Teatro Excelsior

I believe the 1975 film “The Day of the Locust” premiered at the Excelsior. Though not entirely sure. But I’m pretty sure I remember the striking movie poster in the Excelsior’s marquee way back then.

In late 1975 or early 1976, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s highly controversial final film “Salo or The 120 Days of Sodom” premiered at the Excelsior and scandalized the island. It is rumored that its world premier was in Puerto Rico at this theatre, since it was banned in most countries around the world and premiered much later in the U.S. Being a teenager at the time, while going to see the Hollywood blockbusters at the Radio City across the popcorn stand from the Excelsior, I witnessed a lot of walkouts from “Salo.” “Emanuelle” and “Emanuelle 2: The Joys of a Woman,” also played here. A knock-off of “Emanuelle” called “Emilienne” had a run here. Sometimes, besides the standard art house fare, mainstream Hollywood movies were screened here. Agatha Christie’s “Murder on The Orient Express” premiered here in 1974 and Mel Brooks' “Silent Movie” in 1976, among many. The Excelsior and Radio City were on a second floor and to get there you took escalators one flight up. The marquees were on Del Parque street, next to the escalators, and in the Ponce de Leon Avenue they had an extra marquee, much smaller, featuring the two posters of the films currently playing. The Excelsior was the smaller house of the two.