Colony Theatre
1519 2nd Avenue,
New York,
NY
10075
1519 2nd Avenue,
New York,
NY
10075
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Brandt Theaters, Trans-Lux Movies Corp.
Functions: Synagogue
Previous Names: New Theatre, 79th Street Theatre
Nearby Theaters
The New Theatre was opened prior to 1914. By 1926 it had been renamed 79th Street Theatre. It was renamed Colony Theatre by 1941.
Contributed by
William Gabel
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Recent comments (view all 10 comments)
I believe that this theatre was later named the Colony, a Trans Lux theatre. It was extensively remodeled in 1959, and became Temple Sharaay Tefila.
Here is a link to a photo (the one in the center) of the 79th Street Theatre when is it was the Colony. Note the demolition of the 2nd Avenue El in progress.
Here is a recent photo of the former Colony Theatre, which is now Temple Sharaay Tefila. http://mysite.verizon.net/vze7r9g5/colonytheatre/
Listed in the American Motion Picture Directory 1914-1915 as the New Theatre. The 1926 & 1927 editions of Film Daily Yearbook list it as the 79th Street Theatre with a seating capacity of 666. In the 1930 F.D.Y. it is the Seventy-Ninth Street Theatre with a seating capacity of 1,026.
By the 1941 edition of F.D.Y it has been re-named Colony Theatre and the seating capacity is given as 1,000. In 1943, still the colony, but seating is given as 875. In 1950 it is named as the Colony 79th Street Theatre with seating given as 886. In the 1957 edition of F.D.Y. it is listed, but no seating capacity is given, which usually means it has closed.
I was very pleased with valuable comments that followed my recent post on the Colony Theatre. I came into Manhattan last Saturday from my home in Queens primarily to snap the pictures of the former Colony and Europe theatres that I posted. I was born and raised in the Yorkville neighborhood where these theatres were located. Of the three theatres that were within two or three blocks from where I lived (on 78th St. near 1st Ave.), the Monroe, Europe, and Colony — I am old enough to remember only the Colony, which closed when I was about five years old. I particularly remember a red-haired women sitting in the ticket booth who smiled at me wheneverI passed with my parents.
It is not surprising that the German-language films played at one time at the Colony. 79th St. was the center of a large Hungarian population that had immigrated from Austria-Hungary and would have understood German. A few blocks north was a large German community. The Europe Theatre at one time showed German and Hungarian-language films, and on 86th Street, the Casino and 86th Street Garden Theatres often featured German films.
Yorkville is now a gentrified, yuppified neighborhood with few traces of its ethnic past.
Hey Lost your link for this site didn’t work. I went to the page and had to take off the following to get to the page
http://www.shaaraytefilanyc.org —–> /index.html
http://www.shaaraytefilanyc.org
This was already the 79th Street Theatre in 1923.
Still listed as a Trans-Lux theatre in the 1959 Film Daily Yearbook.
Fastidious, attractive, young lady of social background wanted for theatre manager in 1937.
View link
What happened to this theatre’s intro?