Embassy 1,2,3 Theatre
707 7th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10036
707 7th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10036
38 people
favorited this theater
Showing 226 - 250 of 1,093 comments
to texhman707-
like you I miss the great old movie theaters of the Times Square Area. fortunately the Capitol was never twinned like the Rivoli of triplexed like the Demille. as much as these theaters were loved by movie buffs isn’t the primary reason for their demolition is they were economically unviable as a single screen movie theater. for instance the Roxy’s huge size was great for 1927 but by the spring of 1960 said size was its own worst enemy.
Ed, Just ANOTHER SAD DAY in the history of New York’s Movie Palaces. I’m still mourning Loew’s Capatol, Strand and the Rivoli. These were TRUE landmarks and should have been preserved. But then again, I miss the Automat.-LOL
I walk by this building every day, on my way to the office. It is completely covered in scaffolding and dark mesh construction netting, so, impossible to really see what is going on, but from what can be viewed through the peepholes and gaps in the street level shedding, they are stripping all vestiges of ornamentation from the facade. I presume this is in preparation for the dismantling of the building, as I also presume that the any remaining architectural detail within the structure is being carted away as rubble.
to Al A.–
thank you for your thoughts on the book “Movie Roadshows” by Kim Rolston. would you happen to know if “Roadshow: The Fall of Musicals in the 1960s” by Matthew Kennedy is better researched and more accurate than “Film Roadshows”?
i am writing to you on this page because i can’t seem to find the page for the 58th St. off of Lexington Fine Arts.what does one type in the search box?
hello to Robert E.–
thanks again for your reply. now I apologize for asking this question since I asked it on this board sometime ago. was Mark I, II and III ever actually on the marquee? as I said I have been using the TKTS booth since the day it opened and never remember the marquee ever having that name.
It was an “almost” adult theatre when it was the Mark I, II, III. Because of the city’s restrictions it never did actually run porn.That was when the contractor added the runway into the house which was taken out before it was ever used. It was after Clark, whom techman707 refers to, and before Elson. It was also when they added the two screens in the balcony. Since porn was primarily 1.33:1 aspect ratio, the space between the two balcony screens used as a light path for the second projector to shoot to the screen was pretty narrow. I remember standing on the stage with the man doing the projection work, and walking across looking up at the balcony to see how far we could go before the projection port was cut off by the walls of the two upstairs screens. They could get a pretty reasonable 1.85:1 image but that was about it. Later Elson ran a 70mm print, but alas the big 70mm roadshow image was constricted to the 1.85 size by the upper walls. I would say the planned adult theatre would have been around 1976. They actually used a 16mm projector which would have shown porn, as a feature projector in one of the upstairs screens when it was the Mark,although by the time I worked there in the Elson years all three of the Cinemeccanica Vic X’s were back in use.
bigjoe59,
Robert E is correct, there was NO REAL BACKSTAGE and NO Dressing Rooms. I worked at the DeMille until the fire and then went back for a short time when this guy Clark, who owned a theatre on 42nd ST operated it before Elson. I think the film that we re-opened with was “Once Is Not Enough”, however, it wasn’t exclusive and he soon failed.
to Robert E.–
thanks for the info about the former Columbia/Mayfair/ Demille’s almost life as an adult theater. now exactly when was it almost an adult theater? I have been using the TKTS both since it opened June 1973 so when i’m online I am looking right at the theater and never remember any signage of any kind that an adult theater was coming. if I understand the info correctly its almost life as an adult theater existed solely in the negotiation stage that never came to pass. I never remember it being anything than a mainstream movie house.
The house was completly remodeled after it’s run as a burlesque house and didn’t really have a stage or fly space. I was there when it was being triplexed and it was planned to do xxx movies with strippers in the downstairs house. The contractor built a small stage with a runway into the house as well as added dressing room space for the strippers, but it wouldn’t have been large enough to do any kind of theatrical production. The city put a stop to the xxx policy on the grounds that there were already enough porn houses in the city, and the theatre reverted to showing movies.
Re: the article on this theatre Mar 8, 2014 — “Remnants of Times Square’s Loew’s Mayfair Theater” When I was young this was called The DeMille Theatre and I saw many a roadshow film here. I never could figure out why it was just abandoned as a theatre. I’m assuming that since it was once a vaudeville house that it could be renovated into a legit Broadway theatre, If Disney could do it for the New Amsterdam then why not this house too?
to Ed S.–
you have been most helpful in the past. so here goes. how is the late but great Fine Arts Theater on 58th St. off of Lexington Ave. listed on this site? if you type in Fine Arts all you get it the Paris opposite the Plaza Hotel.
to Ed S.–
i think pc is haunted,either that or i need new glasses. yesterday when i looked i did not see a Astor Theater listing for New York, New York. but there it is today. no one’s perfect. :–)
to Ed S.–
as always I thank you for your reply. I was always under the impression that Ben-Hur opened at the Astor. so the fact it opened at the Cohan is a perfect reason for The Big Parade’s quite long run at the Astor.
to answer your question. since we have communicated a great deal on this page that’s why I posted my question on this page. also under what name is the Astor listed. if you type in Astor Theater in the subject search box office on the home page the theater which existed at the nw corner of Bway & 44 St. does not show up.
Sorry, bigoe59… I don’t have any knowledge of such a site. However, it seems that “Ben-Hur” did not open at the Astor, but at the George M Cohan Theatre. I was able to search the NY Times website, and found the original film review for “Ben-Hur” (as it appeared in the December 31, 1925 edition), which not only confirms the engagement at the Cohan, but also references the ongoing engagement of “The Big Parade” at the Astor. By the way, an entry in the trivia section on imdb.com for “The Big Parade” claims that the film played the Astor for 96 weeks.
My only question to you is why didn’t you post this inquiry on the Astor page? I’m sure it’ll be pointed out by others, that this exchange goes off-topic for the Embassy listing!
to Ed S.–
you have always been helpful so i have a question for you- do you know of a website that lists how long the exclusive 1st run engagements of prominent silent films were? the reason i ask is simple. last month in the Sunday Times they had a review of The Big Parade blu-ray disc. in said review they mention the initial roadshow run at the Astor lasted almost 2 years. but i am positive Ben-Hur which opened Dec. 1925 opened at the Astor. so how could The Big Parade have played there almost two years.
dennisczimmerman: I might have been there that night too.-lol The seats in the “front balcony” you refer too were sold as “loge” seats. I believe they charged more for them than the rest of the balcony.
To Techman707 and bigjoe59 I was the person that took the picture of the Demille when it was playing “Shoes of the Fisherman.” I had been there the night before to see the film. It was Thursday, Dec. 19, 1968 for the 8:30pm performance. Our seats were in the front balcony and were $3.50 each!!! The film had its premiere on Nov. 13, 1968 and was shown until until March 18, 1969 – not exactly a long roadshow engagement. It did not open in Philadephia until Feb. 26, 1969 and only played until April 22nd, 1969 at the Randolph Theatre.
I might have misunderstood the question about “Sitting Bull”. If you were asking if “they” (the exhibitor and film company) considered “Sitting Bull” an “A” first run picture, the answer is yes. If other people did, well that’s another story. -lol
After examining the ad for Frankenstein, I belive it is for its first run engagement, seeing how it’s a single feature presentation (with a newsreel.) Frankenstein was re-released many times over the years, but usually as part of a double bill with Dracula or similar second feature. Also, note the 35 cent admission price, which seems right for depression-era 1931.
As to Sitting Bull, while westerns were usually B pictures, this one, with its nearly brand-new CinemaScope and Eastmancolor, and billed as “the mightiest spectacle ever staged!” seemed to have higher aspirations.
Maybe Bosley Crowther said it best in his NY Times review — “…it is such a lot of nonsense, for all its dazzle in color and CinemaScope, that one is inclined to drop it as just another noisy western film.”
Bigjoe59,
While I would like to help you with the Frankenstein question, I wasn’t born yet, so I really can’t say. -LOL If I had to guess, I would say that it was NOT in its first run. I say that only because of the Mayfair’s booking history, not from any first hand knowledge.
I do remember “Shoes of the Fisherman” though. The theatre was already beginning to go down hill about that time. The choice not to use a transparency and use regular marquee letters was probably the film distributor’s choice. As I recall, that film didn’t do that well.
to techman707-
i thank you for your help with my previous questions. in fact you have a detailed knowledge of this particular theater. to which my new two part question.
*on page 4 of the photo gallery is an ad for “Frankenstein” and “Sitting Bull”. so was the ad for the 1931 horror classic for the original 1st run engagement or a subsequent 2nd run. also it seems the big grand old movie theaters of Times Square played as many B movies as they did A movies. to which i’m guessing the western about one of the most prominent Native Ameericans was considered a B movie.
*on the last page of the photo gallery is a pic of the marquee during the roadshow engagement of “The Shoes of the Fisherman” which i believe opened Nov. of 1968. now the side of the marquee has the title in the typeface used in the ads with a collage of the major characters in the film. yet on the front of the marquee the title is spelled out in plain ordinary block letters. wasn’t kind of tacky for a roadshow engagement?
Bigjoe59,
It might have been “Once Is Not Enough”.
Hello-
the last film I saw at this theater before it closed was “Living Out Loud” with Holly Hunter and Queen Latifah. i’m 99.9% sure it was in the downstairs auditorium. to which my question- what was the last film to play here when it was still a single screen theater at which point i believe it was still called the Demille.
I just don’t like when “speculators” start buying up a neighborhood and then running up the cost of everything until the people that were living there are forced out. They call it “gentrification”, but I call it ?!r#$%!@.
I lived in NYC from 1962 to 1969, on West 76th Street, and it was a pleasant neighborhood. They were just constructing Lincoln Center. I visited the Beacon and it was not a “dump” just a bit run down, but still beautiful. I am so pleased that the West Side is coming back. Places like the splendid Ansonia are being restored to their former glory, and many of the brownstone rooming houses are once again single-family homes selling for $3 – $5 million. (You could have bought them in the 1960s for about $150,000 – wish I had!)