We’re excited to announce a new behind the scenes tour of the United Palace Theatre in Washington Heights, the last of the five Loew’s Wonder Theatres in the New York City metropolitan area. The opulent and stunning theater was opened in 1930 as the Loew’s 175th Street Theatre and stands today due to its conversion in 1969 into the church of Rev. Ike. At 3,400 hundred seats, the United Palace Theatre is Manhattan’s fourth largest theater, with more seats than the recently renovated and reopened Brooklyn Kings Theatre. The New York Times described the United Palace as a “delirious masterpiece,” a “feast” of ornamentation.
In 2012, Xavier Eikerenkotter, the son of Reverend Ike, created the United Palace of Cultural Arts, a non-profit dedicated to utilizing the theater as an arts and cultural center, including the restoration of United Palace to one of its original functions: as a movie theater. The Palace is host to a variety of great programming, including the upcoming Women of the Fox Film Festival, a collaboration with the Fort Lee Film Commission; Monster Movie Mashups with live musical performances and a Hip Hop Nutcracker.
Our October 11th tour, starting at 3pm, will be led by Mike Fitelson, Executive Director of the United Palace of Cultural Arts, who will share the backstory of the theater, its revitalization and its future while we visit the grand foyer, the theater, the mezzanine, the loge and a sneak peek inside the former men’s smoking lounge.
The tour tickets include entry to the October 11th screening of “Down Argentine Way,” as part of the “Women of the Fox Film Festival.” Down Argentine Way stars Betty Grable and Carmen Miranda, the latter in her first Hollywood picture, a love story set in Argentina.
