Village East Cinema

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Village East Cinema
Village East Cinema (51661209790).jpg
Village East Cinema
Former namesLouis N. Jaffe Theater, Yiddish Art Theatre, Yiddish Folks Theatre, Century Theatre, Phoenix Theatre, Gayety Theatre, Eden Theatre, Entermedia Theater
Address181-189 2nd Ave.
LocationNew York City
Coordinates 40°43′51″N73°59′11″W / 40.73083°N 73.98639°W / 40.73083; -73.98639 (Yiddish Art Theatre)
Public transit New York City Subway:
NYCS-bull-trans-L-Std.svg Third Avenue, First Avenue
NYCS-bull-trans-6-Std.svg NYCS-bull-trans-6d-Std.svg at Astor Place
OwnerCity Cinemas (Reading International)
Type Yiddish theatre
Screens7
Current useMovie theater
Construction
ArchitectHarrison Wiseman
Website
www.citycinemas.com/villageeast/
Yiddish Art Theatre
NYC Landmark  No. 1764, 1765
USA New York location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location189 Second Avenue, New York, New York
Coordinates 40°43′51″N73°59′11″W / 40.73083°N 73.98639°W / 40.73083; -73.98639 (Yiddish Art Theatre)
Arealess than one acre
Built1926 (1926)
ArchitectHarrison G. Wiseman
Architectural styleMoorish
NRHP reference No. 85002427 [1]
NYCL No.1764, 1765
Significant dates
Added to NRHPSeptember 19, 1985
Designated NYCLFebruary 9, 1993

The Village East Cinema is a movie theater in the East Village of Manhattan, New York City. One of New York's last remaining Yiddish theatre buildings, it is a New York City designated landmark [2] and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Contents

Description and history

Originally named the Louis N. Jaffe Theater (also called the Yiddish Art Theatre (after its first tenant) and later the Yiddish Folks Theatre), the structure was built in 1925-26 by Louis Jaffe, a developer and prominent Jewish community leader, at 12th Street and Second Avenue in the Yiddish Theatre District. Jaffe built the theater to house Maurice Schwartz's Yiddish Art Theatre, which Schwartz had founded 1918 to present serious Yiddish drama and works from world literature in Yiddish. [2] [3] [4]

The theater was designed in the Moorish Revival style by Harrison Wiseman; William Pogany consulted on the interior design. The design incorporated Moorish motifs with Judaic references (Yiddish writing outside the lobby and a large Star of David in the ornate dome remain to attest to the building's origins). [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

1920s to 1950s

In his new theater, Schwartz continued to produce shows, including a production of "Yoshe Kalb" which ran for 300 performances. According to legend, Walter Matthau briefly worked at the theater's concession stand as a youth. [3] [5] [6]

The Yiddish Arts Theatre continued at least into 1936, but by the late 1930s the building was a movie theater, the Century Theatre. It closed for a while in the 1940s, reopening as a 1,082-seat movie theater, the Stuyvesant Theatre. [6]

Around 1953 Norris Houghton and Edward Hambleton bought the theatre (which was then closed) and renamed it the Phoenix Theatre . The Phoenix Theatre was a pioneering project in the development of off-Broadway, with a different approach to legitimate theatre than found on Broadway. The first production was Sidney Howard's play "Madam, Will You Walk?", which opened on December 1, 1953, starring Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy; later that season Montgomery Clift starred in The Seagull .[ citation needed ] In the following years, the Phoenix Theatre mounted more productions featuring notable figures of the theatre both on stage and behind it. The Phoenix Theatre moved to a new location in 1961.[ citation needed ]

1960s to present

Ann Corio then mounted her successful nostalgic review This Was Burlesque at the theater, beginning in 1962. Corio later took her show on the road. From 1965 to 1969, the building was the Gayety Theatre, a more raunchy burlesque house, and the only one in Manhattan at that time. The Gayety Theatre was used for the interior theater shots in the film The Night They Raided Minsky's . After this, the theater operated as the Eden Theatre and hosted off-Broadway shows, including Grease and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat before those musicals went on to Broadway, and the controversial Oh! Calcutta! . From 1978 to 1984 the theater operated as the Entermedia Theater. [2] [7]

In 1991 the theatre (which was no longer in use) was converted back to a movie theater, the Village East Cinema (owned by City Cinemas, a branch of Reading International), which shows a mixture of Hollywood productions and indie films. The main auditorium seats 1,200, and there are four small screening rooms in the basement, each seating under 200 people, and two other screens in the former backstage area. The Village East Cinema also shows films which originally opened at the Angelika Film Center, an arthouse chain which is also an arm of Reading International. The theater was extensively renovated and restored in 2015. [2] [6] [8] [9]

See also

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References

    Citations

    1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
    2. 1 2 3 4 5 James Murray and Karla Murray (January 27, 2017). "The Urban Lens: Inside the Village East Cinema, one of NY's last surviving 'Yiddish Rialto' theaters". 6sqft. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
    3. 1 2 3 Annie Cofone (June 8, 2012). "Strolling Back Into the Golden Age of Yiddish Theater". The Local – East Village. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
    4. 1 2 Amanda Seigel (March 18, 2014). "The Yiddish Broadway and Beyond". New York Public Library. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
    5. 1 2 Michelle Young (September 19, 2010). "Village East Cinema, a Moorish Revival Movie Theater in the East Village". Untapped Cities. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
    6. 1 2 3 4 Ross Melnick (December 1, 2015). "City Cinemas Village East". Cinema Treasures. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
    7. "Entermedia Theater". Lortel Archives (Internet Off-Broadway Database). Retrieved March 6, 2017.
    8. "Cinema Info – Overview". City Cinemas. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
    9. "City Cinemas Village East Cinema". The Village Voice. NYC & Company. Retrieved March 5, 2017.

    Sources