Stadium Theatre
2180 3rd Avenue,
New York,
NY
10035
2180 3rd Avenue,
New York,
NY
10035
3 people
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Actually, there’s plenty of clearance for projection from the back of the house even if the booth were a few feet above the back row of seats. While the view may be exaggerated, that’s still pretty small screen, and at the point where the projector beam crosses under the chandelier the size of the image would be very small, possibly less than a foot square. At the halfway point in the auditorium the picture would be only one-quarter the size it would be when it got to the screen. Further clearance would also have been gained by having each of the two projectors off the center line of the auditorium where the chandelier is hung. In addition, both machines would be shooting at a slight downward angle which would add more clearance.
I agree with Tinseltoes. How did the projection beam get around the chandlier in such a shallow house? Maybe the photograph is deceiving, but it certainly gives us good cause to wonder.
I smell a new listing forthcoming…
The name on the arch did end with an S, so that must have been it. I wonder if it was later renamed the Globe? We don’t have any theaters but the Stadium listed for the blocks of Third Avenue to either side of 119th Street.
The American Motion Picture Directory 1914-1915 listed the People’s Vaudeville Theatre, 2172 Third Avenue.
Looking back over the old comments, maybe the unknown theater was the Globe, which AlAlvarez asked about in this comment?
The 1921 Film Daily item I cited did say that the Stadium’s site was 50x185 feet, and considering that the stadium-seated section was over the lobby then the original auditorium could have been more than three times as deep as it was wide and still leave plenty of room for projection booth and a stage.
There is a newer Google Street View of 119th Street now, so the side view of the old building is gone. I wish I’d saved a screen cap of it.
Does anyone know the name of the theater next door to the Michigan Furniture Company in the 1905 photo at iatse311’s link? A banner over the door says “Moving Pictures” so it should probably be listed at Cinema Treasures. It looks like it was down the block a few doors from the site of the Stadium, probably at 2172 Third Avenue.
Studying the picture. I think the building was extended.. The Original Lenth I think was to the Exit on the Left.. (6 Bays) We did a similar thing to Our Cinema in Birmingham England… (The Capitol) in 1929
http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult_VPage&VBID=24UAYWRA4QYN&SMLS=1&RW=1024&RH=643
Am I crazy, or does the vintage interior photo posted by Warren on December 10, 2008, show what appear to be a pair of open transom windows at the top of the side wall of the elevated loge seating? Further down along the same wall, in the orchestra section, there may also be sets of windows just below the ceiling. Odd for a purpose-built cinema. If one manipulates the street view down 119th Street, the windows evident along the sidewall of the old building would seem to correspond to the suspected windows seen in Warren’s photo. In the street view, all the glass looks like it was blacked out.
Yes, the corner street view from just inside 119th Street shows the old building and verifies that the building’s last commercial use was as a wharehouse/showroom for Island Furniture, with an address of 2178 Third Avenue per the signage that wrapped around the corner. It also advertised 3 floors of warehouse, so it’s very likely the interior was already gutted long before the building was demolished for the new structure. A temporary sign hung over the awning on Third Avenue, stating “Lost Our Lease Everything Must Go.”
The following item appeared in the February 26, 1921, issue of The Film Daily:
lostmemory’s comment of July 15, 2008, cits the property record giving the build date of the building as 1921, so it most likely was the Stadium that the item referred to.In views taken from Third Avenue, Google Street View shows a nearly new building on the southwest corner of the intersection, while in views taken from 119th Street it still shows the old building, which has obviously been demolished since those views were taken. The Stadium is no more.
A SUN THEATRE is listed at 2176 Third Avenue in the 1941 Film Daily Yearbook. Could this have been the Stadium?
I believe you are correct. I believe it’s the building linked below in Google Street View:
View link
Google street views show a building at SW corner of the intersection which obviously was once a theatre – lots of decorative brickwork and the entrance facade and stagehouse. Looks like it was gutted decades ago; old-style windows along the auditorium wall which faces the sidwalk. Old entrance now has a laundry with a Furniture Warehouse in the auditorium.
The last mention in the New York Times appears to be in 1938.
Any idea when this theater closed?
Wow, it seemed very long, unless that’s just the type of lens that was used. If not, the screen would have been awfully far away!
A Paramount week ad from 1919 lists a Globe Theatre at 3rd Avenue and 119th St. Could this have been the Stadium?
Here’s a local.live image of the location. It’s mostly all old buildings that survive on the blocks around 119th St, but can’t place which one may have been the theater. There is one vacant lot on the corner, but everything else remains. Perhaps one of you would have some luck figuring out which one it is. It would be nice to see if the building still exists:
Here’s the link:
View link
The stadium was a Randforce in this 1952 ad for “Room for One More”. That picture Warren posted above is wild. Can you imagine sitting near the back watching a movie in the old 33:1? Had to look like a Sony Watchman :)
View link
In Christmas of 1922 the Stadium joined the wide release of Mary Pickford’s TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY…and I mean wide.
33 runs in Manhattan alone.