National Theatre (Manhattan)

{{Short description|Defunct Yiddish theater}} {{Use American English|date=June 2023}} {{for| the Broadway theatre previously known as the National Theatre|Nederlander Theatre}} {{for |the 1833–41 theater at Leonard and Church Streets in Manhattan |Lorenzo Da Ponte#American career}} thumb|Yiddish theater poster for "Saints and Sinners" at Jennie Goldstein's National Theatre (1935)|alt=Yiddish theater poster for "Saints and Sinners" at Jennie Goldstein's National Theatre (1935) The '''National Theatre''' was a Yiddish theater at the southwest corner of Chrystie Street and Houston Street in the Yiddish Theater District in Manhattan, New York City, United States.<ref name=grids>{{cite web | url=http://gridskipper.com/archives/entries/59603/59603.php | first=Joshua David | last=Stein | title=See the Lower East Side: If Not Now, When? | work=Gridskipper | date=January 26, 2007 | access-date=March 27, 2011 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://archive.today/20130125010815/http://gridskipper.com/archives/entries/59603/59603.php | archive-date=January 25, 2013 | df=dmy-all }}</ref> When first built it was leased to Boris Thomashefsky and Julius Adler.<ref name=treasures /> Its grand opening as the '''Adler-Thomashefsky National Theatre''' was on September 24, 1912.<ref name=Zylbercweig804>Zylbercweig, Zalmen (1934). "[https://archive.org/stream/nybc201090#page/n18/mode/2up Tomashefsky, Boris]" {{in lang|yi}}. ''Leksikon fun yidishn teater'' [Lexicon of the Yiddish theatre]. Vol. 2. Warsaw: Farlag Elisheva. Columns 804-840; here: col. 822.</ref><ref>"[https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/8b2d0ce0-c9c9-0133-5c29-00505686a51c#/?uuid=8b2d0ce0-c9c9-0133-5c29-00505686a51c Grand Opening of the Adler-Thomashefsky National Theatre, Houston St. and Second Avenue]" [program] (1912). New York: Lipshitz Press. For performance on September 24, 1912. Digitized version retrieved via the New York Public Library, December 26, 2016.</ref>

The theater was one of the many designed by architect Thomas W. Lamb, and seated 1,900 when it opened. It was built as one of a pair of theaters, with the '''Crown Theater''', seating 963, in the rooftop theater.<ref name="uwm.edu/yiddish/sunshine">{{cite web |last1=Thissen |first1=Judith |title=Curtain Falls on the Sunshine… |url=https://web.uwm.edu/yiddish-stage/curtain-falls-on-the-sunshine-theatre |website=Digital Yiddish Theatre Project |publisher=March 12, 2018 |access-date=April 18, 2023 |language=en |date=April 16, 2023}}</ref> Both theaters closed in 1941, re-opened in 1951 as a pair of cinemas (the National Theatre and the '''Roosevelt Theatre'''), and were demolished in 1959.<ref name=treasures>{{cite web|title=National Theatre & Roosevelt Theatre|url=http://cinematreasures.org/theater/16276/|work=Cinema Treasures|access-date=March 27, 2011}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

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Category:Buildings and structures demolished in 1959 Category:Demolished buildings and structures in Manhattan Category:Demolished theatres in New York City Category:Former theatres in Manhattan Category:Jewish theatres in the United States Category:Jews and Judaism in Manhattan Category:Lower East Side Category:Thomas W. Lamb buildings Category:Yiddish theatre in New York City