{{Short description|Movie theater in Manhattan, New York City}} {{About|the theater in New York City||Elgin Theatre (disambiguation)}} {{use American English|date=June 2015}} {{use mdy dates|date=June 2015}} {{Infobox venue | name = Elgin Theater | nickname = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | fullname = | former_names = | logo_image = | logo_caption = | image = File:Elgin Theater NYC 1.jpg | image_size = 300px | image_alt = Image of the Elgin Theater, before 1982 | caption = The Elgin Theater, before 1982 | pushpin_map = | pushpin_mapsize = | pushpin_map_caption = | pushpin_label_position = | address = 175 Eighth Avenue | location = [[Chelsea, Manhattan|Chelsea]], New York City, United States | coordinates = {{coord|format=dms|display=inline,title|40.742766|-74.000545|type:landmark_region:US-NY}} | type = Theater | event = Cinema | broke_ground = | built = 1941 | opened = 1942 | renovated = 1982 | expanded = | closed = 1978 | demolished = | owner = | operator = | surface = | scoreboard = | production = | cost = | architect = Simon Zelnik | builder = | project_manager = | structural_engineer = | services_engineer = | general_contractor = | main_contractors = | seating_type = | capacity = 600 | suites = | record_attendance = | dimensions = | field_shape = | acreage = | volume = | tenants = | embedded = | website = <!-- {{URL|example.com}} --> | public_transit = [[14th Street/Eighth Avenue (New York City Subway)|14th St./Eighth Ave (NYC Subway)]] }} The '''Elgin Theater''' is a former movie theater on the corner of [[List of numbered streets in Manhattan#17th to 19th Streets|19th Street]] and [[Eighth Avenue (Manhattan)|Eighth Avenue]] in the [[Chelsea, Manhattan|Chelsea neighborhood]] of [[Manhattan]] in [[New York City]]. The theater showed films from its opening in 1942 until 1978. Its longtime manager, [[Ben Barenholtz]], invented [[midnight movie]] programming for the theater. Following a full renovation, the building reopened in 1982 as a 472-seat dance theater operated by the [[Joyce Theatre Foundation]].

==History== ===Theater programming until 1977=== The theater opened in 1942. The architect of the [[Art Moderne]] style structure was Simon Zelnik.<ref>{{cite book |last=White |first=Norval |author2=Willensky, Elliot |title= [[AIA Guide to New York City]] |edition= 4th |date=June 2000 |publisher= [[Three Rivers Press]] |location= New York City |isbn=0-8129-3107-6 |page=182 }} </ref> Winold Reiss was the designer.{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}} When it opened, the theater had 600 seats.

The Elgin opened as a first-run cinema. In the 1950s through 1965 it presented Spanish-language cinema.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Davis|first1=Ben|last2=Owners of the Elgin|title=Children of the Sixties: An Interview with the Owners of the Elgin|journal=Film Quarterly|year=2000|volume=53|issue=4|page=4|doi=10.2307/1213747|jstor=1213747}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Zoloto |first1=Sam |title=Inge's 'Birth Day' to Open in March/Theaters Change Hands |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/12/31/95922591.html?pageNumber=12 |accessdate=28 June 2020 |work=The New York Times |issue=31 Dec 1965 |page=12}}</ref>

In 1968, Ben Barenholtz assumed management of the theater and converted it to a repertory and art film house. The Elgin soon became noted for the innovation and variety of its programming, which ranged from revivals of classic Hollywood films; experimental works by [[Jonas Mekas]], [[Kenneth Anger]], and [[Andy Warhol]]; and films by then-emerging directors such as [[Jonathan Demme]] and [[Martin Scorsese]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Peter|first1=Belsito|title=Ben Barenholtz: A Life in Film|url=http://www.indiewire.com/2013/10/ben-barenholtz-a-life-in-film-international-film-business-169352/|website=Indie Wire|accessdate=22 September 2017|date=October 8, 2013}}</ref> Around 1975, Steve Gould and Chuck Zlatkin took over management of the theater in partnership with Barenholtz and continued similar programming.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Davis|first1=Ben|last2=Owners of the Elgin|title=Children of the Sixties: An Interview with the Owners of the Elgin|journal=Film Quarterly|year=2000|volume=53|issue=4|page=4|doi=10.2307/1213747|jstor=1213747}}</ref>

With the midnight screening of [[Alejandro Jodorowsky]]'s surrealist western ''[[El Topo#Release|El Topo]]'' on December 18, 1970, the Elgin became the first theater to show [[midnight movie]]s.<ref name="barenholtz obit">{{cite news |last1=Sandomir |first1=Richard |title=Ben Barenholtz, Midnight-Movie Innovator, Is Dead at 83 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/05/movies/ben-barenholtz-dead.html |work=The New York Times |date=5 July 2019}}</ref> Barenholtz recalled, "I was told by the experts: 'Who's going to come see a film at midnight? You're out of your mind.' But within two years, there wasn't a city in the country that didn't have a midnight movie going."<ref>{{cite web|last=Strauss|first=Neil|date=July 7, 1995|title=It Must Be Midnight And Must Be Weird|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/07/movies/it-must-be-midnight-and-must-be-weird.html|website=The New York Times|accessdate=22 September 2017}}</ref> ''El Topo'' premiered at The Elgin on December 17, 1970 and ran continuously seven days a week until the end of June 1971.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hoberman|first1=J.|last2=Rosenbaum|first2=Jonathan|title=Midnight movies|date=1991|isbn=9780306804335|publisher=Da Capo Press|location=New York, N.Y.|page=93}}</ref> Author [[Gary Lachman]] claims that the film ''[[Invocation of My Demon Brother]]'' (1969) "inaugurat[ed] the [[midnight movie]] cult at the theater."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Brottman|first1=M.|last2=Rowe|first2=C.|last3=Powell|first3=A.|editor=Jack Hunter|date=2002|title=Moonchild: The films of Kenneth Anger|location=London|publisher=Creation Books|page=112}}</ref><ref>[[Gary Lachman|Lachman, Gary]] (2001). ''[[Turn Off Your Mind: The Mystic Sixties and the Dark Side of the Age of Aquarius]]'' (New York: Disinformation). {{ISBN|0-88064-278-5}}, p. 305.</ref>

The theater was part of an efflorescence of revival cinema in New York City during this period. ''[[The New York Times]]''{{'}} film critic [[Vincent Canby]] observed, "There is a heaven for movie buffs and it could be here and now thanks to The Elgin, [[Symphony Space|The Thalia]], The Symphony and all those other houses that occasionally recall the past."<ref>{{cite web|title=Is Busby Really Camp|first=Vincent|last=Canby|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/04/12/archives/is-busby-really-camp-is-busby-berkeley-really-camp.html|website=The New York Times|date=12 April 1970|accessdate=21 September 2017}}</ref>

In May 1977, while continuing to present film, the theater began to mount programs of [[rock music]] and allied acts. These two-set evenings were produced by Bleu Ocean. There were local objections to noise from the concerts.<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Nusser|first1=Dick|title=Queens House Books Rock Every Weekend|magazine=Billboard|date=June 18, 1977|issue=June 18, 1977|page=36|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aCQEAAAAMBAJ&q=elgin%20theater%20punk&pg=PT35|accessdate=22 September 2017}}</ref>

===Gay pornography controversy=== On March 20, 1977, Roger Euster, the owner of the Elgin, evicted his tenants, Gould and Zlatkin, for non-payment of rent totaling $21,393. He immediately signed a lease with Tel-a-Gay, a producer and exhibitor of gay films, who launched an all-gay-pornography program on March 21.<ref>{{cite web|last=Klemesrud|first=Judy|date=March 22, 1977|title=Neighbors Assail Elgin's Switch to Homosexual Films|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/03/22/archives/neighbors-assail-elgins-switch-to-homosexual-films.html|website=The New York Times|accessdate=21 September 2017}}</ref> The change inspired immediate protests by local citizens groups and picketing in front of the theater. The theater shut its doors the following day. Later that week, Euster and Tel-a-Gay President William Perry met with the community groups. They agreed to return the theater to its previous programming format on a trial basis to see if the operation could be sustained on the income.<ref>{{cite web|last=Klemesrud|first=Judy|date=March 24, 1977|title=Elgin Cancels Homosexual Films After Chelsea Residents Protest|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/03/24/archives/elgin-cancels-homosexual-films-after-chelsea-residents-protest.html|website=The New York Times|accessdate=21 September 2017}}</ref>

===Conversion to a dance theater=== {{main|Joyce Theater}} By late 1978, the theater had stopped showing films and was for sale. It was purchased in early 1979 by the Eliot Feld Ballet with the intention of converting it to a theater for smaller dance companies.<ref>{{cite web|last=Kisselgoff|first=Anna|date=January 9, 1979|title=Dance: Eliot Feld Ballet Acquires Elgin Theater in Chelsea|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/01/09/archives/dance-remembering-isadora-duncan-eliot-feld-ballet-acquires-elgin.html|website=The New York Times|accessdate=21 September 2017}}</ref> The building reopened in 1982 as the 472-seat [[Joyce Theater]]. Philanthropist [[LuEsther Mertz]] underwrote the purchase of the theater in 1979, at a cost of $225,000. The renovated facility was named for her daughter, Joyce, to honor this contribution.<ref>{{cite web|last=Kisselgofff|first=Anna|date=July 26, 1981|title=Creating a Theater Just for Dance|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/26/arts/creating-a-theater-just-for-dance.html|website=The New York Times|accessdate=21 September 2017}}</ref>

==See also== {{portal|Architecture|Film|United States|New York City}} * [[1942 in architecture]] * [[List of theaters in New York]] {{clear}}

==References== ;Notes {{reflist}}

==External links== * [http://www.joyce.org/ Joyce Theater site] * {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20040811114522/http://nyc-architecture.com/CHE/CHE009-JoyceTheater.htm New York Architecture]}} * [https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/99471672/ Illustrations of original design of theater] [[Category:1942 establishments in New York City]] [[Category:1978 disestablishments in New York (state)]] [[Category:Chelsea, Manhattan]] [[Category:Cinemas and movie theaters in Manhattan]] [[Category:Former cinemas and movie theaters in New York City]] [[Category:Eighth Avenue (Manhattan)]] [[Category:Moderne architecture in New York City]]