Bow Tie Cinemas is an American movie theater chain, with 38 locations in

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, New York, and

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. As of 2013, it is the eighth-largest movie theater chain in the United States and is the oldest, having been founded in 1900. Bow Tie Cinemas is family-owned and has been for four generations. The company was established by Benjamin S. Moss (1878 - 1951) who opened

nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

venues, then shifted to Vaudeville venues, before settling on movie theaters.

History

B.S. Moss immigrated to the U.S. from Austria in 1900. He opened venues for

s. He soon changed to operating venues for the

Vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

circuit and also established a film production company. The film production company produced Margaret Sanger's film '' Birth Control'' which was banned from release in New York in 1915. B. S. Moss Motion Picture Company presented '' Three Weeks'' (1914) and produced '' One Day'' (1916), '' Boots and Saddles'' (1916), '' The Power of Evil'' (1916), and '' The Salamander'' (1916). B. S. Moss Enterprises operated several movie theaters. In 1910, Moss organized the syndicate that built the $100,000

Washington Theatre Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

at Amsterdam Avenue and 149th Street, known as the first "real" movie palace in New York City. Moss' Vaudeville theaters included

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

's Colony Theater, notable for being the venue of several high-profile

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premieres including Fantasia and

Steamboat Willie ''Steamboat Willie'' is a 1928 American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. It was produced in black and white by Walt Disney Studios and was released by Pat Powers, under the name of Celebrity Productions. The cartoon ...

, the first Disney cartoon to feature Mickey Mouse. White Hands (1922) - 8

In the 1930s, Moss decided to focus more on the movie business and phased out his vaudeville program. In 1936, he opened his Criterion Theater in

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, which lasted as a successful movie theater until 2000. Since then, Bow Tie Cinemas has continued to concentrate on the presentation of films."About Bow-Tie Cinemas." Bow Tie Cinemas. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Aug. 2014.

Bow Tie Cinemas

The company changed its name to Bow Tie Cinemas in 2004, upon opening its Criterion Cinemas complex in Downtown New Haven, Connecticut. The name honors the company's flagship property, located where Broadway and 45th meet in Manhattan, known as the "Bow Tie" of Times Square. Bow Tie operates many different types of theaters, from historic in-town cinemas to a 21-screen complex in Richmond, VA. The company's premium large format auditoriums are known as "BTX - Bow Tie X-Treme(R)". Bow Tie has continued to grow and innovate. In 2017 the company debuted its new "Ultimate" locations in Norwalk, CT, featuring luxury electric recliner seating with in-theater restaurant and a full bar. Bow Tie Ultimate(TM) locations feature fresh baked artisan pizzas, and an array of dining options. Ultimate locations are now open in Norwalk, CT (Ultimate Royale 6 and Ultimate Regent 8); Trumbull, CT (Ultimate Marquis 16 & BTX); and Annapolis, MD (Ultimate Annapolis Mall 11 & BTX) and Stamford, CT (Ultimate Majestic 6 & BTX). In spring 2022 five Connecticut Bow Tie theaters were sold to AMC Entertainment. These included two in Stamford, two in Norwalk, and one in Trumbull. They had previously closed three theaters, one each in Greenwich, New Canaan, and Wilton.

2013 acquisition of Clearview Cinemas

Clearview Cinemas was a movie theater chain within the

New York metropolitan area The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass, at , and one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. The vast metropolitan area ...

founded in 1994. From 1998 to 2013, Clearview was a subsidiary of

Cablevision Cablevision Systems Corporation was an American cable television company with systems serving areas surrounding New York City. It was the fifth-largest cable provider and ninth-largest television provider in the United States. Throughout its ex ...

. In 2013, Bow Tie Cinemas acquired forty-one Clearview theatres. The forty-second location, the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City, was retained by Cablevision, but Bow Tie continued to operate the theater until it was closed as a theater in 2016.

References

{{Major USA Cinema Chains Movie theatre chains in the United States Companies based in Fairfield County, Connecticut Cinemas and movie theaters in New York (state) Ridgefield, Connecticut Entertainment companies established in 1900 1900 establishments in New York City Family-owned companies of the United States