Paree Adult Cinema and Live Show
753-59 Seventh Avenue,
New York,
NY
10019
753-59 Seventh Avenue,
New York,
NY
10019
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Perhaps one of the most disreputable establishments of the “Adult Cinema” variety in its very short day, the Paree opened in November, 1970, on Seventh Avenue between 49th and 50th Street on the site where NY theater impresario Earl Carroll had built two eponymous showplaces that operated during the 1920’s and ‘30’s (the second of which was a stunning 2500-seat art deco palace that lasted only a few years before conversion to a restaurant/night club).
The Paree actually opened on the second floor of the office building that housed the Earl Carroll’s entrance and ticket lobby (the Carroll theater itself ran parallel to 50th Street behind this structure) in space that had previously been a pool hall. Admission was $3.00 and patrons were offered a continuous program of hard-core films and live sex acts as well as “massages” at $10.00 per half hour.
When management of Rockefeller Center discovered on the day before Thanksgiving, 1972, that they were the principal landlords of the Paree, they quickly announced that a deal to buy-out the establishment’s lease would be arranged and that the theater would be closed the next day. However, the theater’s operators took advantage of the holiday to sneak in for one last day of business before being closed by workers that Friday.
The operator of the Paree was N. Carroll Mallow, who (according to a 1972 NY Times article about the closing) “also operated the San Francisco sex cinema at 1541 Broadway and the Doll Theater at 719 Seventh Avenue”.
Contributed by
Ed Solero
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Recent comments (view all 31 comments)
Hi Guys, I have been out of town.
I show the Circus and all male Big top co-existing at 1604 Braodway.
There was a 49th Street Playhouse operating in 1982 that I cannot place.
732 Seventh Avenue is the Mini but I have no proof it was also the Frisco.
This from a NYT raid story, Dec. 9, 1972
“Three sheriff’s deputies and a squad of policemen stood guard, as a crew of movers supervised by an attorney, Mark Belnick, removed the property of "San Francisco Adult Movies” from 1531 Broadway, between 45th and 46th streets, and put it into a avan for shipmentto a warehouse. "
That address is the old Astor also. (???)
Ed, I bow to your superior knowledge of porno venues, but are you sure that Paree Adult Cinema was in the onetime Earl Carroll’s Theatre office building? For many decades, the largest part of the Seventh Avenue frontage was occupied by a Woolworth’s store, which also had a side entrance on 50th Street. The Woolworth’s store had a false ceiling that hid some of the decor of the theatre above it. I don’t recall a porno theatre operating above Woolworth’s. In fact, I think that Woolworth’s would have objected to it…The World Theatre (ex-Punch & Judy) was situated on the north side of West 49th Street at #153 (a double plot sometimes reported as #153-55).
Absoultely positive about that. The address is verified in several different Times' articles and via a search of NYC Building Records. The Paree was somewhere on the 2nd floor of that office building in space that had previously been occupied by a pool hall. The pool hall dates back to the early 1960’s and was familiar to the police department for its own history of public misconduct (ranging from fights, vagrancy and solicitation). If I’m not mistaken, one of the articles also makes reference to the Woolworth’s on street level. Anyway, the Earl Carroll only occupied a tunnel lobby through the office building that fronted Seventh Ave with the theater in an adjacent building behind the structure (the facade of which was on 50th Street). So the Paree (and other space) could have easily been above a portion of the Woolworth’s store.
Al… that article is mistaken about the address of the San Francisco. It was reported correctly (or so I assume) in two other Times articles as 1541 Broadway – placing it just to the north of the old Astor entrance (which ibdb.com lists as 1537 Broadway). The entrance to the San Fran (as with the Ripley’s it replaced) was actually in the adjacent building through which the Gaiety/Victoria also had its Broadway entrance a few doors up the block.
Warren, Ed,
I am so glad this unravelling series porn mystery is bringing us together.
Lost Memory, can we have a (very heterosexual, of course) group hug?
No problem Al. Should I wear protection? :P
A few days ago, I asked about the old Metropole Cafe that was in the vicinity of this theater (and all the other addresses and C of O’s we were trying to sort out)…
Here’s a shot of some street musicians playing for change next to the old Metropole sign. One of the images in this series shows the Orange Julius and Doll Theater marquee that was on the southeast corner of 48th Street and Seventh Avenue. That places the Metropole on the east side of Seventh Ave (odd address number) between 48th and 49th Streets.
By the way… is the Metropole the go-go where Felix Unger goes to drown his sorrows at the very beginning of the film “The Odd Couple”?
The Metropole is one venue I have attended. The “entertainment girls” chatted you up while ordering $10.00 bottles of “champagne”, ( I think it was dressed up Perrier), and you paid for it. That is how the Metropole made much of it’s money. The pole dancers were actually carefully chosen and quite beautiful, as you would expect in Times Square.
…and as Dolly Parton would say “There’s nothing dirty going on!”, as far as I could see.
I think a lot of the “dirty” was going on in the porn theaters and those musty old 2nd-floor taxi-dance ballrooms that managed to survive into the ‘70’s and '80’s. When I used to get off the Subway at Seventh Ave and 53rd Street, walking down into Times Square was always a matter of dodging street-hawkers trying to lure you inside the various adult establishments that lined the strip. Never mind that my pals and I were like 15 or 16 years old!
I hasten to add, that there was some definite dirty going on in some of the straight theaters in the area… If one would classify any of the grinds on 42nd Street as “straight” theaters! I just mean non-porn houses. Some of those rest rooms and balconies were as rife with carnal activity as a room at one of the many short-stay flop houses in the area!