PKoch… Nat Hiken was the guy who created and produced both the Bilko show and Car 54. I thought Carl Ballantine was part of the Bilko crew, but maybe I’m thinking of McHale’s Navy. How about the fact that each one of those TV shows would later be made into lame big screen comedies in the late ‘90’s? Dreadful movies one and all. Great as Steve Martin can be, he has attempted to fill some pretty big shoes in all those pointless remakes and sitcom-rehashes he’s starred in over the years: Phil Silvers, Peter Sellers, Spencer Tracy, Jack Lemmon. I guess the guy loves a good paycheck as much as the rest of us.
Personally, I like to remember Harvey Lembeck for his role as motorcycle gang leader Eric Von Zipper in all those AIP “Beach Blanket” movies in the ‘60’s.
I only have the one paper from 1978, Lost. It’s a copy of the Daily News from 1/25/78 and there is no listing for the Madison in any movie clock or film ad:
Movie Clock – Daily News 1/25/78
The image is a little blurry, but you can make out that the Brooklyn listings include the Oasis and Ridgewood. However, under Queens you also find a Ridgewood listing. And both of these listings show a different attraction. I have an ad for the movie “Sasquatch” that confirms it was playing at the Ridgewood. There is no ad for “Smokey and the Bandit”, which would have been on a late run by that time. Could the “Ridgewood” theater playing the Burt Reynolds flick have been the Madison mislabled? Was it part of the RKO discount houses that played last run pics around this time? Or was the Ridgewood already a twin at the time with some smart aleck editor at the paper allowing one auditorium for Brooklyn and the other for Queens?
Yes, Jerry… I was going to add that the look is very similar to the Heavy Metal magazine covers that Frazetta painted, but I couldn’t think of his name. An amazing artist, Frazetta suffered a stroke some years back and lost a lot of fine motor skill in his right hand and so had to teach himself how to paint with his left! And he seems to have mastered it.
Richard Pryor had three roles in what might have been his most uproarious film:
Which Way is Up? – NY Daily News 1/25/78
The film ran concurrently at the Victoria just around the corner and up a couple of blocks on Times Square. It wasn’t often that major studio releases included both the Broadway house and the Duece grinder in its advertised listing, but this particular paper features a few such ads (note also the one for “Telefon” in this clipping, playing at the Anco and the Embassy 2).
Charles Bronson – a staple on the Duece – as a KGB agent:
Telefon – NY Daily News 1/25/78
One of several ads in this paper (see also the Richard Pryor ad in this clipping) that list a 42nd Street grind house along side a Broadway house (the Embassy 2) for a major studio release. Interestingly, the same paper lists Clint Eastwood’s “The Gauntlet” at the Embassy 2 (and the New Amsterdam), so one of these ads was a misprint. I assume both films were booked into the Embassy triplex on 47th (former Demille) and the wrong screen # is just a typo.
The Gauntlet – NY Daily News 1/25/78
A rare listing for a major studio release that includes a 42nd Street grind house booking in addition to one of the big houses on Broadway (in this case the Embassy 2). I remember this style of artwork was in vogue in the late 1970’s into the 1980’s. I seem to recall the “Conan” movies in particular having a similar look.
LOL, Lost… And if Barney’s not around, ask for Fish or Chano. You know, my uncle was a NYC police detective for 25 years and he says that “Barney Miller” was hands down the most realistic cop show ever put on TV!
PKoch may be right. We need to spare the Ridgewood from all this off topic discussion. Let’s go pillage and plunder another theater page’s bandwitdth! Seriously, one of us should make a suggestion via email to Bryan, Ross or Patrick about creating a discussion/research page… or something! I’m not sure we can ask to have this page cleaned up as it would take considerable time for Bryan to weed out the off-topic posts.
I had the same question, Don, when I posted the ad on the Times Square and on the Victory pages here. I thought it might not have been a true hardcore “X”, just a soft “X” with the “Adults Only” gimmick to generate interest. CT member Jerry Kovar confirmed that the film, “Female Fever”, was just an “R” masquerading as porn for exploitation purposes.
Ha. Maybe that was Shea… it being a typical 1960’s cookie-cutter multi-purpose stadium. The baseball equivalent of the concrete bunker. And whatever kitschy charm that place had was lost when they removed those pastel blue and orange shingles from the exit ramp facades years ago. Of course, they are having a damn good season this year! Maybe they’ll have a three-strip Cinerama revival in the off-season. Lost, start a letter writing campaign immediately!
Hmmm. Well, you might be right. Something might have gone wrong, though I find it odd that the problem would occur twice in so short a time. You might want to try contacting the site administrator. I don’t know why there isn’t a direct link to do so – at least I haven’t been able to find it – but if you click on any link posted on the home page, you’ll see a link named “report” at the bottom of the description. Click on “report” to open a contact form and describe your problem.
I’m suffering from that same sickness, Lost. Although, last night on my way to the huge stir-fry wok that is Yankee Stadium in this heat wave, I noticed a familiar hump-backed roof line from the window of the 4 train I was riding. I told my brother, there’s an old movie theater. When we got on the platform and were able to look down onto 161st Street, it was very easy to make out the facade of what I would learn (from CT, of course) to be the former Earl Theater. I also stumbled across the Gotham Theater and a number of other former movie houses in upper Manhattan while riding down Broadway a few times from one destination to another. Of course, each one is invariably already listed on CT, but perhaps one of these days I’ll uncover a hidden and long-forgotten gem!
Thanks, Jerry. My time on the Duece came just after the period when this film was released. I would have loved to have experienced the cleaner and safer 42nd Street of the 50’s and early 60’s, but I’m happy to have been able to enjoy those latter years despite all the grime and crime. It seemed fine in the early ‘80’s – my friends and I hardly gave a second thought to any danger. It grew old very fast, however. By 1984-5 we started to give up on many of the Duece grind houses because they started smelling like urinals… and the western end of the strip was terribly foreboding. We always made sure to get down there early so that we could catch our double of triple bill and head back to the subway before nightfall. That was a tricky feat in the winter months!
I still have great deal of nostalgia even for that era of rock-bottom decay.
Here’s a cluster of Adult ads from the Daily News on 1/25/1978 featuring bookings at three different Duece grinders including the Rialto (day and dating with Eastworld on 59th street):
Call me for title…
One gathered from the advertisement that the very title of the film was so offensive that one had to call the number listed to hear star Gloria Leonard utter the nasty phrase in privacy. Of course, it was a complete gimmick. The film – as is the artwork hints at – was simply called “Marschino Cherry”.
Sylvia – NY Daily News 1/25/78
Three adult Duece bookings all in a row! Though I wonder if the film advertised at the Times Square was really a hardcore flick.
Check out the film advertised at the bottom of this 1978 clipping from the Daily News:
Female Fever – NY Daily News 1/28/78
The ad was run amidst a cluster of porn ads and it sure does look like a typical XXX flick from the period, but I’m guessing this was more of the soft “X” variety that one found in abundance on the Duece in the late ‘60’s and early '70’s – hence the “Adults Only” warning instead of a circled X in the ad. The fact that it is also playing a suburban drive-in would lead me to believe it wasn’t a true XXX.
I could find no reference on imdb about the film (I didn’t think I would) but I did see that its distributor – Downtown Distribution Corp – was listed as being responsible for at least a pair of mid ‘70’s Godzilla imports and a martial arts flick.
Hey AlAlvarez… you ought there? I thought I’d revive this thread with the following ad from the 1/25/1978 edition of the Daily News:
Wilder Expectations
The day and date policy between the Cine Lido and Lido East is still in effect… And from other ads I previously posted here, we know that the association between these two theaters was terminated sometime before December, 1980, by which time the Lido East had partnered with the Pussycat/Grand Pussycat (in the former Trans Lux 49th Street).
There’s still no posting for the Cine Lido. I wonder if either you or Robert R have sufficient info to add the listing (despite Warren’s inevitable protests)… I know I do not. Anyway, I wonder what the girls starring in “Expectations” would have made of Gene Wilder’s boasts in the adjacent advertisement?
I think you hit on it quite nicely and succinctly, Bway. We have to look beyond the mere brick and mortar of these buildings when considering the definition of the term “Cinema Treasure”.
As usual with the 42nd Street grinds, the Lyric isn’t listed at the bottom of the ad (only the National Theater around the corner on B'way is listed for Manhattan), but it was on this theater’s historic stage that Smokey Robinson made two live appearances to support this blaxploitation epic for which he wrote the musical score. I don’t imagine he sang at all at either appearance – just a few appreciative words and a wave to the crowd, I suspect.
There’s an ad for a club at 2551 Broadway in this 1985 clipping from the Spanish language publication El Diario: Club Broadway – El Diario 9/20/85
I know the Riverside’s address was 2561 and the Riviera was 2575. Would 2551 have been on the wrong block – the one between 96th and 95th streets? I was just curious if this club might have used some of the old theater building. I’m not sure when the Riverside was demolished.
Thanks for finding me Al… I haven’t eaten in days! And thanks for additional info, Lost. I still wonder about the whole Puerto Rico/Cinema Center name. So far I haven’t found any Bronx listings in the Movie Clocks I have from the mid ‘80’s so I can’t solve it. I thought maybe the balcony theaters might have been known as Cinema Center 1 & 2 and the live space in the former Forum orchestra known as the Teatro Puerto Rico (the name is still evident on the marquee as per the photos Damian Farley posted in 2004). While those Spanish language films might have played in one of the two upstairs theaters, it’s possible they advertised in El Diario as the Puerto Rico to appeal to that paper’s readers.
You make an excellent point, Jeff S… the series at the Ziegfeld is really a “viewer’s choice” festival. If the Ziegfeld is ever to become a truly first rate revival house (even if on a part time basis between strong first run bookings) it will need to do two things:
Run films reel-to-reel
Hire (or find within Clearview’s ranks) an ambitious festival programmer
I wonder if that is a level of commitment Clearview is willing to accept!
Warren… your posts on this site have been extraordinarily illuminating and I have great admiration for the many hours of research and field reconnaissance you’ve spent accumulating the information you’ve been kind enough to share with the CT community. However, I think you’re being a bit of a stick in the mud in this instance. Like it or not, this site has become a place to celebrate the theatrical exhibition of film. And that seems to suit the site’s developers – and many of its members – quite nicely. It seems like you’d like to impose your own narrowly focused idea of what this site should be upon the rest of us. It’s not that I don’t see your point – I mean, I’d hardly argue that the Cinema City 5 in Fresh Meadows or B.S. Moss' Movieworld in Douglaston should be considered a treasure! However, in their wisdom (and despite what their original intentions for the site may have been), Ross and Patrick decided long ago to turn the reigns of the site over to the membership and democratic rule has prevailed ever since.
And when you think about it, is there really any other way to go? I mean, even if we eliminate all the storefront conversions, shoebox ‘60’s era twins, basement porn pits and faceless modern megaplexes, wouldn’t the concept of a “cinema treasure” still be too subjective to boil down to a set of universal criteria? In the end, the final call to submit or reject would still be one individual’s opinion – and there’d probably be controversy on some of those decisions as well. I can definitely envision the kind of site you have in mind, Warren… but I don’t think this will ever be that place. That place would probably have to be a pay-site and would likely be a very dry and scholarly forum for only the most serious and studious of movie theater enthusiasts. I suspect it would lack a lot of the charm and warmth and passion you find on this site. It would be like history class – all about dates and facts and seating capacities with none of the personal color that brings to life the memories of these very special public gathering spaces.
I really hope that the day never comes when Ross and Patrick are convinced to set some sort of bar for theater acceptability and then go back to scrub the site free of all non-conforming submissions and commentary threads. A lot of heartfelt musings and recollections would be lost only because they pertain to theaters that some would dismiss as having never been more than unremarkable late-run nabes. And I’m really hopeful that creating some sort of community chat space here will help dilute some of the more tangential conversations in the individual theater pages while maintaining a space where those of us who enjoy each others company in cyberspace can still shoot the breeze.
Meanwhile, let’s leave it to Ross and Patrick to determine what kind of volume and traffic this site can handle and let them address the membership directly if our ramblings are somehow having an adverse affect on the website’s stability and continued existence.
PKoch… Nat Hiken was the guy who created and produced both the Bilko show and Car 54. I thought Carl Ballantine was part of the Bilko crew, but maybe I’m thinking of McHale’s Navy. How about the fact that each one of those TV shows would later be made into lame big screen comedies in the late ‘90’s? Dreadful movies one and all. Great as Steve Martin can be, he has attempted to fill some pretty big shoes in all those pointless remakes and sitcom-rehashes he’s starred in over the years: Phil Silvers, Peter Sellers, Spencer Tracy, Jack Lemmon. I guess the guy loves a good paycheck as much as the rest of us.
Personally, I like to remember Harvey Lembeck for his role as motorcycle gang leader Eric Von Zipper in all those AIP “Beach Blanket” movies in the ‘60’s.
I only have the one paper from 1978, Lost. It’s a copy of the Daily News from 1/25/78 and there is no listing for the Madison in any movie clock or film ad:
Movie Clock – Daily News 1/25/78
The image is a little blurry, but you can make out that the Brooklyn listings include the Oasis and Ridgewood. However, under Queens you also find a Ridgewood listing. And both of these listings show a different attraction. I have an ad for the movie “Sasquatch” that confirms it was playing at the Ridgewood. There is no ad for “Smokey and the Bandit”, which would have been on a late run by that time. Could the “Ridgewood” theater playing the Burt Reynolds flick have been the Madison mislabled? Was it part of the RKO discount houses that played last run pics around this time? Or was the Ridgewood already a twin at the time with some smart aleck editor at the paper allowing one auditorium for Brooklyn and the other for Queens?
Yes, Jerry… I was going to add that the look is very similar to the Heavy Metal magazine covers that Frazetta painted, but I couldn’t think of his name. An amazing artist, Frazetta suffered a stroke some years back and lost a lot of fine motor skill in his right hand and so had to teach himself how to paint with his left! And he seems to have mastered it.
Richard Pryor had three roles in what might have been his most uproarious film:
Which Way is Up? – NY Daily News 1/25/78
The film ran concurrently at the Victoria just around the corner and up a couple of blocks on Times Square. It wasn’t often that major studio releases included both the Broadway house and the Duece grinder in its advertised listing, but this particular paper features a few such ads (note also the one for “Telefon” in this clipping, playing at the Anco and the Embassy 2).
Charles Bronson – a staple on the Duece – as a KGB agent:
Telefon – NY Daily News 1/25/78
One of several ads in this paper (see also the Richard Pryor ad in this clipping) that list a 42nd Street grind house along side a Broadway house (the Embassy 2) for a major studio release. Interestingly, the same paper lists Clint Eastwood’s “The Gauntlet” at the Embassy 2 (and the New Amsterdam), so one of these ads was a misprint. I assume both films were booked into the Embassy triplex on 47th (former Demille) and the wrong screen # is just a typo.
Clint at the New Amsterdam in 1978:
The Gauntlet – NY Daily News 1/25/78
A rare listing for a major studio release that includes a 42nd Street grind house booking in addition to one of the big houses on Broadway (in this case the Embassy 2). I remember this style of artwork was in vogue in the late 1970’s into the 1980’s. I seem to recall the “Conan” movies in particular having a similar look.
LOL, Lost… And if Barney’s not around, ask for Fish or Chano. You know, my uncle was a NYC police detective for 25 years and he says that “Barney Miller” was hands down the most realistic cop show ever put on TV!
PKoch may be right. We need to spare the Ridgewood from all this off topic discussion. Let’s go pillage and plunder another theater page’s bandwitdth! Seriously, one of us should make a suggestion via email to Bryan, Ross or Patrick about creating a discussion/research page… or something! I’m not sure we can ask to have this page cleaned up as it would take considerable time for Bryan to weed out the off-topic posts.
I had the same question, Don, when I posted the ad on the Times Square and on the Victory pages here. I thought it might not have been a true hardcore “X”, just a soft “X” with the “Adults Only” gimmick to generate interest. CT member Jerry Kovar confirmed that the film, “Female Fever”, was just an “R” masquerading as porn for exploitation purposes.
Ha. Maybe that was Shea… it being a typical 1960’s cookie-cutter multi-purpose stadium. The baseball equivalent of the concrete bunker. And whatever kitschy charm that place had was lost when they removed those pastel blue and orange shingles from the exit ramp facades years ago. Of course, they are having a damn good season this year! Maybe they’ll have a three-strip Cinerama revival in the off-season. Lost, start a letter writing campaign immediately!
Hmmm. Well, you might be right. Something might have gone wrong, though I find it odd that the problem would occur twice in so short a time. You might want to try contacting the site administrator. I don’t know why there isn’t a direct link to do so – at least I haven’t been able to find it – but if you click on any link posted on the home page, you’ll see a link named “report” at the bottom of the description. Click on “report” to open a contact form and describe your problem.
Just a suggestion.
I’m suffering from that same sickness, Lost. Although, last night on my way to the huge stir-fry wok that is Yankee Stadium in this heat wave, I noticed a familiar hump-backed roof line from the window of the 4 train I was riding. I told my brother, there’s an old movie theater. When we got on the platform and were able to look down onto 161st Street, it was very easy to make out the facade of what I would learn (from CT, of course) to be the former Earl Theater. I also stumbled across the Gotham Theater and a number of other former movie houses in upper Manhattan while riding down Broadway a few times from one destination to another. Of course, each one is invariably already listed on CT, but perhaps one of these days I’ll uncover a hidden and long-forgotten gem!
Thanks, Jerry. My time on the Duece came just after the period when this film was released. I would have loved to have experienced the cleaner and safer 42nd Street of the 50’s and early 60’s, but I’m happy to have been able to enjoy those latter years despite all the grime and crime. It seemed fine in the early ‘80’s – my friends and I hardly gave a second thought to any danger. It grew old very fast, however. By 1984-5 we started to give up on many of the Duece grind houses because they started smelling like urinals… and the western end of the strip was terribly foreboding. We always made sure to get down there early so that we could catch our double of triple bill and head back to the subway before nightfall. That was a tricky feat in the winter months!
I still have great deal of nostalgia even for that era of rock-bottom decay.
From 1978… buggery on the high seas!:
Captain Love – NY Daily News 1/25/78
English… ever catch the work of Abagail Clayton at the World?:
7 for Snowy – Daily News 1/25/78
Here’s a cluster of Adult ads from the Daily News on 1/25/1978 featuring bookings at three different Duece grinders including the Rialto (day and dating with Eastworld on 59th street):
Call me for title…
One gathered from the advertisement that the very title of the film was so offensive that one had to call the number listed to hear star Gloria Leonard utter the nasty phrase in privacy. Of course, it was a complete gimmick. The film – as is the artwork hints at – was simply called “Marschino Cherry”.
Here’s an ad from the good-old bad-old days:
Sylvia – NY Daily News 1/25/78
Three adult Duece bookings all in a row! Though I wonder if the film advertised at the Times Square was really a hardcore flick.
Check out the film advertised at the bottom of this 1978 clipping from the Daily News:
Female Fever – NY Daily News 1/28/78
The ad was run amidst a cluster of porn ads and it sure does look like a typical XXX flick from the period, but I’m guessing this was more of the soft “X” variety that one found in abundance on the Duece in the late ‘60’s and early '70’s – hence the “Adults Only” warning instead of a circled X in the ad. The fact that it is also playing a suburban drive-in would lead me to believe it wasn’t a true XXX.
I could find no reference on imdb about the film (I didn’t think I would) but I did see that its distributor – Downtown Distribution Corp – was listed as being responsible for at least a pair of mid ‘70’s Godzilla imports and a martial arts flick.
A “World Premiere” engagement as the Pussycat Cinema in the late ‘70’s:
From Holly with Love – 1/28/78 Daily News
I wonder how co-star Tony “The Hook” Perez got his nickname?
Hey AlAlvarez… you ought there? I thought I’d revive this thread with the following ad from the 1/25/1978 edition of the Daily News:
Wilder Expectations
The day and date policy between the Cine Lido and Lido East is still in effect… And from other ads I previously posted here, we know that the association between these two theaters was terminated sometime before December, 1980, by which time the Lido East had partnered with the Pussycat/Grand Pussycat (in the former Trans Lux 49th Street).
There’s still no posting for the Cine Lido. I wonder if either you or Robert R have sufficient info to add the listing (despite Warren’s inevitable protests)… I know I do not. Anyway, I wonder what the girls starring in “Expectations” would have made of Gene Wilder’s boasts in the adjacent advertisement?
I think you hit on it quite nicely and succinctly, Bway. We have to look beyond the mere brick and mortar of these buildings when considering the definition of the term “Cinema Treasure”.
Smokey at the Lyric in 1978:
NY Daily News 1/25/78
As usual with the 42nd Street grinds, the Lyric isn’t listed at the bottom of the ad (only the National Theater around the corner on B'way is listed for Manhattan), but it was on this theater’s historic stage that Smokey Robinson made two live appearances to support this blaxploitation epic for which he wrote the musical score. I don’t imagine he sang at all at either appearance – just a few appreciative words and a wave to the crowd, I suspect.
There’s an ad for a club at 2551 Broadway in this 1985 clipping from the Spanish language publication El Diario:
Club Broadway – El Diario 9/20/85
I know the Riverside’s address was 2561 and the Riviera was 2575. Would 2551 have been on the wrong block – the one between 96th and 95th streets? I was just curious if this club might have used some of the old theater building. I’m not sure when the Riverside was demolished.
Thanks for finding me Al… I haven’t eaten in days! And thanks for additional info, Lost. I still wonder about the whole Puerto Rico/Cinema Center name. So far I haven’t found any Bronx listings in the Movie Clocks I have from the mid ‘80’s so I can’t solve it. I thought maybe the balcony theaters might have been known as Cinema Center 1 & 2 and the live space in the former Forum orchestra known as the Teatro Puerto Rico (the name is still evident on the marquee as per the photos Damian Farley posted in 2004). While those Spanish language films might have played in one of the two upstairs theaters, it’s possible they advertised in El Diario as the Puerto Rico to appeal to that paper’s readers.
You make an excellent point, Jeff S… the series at the Ziegfeld is really a “viewer’s choice” festival. If the Ziegfeld is ever to become a truly first rate revival house (even if on a part time basis between strong first run bookings) it will need to do two things:
I wonder if that is a level of commitment Clearview is willing to accept!
Warren… your posts on this site have been extraordinarily illuminating and I have great admiration for the many hours of research and field reconnaissance you’ve spent accumulating the information you’ve been kind enough to share with the CT community. However, I think you’re being a bit of a stick in the mud in this instance. Like it or not, this site has become a place to celebrate the theatrical exhibition of film. And that seems to suit the site’s developers – and many of its members – quite nicely. It seems like you’d like to impose your own narrowly focused idea of what this site should be upon the rest of us. It’s not that I don’t see your point – I mean, I’d hardly argue that the Cinema City 5 in Fresh Meadows or B.S. Moss' Movieworld in Douglaston should be considered a treasure! However, in their wisdom (and despite what their original intentions for the site may have been), Ross and Patrick decided long ago to turn the reigns of the site over to the membership and democratic rule has prevailed ever since.
And when you think about it, is there really any other way to go? I mean, even if we eliminate all the storefront conversions, shoebox ‘60’s era twins, basement porn pits and faceless modern megaplexes, wouldn’t the concept of a “cinema treasure” still be too subjective to boil down to a set of universal criteria? In the end, the final call to submit or reject would still be one individual’s opinion – and there’d probably be controversy on some of those decisions as well. I can definitely envision the kind of site you have in mind, Warren… but I don’t think this will ever be that place. That place would probably have to be a pay-site and would likely be a very dry and scholarly forum for only the most serious and studious of movie theater enthusiasts. I suspect it would lack a lot of the charm and warmth and passion you find on this site. It would be like history class – all about dates and facts and seating capacities with none of the personal color that brings to life the memories of these very special public gathering spaces.
I really hope that the day never comes when Ross and Patrick are convinced to set some sort of bar for theater acceptability and then go back to scrub the site free of all non-conforming submissions and commentary threads. A lot of heartfelt musings and recollections would be lost only because they pertain to theaters that some would dismiss as having never been more than unremarkable late-run nabes. And I’m really hopeful that creating some sort of community chat space here will help dilute some of the more tangential conversations in the individual theater pages while maintaining a space where those of us who enjoy each others company in cyberspace can still shoot the breeze.
Meanwhile, let’s leave it to Ross and Patrick to determine what kind of volume and traffic this site can handle and let them address the membership directly if our ramblings are somehow having an adverse affect on the website’s stability and continued existence.