Loew's Embassy Theater

This was one of my neighborhood theatres when I lived in the Dupont area in the mid 90s...I didnt realize it went all the way back to the 60s...It had all the pros and limitations of a raked single screen theatre...an interestingly shaped entrance and good sized waiting area but some pretty cramped seating and a feeling of disinvestment which all those theatres suffered from at the time under Cineplex Odeon (the Janus, West End 1-4 and Dupont)

Saw Nixon, Crimson Tide, Les Miserables (the Jean-Paul Belmondo version) there

Part of the history of a classic theater is the films that played there. Listed below are the films that played at Loew's Embassy from its opening day in 1963 until 1976. Research is from microfilms of The Washington Post and Variety. The dates listed are the Wednesday of the film's opening week, as in those days, new films usually opened on a Wednesday instead of the Friday openings we have now.

08/28/63 Wives and Lovers
09/18/63 In the French Style
10/09/63 A New Kind of Love
11/13/63 Take Her, She's Mine
12/11/63 Twilight of Honor
12/25/63 The Prize
02/12/64 The Victors
03/25/64 Mail Order Bride
04/01/64 Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
06/24/64 Robin and the 7 Hoods
08/12/64 The New Interns
09/09/64 West Side Story
09/23/64 The Visit
10/21/64 Girl With Green Eyes
12/23/64 Marriage, Italian Style
03/10/65 Strange Bedfellows
04/21/65 The Truth About Spring
05/19/65 Divorce, Italian Style/Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
05/26/65 The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders
06/23/65 Cat Ballou
09/01/65 Casanova '70
10/06/65 Darling
10/27/65 Mickey One
11/03/65 Dr. Strangelove/Fail-Safe
11/10/65 King Rat
12/08/65 Cat Ballou/The Collector
12/22/65 The 10th Victim
01/26/66 The Heroes of Telemark
02/16/66 The Chase
03/09/66 The Group
04/27/66 Dear John
07/06/66 This Property is Condemned
07/27/66 How to Steal a Million
10/12/66 Alfie
02/01/67 The Night of the Generals
03/15/67 Hurry Sundown
05/10/67 You're a Big Boy Now
05/24/67 The Happening
05/31/67 The Caper of the Golden Bulls
06/14/67 Barefoot in the Park
08/23/67 The Bobo
09/06/67 Luv
09/23/67 Emily (The Americanization of Emily)
10/11/67 Reflections in a Golden Eye
12/20/67 Wait Until Dark
02/28/68 In Cold Blood
04/03/68 Benjamin
05/15/68 Blue
05/29/68 Carmen Baby
06/12/68 Cool Hand Luke/Wait Until Dark
06/26/68 Rosemary's Baby
10/23/68 Barbarella
12/18/68 Bullitt
03/05/69 The Killing of Sister George
04/30/69 Before Winter Comes
05/07/69 Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell/The Night They Raided Minsky's
05/14/69 Cool Hand Luke/Harper
05/21/69 Doctor Zhivago
05/28/69 Hard Contract
06/11/69 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?/The Fox
06/18/69 True Grit
07/09/69 3 into 2 Won't Go
07/30/69 Me, Natalie
08/13/69 Rosemary's Baby/Barbarella
08/20/69 Easy Rider
12/17/69 Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
03/25/70 Loving
04/15/70 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
04/29/70 Jenny
05/20/70 Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came
06/10/70 Candy/The Killing of Sister George
06/17/70 Getting Straight
08/05/70 Tell Me You Love Me, Junie Moon
08/19/70 Joe
10/28/70 Five Easy Pieces
12/23/70 The Owl and the Pussycat
03/31/71 A New Leaf
05/05/71 Derby
05/26/71 When 8 Bells Toll
06/16/71 Willard
07/28/71 The Panic in Needle Park
08/18/71 Billy Jack
08/25/71 Little Big Man
09/01/71 The Omega Man
09/22/71 Drive, He Said
10/06/71 The Skin Game
10/20/71 The Bus is Coming
11/17/71 T. R. Baskin
12/01/71 Goodbye Columbus/The Sterile Cuckoo
12/08/71 Cold Turkey/Bananas
12/15/71 The Curious Female/The Gay Deceivers
12/22/71 $
01/26/72 Dirty Harry
02/09/72 The Cowboys
03/01/72 Together
03/29/72 I Want What I Want
04/12/72 Fritz the Cat
06/28/72 The War Between Men and Women
07/12/72 Captain Milkshake
07/19/72 Libido
07/26/72 Prime Cut
08/16/72 Come Back, Charleston Blue
09/27/72 Teenage Sex Report
10/04/72 Ghetto Freaks
10/18/72 The Revengers/The Grasshopper
10/25/72 Super Fly
11/08/72 The Valachi Papers
12/20/72 Black Girl
01/24/73 Farewell, Uncle Tom
02/07/73 Slaughter Hotel
02/14/73 Shamus
03/14/73 The Swinging Pussycats/The Swinging Stewardesses
03/21/73 Walking Tall
04/04/73 Ginger/The Abductors
04/18/73 Au Pair Girls
05/02/73 The Five Fingers of Death
05/16/73 Massage Parlor '73
05/23/73 A Warm December
06/20/73 The Great Battle
07/04/73 Chain Gang Women/Cindy & Donna
07/11/73 Together
07/25/73 Fox Style
08/01/73 Extreme Close-Up
08/08/73 Heavy Traffic
08/29/73 American Graffiti
12/19/73 The Day of the Dolphin
04/03/74 The Sugarland Express
05/15/74 Claudine
09/25/74 The Longest Yard
10/16/74 Pink Floyd
10/30/74 Flesh Gordon
12/18/74 The Godfather II
03/26/75 The Reincarnation of Peter Proud
05/21/75 The Eiger Sanction
06/25/75 Super Vixens
07/23/75 Beyond the Door
09/24/75 Give 'Em Hell, Harry
10/22/75 Mahogany
12/24/75 Hustle
02/11/76 Emmanuelle: The Joys of a Woman
03/10/76 Man Friday
03/24/76 Emmanuelle: The Joys of a Woman
04/07/76 Lipstick
05/19/76 The Missouri Breaks
06/30/76 Buffalo Bill and the Indians
07/14/76 The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars
09/22/76 The Brotherhood of Death
10/06/76 The Return of A Man Called Horse
10/20/76 Diary of a Rape
11/03/76 Norman, Is That You?
11/10/76 Two-Minute Warning
12/15/76 The Pink Panther Strikes Again

Throughout this period, the Embassy was one of Washington's more elite first-run houses. Many of the pictures it showed were critically acclaimed and/or big box-office hits. In the late 1960s many of the big "youth" pictures were featured there. Only occasionally would the theater resort to bringing in a double bill of reissues or moving over a picture which had just finished playing at Loew's Palace. Its location at Connecticut Avenue and Florida Avenue made it last a bit longer as a prestige house than the bigger movie palaces further downtown, but by the early '70s, the Embassy too began showing "blaxploitation" and soft-core X-rated pornography films. Beginning with its long showing of "American Graffiti," the Embassy turned back to mostly showing mainstream studio fare, albeit, day-and-dating those films with other theaters in suburban malls.

I remember this theater when it was a single screen venue. It had 70mm capability as the first Poltergeist film had the only 70mm presentation in the DC/MD/VA market. The next film I saw here was Robocop, in a relatively new sound format (for its time), Dolby Spectrum, in 1987. Parking was difficult, if non-existent at the time. You had to walk blocks, through some not very safe neighborhoods, after parking your car, to get to this theater. Or, if you were lucky enough, wait until the previous show was done so you could park your car as patrons exited.

The last time I went to this theater was to see Margaret Cho's first concert film "I'm the One That I Want," in '00. The theater had reopened as a twinned venue serving food and alcohol. The dining area decor seemed decent and the menu selection was adequate. Since the movie wasn't an event film with a busy soundtrack, I could not compare it to my experiences of the past.

They are closing this theater as of this Thursday, 9-23-04.

This theatre is now closed. The building still stands, and I have not heard what's planned for it.

Despite the long list of quality first runs which played here, LOEW'S EMBASSY was absolutely nothing special, just a cramped modern 600 seat auditorium with no distinguishing architecture or style. I saw maybe 40 movies here, and since it closed, who cares?
LOEW'S opened the EMBASSY at about the same time they closed the wonderful 1897 LOEW'S COLUMBIA on F Street, 2 miles away. Now that was a loss of a Cinema Treasure!

When you study another of architect John J. McNamara's creations, the late Beekman Theatre in upper Manhattan, NY, and see how remarkably brilliant that design was, the Loews Embassy, which he also designed, really needs to have a second serious look. I'd love to be able to see some photos so as to judge for myself. So if anyone has any, it would be greatly appreciated if they could be posted here. Thanks!

I find it very unfortunate that Visions Cinema Bistro Lounge couldn't keep afloat.. granted that the person running it didn't know one thing about operating a theatre. The staff was also quite unpleasent and incompetent. Visions was definately a much needed independent theatre booking and showing very ecletic movies (think Chicago's Facet's theatre) - with dozens of indie films/foreign completely bypassing the DC film scene altogether now, and with both of Landmark's theatres, AFI Silver and the Avalon picking and choosing more discriminantly, I now miss what was Visions had shown, and "could be" shown if Visions were still around.

to rlvjr:

Actually it was Loew's Capitol that closed when the Embassy opened (August 1963), not the Columbia. Loew's Columbia shuttered sometime in 1959.

The April 3, 2000 Washington Post report that this theater reopened in 2000 as the Visions Cinema Bistro Lounge, under an independent operator, after being renovated into one auditorium of 210 seats plus a 32 seat balcony, and a second screening room with 115 seats.

Closed as JodarMovieFan reported above.

In its original configuration as the Embassy, it was never one of DC's grand moviehouses, but in the age of dwindling single screen movie theaters, I liked it!

and as of January 13 2008 - after the closing of Loews Dupont, there will be no more cinemas in the Dupont Circle part of town - utterly sad. If there was an ideal time for this theatre to be resurrected it would be then.

Since the other closed venues are retail outlets, at least the Embassy has a chance of coming back. If they had programming like San Francisco's Castro, I'm sure this would have been more successful.

I'm so disgusted by the closing of the Dupont 5, that I agree Jodar, I am so close to switching professions here and reopen this theatre myself. Similiar programming to San Francisco's Castro and Chicago's Facets theatre would be ideal, if you ask me.

Here are photos from March 2008 of the former Embassy/Visions Cinema: 1, 2, 3

I could have sworn I saw Superman in 70mm at the Uptown but according to this post it's 70mm engagement was at the Embassy:
~

Rich37...
I'm not sure. I only have a partial list of where the "Superman" 70mm prints were booked.

Belleville, IL – BAC CINEMA
Bloomington, MN – SOUTHTOWN
Boston, MA – CINEMA 57
Chicago, IL – ESQUIRE
Costa Mesa, CA – SOUTH COAST PLAZA
Los Angeles, CA – CHINESE
Los Angeles, CA – NATIONAL
Los Angeles, CA – WARNER CENTER
New York, NY – ASTOR PLAZA
New York, NY – MURRAY HILL
New York, NY – ORPHEUM
Northbrook, IL – EDENS
Oak Brook, IL – OAKBROOK
San Diego, CA – CINEMA 21
San Francisco, CA – NORTHPOINT
San Jose, CA – TOWN & COUNTRY
Schaumburg, IL – WOODFIELD
Washington, DC – EMBASSY CIRCLE

posted by Michael Coate on Dec 15, 2008 am31 11:14am

~

wow, my memory is going, I know that I saw 'Baraka' at the Embassy and I assume it was likewise in it's native 70mm resolution. Would be very curious to know what else was presented in 70mm at the Embassy.

I have just recently finished going through microfilms of The Washington Post for 1978 and 1979. "Superman - The Movie" opened first at Jenifer Cinema I in December 1978. It moved over to the Embassy Circle in the spring of 1979. It does seem like "Superman" would have been a natural for the Uptown, but it didn't play there.

but was the Jenifer Cinema engagement in 70mm?

I would imagine that it was - the theater was just opened in 1975, so it was fairly new and probably had the most modern amenities as far as projection was concerned.

Sorry, but I am more concerned with what films played in what theaters each week, and do not track things like the size of the prints.

just a question - no intended harm. I used to keep all the Weekend Post film Sections back from the mid eighties, and clipped all the horror movie ads, sadly I clipped off the theatre info, of the one's I saved, it's also interesting to see the theatre guide and what played where on the back of what I clipped out.

Since I have lived in the Tenleytown area most of my life, it was the best since alot of the theatres were in walking distance, The Tenley, The Jenifer, Outer Circle, KB Studio, 4000 Wisconsin, Mazza, The Cinema, sadly, Mazza the only one's that left now. :(

True. No more are we in the days when each different theater had its own personality. It's the 12-24 screen multiplex or nothing, pretty much. But you are lucky in Washington, DC to still have the Uptown, which is one of the finest theaters in the US, and the Warner is still used for entertainment (albeit not films)and hasn't been razed. And perhaps the Embassy may reopen again at some point.

I really wish the Embassy WOULD reopen, I rarely go to Dupont any longer, since the movies have all left that neighborhood.

question: when it was a single screen how large was the screen? I remember being quite impressed, not only with 'Baraka', but with Disney's 'Hunchback of Notre Dame'

Anyone from Washington who can answer this? I live in Pittsburgh. I just have always been into DC theaters since I read the Variety listings each week back when I was a kid in the 60s.

as I recall I think I saw 'Robocop' there as well.

what's unfortunate about the DC film scene, was that DC was one of only a few cities, that was featured in Variety, and got foreign/independent films listed alongside New York City and Los Angeles. DC was one of THE top film markets in the 70/80's when it came to film releasing. As of now, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco have all superceded DC as a key market for movie distribution.

I doubt the screen was larger than 40'. Of course, the nostalgia of moviegoing remains, I'd still think twice about venturing out into that neighborhood given the lack of parking and crime. It would have to be something truly special if I'm going to travel into town from MD.

Ron, I am like you when it came to reading Variety, but being a big younger, it was the early 80s that I started. I enjoyed reading the local (Washington DC) area section for movie grosses. Sadly, they stopped that around..and I'm guessing at this, the late 80s to early 90s? It was especially interesting to note the seating capacities of the various venues, too. It wasn't hard to figure out tickets sold by doing some simple math.

One thing about current advertising that I absolutely detest is the way they will have an ad for a movie but no longer list where the movie is showing. You have to call a number or check the internet. I remember back, in the day, when they had format listings; Dolby Digital, DTS, DLP and even a 70mm marqueed box to denote those extra special presentations.

"One thing about current advertising that I absolutely detest is the way they will have an ad for a movie but no longer list where the movie is showing. You have to call a number or check the internet. I remember back, in the day, when they had format listings; Dolby Digital, DTS, DLP and even a 70mm marqueed box to denote those extra special presentations."

I cant stand that either, but even info at the actual theatres have become a tad non-informative. I was at Reston yesterday and I noted that the Reston theatre marquee denoted everything as being Dolby Digital, is nothing being released in 6.1 Dolby Digital EX anymore (I saw/heard 'Toy Story 2 there as such, wow!) DC's only 8-channel SDDS system was only at Union Station - I assume it's no longer there. SDDS was briefly at the Avalon for 'Das Boot'. Gallery Place I thought had at least one auditorium with Dolby Digital EX sound (?). For some of us, who want this type of information on choosing which theatre to see/hear a movie, becomes near difficult at times.

Belated reply to JodarMovieFan: the sound system was called Dolby Stereo Spectral Recording, not Dolby Spectrum. "Dolby SR" was an advanced noise-reduction system. I saw "Robocop" at the Embassy as well, specifically to experience Dolby SR; however, the sound quality didn't seem to be anything special - in fact, it was a little on the muddy side.