Studio One Adult Cinema
520 S. Main Street,
Tulsa,
OK
74103
520 S. Main Street,
Tulsa,
OK
74103
3 people
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The Studio One Adult Cinema was opened on December 15, 1970.
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Lauren Grubb
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The STUDIO ONE ADULT CINEMA was built to replace the Majestic Art Theater after it burned in the late 1960s. It catered to the “rain coat crowd” well into the 1980s. I have been told that Studio One was constructed inside existing retail space, and that this was a small cinema (maybe 200 seats), very dark, and other than many yards of scarlet drapery, it was sparse in decor.
When I first noticed Studio One Adult Cinema was the summer between my sophomore and junior years at Central High. Mom and I were living in a single room on the top floor of the Patio Hotel, a small chamber dominated by one massive, clover shaped window trimmed in orange and green stained glass.
Mom worked nights as a hostess at Cain’s Ballroom, which gave my best buddy and I freedom to loiter around downtown Tulsa pool halls. In order to obtain rack money we’d occasionally panhandle in front of a gay bar named Queen of Hearts. Gay men were quite generous, especially after we learned how to give over a “promising” smile.
Near to Queen of Hearts was a porn house called Studio One Adult Cinema. Studio One had a large box marquee outlined in pink neon. Behind pebbled glass letterboards were silhouettes of reclining naked girls. Pink tracer lights outlined massive display cases that exhibited posters of busty women emoting provocative poses. French doors flanked a slender bay boxoffice above which hung a small sign warning “No admission to persons under 18!"
All this guady flash enticed my best friend and I to devise a scheme to sneak into this bawdy theatre. We waited across the street a couple of hours until finally the atrractive red headed boxoffice cashier (who was also the concession operator) abandoned post when she vanished behind crimson curtains. We both raced across the street and rushed inside the gaudy lobby, just in time for the red head to return. Red barked at us to get back outside, and buy a ticket! Stunned, my buddy and I simultaneosly repeated "buy a ticket?"
We went out to the sidewalk, purchased two five dollar tickets, and blush faced sprinted past the cashier/concessionaire to enter into darkness that reeked of Pine Sol vapors.
Double feature skin flicks fullfilled their promise of erotic pleasure. But my buddy and I quickly realized that we were suddenly too old to sit side by side, and seperated.
While exiting we snickered at the pretty red head as we informed her that we were only fifteen-years-old. She rebuked that we acted twelve, then told us to go – – – – each other!
Studio One is an adult cinema I had completely forgotten about until this posting popped up. I only went into this porn house once when I was sixteen-years-old, just to see if I could get inside.
Lobby color schemes were crimson and chrome, with scarelt shag carpeting, chrome starburst lighting fixtures, and a lot of chrome framed “cumming attractions” posters.
Auditorium seating was of the theatre rocking chair variety, very roomy and comfortable. Sidewalls had life-sized, blacklight pink silhouettes of naked dancing ladies. Pleated stage drapery were sewn from crimson blacklight material. Intermissions were held between each picture and it was an eerie, strange effect because everything in this chamber was jet black except for the bright blacklight stage drapery, those prancing dancing girls, and millions of lint specks clinging to fabric theatre chairs.
Seymour; were those lint specks moving? They could have been lice or crabs.
In this c1955 shot Babyland occupies the site where Studio One Adult Cinema would later be installed.
http://www.tulsalibrary.org/JPG/A1480.jpg
Studio One XXX Cinema (photo left) is now only a parking lot and a memory.
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This opened or placed its first ad on December 15th, 1970. Ad posted.
The Studio 1 Theatre opened with Peter Ford in “Wilbur & the Baby Factory” and Antoinette Maynard in “Weekend Lovers” on December 15, 1970. The Studio 1 closed December 11, 1980 as a discount, third-run adult cinema at the expiry of a 10-year lease with its last advertised shows of Sue Longhurst in “Keep It Up, Jack” and producer Leonard Kirtman’s “Pay the Babysitter.” All seats were just a dollar. The venue reopened as the Midtown Cinema in a new location the next day.