Manhattan 1 and 2
220 E. 59th Street,
New York,
NY
10022
220 E. 59th Street,
New York,
NY
10022
9 people
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This played day & date with the Rialto
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RKO was big into this kind of porno chic in the 70’s.
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Wow it even shows Alexander’s! That’s a blast from the past indeed. So few movie theaters left in this area. Thanks for that ad image, Al.
Al, your link doesn’t work it requires us to login with a user/password.
I think I remember walking by this twin theater in the Summer of 1996 and saw that it was showing Indian films. Is my memory correct?
that’s right damien, all the new rko twins had a red side and blue side…with the 13579 vs 246810…
For a while, the 59th Street East had the gimmick of showing the same film in both auditoriums, with showings beginning on the hour. The first film under this policy was Adam At 6 A.M. which premiered on November 30, 1970.
The last line of Vincent Canby’s review in the Times stated, “Adam at 6 A.M. opened yesterday at the R.K.O. 59th Street Twin Theaters where, beginning at 11 A.M., the feature starts every hour, on the hour, in one of the two auditoriums.”
i only ran one side not the porno…the only time staff would go over there is to get ice cream..the freezer by the rear exit of #2
…..that shows at one time the twins were run as rko twins before porno..it was a split operation at very best leased..
wally1975
Thanks Wally. You don’t seem to be entirely sure if RKO built the theater themselves, but you indicate that it seemed to fit in with the usual RKO Twin setup that one found in the suburbs (i.e., seperate lobbies, lighting scheme). What year did you first manage the theater? Perhaps it was conicidental that Pacific built this theater in that RKO-like style. Did you only manage the one side of the theater that was booked the standard Hollywood stuff while others ran the porn side? The split operation at this theater really has me intrigued.
hey ed and company:
sorry took so long to get back to you re: rko 59th
there were alot of theatre name changes in the 70’s…on the east side..what i remember about 59 is that when i was manager the theare
seemed new in every way…i think i mentioned once before..each theatre was a true twin..if you look at the pictures see one twin see the other…the theatre was called rko 59th street east..
the word twin was never used…twin 2 was run by guy’s like ie:
al goldstien [screw mag fame].it was a high end porno complete with red carpet openings…i don’t know if rko owned both sides and rented
the other or what…i think before the porno thay may have run it as a twin…the reason i think so is, rko had a thing for twins and tripplex theatre’s…the 59th looked like the long island twins they put up smoked glass red and blue lobby lights…the concept was
one movie both theatres shows at 123456789+10..
rko would send me to any theatre that had some kind of problem..
i started at 181 st. filled in at penthouse,madison and the fordham.
i told ed about what i’m about to share with you..the 59th had to be
newer the most of the east side fare…it had no rear exits. it was
tucked between and backed by other buildings..if you go back to the
pictures you see an exit at the left side of the screen,when you go through the the exit you go down stairs and through a tunnel under the theatre and then up a few steps through exit doors that put you
back on 59th street..next to the lobby..wally1975
Al, when Cinema 5 renovated it and christened it Manhattan 1 & 2, they put the stand in that position, creating the single lobby like a real twin theatre (unlike the C1&2 and the B/C around the corner). When CO renovated they replaced the Cinema 5 stand with a bigger one in the same spot.
Thanks for the info, Al. If you look at the “Lobby view” photo I posted on June 19th, 2006, you’ll see a mirrored wall behind the candy counter. On this wall was a door that led to the twin lobby (leaving one, I presume, behind a twin candy counter) on the other side.
I now understand that a concession stand divided the two lobbies and that Cineplex Odeon moved it to combine the two sides during their infamous faux-marble refit.
As a Bollywood site it was the New York outlet for Eros films, one of the two main distributors of Indian films. It appears these theatres have a history of distribution owners.
Thanks, Al… I asked Wally Maletta to join this discussion and share any additional information he might have on the matter, since he did manage the theater. I hope he finds the time to hop on.
Ed, I think the second Eastworld on 61st street was the BYRON – FIRST AVENUE SCREENING ROOM – ART EAST location at 110 East 1st Avenue.
In the 90’s there was also a Westworld gay porn venue on West Side Highway near Christopher Street.
It is possible that Cineplex Odeon combined the two lobbies.
Carrying over a discussion that began on the ImagianAsian (former D.W. Griffith and 59th Street East) page, a few of us are trying to sort out the history of this theater in terms of the specific dates it opened as the Avco Embassy/Pacific East and when RKO took it over. I had been under the impression that RKO had built this as one of their own. AlAlvarez says they came along later on, combining the seperate lobbies into one. However, as per the information provided to me by RKO manager Wally Maletta, the lobbies were still seperate when RKO ran the twin. See my 7:40am post (along with photos Wally passed along to me) of June 19th, 2006 for details.
I was also going to ask for verification that one side of this theater was called Eastworld showing porn while the other side continued as the 59th Street East with straight Hollywood fare, since I show Eastworld and the Manhattan 1 and 2 co-existing in movie ads dated 1980. However, I see that by then, Eastworld was located in a different theater on East 61st street whereas earlier ads placed Eastworld on East 59th.
Just for kicks, here’s a 1978 ad for Eastworld, day and dating with the 42nd Street Rialto:
Daily News 1/25/78
The Gloria Leonard film advertised is called “Maraschino Cherry” – a rather tame title given the advertising gimmick employed in the ad.
That movie would have definitely been gonged by Jamie Farr, eh hdtv? Remember the almost equally horrific Get Smart movie, “The Nude Bomb”? I believe those 2 both came out in 1980. Barris made for a much more interesting film subject in George Clooney’s excellent “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind”. Maxwell Smart, on the other hand, has never transcended the small screen.
There is a comment in the introduction that this theater at one time was the porn twin known as EastWorld, but I wonder if that is accurate. Below is a page from the NY Post showing several movie ads and the Movie Clock from March 10, 1982:
Manhattan/Eastworld
As you can see, “On Golden Pond” was playing at the Manhattan 1 and there is a small ad at the bottom for the XXX “Indecent Exposure” day and dating at the Circus Cinema in Times Square and EastWorld, which is listed at 61st and 1st Ave. You can scan the Movie Clock to find that “Chariots of Fire” was playing in the Manhattan 2 auditorium.
Going back to December of 1980, the following edition of the Post’s Neighborhood Movie Guide shows that the “world premier” of “Dracula Exotica” was going on at the XXX EastWorld while both the Manhattan 1 and 2 were closed to the public on that day:
Neighborhood Movie Guide 12/11/80
The following day, the Goldie Hawn military comedy “Private Benjamin” and David Lynch’s “The Elephant Man” (both films well into their first runs) were running at the Manhattan twins:
Goldie
I am not an animal!
The “Elephant Man” ad makes mention of the 12/11 closing. Not sure what went on that Thursday night to close the place. I wouldn’t figure a twin theater for a movie premier. It was under Cinema 5 management at the time.
Wally Maletta (who managed this theater as well as the Rivoli on Broadway and others) was kind enough to share the following photos of the former RKO 59th Street Twin:
Split view of auditorium
Lobby view
Each theater in the twin had a balcony and its own separate lobby. The mirrored door you see on the left in the lobby photo led to the projection room (which was at the rear of the orchestra seating). On the other side of this door (and out of frame) was another short set of stairs leading down and into the orchestra section. No sure if there was also a 2nd set of stairs leading up to the balcony. Behind the counter was a door that led to the adjacent twin lobby.
As has been alluded to in the comments and intro above, Wally told me that one side of the theater did go XXX porn for a while and was dubbed the 59th Street East. Perhaps Wally can post some of his own recollections here as well to fill in the gaps and offer a timeline (at least while he was running the place).
I ran this place for about half a year. The oddest thing was that the seats sloped up a little toward the screen.
“The Boy Friend” in 1971
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AHA! I answered my own question, found out the DW Griffith I remember is now the ImaginAsian theatre.
This theatre showed gay porn during the mid 70s, then became legit. I recall seeing “Poltergeist” here in 1982. Later I saw “The Prince of Darkness” and “Serpent and the Rainbow.” All horror stuff. Funny, I recall the marquee and the interior as being very dark.
I don’t think the building was demolished, the space that used to be the theatres has been converted to other use…but I am not sure about this.
I remember going to see “Sasquatch” and “Steel Magnolias” at the small single-screen theatre directly across the street, which I recall as being the “DW Griffith.” Does anyone know what it is called now? thx
The address of this theatre was 220 East 59th Street, New York, NY, 10022.
There’s a photo of this theater when it was known as the East 59th Street Twin on the pro.corbis.com website. Dennis Hopper’s “The Last Movie” was playing.