Comments from Ed Solero

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Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about 34th Street East Theatre on Jun 20, 2006 at 11:55 am

The day-and-date policy between the 34th Street East and Little Carnegie was alive and well in March of 1982 when Burt Lancaster watched Susan Sarandon bathe her breasts with lemons in this melancholy Louis Malle film:

Daily News 3/6/82

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about 34th Street East Theatre on Jun 20, 2006 at 11:42 am

The day-and-date policy between the 34th Street East and Little Carnegie was alive and well in March of 1982 when Burt Lancaster watched Susan Sarandon bathe her breasts with lemons in this melancholy Louis Malle film:

Daily News 3/6/82

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about 34th Street East Theatre on Jun 20, 2006 at 11:12 am

Found this ad from a 1980 copy of the Daily News… the film in question had played a sneak preview at both the 34th Street East and the Little Carnegie on 12/12/80 before day-and-dating at both theaters (plus the Baronet) beginning 12/19/80:

Inside Moves Daily News 12/14/80

In those days you got to see the sneak preview and stay for the regular feature (“Elephant Man” here at the 34th Street and “Stardust Memories” at the Little Carnegie).

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about Little Carnegie Theatre on Jun 20, 2006 at 10:28 am

I mistakenly labeled the ad “Night Moves”, when the name of the film was obviously “Inside Moves”. That film, by the way, would replace “Stardust Memories” at the Little Carnegie the following week where it day-and-dated here and at the 34th Street East as well as at the Baronet starting 12/19/80.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about Baronet and Coronet Theatre on Jun 20, 2006 at 10:23 am

My mistake… I meant “Inside Moves” not “Night Moves”.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about Baronet and Coronet Theatre on Jun 20, 2006 at 10:23 am

The following week, “Tess” was replaced by this Richard Donner film at the Baronet:

Night Moves

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about Baronet and Coronet Theatre on Jun 20, 2006 at 10:09 am

Meanwhile… a bit of schmaltz (but with the presence of Jack Lemmon lending some class) began its exclusive engagement at the Coronet:

Tribute News 12/14/80

Oddly, according to that ad, the film was starting its engagement on a Sunday! By the way, director Bob Clark would go on to make the wildly popular and lewd pair of “Porky’s” films right after this one. Quite a change in direction, eh?

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about Baronet and Coronet Theatre on Jun 20, 2006 at 9:47 am

Persona-non-grata Roman Polanski directed his lover at the time – the stunning Nastassja Kinski – in this adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s novel which opened here for a limited Acadamy Award qualifying run on December 12, 1980:

Tess one-week

I saw this beautiful film after it opened wide early the next year at Century’s Green Acres Theater in Valley Stream.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about Little Carnegie Theatre on Jun 20, 2006 at 9:24 am

The “Stardust Memories” ad mentions a sneak preview at 8:20pm that Friday night. Here is the ad for the movie being previewed:

Night Moves Sneak

Back when your admission covered the preview film as well as the regular feature booked at the theater!

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about Little Carnegie Theatre on Jun 20, 2006 at 8:20 am

Woody’s most cerebral comedy went wide along UA’s “Red Carpet” on 12/12/80 while continuing at the Little Carnegie and other select theaters:

Stardust Memories

I saw this one at the Century’s Meadows Twin and I can recall a sequence wherein Woody’s character (a famous director being fetted to a weekend retrospective of his work – particularly the “earlier funny ones”) is shot by a fan with a gun … and there was an audible gasp from the audience as John Lennon had only been gunned down by a crazed fan days before.

Reminds me of a time I saw “How I Won the War” – featuring Lennon in a supporting role – at the Hollywood Twin on 8th Avenue in the very early ‘80’s. There’s a scene in that film where he is felled by schrapnel and the audience reaction revealed how fresh and raw the psychic wounds of his death still were at the time.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about Valley Stream Theatre on Jun 20, 2006 at 7:06 am

That’s funny that several folks have mentioned the John Stamos show here! My gal’s very first concert ever was that very John Stamos show here when the place was called Rio. She’s much younger than I (by almost a decade) and grew up only a few blocks away on the other side of Merrick Rd and remembers the theater only as a concert venue.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about Palladium Times Square on Jun 19, 2006 at 7:17 pm

I can’t lay claim to taking those interior shots, guys. I lifted them from the following French website that has something to do with a tour of US cinemas accompanying the THSA:

http://www.silverscreens.com/thsa.php

The only shot that’s truly mine is of the Nokia marquee from November of 2005.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about Paramount Columbus Circle on Jun 19, 2006 at 2:33 pm

This was Francis Ford Coppola’s experimental follow-up to “Apocalypse Now!” and was unjustly maligned by critics and audiences (who stayed away in droves) when released in Feb. 1982:

NY Post 3/10/82

The poor B.O. nearly bankrupt Coppola and his Zoetrope Studios (he financed the film’s rather large budget with no other studio backing) forcing him to return to a very low key style of filmmaking with his Hinton novel adaptations “The Outsiders” and “Rumble Fish”.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about Movieland on Jun 19, 2006 at 2:12 pm

The movie going public was in luck, according to the Times' Janet Maslin, with this classic playing here in March of 1982:

NY Post 3/10/82

Something tells me that within the context of Maslin’s full review, that line used in the ad dripped with sarcasm.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about St. Albans Theatre on Jun 19, 2006 at 1:58 pm

Both theaters are on this site, Dora…

RKO Alden
Loew’s Valencia

…and fondly remembered by those who attended.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about RKO Warner Twin Theatre on Jun 19, 2006 at 1:18 pm

In March of 1982, Hitchcock made a return to Times Square as part of the brief ‘80’s resurgence of the 3D gimmick:

NY Post 3/6/82

A quick peak at the Movie Clock shows that the cheesy horror flick “Evilspeak” (wherein Ron’s brother Clint Howard channels evil demons through his computer) was playing upstairs while day-and-dating with the Times Square on 42nd street. Something called “Woman In Love” (not to be confused with the Ken Russell film of DH Lawrence’s “Women in Love”) was playing backstage at the Orleans.

Notice that every one of the films advertised on that page was booked into a Times Square theater (not counting any of the 42nd Street grinds)… Not a single screen on 7th Ave or B'way exists in the area today.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about RKO Warner Twin Theatre on Jun 19, 2006 at 12:27 pm

Downstairs, a modern classic and tour de force for director Martin Scorcese and his star Robert Deniro; Upstairs, Lee Majors tops a low budget double bill:

Daily News 12/12/80

Meanwhile, around the corner in the Strand’s old stage house we found a “New Policy!”:

Daily News 12/9/80

Sorry for the blurry image.

By the way, check out the ad for “Cheerleader’s Wild Weekend” in that first image (booked at the nearby Times Square Theater on 42nd Street and all along the faded RKO circuit), a film with which Leon Isaac Kennedy had absolutely NOTHING to do with!!! What chutzpah on the part of the Aquarius Films in advertising that one, eh?

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about Jackson Heights Airdrome on Jun 19, 2006 at 10:58 am

I think the merchants on that stretch of 82nd Street just south of Roosevelt probably unofficially made reference to the block as being “Jackson Heights” in an effort to associate it with the comercial strip on 82nd Street that runs north of Roosevelt to 37th Ave. When my family lived on 41st Ave off Junction Blvd in the early ‘70’s, we always referred to area right around the Jackson Theater as being Jackson Heights, even though it was on the Elmhurst side of Roosevelt.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about Regal UA Midway on Jun 19, 2006 at 10:26 am

Mystery solved. Thanks Paul.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about Manhattan 1 and 2 on Jun 19, 2006 at 9:57 am

That movie would have definitely been gonged by Jamie Farr, eh hdtv? Remember the almost equally horrific Get Smart movie, “The Nude Bomb”? I believe those 2 both came out in 1980. Barris made for a much more interesting film subject in George Clooney’s excellent “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind”. Maxwell Smart, on the other hand, has never transcended the small screen.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about Orpheum Theatre on Jun 19, 2006 at 9:30 am

Yeah… here’s the link.

I remember seeing “Star Wars” up there (I posted my memories on the page) on its intial release in ‘77 with my Dad. The theater operated as an up-and-down twin from 1968 (each theater using a different name and entrance) until its demise in the 1980’s.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about Regal UA Midway on Jun 19, 2006 at 9:12 am

I enjoyed the balcony theaters when the Midway was a quad. I guess it was the experience of enjoying “stadium style” seating years before the concept became a popular design feature in newer multiplexes. Also, the screens were set back a nice distance and made viewing from the first row (with the old balcony railing a nice footrest) a very comfortable experience. Not sure how sturdy that new ceiling/floor was meant to be, but I remember during a couple of midnight showings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” one or two guys venturing out there so that they could reach out and toucha-toucha-toucha-touch Susan Sarandon’s breasts, as was customary during a particular musical number in the film!

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about Fair Theatre on Jun 19, 2006 at 8:59 am

Of course! Perhaps a one-man submarine voyage through the NYC sewer system. That would certainly be an adventure. OK… enough frivolity!

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about Orpheum Theatre on Jun 19, 2006 at 8:39 am

Bway… I think you have this mixed up with the uptown Orpheum. The Orpheum at 126 2nd Avenue is down in the East Village between East 7th and St. Marks Place and has been featuring live theater for a great many years. “Stomp!” has been playing here for 12 years.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero commented about Manhattan 1 and 2 on Jun 19, 2006 at 8:26 am

There is a comment in the introduction that this theater at one time was the porn twin known as EastWorld, but I wonder if that is accurate. Below is a page from the NY Post showing several movie ads and the Movie Clock from March 10, 1982:

Manhattan/Eastworld

As you can see, “On Golden Pond” was playing at the Manhattan 1 and there is a small ad at the bottom for the XXX “Indecent Exposure” day and dating at the Circus Cinema in Times Square and EastWorld, which is listed at 61st and 1st Ave. You can scan the Movie Clock to find that “Chariots of Fire” was playing in the Manhattan 2 auditorium.

Going back to December of 1980, the following edition of the Post’s Neighborhood Movie Guide shows that the “world premier” of “Dracula Exotica” was going on at the XXX EastWorld while both the Manhattan 1 and 2 were closed to the public on that day:

Neighborhood Movie Guide 12/11/80

The following day, the Goldie Hawn military comedy “Private Benjamin” and David Lynch’s “The Elephant Man” (both films well into their first runs) were running at the Manhattan twins:

Goldie
I am not an animal!

The “Elephant Man” ad makes mention of the 12/11 closing. Not sure what went on that Thursday night to close the place. I wouldn’t figure a twin theater for a movie premier. It was under Cinema 5 management at the time.