Hollywood Twin Cinemas
777 Eighth Avenue,
New York,
NY
10036
777 Eighth Avenue,
New York,
NY
10036
4 people
favorited this theater
This theater is unusual because it was built as a porn twin, opening in November 1971. Then, amid a lot of fanfare, became a twin revival theater from 1981. It showed classic double bills and sometimes would play a rarely seen classic for more then a few days. The nice thing about it being a twin was that it gave freedom to revive recent films as double features.
It operated successfully until 1986 when internal problems with its management caused it to close. The theater returned to porn with gay in one twin and straight in the other. When the Times Square cleanup started, the theater closed in 1994 and is now the information and meeting area for the Big Apple Bus Company, which gives tours of the city.
Contributed by
RobertR
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Recent comments (view all 80 comments)
was the street activity and street people at 47th and 8th similar to 5 blocks to the south at 42nd and 8th? or was it any tamer? would one be using the same level of caution at 47th as they would at 42 street?
The marquee can be seen in the background of this photo, which is dated “circa 1965” but might be of a later date: View link
excellent photo do you have more of this section? should be 1971 or after as the H'wood opened in 71
the guy wearing the brim hat standing next to the prostitute, would you say that could be a pimp(didn’t they wear such hats back in the day?)? the 3 of them seem huddled close together hard to tell if the prostitute is moving about her business or if she/he is hanging with the other 2 guys
Thanks for the pictures.
View link
gotta remember the fire house across the street from the Hollywood. attached to the fire house was a row of dingy tenements and the upper windows were abandoned. there was some kind of nasty bar at 772.
The Hollywood Twin is featured in this recent New York Times article and slide show about cinemas converted to retail space: View link
I find viewing the new replacements on 8th to be dull because you don’t see any characters hanging around. The old shots of the Hollywood are cool because you can see how the surrounding area is a real red-light district with either characters, or no one there (‘cause many didn’t go there 'cause it was unsavory) and trash in the streets
As far as I know, the Night Shift Theater was a separately run theater above the Hollywood Twin.
The Night Shift had a separate address upstairs but the Moulin Rouge (3 screens, 1985) may have encompassed both.