Harris Theatre
226 W. 42nd Street,
New York,
NY
10036
226 W. 42nd Street,
New York,
NY
10036
9 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 55 comments
Hello-
I want to make sure I have the correct info- the Harris Theater was in perfectly renovatible shape they just chose not to.
How…odd.
yup, looks like Madam Tussaud’s is still operating, but there is no New York location listed on the Ripley site.
It was Ripley’s Believe it or not that closed.
According to their website, the wax museum is still located at 234 W. 42nd Street.
From the photo pictured this would have been an ideal intimate theatre to bring back to live use. Such a pity.
Building is empty. Boxy marquee from the museum, albeit devoid of signage, is still in place. The Candler name still remains on the building.
The lobby on the 43rd Street side wasn’t even 8 feet deep.
The Apollo also operated for a while as the concert venue known as The Academy into the mid ‘90’s. The entrance to the Academy was through the 43rd street exit doors, so one walked pretty much directly into the auditorium. When I saw Santana play there around ‘94 or so, there were no seats in the orchestra, which was leveled for general admission standing room. However, the HBO show Russel Simmons Def Comedy Jam was taped there, and I seem to recall shots of the crowd in their seats. In any event, the house was in pretty good shape, as I recall. The Lyric was probably in reasonable shape as well, since it remained to the end one of the classier first run oriented theaters on the block, like the Selwyn and Harris.
bigjoe59. I can’t speak for Lyric but the Apollo again saw life as a Broadway playhouse for a time with the opening show being On Golden Pond. I don’t remember the extent of the renovation but I do recall when the renovation was in progress observing a woman recovering seats in the orchestra. And there was a rich new curtain.
And I continue to say the Lyric and Apollo were not demolished. The 42nd and 43rd street walls still stand, which is good because the 43rd street side of the Lyric is ornate.
Hello-
I thank Ed S. and mike saps for their replies. as with the Candler Theater I’m guessing the Lyric and the Apollo on the north side of the street though razed were likewise in perfectly decent shape for renovation.
The Harris and the Selwyn were my two favorite houses on the block, although I did have a soft spot for the faded opulence of the New Amsterdam.
I’m grateful that two out of the three are up and running and in magnificent shape.
Big Joe, there must have some other reason than condition as to why it was not renovated and repurposed. The Harris was in very decent shape compared to most of the other theatres on the block as it was one of the last to remain open and showing current films into the early ‘90’s.
Hello- a comment and a question.
*not noted in the detailed intro is that the Chandler Theater opened as a movie palace not a legitimate theater. its first film was the 1914 Italian epic Anthony and Cleopatra.
*also I’m assuming the reason the theater was razed rather renovated was that no one wanted to spend the $$$ needed rather than that the theater
in such condition renovation was impossible.
1972 photo added via Photographs From The 1970s Facebook page.
I have a clear screen capture of the marquee shot and it is 2 Man from UNCLE films…THE SPY WITH MY FACE and TO TRAP A SPY.
There is a pan along the 42nd street block taking in the Harris Theater marquis at the beginning of Conrad Rook’s film “Chappaqua”. I believe the lead film is “The Man From Uncle”, mid-60s.
Reposted from Embassy 1,2,3 page:
bigjoe59 posted: Speaking of the legit theaters that once were located on the south side of 42 St. between 7th and 8th Aves…my question is simple – when the renovation for the “new” 42 St. began in earnest in the early 90s what was the state of the Candler Theater? Was it in such bad shape they decided to demolish it or was it in perfectly renovatable shape but no one wanted to spend the money so it was razed.
saps responded: The Candler (known as the Harris since 1921!) was a much nicer house [than the Anco], solid and dependable, and I don’t think I ever heard a satisfactory explanation as to why it was demolished. One of my favorites, and surely missed.
techman707 responded: It’s interesting you [Bigjoe59] should ask about the Candler building, since the union I was in, the projectionists Local 306, was located in the Candler building. The only reason they were FORCED to move was because of the demolition. The building was certainly NOT in bad shape. In fact, like so many of the older buildings that have been razed, it was a building that was built for the ages. Like comparing the Empire State Building to the World Trade Center, which building would you select to be in if were going to be hit by a plane?
Carry on!
Street view here is off just a tic. The Harris entrance was actually to the right of the McDonald’s space seen here. A glimpse of the former entrance location can be seen on the extreme right of this view, below the high arch-topped window.
Hello Ed, I really appreciate your posts here, I just want you to know that, great to see you back and actually be able to greet you. We are still pulling together interviews, because this is a self financed project, we have no deadline, other than we promised ourselves 2011 would be the wrap up of any interviews we do. Because we are involved in DVD releases, that eats up most of our time. Right now I’ve been pulling together interviews with Long Island projectionists I know who didn’t quite work the Deuce but did work theaters like the Fine Arts, Calderone !&2, Salsbury theater etc…Most of these guys had trained me when I did my brief stint projecting in the early 90’s.
Hey formerprojectionist… How goes your Duece documentary you referenced back on Dec 28, 2009? Seems like something I’d be quite interested in seeing.
Looks like a great double-bill.
Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie and The Nude Bomb looked to be the double bill playing at the time.
Ok, here’s some live footage of the Harris and some of the other theaters on 42nd St that my friend and I shot back in September 1980. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbRVzD71Cno this is part of a longer film, my friend did the music. By the way, my partner and I are currently doing a documentary on the Deuce, and we are very, very interested in interviewing anyone who worked on that street, in particular projectionist, but really anyone who was there in the golden days. We’ve already interviewed Jamie Gillis (male porn star who did live sex shows on the deuce), Joel M. Reed (who directed Bloodsucking Freaks aka Incredible Torture Show) and in January we are interviewing Carter Stevens (Adult Film director) Contact me if you have a story to tell.
Excerpt from a NY Times review of April 15, 1971:
Anyone interested in seeing “The Blood on Satan’s Claw” would do well to catch it at one of the neighborhood houses where the double bill opens today. At the Harris yesterday, the projection was faulty, the audience restless, and the auditorium so brightly lit that the night scenes became light blue blurs.