The first would have to be Jayne Mansfield in “The Girl Can’t Help It” (and indeed the screen had never seen anything like [them]) and the second feature has many shocking possibilities but none that I can place in 1957…Streisand as Yentl? Lucy as Mame? Liberace as straight? All mind-boggling, yet none correct.
I kind of remember that Zips vanilla soft-serve ice cream was blindingly white, and I always put too many toppings on which rendered it more sickening than delicious.
I moved to the area in 1979 so I just missed seeing this place. My loss.
And as a disinterested observer (I don’t even have this theater on my notice list because it would clog my mailbox with the various pissing contests that seem to flow here) it seems that while the Madison might have been a swell place to see a movie, they weren’t really playing anything you couldn’t see anywhere (and everywhere) else. I would guess it attracted those from Ridgwwood and neighboring areas but I doubt anyone travelled TOO far to come here.
I always thought this should have first turned into an adult movie house before it was torn down. I’m sure they would have made a small fortune…it was off the beaten path, on a sidestreet, yet easy to get to. The place was already twinned so they could have shown both types of porno. What a waste. The clothing place they built in its stead is already out of business.
That said, I saw many movies here, including my first 3-D, a 1970’s re-release of “House of Wax.” I also saw “Ghost” here several times and “La Bamba.”
It was also a good place to smoke some weed, as management never bothered anybody.
Times Square Playpen may get demolished for high-rise
BY LEO STANDORA
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, September 14th 2007, 4:00 AM
Eighth Ave. theater dating to 1916 is likely be replaced by a tower.
A historic Times Square theater that opened as a vaudeville showplace 91 years ago and closed as a porn shop last month appears headed for a date with a wrecking ball.
Unless preservationists prevail, the Playpen on Eighth Ave. at W. 44th St., once considered for landmark status that would have protected it, likely will be torn down and replaced by a high-rise.
Leading the battle to save the Playpen, which opened in 1916 as the Ideal, is Michael Perlman of Manhattan, who wants to keep intact the building’s Beaux-Arts facade with its curved central arch, pilasters, statues and other ornate features.
With few theaters dating from the early 20th century still around, one of the oldest “shouldn’t be sacrificed for the sake of progress,” he said.
“It’s a culturally, architecturally significant structure, and we hope to preserve this gem for future generations.”
A group called the Committee to Save the Playpen Theater has joined Perlman in calling for the Playpen to be spared.
Perlman played a key role in the recent rescue of the Moondance Diner in SoHo, but saving the Playpen would be harder.
The Tishman Realty Corp. got the property in July and said it already was looking at “development options.”
During its life, the Playpen operated under at least eight different names, offering screen fare ranging from foreign films and Hollywood B-movies to Scandinavian skin flicks and gay movies.
As the Adonis, it was closed by city health inspectors in 1994 after patrons were seen taking part in “high-risk sexual activities.”
I worry that if you ask them to lower the sound of the previews then they won’t turn it back up for the feature. And I actually like booming trailers — it starts the show off with a bang!
IFA comes here and shills for his beloved War and Peace (soon to be screening at one of the smallest screens in New York,) and then comes back to mock us in his barely-translated gibberish. At the risk of starting a flame war, I can think of several Anglo-Saxon things that the letters IFA must stand for.
I see that a Katherine Hepburn picture was scheduled to play for three days, April 18 – 20, 1933, during her “box office poison” period. Therefore, I blame Miss Hepburn for the closing of this theater.
And only slightly off topic, here’s the listing for the Vista:
/theaters/32/
Here’s Variety’s dictionary of slanguage. Please note this lisitng:
nabe — a neighborhood theater; “The film has had a long midnight run at the Vista, a Los Angeles nabe.”
(No listing for stem or main stem.)
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=slanguage
Variety often differentiated in their reviews how something would play on the stem (Broadway) and in the nabes (neighborhoods.)
The first would have to be Jayne Mansfield in “The Girl Can’t Help It” (and indeed the screen had never seen anything like [them]) and the second feature has many shocking possibilities but none that I can place in 1957…Streisand as Yentl? Lucy as Mame? Liberace as straight? All mind-boggling, yet none correct.
Bill, just make a left on John F. Kennedy Boulevard and go about 2783 miles…you should be there in about 40 hours.
Repugnant is such a repugnant word.
I kind of remember that Zips vanilla soft-serve ice cream was blindingly white, and I always put too many toppings on which rendered it more sickening than delicious.
That’s them, in a nutshell.
I moved to the area in 1979 so I just missed seeing this place. My loss.
And as a disinterested observer (I don’t even have this theater on my notice list because it would clog my mailbox with the various pissing contests that seem to flow here) it seems that while the Madison might have been a swell place to see a movie, they weren’t really playing anything you couldn’t see anywhere (and everywhere) else. I would guess it attracted those from Ridgwwood and neighboring areas but I doubt anyone travelled TOO far to come here.
I always thought this should have first turned into an adult movie house before it was torn down. I’m sure they would have made a small fortune…it was off the beaten path, on a sidestreet, yet easy to get to. The place was already twinned so they could have shown both types of porno. What a waste. The clothing place they built in its stead is already out of business.
That said, I saw many movies here, including my first 3-D, a 1970’s re-release of “House of Wax.” I also saw “Ghost” here several times and “La Bamba.”
It was also a good place to smoke some weed, as management never bothered anybody.
Jeez…can Artie Lange fill a 5,000 seat theater? Who else was on the bill?
>>At the time of this item Skelton was headlining at the famed Chez Paree.
Sure it wasn’t the Gay Paree? (Or was that red-headed Danny Kaye I’m thinking of?)
/theaters/21339/
It’ll take a miracle…
Could you speak up a bit?
I think that’s a (deliberate?) misreading.
The Globe’s (Lunt-Fontanne) marquee on Broadway was gorgeous. /theaters/2924/
Times Square Playpen may get demolished for high-rise
BY LEO STANDORA
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, September 14th 2007, 4:00 AM
Eighth Ave. theater dating to 1916 is likely be replaced by a tower.
A historic Times Square theater that opened as a vaudeville showplace 91 years ago and closed as a porn shop last month appears headed for a date with a wrecking ball.
Unless preservationists prevail, the Playpen on Eighth Ave. at W. 44th St., once considered for landmark status that would have protected it, likely will be torn down and replaced by a high-rise.
Leading the battle to save the Playpen, which opened in 1916 as the Ideal, is Michael Perlman of Manhattan, who wants to keep intact the building’s Beaux-Arts facade with its curved central arch, pilasters, statues and other ornate features.
With few theaters dating from the early 20th century still around, one of the oldest “shouldn’t be sacrificed for the sake of progress,” he said.
“It’s a culturally, architecturally significant structure, and we hope to preserve this gem for future generations.”
A group called the Committee to Save the Playpen Theater has joined Perlman in calling for the Playpen to be spared.
Perlman played a key role in the recent rescue of the Moondance Diner in SoHo, but saving the Playpen would be harder.
The Tishman Realty Corp. got the property in July and said it already was looking at “development options.”
During its life, the Playpen operated under at least eight different names, offering screen fare ranging from foreign films and Hollywood B-movies to Scandinavian skin flicks and gay movies.
As the Adonis, it was closed by city health inspectors in 1994 after patrons were seen taking part in “high-risk sexual activities.”
With The Associated Press
I worry that if you ask them to lower the sound of the previews then they won’t turn it back up for the feature. And I actually like booming trailers — it starts the show off with a bang!
Aarrgh…
I wish I had visited during its seedy, “pervert’s paradise” days. You can’t really find that kind of decrepitude anymore.
IFA comes here and shills for his beloved War and Peace (soon to be screening at one of the smallest screens in New York,) and then comes back to mock us in his barely-translated gibberish. At the risk of starting a flame war, I can think of several Anglo-Saxon things that the letters IFA must stand for.
I see that a Katherine Hepburn picture was scheduled to play for three days, April 18 – 20, 1933, during her “box office poison” period. Therefore, I blame Miss Hepburn for the closing of this theater.
Please enter listings for all these houses — the Strand, the Grove, the Nickelodeon, the Bon Ton, etc.
Sounds like a lot of action for what seems to be a one-horse town.
Next thing you’ll tell me is that there’s no Santa Claus.
I don’t see the above-quoted caption, either “…the old Fox Theatre building being razed. The new Fox is on the left.”