It started out in 1933 with great promise in the cinema-crazed Depression.
The auspiciously named Midtown was a gem of a movie house on Broadway and 99th Street that played first-run films (Ann Harding! William Powell!)
By the 1950s and 1960s, it had switched to foreign movies, showing European flicks like Belle de Jour, Breathless, Repulsion, and other non-mainstream fare.
Fast forward to the 1970s. The neighborhood was still rebounding after decades of decline, and the Metro took on second-run films, then porn flicks, according to Cinema Treasures.
After a resurgence as an art house venue in the 1980s (and a name change to the Metro), it served as a first-run theater in the 1990s, only to shut its doors in 2004.
Since then, it’s been abandoned, a shuttered eyesore in a neighborhood of higher-end development.
Over the years, new tenants were announced—including retail outlets and a movie theater chain that serves beer—yet never moved in.
At least the unique facade, with its Art Deco emblem representing comedy and tragedy amid two female figures, scored landmark status back in 1989.
A piece of another era, the theater haunts the upper Upper West Side, a reminder of something lovely that entertained the community.
A word about the theater’s original name, the Midtown: I suppose the owners thought that this corner at 99th Street and Broadway would soon be the city’s new midtown?
[Photos: top, New York Public Library Digital Collection; second: New York Architectural Images]
Tags: abandoned theaters, Art Deco theater New York City, Metro Twin Theater NYC, New York in 1930s, New York in the 1960s, old theaters in New York City, porn theaters New York City, the Midtown Theater NYC, Upper West Side movies
Ephemeral New York 
May 22, 2014 at 12:31 pm |
didn’t even realize it was still intact, more or less. Couldn’t a store move in and preserve the front? It would be a good name for a store, anyway.
May 22, 2014 at 1:16 pm |
The interior was gutted when they built that hideous tower next door — in theory to make the space more marketable. Stupid, because it was in pretty good shape and featured some wonderful art deco details.
May 25, 2014 at 12:16 pm |
While I hate Ariel also, the interior was gutted many years before that building was built (using the Metro’s air rights) and actually operated as a twin movie theater for many years before being shut down almost nine years ago.
January 10, 2016 at 8:30 am |
I remember seeing films in the 1960 here with my grandmother brings back childhood memories
May 22, 2014 at 3:20 pm |
What a shame. I wonder why they couldn’t get a tenant in there to preserve it, like a Symphony Space.
May 22, 2014 at 3:36 pm |
I believe Midtown refers to the fact that it is almost exactly the mid-point of the island — 13 miles either direction.
May 22, 2014 at 7:29 pm |
I want a Trader Joe here so badly…
May 23, 2014 at 12:29 am |
Love that emblem.
May 23, 2014 at 2:12 pm |
A little history on that marquee, here:
http://www.nyneon.blogspot.com/2014/05/luminous-advertising-sketches.html
May 23, 2014 at 10:41 pm |
This was planned to be one of three new Alamo Drafthouse movie theaters in New York City, but they scrapped the plans last fall 😦
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/01/alamo-drafthouse-scraps-plan-for-upper-west-side-movie-theater
January 10, 2016 at 8:28 am |
I remember seeing spanih films here when i was a young child in the 1960s I hope someone makes another beautiful theatre here again !!
August 29, 2016 at 5:31 am |
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