The Music Palace!

*The last ad the Music Palace ever ran.*

The Music Palace, located in New York City on the corner of Bowery and Hester, was not only the last Chinese movie theater in New York’s Chinatown, it was the last Chinese movie theater in North America. Built in 1890, it became a Universal Photoplay theater in 1914, and was known as The World before becoming the Music Palace around 1973.

With 599 seats and a balcony, it was a temple of Hong Kong film. The lobby was tiny, but the snack bar sold sweet popcorn, dried squid, hot peas, and lemon tea, and you could smoke in the theater (you could pretty much do anything in the theater). Warrington Hudlin and other early martial arts enthusiasts used to attend religiously, Dennis Brown would drive up from DC to watch kung fu movies there, Ron Van Clief became “The Black Dragon” after catching a screening of The Boxer From Shantung. It was a temple of film.

In the 1990s, a whole new generation of Hong Kong film fans discovered the MP, including those of us who eventually formed Subway Cinema. We were inspired to start showing Hong Kong movies in New York City when the MP announced it was closing in 1999. We figured that plenty of places would show Wong Kar-wai movies and arthouse pictures but what about the action, comedy, and romance flicks we flocked to the MP for? No one was taking up that torch, so we did.

At first we thought we’d save the building but people kind of just laughed in our faces. Eventually, we realized we’d have to figure out how to start a film festival.

Towards the end, the MP was screening double features built around whatever prints they had in the basement. And they had a lot of prints. I mean, who doesn’t want to see Dragons Forever and A Hero Never Dies back to back?

When the MP finally closed, we were alerted by a reporter at Sing Tao newspaper that the owner had found prints and posters in the basement. We convinced him to let us inventory them. The MP had been part of the Shaw Brothers circuit and a rep from Shaw had already come and cleaned out their prints, leaving behind piles of empty, metal print cans with names on the side like Cat vs Rat and King Boxer. Still, we managed to log 321 35mm prints, 700 trailers, and 1100 posters and lobby cards.

We arranged for someone to drive an 18 wheeler from Texas to NYC and pay cash for the whole lot, but at the last minute the owner asked for more money. There was no more money to be had and the deal fell apart.

*A projectionist’s schedule, rescued from the offices of the MP before they were torn down.*

The owner stored the prints in a different basement under a doctor’s office. It leaked. The last we saw of them they were half underwater. Years later he told us he’d thrown them all away. So it goes.

Subway Cinema is still thriving. Ron Van Clief, Dennis Brown, and Warrington Hudlin are all still kicking ass in their own ways. The Music Palace inspired a lot of other people in its time but today it’s a hotel.

I still wish we could have saved the building.

Logos of Doom!