New Yorker Theater

523 8th Avenue,
New York, NY 10018

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Al Alvarez
Al Alvarez on February 13, 2010 at 9:46 pm

The New Yorker appears in the 1941 Film Daily Yearbook. It is gone after that.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on January 14, 2009 at 11:13 pm

I suspect that brief items in Boxoffice were extracted from other sources, including assorted press releases by theater owners, and stuff sometimes got jumbled. I can easily imagine a press release saying that the West End Theatre was getting a De Luxe renovation, and some harried copy editor in Hollywood misinterpreting some other staff member’s hastily jotted notes about it.

Their longer articles appear to be more reliable, and were probably often press releases printed verbatim, or cut down slightly to fit the available column space.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on January 14, 2009 at 12:39 am

The name change apparently took place in 1937. Here’s something from the October 2, 1937, issue of Boxoffice Magazine: “New Yorker, formerly the Gem, 523 Eighth Avenue, is being operated by the New York Amusement, Inc., Ben Shapiro, principal.”

The item listed two other recent name changes for theaters in Manhattan: The Acme, 247 W. 48th St., had become the President, and the De Luxe, 360 W. 125 St., was undergoing renovation and would reopen as the West End. This latter is a bit confusing, as I gather from the Cinema Treasures West End Theatre page that the place opened as the West End Theatre in 1902, and was sold under that name as late as 1932. Maybe the name De Luxe was used between 1932 and the 1937 renovation?

Al Alvarez
Al Alvarez on January 13, 2009 at 10:36 pm

From 1923 to at least 1932, this was possibly known as the GEM.