Gaiety Burlesk
201 W. 46th Street,
New York,
NY
10036
201 W. 46th Street,
New York,
NY
10036
6 people
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1975 stage & screen show
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How rude of me… I did mean to say “thanks for the images” all the same, ij.
This is not the same Gaiety. The two images above show the marquee for the Gaiety on Broadway that later became known as the Victoria. However, the one photo of the Globe marquee does show the north west corner of 46th and B'way where the Orpheum Dance Palace occupied the upper floors. The Gaiety Burlesk – whose doors were down 46th Street and would have been out of frame to the left in this shot – did partially occupy the Orpheum space many years after the image was captured.
here are three pictures showing The Globe Theatre, The Gaiety and the strand. I’m a bit confused so maybe someone can give some info on these theatres. It seems that a publicity parade for 20 mule train was taking place. In any case these are rare pictures of Times Sq.
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There’s an ad for the Gaiety if you scroll down the page in the image below from 1982:
Symposium Night! Post 3/8/82
I wonder what the subject of the symposium was? I love all the info they pack into the small ad.
“Live shows! 5 boys 5 times a day!”
I think it also says “Dynamite Marathon with 14 boys and a SPECIAL Duo Treat!” for Fridays and Saturdays.
“FREE snacks and refreshments!” Gadzooks!!!
The intro at the top says this was also known as the Kings Cinema. There was also a Kings XXX male house on the south side of 50th Street between B'way and 8th.
Thanks to ‘woody’ for this never to be seen again shot:
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Does anyone know anything about 203 West 46th Street? This used to be the location of Harlequin Rehearsal Studios. I’ve searched everywhere online and can’t find anything on it.
One of the staff once told me that the building had once been owned by a theatre family.
It really doesn’t matter what they do with Times Square now. The old Times Sqaure died with the destruction of all the great movie palaces along with the Astor Hotel on Broadway. The theatre district is mainly on the side streets of Broadway with a few exceptions like the Broadway Theatre,Winter Garden Theatre,Marquis Theatre and the Palace Theatre. The plus side to the redevelopment was the restoration and renovation of the 40 legit theatres in the Times Square area. The clean up of Times Sqaure helped the legit theatre business which is thriving helped in large measure by the huge number of tourists who now come to a safer and cleaner Times Sqaure. Its to bad we lost so many historic buildings in the process.brucec
I’ll have to guess that the Duffy Theatre space was a partitioned section from the Gaiety, as it was up the stairs on the right of the HoJos.
The entrance to the Gaiety Burlesk is just off camera to the right, the auditorium side wall is above Howard Johnson’s on this photograph:
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P.S. The theatre itself was first built around 1907. Around 1910-1915, it housed “Cafe Madrid” at its base, which was most likely a cabaret venue.
In the late 1990’s, preservations & Mayor Guiliani agreed to preserve as much of the “old Times Square” & Broadway theatres as possible. Very funny that the Duffy Theatre & Gaiety Theatre are being demolished. Was the agreement that they made, some sort of joke??? Developers of today have no mind of their own, since they insist on mimicing the current trends (i.e. of Times Sq). A solution is to restore these old structures, & if they desire a modern structure to rise, make an addition to the existing site (i.e. the theatre that housed Howard Johnson’s). There are times when the NY Landmarks Preservation Commission fails, as many NYers would agree.
Maybe the Gaiety should move to the theatre showing Naked Boys Singing. They can alternate their shows when Naked Boys is dark.
Part of the building that housed the now closed Howard Johnson’s slated to be demolished it appears the days of this venue could now be numbered.
As I stated in the opening description, it was operating as a gay male porn cinema, known as the Gaiety when I went there in 1976 (my first ever visit to the USA). Male strippers entertained between the movies, some were the ‘stars’ of the films being screened and there was a private space provided, where you could meet them after their act (for a price).
The people running it explained that it had been a strip club for years before they took it over in the early 90’s.
In the picture, before the ‘Chicago’ billboard was there there were boarded-up windows on both the Broadway side and the 46th St. side. They were painted with signs for the Gaiety, which I assumed was behind the former windows.
I meant to the right of the Howard Johnson sign. You can see the narrow space which was the stairway, the theatre was to the left of the stairs above HoJos.
The Duffy was upstairs to the left of the Howard Johnson sign, second floor, http://framinghammass.info/timesquare.jpg
no, it’s a seperate building from the Duffy, not that big and only 2 stories (the billboards make it look taller). Howard Johnsons occupies the entire first floor, the Gaiety occupies the entire second floor.
The question I still have, is the Gaiety Burlesk upstairs from the Howard Johnson, and therefore a part of the “Duffy Theatre” which was upstairs nextdoor on Broadway?
That’s it! “Perfect Crime!” I think it has been playing for longer than 10 years if it is still playing. I remember one of the actors in the play I saw was Daniel Van (or Von) Bargan.
For those who are interested (and because of the thread that developed on this page a couple of days ago), a nice tribute to the Times Square HoJo’s: View link
To hardbop,
the Duffy had a play called “Perfect Crime” which ran there for about 10 years, they said. It had it’s last performance at the theatre last Monday night, and they’re moving to another location.
My friend just told me Howard Johnsons is closing. I never understood why they did not play on the retro fever so popular a few years ago and renovate this place.