I moved to NYC in January ‘96. Ended up living at 12th and 3rd. I can confirm that at least by that time, and I believe well into 1997, this theater was running as a gay movie house. It was not exceptionally blatant but there were blacked out glass doors, no marquee, and I believe sandwich board sized promo pictures of gay adult film stars. I can’t remember if the boards were outside or you could see them when people opened the doors. But this place was very definitely operational in '96 and '97. Definitely hung on a lot longer than most of the other theaters in the area. What seems insane now is that even as late as May '97, 12th street between 3rd and 2nd was still a prostitution block. I remember the day when the cops did a huge undercover sting on all of the johns and that was the end of that.
I moved to NYC in January ‘96. Ended up living at 12th and 3rd. I can confirm that at least by that time, and I believe well into 1997, this theater was running as a gay movie house. It was not exceptionally blatant but there were blacked out glass doors, no marquee, and I believe sandwich board sized promo pictures of gay adult film stars. I can’t remember if the boards were outside or you could see them when people opened the doors. But this place was very definitely operational in '96 and '97. Definitely hung on a lot longer than most of the other theaters in the area. What seems insane now is that even as late as May '97, 12th street between 3rd and 2nd was still a prostitution block. I remember the day when the cops did a huge undercover sting on all of the johns and that was the end of that.
Anyway, my two cents.