Embassy 49th Street Theatre
153 W. 49th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
153 W. 49th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
10 people
favorited this theater
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was there prostitution on B'way and 7th in the upper 40’s? I ask because there seemed to be an awful lot of porn from 46th to 50th both on 7th and B'way and even on side streets. 49th street between 7th and 8th especially looked like 42 street (raunchy titled theaters like the Ramrod etc) in fact i used to be intimidated to walk near 49th and B'way tho i never actually saw any criminals around there
I remember the World Theater well. It seemed like an oddity(sleaze, porn) to be on a street with those big skyscrapers rising from 6th Avenue(respectability)
There is an interesting collection of ads here:
View link
Hey Al… I just saw a post you made back in 2008 on the Circus Cinema page regarding a NY Times article that noted the closure of both the Circus and Pink (the alternate World we’ve been discussing) in 1996. You directed that post at me, but, since I’ve been away from the fold for so long, I’ve only just read it now. Looks like the space may have previously been a cabaret/theater space called Broadway Burlesque, that operated on the 3rd floor of the building, above the video store.
Sorry, rvb. They are not meant to be photos of the World on this page.
What Ed and I are trying to get information is on the World theatre with an entrance around the corner from the Circus theatre photos above. That location is not yet listed on CT.
I don’t believe these last two links are the World. The World building was not just a box. There was a peak in the center of the facade and, altho' original pictures of the Punch and Judy show three floors, there was never open office space of the type shown in these pictures.
You can clearly see the three floors in this shot.
View link
LOL. tip ‘toe’.
To make matters even murkier, Ed, I believe the Big Top briefly operated as the WORLD as well.
View link
When the Punch & Judy, by then called the Charles Hopkins was no longer viable as a legit theatre because of it’s size it became the Westminster Cinema in 1934 playing solely British films. In 1935 it became the World showing French and Italian films.
This must be where we had “culture night” from the office and a coed group went to see The Devil and Miss Jones.
I’m tying in some old information that good old Lost Memory provided back in Sept 2006 for a porn theater I added here called Paree Adult Cinema and Live Show. Al, you were involved in that discussion way back when. We started talking about the infamous Frisco Theater on 7th Avenue, which I had been researching to add here at the time and he posted some detailed C of O information regarding the old Studebaker building that a number of porn houses (including the Frisco on 7th and the Circus Cinema and Big Top Theater on B'way) shared. Here’s what he had to add:
<<A June 1969 c/o for 732 Seventh Ave shows a three story building. The first floor has a 130 seat theater. The second and third floors each have a restaurant and cabaret (with dancing).
A June 1972 c/o now gives the address as 732 Seventh Ave & 1604 Broadway. The first floor has a 440 seat motion picture theater. The second floor has a restaurant and cabaret (with dancing). The third floor is now a 200 seat theater.
An April 1984 c/o gives the address as 1604 Broadway. The first floor is a 440 seat motion picture theater. The second floor is a 200 seat motion picture theater. The third floor is a 212 seat motion picture theater.
An April 1988 c/o gives the address as 1604 Broadway. The first floor is still a 440 seat motion picture theater. The second floor is now office space. The third floor is a 212 seat motion picture theater.>>
We definitely decided that the 130 seat theater at 732 Seventh was the New Mini Cinema that was quickly renamed the Frisco. The 440 seat theater has got to be the Circus Cinema with the second floor 200 seat theater being the Big Top (which advertised “one flight up” on its B'way signage. That would leave the 212 seat room on the third floor as a very likely candidate for the new World Theater I’ve been wondering about here, which later became Pink.
Lost had also commented a bit later that he found marquee permits at this address under the name “World 49th Street Theater Corp” – which is the capper for me. Now what to do with my compulsion to add this theater to the CT roster! Oh, if Warren G Harris were still here, he’d be baffled and boggled (and more than a bit irate) over my fascination with these porn pits of old Times Square. Maybe someone will tip “toe” over here and make a snide remark in his stead!
The brick front of the World looks just like the pub, so I think it is still there. When the Circus was closed both it and Pink were described as ‘theatres’ by the authorities.
Thanks, Al. Posted a poor-quality vid-cap that shows the marquee in 1992 with the PINK lettering above it. Was that a strip club? And wasn’t that building demolished with the rest of the block or has it somehow survived the new construction around it?
Ed, if it helps, I believe is was the same location operating as PINK at 204 West 49th Street. It shared a building with the CIRCUS and may now be a Playwright Celtic Pub.
Forgot to add, that 2nd photo also clearly shows that once you got past the turnstile and revolving door, you had to take at least 1 flight of stairs up to the screening room. Maybe there was a ballroom up there or something that allowed easy conversion.
Back in September 17, 2007, I posted images and asked about another World Theater that was located on the south side of W. 49th just off B'way, next door to the RKO Warner video store that was on the corner for a few years. I figured it may have been a new location carved from office or former cabaret/dance hall space when Rockefeller Center evicted the operators from the original World and changed the name to New Embassy 49.
I found a few images on the excellent American Classic Images site:
Night shot Oct 1983
Entrance at night Oct 1983
Erotic Angels May 1986
Looking at the first pic, the sign hanging under the marquee reads in part “The Nations #1 Adult Premiere Theatre,” which leads me to believe this was run by the managers of the old World Theatre and they were looking to carry the brand right down the block with them. Is anyone able to confirm that or know anything different about this “other” World?
The New Embassy 49 name lasted from 1982 to April 1987 when it closed with a re-release of “The Aristocats”.
I met actor John Belushi in front of this theater on Columbus Day 1978. We recognized him immediately. This street was kind of schizoid as the theater made it look sleazy yet the tall buildings from 6th Avenue that reached over onto the street gave it an air of respectability. Seemed W 49th street especially between 7th and 8th was loaded with porno palaces—my dad told me there was a time when 49th west of 7th was in it’s own way as seedy as 42 street
The WORLD and SHOW WORLD are two different venues. The latter is still there, in some form, on 42nd and 8th Avenue.
A close-up shot – View link
Is this 1986 LIFE photo an image of this porn house? View link
I believe that the last film to play here was Children Of A Lesser God in 1987.
I believe this was the World when briefly known as the Embassy 49.
View link
Renewing link.
It’s always interesting to find out that a theater, like the World, that had one kind of identity when you frequented it, or at least tracked its programming, had a whole different identity in an earlier era. I hadn’t realized, or had forgotten, that the World at one time was a true “art house.”
OK, they are the same images on both dates. The first is a direct link to the pic itself; the second is a link to the page containing the photo. As I just said on the Criterion (1st) page, Flickr links now only seem to work if they are to entire pages rather than individual image URLs. I’m sorry about this development. I don’t know if anyone else has encountered this problem or if I am doing something wrong. It must be affecting many of my past posts here. Oh well, I’m running out of material to add anyway.