Doll Theater
719 7th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10036
719 7th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10036
5 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 31 comments
1978 photo added courtesy of Al Ponte’s Time Machine – New York Facebook page.
On March 26, Swann Auction Galleries will be offering the original design for the marquee at the Doll Theatre from 1970. Here’s an image: View link
There is a photo of the Doll along with this survey of Times Square food joints in the sleazy days. I think I ate at a few of those:
http://tinyurl.com/59k9ta
This is a photo from yelp.com. I was in Times Square a few months ago, and I’m reasonably certain that the deli is still at 719 Seventh Avenue.
http://tinyurl.com/5k8rou
Just to correct the last sentence in my previous post. I found a comment posted by CT member Warren on the Embassy 2,3,4 page back in 2004, where he writes that the DeMille Theatre had closed in Sept of 1974 to undergo repairs after a fire had damaged portions of the balcony. The theatre re-opened in August 1975, still using the name DeMille. The theatre did not become a triplex until November of 1976 – as the Mark I, II and III. That would date the image I posted above of the Doll marquee to no earlier than 1974, and perhaps as late as 1976, depending on the reason for the renovations noted on the marquee in the clip from which I snagged the shot.
Here is an image of the Doll marquee at night. The image is a screenshot of some vintage circa 1972 stock Times Square footage incorporated into the excellent documentary “Inside Deep Throat.” You can glimpse a portion of the Spanish-language titles on the Cine 1 & 2 marquee just behind the Doll’s on the right side of the image. In the panning shot that comes to rest on the Doll marquee in the footage, the camera passes the darkened DeMille marquee on which one can make out the words “Closed for renovations” – no doubt the triplex conversion that would result in the theater’s re-opening as the Embassy 2,3,4.
Elusive indeed! I added a page for the Frisco a few months back, RobertR. This is the first ad I’ve seen for the New Mini – which I believe may have been redubbed Frisco around ‘73 or so. It would have been a block north and on the opposite side of Seventh Ave from the Doll just a few doors up from the Avon 7.
I think this was a converted storefront and possibly also the illusive Frisco.
Help me with this one, what was the Mini Cinema where Animal Lover is playing?
View link
Lost Memory pointed me in the direction of a flickr.com account that has a great many B&W images of the area, circa October, 1970.
Here’s a shot of some street corner musicians plying their trade outside the Metropole Cafe on Seventh Ave near 48th Street. You can make out a portion of the Doll marquee across the street (adjacent to the Orange Julius joint). Click on the previous couple of photos in the stream to get a few views looking in the other direction up Seventh towards the Metropole sign.
I love this stuff.
You jogged one memory, here, Al… but I’m not sure if it’s the same place we each have in mind. There was a place called the Auto Pub in the GM building on 5th Ave between 59th and 58th. I had a brief discussion about this place with a couple of other members on the RCMH page. The Auto Pub had two dining rooms. The one in the rear was set up the way you describe – each table was built into a different car chassis and we would dine while watching a movie on the big screen at the front of the room. I remember seeing “Airport” there in the late ‘70’s. But now that I am recollecting, I seem to recall that there was a place downtown – I thought more the financial district than Tribeca, but I could be mistaken. I never went to that place.
Yes, the Royale ran GIGI before it moved over to the Sutton.
I have a list of a number of obscure Manhattan sites that played movies at some point. There was even a novelty restaurant where you sat in a car and watched the movie as if in an indoor drive-in (Can’t remember the name but it was located near Tribeca).
I will post the list of unlisted theatres when I get a chance. Maybe it will jog some memories.
Thanks, Patrick. Perhaps you should have another go at the Ambassador, Al. Maybe even the Earl Carroll. Leaving it as liberal as Patrick has (“it could be weeks”) that opens up legit theaters that served for one-off premiere movie engagements. I can’t think of the specific case, but wasn’t the Royale or St. James (perhaps it was both) booked for an exclusive road-show engagement for a big MGM musical in the late ‘50’s? I want to say “Gigi” but I can’t recall the details.
Posting more explicit guidelines is a good idea, guys.
Ed — there’s no 5 year requirement. As long as a legitimate theater has served as a movie theater for some period of time (it could be weeks, months, etc.), it’s welcome on Cinema Treasures.
If there are guidelines, I haven’t found them. Some submissions just don’t make it.
Hmmm. What are the site guidelines in that regard? The George M. Cohan is listed here, which was built for stage shows but – due to a string of flops – started running cinema on weekends and during dark periods in the 1920’s. It did go full-tilt cinema in 1932, lasting 6 years before demolition in ‘38. Is there a required 5 year minimum consecutive run at movie exhibition for submission eligibility? Is that information anywhere to be found?
The Earl Carroll showed movies intermittently from 1928 to 1930 and then again in 1934 as the Casino.
I have not tried listing it since the Ambassador, with a longer history of motion picture exhibition, was not accepted.
My mistake. Evidently, there is no Earl Carroll listing on CT. I suppose this might mean that the Carroll never had a policy of motion picture exhibition. Perhaps the Paree is due its own listing, if a decent amount of information is available about its history.
We can move this to the Earl Carroll page, but did the Paree use any portion of the old EC theater? If so another AKA is uncovered… To the bat poles!
Your bells are right. That is the Earl Carroll address!
Now the question is… where and what was the Paree Theatre? It rings a definite bell in my head (I can just barely hear it above all the voices). Would that address put it up near 50th? Near the old Earl Carroll?
Not only is Lost Memory good in his speculation, I found proof that he is correct in a January 10, 1973 article about the pipe bombing of the Paree Theatre at 753-9 Seventh Avenue.
“The same owner also owns the Doll Theatre at 719 Seventh Avenue.”
It appears it was already there as early as November of 1972
C'mon, Al… Make Lost’s day! I think he is on to something here. The only other possibility for the C of O info he found for 719 Seventh Ave would be if there was another theater on the east side of Seventh on the next block, between 48th and 49th. I know that the Avon 7 (which was on the west side of that block) was number 724 Seventh Ave and that was very close to the 48th street corner. I’m guessing that 719 is the Doll building and that the 48th-49th block began with either 721 or 723.
Can we get an “Amen!” and have Bryan update the address information?
My cinema treasures interlude of lust occured between 2:13am and 2:16 am sometime on August 14 1982. I think there was plaster.
Can any one please tell me something more about plaster.
Here’s an ad for the Doll (at the bottom of the clipping) from the good ole bad ole days:
Interlude of Lust – NY Post 3/10/82