The Thalia in the 70s
When I knew this theater, back in the day, it was just like this photo, a strange, narrow little place on 95th Street just down from Broadway, a few blocks away from where I lived. I remember the floor sloped up toward the screen, making it hard to see over heads sometimes. It was a magical place for someone like me, who had only recently come to the city from a small town. Each time I went I felt a frisson of anticipation, for no matter what film was playing, I knew I was going to fall in love with it. The old theater is long since renovated and it’s now called Symphony Space/Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre. I like that, being a Nimoy fan, and he was apparently a great supporter, but what a strange convergence, too–Mr. Spock and the old cinema.
Discovering Independent Films
The foreign films the Thalia showed came from Poland and India and Japan and Italy and France and Sweden. Many might seem stylized now, but I remember them as striking and powerful, from Bergman’s Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal to Luis Bunuel’s Belle de Jour, from Satyajit Ray’s Days and Nights in the Forest to Fellini’s La Strada, from Andrzej Wajda‘s Ashes and Diamonds to everything by Kurosawa, from René Clément’s Is Paris Burning to Alain Resnais’ extraordinary Hiroshima Mon Amour and Last Year at Marienbad–and so many more.
The Joy of Seeing Films from a Golden Time
The American and British films came mainly from the 30s and 40s, and they were enchanting, and never before seen, by me, anyway: Katherine Hepburn with Fred McMurray in the exquisitely quirky Alice Adams in 1935 or her heartbreaking Morning Glory from 1933, Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca and Bogart with Bette Davis in The Petrified Forest, Noel Coward’s precious, unforgettable film Brief Encounter, Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles in Our Man in Havana and Citizen Kane, Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt and The Lady Vanishes, Barbara Stanwyck and Fred McMurray in Double Indemnity, and Chaplin’s City Lights. The 50s and 60s got their turn, with Ida Lupino and Robert Ryan in Beware, My Lovely, John Sturgis’ The Magnificent Seven—and here, too, so many more.
The Thalia’s Enchantment
The Thalia I knew changed the bill often, and even included films from private collections and others seldom seen. It was an education of its own, an island of constant stimulation and entertainment like no other I’ve experienced since. It expanded my awareness not only of theater and film in general, but also my understanding of the boundless creativity movies have brought to us from every direction, and the enchantment of being able to experience them all.
looks like a wonderful old time classic theater
i remember going when there were double features (am i wrong to think there may have been 3?) and eric rohmer’s
claire’s knee is one film i especially remember.
Schlepping into the city from my home on Staten Island back then was always a pleasure resulting in countless happy hours spent at the Thalia. Among my most most cherished memories. It was for me the beginning of a lifelong
pursuit of 16mm film collecting which continues to this day.
How grand! What have you collected so far? Excuse my delay in responding.
What I’ve collected most lo these many decades are questions as to why I’ve designed to indulge in this arcane pursuit when most of this material is available on home video and the internet. Attempting to explain the joy of watching something on a screen with a projector chugging away nearby is futile.
I’ve collected over 100 features as well as shorts and some television material. Being a votary of Hollywood’s golden age to the exclusion of virtually everything else I’ve managed to acquire virtually all the films of those people who’ve given me so much pleasure in my life; W.C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Judy Garland, Frank Capra, MGM and Warner musicals (the better Busby Berkeley films) and so on. Roughly a year and a half ago I enjoyed a brief correspondence with Dr. Harriet Fields who when I mentioned the Thalia told me she too spent many a happy hour there as well watching W.C.’s (her granddad’s) films.
There is now a resource available whereby a fellow in Italy converts digital material I send to him to 16mm film. Kismet.
Wonderfully described, yes! Apologies for the delay in answering–I thought I had already approved this lovely message.
As a Critic, I have had several opportunities (see below) to review in the more recent incarnation of that vintage venue. Thanks for keeping the dream alive!
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How grand! I am thrilled the Thalia is still so fine a venue! Thank you for these articles!
Viggo Mortensen himself once worked there as a clerk and ticket seller before becoming an actor and turning into a world-famous celebrity.
That is so cool to know! Thank you!!
There was a floral scent greeting you and comfy seating in the waiting hall, familiar faces in the audience and a feeling of universal belonging in the air. My daughter was, not coincidentally, named Thalia. Thanks for the memories!
Thank you, and how grand for your daughter!
I lived on 95th St., just off Amsterdam, from 1969-1973, The Thalia was my refuge from grad school. At that time, there was always a double feature, with a new film on the marquee every day (AB-BC-CD-DE, etc.) which meant if you had four hours to kill every other day, you’d never miss a film. I certainly missed a few; some by choice, others not. But the 100s of films I did catch over those four years shaped my life considerably more than all the time I spent in school.
The same years I was living there on 96th and Amsterdam, also attending grad school! It was so grand. And I agree, the influence of those films resonates still. I lived in Austin, TX in 2003-2005, and their theater The Alamo showed the film “Nights of Cabiria,” and the theater was set up with seats in rows and a long table in each row so you could order a dinner while watching. The whole atmosphere was so fine. It spun me back to the Thalia for the whole evening.