Lido East
211 E. 59th Street,
New York,
NY
10022
211 E. 59th Street,
New York,
NY
10022
1 person
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Showing 18 comments
First newspaper listing for the Lido East was on May 27th, 1970. No ad found.
Thanks AA.
Garth, the East World is listed here:
/theaters/9502/
One of the movies in the ads was also playing at Eastworld, which was at 61st St and !st Ave. I remember going there once . There is no listing for it on this website , maybe it’s under a different name?
Ed, I will try and collect some more for information this. I was a theatre manager in Miami during this period and we certainly weren’t above showing the combo above at the twin while making sure the kiddies didn’t screen hop.
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’m thinking the Kitty Kat was on 49th across the street from the legit Ambassador Theater. I was just wondering if this became the Pussycat 2, being as it was right around the corner from the Pussycat/Grand Pussycat (former Trans Lux West) that faced Broadway.
Ed,
I can confirm PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES was advertised at 200 W 48th street on June13, 1980 (NYT) so I guess it did go legit at least for a while. Did PUMP BOYS really run that long?
I don’t have show a Kitty Kat but I recall a cinema upstairs from the West Side Twin that showed porn when the West Side was still showing Disney. Was that the Ramrod/Pussycat2/Kitty Kat?
Thanks Al… at least you and I seem to be having some fun on this page! So… what became of the Cine Lido? Didn’t it front on Broadway? The address indicates an entrance on the short side street between 7th and B'way. Is this the block that the Playland arcade ran through? Or was it the next block down between 47th and 48th?
Regarding Cine Lido… we started touching on this block over on the Rivoli page and someone mentioned that the place went legit for a short stretch and a play called “Pump Boys and Dinettes” played there in the early ‘80’s. I looked the play up on ibdb.com and found it played at the Princess Theater from February 1982 to June '83. If the Princess was converted from the former Cine Lido, that would preclude any of the Pussycat theaters in my ads from March of '82 from having been the same theater.
One more thought… would the Pussycat 2 be the same as the Kitty Kat which was on 49th between B'way and 8th?
Marylyn Chamber’s INSATIABLE? Well, I didn’t know you were going to bring up the classics, Ed.
Here is how I see it:
121 W 48 BELMONT
121 W 48 CINEMA 48
148 W 48 VANDERBILT
194 W 48 48th St MUSIC HALL
200 W 48 CINE LIDO
217 W 48 48TH STREET
220 W 48 LONGACRE
247 W 48 CARUSO (Hindenberg)
247 W 48 EDYTH TOTTEN
247 W 48 HINDENBURG
247 W 48 PRESIDENT
153 W 49 WESTMINSTER
153 W 49 WORLD 49th ST. (Westminster) (Embassy 49)
210 W 49 RAMROD (Mini)
210 W 49 PUSSYCAT 2
215 W 49 AMBASSADOR
215 W 49 CINE ROMA (Ambassador)
235 W 49 CINEMA 49
1604 BROADWAY BIG TOP
1604 BROADWAY CIRCUS
1607 BROADWAY BRYANSTON WEST (T-L 49)
1607 BROADWAY EMBASSY 49th (T-L 49)
1607 BROADWAY PUSSYCAT WEST (T-L 49)
1607 BROADWAY TRANS-LUX 49th
1607 BROADWAY TRANS-LUX WEST (T-L 49)
1620 BROADWAY RIVOLI
1620 BROADWAY RIVOLI-2
1620 BROADWAY UNITED ARTISTS-1 (Rivoli)
1620 BROADWAY UNITED ARTISTS-2
I realise some of these sequences may have changed over the years.
Al… Just checking out the page for the Trans Lux 49th and looks like that is the theater that became the Pussycat Cinema and later the Grand Pussycat. I was mistaken regarding the location listed in those ads above. They do say B'way and 49th. The Cine Lido would have been across the street and closer to 48th Street on the east side of Broadway. Perhaps it became the Pussycat 2 at some point (whose ads say B'way and 48th)? I’m trying to piece together how the theaters ran on that block using info found on this site as well as my own recollections. If I’m not mistaken, closer to 49th, also on the east side of Broadway, there was the Circus Cinema which had the all-male Big Top upstairs over it. The Trans Lux would have been across the street from the Circus near the corner of 49th on the west side of B'way.
Anyway… it’s obvious that the day-and-date connection between the Lido East and the Cine Lido was severed at some point in the ‘70’s with the Trans Lux/Pussycat/Grand Pussycat replacing the Cine Lido in that tandem by at least 1980. I’m assuming there was a common ownership in all of these theaters. It’s amazing, going back through the ads, how many times the words “New Policy” is used in connection with these XXX grinds.
Just for kicks, there’s an ad on the page below for Marylin Chambers' “Insatiable” playing at the Pussycat 2 back in December of 1980:
NY Post 12/11/80
The fare at the Circus is listed at the bottom of this clipping from the same paper:
Blondes Have More Fun
The Big Top is listed here (a repeat image from a few posts back):
Live Shows! 24 Hour Disco!
Ha! Very funny Al! I have a number of those little XXX ads that the Post and Daily News would run in their movie section. Newsday and the Times always avoided them, as best I can remember. Anyway… I saved a number of papers from the time of John Lennon’s murder in December of ‘80 and John Belushi’s death in March '82 and will continue to post those ads wherever I can determine the proper CT page to do so. I don’t think all of those theaters (carved as they were from previous commercial usage) are listed here, however. Visit my photobucket album if you care to peruse the clippings I made (it’s not all porn, by the way).
I show the Cine Lido at 200 West 48th which I believe to have been the Latin Quarter prior to becoming this. Perhaps it later became the Pussycat or the name moved along. The Trans-Lux 49, (1607 Broadway) was the one I thought was the Pussycat.
I also suspect the Pussycat 2 may have been the Ramrod and even more surprised to find that, oddly, I care.
It’s a little blurry, but the ads do indicate the location of the theater as Broadway at 48th Street. That plus the connection with the Lido East in both 1980 and 1982… I guess I assumed this was the same theater as the Cine Lido. It also appears that the “Pussycat”, as it was called in 1980, and “The Grand Pussycat”, as it is referred to in the 1982 ad, are one and the same since both are dubbed “The ‘Couples’ Theater”. I have an ad from the same 1980 Daily News as the first ad I posted on May 30th for Marilyn Chambers' “Insatiable” which was playing at the Pussycat 2 – also located at Broadway at 48th but with a completely different phone number than the Pussycat.
Ed, I thought the Pussycat was the Trans-Lux 49th Street. Were the Pussycat and Grand Pussycat separate theatres? Was the Cine Lido perhaps the Pussycat 2?
I think the Lido East became a Chinese Restaurant and may still be that.
Oh brother. I’m batting a thousand. OK. Third time’s the charm:
Never So Deep NY Post 3/10/82
Maybe I should get acquainted with the “Preview” button. My apologies.
Sorry about that last link… Here it is:
Never So Deep NY Post 3/10/82
Arcadia Lake and Kandi Barbour were the sultry attractions in the following ad for the Lido East and its sister theater The Pussycat (formerly the Cine Lido) back on 12/11/80:
Young Wild and Wonderful (NY Post)
A year and change later, also in its 3rd smash week, this feature day and dated at the Lido East and Pussycat along with a live and informative seminar on the “art of love making”:
[url=http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b110/GuanoReturns/Newspaper%20Ads%20and%20Clippings/IMG_1951.jpg]Never So Deep NY Post 3/10/82