Products Bow Tie Cinemas Founder B.S. Moss | Website www.bowtiecinemas.com Founded New York City | |
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Industry Entertainment (movie theaters) Key people B.S. Moss, Founder
Ben Moss
Charles B. Moss, Jr.
Joseph Masher (CEO) Headquarters Ridgefield, Connecticut, United States Profiles | ||
Bow tie cinemas policy
Bow Tie Cinemas is an American movie theater chain, with 59 locations in Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia. 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.
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The Chelsea Cinemas in New York City was Bow Tie’s Manhattan flagship venue and hosts events including the Tribeca Film Festival. Cinepolis now owns this theater as well as a few former bow tie locations.
History
Bow Tie Cinemas was founded over 100 years ago by B.S. Moss, originally as a venue for nickelodeons. Soon, Moss transferred his business to the Vaudeville circuit. Moss continued to operate Vaudeville theaters like Manhattan's Colony Theater, notable for being the venue of several high-profile Disney premieres, like those of Fantasia and Steamboat Willie, the first Disney cartoon to feature Mickey Mouse.
In the 1930s, Moss decided to focus more on the movie business and closed his Vaudeville theaters. In 1936, he opened his Criterion Theater in Times Square. Since then, Bow Tie Cinemas has concentrated on the presentation of films.
2013 acquisition of Clearview Cinemas
Clearview Cinemas was a movie theater chain within the New York metropolitan area founded in 1994. From 1998 to 2013, Clearview was a subsidiary of Cablevision. 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.