They were “soft core” sex films, the porn of the time. It opened with such films and was never mainstream. The gay screen started when they twinned it in the seventies.
Whatever one thinks of Cineplex and Garth to accuse him of spending undue expense in preserving, booking and keeping single screens open in major cities is hardly a crime profile on this site.
The reason all seats are never sold is that seats break, ticket holders show up late and people with hearing devices and sight impairments move around after the show starts to adjust for their specific needs.
Cineplex Odeon cared for theatres and kept many sites in good shape and open way past their profitable stage. They used their clout to book first runs films at sites that were no longer viable due to their location between zones. The Plaza was such a location.
Having stated that, they also booked all theatres the same with no care taken to audience profiles. As a result the Plaza often played horror and children’s films and wide release specialty titles such as DRIVING MISS DAISY might end up at the Kenmore in Brooklyn.
The New York 20 hour Columbia film marathon consisted of:
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY
MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN
MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON
ON THE WATERFRONT
DR. STRANGELOVE
HIS GIRL FRIDAY
FUNNY GIRL
THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI
THE PROFESSIONALS
Prizes included movie posters, stills, poster books, soundtrack albums and a free showing of THE ODESSA FILE.
According to the NYT it did just that while the 14th Street location still ran Vaudeville. The article specific states “Keith & Proctors Twenty Third Street”.
In 1952 Brandt sold the Palestine and Charles to Samuel Friedman who then sold them in 1956 to an unnamed company willing to install wide screens and air conditioning.
…The Cortlandt and West Street corporation in conjuction with Solomon & Khan, builders, have altered their plans, drawn by Gronenburg & Leuchtag, architects, and are now erecting on their plot at the southeast corner of Cortlandt and West Street a moving picture theatre of approximately 5,000 square feet with exits on West and Washington Street…
Does anyone have any idea what theatre this may have eventually been?
They were “soft core” sex films, the porn of the time. It opened with such films and was never mainstream. The gay screen started when they twinned it in the seventies.
Whatever one thinks of Cineplex and Garth to accuse him of spending undue expense in preserving, booking and keeping single screens open in major cities is hardly a crime profile on this site.
The reason all seats are never sold is that seats break, ticket holders show up late and people with hearing devices and sight impairments move around after the show starts to adjust for their specific needs.
BEAT THE DEVIL
There was a Turnpike Drive-In at 127th Street.
It is now the New World Stages, Ed.
Cineplex Odeon cared for theatres and kept many sites in good shape and open way past their profitable stage. They used their clout to book first runs films at sites that were no longer viable due to their location between zones. The Plaza was such a location.
Having stated that, they also booked all theatres the same with no care taken to audience profiles. As a result the Plaza often played horror and children’s films and wide release specialty titles such as DRIVING MISS DAISY might end up at the Kenmore in Brooklyn.
The NY one started at 12:01am Saturday night/Sunday morning, October 12/13.
The New York 20 hour Columbia film marathon consisted of:
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY
MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN
MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON
ON THE WATERFRONT
DR. STRANGELOVE
HIS GIRL FRIDAY
FUNNY GIRL
THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI
THE PROFESSIONALS
Prizes included movie posters, stills, poster books, soundtrack albums and a free showing of THE ODESSA FILE.
The intro should be corrected to reflect that Walter Reade, not Cineplex Odeon, tripled this theatre.
As the Grand Opera House this was showing films at least as early as January 1923 when it ran TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY.
The Squat Theatre, mentioned in the introduction at this location, showed movies in 1984, prior to being razed for this multiplex.
The Irving Place was a double features subrun arthouse from 1941 to 1950 with a heavy emphasis on Russian films during the war years.
Ken, thanks for keeping London history real.
According to the NYT it did just that while the 14th Street location still ran Vaudeville. The article specific states “Keith & Proctors Twenty Third Street”.
This stopped showing films in 1973.
In 1952 Brandt sold the Palestine and Charles to Samuel Friedman who then sold them in 1956 to an unnamed company willing to install wide screens and air conditioning.
Does anyone know which years this operated as the Stuyvesant and whether it showed movies as that?
A 1908 NYT article names the Keith & Proctor on 23rd Street as being renamed Bijou Dream, not this one.
The Cinema Village opened on October 5, 1964 with Ingmar Bergman’s “All These Women”, not 1963 as previously stated.
Like the Quad, it spent much of the late seventies blurring the lines between porn and arthouse.
It is operating as a twin in January 1999 and a triplex by March 1999.
Thanks for the wonderful insight into the neighborhood, Judith!
I would imagine the Golden Rule was one of the blinking fronts but the Ruby was not yet open in 1908. Any ideas on what the third house may have been?
During the leasing of the New Law in March 1922, a blurb in the NYT lists two Mayers and a Schneider as the directors of M & S.
E. Mayer, C. Mayer and L. Schneider.
The Gate showed movies here for two years (1967-68), probably longer than the Jean Renoir or the Camelot ever operated.
Gate should be added as an aka and 162 Second Avenue should finally be added as the best likely address.
This from the New York Times July 12, 1927:
…The Cortlandt and West Street corporation in conjuction with Solomon & Khan, builders, have altered their plans, drawn by Gronenburg & Leuchtag, architects, and are now erecting on their plot at the southeast corner of Cortlandt and West Street a moving picture theatre of approximately 5,000 square feet with exits on West and Washington Street…
Does anyone have any idea what theatre this may have eventually been?
For the sake of consistency, this name should be changed to The Pearl Theatre Company.