By Kaylee DeFreitas
Symphony Space, one of the Upper West Side’s most enduring centers for performing arts, has long made the corner of West 95th Street and Broadway an essential neighborhood gathering place. Its events roster includes film, dance, comedy, book talks, programs for students, and more, reflecting the broad cultural appetite of both the city and the UWS.
But the space it occupies was not originally built for the arts. It began life as a food market, opened in 1915 by Vincent Astor, whose father, John Jacob Astor IV, died in the sinking of the Titanic. The younger Astor inherited the family fortune when he was just 20 years old, and among his real estate investments was the southwest corner of West 95th Street and Broadway.
Vincent Astor built a food hall there designed to bring affordable groceries to the Upper West Side; multiple purveyors of produce, meats, cheese, and other foods would rent stalls and offer patrons greater variety and lower prices than the typical grocery store of the era. Opening to much fanfare and excitement, the building, designed by esteemed architectural firm Tracy and Swartwout, featured a “290-foot-long frieze by William Mackay depicting a market procession, with farmers and dealers… [and] everything from medieval carts to motor trucks,” according to a 2006 NY Times article.
Despite the early buzz, Vincent Astor’s food hall fizzled; by 1917, just two years after its opening, the business was shuttered.
Astor then sold the building to restaurateur and up-and-coming real estate mogul Thomas Healy, who split the market into two separate businesses; the Crystal Carnival Ice Rink upstairs and the Sunken Galleries Restaurant on the basement level. The ice rink closed less than a year after its opening; World War I caused a shortage of ammonia, a vital chemical for ice production.
The dynamic Healy wasted no time developing a new business plan to fill the vacant spot, and on June 15, 1918, opened the Symphony Theatre: a music and motion picture venue that aimed “to give persons living uptown a first class Broadway entertainment near their homes,” according to a 1918 NY Times article.
The Symphony would not be the only entertainment venue in the old Astor building for long. In 1932 the refurbished basement opened as the Thalia Theatre: a 292-seat cinema. Named after the Greek muse of comedy and idyllic poetry, the Thalia was the enterprise of father-son team John H. and John W. Springer, who ran over 60 other theaters across New York at the time. They hired architects Raymond Irrera and Ben Schlanger, who designed an art deco interior and an auditorium floor that dipped in the middle to ensure each seat had the best possible view.
In the late 1930s, Martin Lewis took over ownership of the Thalia, ushering in a major shift that turned the Thalia into an art house revival theater. It drew film buffs from across the city to watch acclaimed international films and revivals of old Hollywood classics. In a 2002 NY Times article, film director Martin Scorsese reflected on his love of the Thalia: “That’s where I learned about films…The films were programmed so that there was no intermission: one would end and the other would begin. It was really hard core. It was better than film school.”
The 1970s proved to be a tumultuous time for the Symphony Theatre, leased out mainly for boxing and wrestling matches and threatened with possible closure. Salvation came in 1978 after writer-director Isaiah Sheffer and conductor Allan Miller, friends and neighbors on the UWS, leased the building to host Wall-to-Wall Bach, a free, one-day-only, 12-hour event. This immersive symphonic experience allowed musical professionals and amateurs to take the stage and perform side by side. Despite freezing temperatures, people came in droves to support and take part in this extraordinary music marathon.
Following the success of Wall-To-Wall Bach, Sheffer and Miller established Symphony Space, a multidisciplinary performing arts organization, leasing the Symphony Theatre to serve as its home.
“We are the quintessential New York story, where everyone came together to make something magical, and that’s what it takes. That is the beauty and the challenge of New York,” said Kathy Landau, current executive director of Symphony Space, in an interview with West Side Rag.
Expansion and restoration efforts began in 1996, after Symphony Space was awarded legal ownership of the building following years of litigation. After selling the air rights above the building to allow for the construction of the high-rise Lyric Apartments, Symphony Space then bought the Thalia Theatre, which had shuttered in 1987 and briefly reopened in the 1990s. With this purchase, a major renovation began, to update and stabilize the Symphony Theatre, and to connect the Thalia to the building once more. After renovations, Symphony Space now had two functional arts venues: the 715-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theatre and the 169-seat Leonard Nimoy Thalia, the latter being renamed in gratitude to the actor’s donation.
These renovations so drastically changed the look of the building that it would seem no trace was left of Vincent Astor’s original food hall. But while the outside changed, some interior gems from the original building are still being discovered. According to Landau, work in an area of the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre recently revealed the original piping system for the ice rink that inhabited the space over 100 years ago. Landau herself holds on to pieces of the building’s history, hanging numbers in her office that once adorned the old Symphony Theatre marquee.
Reflecting on the future, as Symphony Space approaches its 50th anniversary in 2028 and the building itself turns 110, Landau said: “As we look forward, the problems are so big, but if we take it as we can — one show, one artist, one child, who for the first time steps into a theatre and feels that magic or sees their culture celebrated in their school instead of vilified — then that’s a pretty good future for Symphony Space.”
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Please renovate the Metro into something like this.
I loved this article. Thanks to the author for sharing your fascinating detective work on the history of this corner!
I was at the Thalia in the 1980s, saw Glen or Glenda with Bela Lugosi, great kinky film in B&W.
This is a wonderful article! I have a 104-year-old friend who was born, raised, and still lives on the UWS. I visit her once a week. On my next visit I will read her this article. Thank you!
This was a great read! I hope Thalia reopens its nightly jazz club setup one day, especially as that area lacks any cocktail/wine bars and entertainment.
This research and reporting is priceless
So unfortunate they are the reason for that monstrosity of the building, cutting out the sky for for all of us who live on the Upper West Side.
I hope that the owners of the Thalia demanded a refund from the architects, who supposedly tried “to ensure each seat had the best possible view.” I went to the Thalia hundreds of times in the 70’s and ’80’s during its repertory years, and because of the upward sloping floor, always had sit in the first row whenever they showed movies with subtitles. If I did not, I would not have been able to read them. But in addition to getting an intimate knowledge of Toshiro Mifune’s nostril hair, I also got a great movie education there. Those were in the days of the Bleecker Street Cinema, the Theatre 80 Saint Marks, the Regency Theatre and the Carnegie Hall Cinema, where one could see film classics (and not so classics) seven days a week, and the 42d Street grindhouses (not the porn theatres), where for 75 cents one could see a double feature with a first run film paired with a trashy second feature (if memory serves me right, in 1979 I saw Beyond The Poseidon Adventure on a double bill with King Kong vs. Godzilla). One night at a 42d St. theatre, a father sitting in front of me lit up a joint and passed it to the mother, who then passed it to each of their several young (pre-teen) children.
Fabulous article! Thanks for the history.
Really nice article! I remember my mom taking me to see the Paper Bag Players (I think) here in the 80’s
I saw many Gilbert and Sullivan productions at Symphony Space. They were magnificent and I’m sure are missed by many. It’s a shame that good things end
Ben Schlanger, parabolic seating design is one of the true treasures of the Upper West Side, New York, and indeed the Nation.
In 1968 I was in my senior year at Yeshiva College in Washington Heights. I took ill and needed a big operation that saved my life but I lost several credits while in the hospital and ended up needing six credits to get my diploma. The college let me walk down the aisle at graduation but I took the six credits I needed in the summer at Columbia and the director of the program I was in that summer and my teacher for three of those credits was Isaiah Sheffer. He was in the process of converting the theater at 95 th and Broadway to Symphony Space. I ended up getting an MFA in Directing from Temple University in Philadelphia and, much later, I moved to the Upper West Side when I got married and we live at 95th and Columbus; just two blocks from Symphony Space. I always stayed in touch with Professor Sheffer as I advanced in my directing career. Later still I started a business to fund my own productions but ended up sticking with the business and putting the theater on the proverbial back burner. My memories of the work Isaiah Sheffer did to launch Symphony Space will always be an inspiration to me. Love what you do and help others became my way of doing things. Thank you for this very well presented history lesson of the Upper West Side. Nice memories indeed. I have been thinking of revisiting one of my old theater productions and remounting it for today’s audience. But where? You never know. Thanks again. Be well and stay safe.
Great article detailing the history of our beloved Symphony Space. Thank you.
How can you not mention the feature movie that had its world premiere at the Thalia in 1971, “The Battle of Love’s Return,” by Lloyd Kaufman, better known, perhaps, for “The Toxic Avenger” and Troma Entertainment.
Bring back Wall to Wall Bach!
Wonderful article – thank you. Interesting to learn about the history of the space.
The UWS (and NYC) used to have so many great movie theaters. There are very few left. And many fewer worthwhile movies to see if you don’t like Marvel comic movies and the like. They have their place, but it seems like there is nothing else.
But the Thalia never shows movies anymore! Why not?
Other fun facts: Sal and Carmine Pizza was originally in this building. Big chunks of it were vacant for years before it was demolished to make the Lyric. And the Lyric was built around Symphony Space using cantilever (which was then demolished and rebuilt in the same space).
I used to live at 250 W. 94th Street, the midrise building that is partially visible at the far left of the photo of the Astor food market. Starting back in the mid ’80’s, and for a period of about 10 years, that block, on the west side of Broadway, between 94th and 95th Streets, had become a ghost town and an increasing blight on the neighborhood. Because of the ongoing litigation as to whom held the deed, store leases could not be renewed, and plywood with accompanying graffiti covered many of the former storefronts. I remember my relief when the matter was settled, new stores gradually emerged, and a beautiful, brand new Symphony Space came into being. My only regret was that the Thalia was no longer an independent movie theater with great vintage films. The silver lining on the cloud to the long drawn-out saga was that Symphony Space had been quite rundown and finally got an overdue renovation.
I want to add to my prior comment that I was remiss in not thanking Kaylee DeFreitas for her excellent, well-researched reporting, set forth in a beautiful prose, with fine historic photos and graphics. accompanying the article. Kudos to Ms. DeFreitas and The Westside Rag!
See those kids standing in the street? That of course would never happen now because our streets are only for dangerous machines … A.k.a Cars. Of course the train tracks on Broadway have been ripped up to. New York has been transformed into a car clogged City. No more street cars. We can’t even get a protected bike lane on Broadway. And aggressive people flock here to strike it rich. And they drive aggressively too. That’s what New York is now.