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Irving Plaza

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Irving Plaza
entrance & marquee (2011)
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Former namesIrving Place Theatre, Amberg's German Theatre, Fillmore East at Irving Plaza
Address17 Irving Place
LocationManhattan, New York City
Coordinates40°44'6?N 73°59'18?W
TypeMusic venue
Genre(s)Rock
Capacity1200
Construction
Built1888
Opened2007
Website
http://www.livenation.com/Irving-Plaza-tickets-New-York/venue/47

Irving Plaza is a 1,200-person ballroom-style music venue at 17 Irving Place and East 15th Street in the Union Square neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1888, the three-level auditorium has served as a Polish Army veterans' headquarters, a Yiddish theatre, a burlesque house (ecdysiast Gypsy Rose Lee stripped here), a union meeting hall, a theatre, and a rock venue.

History

The original building on the site was Irving Hall, which opened in 1860 as a venue for balls, lectures, and concerts. It was also for many years the base for one faction of the city's Democratic Party.[1]

The facility was rebuilt, and opened as Amberg's German Theatre in 1888 under the management of Gustav Amberg, as a home for German-language theatre.[2] Heinrich Conried took over management in 1893, and changed the name to Irving Place Theatre.[3] which stayed with the venue at least until December 1904, when the New York Times referred to it as the "Irving Place Theatre" in its listing of Max Neal's play "The Collie and the Cat".[4]

In 1918 the facility became the home of a Yiddish theater company under the management of Morris Schwartz.[5] By the 1920s burlesque shows were offered alongside Yiddish drama.[6]

Clemente Giglio converted the theate in 1939 into a cinema to present Italian films.[7] In 1940 it was taken over by a group of non-Equity actors, the "Merely Players", whose productions were picketed by the theatrical unions.[8] During the war it presente a steady program of mixed bills of Soviet propaganda and French films, as well as weekly folk dance sessions.

In 1948 the building was purchased by the Polish Army Veterans of America District 2 and turned into a Polish-American community center. Generals and other distinguished Poles graced its stage including, in 1976, the future Pope John Paul II.[9]

As a rock venue

Thirty years later, in 1978, the hall was converted to a rock music venue by future Peppermint Lounge promoters Tom Goodkind and Frank Roccio, who, after a year, began to share promotional efforts with a "Club 57" crew headed by Jane Friedman and Louis Tropia.[10] [11] Goodkind and Roccio brought in acts such as the B-52s, Talking Heads, the Ramones and, with Friedman and Tropia, a wealth of British bands, establishing the venue as a premier American location for punk and new wave.

In October 1983 the venue was reopened by Chuck Terzella,[12] with management by Frank Gallagher and the English DJ Andy Dunkley[13], presenting reggae and other ethnic music, plus college rock, proclaiming in their ads "We don't have video"[14] Terzella's club filed for bankruptcy in December 1985, and closed in June 1986.[15]

Chris Williamson, who already promoted the punk and hard rock oriented "Rock Hotel" nights at the Ritz, then took over in November 1986.[16]\ He began programming alternative rock occasionally using the designation "Rock Motel". A New Years Eve Rock Hotel show with The Dictators turned nasty after the band initiated a food fight and a bouncer lost his cool and beat some patrons[17]. Plans by the Polish Veterans to convert the building to condos fell through. They had to spend $25,000 on bringing the venue up to firecode before, in April 1987, Chris Williamson re-opened the club - featuring improved sound and lights - with an inaugural multi-night stand of Big Audio Dynamite[18][19], in the tradition of The Clash. Williamson continued putting on shows into 1988 including hosting the popular "Milky Way" hip hop nights but, as Irving Place gentrified, there was increasing local opposition to the hall. A plan by Williamson to present a play in the winter of 1988 fell through and, in December 1988, it was announced that the club would close and be demolished and turned into condos.[19] The last show was The Ramones on December 31, 1988. Dee Dee Ramone praised the venue: "It was funky without being a dump."[19]

Ron Delsener took on management in the early 1990s. Live Nation, a spinoff of Clear Channel Communications, renovated and reopened Irving Plaza under the name "Fillmore New York At Irving Plaza" on April 11, 2007, reviving the name of the former Fillmore East in Manhattan's East Village, which had been open from 1968 to 1971.[20]. However, in May 2010 Live Nation conceded that the new name had not caught on and due to "unrelenting demand" the name "Irving Plaza" would be restored as from June 23, 2010. A replica of the original marquee has been commissioned. [21]

In September 2010, the Irving Plaza became the venue for the inaugural services of Hillsong Church New York.[22]

References

Notes
  1. ^ "Union Square Loses Its Old Residences" (PDF). The New York Times. The New York Times Company. 18 June 1916. Retrieved 2009-06-14.
  2. ^ Ward & Trent; et al., eds. (1907–21). "23". The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes. Vol. XVIII. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. ISBN 1-58734-073-9. {{cite book}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |editor= (help)CS1 maint: date format (link)
  3. ^ "Conried Gets Amberg's.; Hereafter it will be the Irving Place Theatre". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. 10 February 1893. Retrieved 2009-06-14.
  4. ^ "THE COLLIE AND THE CAT.; Max Neal Born in Munich". The New York Times. 1904-12-16.
  5. ^ "German Drama to Move; Irving Place Theatre Will Be Yiddish Playhouse". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. 14 February 1918. Retrieved 2009-06-14.
  6. ^ Shteir, Rachel (2004). Striptease: the untold history of the girlie show. Oxford University Press US. p. 65. ISBN 9780195127508. Retrieved 2009-06-14.
  7. ^ "The Screen: Ethiopian War in Film" New York Times (April 11, 1939) - "Cinema opens April 10, 1939 with "II Grande Appello" ("The Last Roll-Call") made in Ethiopia by Mario Camerini"
  8. ^ "Show That Defies Unions Takes In $74 in a Week" New York Times (February 25, 1940) - "Outside the New Irving Place Theatre, at Fifteenth Street, the actors have posted a sign that reads: 'We are a young cooperative group, pro-labor to a man,' After giving 'Othello' for a week despite picket lines established by A.F. of L. theatrical unions, a group of youthful actors checked up on their box-office receipts yesterday and discovered that they had taken in $74"
  9. ^ "Polish Cardinal Warmly Greeted; Wojtyla Winds Up His Tour of the U.S. in New York" New York Times (September 5, 1976)
  10. ^ Rockwell, John. "After Politics, There's Rock, isco or Pop Clubs to Visit" New York Times (August 8, 1980) -"Two organizations book concerts into the facility, with two different telephone numbers."
  11. ^ Goodkind, Thomas S. (2003-01-02). "Survivors of the Downtown Scene, Unite".
  12. ^ Jon, Pareles (October 5, 1983). "ROCK: DEVOTO AT IRVING PLAZA". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-04-03. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  13. ^ Christgau, Robert (Jan. 8, 1985). "Human Jukebox". Village Voice,. Retrieved 2010-03-24. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  14. ^ Display ad in the East Village Eye c. July 1984
  15. ^ "Irving Plaza Rock Club Closes for Lack of Rent". Arts. New York Times. June 7, 1986. Retrieved 2010-04-03. I used every resource I had to keep this place open for new music, he said. I'm tired, and I can't fight it anymore.
  16. ^ Poster for Sonic Youth show November 22, 1986
  17. ^ "Stop Breaking Down" The Village Voice (January 13, 1987}
  18. ^ "Bowie, Frampton, Jimmy Cliff, Dave Stewart and Big Audio Dynamite". Retrieved 2010-03-24.
  19. ^ a b c Browne, David (Sunday December 25, 1988). "Curtains". City Lights. Daily News. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ Sisario, Ben (March 30, 2007). "Arts, Briefly; New Name for Irving Plaza". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-06-14.
  21. ^ Sisario, Ben (May 31, 2010). "Rethinking, Irving Plaza Keeps Its Maiden Name". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-06-01.
  22. ^ http://www.hillsongnyc.com/


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