It is a 1500 seat theatre with a racked floor in the bottom half of the auditorium toward the screen. The back ao the auditorium is a stadium seating area. I believe the screen is the second largest in the city, first is the Loews Astor Plaza, which has 1644 seats.

It was a nice Theatre, it was a shame however, the screen curtains were not used and the white Theatre Auditorium lighting was something to be desired!.

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I wouldn't trust the seat counts listed in Variety, I know that the theatres I operated the counts were never correct.

When I visited the place during my years as a School of Visual Arts student, the operators there usually tried as best they could for providing a "road show" experience. This is a place that actually has curtains. You never see a white, blank screen. Sometimes that means seeing the very beginnings of previews being projected on the layers of curtains as they open (The Ziegfeld had a two layer setup with one thick set of burgundy curtains and another curtain layer that was translucent like brides veil).

I'm pretty sure I watched more shows in 70mm at this particular theater than any other. "Lawrence of Arabia," "The Abyss," "Spartacus," "Backdraft," "The Bear" and "Born of the Fourth of July" were among the better shows I've seen there.

It is a wonderful design, Designed by John McNamara, before his retirement. The theatre is a stand alone construction surrounded by the Burlington Mills building about 60 Stories and the building housing Warner Brothers, 1325 Avenue Of The Americas with the entrance on 54th and 55th Street. Also 50 stories in height.

The Walter Reade Organization was one of the Premiere Motion Picture Exhibitors.

Of course I admit, that was a time when it was very expensive to have great sound. Today you can have 90% of that quality for a much cheaper price.

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