Paree Adult Cinema and Live Show
753-59 Seventh Avenue,
New York,
NY
10019
753-59 Seventh Avenue,
New York,
NY
10019
No one has favorited this theater yet
Showing 1 - 25 of 43 comments found
Anyone who would dismiss Times Square based on their disapproval of what may be happening on the fringes is seriously closed minded, and this poster had already admitted to that. Most of it still happens today behind the facade of the new Disneyscape, as vice never dies.
I never understood the mindset that could blame a sexuality transmitted disease on a building. I suppose if we shut down the Port Authority in Times Square it would end teenage prostitution in America.
AIDS is still thriving in many parts of the world without a porn cinema in sight, including sections of NY and LA.
Also, I notice that someone posted a photo of the Frisco and Avon 7 Theatres, which were located across Seventh Avenue and a block to the south of the Paree. I guess any old porn marquee will do?
Listen, I’m only a cheerleader, but I spent many hours in the movie houses that once lined W. 42nd Street, Broadway and Seventh Avenue back in the ‘80’s. Pornography was never my thing – Kung Fu and horror films were my usual vices. I enjoyed seeing films at these theaters for a variety of reasons, including the fact that admissions were cheap, the bill of fare included double and even triple features along with red-band trailers (never got those in Queens!) and the often hilarious running commentary from folks in the audience. And, yes, I would sometimes find myself looking past the grime and decay and admiring some of the stunning architecture within those dirty walls.
For a budding cineast such as myself, Times Square was a wonderland. The history of the area is frequently sordid but it is also endlessly fascinating – and I’m happy to have been able to experience some of it while I was able. In fact, I still patronize many of the surviving and re-born establishments whenever I get the chance.
You remain a pompous boor. You are the only one making personal attacks (calling me trashy, promiscuous, imperious and low-class. I resent being called imperious!)
When it comes down to it, you can get an STD at the Waldorf-Astoria if you'e with the wrong partner, so don’t be so lofty.
Anyway, you said in a previous post that you went to two adult theaters and never touched anyone and never went back. (You went dancing instead — how was all the drug use and unsafe behavior in THOSE venues?)
In reality, you never even considered having your so-called “Times Square Experience” in any event. (It seems every city and town in America had porno theaters at the same time; nothing unique to Manhattan.)
There was (is) so much more to the area than merely hooking up. That is the Times Square Experience we have spent years here discussing. And plenty of our members DID just sit there and admire the architecture. (Ed, that’s your cue…)
“I seriously doubt if anyone in an adult theater spent any time admiring the proscenium.”
Check out the Adonis page and you will find out you are also wrong about that, aside from being homophobic, racist and apparently fattist.
Mr. Alvarez, who said anything about fear? I didn’t have a “role” in transmitting AIDS or any of the other diseases. There’s nothing to for me to deny; everything is in my comments. Fear and denial; I hope you’re not one of those fat, honkie, lesbian social workers who wants to save the world.
Mr. Saps, the theaters repurposed for the adult trade provided a location where people transmitted AIDS and STDs. That’s the “Times Square Experience” I am referring to, and I seriously doubt if anyone in an adult theater spent any time admiring the proscenium.
When I uploaded my initial post for this theater, I didn’t expect to get into a pissing match; that’s probably why they have that rule about not making personal attacks. Now, there’s you and two others making unsolicited comments.
You have two cheerleaders who agree with you; please contact them.
…And how!
MovieMan, too bad you missed the entire Times Square experience — from visiting the Lyric and New Amsterdam on 42nd Street, up the square to the Paramount, State, Criterion, Astor, DeMille, Rivoli and especially the Capitol. And why not stop in at the Adonis, Cameo, Tivoli, Pussycat, World and Victory, all old movie theaters repurposed in their last years for the adult trade. Nobody ever got an STD sitting in a theater seat admiring the proscenium.
That’s the Times Square experience I meant — the lights, the sounds, the sights, with a hint of danger and excitement around every corner. The roar of the greasepaint, the smell of the crowd….“Annie” playing next to “Anal Intruders!” It was really unique and will never be duplicated.
“It was really unique and will never be duplicated.”
I have to agree….
Saps, I understand your well intended contribution. It is what makes cinematreasures work for many of us.
Moviemanforever, what are you afraid of? It happened already, buddy! Please tell us what your roll was or stay away and deny.
No, Mr. Saps, I didn’t do plenty. Re-read my submissions, and stop making incorrect assumptions. I was around it and avoided it when I saw it happening. Don’t equate my inexperience and self-preservation with your trashy behavior.
As far as people regretting what they didn’t do, I volunteered at an AIDS hospice for three years and heard nothing but regret. Also, my sister is an RN, and she worked in an AIDS ward for almost five years. She said that most of the patients were incredibly angry, then depressed until they died. All they talked about was why they were so self-centered and felt “liberated” when, in reality, they spent years being promiscuous.
I’m glad I missed “the Times Square experience,” and I think you were a part of it, which makes you lucky to be alive – and an imperious reminder of a destructive era that many want to forget. You’re violating the site rule regarding personal attacks; it’s a low-class approach that most people avoid, but I’m sure you don’t regret it.
When Times Square had all the theaters, I was planning a trip to go and see everything. The people I know who were there said, “You may be gay, but you’re also a Republican. You’ll hate it.” Reading the anecdotes for the Times Square theaters, I’m glad I never went.
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!
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!
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.
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”?
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.
No problem Al. Should I wear protection? :P
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?
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.
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).
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. (???)
Embassy 49th opened in the same location as the World Theater. And, yes, odd numbered addresses should be on the north side of the cross-streets in Manhattan. Hmmm. My memory may be faulty on which side of the street the World was on. I could have sworn it was on the south side of 49th. But then, that should be an even address number if so. The Ambassador Theater on the next block west, and which is definitely on the north side of 49th has an address of 219 West 49th. I think we need AlAlvarez to swoop in here and help sort out the addresses. I know that he has the addresses for a number of theaters (big and small) concentrated right in this area – which he posted at some point on the Rivoli page, I think.
Okay, now I’m lost again. The Punch & Judy Theater is listed on CT as the World Theater located at 153 W. 49th Street. The mystery theater that we are trying to identify has three addresses acording to NYC:
BROADWAY 1604 – 1610
WEST 49 STREET 204 – 208
7 AVENUE 732 – 732
None of those addresses match the address of the World Theater listed on CT. On the World Theater page it mentions in the description that….“the World closed down and was taken over by Embassy Theatres, which renamed it the Embassy 49th Street and cleaned things up in a big way — opening with a Walt Disney picture!”. Did the Embassy 49th Street open in the same building as the former World Theater, or did it open at one of the addresses above? Wouldn’t 153 W. 49th Street be on the opposite side of the street from 204 W. 49th Street?
I was going to suggest that, actually. The World was on the same square block but at its northern perimeter on the south side of 49th Street. You should be able to trace a C of O on that site all the way back to the Punch & Judy Theater, which first opened back in 1914. I think that only had about 300 seats, however. And the building was mid-block at 153-155 W. 49th. Perhaps the owners of the World created an additional theater space on the block?