A Glimpse of the Amato Opera House on the Bowery, Circa 1995 [VIDEO]
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A few days after unearthing his footage of Ludlow Street in 1995, Corey Shaff shares the following clip centered on the now-defunct Amato Opera House at 319 Bowery. Where the stage was allegedly smaller than the men’s room at the Met. It was initially produced for PBS that same year, but the public broadcasting channel decided the content was “too scary.” After all, one of the talking heads in the nine-minute segment noted candidly that “I think also that the placement of this opera house is absolutely perfect … in an area that has a real downside to it, as well, as we all know. It’s the Bowery; it’s the Lower East Side. That in the middle is this little gem.”
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As previously reported, controversial landlord Steve Croman obtained permits from the Department of Buildings in October to transform this haunted beauty into a mixed-use nightmare. The property – originally erected in 1899 – had been jailed behind a stop-work order for the previous year. Plans on file call for three family dwellings across 3,591 square-feet of real estate. That’s one home per floor. The former theater itself is being converted to “use group 6″ retail.
The Amato Opera House began in 1964 and had its swan song was on May 31, 2009.
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