History of the Tower Theatre: Part II

This blog picks up where we left off at on Part I of the Tower Theatre’s history from the blog published on April 9th.

Parade Passes Newsreel Theatre, 1950s

The Newsreel Theatre had a very long run, lasting until 1965.  This was well after most other newsreel houses around the country had closed or changed back to movie theaters.  H. L. Gumbiner had passed on by this time, but his daughter had inherited the theater and decided to take over its operation.  She closed the Newsreel and undertook and major renovation.  A new marquee, vertical sign and box office were installed.  The interior was repainted and the wide screen that had been installed in the 1950s was updated with new drapes.  The theater reopened in 1967 as the Tower with a screening of “The Sandpiper”.

Gumbiner’s daughter found that Broadway was no more hospitable to an independent operator in the 1960s than it had been in the 1920s.  She struggled to make a profit, finally deciding to turn over the lease to Pacific Theatres, along with the Cameo, which her family had continued to operate since the 1920s.   Pacific operated both theaters through the 1970s, but they finally decided to bow out and let Metropolitan Theaters return.  This arrangement allowed Metropolitan to control every movie house along Broadway, and the Tower became a home for double and triple features. By the late 1980s Metro began closing theaters along Broadway, and the Tower was one of the first to go.  The seats were taken out on the main floor and the wide screen and draperies were removed, exposing the original proscenium and boxes for the first time in thirty years.  The theater was briefly leased as a swap meet, but it soon proved more profitable to leave it closed as an occasional film location.

Filming inside the theatre

In 1991 the film “The Mambo Kings” used the Tower as a major part of their movie and installed a terraced wood floor over the original sloped concrete floor.  Although this was done as a temporary improvement just for the film, it proved so popular that it has remained for the last 15 years.  In those intervening years countless films, TV shows, music videos and commercials have featured the Tower as everything from a haunted mansion to an English Music Hall, and every conceivable type of nightclub.  Besides “Mambo Kings”, major films have included “Newsies”,  “Coyote Ugly” and “The Prestige.”

New marquee and vertical sign after 1967 renovation

In 2006 the century old ground lease, which had kept the theater under separate ownership from the land beneath it, finally expired and the owner of the property put the land and theater up for sale.  With downtown real estate booming and Broadway itself undergoing a renaissance, the bidding for the Tower was fierce.  The theater was finally sold in early 2007 to the Delajani family and was added to their portfolio of historic Broadway theaters, which also includes the State, the Palace and the Los Angeles.  In the short time they have owned the theater they have already cleaned the exterior so that it gleams as it did in 1927.  They are currently undertaking a study of the best future use for this ninety year-old jewel.

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