55th Street Playhouse

Here’s from Variety article of 4/17/74 on “HIM:

Pic depicts graphic sex acts involving Jesus Christ and includes a scene in which a priest is seen masturbating while listening to a confession. The gay-oriented film is about a young man with a sexual obsession for Christ.

Wow! That solves a mystery that has plagued me for some 20 years (or however long since I purchased the Medved book). Well, OK, maybe it hasn’t plagued me… or even crossed my mind in the last decade or so. But for a number of months, trying to figure out which entry in that book was a hoax certainly vexed me!

This was easy:
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Sorry if it was implied that Wakefield had anything to do with “Him.” That inclusion of the NY Library date was done because this thread mentions shows of his work at the 55th St. Playhouse.

I can confirm that the ad for HIM posted above ran in the New York Times on March 29, 1974. Later ads included review quotes from Al Goldstein, The Village Voice, Gay Scene, Michael’s Thing, Variety, and Where it’s at.

It would appear it was not only a real movie but that it ran for around two months at the 55th St. Playhouse.

The ad copy for the 55th St is from the mid-early ‘70s, I am sure.
I saw HIM in Boston (South Station Cinema) at that time and posted, as shown above, as to that fact.
It is indeed a porn film about a guy with a Christ fixation, not the Grodecki film mentioned of the same name, years later.
Today, talking with an ex, he told me of seeing a trailer for this very old porn while watching a roommmate of mine’s video collection, some 15 years ago. I, myself, never saw that and was astonished.
Oh by the way, anyone intersted in Wakefield Poole’s films and career may find this interesting:

FOR YOUR INFORMATION

2007 Film/Video Program
Organized by Donnell Media Center
New York Public Library

ADMISSION FREE
All Programs held in the Donnell Library Center Auditorium

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wakefield Poole
Presents and discusses his dance and film work:
THE TWO FACES OF WAKEFIELD POOLE

Saturday, April 28, 2007 at 2:30 PM
At the Donnell Library Center
20 West 53rd Street
New York, NY 10019

The program will include video excerpts of Wakefield Poole’s dancing on the television programs THE GARY MOORE SHOW with Gwen Verdon and LAMP UNTO MY FEET; his choreography for the “end credits” for ONCE UPON A MATTRESS that featured dancer Michael Bennett; and DO I HEAR A WALTZ. In addition, there will also be examples of his work as a filmmaker, including his first film HEAD, a light-hearted parody of a cooking program featuring a voice-over by Julia Child, a clip (featuring nudity) from his breakthrough vision BOYS IN THE SAND; and a joint interview with Mr. Poole and Casey Donovan, the star of BOYS IN THE SAND on the early cable access program “Emerald City.”

Wakefield Poole began his dance career in Salisbury, North Carolina. After high school, he became a professional dancer with the internationally renowned Ballets Russes. He then became a Broadway chorus dancer appearing in such hit shows as FINIAN’S RAINBOW and THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN as well as dancing on television for Perry Como, Ed Sullivan, Gary Moore and Jackie Gleason. Over time, he developed into a choreographer, first assisting the legendary Joe Layton, before working solo on DO I HEAR A WALTZ and being reunited with Joe Layton on BRING BACK BIRDIE. At the end of the 1960’s a new career evolved when he asked himself, “Why can’t someone make a good porn film that’s not degrading?” That summer he decided to make one himself BOYS IN THE SAND became the first gay film to have a display ad in The New York Times and be reviewed in Daily Variety. For the next decade and a half, the name Wakefield Poole was synonymous with quality both in technical execution and artistic interpretation, as well as a trailblazer for gay culture with his quality erotica.

“ Can anyone with any knowledge of this era end something of a debacle for me? There has been conjecture for years as to a film called "Him,” concerning some guy’s fixation on Christ. This has made it to such illustrious heights as becoming a faux legend with Michael Medved and his book about “Golden Turkeys.” People have looked at me like I am from Pluto when I have told them that, YES!, I have seen this film. I oft thought that the aforementioned advertisements in Boston After Dark or the Phoenix might lend some versimilitude to this conundrum, but I am 3,000 miles across the planet. Absolutely nobody can give so much as a ‘maybe’ on this. And a thanks to Mr DeLuca for knowing so much as to ownership of said theaters. Verify! Thanks!
posted by sinclair on Mar 22, 2005 at 10:38pm"

Thank you for posting this time capsule fraught with validation!
Can anyone go that one step further and tell me where or how to locate a copy in any form?
Had this been posted on Easter, I would’ve been forced to attend a church servive in response.

1975 porno “art"
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The ad for the above mentioned “Bijou"
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Dave-Bronx, CinemaRadio allowed people with hearing problems better access to the soundtrack by bringing earphones and a transistor radio and tuning in to a specific frequency. Modern cinemas have loops or infrared devices that do the same thing through multichannel hearing aids.

How about that little add for the mysterious Camelot Twin in the East Village? Did anyone ever confrim if it was indeed The Gate?

There is an ad here for the 11th week of “Boys in the Sand” which played here forever.
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“The incredible Roger in his farewell to motion pictures”:

Hunk Post 3/8/82

So… still all-male porn in early 1982.

Anyone remember the Rendezvouz across the street?:

Rhinestone Cowgirls Post 3/10/82

Open in 1927, this was one of the first ever fulltime arthouses. This place was specialising in Far East martial arts films (think Kurosawa, not Bruce Lee) from 1965 until 1969 when it switched policy for Andy Warhol’s LONESOME COWBOYS. The success of that film sealed its fate and like many other Manhattan arthouses, it switched to increasing graphic sex films, this one eventually specialising in gay product and then gay grind porn.

In 1929 it premiered Abel Gance’s NAPOLEON which received bad reviews in its abridged form and was replaced a week later with a re-release of THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI.

In 1930 it opened TWO HEARTS IN WALTZ TIME a German film and the first foreign language film subtitled for U.S. release. The novelty paid off and the film ran for a year. In March 1931, during that run the theatre was renamed Europa, a name it kept until late 1933 when it started to also show more mainstream films.

In 1952 it premiered Jacques Tati classic JOUR DE FETE, 1956 Fellini’s I VITELLONI, in 1957 John Ford’s THE RISING OF THE MOON, in 1958 Kim Stanley’s THE GODDESS, in 1961 the Russian DON QUIXOTE (MGM Soviet cultural exchange).

The theatre was notorious for poor projection and was often featured in the press as an example of the lost art of quality of cinema presentation. Sound familiar?

(Cinema Treasures did not invent that particular bitch-fest hobby of attacking projectionists, union or otherwise, which dates back to the silent era.)

The trajectory of the 55th Street Playhouses’ life certainly started in the head and ended in the groin.