Loew's 83rd - not 84th - a lost Thomas Lamb treasure on the Upper Westside

Opening in September 1921, the 2633 seat 83rd Street Theatre was part of built at the same time as Loew’s State in Times Square.  Built for MGM product and vaudeville, I would venture to say that it was the premier Loew’s house north of Times Square until the opening of the larger (by a 811 seats yet) Loew’s 175^th Street Wonder Theater in February of 1930.  The State and Loew’s Capital were the flagship uber-houses.  The State was in the in the building that was home to Loew’s corporate headquarters which in turn was the parent company of MGM.  Until 1946 the big studios owned a significant interest in theaters that bore their name. The Paramounts, Fox’s and Warners of the world are examples of what became an anti-trust suit that was finally settled after W.W. II and the studios were forced to divest.  In the case of Loew’s, it was the other way around.  Exhibition had to divest production as opposed to everyone else, production divesting their exhibition interests.  Don’t get me wrong, there where loopholes and shenanigans to exploit.

The house has been referred to as plain. It was built just before the real golden age of movie palace construction, which began around 1925 and came to a crashing halt by 1930.  It is nowhere near as ornate as other Lamb houses of the “golden era” but it was beautiful.  Although my memories of the theater have severely faded, I do remember the stained glass lighting fixtures flush with the overhang of the balcony. 

However plain it might have been, Loew's did spring for new seats, as noted in this 1939 ad and the benefits of sponge foam.  If I am remembering this right, there was a chandelier over the inner lobby that had to be original.  Many a time I had to wait for a date who had gone into the ladies room but I had a view of that chandelier and the lobby below from the balcony outside the restrooms.  

Some of us remember the "matrons", older woman who had been hired during W.W.II to monitor the kids in the theaters.  Children who came to these theaters by themselves had to sit in a special section. In the case of Loew's 83rd, the house right section of the orchestra (house left was for smoking). This was done to protect children from the raincoat men who would gravitate towards kids dropped off by their parents who, during the war, would go off and work in a defense plant for 8 hours and too many movie houses became day care centers. 

The theater was first cut up into a “triplex” by 1975, then a quad by 1978. The seats were never re-angled, left in their original single screen position so you always sat at a slight angle from the screen. Until it was cut up into a quad you had a view of the intact auditorium and it’s box seats from the balcony.  The fact that the boxes were still there was not only a rarity but also shows how theater design had changed.  Live entertainment, although included in the design had taken a secondary role in the purpose of the theater, which was to show movies.  The boxes, which did not have seats in them in 1975, were used by patrons and did not interfere with the projection.   

It also had an organ. Not a "Mighty Wurlitzer" but still a powerful instrument - not unlike an analog synthesizer (I know I have said this before).  This is a picture of the second and last organ to be installed in the theater. Identical organs were installed in Loew's Alhambra Theatre in Brooklyn, Loew's Astoria Theatre in Queens, Loew's Spooner Theatre in the Bronx and Loew's Rio Theatre in Manhattan.  The console pictured here was called the wing-style mahogany console.

Just before it was torn down I was fortunate enough to get a tour of the remains of the orchestra section and the stage. Everything in front of the wall they had put into make it a quad was intact. Sadly, however the boxes had been removed as well as the decorative plaster above then.  The orchestra pit had been covered over years ago.  The stage was very large but was not used after the sound pictures and the depression really kicked in. Loew’s dropped vaudeville in all but their big houses during the depression.  Even the big houses had periods of time when their stages were dark.  The Pin rail, used to tie off the ropes that hoisted scenery up into the fly loft, was intact.  There was a white grand piano sitting in the middle of the stage. There were 4 or 5 floors of dressing rooms that I do not remember why I did not explore.

Loew’s 84^th, the soulless "six-o-plex" opened in 1985 and for a few weeks the old 83^rd Street theater operated at the same time.  There were a total of 10 screen on that block for while, a ten-o-plex.  By the summer of 1985, another Thomas Lamb theater was but a memory.

More Riverside Theater

This is the standard early 1920's program cover for the Keith circuit.  I found another east coast theater using the same art work on the program cover, the Orpheum (in Boston I believe) that was proud to be presenting Houdini live on stage. What a smart couple, all dressed up for an evening at the Riverside.

   

At the time of this programs publication composer and bandleader Julius Lenzberg was the orchestra leader at the Riverside.  This is the Riverside Orchestra, Julius is the guy with the violin.  Born January 3 1878 in Baltimore, Lenzberg began his career accompanying dancing lessons at the piano.  By 1903, with a couple of published compositions to his credit, he got himself married and moved to New York City, eventually settling in Queens.  Thus began a long stint serving as orchestra leader at various vaudeville houses in Manhattan and in the summer, he led a band out on Long Island.

In 1919, Lenzberg served as director of the George White Scandals of 1919 and also led the house band at the Riverside Theater in New York. That year, Lenzberg  and the Riverside Orchestra began to make records for Edison, and though Lenzberg's recording activity ended in 1922, he was prolific, ultimately producing more than 50 sides for Edison.  Lenzberg continued to lead a band and appear on radio once it emerged, into the 1930s, but the depression knocked him out of the performing end of the business. By the last time Lenzberg is heard from in the early 1940s, he was working as a booking agent.  He passed away in April 1956.   

 However, here he is in a 1922 program, along with Horton's Ice Cream. Is that stuff still around?

 Was this Julius's view as he crossed Broadway? Could be as this is circa 1920.  The Riverside, Riviera and the Japanese Gardens all still have their original marquees, but the neon signs are new.  Although William Fox (as in 20th Century) began construction of the Riverside, he gave it up to the uber powerful Keith people when they threatened him with no acts for his other theaters. The B. F. Keith people knew that 96th street was an ideal location; conveniently located with an express subway stop right there, you also have direct access to the New York Central Hudson River Railroad and the not yet covered over tracks at 96th street on the Hudson.  Very important if you are moving a vaudeville show that often traveled as a package around the east coast, if not the country.  

Notice that the 1923 Broadway View Hotel, known today as the place we all know and love, The Regent, does not appear to looming in the middle of Broadway as does today, placed perfectly where Broadway takes a bend to the west following the path of the old Bloomingdale Road.