Interesting that the Metropolitan right now is showing Mel Gibson’s LA PASSIONE DI CRISTO on one screen and a revival of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1964 IL VANGELO SECONDO MATTEO (THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW) on another. So two films about Jesus are playing the same Roman theatre at the same time. Interesting also that both movies were shot in part in the southern Italian village of Matera. My own feeling is that the Pasolini film is infinitely superior both as a movie and as a portrait of Jesus.
This theatre has some of the best programming in American, much of it under the tutelage of Bruce Goldstein. I should add some accolades to the ones above by mentioning the enormously popular and virtually complete Fellini festival they put on, the retrospective of the films of Frank Capra…which included an exceedinly rare 1929 film called THE DONOVAN AFFAIR, for which the soundtrack was lost. It was shown here anyway. I believe that the dialogue was read aloud from a script! The Film Forum is not a trend follower but rather a trend setter.
I think I was only there once, in August of 1970 to see Samuel Fuller’s UNDERWORLD, U.S.A. That kind of auteurist favorite defined the programming of the Mac Mahon. I’m glad it’s still around!
Happy to read about this. Nothing against churches, but why aren’t more churches converted into theatres rather than the other way around? The now-closed Exeter Street Theatre in Boston used to be the First Spiritual Temple. I would be interested in hearing more about such church-to-cinema transformations.
The play SHOULD have been presented as written. It’s the right of authorship and should be respected. Can copyrighted plays be rewritten at whim to reflect particular sensitivities, biases? Can they be altered to change political content? I really think not.
Funny how I remember this…and I did check, but the only film I ever saw at the Kips Bay was in July of 1966. It was Bruce Brown’s surfing film THE ENDLESS SUMMER, which I believe had its first New York run here.
The address for the Gayety/Publix is 659-65 Washington Street. The spelling was Gayety, with a “y”, as evidenced by the exterior photos of painted wall-lettering in the www.cinematour.com photos. The theatre is only one block away from the beautifully restored Cutler Majestic on Tremont Street. Would that Emerson College could buy and restore this treasure as well. Alas, that is wishful thinking.
The theatre opened in 1953 and continued into the mid-1980s. I remember seeing a number of Italian-language films here around that time when a local Italian film presenter used the theatre for that purpose. In August of 1985 I actually went to see E.T.– L'EXTRATERRESTRE, Spielberg’s film dubbed in Italian! I think the small lobby had a small religious grotto with fountain. Does anyone have any further information on this place?
Casolaro Films, a distributor of Italian films to ethnic houses and some art houses, had its offices at 106 W. 39th Street, in the Princess Theatre building, and might have supplied some of the programs for the theatre under its incarnations as Little CineMet/Cinema Verdi in the 1940s-50s. Casolaro later became Casolaro Giglio Films, moved to Lafayette Street off Canal, and supplied the Cinema Giglio (which they must have leased) with Italian product.
I don’t know why they named this theatre the “Zeotrope” (sic) since the word they were after is correctly spelled “zoetrope, ” which the dictionary defines as a mechanical toy offering visual illusion, consisting of a slotted drum that, when whirled, makes objects within the drum give the illusion of continuous motion. The programming and admission prices here are very good, but all three of the auditoriums are fairly weatherbeaten. There was talk of this theatre’s being scheduled for demolition. Anyone know what its status is now?
Two photos of the Princess Theatre, one exterior and one interior, can be found in the book “Broadway Theatres: History and Architecture” by William Morrison, pages 84 & 85. The Princess had various names over the years. It was also called “Little CineMet” at one time because of its proximity to the old Metropolitan Opera and “Cinema Verdi” when it ran Italian films exclusively.
This was a first-run movie theatre programming American films. In January of 1947, however, they did show Rossellini’s neo-realist Italian film OPEN CITY.
Bits of programming esoterica for the theatre when it was called the Liberty. Shown in January of 1933: MAZELTOV with Molly Picon, a reworking with Yiddish narration and framing sequence of the 1923 silent OST UND WEST. Shown in March of 1937: HIS WIFE’S LOVER, a 1931 Yiddish film.
Work on the place seemed to have come to a halt last time I went by. I’ve been to this theatre hundreds of times, both as a single screen place and when it became a triplex.
I haven’t been in it under this incarnation. I thought it was just booths, but you may be right. Perhaps I should take a peek and verify. There was a police raid here a couple of years ago or less, where some men were arrested because of sexual activity. One commited suicide right after. And before that, when it was just a porno theatre, Town of Johnston officials tried to close the place down several times. One of the movies I remember seeing here when the theatre was still new is IT’S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD.
Information I received a few years ago (through Lido Cantarutti of Marin County) for a research project on Italian film exhibition in San Francisco said that during the 1930s and up until 1941, as the Milano Theatre, this site featured English language films during the day, but then during the evening, and even with shows at midnight, it presented Italian language films and plays. This would have ended with the start of the war, when Italian, German, and Japanese films were considered illegal enemy alien property and were confiscated and sequestered by the U. S. government. If anyone has information on the Verdi Theatre and Liberty Theatre on Broadway in North Beach which showed Italian films during that era, I would be glad to hear of it. The Green Street Theatre is supposed to have featured silent films from Italy. Also the Acme Theatre, at Stockton and Broadway is suppposed to have shown Italian films on a once-in-a-while basis.
Yes, a commercial building has taken its place. I went by this theatre a thousand times but never saw a movie there. The Cathedral of the Holy Cross (J.F.K. funeral) isn’t all that far down Washington Street in Boston’s South End.
As a regular cinema, no! Symphony Hall was built as a concert hall. But films have been shown there in the past, especially during the silent era. There is a display case inside showing some of the films from that were shown there…such as a silent versions of CARMEN, some Russian silents like POTEMKIN. Also more recently when the Boston Symphony performed Prokofiev’s film-cantata “Alexander Nevsky”, Eisenstein’s film was projected and the live orchestra was used in place of the recorded soundtrack film score.
I remember a very enjoyable evening at this delightful theatre while passing through in August, 1997. The film was MY BEST FRIEND’S WIFE. Can any locals post recollections about the Criterion’s past?
Interesting that the Metropolitan right now is showing Mel Gibson’s LA PASSIONE DI CRISTO on one screen and a revival of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1964 IL VANGELO SECONDO MATTEO (THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW) on another. So two films about Jesus are playing the same Roman theatre at the same time. Interesting also that both movies were shot in part in the southern Italian village of Matera. My own feeling is that the Pasolini film is infinitely superior both as a movie and as a portrait of Jesus.
This theatre has some of the best programming in American, much of it under the tutelage of Bruce Goldstein. I should add some accolades to the ones above by mentioning the enormously popular and virtually complete Fellini festival they put on, the retrospective of the films of Frank Capra…which included an exceedinly rare 1929 film called THE DONOVAN AFFAIR, for which the soundtrack was lost. It was shown here anyway. I believe that the dialogue was read aloud from a script! The Film Forum is not a trend follower but rather a trend setter.
I think I was only there once, in August of 1970 to see Samuel Fuller’s UNDERWORLD, U.S.A. That kind of auteurist favorite defined the programming of the Mac Mahon. I’m glad it’s still around!
Happy to read about this. Nothing against churches, but why aren’t more churches converted into theatres rather than the other way around? The now-closed Exeter Street Theatre in Boston used to be the First Spiritual Temple. I would be interested in hearing more about such church-to-cinema transformations.
The play SHOULD have been presented as written. It’s the right of authorship and should be respected. Can copyrighted plays be rewritten at whim to reflect particular sensitivities, biases? Can they be altered to change political content? I really think not.
Funny how I remember this…and I did check, but the only film I ever saw at the Kips Bay was in July of 1966. It was Bruce Brown’s surfing film THE ENDLESS SUMMER, which I believe had its first New York run here.
The address for the Gayety/Publix is 659-65 Washington Street. The spelling was Gayety, with a “y”, as evidenced by the exterior photos of painted wall-lettering in the www.cinematour.com photos. The theatre is only one block away from the beautifully restored Cutler Majestic on Tremont Street. Would that Emerson College could buy and restore this treasure as well. Alas, that is wishful thinking.
The theatre opened in 1953 and continued into the mid-1980s. I remember seeing a number of Italian-language films here around that time when a local Italian film presenter used the theatre for that purpose. In August of 1985 I actually went to see E.T.– L'EXTRATERRESTRE, Spielberg’s film dubbed in Italian! I think the small lobby had a small religious grotto with fountain. Does anyone have any further information on this place?
Was this theatre formerly known as the State, or was that another theatre?
Casolaro Films, a distributor of Italian films to ethnic houses and some art houses, had its offices at 106 W. 39th Street, in the Princess Theatre building, and might have supplied some of the programs for the theatre under its incarnations as Little CineMet/Cinema Verdi in the 1940s-50s. Casolaro later became Casolaro Giglio Films, moved to Lafayette Street off Canal, and supplied the Cinema Giglio (which they must have leased) with Italian product.
I don’t know why they named this theatre the “Zeotrope” (sic) since the word they were after is correctly spelled “zoetrope, ” which the dictionary defines as a mechanical toy offering visual illusion, consisting of a slotted drum that, when whirled, makes objects within the drum give the illusion of continuous motion. The programming and admission prices here are very good, but all three of the auditoriums are fairly weatherbeaten. There was talk of this theatre’s being scheduled for demolition. Anyone know what its status is now?
Two photos of the Princess Theatre, one exterior and one interior, can be found in the book “Broadway Theatres: History and Architecture” by William Morrison, pages 84 & 85. The Princess had various names over the years. It was also called “Little CineMet” at one time because of its proximity to the old Metropolitan Opera and “Cinema Verdi” when it ran Italian films exclusively.
Federico Fellini’s LA DOLCE VITA played here in February of 1962. But foreign films were not the standard fare.
There is also a listing for a Lincoln Theatre on Broad Street in Valley Falls. Could it be the same as this theatre?
This was a first-run movie theatre programming American films. In January of 1947, however, they did show Rossellini’s neo-realist Italian film OPEN CITY.
Bits of programming esoterica for the theatre when it was called the Liberty. Shown in January of 1933: MAZELTOV with Molly Picon, a reworking with Yiddish narration and framing sequence of the 1923 silent OST UND WEST. Shown in March of 1937: HIS WIFE’S LOVER, a 1931 Yiddish film.
Work on the place seemed to have come to a halt last time I went by. I’ve been to this theatre hundreds of times, both as a single screen place and when it became a triplex.
I haven’t been in it under this incarnation. I thought it was just booths, but you may be right. Perhaps I should take a peek and verify. There was a police raid here a couple of years ago or less, where some men were arrested because of sexual activity. One commited suicide right after. And before that, when it was just a porno theatre, Town of Johnston officials tried to close the place down several times. One of the movies I remember seeing here when the theatre was still new is IT’S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD.
The first movie I ever saw in New York was at the Palace, THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK in August, 1959.
Information I received a few years ago (through Lido Cantarutti of Marin County) for a research project on Italian film exhibition in San Francisco said that during the 1930s and up until 1941, as the Milano Theatre, this site featured English language films during the day, but then during the evening, and even with shows at midnight, it presented Italian language films and plays. This would have ended with the start of the war, when Italian, German, and Japanese films were considered illegal enemy alien property and were confiscated and sequestered by the U. S. government. If anyone has information on the Verdi Theatre and Liberty Theatre on Broadway in North Beach which showed Italian films during that era, I would be glad to hear of it. The Green Street Theatre is supposed to have featured silent films from Italy. Also the Acme Theatre, at Stockton and Broadway is suppposed to have shown Italian films on a once-in-a-while basis.
The spelling of Coliseum seems to be incorrect in the theatre name entry.
Yes, a commercial building has taken its place. I went by this theatre a thousand times but never saw a movie there. The Cathedral of the Holy Cross (J.F.K. funeral) isn’t all that far down Washington Street in Boston’s South End.
Michael, why this monomaniacal obsession? YOU buy it and turn it into a concert hall.
As a regular cinema, no! Symphony Hall was built as a concert hall. But films have been shown there in the past, especially during the silent era. There is a display case inside showing some of the films from that were shown there…such as a silent versions of CARMEN, some Russian silents like POTEMKIN. Also more recently when the Boston Symphony performed Prokofiev’s film-cantata “Alexander Nevsky”, Eisenstein’s film was projected and the live orchestra was used in place of the recorded soundtrack film score.
I remember a very enjoyable evening at this delightful theatre while passing through in August, 1997. The film was MY BEST FRIEND’S WIFE. Can any locals post recollections about the Criterion’s past?