs (‘68 – '71)… Could it have really had such a hand in bringing down an entire neighborhood?”
Yes. I said, “helped.” I lived there from my birth in 1954 through the ugliness of the sixties and into the Seventies. I have lived in the neighborhood intermittently since.
The Fillmore was for three years, a meeting place for drug dealers, prostitutes and muggers. I was mugged several times just walking by while Dead Heads laughed.
On the day the Fillmore closed, I, and many of my neighbors, celebrated gratefully.
Yes, you may stand by your comments all you like and I value your opinion and your passion to do so.
But NOTHING, I repeat, NOTHING can be seen with total objectivity by people such as me, who recall a glorious place like the Academy.
You seem to wish to “justify” the renovation. There’s no need to. It’s just what happened. Don’t be so defensive. Yes, the Academy was crumbling, yes, it was poorly maintained, and yes, it was a mess. Bravo! Hoo-ray for your insights and observations!
They mean nothing.
But you don’t seem to get that.
Nor does it seem to matter to you that this website is called, “CINEMA TREASURES: DISCOVER, PRESERVE, PROTECT,” not, “GREAT RENOVATIONS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.” Maybe there’s a website out there where you can share your views of the Palladium with like-minded people! I don’t think this is the place. The Academy was, and will remain forever in many minds, a CINEMA TREASURE (now, a LOST Cinema Treasure).
It’s about more than just the destruction of a place of beauty, however. It is about a perceived shift in culture, one that is uglier, childish, and at the same time vulgar. And this new, youth-oriented, peurile culture has virtually completely usurped all that has come before. So the memory of the Academy is not simply that of a revered and much loved building shared by BOTH adults and the young, but a symbol of a society that no longer exists—one I found more civilized and far more adult.
I can find hundreds of articles from the “free” press that will extol ANYTHING done for the sake of increased real estate values or apologizing for the destruction of true landmarks. (I think of the virtual cheers of “bravo” when the a house that E.A. Poe once lived in was torn down by the great-and-all-powerful-all-seeing NYU, as an example. You would think the site was a toxic waste dump and had to be destroyed or cleaned up.)
The “success” of the renovation is irrelevant. What was LOST is what at issue here and what many of us mourn.
Difficult to believe that such an extraordinary theater (judging from the lenghty description in, “Colonel Sinn’s Montauk Theater Souvenir” program) should last what amounts, really, to just a brief period of time.
According to an article in the NY Times dated September 17, 1895 a theater opened in Brooklyn called “The Montauk Theater,” but no address is given. It does say that, “The theater seats comfortably 1,750 persons,” and the first performance was the opera, “Il Trovatore.”
Again, I am asking if anyone knows of any photos of the front facade of the Academy of Music. As I remember it (from the 60’s) there was a huge painted sign reading:
“ACADEMY OF MUSIC"
and in smaller letters (perhaps on a banner)
"BEST IN VAUDEVILLE AND SCREEN SHOWS”
Again, I am asking if anyone knows of any photos of the front facade of the Academy of Music. As I remember it (from the 60’s) there was a huge painted sign reading:
“ACADEMY OF MUSIC"
and in smaller letters (perhaps on a banner)
"BEST IN VAUDEVILLE AND SCREEN SHOWS”
NYU is NOT a University. It is a real estate investment firm, of some sort. This has been true since the sixties.
As a former student then adjunct lecturer I can tell you for a fact that there is no amount of money on the planet that would let me permit any child of mine to attend it.
Furthermore, since the real estate industry is in bed with the press there is little hope of even hearing about such atrocities as the tearing down of the old Academy, Luchow’s, or the Variety.
Unless you are all willing to “take it to the streets” and fight what’s happening, it will get worse. Although I don’t know what’s left for them to destroy.
Hi.
I was inside the theater a couple of weeks ago, and my impression was that the ornamentation (style and material) would suggest that the theater dates from a much earlier date than 1926 which is right in the middle of the golden age of movie theater construction. Also, the stage is quite small although the the proscenium is quite tall. It just doesn’t all make sense.
Is it possible that the theater re-opened as the Hollywood in 1926 but was the Avenue A from a much earlier date?
My dad recalled seeing “Clayton, Jackson, and Durante” Jimmy Durante at the Academy. He was born in 1923 so for him to remember that they had to have still been doing vaudeville there in the 1930’s.
I can recall reading the faded sign on the facade of the building. It read, in part, “Best in Vaudeville and Screen Shows.”
If anyonone has any photos of the interiors I’d love to see them.
I can recall seeing “The Time Machine,” “My Fair Lady,” and later on, “Planet of the Apes,” and I think the last film I saw at the glorious Academy (as we used to call it) was “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
The government of NYC has virtually sold itself to the real estate intdustry. You not only can’t get anything landmarked, you can’t even talk about it. Why? The newspapers and media are all part of it as they own large parcels of land in the city.
Consider in recent years we have lost (just in my neighborhood) Poe Townhouse (NYU, of course) the site of McGurk’s Saloon, Hadley Hall, The Church of All Nations, the Anderson Theater, the Commodore, and, of course, the Academy of Music, (which housed the famed and infamous “Julian’s Billiard Academy”).
“Decades of success”??? Like everything to do with Rock and Roll the myth of the Filmore is over-bloated, over-hyped, and childishly over-senitmentalized.
Having grown up on Fifth street and Second Avenue in the late 50’s and early 60’s I attended the Commodore many, many times. It was a beautiful little movie “palace.” The last film I remember seeing there was “Papa’s Delicate Condition,” with Jackie Gleason and Glynnis Johns. It was originally built for films and vaudeville. See a program in the lobby of the bank there.
It SHOULD have been torn down before Graham got his hands on it, as the Filmore was largely responsible for the ruination of what was a really great neighborhood.
The Academy of Music on 14th street was a huge movie palace. I remember a large marble fireplace in the lobby of the balcony. In front of the stage was an orchestra pit that still had several pianos in it. My dad remembered seeing Jimmy Durante there when he was with the team, Clayton, Jackson, and Durante. It was named, obviously, for the old opera house across the street.
Thanks, of course, to the complete sell out by NYC to the real estate industry, NYU, etc. and the tacit compliance of the media, places like this don’t have a chance to survive. This glorious building was shamelessly torn down without a word about it, in any newspaper. Like it never existed. Let’s not forget that the building also housed the famous, and infamous, “Julian’s Billiard Academy.” ! ! What a place.
No, “Stomp” is definitely playing. No stopping “Stomp.”
I can recall, “The World of Ray Bradbury,” (1965) and, “The Ginger Man,” (1963). Later on came the pre-Broadway run of “Little Shop of Horrors.” “Oleanna,” “Key Exchange,” “Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll,” Check out it’s rich past here:
http://www.lortel.org/lla_archive/index.cfm?search_by=theater&id=103
Then Stomp happened and creativity died. But that’s what happened to New York in a nutshell.
This old treasure is coming down soon. Just saw scaffolding being put in front of it. Don’t know for sure but it’s GOT to be an NYU project. They are intent at destroying the history and feel and look of New York City, for their own profit. And they have the government, press, media, and every judge in their back pocket. They are the Vito Corleone of Universities.
Sorry to report that I’ve just heard that the theater will not last much longer. The owner of the Korean Deli told me today that his store will close in February and that the owner plans to have the building torn down. A great loss as the interior is extraordinary.
aarfeld,
I grant you certain superficial points. That it became internationally famous is worthy of note. But it ruined a neighborhood, making it unsafe and filthy and helping destroy the purpose the neighborhood served for 100 years. That it served as an incubator for the whole Rock industry is, to me, not. Rock was, and is, a black-eye on the soul of Western Civilization. (but that’s a whole different discussion). That it served it’s neighborhood for 50 years showing films or popular entertainment that held society together, that whole families attended together, giving and reinforcing a sense of community and belonging. This is, to me, much more important. And what is this website about? I think it’s more about the celebration of tradition and a connection to the community and to the past.
Bway,
Yes, “Stomp” is still, annoyingly, gratingly, pitifully, STILL running at this theater.
Also,
As “The Saint,” this venerable old building became a center for the spread of AIDS. I have been told by two gay male friends who frequented the Saint, that the balcony was used for rather open sex acts. “The Saint,” was in reality a loosely organized orgy with music and some dancing. But, of course, you can’t say that. Oops. I just did.
Sadly, both of those two dear friends from long ago are gone, victims of that horrible disease.
So let’s not weep for the closing of the Saint, or romanticize its existence. For me, that location will always be where the great Commodore stood, from 1926 till the mid-sixties. That’s quite a tenure and bespeaks the stability of what was once a grand neighborhood.
But from the amount of praise and focus placed on the building’s tenure as the Fillmore East, you’d think the period of years were reversed, and it was the Fillmore for 40 years.
Ed Solero,
You asked, “the Filmore East was in existence for all of about 3 yrs (‘68 – '71)… Could it have really had such a hand in bringing down an entire neighborhood?”
Yes. I said, “helped.” I lived there from my birth in 1954 through the ugliness of the sixties and into the Seventies. I have lived in the neighborhood intermittently since.
The Fillmore was for three years, a meeting place for drug dealers, prostitutes and muggers. I was mugged several times just walking by while Dead Heads laughed.
On the day the Fillmore closed, I, and many of my neighbors, celebrated gratefully.
Please.
Ah! Thanks.
If the Avenue A was on 4th Street (where the Ageloff Towers stand) then what theater was on Avenue A between 6th and 7th, the building still standing?
Yes, you may stand by your comments all you like and I value your opinion and your passion to do so.
But NOTHING, I repeat, NOTHING can be seen with total objectivity by people such as me, who recall a glorious place like the Academy.
You seem to wish to “justify” the renovation. There’s no need to. It’s just what happened. Don’t be so defensive. Yes, the Academy was crumbling, yes, it was poorly maintained, and yes, it was a mess. Bravo! Hoo-ray for your insights and observations!
They mean nothing.
But you don’t seem to get that.
Nor does it seem to matter to you that this website is called, “CINEMA TREASURES: DISCOVER, PRESERVE, PROTECT,” not, “GREAT RENOVATIONS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.” Maybe there’s a website out there where you can share your views of the Palladium with like-minded people! I don’t think this is the place. The Academy was, and will remain forever in many minds, a CINEMA TREASURE (now, a LOST Cinema Treasure).
It’s about more than just the destruction of a place of beauty, however. It is about a perceived shift in culture, one that is uglier, childish, and at the same time vulgar. And this new, youth-oriented, peurile culture has virtually completely usurped all that has come before. So the memory of the Academy is not simply that of a revered and much loved building shared by BOTH adults and the young, but a symbol of a society that no longer exists—one I found more civilized and far more adult.
I can find hundreds of articles from the “free” press that will extol ANYTHING done for the sake of increased real estate values or apologizing for the destruction of true landmarks. (I think of the virtual cheers of “bravo” when the a house that E.A. Poe once lived in was torn down by the great-and-all-powerful-all-seeing NYU, as an example. You would think the site was a toxic waste dump and had to be destroyed or cleaned up.)
The “success” of the renovation is irrelevant. What was LOST is what at issue here and what many of us mourn.
Difficult to believe that such an extraordinary theater (judging from the lenghty description in, “Colonel Sinn’s Montauk Theater Souvenir” program) should last what amounts, really, to just a brief period of time.
Hello.
According to an article in the NY Times dated September 17, 1895 a theater opened in Brooklyn called “The Montauk Theater,” but no address is given. It does say that, “The theater seats comfortably 1,750 persons,” and the first performance was the opera, “Il Trovatore.”
Hello again.
Again, I am asking if anyone knows of any photos of the front facade of the Academy of Music. As I remember it (from the 60’s) there was a huge painted sign reading:
“ACADEMY OF MUSIC"
and in smaller letters (perhaps on a banner)
"BEST IN VAUDEVILLE AND SCREEN SHOWS”
Anyone else remember this?
Hello again.
Again, I am asking if anyone knows of any photos of the front facade of the Academy of Music. As I remember it (from the 60’s) there was a huge painted sign reading:
“ACADEMY OF MUSIC"
and in smaller letters (perhaps on a banner)
"BEST IN VAUDEVILLE AND SCREEN SHOWS”
Anyone else remember this?
Can you give an exact adress?
NYU is NOT a University. It is a real estate investment firm, of some sort. This has been true since the sixties.
As a former student then adjunct lecturer I can tell you for a fact that there is no amount of money on the planet that would let me permit any child of mine to attend it.
Furthermore, since the real estate industry is in bed with the press there is little hope of even hearing about such atrocities as the tearing down of the old Academy, Luchow’s, or the Variety.
Unless you are all willing to “take it to the streets” and fight what’s happening, it will get worse. Although I don’t know what’s left for them to destroy.
Hi.
I was inside the theater a couple of weeks ago, and my impression was that the ornamentation (style and material) would suggest that the theater dates from a much earlier date than 1926 which is right in the middle of the golden age of movie theater construction. Also, the stage is quite small although the the proscenium is quite tall. It just doesn’t all make sense.
Is it possible that the theater re-opened as the Hollywood in 1926 but was the Avenue A from a much earlier date?
PS.
My dad recalled seeing “Clayton, Jackson, and Durante” Jimmy Durante at the Academy. He was born in 1923 so for him to remember that they had to have still been doing vaudeville there in the 1930’s.
I can recall reading the faded sign on the facade of the building. It read, in part, “Best in Vaudeville and Screen Shows.”
If anyonone has any photos of the interiors I’d love to see them.
What a loss.
I can recall seeing “The Time Machine,” “My Fair Lady,” and later on, “Planet of the Apes,” and I think the last film I saw at the glorious Academy (as we used to call it) was “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
The government of NYC has virtually sold itself to the real estate intdustry. You not only can’t get anything landmarked, you can’t even talk about it. Why? The newspapers and media are all part of it as they own large parcels of land in the city.
Consider in recent years we have lost (just in my neighborhood) Poe Townhouse (NYU, of course) the site of McGurk’s Saloon, Hadley Hall, The Church of All Nations, the Anderson Theater, the Commodore, and, of course, the Academy of Music, (which housed the famed and infamous “Julian’s Billiard Academy”).
“Decades of success”??? Like everything to do with Rock and Roll the myth of the Filmore is over-bloated, over-hyped, and childishly over-senitmentalized.
Having grown up on Fifth street and Second Avenue in the late 50’s and early 60’s I attended the Commodore many, many times. It was a beautiful little movie “palace.” The last film I remember seeing there was “Papa’s Delicate Condition,” with Jackie Gleason and Glynnis Johns. It was originally built for films and vaudeville. See a program in the lobby of the bank there.
It SHOULD have been torn down before Graham got his hands on it, as the Filmore was largely responsible for the ruination of what was a really great neighborhood.
The Academy of Music on 14th street was a huge movie palace. I remember a large marble fireplace in the lobby of the balcony. In front of the stage was an orchestra pit that still had several pianos in it. My dad remembered seeing Jimmy Durante there when he was with the team, Clayton, Jackson, and Durante. It was named, obviously, for the old opera house across the street.
Thanks, of course, to the complete sell out by NYC to the real estate industry, NYU, etc. and the tacit compliance of the media, places like this don’t have a chance to survive. This glorious building was shamelessly torn down without a word about it, in any newspaper. Like it never existed. Let’s not forget that the building also housed the famous, and infamous, “Julian’s Billiard Academy.” ! ! What a place.