re: What Times Square Area Buildings Use To Be Theaters?

[Mr Roxy]

Great pictures but very sad.

[Neverandy]

It would seem that a lot of these hidden treasures will probably remain hidden in this economy. There's going to be a lot of vacancy in the houses we already have. I was in Time's Square yesterday and it was funny to know of some of these spaces tucked away behind pizza restaurants and Gift shops.

[Mamie]

I always wanted to see what that room (and those huge columns) looked like before the destruction. That last photo with the hard hats preparing to tear it down really did make it sad. (The pic of Ms. Swanson always looked to me like a bomb site from WWII)

[Justin D]

as for that Paramount theatre, was that a live teatre or a movie house? It doesnt appear an the 2 books i have about lost broadway theatres and I;ve always thought the marquis and frontage looks like it could have been a theatre.

So I'm wondering wny it is not in those 2 books

I also love how that little Empire theatre went through 2 different styles, the above photo being the 2nd renovation. The first style reminded me of some London theatres.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

A lot of old New York movie theatres can certainly be listed here as live theatre because 99% of them at one time would have staged some kind of live stage entertainment at some time even if it was just a few vaudeville acts prior to the main movie screening, they had absolutely enormous stages.
Indeed some of those movie theatres had better backstage facilities than some of todays main Broadway houses could even begin to dream of!

[Neverandy]

The Paramount hosted many live events. The most famous of which is probably Frank Sinatra's concert there in the late '40s or early '50s. This was the first appearance of the Bobby-Soxers. They were actually Girls hired by his record company to scream and faint to create a circus-like atmosphere outside the Paramount.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

The Strand Theatre
47th and Broadway
1915

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Strand Theatre
Auditorium.

[MamasDoin'Fine]

Another stunning hot of The Roxy.
How about that fro a mezzanine!

[MamasDoin'Fine]

The Palace Theatre as it should look today!!!

[devonian.t]

Mama, some amaxing photos. I'd never seen the Roxy in all it's glory. That it's gone is a disgrace.

[Mamie]

Close up of the old (vaudeville days) Palace:

[RentBoy86]

Wow the Roxy is beautiful. I don't understand how we could go so backwards. Shouldn't buildings today be just as beautiful if not more so than the ones of yesteryear. I mean, we have more money, more technology, etc. Shouldn't the new theaters be intricate and detailed just like those? I love how theater was see has this high, prestigious thing back then, but nowadays it's for all the have beens. Ugh.

[Mamie]

This isn't a 'lost' theatre, but I thought the photo was interesting anyway. It's the current home of "Billy Elliot". The Imperial Theatre with its first production, Mary Jane McKane in 1923 or '24. I guess that's a bit of the Klaw Theatre on the left.

[MadameRoseRules]

This thread is fascinating.

I heard that the New Victory Theater used to be Minsky's.

[Mamie]

I think it was called the Republic (or Theatre Republic) then. It went way downhill after Minsky's and became the first X rated theatre at some point in time. It's funny that it ended up as a center for children's entertainment.

[RentBoy86]

How big is the New Victory? I've been wanting to get a ticket to see a show there just to gawk at the theater. It's beautiful out front.

[thtrbear]

Some tiny tidbits:

I enjoy the picture of the Strand and the amazing picture of the Palace and its surroundings. The Strand pic may be from 1930, the year there was a talkie of the 1925 stage musical.

I think this may have been in this thread already, but it looks like the Embassy or DeMille on 7th ave north of 47th st. has been turned into a store (Phantom of Broadway?) I wonder if there's anything to see inside.

On 3rd ave around 103rd st. there was, about 4 to 5 yrs ago, a big penny-type store that was a theater before, there was a bunch to see including the balcony (I love stores like that). It was on the west side of 3rd, sorry cant be more specif.

New Victory Theater- it is smallish, small number of seats for bway, but may even have 2 balconies on top of a mezz. Sometimes, I think, their shows are on play-by-play, and they usually take tdf voucher there. It is lovely inside.

In Newark, there's a former movie thtr which has a great ?Paramount? marquee outside, a coupla blocks from Penn Station. It's an army-navy type store now. Nothing to see inside (sometimes like here the old parts of a buiding are in employee-only type areas, storerooms, etc.).

[songanddanceman2]

I had to bump this thread just because its probably one of the best on here

[Neverandy]

Interesting article on the Mark Ecko store in what used to be the Times Sq. theater



http://www.nypost.com/seven/02172009/business/this_ecko_sounds_like_a_lawsuit_155553.htm

[broadwayguy2]

RentBoy,
The New Victory seats 499.

[Smaxie]

More shots from inside Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe, which was a nightclub at the bottom of the Paramount Hotel on West 46th Street and spent a good amount of time as a Broadway theatre in the 1970s and early 1980s called the Century. I don't think anything has ever been done with the space once the Paramount became an Ian Schrager hotel.

[Mr Roxy]

The building that is diagonally across from TKTS used to be the Mayfair & than the DeMille. It has that one of a kind wraparound billboard

The Astor & Victoria & its famous block long billboard is now the site of the Marriott Marquis. The soon to be defunct Virgin used to be the Loews State. Near the Lyceum was the USO which during the run of Ben Hur was the Ben Hur Bar.

What is now an office bulding around the corner from the Barrymore was the Mark Strand later to become the Warner. They renovated the Warner for Cinerama & than again when they doubled it & made the backstage area the Orleans showing X rated movies & the outside resembling the set of A Streetcar Named Desire.

The Paramount was one of a kind. The lobby was modelled after the Paris Opera House. The stagehouse was shallow for a theater that size. It closed in 1964 after The Carpetbaggers & reopened one last time for a 24 hour round the clock showing of Thunderball. Regrettfully, that was the only time I was in it. It had a lobby long concession stand & was painted a hideous pepto bismal pink. It was sadly gutted after that.Watch Midnight Cowboy & in the beginning when the Voight character looks out his hotel window you see a drop cloth over the entrance when they were gutting it. It eerily looks like the theater is still there with the Paramount logo over the arches. The chandeliers were removed in the 40's during the war for blackout reasons & the statuary was stored away lest the Sintra fans smash them in a frenzy. On the sidewalk by the Paramount building is sort of a manhole cover. When the theater was there they had the cover solid brass with the Mount Paramount logo on it. In the center of the glass fron over the marquee they had a stained glass Mount paramount.

The Capitol was a huge theater 3 rd in size between the music Hall & Roxy . It had over 5000 seats. It was a georgeous theater that was covered over when the remodeled it. It than became a Cinerama theater & a number of rows of seats were removed from the rear & a huge & lovely Japanese garden with ponds, fish & bridges was put in. It all went down went the theater did

The Criterion was where Bonds Clothes used to be. It was remodeled & went to a rather ignominious death.

The Earl Carroll Theater was across the Street from the Roxy & was very modern in decor. For years after it closed, it was a Woolworths with most of the theater intact under a false ceiling. It went down intact when Woolworths went down.

There was a Globe theater where the Roxy Deli is now. The Metorpolitan opera House is now an office building with a little plaque the only memory of it.

[snowskittle]

I love this thread.

Any old photos of the Wintergarten?

[Smaxie]

On the subject of the demolished, here was one of my favorite oddball Broadway theatres when it was originally Lou Walters' nightclub, the Latin Quarter. In the 70s and early 80s, it was a Broadway theatre that had three names: 22 Steps, the Princess Theatre and then the Latin Quarter again. It housed a lot of disasters, like Coquelico, Censored Scenes from King Kong, Animals, The Babe, Fearless Frank, but also housed the successful Tony-nominated Pump Boys and Dinettes.

It was a VERY strange building. I also remember the entire exterior of the building being painted black. It sort of looked like the charred remains of a building that had been set on fire. The Hotel Renaissance stands on this site now.

[songanddanceman2]

Roxy and Smaxie you guys are the reason im on Broadway world, its great to hear the stories and the history.