Ambassador Theater
215 West 49th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
215 West 49th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
4 people
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morally. heard the St Malachy Church had problems due to the area
What do you mean by a “bad corner?” Architecturally, or morally?
they fixed up the 8th Ave area around the Ambassador really nice. just curious, say like 30 years ago was the corner of 49th and 8th a bad corner?
There was (and still is) a “prostitution problem” on Eighth Avenue and west of that, but I don’t recall ever seeing whores soliciting in the cross blocks with “legit” playhouses on them. But maybe after midnight when the theatres had closed.
Did Godspell play here in 1977? Was there a prostitution problem around the theater and the Ramada or was it decent?
The Ambassador’s signage and entrance on 49th Street can be seen in left background of this vintage photo of the Brill Building: View link
Renewing link.
It’s interesting that this Broadway theater once played movies.
I originally submitted the Ambassador about a year before it was actually posted. I suspect someone at CT felt it did not qualify due to its more significant legit history and wanted to review it further.
Either that or I sent them on a tail-spin looking up THE WHITE LADY and YIDL MITN FIDL.
The Ambassador’s connection with Cine Roma started on January 22nd, 1940, with the opening of “Il Paraninfo” (“The Matchmaker”), according to a review of the film in The New York Times of the next day. I don’t think this affiliation lasted very long, and it’s possible that the Ambassador was not actually re-named Cine Roma except in advertising and publicity. In May, 1940, Cine Roma returned to its original venue, the ex-Piccadilly/Warner, and operated there until early 1942, by which time fascist Italy had become one of America’s enemies in WWII and the product supply dried up.
And “The White Sister” is an acknowledged classic, and helped to establish Ronald Colman as one of the screen’s greatest romantic stars. Lillian Gish played the title role of a girl who becomes a nun after learning that her lover was killed in the war. Needless to say, he wasn’t!
If thats the case Al, then this is another example of why altering descriptions and not knowing where the additional or changed information came from is a bad idea.
Okay, “The White Sister” with Lillian Gish and Ronald Colman is listed on Imdb.
The movie in question is Lilian Gish’s THE WHITE SISTER, not THE WHITE LADY and it played at the Ambassador for over six months. The introduction I am credited for has been somewhat altered with new information since I first submitted material for this theatre over a year ago.
Cine Roma was a moving cinema company that went from venue to venue booking their product and changing the venue’s name. The Colony/ Broadway (53rd) and the Ambassador were two of them.
The Broadway Internet Database says that the Broadway Theatre had a period as Cine Roma in 1937, but I’m not sure that’s true. Someone might have confused the Broadway Theatre with the Piccadilly/Warners/etcetera, which was also on Broadway and just a block away.
There probably was more than one Cine Roma. The NY Times also mentions a Broadway Cine Roma. That could be the Broadway Theater listed on Cinema Treasures although the Broadway Theater has no aka name of Cine Roma either. That would be this theater:
/theaters/2250/
I checked the Imdb website for “The White Lady” in 1923 but its not listed. There is a movie called the “White Tiger” from 1923 listed on Imdb. I can’t find anything closer than that.
“The White Lady” (1923) is one of the “most enduring classics in film history?” I’d never heard of it until I saw it mentioned in the introduction, and I can’t find it in any of my reference books or in Daniel Blum’s comprehensive “A Pictorial History of the Silent Screen.” Perhaps that’s not the correct title of the film?
Cine Roma was one of many names used at the orignal Piccadilly Theatre at 1664 Broadway (I believe it’s listed here as Warners or Warners'). Film Daily Year Books listed it as “Cineroma” for a period of about ten years from the 1930s into the 1940s, but I think that was due to laziness or confusion on the part of the editors. The theatre changed name and policy so many times that it was impossible to stay accurate…Although I’m only guessing, I suspect that the Ambassador was never called “Cine Roma.” But I think that the name might have been used for a time by the legit 49th Street Theatre, which was just down the block from the Ambassador and tried showing movies under various names before shutting down for demolition in the early 1940s. That theatre was at 235 West 49th Street.
A story in the NY Times claims that the New Yorker was the Cine Roma.
At the Cine Roma
NY Times March 28, 1936
The first offering of the Cine Roma Theatre (formerly the New Yorker) is an entertaining comedy romance called “Il Re Burlone” (“The Jester King”). The period with which it deals is the middle Eighteen Forties at the time of one of the several revolts of the people of Naples against Ferdinand II, the Bourbon tyrant then ruling the “Two Sicilies” with the aid of Austria and France.
Which New Yorker would the Times be referring to, the New Yorker or the Warners' Theater? Neither one has an aka name of Cine Roma.
Two other film titles come up for opening at the Cine Roma.
“Allegri masndieri” (The Make Believe Pirates) opened Oct. 19th, 1939
“Dottor Antonib, II” (Doctor Antonio) opened Dec. 1939.
The Internet Broadway Database does not give a complete history of the theatres. It based more on the Boardway shows then the movies.
What is the basis for the claim that the Ambassador was once called “Cine Roma?” I’ve never seen that mentioned in any histories of the Ambassador, including the ones in William Morrison’s “Broadway Theatres” and at Internet Broadway Database.
It should be pointed out that the Ambassador is “built on a bias”, the center axis of the auditorium and stage are at an angle to the street. The rear of the auditorium is in the southeast corner and the stage is in the northwest corner of the lot. It shares this characteristic with the Beacon Theatre on Broadway, and the late Roxy Theatre. One of the big musical hits here in 1921 was the Shubert’s Schubert/Romberg musical “Blossom Time” whose road companies continued to cross America right up into the early 1950s. I had no idea that it had any cinema history.
The Dumbells at the Ambassador Theater in 1921. Scroll down for photo. Click on photo to expand it.
Alive and well and playing CHICAGO live.
http://www.ibdb.com/VenueImages.asp?Id=1036