Todd Haimes Theatre

Excerpt from a New York Times review dated January 18, 1968:

“THE BIGGEST BUNDLE OF THEM ALL” …lasts 106 minutes, of which the last 15 are worth seeing if you are really intent on going to a movie.

The afternoon price of admission at the Selwyn Theater on 42d Street, where the film opened yesterday, is only 85 cents; and although the theater is perhaps not the best ventilated in New York and the audience is not the most reverent, the movie is worth the price of admission, as long as the first 91 minutes are skipped.

In 1990, the Selwyn was still showing movies as evidenced by this image that I captured from a video clip on YouTube about how these grind houses were fast disappearing from the Duece. In fact, by this time only the Selwyn, Lyric, Harris and Rialto (using its Seventh Ave entrance) were still hanging on. By 1992, only the Harris would remain.

This image from the same video shows the Selwyn’s marquee beckoning folks to bring the entire family down to 42nd Street to enjoy a movie. Ha! Ri-iiight…

Nice shot, Bryan. According to imdb, “Sex and Violence” was released in the U.S. in November, 1979. The co-feature, “The Day After Halloween” is actually an Aussie horror flick from 1979 called “Snapshot” that was released in the U.S. (again, per imdb) in October, 1980. So… that would date the photo to 1980. Of course, release date information is probably pretty sketchy – even on imdb – for films of this nature. I’m sure many Duece engagements flew well under the radar.

I’ve been searching around the internet for some time trying to find some of the art projects that were allowed installation within or upon some of the dormant grind houses on the Duece in the early ‘90’s. In addition to the “poetic” phrases that graced all the marquees along the strip around 1992, I seem to recall one or two installations in the lobby space and entry foyer space of one or two of the theaters along the north side of the block.

I came across this web site, which describes a work called “Mimesis” by Kristin Jones and Andrew Ginzel that was installed in the entrance to the Selwyn back in 1993. There is a small image of the installation when you first open the link, and several more if you click on either of the “Mimesis” links at the bottom of the page.

Does anyone recall a similar installation in the Times Square vestibule? I seem to recall an almost holographic image of an blinking eye, but my memory is fuzzy. It might have been another work by Jones and Ginzel (there are many listed on the website, but not all of them have links with images and descriptions).

I was at the IFC last night and as anyone who attends films there knows, they screen a short before most features. Well, last night I was delighted to see a short film about “The Grand Luncheonette” that we were discussing above and that was located under the marquee of the theater. The same family owned or ran the luncheonette and it was there for 58 years before closing in October 1997. Fortunately, the filmmaker received the cooperation of the family that ran the luncheonette and was able to make the short film and capture this slice of a now vanished New York. It is places like the luncheonette that made New York New York and one great quote in the film has a family member saying that soon all of American will look alike with MacDonalds and Starbucks on every corner. That comment was made in 1997 and I can’t imagine what he would think of “The Deuce” or NYC now. There is a web site by the filmmaker that I will try to remember as I’m going back to the IFC later today.

Warren, the Rossellini film, The Greatest Love (also known as Europe ‘51) is not the stinker you assert it to be. Many now consider it one of his best works, an essay on the nature of goodness and whether its extremes can become insanity. Martin Scorsese admires this film a great deal, and his 35mm print of it was shown at the New York Film Festival in 1980 as a revival-tribute. Vincent Canby in The New York Times of October 12 that year called it “One of this festival’s bravest —maybe even finest— moments.” I attended that showing and the audience reaction was a very good one. I have watched it many times in 16mm and on video and am always moved by this key Italian film of the 1950s and its moving, even mystical, qualities. The film is indeed peculiar, has its detractors, but it has great admirers as well. It was a movie very much ahead of its time and had a great influence, along with Rossellini’s Voyage to Italy, another trashed masterpiece, on the French new wave directors. Read Tag Gallagher’s volume on Rossellini for an elaborate discourse. My point is a simple one…problematic? Perhaps. A stinker? Absolutely not! Absolutely not!

Here are a few images of the Selwyn I’ve collected on my photobucket site. They include a couple of exterior shots I took myself back in October ‘93 plus a few images I’ve found on the web that I haven’t seen previously posted or linked to from this page:

1986 sci-fi horror grind
Matt Weber shot 1980’s Grand Luncheonette
Old Selwyn Building & marquee 1993 (damn bus!)
1993 – Cooped up?
1990’s Grand Luncheonette
Late 1990’s auditorium prior to renovations

If I were a more patient photographer back in 1993, I might have re-taken that shot of the facade after the city bus blocked my view under the marquee. I might have even made sure the composition wasn’t so crooked! Oh well. My apologies if any of these images are repeats.

I read on the internet broadway database (ibdb.com) that the Selwyn began a peculiar and short lived policy in 1950 of presenting a 60 minute play before each showing of their feature film. With an average of 4 to 5 shows a day, that meant some 30 live performances each week! Two of these plays are listed as having been a part of this policy (the site does not detail how often the show was changed): “The Respectable Prostitute” written by Jean Paul Sartre and “Ladies Night in a Turkish Bath”. Were there ever two more appropriate titles for live theatrical presentation during the height of the Deuce’s grind house days?

Here is the ibdb page for the Selwyn.

If you take a look at the third photo in Jerry’s post of July 27th, you can also see a “Soda Fountain” sign for the Grand Luncheonette that was located (as discussed above) under the marquee sharing the 1st floor of the now-collapsed Selwyn building with the theater’s outer lobby. The Grand might have operated under a different name at the time this photo was taken.

I recently found the negatives for a series of photos I took on 42nd Street and Times Square in October of ‘93. I’m going to have them transferred onto disc and will link to them on this site as soon as I can post them on my photobucket account.

Sorry, something amiss with my earlier post. Here is the 3rd link. 3D on the Deuce: j

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Here are some Selwyn images from 1953 & 1954 including 3D on the Deuce: j

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Here’s a news story confirming the Grand Luncheonette’s location underneath the marquee of and to the right side of the entranceway to the Selwyn: View link

(The Nedick’s made reference to earlier today was located on the southwest corner of 7th and 42nd, on the spot presently occupied by Champs Sports.)