Yesterday I fulfilled a wish I’ve had for more than 40 years. I toured the interior of this truly magnificent old movie palace, an imposing structure that occupies a full block on Broadway between 175th and 176th Streets. My guide was Mike Fitelson, executive director of the cultural wing of Rev. Ike’s church, which has owned the building since Loews ceased operations in 1969.
Mike has been spearheading a recent effort to return film to the Palace, which has been rented out for concerts since 2007 (church services are still held in the auditorium sometimes). A recent campaign on the crowdsourcing site Indiegogo raised $42,000 that will go toward a new screen and a basic digital projection setup to replace the rental equipment that’s been used for a handful of recent screenings, including a couple of premieres. Mike (shown holding a film reel in a photo below) hopes that as more film programmers become aware of this amazing 3,400-seat venue — magnificently maintained and restored under Rev. Ike’s stewardship — funds will become available to install a state-of-the-art 4K DCP setup.
I’m no expert, but it looked to me like the Palace’s proscenium and orchestra pit were at least as capacious as Oakland’s magnificent Paramount Theatre, where I was lucky enough to see Abel Gance’s “Napoleon” presented in its full Polyvision (three screen) glory last year. Certainly the Palace’s rental fees are more reasonable than those for Radio City Music Hall, where the New York Film Festival presented four sold-out showings in 1981 — the last time this silent masterpiece was shown in New York.
The Palace may be in Washington Heights, but it’s just 20 minutes from midtown on the A train and the neighborhood is rapidly gentrifying. And it’s worth the trip just to see this stunningly beautiful, 1930 Thomas Lamb-designed Loews “Wonder Theater” — reportedly the only one that still has the original organ for which they were named. Certainly there’s an angel out there to make this dream come true.
There are tons of mouth-watering photos on the invaluable Cinema Treasures, like the ones above, that show off the exterior and auditorium far better than anything I could take. But you won’t find any of the rarely-seen room that Mike led me up a steep ladder to see — the huge projection booth, which appears to have barely been touched in the last 45 years. Follow the link below for a gallery of images showing at least six projectors I found up there, both 35mm and 70mm, and even one odd-looking one that possibly projected VistaVision (!) sideways. There’s also a view of the auditorium from one of the four projector ports. Mike says he’s heard that a visiting filmmaker turned one of them on in the 1990s and it was still working.
Mike also recounted a “possibly true” story that Rev. Ike decided to buy Loews 175th Street on the spot after he and his wife saw “2001: A Space Odyssey” there. (A slot marked “Odyssey” on the film locker in one photo makes me wonder if the good reverend kept a personal copy of the movie on hand). The evangelist, who died in 2009, certainly deserves the enduring gratitude of all cinephiles and theater buffs for one of the best-preserved old movie palaces that I’ve ever seen. Most that still survive look like the ones on photographer Matt Lambros’ great After the Final Curtain blog.
