Embassy 1 Theatre
1560 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
1560 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
6 people
favorited this theater
The beautifully restored former landmark Embassy Theatre on Broadway, which opened in 1925 and closed in 1997, now serves as the Times Square Visitors Center.
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Cinema Treasures
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Recent comments (view all 122 comments)
to either see a new film at one of the large movie theaters or a Broadway show i have been a frequent visitor to the Times Square area most of my adult life. to which my question- i don’t remember the former Mayfair/DeMille ever having The Mark as its name on the marquee. so i’m guessing it was a proposed name change that never made it to the marquee.
bigjoe59, You could have missed it being called the Mark I, II and III because it was only open with that name for a short period of time. After that when Peter Elson took it over it was renamed the Embassy 2, 3 and 4.
Al, “Once Is Not Enough” could have run in September, but I wouldn’t call it a “move over” from the Astor Plaza since it played along with 25 other theatres listed in a film company ad.-LOL
As for the “Walking Tall”, the only thing I’m certain of is that it ran at the DeMille before the fire, while the theatre was still being operated by Walter Reade. After the fire, the theatre was closed for nearly a year and re-opened with “Once Is Not Enough”. Clark only had the theatre for a few months as I recall. Under a deal with the union he wasn’t supposed to use the balcony, but from day one there were more people sitting in the balcony then in the orchestra and was a constant battle. It was after the theatre closed under Clark that I left. At one point, Hank Rosenberg, the owner of the twin theatres (I can’t remember the name of the theatres) a few doors down to the left of the DeMille was also looking to buy the building and multiplex the theatre.
Hey RobertR… You posted a photo for this theater, but the image is actually of the Trans-Lux 49th Street, which later became the Grand Pussycat Cinema porn-house in the ‘70’s.
Here’s a link to an illustrated article about the Embassy’s initial sucess as a newsreel house: archive
That was one of the most interesting articles I have ever read on this site. Thanks so much for posting it. (I sure miss the old days even though I wasn’t even born then.)
Here’s a view of the Embassy’s gala opening night, with Von Stroheim’s silent “The Merry Widow” as the premiere attraction. Note marquee billing for the Embassy’s first managing director, Gloria Gould, a high society princess related to one of America’s wealthiest families: archive
It’s interesting that the Embassy is referred to as “Broadway’s newest ‘legitimate’ theatre”.
I don’t know why they’re referring to it as a “legitimate theatre”. Does anyone know the answer?
The Embassy’s original policy was all seats reserved, with two performances daily, similar to “legit” houses except that the latter usually had only two matinees per week.
I’ve never heard that term used to describe ANY movie theatre before. By that description, you could have called Loew’s State, Loew’s Capitol. Criterion, etc., “legit houses”.
Oh well, I guess all the movie theatres today could be described as “illegitimate theatres”.-LOL
Yesterday (11/2) marked the 83rd anniversary of the grand opening of the Embassy as the first cinema in America to show sound newsreels exclusively. It was the brainchild of William Fox, with Fox Film Corporation as the Embassy’s new management. All of the many thousands of feet of film that were shot weekly for the Fox Movietone and Hearst Metronone newsreels would be available to the Embassy, which could cover major events in more detail than the “pruned” versions in the conventional theatrical newsreels. More about this can be found in an article in The New York Times of November 2nd, 1929, page 11.