55th Street Playhouse
154 W. 55th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
154 W. 55th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
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Here’s a Showbill from the 55th Street Playhouse in July, 1960:
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The print of GW Pabst’s 1931 version of Brecht-Weill’s “Threepenny Opera†had been struck from copies recently found in Germany more than two decades after the Nazis had attempted to destroy all traces of the film. The showing understandably created a stir in 1960, all the more so since its original release in the US had been compromised by lawsuits brought by Brecht against the German studio for altering his script.
I went to it already primed by a long-running off-Broadway (at the Theater de Lys on Christopher Street) adaptation of it by Marc Blitzstein with glossed-up production values. The live cast included Lotte Lenya thirty years after she’d originated the role of Pirate Jenny, as well as Bea Arthur and Jo Sullivan. The movie, by comparison, seemed a downer to me at the time, though images of its fog-bound streets, leering faces, and shadowy depths continue to haunt me to this day.
Here’s a Showbill program from the 55th Street Playhouse in April, 1960:
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“Jazz on a Summer’s Day,†filmed at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, was every college kid’s (read: every college boy’s) idea of a cool film. I can’t count the number of beery conversations we slurred thorough as we debated the merits of Thelonious Monk and Gerry Mulligan and Dinah Washington and Jack Teagarden and Mahalia Jackson and more. As it happened, my best friend in college came from Tiverton RI, just across the bay from Newport, so that the following July 4 weekend I visited him and we attended the 1960 Festival.
As it also happened, the event that year witnessed the first college-student riot of the 1960s. 20,000 or so fans grew restive at the slow pace of bringing on the acts, and that (plus the beer and the sun and a bunch of people who scaled the walls after not being admitted when the attendance reached capacity) generated a rapidly escalating pandemonium. To contain the madness, the good citizens of Newport urged police to close the bridges to and from the island, which the police did. And then things got worse, because all the out-of-town collegians were pent up on the island with no place to go. My friend had friends who lived in Newport, so we walked to their house and crashed out on the floor for the night.
Little did we know then of the riots that would ensue throughout the rest of the ‘60s, nor how by the decade’s end we’d be gassed, maced, jailed, hooted at, pestered, pursued, threatened, and otherwise harassed for our convictions about civil rights, social justice, and an ill-advised war. And all so that four decades later we could wonder once again about the fate of affirmative action, civil liberties, and the quest for weapons of mass destruction. Today’s news about corporate insider John Roberts leaves us with no cheer. Plus ça change… .
Isn’t this now used as the freight entrance for the Rihga Royal Hotel on the next block (151 W. 54 St)?
Wakefield Poole’s “Bijou” (1972) starring Bill Harrison was the $22,000 big budget follow-up film to the hugely successful “Boys in the Sand”. Both had their World Premier’s at the 55th Street Playhouse. “Bijou” became another gay classic and was named the ‘best film of 1972’ by the hetro Screw magazine.
I saw ‘Bojou’ and ‘Boys In The Sand’ here perhaps even on a double bill.
Just for veracity – Marvin Schullman was the producer of “Boys in the Sand” — Wakefield was the director.
I believe the huge box office receipts gave it a Variety front page.
“Boys in the Sand” (1971) starring Casey Donovan (aka Cal Culver) was produced for $8,000 and went on to gross $400,000 when it played at the 55th St. Playhouse, New York’s biggest gay porn cinema. Producer Wakefield Poole placed ads in, and got the film reviewed by, both the New York Times and Variety.
May of 1938 the 55th St Playhouse was showing a comedy called “The Slipper Episode”. The ad proclaimed SPECIAL REDUCED SUMMER PRICES, I wonder if this was a policy in theatres that had no air conditioning?
This place became legend with the opening of Wakefield Poole’s “Boys in the Sand.” It made headlines.
It became part of the porn empire of D Mamane, owner of PM Productions, a lesser of the gay porn production/distribution houses.
I believe in the very early seventies this was the home of some of the Shaw Brothers Chinese films. I saw a fim there called Dynasty which could have been ‘72 or '73.
It must have gone male porn in the very early 70’s.
I have a listings magazine dated November 1976 which shows the 55th Street Playhouse still operating as a gay male porno theater.
I always remember this as an all male porno house. Does anyone know when it stopped showing regular films? Had to be before the early 70’s.
I believe this was part of the Avon circuit when it showed porn.
They also in their time premiered such honorable films as Cocteau’s ORPHEUS, Fellini’s I VITELLONI, Rossellini’s THE FLOWERS OF SAINT FRANCIS.