Broadway Theaters With A Varied History Of Use

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 6/26/08 at 8:18pm

My pick is The Broadway

Early on, when it showed movies, it was where Steamboat Willie Mickey Mouse) first appeared. The first Cinerama "This Is Cinerama" opened there.

It has been torn apart twice for Dude & Candide. The fact that it looks as good as it does now is amazing.

[BroadwayEnthusiast2]

Posted: 6/26/08 at 8:28pm

The New Amsterdam for movies and "different" movies and Studio 54 as a nightclub and news station?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 6/26/08 at 9:56pm

New Amsterdam started as a live theater, went to movies & went back again to live theater.

Studio 54 started out as an Opera House. It than went on to become a Channel 2 studios with one show hosted by a than unknown - Monty Hall & Video Village. Monty was the mayor.Than came Studio 54 & now back to theater. By the way, it is a georgeous house but in need of renovations . Parts of the proscenium are missing.

[proptart101]

Posted: 6/26/08 at 10:09pm

The Wintergarden went from horse exchange to live theater to movie studio back to live theater, all from 1885 to 1933.

I believe it's been strictly live theater ever since 1933, going back and forth between musicals, reviews, plays and ballets.

[bwaybabe2]

Posted: 6/27/08 at 4:16am

Cool stuff posts...keep them coming...

[winston89]

Posted: 6/27/08 at 4:44am

In the 50's the Biltmore was owned/operated by CBS who used the space as a TV studio and a radio studio.

There is also the obvious Mark Hellenger Theatre which was a theatre and now is a church.

I remeber reading on IBDB about how the Winter Garden used to be a place to house horses and when I saw mamma mia not that long after I read that and saw the photo of it from when it was like that I was able to look around and see how big the place is and realize that it did seem possable to have housed horses there considering the size of the space.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 6/27/08 at 10:32am

The Helen Hayes was originally called The Little Theatre (this name is still on the facade someplace). It was used as a tv studio by various shows for years. Merv Griffin (in his first incarnation of three) and David Frost taped their talk shows from there.

Griffin used the Cort for the second incarnation on CBS before he moved to California.

In the late 50s and maybe into early 60s Dick Clark had a Saturday night show from The Little Theatre with R&R singers lip synching their latest hits. He did Bandstand in Philly Mon-Fri afternoons and took the train to NY for the Saturday show.

The Palace was a vaudeville house before switching to movies full time in the depression and didn't become a legit house until 1966 and Sweet Charity. The stage house was not big enough for a full-size show so it was expanded then.

Even so there was no show on the 1969-70 horizon so the reserved seat run of the musical version of Good-bye Mr. Chips with Peter O'Toole played the Palace.

The Kerr was an ABC tv studio until about 1970 and sat there all but abandoned and an eyesore for a long time. It was brought back with a less-than-thorough renovation in the early 70s under its original name, The Ritz. Jujamcyn bought it in the early 80s and gave it a major overhaul and renamed it.

The Henry Miller's was a theatre, a cheapo movie theatre, a porn house, a disco, a relic, an event space, a wall and soon the space will be occupied by a brand new theatre with the old front wall.

The old Helen Hayes and the Morosco, the latter being the best house for straight plays in the city, were demolished and their space is occupied by the ghastly billion dollar whorehouse for wayward businessmen and their professional associates, the Mariott.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/27/08 at 10:45am

I'm going to throw in an Off-Broadway theater near Christopher Street.

Horse stable
Garage
Circle Rep Theater
Restaurant

[Smaxie]

Posted: 6/27/08 at 1:03pm

My favorite oddball Broadway theatre was one called the 22 Steps (later, it was named the Princess, but not to be confused with the Princess Theatre on 39th Street, where many of Jerome Kern's important early musicals played). It stood on 48th Street between Seventh and Broadway and was a strange triangular building, that was rather decrepit and painted black for most of the 1980s. The name, 22 Steps, came from the number of steps you had to walk up to get to the auditorium. Apart from Pump Boys and Dinettes, it mostly housed flops. It had been the Latin Quarter, the famous nightclub owned by Lou Walters (Barbara's daddy). At other points, it was a downtown Cotton Club, then a movie theatre, called the Cine Lido. I think it was around the time that Mayor or Harlem Nocturne played there that the name changed back to the Latin Quarter. It was torn down in the late 80s to make way for the Hotel Renaissance. Too bad it's not around anymore. Could you imagine The 39 Steps at the 22 Steps?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/27/08 at 1:14pm

Smaxie, I love the overhang of that theater. That was back in the days when architecture had imagination.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 6/27/08 at 1:17pm

That marquee was still there when it was the 22 Steps and Princess Theatre too, although I can't find a picture online of that building from the 1980s. It's funny you should mention it, Gotham, because I always liked looking at that crazy swoop of that marquee.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 6/27/08 at 1:26pm

Architecture like the crazy swoop is what made coming to NYC so thrilling.

The segmented lights remind me of the building that they tore down on Madison Avenue where they had installed different colored lights in the ceiling of the lobby and a computer controlled the patterns that they would flash in.

[Okayfine]

Posted: 6/27/08 at 4:33pm

Merv Griffin used to shoot his show at the Cort.

[nitwit]

Posted: 6/27/08 at 4:38pm

in follies the old guy says his theter showed blue movies. does that mean porn?

[winston89]

Posted: 6/27/08 at 5:12pm

If your talking about blue material for something like a stand up comic. That usually means jokes that have "bad" language and sex jokes. So, I would assume that blue movies were pornographic movies. Considering that a lot of theatres in the theare district used to be movie houses and considering that porno movies were commenly shown there back in the day it doesn't surprise me at all.

[amoni]

Posted: 6/27/08 at 6:16pm

In 1958 when the film "Gig" was released, it was treated more as a theatrical event than a movie and didn't open at a traditional movie house but at The Royale in a 40 week reserved seat engagement. The only time the theater showed a motion picture.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 6/27/08 at 6:27pm

The Walter Kerr was a TV studio at one time called The Ritz. It was for ABC