Embassy 49th Street Theatre
153 W. 49th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
153 W. 49th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
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Try this link if my above one doesn’t work for you.
Critics rave in this 1947 ad for Rossellini’s Open city, which ran for well over a year at the World Theatre after its American premiere there.
Forgot to add that Hollywood90038 also shot some video of the same location – albeit taken from 7th Avenue looking to the west down 49th – a couple of years later in 1992.
West 49th – 1992
Zoom in closer
The images are blurry, but it seems that the same marquee now reads “PINK” and I’m thinking it might be a cabaret rather than cinema at this point – looks like the attractions board reads “LIVE” something or other (maybe “LIVE LADIES”?).
CT Member Hollywood90038 was kind enough to share with me a DVD of some home-video footage he shot of Times Square in 1990. As he was shooting around the intersection of 49th and Broadway, the camera pans to the left and glimpses the marquee of the Circus Cinema on B'way and then along the signage for the RKO Video store on the southeast corner and then along 49th Street where he finds a small triangular marquee for the World Theater.
Here’s one view of this marquee and here’s a closer shot that I captured from the DVD.
This is NOT the famous World Theatre where “Deep Throat” premiered – obviously the marquee is much smaller but also the theatre is located on a completely different site. The old World nee Punch and Judy was on the north side of 49th between 6th and 7th, whereas the World depicted in Hollywood’s video footage is on the south side of 49th on the short block between 7th and B'way. Had this been a former mini-cinema location or cabaret site that the owners of the World Theatre picked up or leased out once Rockefeller Centre kicked them out of their original site on the next block?
Any ideas out there? KenRoe? AlAlvarez? RobertR?
The excellent documentary “Inside Deep Throat” has been playing on HBO lately. I snagged a few screenshots (actually through use of my digital camera and the pause button on my DVR) of the archival newsreel footage depicting the World Theatre during the engagement of “Deep Throat” starting in June of 1972 and the subsequent raid conducted by NY’s finest later that year (please excuse the murky quality on some of these):
Marquee at twilight
Schedule board – Plus Loops!
Display case artwork
The Raid – under the canopy
The Raid – banner comes down
The Raid – cop inspects banner
Marquee after raid
Marquee after raid – alt shot
Note on the schedule board that the feature was presented along with some “loops” – presumably an assemblage of old-style stag loops from peep-show nickelodeons? Also interesting that the last show at 11:50pm is advertised as letting out at 12:54am. IMBD lists the film’s running time as 61 minutes – leaving a mere 3 minutes for those “loops!”
I remember when the NY Daily News carried ads for XXX-Rated movies. And who could forget those ads for gay porn?
No mainstream newspaper could away with now in this high-moral times.
BR at the NYC World.
1950
During the 80s, a friend took me to an invitational screening here of “That’s Life” with Julie Andrews & Jack Lemmon. I shoulda stayed home !
During the 80s, a friend took me to an invitational screening here of “That’s Life” with Julie Andrews & Jack Lemmon. I shoulda stayed home !
Things were getting lurid by the early ‘60’s here:
Pagan Hellcats – NY Daily News 9/21/63
This theater was definitely known as the Embassy 49th Street at some point in the late ‘80’s. The other Embassy 49th was in the former Trans Lux 49th Street (aka Trans-Lux West) on B'way near 49th that had operated as the Pussycat and then Grand Pussycat porn house in the 70’s and early '80’s. I’m pretty sure the former World was the last to carry the Embassy moniker – and I think it ran mostly Disney re-issues during this brief period. In any event, “Embassy 49th Street” should be added as an AKA here.
English… ever catch the work of Abagail Clayton at the World?:
7 for Snowy – Daily News 1/25/78
I remeber this theater as “THE WORLD 49TH STREET”.It was a porn movie house.I saw some of JENNIFER WELLES classics there in the seventies.
Check out this ad from the war years. How odd for a Times Square theatre to have no matinees, the first show was at 530 pm.
View link
5th smash week for Seka at the “Nations Red Carpet Adult Theater” at the bottom of the page:
Post 12/11/80
And a couple of years later, a new leading lady has a hit:
Post 3/8/82
THESE THEATRE ADS appeared in a program booklet “Stadium Concerts Review” for Lewisohn Stadium, College of the City of New York, for July 29 to August 4, 1936. The concerts were by the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra. The small ads tout what was playing at several New York movie theatres. One of them was the World, referred to as the World Cinema. No specific titles were given, just the category of “distinctive films.”
Yeah, that ridiculous “leg ad” was the common one used for the film in America. Antonio’s wife Maria hardly appears for a moment on the bicycle, and you really don’t see much of her legs. It also carries the implication that she is being abducted by bicycle: bicycle thief = snatcher of women. This poignant tragedy is not about that at all, of course, but sex does sell tickets.
I never knew about that fracas. And then, in your second advertising image, there’s the detail of the female legs transported on the bicycle. It makes the film appear as though it were a caper comedy. Or, worse, as though it were “Icicle Thieves.”
In response to Boxofficebill:
Yes, it refers to the the M.P.A.A.’s refusal to issue a production code seal. Joseph I. Breen, vice president and chief of its production code administration sent a letter to the distributors (Mayer-Burstyn) saying that the movie would receive a “Certificate of Approval” provided that (1) the scene of the little boy [peeing] against the wall, and (2) all the interior shots in the bordello, into which the man chases the thief, were cut out of the picture. I paraphrase from article I have from the New York Times dated March 2, 1950. Burstyn fought, won, and ultimately the seal was granted.
Idiocy that boggles the mind!
To censor “Bicycle Thieves”? For what? Does the ad depict little Bruno urinating? I guess the publicity sold tickets. Ahhh…the way of the World.
Ooops, the ads are right here.
Here are a couple of ads for The Bicycle Thief (Ladri di biciclette) at the World in 1950.
In the ‘70s I saw Gerard Damiano’s 'Memories Within Miss Aggie’ here.
eek!
Gerald and Warren— Ah, yes, the Avenue Playhouse on Sixth Ave — I recall it in my mind’s eye on the west side of the street, mid-block, with a semi-circular white marquee framed by green neon tubing. Both of you have contributed good info to its page on this site. I recall nothing about its policy, and remember it just as a mysterious presence in the area. And yes, Warren, Bryan Kerfft’s elequent history of the World at the top of this page fully explains the origins of its English decor. I’m going to work on uncovering the name of the film I saw there in the late ‘50s.
Correction to my post above:
It seems to me that it was probably the Trans-Lux West Theater (on west side of Broadway, south of 49th St.) that was demolished in 1987, not the World Theater (north side of 49th St., between Sixth and Seventh Avenues).
Since corrections and elaborations about the identity and history of this theater have been scattered over a number of different posts, I’d like to try and summarize in one place what I think seems to be the correct information.
The WORLD THEATER, located “midblock” on the north side of 49th St., between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, started out as a cinema theater with the name the Charles Hopkins. (It had been built as a playhouse, called the Punch and Judy.) It then became the Westminster (1934), the World (1936), and finally the Embassy 49th (1982). It was demolished in 1987(?).
The TRANS-LUX WEST THEATER, on the west side of Broadway between 48th and 49th St. (but almost on the corner of 49th St.), was renamed the Embassy 49th after the theater that was midblock on the north side of 49th St. (i.e., the Hopkins, Westminster, World, Embassy 49th) closed down. Sometime after receiving the name of this other theater, the formerly named Trans-Lux West was renamed once again, this time as the “Pussycat Theater.”
It was the Trans-Lux West Theater (not the World) that was replaced by the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza (a hotel, not an office building). The site of the World Theater was, instead, the site of an office building (not a hotel) built by the Rockefeller Center people — after what seemed like years of being an empty lot. (I think the main tenant in the building is Lehman Brothers?)
It was the WARNER/CINERAMA (originally the Strand), which was located on the west side of Broadway between 47th and 48th Sts., that was replaced by the skyscraper office building referred to in one of the previous posts on this page. (I forget the name of the eponymous major tenant, but I believe it is a financial services firm.) This is the building that has three rows of “ticker-tape” lights, each going at a slightly different rate of speed, running across its facade.