“We’ll leave the light on for ya..” The Orpheum neon sign is turned on every night, but there was no performance when I was in Sioux Falls. The Orpheum is the first thing mentioned by the local tourist bureau when talking about their restored downtown. Jessie, a tour guide, said the interior is seriously run down; but I’d be hopeful the local citizens will fix it up in the longrun.
The Omaha Orpheum is in excellent restored condition and is offering quite a few Broadway and other shows throughout the year. I saw Joseph & his Dreamcoat a few nights ago. Lots of civic pride evident. Omaha has another beautiful theatre saved from the wrecking ball. 6 blocks west is The Rose Theatre, built circa 1925, even more ornate than the Orpheum, it serves as a children’s theatre and offers just a few shows. I could not find it on this website.
THE TIME IS NOW! I found tickets for the Paradide listed on the TickerMaster site for “Night in Paradise” on September 30th. It says it’s a night of classic r&b music. Several Black groups. Well, OK, I’m white but I’ve seen many shows at Washington DC’s Howard Theatre, Washington’s equivalent of Harlem’s Apollo. Black people speak English, likewise sing in English. That’s all I ask. Before rap they made good music, many still do. Tickets are $75, 65, 55 or 45. Pretty steep, but so what? I’ll be there —– in Row A. What about you?
QUESTION: Is the movie business dead today? ANSWER: No, millions of people pay $9.50 to $10.50 to see a movie, and a strong opening weekend draws in excess of $100 million. Is there any reason why ONE motion picture company couldn’t try opening ONE film at Loew’s Jersey rather than the multiplex? Multiplexes are ratholes, not truly loved by the public; only tolerated.
When Disney restored the NEW AMSTERDAM, they played the Tarzan movie there (prior to Lion King). It drew lots of people, even me, from Virginia. The last BIG movie I saw at a real LOEW’S theatre was Empire Strikes Back. Not ancient history. Top price. Full house.
There is some truth to those who disagreed with my post. New York was indeed NOT the only city to lose its great movie palaces to the unimpared crime and drug mess of the 70’s and 80’s. But many young New Yorkers are actually unaware their city truly lost 20% of its population (2 million people) back then —– not just a shift from white middle class to other folks, a net loss of 2 million. A mess. The showcasing of movies to multiple screens evolved in response to unchecked crime and people not wanting to come into the city or certain neighborhoods. In my city it was the aftermath of the Martin Luther King riots and arson, killing downtown for over 20 years and with our loss of all great theatres but one. Again though, THAT WAS THEN, and THIS IS NOW. Rudy cleaned up New York and his momentum continues under Bloomberg. Most parts of New York are on the rebound. I drove 600 miles round trip to see Cate Blanchett when she played the Academy of Music’s annex last winter. If Brooklyn can get ME back there, surely there’s hope.
The great movie palaces of New York met their death as a direct result of the liberal New York government’s embracing of crime and welfare circa 1968 through 1980, and leaving drug traffic unimpared. During that era, New York lost 20% of its population (mostly white middle class) and almost lost the New York Stock Exchange. NYC went literally bankrupt under the corrupt government and had to be bailed out by loans from Washington. (Their account was on my desk at the US Treasury). That was then, and this is now. QUESTION: Is the movie business dead? ANSWER: No, they rake in hundreds of millions at up to $10.50 a ticket. I wonder if just one motion picture company might risk playing just one of their pictures the old way, the way they succeeded for decades: Book the picture into one of the restored Wonder Theaters, rather than the multiplex, and see how many people respond. Why rule out the idea of filling a beautiful oversized theatre with just regular moviegoers?
There are more ways the AFI could improve the Silver besides getting over their lefty narrow-mindedness in bookings. For one thing, the main auditorium (the restored old theatre) is something very special but the two new auditoriums are definitely not. Economically necessary, yes; special, no. But the AFI makes zero effort to let people know what’s playing in the main theatre and what’s in the two broom closets. Neither the newspaper listings nor the website tell you. A phone inquiry yields the usual automated run-around. I’d love to see a good classic re-run in the main theatre —– I enjoyed well over 300 movies in the old Silver —– but I wait and wait for an interesting booking. I saw HIGH NOON there, going 12 miles back to my old neighborhood, but that’s two years ago. The AFI used to honor classics; not much anymore.
Agreed. It was a small, undistunguished and never popular movie theater. It never caught on, and soon closed. Nobody misses it. In contrast, see Roth’s Silver Spring West.
For most of its life this theatre was operated by Warner Bros. and was called the SECO. It was run down, and for a long time it had two fans and no air conditioning; but eventually AC was installed. It was an extremely popular third-run double feature house, which also had serials such as the 15 episode Superman (1948) —– far superior to the 1978 or 2006 overbudgeted hollow remakes. When Paul Roth purchased and remodeled the theatre circa 1953, he booked first runs of foreign movies at double the former admission price. A radical change from action house to highbrow. Free coffee in the lobby! Later, Roth very cleverly booked and promoted re-runs of American movies. The most successful was Paul Newman in THE HUSTLER. A 4 star movie, it had passed quickly thru the system before word-of-mouth made it a rerun smash hit. I saw about 100 movies at the SECO and dozens more at Roth’s. Last time I looked it was a church, not demolished at all.
Let me politely say that the Kennedy Center doesn’t hold a candle to Washington’s long lost movie palaces such as Keith’s, Loew’s Capitol, Loew’s Palace, Loew’s Culumbia or the Metropolitan and Warner. Don’t take my word for it, visit the stunningly beautiful Warner Theatre, either for real (it survives with prosperity) or by looking at photos on Cinema Treasures. The Crown Jewel was Loew’s Capitol, the theatre that kept the tradition of movie + stage show until the CinemaScope era. The Metropolitan Opera played Loew’s Capitol two days a year, as did big-name ballet. Now that such things play the Kennedy Opera House I frequently say the Ken Cen is like a tar paper shack compared to Washington’s once-great Loew’s Capitol. The thing is that the Capitol was built as the FOX and such FOX survivors as the Fox Atlanta, Fox St. Louis and Fox Detroit are called “The Fabulous Fox.” Fabulous! What an understatement to describe such places.
This modern theatre was extremely popular when new, but it lacked any architectural distinction. It was managed by KB Theaters, the best managed local movie chain Washington DC ever had. The theatre is actively used today as a conference center auditorium and classes are held there frequently.
Only one movie, KING KONG, played both the ROXY and RADIO CITY simultaneously. Dateline March 1, 1933: KING KONG: Big enough to play the world’s two greatest theatres at the same time —– 10,000 seats —– 10 shows a day. Spectacular stage shows at both theatres: “Jungle Rythms."
Admission prices 35c to 1 pm; 55c till 6 pm; 75c to close (except Sat and Sun. Elevators to mezzanines — Smoking permitted.
Imagine the false claim today’s Hollywood makes to always breaking new box office records with junk movies like Peter Jackson makes. In 1933, a 35c admission was a lot of money. A solid middle class job, for example, paid $600 a year. These days box office is counted in terms of today’s admission price of $9.50 to $10.50 —– never are box office records adjusted for inflation. Also, there are 600% more people living in the US than in 1933. Today’s “hits” can’t compare with the success of older movies.
I saw Connie Stevens and Vincent Price in “Two on a Gillotine” plus another picture here in the 1950’s. The New Amsterdam charged the highest price on 42nd Street, 99c at night (compared to $1.80 to $2.00 at Radio City, Rivoli, and other Broadway first run houses.) Like all New York theatres, patrons could smoke in the balcony. (Yeegads!). The theatre was run-down then, but plenty of moviegoers always. Shows ran from about 8 AM continuous to about 4:30 AM.
Don’t let anybody tell you TV closed down the 42nd Street theatres, or the beautiful movie palaces on Broadway. It was bad government, and New Yorkers' blind determination to re-elect bad government at every opportunity. If drug sellers, pimps and prostitutes take over a neighborhood and are not interfered with by the legal system, then family entertainment dies. They had crack whores by the dozens on Broadway and 7th Avenue in the Times Square area in the 1970’s and not even police-in-pairs entered 42nd Street in those days. It was New York’s choice to let their beautiful city go straight to hell back then. New York lost 20% of its population and literally went bankrupt, to be bailed out by loans from Uncle Sam. Happily New York came to their senses and cleaned up their act —– but the loss of virtually every great movie palace was part of the price of their insane foolishness.
Since you asked, soft-core porn was played at the Viers Mill and every other theatre in the Sidney Lust chain (no word-play intended) when the chain fell on hard times. Films like the western “Hard On the Range” were pertty tame stuff, however.
I saw Cate Blanchet here in March 2005. She looked great, but the Brooklyn Academy of Music has done an awful hatchet job on this place, making it intentionally look like a bombed out wreck, with steel beams exposed, bare brick; i suppose they think it’s cute.
Erie’s WARNER is a stunningly beautiful theater. I was there on 3/16/05 for Jerry Seinfeld and I have no clue why some comments say the theater is not atmospheric. It is a beauty.
The SENATOR no longer looks like a burned-out hulk. The facade is still there and it houses a SUBWAY and a beauty shop. The marquis has been lopped-off. When in operation it was for the longest time a KB Chain theatre, meaning it was above-average in comfort, design and management, playing the best pictures. A few years after KB gave up, the SENATOR re-opened under black ownership/management, which tried hard to offer this upscale black neighborhhod a nice theatre, showing black-oriented movies, at slightly below regular admission prices; but to no long-term avail. The inner-city loser mentality will not allow things like theaters to function in peace. Picture this: the Minnesota Ave neighborhood is primarily large standalone houses, 3 or 4 bedrooms; a few nice apartments; several parkland areas —– but the inner-city corruption still ruins things. If persons in this neighborhood want to see a movie, the nearest functioning theater is many miles away. Too bad, really.
Younger people might not believe what BURLESQUE was really like in the ‘50’s. There were usually no more that 3 strippers, normally mature and overweight, who slowly stripped to almost-nude. There was a band of no more than two musicians, and a really dreadful MC who also served as comedian and also hawked a few things they sold. The audience, in a theater like this which had over 1000 seats, was seldom more than 50, often as few as 15. It was a pathetic site, born losers (like me) pretending to enjoy a sex show which was as sexless as watching grass grow. Later when the Sexual Revolution and The Pill came along circa 1960, pretty young girls became strippers, but in night clubs, not burlesque. Burlesque was dead, and who cares?
The NAYLOR enjoyed a few good semi-exclusive runs during the early 1960’s, including Walt Disney’s MARY POPPINS. It was located in the most upscale section of SE Washington, DC. But the aftermath of the Martin Luther King riots and looting, combined with the unchecked decades-long crime spree which was pervasive in SE Washington; and cokhhead mayor Marian Berry [D] with his mal-administration, these took out ALL the theaters in SE including the Highland, Anacostia, Coral, Congress, Penn, Avenue Grand, Senator, and more. Unchecked crime isn’t good for movie theaters. The Senator bravely reopened as a Black enterprise for awhile until high crime and arson killed it. The Burn Baby Burn mentality of the era heaped praise not arrests on criminals. Black enterprise? Who cares? Burn it anyway!
My father killed some time here watching newsreels while waiting for me to be born at GW Hospital across the street in 1938. Ten years later the TRANS-LUX switched from newsreels and shorts to first run movies, the first being ENCHANTMENT. It was an incredible success for decades and usually played the best Columbia Pictures such as BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, ON THE WATERFRONT, PICNIC, others. The Trans-Lux got away with charging much higher admission prices than LOEW’S, RKO or other downtown theaters; prices about 35% higher every single time.
Following the Martin Luther King riot and looting spree and the subsequent unchecked crime that persisted for over a decade (2 blocks from the White House, no less) the final picture I saw here was a women’s prison R-rated sex flick called CHAINED HEAT. Too bad the Trans-Lux is long gone.
I also saw Two for the Seesaw with Henry Fonda and Anne Bancroft here, as well as 3 other Broadway shows. It was nice to have two legit houses in DC for a few years in the ‘50’s.
Concerning the theater’s longer-term use as the GAYETY BURLESQUE, please check this cite for the CENTRAL theatre, Washington, DC —– the final resting place of burlesque in DC.
For most of its life the CENTRAL was Washington DC’s answer to New York’s 42nd Street and their 9 bargain double feature houses. Like 42nd Street, kids were warned they could be molested here, but I never saw any such thing. They played very good double features starting at 11:00 AM continuously till 11:30 PM. Matinees were 35c; Evenings 50c —– compared to 44c and 74c at the nearby first run houses.
Serving breifly as the GAYETY, live burlesque was revived for about a year. The admission price was about $2.00. They’d have shopworn and usually overweight strippers/dancers maybe 3 or 4, plus a usually-very-bad comedian. No real nudity either. It was a pathetic scene. A handful of lonely desperate men (like me) in the first 2 or 3 rows (other rows empty) trying to enjoy watching a really bad sex show. Beginning in the mid-1960’s and ever since, beautiful young women became commonplace as “showgirls” but by that time the GAYETY was dead. No loss!
“We’ll leave the light on for ya..” The Orpheum neon sign is turned on every night, but there was no performance when I was in Sioux Falls. The Orpheum is the first thing mentioned by the local tourist bureau when talking about their restored downtown. Jessie, a tour guide, said the interior is seriously run down; but I’d be hopeful the local citizens will fix it up in the longrun.
The Omaha Orpheum is in excellent restored condition and is offering quite a few Broadway and other shows throughout the year. I saw Joseph & his Dreamcoat a few nights ago. Lots of civic pride evident. Omaha has another beautiful theatre saved from the wrecking ball. 6 blocks west is The Rose Theatre, built circa 1925, even more ornate than the Orpheum, it serves as a children’s theatre and offers just a few shows. I could not find it on this website.
THE TIME IS NOW! I found tickets for the Paradide listed on the TickerMaster site for “Night in Paradise” on September 30th. It says it’s a night of classic r&b music. Several Black groups. Well, OK, I’m white but I’ve seen many shows at Washington DC’s Howard Theatre, Washington’s equivalent of Harlem’s Apollo. Black people speak English, likewise sing in English. That’s all I ask. Before rap they made good music, many still do. Tickets are $75, 65, 55 or 45. Pretty steep, but so what? I’ll be there —– in Row A. What about you?
QUESTION: Is the movie business dead today? ANSWER: No, millions of people pay $9.50 to $10.50 to see a movie, and a strong opening weekend draws in excess of $100 million. Is there any reason why ONE motion picture company couldn’t try opening ONE film at Loew’s Jersey rather than the multiplex? Multiplexes are ratholes, not truly loved by the public; only tolerated.
When Disney restored the NEW AMSTERDAM, they played the Tarzan movie there (prior to Lion King). It drew lots of people, even me, from Virginia. The last BIG movie I saw at a real LOEW’S theatre was Empire Strikes Back. Not ancient history. Top price. Full house.
There is some truth to those who disagreed with my post. New York was indeed NOT the only city to lose its great movie palaces to the unimpared crime and drug mess of the 70’s and 80’s. But many young New Yorkers are actually unaware their city truly lost 20% of its population (2 million people) back then —– not just a shift from white middle class to other folks, a net loss of 2 million. A mess. The showcasing of movies to multiple screens evolved in response to unchecked crime and people not wanting to come into the city or certain neighborhoods. In my city it was the aftermath of the Martin Luther King riots and arson, killing downtown for over 20 years and with our loss of all great theatres but one. Again though, THAT WAS THEN, and THIS IS NOW. Rudy cleaned up New York and his momentum continues under Bloomberg. Most parts of New York are on the rebound. I drove 600 miles round trip to see Cate Blanchett when she played the Academy of Music’s annex last winter. If Brooklyn can get ME back there, surely there’s hope.
The great movie palaces of New York met their death as a direct result of the liberal New York government’s embracing of crime and welfare circa 1968 through 1980, and leaving drug traffic unimpared. During that era, New York lost 20% of its population (mostly white middle class) and almost lost the New York Stock Exchange. NYC went literally bankrupt under the corrupt government and had to be bailed out by loans from Washington. (Their account was on my desk at the US Treasury). That was then, and this is now. QUESTION: Is the movie business dead? ANSWER: No, they rake in hundreds of millions at up to $10.50 a ticket. I wonder if just one motion picture company might risk playing just one of their pictures the old way, the way they succeeded for decades: Book the picture into one of the restored Wonder Theaters, rather than the multiplex, and see how many people respond. Why rule out the idea of filling a beautiful oversized theatre with just regular moviegoers?
There are more ways the AFI could improve the Silver besides getting over their lefty narrow-mindedness in bookings. For one thing, the main auditorium (the restored old theatre) is something very special but the two new auditoriums are definitely not. Economically necessary, yes; special, no. But the AFI makes zero effort to let people know what’s playing in the main theatre and what’s in the two broom closets. Neither the newspaper listings nor the website tell you. A phone inquiry yields the usual automated run-around. I’d love to see a good classic re-run in the main theatre —– I enjoyed well over 300 movies in the old Silver —– but I wait and wait for an interesting booking. I saw HIGH NOON there, going 12 miles back to my old neighborhood, but that’s two years ago. The AFI used to honor classics; not much anymore.
Agreed. It was a small, undistunguished and never popular movie theater. It never caught on, and soon closed. Nobody misses it. In contrast, see Roth’s Silver Spring West.
For most of its life this theatre was operated by Warner Bros. and was called the SECO. It was run down, and for a long time it had two fans and no air conditioning; but eventually AC was installed. It was an extremely popular third-run double feature house, which also had serials such as the 15 episode Superman (1948) —– far superior to the 1978 or 2006 overbudgeted hollow remakes. When Paul Roth purchased and remodeled the theatre circa 1953, he booked first runs of foreign movies at double the former admission price. A radical change from action house to highbrow. Free coffee in the lobby! Later, Roth very cleverly booked and promoted re-runs of American movies. The most successful was Paul Newman in THE HUSTLER. A 4 star movie, it had passed quickly thru the system before word-of-mouth made it a rerun smash hit. I saw about 100 movies at the SECO and dozens more at Roth’s. Last time I looked it was a church, not demolished at all.
Let me politely say that the Kennedy Center doesn’t hold a candle to Washington’s long lost movie palaces such as Keith’s, Loew’s Capitol, Loew’s Palace, Loew’s Culumbia or the Metropolitan and Warner. Don’t take my word for it, visit the stunningly beautiful Warner Theatre, either for real (it survives with prosperity) or by looking at photos on Cinema Treasures. The Crown Jewel was Loew’s Capitol, the theatre that kept the tradition of movie + stage show until the CinemaScope era. The Metropolitan Opera played Loew’s Capitol two days a year, as did big-name ballet. Now that such things play the Kennedy Opera House I frequently say the Ken Cen is like a tar paper shack compared to Washington’s once-great Loew’s Capitol. The thing is that the Capitol was built as the FOX and such FOX survivors as the Fox Atlanta, Fox St. Louis and Fox Detroit are called “The Fabulous Fox.” Fabulous! What an understatement to describe such places.
This modern theatre was extremely popular when new, but it lacked any architectural distinction. It was managed by KB Theaters, the best managed local movie chain Washington DC ever had. The theatre is actively used today as a conference center auditorium and classes are held there frequently.
This modern theatre is occasionally reopened for live performances.
Only one movie, KING KONG, played both the ROXY and RADIO CITY simultaneously. Dateline March 1, 1933: KING KONG: Big enough to play the world’s two greatest theatres at the same time —– 10,000 seats —– 10 shows a day. Spectacular stage shows at both theatres: “Jungle Rythms."
Admission prices 35c to 1 pm; 55c till 6 pm; 75c to close (except Sat and Sun. Elevators to mezzanines — Smoking permitted.
Imagine the false claim today’s Hollywood makes to always breaking new box office records with junk movies like Peter Jackson makes. In 1933, a 35c admission was a lot of money. A solid middle class job, for example, paid $600 a year. These days box office is counted in terms of today’s admission price of $9.50 to $10.50 —– never are box office records adjusted for inflation. Also, there are 600% more people living in the US than in 1933. Today’s “hits” can’t compare with the success of older movies.
The Foxchase 3 was NOT a Cinema Treasure; it was a cheap rathole of a theatre with no distinction whatsoever. No loss to the community.
I saw Connie Stevens and Vincent Price in “Two on a Gillotine” plus another picture here in the 1950’s. The New Amsterdam charged the highest price on 42nd Street, 99c at night (compared to $1.80 to $2.00 at Radio City, Rivoli, and other Broadway first run houses.) Like all New York theatres, patrons could smoke in the balcony. (Yeegads!). The theatre was run-down then, but plenty of moviegoers always. Shows ran from about 8 AM continuous to about 4:30 AM.
Don’t let anybody tell you TV closed down the 42nd Street theatres, or the beautiful movie palaces on Broadway. It was bad government, and New Yorkers' blind determination to re-elect bad government at every opportunity. If drug sellers, pimps and prostitutes take over a neighborhood and are not interfered with by the legal system, then family entertainment dies. They had crack whores by the dozens on Broadway and 7th Avenue in the Times Square area in the 1970’s and not even police-in-pairs entered 42nd Street in those days. It was New York’s choice to let their beautiful city go straight to hell back then. New York lost 20% of its population and literally went bankrupt, to be bailed out by loans from Uncle Sam. Happily New York came to their senses and cleaned up their act —– but the loss of virtually every great movie palace was part of the price of their insane foolishness.
Since you asked, soft-core porn was played at the Viers Mill and every other theatre in the Sidney Lust chain (no word-play intended) when the chain fell on hard times. Films like the western “Hard On the Range” were pertty tame stuff, however.
I saw Cate Blanchet here in March 2005. She looked great, but the Brooklyn Academy of Music has done an awful hatchet job on this place, making it intentionally look like a bombed out wreck, with steel beams exposed, bare brick; i suppose they think it’s cute.
Erie’s WARNER is a stunningly beautiful theater. I was there on 3/16/05 for Jerry Seinfeld and I have no clue why some comments say the theater is not atmospheric. It is a beauty.
The SENATOR no longer looks like a burned-out hulk. The facade is still there and it houses a SUBWAY and a beauty shop. The marquis has been lopped-off. When in operation it was for the longest time a KB Chain theatre, meaning it was above-average in comfort, design and management, playing the best pictures. A few years after KB gave up, the SENATOR re-opened under black ownership/management, which tried hard to offer this upscale black neighborhhod a nice theatre, showing black-oriented movies, at slightly below regular admission prices; but to no long-term avail. The inner-city loser mentality will not allow things like theaters to function in peace. Picture this: the Minnesota Ave neighborhood is primarily large standalone houses, 3 or 4 bedrooms; a few nice apartments; several parkland areas —– but the inner-city corruption still ruins things. If persons in this neighborhood want to see a movie, the nearest functioning theater is many miles away. Too bad, really.
Younger people might not believe what BURLESQUE was really like in the ‘50’s. There were usually no more that 3 strippers, normally mature and overweight, who slowly stripped to almost-nude. There was a band of no more than two musicians, and a really dreadful MC who also served as comedian and also hawked a few things they sold. The audience, in a theater like this which had over 1000 seats, was seldom more than 50, often as few as 15. It was a pathetic site, born losers (like me) pretending to enjoy a sex show which was as sexless as watching grass grow. Later when the Sexual Revolution and The Pill came along circa 1960, pretty young girls became strippers, but in night clubs, not burlesque. Burlesque was dead, and who cares?
There’s much mis-information listed for the SENATOR. The theatre was never made into a twin, and never had the roof lopped-off —– except by arson.
The NAYLOR enjoyed a few good semi-exclusive runs during the early 1960’s, including Walt Disney’s MARY POPPINS. It was located in the most upscale section of SE Washington, DC. But the aftermath of the Martin Luther King riots and looting, combined with the unchecked decades-long crime spree which was pervasive in SE Washington; and cokhhead mayor Marian Berry [D] with his mal-administration, these took out ALL the theaters in SE including the Highland, Anacostia, Coral, Congress, Penn, Avenue Grand, Senator, and more. Unchecked crime isn’t good for movie theaters. The Senator bravely reopened as a Black enterprise for awhile until high crime and arson killed it. The Burn Baby Burn mentality of the era heaped praise not arrests on criminals. Black enterprise? Who cares? Burn it anyway!
My father killed some time here watching newsreels while waiting for me to be born at GW Hospital across the street in 1938. Ten years later the TRANS-LUX switched from newsreels and shorts to first run movies, the first being ENCHANTMENT. It was an incredible success for decades and usually played the best Columbia Pictures such as BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, ON THE WATERFRONT, PICNIC, others. The Trans-Lux got away with charging much higher admission prices than LOEW’S, RKO or other downtown theaters; prices about 35% higher every single time.
Following the Martin Luther King riot and looting spree and the subsequent unchecked crime that persisted for over a decade (2 blocks from the White House, no less) the final picture I saw here was a women’s prison R-rated sex flick called CHAINED HEAT. Too bad the Trans-Lux is long gone.
I also saw Two for the Seesaw with Henry Fonda and Anne Bancroft here, as well as 3 other Broadway shows. It was nice to have two legit houses in DC for a few years in the ‘50’s.
Concerning the theater’s longer-term use as the GAYETY BURLESQUE, please check this cite for the CENTRAL theatre, Washington, DC —– the final resting place of burlesque in DC.
For most of its life the CENTRAL was Washington DC’s answer to New York’s 42nd Street and their 9 bargain double feature houses. Like 42nd Street, kids were warned they could be molested here, but I never saw any such thing. They played very good double features starting at 11:00 AM continuously till 11:30 PM. Matinees were 35c; Evenings 50c —– compared to 44c and 74c at the nearby first run houses.
Serving breifly as the GAYETY, live burlesque was revived for about a year. The admission price was about $2.00. They’d have shopworn and usually overweight strippers/dancers maybe 3 or 4, plus a usually-very-bad comedian. No real nudity either. It was a pathetic scene. A handful of lonely desperate men (like me) in the first 2 or 3 rows (other rows empty) trying to enjoy watching a really bad sex show. Beginning in the mid-1960’s and ever since, beautiful young women became commonplace as “showgirls” but by that time the GAYETY was dead. No loss!