Grand Pussycat Cinema
1607 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
1607 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
9 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 71 comments
1980 commercial from the Ulgy George show
OK, I will leave the Kitty Kat photos in the gallery. there are additional ones in the below link, among other Pussycat photos in addition to New Yrok.
http://pussycattheaterhistory2.blogspot.com/2014/07/pussycat-theaters-inside-story-chapter_12.html
David, although the marquee was next door I believe the theatre was upstairs and shared the same address as the Pussycat.
It appears there is not separate CT page for the Kitty Kat Theatre next to the Pussycat yet. The Overview states it was around the corner on 49th Street, but all the photos show it as next door. Did it have a second entrance on Broadway next to the Pussycat? Either way, there is no page for it. I’m assuming it was at 1599 Broadway based on a photo I just added.
You are correct. I blew it up and on the Trans Lux marquee it reads “Planes Crash 57 Perish” which was Civil Air Transport Flight 106 on June 20, 1964 & “Kennedy Tours Poland”, which was RFK’s trip in June 1964. There is also a “NY World’s Fair 64” license plate on the convertible at the curb.
New photo I would say is not ‘66 but '64.
What tipped me off is large The Bible billboard between 45th and 46th Street. This was the early one announcing production of the film. There was a second one for when the film was completed and would open at Loew’s State in'66 using the photos that you see on the cover of the LP(I saw this one as a boy.)
Then if you look closely at the Warner marquee IAMMMMW is playing its Cinerama roadshow engagement which had opened in ‘63. And you see a large sign part of which says HAM. This could be an advertisement for the Burton Hamlet(not that it needed it) which played on Broadway in '64.
Hard though to see what was playing at the Trans Lux.
Sorry but I love the minutiae of the old Times Square.
“The Lady In Black ” 1956 photo courtesy of Al Ponte’s Time Machine added.
1971 screen grab from “The French Connection” added.
Marquee reads Trans-Lux West.
1965 photo as the Trans Lux added via Mauri Huttunen.
Linkrot repair: The links in my comment of November 9, 2009, are dead. The Boxoffice articles I referred to about the remodeling of the Trans-Lux Broadway into the Trans Lux West are now here:
December 19, 1966 (I mistakenly said it was from 1965 in my earlier comment.)
April 24, 1967. This is a brief item saying construction had begun and that the opening was planned for May 22.
The remodeling project was designed by Drew Eberson, who had also designed the Trans-Lux East Theatre a few years earlier.
1986 photo added, photo credit Stephen Harmon.
1984 photo added, photo credit Ghislian Bonneau. Pussycat on left.
This theatre was listed as Bryanston in Variety but advertised as Bryan West in 1975.
It opened “Frankenstein” as the Trans-Lux West.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=adpHAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CowDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6174%2C3663809
Was this theater was known as th the Byransten west during the booking of Andy Warhol’s Frankenstien
Here is a screen capture from the TV series Taxi showing this theater’s marquee (as the Embassy 49) at far left. It’s from a first-season episode titled, appropriately enough, Hollywood Calling.
This was the Embassy 49 for only one year in 1976. By 1977 it was the Pussycat.
Well the Trans-Lux Theatre in the Brill Building was ripped out in 1938. Warren had an opening date for this theatre as Dec. 28th. 1937.
Interesting find, Joe.
The Trans-Lux West name did not start until 1967, not 1963 as the intro states. The New York Times claims the original opening year was 1936.
I’ve got more confusion for everyone.
There’s a December 19, 1965, Boxoffice item that contradicts some of the introduction above- saying that the Trans-Lux West was to open around Easter, 1967, that it was the Trans-Lux Broadway that was being remodeled (with plans by Drew Eberson, who had designed the Trans-Lux East) and that the Trans-Lux Broadway had opened in 1933.
Article here.
Then the April 24, 1967, issue of Boxoffice says that reconstruction had begun on the Trans-Lux Broadway, which was to reopen as the Trans-Lux West on May 22. (This Boxoffice item contradicts the earlier one by saying that the Trans-Lux Broadway had been in operation for 36 years, which would give an opening of 1931 instead of 1933. Did Boxoffice also confuse this house with the earlier one in the Brill Building?)
Article here.
I do find Boxoffice referring to this house as the Trans-Lux 49th Street in issues from 1956 and 1957, but before and after that the magazine always calls it the Trans-Lux Broadway.
Another shot of Embassy 49
View link
Thanks, Warren.
Is this the World or this theatre?
View link
Here is a 1986 photo from Life Magazine:
http://tinyurl.com/68logs
This theatre was featured in Taxi Driver (1976), where Scorsese shoots a low angle shot of the bumper of Travis Brickle’s cab as it rolls down Broadway. For about two seconds you can see the marquee and it clearly reads “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” with “Return of the Dragon”. Just above the marquee is a neon sign that reads “West”. This all makes sense now (thanks to Warren’s February 2nd, 2007 post). Taxi Driver was filmed in 1975 just when this theatre would have been named either Bryan West or The West and showing these films which were both distributed (and I think owned) by Bryanston Pictures. Thanks so much Warren—I spent days trying to figure out where that marquee was.
Just a P.S. on this thread… Jack Dempsey’s Restaurant was originally located across from the old Madison Square Garden on Eighth Avenue. I believe the location in the Brill Bldg on 49th and B'way was a more informal Bar and Cocktail Lounge annex to the original restaurant and – I believe – survived the original Eighth Avenue location by a number of years. Dempsey’s place closed for good in 1974 and shortly thereafter Colony moved in, relocating from another location in the City. Colony has been in business since 1948.