Doll Theater

The Doll in it's heydey
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/Movie%20Theatres/DollCine12.jpg

I remember this theater, RobertR. Great photo. I recall my friends and I strolling down 7th Ave from the 53rd Street IND station into Times Square and being beckoned by the theater's street hawker to go on in and have a great time. We were maybe 15 or 16 first time that happened!

After ending the Spanish language policy, the adjacent Cine 1 & 2 became the porn palace Show Follies sometime in the late '80's and featured a mix of live nude reviews and XXX films in 4 auditoriums on a 24 hour grind lasting into the early '90's. It looked like a sister of the Show World facility over on 8th Ave and 42nd so it might have also been run by local porn king Richard Basciano.

This listing (along with the Mayfair/Demille and Cine 1 & 2) now completes the west side of the block on 7th Avenue between 47th and 48th Street. All those little Times Square nooks and crannies are slowly being filled in, thanks in large part to RobertR.

Sorry... the east side of the block.

I had my doubts whether the Doll showed movies but that photo in RobertR's first post proves it. SUMMER OF SUZANNE dates it to 1976 if it was a recent release.

Correction: RATAS DEL ASFALTO at the Cine and SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER at the Embassy make it most likely 1978.

Here's an ad for the Doll (at the bottom of the clipping) from the good ole bad ole days:
Interlude of Lust - NY Post 3/10/82

My cinema treasures interlude of lust occured between 2:13am and 2:16 am sometime on August 14 1982. I think there was plaster.

Can any one please tell me something more about plaster.

I have a question for you "Oprah". I did some research using the photo that RobertR posted as a guide. Cine 1 & 2 are located at 711 Seventh Ave. I believe the building to the left of Cine 1 & 2 in the photo is 717 Seventh Ave. NYC records match the use of the building with the occupants shown in the photo. The next building to the left is the Doll theater which should be 719 Seventh Ave. NYC shows a 160 seat motion theater at 719 Seventh Ave in December of 1970. What do you think Al? Could 719 Seventh Ave be the address for the Doll theater?

C'mon, Al... Make Lost's day! I think he is on to something here. The only other possibility for the C of O info he found for 719 Seventh Ave would be if there was another theater on the east side of Seventh on the next block, between 48th and 49th. I know that the Avon 7 (which was on the west side of that block) was number 724 Seventh Ave and that was very close to the 48th street corner. I'm guessing that 719 is the Doll building and that the 48th-49th block began with either 721 or 723.

Can we get an "Amen!" and have Bryan update the address information?

Not only is Lost Memory good in his speculation, I found proof that he is correct in a January 10, 1973 article about the pipe bombing of the Paree Theatre at 753-9 Seventh Avenue.

"The same owner also owns the Doll Theatre at 719 Seventh Avenue."
It appears it was already there as early as November of 1972

Now the question is... where and what was the Paree Theatre? It rings a definite bell in my head (I can just barely hear it above all the voices). Would that address put it up near 50th? Near the old Earl Carroll?

Your bells are right. That is the Earl Carroll address!

Thanks Al & Ed. 753 Seventh Ave. was the Earl Carroll theater aka Casino theater. The Paree theater sounds like an adult theater. Maybe that was the reason it was bombed. I'll have to look into this address and see what I can find.

We can move this to the Earl Carroll page, but did the Paree use any portion of the old EC theater? If so another AKA is uncovered... To the bat poles!

My mistake. Evidently, there is no Earl Carroll listing on CT. I suppose this might mean that the Carroll never had a policy of motion picture exhibition. Perhaps the Paree is due its own listing, if a decent amount of information is available about its history.

The Earl Carroll showed movies intermittently from 1928 to 1930 and then again in 1934 as the Casino.

I have not tried listing it since the Ambassador, with a longer history of motion picture exhibition, was not accepted.

Hmmm. What are the site guidelines in that regard? The George M. Cohan is listed here, which was built for stage shows but - due to a string of flops - started running cinema on weekends and during dark periods in the 1920's. It did go full-tilt cinema in 1932, lasting 6 years before demolition in '38. Is there a required 5 year minimum consecutive run at movie exhibition for submission eligibility? Is that information anywhere to be found?

If there are guidelines, I haven't found them. Some submissions just don't make it.

Tell me about it. LOL

Posting more explicit guidelines is a good idea, guys.

Ed -- there's no 5 year requirement. As long as a legitimate theater has served as a movie theater for *some* period of time (it could be weeks, months, etc.), it's welcome on Cinema Treasures.

Ed & Al, you gentlemen should submit both the Earl Carroll/Casino theater and the Paree theater. They had the same address but were different theaters.

Thanks, Patrick. Perhaps you should have another go at the Ambassador, Al. Maybe even the Earl Carroll. Leaving it as liberal as Patrick has ("it could be weeks") that opens up legit theaters that served for one-off premiere movie engagements. I can't think of the specific case, but wasn't the Royale or St. James (perhaps it was both) booked for an exclusive road-show engagement for a big MGM musical in the late '50's? I want to say "Gigi" but I can't recall the details.

Yes, the Royale ran GIGI before it moved over to the Sutton.

I have a list of a number of obscure Manhattan sites that played movies at some point. There was even a novelty restaurant where you sat in a car and watched the movie as if in an indoor drive-in (Can't remember the name but it was located near Tribeca).

I will post the list of unlisted theatres when I get a chance. Maybe it will jog some memories.

You jogged one memory, here, Al... but I'm not sure if it's the same place we each have in mind. There was a place called the Auto Pub in the GM building on 5th Ave between 59th and 58th. I had a brief discussion about this place with a couple of other members on the RCMH page. The Auto Pub had two dining rooms. The one in the rear was set up the way you describe - each table was built into a different car chassis and we would dine while watching a movie on the big screen at the front of the room. I remember seeing "Airport" there in the late '70's. But now that I am recollecting, I seem to recall that there was a place downtown - I thought more the financial district than Tribeca, but I could be mistaken. I never went to that place.

Lost Memory pointed me in the direction of a flickr.com account that has a great many B&W images of the area, circa October, 1970.

Here's a shot of some street corner musicians plying their trade outside the Metropole Cafe on Seventh Ave near 48th Street. You can make out a portion of the Doll marquee across the street (adjacent to the Orange Julius joint). Click on the previous couple of photos in the stream to get a few views looking in the other direction up Seventh towards the Metropole sign.

I love this stuff.

Help me with this one, what was the Mini Cinema where Animal Lover is playing?
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a13/ChmnofBrd/Movie%20Ads/AnimalLover.jpg

I think this was a converted storefront and possibly also the illusive Frisco.

Elusive indeed! I added a page for the Frisco a few months back, RobertR. This is the first ad I've seen for the New Mini - which I believe may have been redubbed Frisco around '73 or so. It would have been a block north and on the opposite side of Seventh Ave from the Doll just a few doors up from the Avon 7.

Here is an image of the Doll marquee at night. The image is a screenshot of some vintage circa 1972 stock Times Square footage incorporated into the excellent documentary "Inside Deep Throat." You can glimpse a portion of the Spanish-language titles on the Cine 1 & 2 marquee just behind the Doll's on the right side of the image. In the panning shot that comes to rest on the Doll marquee in the footage, the camera passes the darkened DeMille marquee on which one can make out the words "Closed for renovations" - no doubt the triplex conversion that would result in the theater's re-opening as the Embassy 2,3,4.

Just to correct the last sentence in my previous post. I found a comment posted by CT member Warren on the Embassy 2,3,4 page back in 2004, where he writes that the DeMille Theatre had closed in Sept of 1974 to undergo repairs after a fire had damaged portions of the balcony. The theatre re-opened in August 1975, still using the name DeMille. The theatre did not become a triplex until November of 1976 - as the Mark I, II and III. That would date the image I posted above of the Doll marquee to no earlier than 1974, and perhaps as late as 1976, depending on the reason for the renovations noted on the marquee in the clip from which I snagged the shot.

This is a photo from yelp.com. I was in Times Square a few months ago, and I'm reasonably certain that the deli is still at 719 Seventh Avenue.
http://tinyurl.com/5k8rou

There is a photo of the Doll along with this survey of Times Square food joints in the sleazy days. I think I ate at a few of those:
http://tinyurl.com/59k9ta

On March 26, Swann Auction Galleries will be offering the original design for the marquee at the Doll Theatre from 1970. Here's an image: http://swanngalleries.rfcsystems.com/asp/fullCatalogue.asp?salelot=2174+++++230+&refno=++613041

Here is another photo of the Doll.