Carnegie Hall Cinema
881 7th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10019
881 7th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10019
17 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 90 comments
Please update, theatre closed October 27, 1997
Excellent piece on silent film (and organ) at the Carnegie Hall Cinema. Nice photos. http://www.markhermanproductions.com/uploads/7/3/6/6/7366751/1983_09_the_console.pdf
Opened on May 28th, 1961 with “White Nights”. Grand opening ad posted. It was owned by Cinecom Theatres in the mid 1970’s.
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/6011/photos/319677
Just add Cineplex Odeon open the theatre under their management on June 19, 1987
I saw Joan Bennett in person here in November of 1980. It was a double feature of Scarlet Street and Woman in the Window, but in between features there was a short version of Alice In Wonderland in which Joan appeared. Joan walked up the stage and answered questions. It was a thrill to see her in person.
I saw 6 movies here from 1952 to the sixties. All 6 are getting,today, 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating – Diabolique, Purple Noon, Jeux Interdits, Pather Panchali, The Music Room and I can’t remember the 3rd by S. Ray. Great stuff, back in the day. I haven’t been in a movie theatre since ‘04, Delovely…..mediocre. Miss The Carnegie. NYC was my Oyster back then….not now.
Hello-
I thank Purplepielord for his link of April 2013. but I still don’t see how the theater in the photo at the top could possibly have been housed in the same building as the bar Neveda Smith’s its current occupant.
The Carnegie Hall Cinema is one of the repertory movie theaters included in my recently published book, “Repertory Movie Theaters of New York City: Havens for Revivals, Indies and the Avant-Garde, 1960-1994.” It’s listed on Amazon and www.mcfarlandpub.com.
I was a high school sophomore in the fall of 1960. On Yom Kippur, I saw the Apu Trilogy, watching all three films back to back. It was a life changing experience. I have never forgotten those films and was worried that if I saw them again, I wouldn’t have the same reaction. I was wrong. I am viewing them now and find them to be even more emotionally brilliant than when I first saw them 55 years ago. The Carnegie Cinema holds a special place in my heart and memory.
I was an usher when the theater first opened. I remember it showing the Apu Trilogy and I saw those films a zillion times… not a bad cinema & music education! I was a music major then at City College and the theater was owned by the family of my fellow music major, Peter Schlosser. Film Forum is now showing that famous Trilogy and that’s what made me think to search and find this site. I think it was around the summer of ‘59 or '60, when it opened and I worked. A few years after that, I studied Indian music seriously and that was partly due to the Apu influence. I think that Philip Glass, who I later worked with, was also influenced by Ravi Shankar’s great score. I never was back to the theater after that summer and sometimes wondered whatever happened to it. I had no idea of its later history & decline.
The last time I was in the Carnegie Hall Cinema was, sadly, in the late ‘70s. I went with some very close friends to see, with what could be described as a VERY receptive audience, a revival of “Suddenly, Last Summer”. What a treat to see one of my all-time favorite movies on a big screen; in fact, it was the ONLY time I’ve seen this movie in a theater. What a pity that the days of revival houses in Manhattan have passed.
hello to Tinseltoes-
you certainly make a valid point. so this past weekend i did some further investigating. the notes of which are posted on the Lyric/Bijou’s own page.
There is so much info about the Lyric on the Lyric page, especially in links that Tinseltoes has already posted.
A shadow would depend on the time of day. On all counts, the Lyric was a small house.
to Al A.–
as always thanks for the info. as i said in my previous post i wasn’t completely ruling out the existence of a Lyric Theater on 3rd Ave. between 12th & 13th i just didn’t see how it was possible. all of the buildings on the left side of 3rd Ave. between 12th & 13th St. are rather small/narrow so i do see how only one building could possible have housed a movie theater of any note. is it possible that when it was the Lyric has captured in the famous photo that the auditorium per se was in fact a combination of two buildings? i only remember it as the Bijou a gay porn house and assumed the Bijou was housed in only half of the original building.
also take a look at the photo again. since it was taken in the late 30s shouldn’t there be a shadow from the 3rd Avenue El?
Direct link here.
bigjoe59, the Lyric is here: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/8371
Hello to Al A.–
you have been most helpful with questions i have had since i discovered this website. now they say if you search the Internet long enough you’ll find what you’re looking for but that’s not strictly true. this where your help comes in.
there is a well known photo i believe by Bernice Abbot of a Lyric Theater on 3rd Ave. between 12th and 13th Sts. the date the photo was taken is given as 4/24/36. the headline film for the day is a Chaplin flick noted by a cardboard cut out of Charlie himself directly to the right of the box office. my point being i don’t think there was ever a movie theater called the Lyric on 3rd Ave. between 12th and 13th Sts.
i was in the area this past weekend so i decided to investigate. if you look at the left side of 3rd Ave. between 12th and 13th Sts. all the building are older than the theater would have been. there is a newer building in the middle of the block but it only occupies the space between the two adjacent older buildings. also the front is way to narrow when you consider how wide the front of the Lyric is in the photo. also the same thing happens if you look at the right side of 3rd Ave. between 12th. and 13th Sts. all the buildings seem as old or older than the theater would have been. again there is a newer building in the middle of the block but it again only occupies the space between the two adjacent older buildings. likewise the front is way to narrow to be be occupying the same space as the theater’s wide front did.
my point being as evidenced by my survey this past weekend there may very well have been a Lyric Theater with a wide front showing a Chaplin film on 4/24/36 in Manhattan but i don’t see how it could possibly have been located on 3rd Ave. between 12th and 13th Sts.
During the 1974-1975 period the Lincoln Art down the street was showing hard core porn, the Paris was showing the x-rated “EMMANUELLE: and the Fine Arts was showing the controversial hard R "THE NIGHT PORTER”. The line between art and smut was very murky then.
Hello-
oddly enough the Bleeker Street Cinema always played porn during its final years. i believe it was gay rather than straight.
I didn’t know this theater had a porn past. Seems like a very odd neighborhood for that. I lived in NYC from Sept 1974 thru 1981 and during that whole period the Carnegie Cinema was a repertory theater showing classic films. I used to look forward to their schedules every month. And the same goes for Bleeker Street Cinema, for that matter.
Big date venue. I saw ‘The Misfits’ there.
This closed in late October 1997 with “MRS. BROWN” and “IN THE COMPANY OF MEN”.
Not sure if the closure dates above are correct cause I definitely watched Unhook the Stars here in ‘96. Can we get a confirmation on its final week in business?
I assume they started as soft core and moved into hard core after DEEP THROAT raised (ahum) the bar.