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Cinema name : The Thalia
Address : 250 W. 95th Street Neighborhood : Upper West Side Years of occupancy : 1931-1987 Screens (seats) : 1 (292) Active individuals : Raymond Irrera (architect); Ben Schlanger (architect); John H. and John W. Springer (owners) |
Quotes & Notes
"The 292-seat Thalia was built in the basement of a public market Vincent Astor had put up in 1915. It was the project of John H. and John W. Springer, a father-son team who by 1936 ran 61 theaters. They hired an experienced theater architect, Raymond Irrera, and a 26-year-old novice, Ben Schlanger.The Art Moderne styling of the interior -- indirect lighting, streamlined walls, ribbed columns -- is deft, but the notable feature is the dip in the middle of the auditorium. This was Schlanger's idea, a complicated "parabolic reversed floor" he developed because the traditional live theater auditorium was not suited for viewing the flat movie screen.
A patron could sit straight in his chair, instead of bending back or forward, in the front or back of the room. There were other improvements, especially a lighted, silver-leafed frame around the screen, which Schlanger felt reduced eyestrain.
Why the Springers hired a young architect with an untested idea is a mystery. Although Schlanger later used the reverse parabola in the 1933 Sutton Theater, at 205 East 57th Street, for another operator, the theater historian Joseph R. DuciBella and the theater architect Eli Jack Held say it was never widely used.
Apparently the Springers opened the Thalia with conventional programming. But John W. Springer died in 1936 and in 1939 the New York Post critic Archer Winsten reported it had started an "experiment in public taste" by avoiding the hoopla of the big picture houses -- "double features, Bingo, Screeno, Lucky Bank and amateur night."
Instead, it had a no-nonsense program of "internationally acclaimed films direct from their successful first runs." Later that year a tear gas bomb injured several patrons and there was speculation that the source was either labor trouble or the showing of a Soviet film, "Concentration Camp."
The change in programming appears to have coincided with the arrival of Martin J. Lewis, who operated this and other theaters until his death in 1955. According to an article by Pete Delaney in the June 4 Movie Collector's World, older films were first shown during World War II. This policy was continued after 1977 by Richard Schwarz until the Thalia closed in 1987, during a fight for control of the entire Astor Market property by competing ownership interests with plans to demolish the two-story building."
Gray, C. (June 6, 1993). Streetscapes: The Thalia Theater; A Restoration for a Threatened Parabolic Curiosity. The New York Times. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/06/realestate/streetscapes-thalia-theater-restoration-for-threatened-parabolic-curiosity.html
A patron could sit straight in his chair, instead of bending back or forward, in the front or back of the room. There were other improvements, especially a lighted, silver-leafed frame around the screen, which Schlanger felt reduced eyestrain.
Why the Springers hired a young architect with an untested idea is a mystery. Although Schlanger later used the reverse parabola in the 1933 Sutton Theater, at 205 East 57th Street, for another operator, the theater historian Joseph R. DuciBella and the theater architect Eli Jack Held say it was never widely used.
Apparently the Springers opened the Thalia with conventional programming. But John W. Springer died in 1936 and in 1939 the New York Post critic Archer Winsten reported it had started an "experiment in public taste" by avoiding the hoopla of the big picture houses -- "double features, Bingo, Screeno, Lucky Bank and amateur night."
Instead, it had a no-nonsense program of "internationally acclaimed films direct from their successful first runs." Later that year a tear gas bomb injured several patrons and there was speculation that the source was either labor trouble or the showing of a Soviet film, "Concentration Camp."
The change in programming appears to have coincided with the arrival of Martin J. Lewis, who operated this and other theaters until his death in 1955. According to an article by Pete Delaney in the June 4 Movie Collector's World, older films were first shown during World War II. This policy was continued after 1977 by Richard Schwarz until the Thalia closed in 1987, during a fight for control of the entire Astor Market property by competing ownership interests with plans to demolish the two-story building."
Gray, C. (June 6, 1993). Streetscapes: The Thalia Theater; A Restoration for a Threatened Parabolic Curiosity. The New York Times. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/06/realestate/streetscapes-thalia-theater-restoration-for-threatened-parabolic-curiosity.html
Ameri, A. (2013). Architecture of the Illusive Distance. Screen, Oxford University Press, vol.54, no.4, 1-25. Retrieved from http://ahameri.com/cv/Publications/Architecture%20of%20the%20Illusive%20Distance.pdf
Image credit: Ameri, A. (2013). Architecture of the Illusive Distance. Screen, Oxford University Press, vol.54, no.4, 1-25. Retrieved from http://ahameri.com/cv/Publications/Architecture%20of%20the%20Illusive%20Distance.pdf
