Embassy 49th Street Theatre
153 W. 49th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
153 W. 49th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
10 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 89 comments
Please update, theatre closed as the Embassy 49th Street on April 30, 1987 with The Aristocats
Guodone- a belated response to your comment. The bulk of the theatres on 42nd Street started life as legitimate theatres. Grant you some appeared to be holes in the wall because only the entrance was on 42nd Street, not the full width of the theatre. The garish cutouts they had at the entrance really changed the appearance. I recall walking past some of the scantily clothed images on a cold winters day and shivering at the sight.
Yes after it was cleaned up I saw Bambi here. Seriously.
A “legit” movie theater, yes, but it always did play the offbeat, foreign language, and somewhat sensational motion picture fare; its eventual move to hard-core adult films was not surprising or unexpected.
I used to work nights in New York occasionally in the early 80’s and part of my job was to get dinner for the other workers at the company. (I had the least seniority) I used to walk down 49th street to Time Square to get the food and would pass by this theater. What was interesting to me was it seemed like a regular ‘legitimate’ theater, (clean, well maintained) not like the hole in the wall adult theaters on 42nd street. I remember one of Seka’s movies playing there for a while. (Inside Seka, Rockin’ with Seka, one of those films) It was several years later that I found out that it had been a ‘legit’ theater 20-30 years prior to that time.
1978 photo added credit Frank Fournier, from below website.
http://gallery.leicastoresf.com/exhibitions/future-exhibitions/red-eye-seventies-new-york/
I have come across a 4 page advertisement for the World Theatre dated May 27th, 1944 for “Goyescas” an R.K.O. picture. If anyone is interested in purchase or donation this flier is in mint condition. Thanks. Contact me at
“HOTEL” “LIQUORS” “XXX BOOKS” “PEEP SHOW” “PARK” “HARDWARE” were the main signs you would see on 8th Avenue in the 40’s
I think i remember you from the Hollywood Cinema board early last year.
Roger, I have no idea if they were ‘hetero’ or even women at all. That would not have bothered me in the least.
you were lucky to have found hetero girls. my first trek down 8th Avenue in 1979 found only tranny hustlers instead of hetero ones. Right at 47th street, it didn’t even occur to me that prostitution was not only about hetero hookers. We ran like bats out of hell because we weren’t prepared for that kind of thing. I was 17 at the time too
in fact it was from that experience that made me leery of that part of 8th(this was by the old Biltmore property which at the time was a row of boarded up buildings) for quite awhile
What did out-of-towners think?
As a 17 year old tourist on my first trip to NY in 1974 I walked from the Port Authority down 8th Avenue to my room at the Edison Hotel on 47th street through a sea of pretty young blonde wigged hookers grabbing my suitcase and asking me if I wanted a date.
I thought I had died and gone to heaven.
oh yes, and what about between 1978 and 1980 when the old Lincoln Hotel at 700 Eighth Avenue (between 44th and 45th) was renovated into the Milford Plaza which opened in 1980. This is the one with the “M” on the roof you can see when you’re in the general area
do you have any recollection of what the old Lincoln looked like back then? If i had to guess it must have been terrible given the state of the neighborhood. must have looked horrid when undergoing renovation
what got me curious about the Ramada was i always could see the red RAMADA INN insignia logo on the top part of the building, which kind of lent an air of respectability to the street until you saw how awful the surrounding areas was, so i always wondered how that hotel managed
there was a Ho Jo’s Motor Lodge for decades a few blocks up between 51-52 street. recently it became a Hampton Inn
but the old Ho Jo’s Motor Lodge was right at the end of the prostitution district so i figured it was safer to stay there then the old Ramada
there is a Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza on B'way and 48th-49th that opened in the late 80’s, but it is several grades up from both the Ramada and HoJo’s
I just wondered what out of towners did when they arrived at the Ramada and were literally facing peep shows and XXX bookstores right across the street (right by the old Blarney Stone bar). did they go out at night on the town or take a cab back to the hotel?
I do remember that Ramada Inn (I thought there might have been a Holiday Inn around, but might be confusing it with the Ramada). I’m sure it survived through the sheer ignorance of out of town visitors who planned their trips to New York unwisely! May have been a fleabag, too, if it flew under Ramada’s corporate policies. I’m sure Ramada did not sanction short-stay or hourly bookings, officially or otherwise.
do you remember the Ramada Inn on Eighth between 48th and 49th—in the mid 90’s it became a Days Inn and a few years ago became a Hilton Garden Inn when the area started to get “swanky”.
When Eighth was down and out back in the 70’s and 80’s before Worldwide Plaza was opened, I always wondered how the Ramada managed to stay in business with peep shows, XXX bookstores across the street, and all the drug selling and hustling in the area. Was that actually a tourist hotel or was it a fleabag? I remembered places like the Fulton Hotel (46th) and the Sherman (47th) were small little dives, but a national chain like Ramada sitting in the middle of all that mess, made me wonder how it survived
The Winter Garden is between 50th and 51st, one block north of where the Rivoli stood. I saw Beatlemania there as well, ages ago. No doubt, Eighth Avenue was a sordid and dangerous affair – and the general desolation on Eighth made it much more intimidating than Seventh and B'way, for sure. I used to go to the Hollywood Twin when it was a revival house for a few years in the ‘80’s. Very sketchy area and I sometimes felt like I had to keep one eye over my shoulder even when I was in my seat watching a movie there.
I remember seeing Beatlemania at The WInter Garden in September of 78 which i think was right next to the Rivoli. I always found that 46th-50th street area along B'way and 7th to be seamy but what really frightened me was 8th Avenue in the same spot like around the Venus, Capri, Eros Cinemas down by 46th, the Hollywood Cinema up by 47th, the firehouse by 48th and the big parking lot up by the old MSG. there were always types who seemed like they were under the influence hanging around those porn shops and the worst were those XXX bookstores
B'way and Seventh Avenues were always very busy with pedestrian traffic – even during the bad old days. Some blocks were worse than others in terms of crime and solicitation, 42nd Street itself probably being the most notorious – particularly the closer you got to Eighth Avenue. I wasn’t keenly aware of which streets tourists, theatergoers and casual passersby tended to avoid at night other than 42nd, but I’m sure that those sorts of crowds would have been more inclined to stay where the crowds seemed to be.
Tell you what… While 42nd Street always instilled some fear in me at night, even when I was a frequent moviegoer there (part of the thrill, after all), it wasn’t until around 1989 or so that I first felt intimidated walking down Seventh Ave in upper Times Square. I remember going to a show at the Virginia Theater on 52nd Street, one particular evening, and afterward I decided to take my wife to the heart of Times Square to show her some of my old haunts. At the time, several old buildings had been demolished, leaving entire blocks dark and behind construction shedding. Specifically I remember walking past the block where the Rivoli had once stood and that stretch was rather desolate and no longer lit by the old theater’s huge marquee. It was so foreboding walking along at that time of light – and the lights further down the Avenue seemed so far away – that I considered turning around and skipping the nostalgic tour entirely. But, we soldiered on without incident and the crowds picked up again around Duffy Square. I had never felt that creeped out walking past the prostitutes, drug dealers and porn palace barkers just 3 or 4 years earlier.
was it true that before the theater district cleanup, people who went to the theater left the area immediately after the show? I have often heard this that people left as soon as the show was over and wasted no time leaving the area
unless you had to cross eighth avenue between 40th and 50th street or had to cross 42 street between B'way and 8th Avenue to get back to your car or get the cab or whatever, except for those 2 spots most of the theater area was passable even after the show?
Nice page and cool links!
no because i always liked midtown—5th Avenue, 6th Avenue in the 50’s and 40’s. we rarely ventured past 7th Avenue back in the late 70’s or below 42 street
was prostitution on 8th Av around 48th-50th streets heavy as it was was further down or was it lighter?
Everything was sort of very plain and out in the open along Eighth Avenue. Activity along Broadway and Seventh Avenue was a bit more clandestine – not to mention that much of the soliciting took place in the various cinemas, cabarets and run-down taxi-dance ballrooms that peppered the area. But, to be sure, it was going on in all corners of the Theater District.
Roger… did your father ever mention anything about staying away from the “Dirty Thirties?” Suffice to say, this sort of activity was in no way restricted to Times Square.
what about 42 street between 6th and Broadway. there was some porn on that block, was there any trouble over there? when i was young as a teen(late 70’s) and visited midtown around the Radio City area my dad used to make a point of telling me not to go west of 6th Avenue because certain side streets were kind of unsavory. I used to love this part of midtown where the Radio City area melted into the theater district when you got west of 6th Avenue. it was kind of cool to be on 7th with all the porn and seeing those glittering skyscrapers rising above all the sleaze in the background
The biggest concentration of prostitution that I encountered when working and playing in the city was on 8th Avenue. Never noticed it on Broadway or 7th. Only time I did the cross streets was for a Broadway show and never noticed any in the 5-11 PM periods.