[title]
Longtime rumors of the famous Ziegfield movie theater closing are finally confirmed. The single-screen theater will shutter in the next few weeks, according to the New York Daily News, so go see Star Wars in the historic space while you can. It will reopen next fall as—what else?—a ballroom and corporate event space. The managing director of the events company taking over said they'll still host movie screenings. Sigh.
The theater in its current form opened in 1969, though the original Ziegfeld theatre space, which put on grandiose Broadway shows (Ziegfeld Follies, anyone?), opened in 1927 on another nearby site. It's hosted many fabulous movie premieres, including Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977 and the film versions of The Phantom of the Opera and Rent. Marc Jacobs even presented his spring line there at this fall's Fashion Week.
The largest single-screen movie theater in New York City—with more than a thousand plush seats—will soon be no more. We're sad to see it go.