They also anticipated that the theater district would continue its northward move up Broadway from 42nd Street to eventually reach 57th Street. Verschleiser attempted to make the hall profitable as Mecca. The predominant material is yellow brick rendered in a more restrained and abstract classical style than the Moorish of the 55th Street facade. This was a tiny cinema of some reputation that for decades showed first run art house features and special programs. Comfortably Cool on January 14, 2016 at 11:25 am. The location of the auditorium with its broad balconies and proscenium arch - all without vertical obstruction - above the necessarily column-free banquet hall required engineering ingenuity. foreign films and low budget indies for decades But this could not be the case at Mecca, where the rental of the auditorium to outside theatrical enterprize was to guarantee the organization income. The need for a permanent house became apparent when he was confronted with the fact of trained and skillful musicians playing fine concerts under the most makeshift conditions. The theatre was originally known as the 55th Street Cinema and opened on May 20th, 1927, under the management of … Except for ecclesiastical commissions, LeBrun preferred the classical architectural vocabulary. No specific prototype was used for this domes temple. This building, more than the "fantasy realm" suggested by much cinema architecture, is one of the best in the little documented building category: architecture of fraternal orders. That the 'building be a sound financial proposition was stressed, for the committee was aware of building debts and taxes and hoped to provide themselves with future income. A major structural element was a 92 foot, 6 inch long, 13 foot wide, 65 ton girder called the largest single piece of steel ever set into a building in New York City. Today there are 21 Shriners' Hospitals, 18 orthopedic units and three burn centers in the United States. The facade's success rests in the tightly balanced play, or mesh, of the two sub-schemes, massive bulk and human-scaled entrances. Less well known was his support and collaboration with several teen-agers during this era, who would achieve prominence later in life including writer David Dalton,[7] photographer Stephen Shore[8] and artist Bibbe Hansen (mother of pop musician Beck). The second focuses on the alfiz entrance enframement of terra cotta and polychromed glazed tile more intimately scaled to the passing pedestrian or approaching ticket holder. Only the panoply and high principles, parallel to those of Western Freemasonry, survived; the "nobles" were urged to practice charity and work for the betterment of humanity. Knowles, aware of his clients' wish to proclaim historic antecedents, created a totally appropriate and in may ways precursive and exemplary design. After serving as a surgeon in the Civil War he moved to Rochester where he became a Mason, though he was not "coroneted" a 32rd° Scottish Rite Mason until 1872 in New York. [9], In June 1970, the 55th Street Playhouse began showing Censorship in Denmark: A New Approach, a film documentary study of pornography, directed by Alex de Renzy. Mecca Temple was Knowles' last work, for he died in January 1923. It paved the way for the rest of its life as a X-Rated adult movie theatre, soon to be presenting gay adult movies. Knowles relied as much upon the gradation of shadow as the vocabulary of classical forms at his disposal. http://www.examiner.com/review/classic-films-him-1974. Compared to the polychrome and Islamic evocation of the 55th Street facade, this facade is both expressive of the functions it encloses and an exercise in sophisticated constraint appropriate to the urbanity anticipated in the early 1920s, for the rest of the street. then the next week turned into a gay porn house. On March 5, 1943, LaGuardia with Morris and Baum assembled the cultural movers and shakers in his office; in July the State Supreme Court approved the Papers of Incorporation. The horseshoe arches, with voussoirs of the same glazed-ochre tile, are supported by slender, coupled and engaged polished pink and grey veined granite columns with polychrome terra-cotta capitals derived from Owen Jones and Jules Goury's Alhambra. So, it would appear that the double bill opened at the 55th Street Playhouse between 4-11 September (probably Monday, 8 September) and closed Sunday 19 October, 1969. Spanning the base of the giant pointed arch Inscribed across the ashlar facade is an arcade of nine horseshoe arches. Menu & Reservations Make Reservations . Midtown Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States of America City Center/Mecca Temple, built in 1924 to house the functions of the Ancient Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (the Shriners) , has a significant place in the architectural and cultural history of New York City. The use of classical details created a subtle counterpoint to the brickwork, the presence of each enhancing the "' other . Order Online Tickets Tickets See Availability Directions {{::location.tagLine.value.text}} Sponsored Topics. The cornerstone wasn't laid until October 13th of the same year. Members progress within the organization by degrees. On September 26, 1872, the first formal meeting was held at the Old Masonic Hall, 114 East 13th Street, at which the ritual was approved, officers elected and the name Mecca adopted.^ Expansion began: Mecca Temple membership was increased; "Masons in other cities were selected to establish subordinate temples, and charter fees were set.®. But this pattern of variety for its own sake was difficult to sustain, and the concept of the Center as an umbrella for resident companies was introduced. Previously a horse stable, this opened as the 299-seat 55th Street Cinema on May 20, 1927. The outer arches are the broadest and like the central arch , provide access to the rear of the stage. In 1850 he joined Lodge #2 of the Masons in Philadelphia. Thus began a twenty-five cent admission WPA concert series, first at Radio City and then at Carnegie Hall. The architects' serious, intelligent and skillful solution deserves recognition. In April 1921, 1500 members voted to build a hall which would be income producing and could be rented out for conventions, concerts, special theatrical performances, and for the new and popular medium, film. Florence became a 32nd Scottish Rite Mason in 1867 and was carried on the rolls of the Aurora Grata Consistorv as a "sojourner" . The sides of the building carry the bulk of the weight of the auditorium balconies, the roof, and the dome above. Among the Shriners' chief fund raising methods are its circus troops which have amazed and delighted many across the land for decades.*. As late 19th and early 20th century architects had drawn upon Oxford and Cambridge for their American university commissions, so Knowles drew upon Islamic architectural motifs - The arcade of horseshoe arches, the schematized naturalisti forms in the attached columns and capitals, the colorful glazed tiles , the pilasters and friezes of the alfiz itself, the lancet windows, and the contrast of all this with the tawny sandstone ashlar facing evoke Islamic sources. These spaces, which were used much more frequently and at different times than the auditorium or banquet hall, share the West 56th Street entrance. facade serves to announce the Shriners' ancient and treasured "heritage empreinte." In 1937 Manufacturers Hanover foreclosed for mortgage payments due, selling its interest to Irving Verschleiser. I’ve done a bit of research. “WAYS OF LOVE: THE MIRACLE”(1950) and “I AM CURIOUS (YELLOW)” (1969) were two landmark cases. In 1940 federal funding, in the form of WPA grants, allowed Morris to broaden the concert series by sending musicians to high school gyms and neighborhood meeting halls. Many of these were Masons. The ground floor, a high basement faced with the same tawny sandstone as the West 55th Street facade, contains five arches — two pairs varying in height and width and a central arch, forming an A-B-C-B-A pattern. [1][4] Later, Andy Warhol presented many of his notable films (including Flesh (1968) and Lonesome Cowboys (1968) and others) in this building (as well as in other area theaters, including the New Andy Warhol Garrick Theatre) in the late 1960s. The tympana within the arches contain terra-cotta grilles, the scimitar and crescent — one of the "jewels" of the Order, — set against a smaller version of the foliate design, of green, ochre and white on a deep, blue ground. Dr. Walter Millard Fleming was born in Portland, Me., and received his medical training in Albany. The top ticket price in 1943 was $1.65. If you look at the transition of European cinema from the fifties to cheap American exploitation films sold as ‘art house’ during the same period, the two markets became very mixed. The mezzanine molding extends over the remaining horseshoe arches at either side of the alfiz. Website. The Ailey Citigroup Theater 405 W 55th St New York NY 10019. Knowles was himself a Master Mason as well as a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. These two stories are framed together by an alfiz. favorited this theater, Functions: Separator News Kids Attractions Museums Restaurants Bars Movies Music Art Theater Comedy Dance City Guide Hotels ... 131 W 55th St New York 10019 : Cross street… Napoleon LeBrun began his distinguished career in Philadelphia. theater went from being an noted art house showing Thanks hdtv27. Other members of Warhol's Factory crowd included Freddie Herko, Ondine, Ronald Tavel, Mary Woronov, Billy Name, and Brigid Berlin (from whom he apparently got the idea to tape-record his phone conversations). While the third story pediments, balconies .arid moldings are sandstone, all the cartouches, capitals, and coping above are buff terra-cotta. In 1933 the building was transferred from the Mecca Holding Company, the agency that brought the idea to reality, to the Trustees of Mecca Temple, AAONMS, Oasis of New York. [2], As an advertisement illustrator in the 1950s, Warhol used assistants to increase his productivity. It debuted there in January of 1935. i had passed by this theater many times in my In 1899, 71 of a total of 78 temples were involved in charitable work. After 1891 the Order had held its entertainments at the new Carnegie Hall, and after 1905, at the 71st Regiment Armory at 34th Street and Park Avenue. But Florence was not its only well-known thespian member. This turned out to be financial overextension. to which Most AAONMS units, because of their philanthropic character, are exempt from taxation. The AAONMS were encouraged by sold out concerts at Carnegie and Aeolian Halls to believe a larger hall could be profitable. "[10] Nonetheless, on September 30, 1970, Assistant District Attorney, Richard Beckler, had the theater manager, Chung Louis, arrested on an obscenity charge, and the film seized as appealing to a prurient interest in sex.
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