Old-school house

Even in the age of the multiplex, a few old movie theaters continue to thrive in NYC.

In 1948, Marlene Dietrich cut the ribbon outside the Paris Theatre on 58th Street. Jean Delannoy’s La Symphonie Pastorale kicked off the theater’s screenings, and went on to enjoy a 34-week run. Sixty years later, the Paris is the oldest continually running art-house cinema in the U.S. To celebrate its anniversary, the theater hosted a special showing of Claude Miller’s A Secret on September 13; members of the French consulate loitered in the foyer with Philippe Grimbert, author of Memory, the novel upon which the movie is based.

After being greeted by the main usher, Paris fixture Eddie Argento (a baby-faced ringer for Frank Sinatra), cinemagoers lined up for complimentary soda and popcorn; in lieu of multiplex faux butter, an old-fashioned china saltshaker sat next to the cash register. The median age of the audience seemed to be a good deal older than that of the theater: Nestled together in the balcony, Paris regulars May and Philip Aisen were celebrating their 57th wedding anniversary. After getting hitched in the Bronx, they came to Manhattan. Though they couldn’t recall where they dined or stayed on their wedding night, like true cinéastes, they remembered seeing Oliver Twist at the Paris.

Sadly, there aren’t many old-style movie houses left in New York; most of the theaters built in the early years of the last century have, for the most part, been quashed by the tourism frenzy of Times Square. Lost gems include the Astor on Broadway and 45th (now the site of a Marriott hotel) and the Roxy on 50th (demolished in 1960 to make way for office space). The old Wonder Theater–turned-Loews on 175th and Broadway is now home to God-fearing Rev. Ike’s Palace Cathedral (better known for rock shows in the past few years), while the Art Deco extravaganza that is Radio City Music Hall stopped showing movies in 1979. The Ziegfeld, which opened in 1927, remains a midtown stalwart, although in name only: It switched buildings in 1969 to its current spot on 54th Street.

In contrast to the Paris’s sparse decoration, the Ziegfeld is resplendent with gold trim and scarlet carpeting. In this respect, it’s not unlike the old Paramount Theater, now part of Long Island University on DeKalb Avenue in Brooklyn. Despite the school’s conversion of the auditorium into a basketball arena in 1962, the golden rococo balconies survive. Statues of mermaids, eagles, dolphins and satyrs keep an eye on the action below. There’s also an incongruous-looking square in the court, through which the Mighty Wurlitzer theater organ, a behemoth with 2,000 pipes and 257 stops, can still be raised.

Often overlooked in Washington Heights, the Coliseum has been showing movies since it opened in 1920 (with only a two-year hiatus, from 2002 to ’04). Not only did it elude the wrecking ball, it’s retained many of its original fixtures, like the twin staircases leading up from the lobby. Despite its modernization into a multiplex, the auditorium’s decorated domed ceiling remains, although flimsy partition walls mean that patrons are sometimes privy to the bangs of the movies next door. While the Paris evokes a bygone era, the Coliseum is New York’s tatty real deal.

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