Elgin Theater

The theater opened in 1942. The architect of the Art Moderne style structure was Simon Zelnik.{{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 }}

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.{{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}}{{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}}

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.{{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}} Around 1975, Steve Gould and Chuck Zlatkin took over management of the theater in partnership with Barenholtz and continued similar programming.{{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}}

With the midnight screening of Alejandro Jodorowsky's surrealist western El Topo on December 18, 1970, the Elgin became the first theater to show midnight movies.{{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}} 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."{{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}} El Topo premiered at The Elgin on December 17, 1970 and ran continuously seven days a week until the end of June 1971.{{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}} Author Gary Lachman claims that the film Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969) "inaugurat[ed] the midnight movie cult at the theater."{{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}}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.

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, The Thalia, The Symphony and all those other houses that occasionally recall the past."{{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}}

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.{{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}}

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.{{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}} 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.{{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}}

{{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.{{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}} 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.{{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}}

{{portal|Architecture|Film|United States|New York City}}

• 1942 in architecture
• List of theaters in New York

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;Notes

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.joyce.org/ Joyce Theater site]
• [http://www.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