Trans-Lux 85th Street Theatre

wow! i can’t believe i actually found this page online! i was looking
for any info on that theater… i grew up on 86th and madison. my mother still lives there. the first movie i ever remember seeing was at that theater—– the movie was “Sasquatch,” and it was either 77 or 78… so cool. if anyone has a photo of this theater, please email me directly… —thanks!

I remember going to this theatre in either May of ‘66 or '67 to see Ulysses by Joseph Strick on reserved seats; the adds for the theatre at that time called the theatre the Trans-Lux 85TH Street Cinema Cafe.

I remember this theatre well from my youth on the East side in the 60’s and 70s…a precious looking place with a flat marquee and a canopy…dark wood in the lobby…single aisle downstairs and a smallish balcony which still might have added up to 450-500 seats…an interesting mix of first-run and second-run (showcase) programming with the odd foreign film thrown in and often kids' programs on the weekends…this may be one of the few East Side theatres I remember with a matron
Through the years a showcase for various studios (Warner Bros, UA, Fox, Universal) often day-dating with the Trans-Lux East on 58th and 3rd…Remember seeing a double feature of Bonnie & Clyde/Bullitt here, as well as The Secret of Santa Vittoria, The Hot Rock (twice, sold out both times), an Israeli musical called Kazablan (I’m still embarassed about) and probably a few other pictures here
Think that they booked Deep Throat here and had to move it to the 86th St East due to public protest – a one-off hard core porn taken to a silk-stocking residential area…Put simply this theatre, even more than say Loews Tower East (now 72nd St) or 68th St Playhouse would have to be in the highest wealth per capita area of any in NY…perhaps the world ( that may be held now by the Chelsea in London)
There is now a high rise building with I think a Banana Republic on the ground floor but the shop might also be Armani