The CROWN Theater 1960s showed many fine films—-I remember being impressed with THE BEDFORD INCIDENT, LOVE ON A PILLOW and other foreign films, even indie-freak stuff like INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES. Louis Lunch, iconic lunch spot that has the BEST burgers in New Haven [for over 100 years !] was right on the corner. But what really made the CROWN THE REAL DEAL was their Sunday-Monday horror film twin-bill. For years, I drank deep on horror films that were a mix—-some as recent as the previous year’s, like THE TERROR/DEMENTIA 13, BLACK SABBATH/EVIL EYE, etc. Now and again they would pair up two disparate horror films to great effect: BLOOD AND ROSES/THE FLY is one twin-bill that stands out. Horror movie double-features, vanished world.
In New Haven 1960s you only needed three theaters [four, if you include the POST DRIVE-IN] to get the best out of ‘60s movies: the CROWN, LAWRENCE and LOEW’S COLLEGE, so named because it was on [surprise !] College Street which itself was named for Yale, which was a half-block away. We lived on Lake Place, back of the Payne-Whitney Gym, so I could walk to the COLLEGE and did, often. LOEW’S COLLEGE was THE REAL DEAL for getting the goodness from '60s movies, here’s just a few that I can remember seeing in this biggest/best downtown theater [the Paramount, around the corner was bigger, but its bookings could NOT compare]:GOLDFINGER, TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE, A STRANGER IN TOWN, STRANGER RETURNS, DEVIL DOLL, BURN !, CROSS & THE SWITCHBLADE, WHERE’S POPPA ?—-the term “eclectic” does not do justice to the canyon-wide variety of the COLLEGE’S offerings. Now, I’m not a sentimental man: I never go back, it’s not healthy. But I had some family business which took me back to New Haven for the first time in decades. Not only had they closed the COLLEGE, they’d turned the lobby into an Organic Health Food store [hawk-ptoo]—-with lots of activist/advocate posters, flyers, etc. And hipsters ! In my theater lobby ! [ Question: Why do these health-food characters always look like they’re in the final stages of some fatal wasting disease ? ] I hadn’t carried a gun in years, but I thought, “Me and my M-16, oh yeah, this is worth jail.”
This drive-in seemed to have the same kind of booking policy as the BOWL D.I. West Haven and POST D.I. East Haven: these three ringed New Haven and could pull kids from surrounding towns. Their ads in the New Haven Register/Journal Courier [yes, New Haven had a morning AND evening paper back then] were clustered together on the movie page and the name-banners were similar. It was not uncommon for local theaters to form loose co-op booking entities to give them greater leverage with distributors—-this was still the era of “states rights” distribution, independents releasing through regional distributors. For Connecticut, Boston was the locus of the New England region: Crest Films, Hallmark Releasing, etc. Always full, height of the 1960s drive-in boom. A lot of us got our fingers wet for the first time in these drive-ins. The New Haven had a more conventional booking policy in comparison with the POST—–everybody was conventional next to the POST. Drive In days 1960s, gone forever.
First movie I saw here was THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH (1959), Hammer + Anton Diffring + Technicolor, on the big screen delivered the goods. Last film: SECONDS (1966)—-there were only three or four others there, but the film made an impression, to say the least, and is regarded as the last, and most unusual, of John Frankenheimer’s ‘60s classics. Rock Hudson’s best, along with SPIRAL ROAD ('62). I went to Cross H.S. with a guy whose parents ran the Temple Luggage Shop, in the retail part of the building, a couple doors down from the boxoffice. Big theater, big screen, big sound, gone forever. Movie palace days, 1960s America.
The POST DRIVE-IN was THE REAL DEAL for horror-film double-features 1960s New Haven area. It was “Be There or Be Square”: they played all the iconic double-features: “Horrible Dr. Hichcock”/“Awful Dr.Orloff”, “Hercules In The Haunted World”/“Castle Of Blood”, etc. etc. The POST holds the distinction of being the LAST obscenity bust New Haven area—-for BLOOD FEAST (1963). Covered in the New Haven Register. I knew the son of the owner and he said the State Police seized the print of the film and it was not returned. The other well-known obscenity bust back then was in Providence, R.I. for CIRCLE OF LOVE (‘64)—-the judge found it “not obscene”, covered in weekly Variety and Boxoffice. Drive-In days, 1960s.
Loew’s DELANCEY [natives pronounced it “Lowee’s, btw—-you did too if you didn’t want to get tabbed as an auslander]was THE REAL DEAL for action double-features 1960s-70s. It was like Times Square come to the Lower East Side [=L.E.S.]. HUGE screen, master-blaster sound system and balcony made for a well-spent $1.25 [early show]. Saw the best double-feature of the early 1970s there: "Hammer Of God” with “Hatchet For The Honeymoon”—-top-shelf Shaw Bros. kung-fu with Mario Bava horror. Gets no better. Now they pay $20 to sit in a cracker-box and watched feature-length model shoots [hawk-ptoo]
The Music Palace was THE REAL DEAL NYC mid-1960s-70s for first-run kung-fu films—-beautiful color/scope prints, subtitled [English bottom/Chinese right side] in the classiest movie theater in lower Manhattan. We saw “Come Drink with Me” and “Jade Raksha” here—-could never get enough of Chen Pei-Pei, who’s still in there swinging, bless her heart. Angela Mao-Ying was another fave. The Music Palace specialized in Golden Harvest releases, some Shaw Bros. The Sun Sing and Canal Street played films of lesser producers, and were definitely scuzzier. The Governor on Chatham Square [demolished, now Hong Kong Supermarket, where I shop]played Cantonese films exclusively—-the majority of NYC were Cantonese, until the Asian Exclusion Act of 1924 was repealed 1964. Isn’t it strange how the food/films of our youth retain a special place within us—-I’ve eaten many kinds of Chinese food, by I always reset to my default: Cantonese. The kung-fu films of today, with their CGI-enhancements, just don’t have the mega-ton blast effect of Chen Pei-Pei laying waste to regiments of bad guys, tornado-like, with two broad swords. Golden days, gone forever.
The Lawrence was open well into the mid-1960s. we saw all the Russ Meyer flicks there, including many “adult” films [tame today] like “The Doll” [Sweden,‘64], “Cold Wind In August”, “High Yellow” and others.
The CROWN Theater 1960s showed many fine films—-I remember being impressed with THE BEDFORD INCIDENT, LOVE ON A PILLOW and other foreign films, even indie-freak stuff like INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES. Louis Lunch, iconic lunch spot that has the BEST burgers in New Haven [for over 100 years !] was right on the corner. But what really made the CROWN THE REAL DEAL was their Sunday-Monday horror film twin-bill. For years, I drank deep on horror films that were a mix—-some as recent as the previous year’s, like THE TERROR/DEMENTIA 13, BLACK SABBATH/EVIL EYE, etc. Now and again they would pair up two disparate horror films to great effect: BLOOD AND ROSES/THE FLY is one twin-bill that stands out. Horror movie double-features, vanished world.
In New Haven 1960s you only needed three theaters [four, if you include the POST DRIVE-IN] to get the best out of ‘60s movies: the CROWN, LAWRENCE and LOEW’S COLLEGE, so named because it was on [surprise !] College Street which itself was named for Yale, which was a half-block away. We lived on Lake Place, back of the Payne-Whitney Gym, so I could walk to the COLLEGE and did, often. LOEW’S COLLEGE was THE REAL DEAL for getting the goodness from '60s movies, here’s just a few that I can remember seeing in this biggest/best downtown theater [the Paramount, around the corner was bigger, but its bookings could NOT compare]:GOLDFINGER, TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE, A STRANGER IN TOWN, STRANGER RETURNS, DEVIL DOLL, BURN !, CROSS & THE SWITCHBLADE, WHERE’S POPPA ?—-the term “eclectic” does not do justice to the canyon-wide variety of the COLLEGE’S offerings. Now, I’m not a sentimental man: I never go back, it’s not healthy. But I had some family business which took me back to New Haven for the first time in decades. Not only had they closed the COLLEGE, they’d turned the lobby into an Organic Health Food store [hawk-ptoo]—-with lots of activist/advocate posters, flyers, etc. And hipsters ! In my theater lobby ! [ Question: Why do these health-food characters always look like they’re in the final stages of some fatal wasting disease ? ] I hadn’t carried a gun in years, but I thought, “Me and my M-16, oh yeah, this is worth jail.”
This drive-in seemed to have the same kind of booking policy as the BOWL D.I. West Haven and POST D.I. East Haven: these three ringed New Haven and could pull kids from surrounding towns. Their ads in the New Haven Register/Journal Courier [yes, New Haven had a morning AND evening paper back then] were clustered together on the movie page and the name-banners were similar. It was not uncommon for local theaters to form loose co-op booking entities to give them greater leverage with distributors—-this was still the era of “states rights” distribution, independents releasing through regional distributors. For Connecticut, Boston was the locus of the New England region: Crest Films, Hallmark Releasing, etc. Always full, height of the 1960s drive-in boom. A lot of us got our fingers wet for the first time in these drive-ins. The New Haven had a more conventional booking policy in comparison with the POST—–everybody was conventional next to the POST. Drive In days 1960s, gone forever.
First movie I saw here was THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH (1959), Hammer + Anton Diffring + Technicolor, on the big screen delivered the goods. Last film: SECONDS (1966)—-there were only three or four others there, but the film made an impression, to say the least, and is regarded as the last, and most unusual, of John Frankenheimer’s ‘60s classics. Rock Hudson’s best, along with SPIRAL ROAD ('62). I went to Cross H.S. with a guy whose parents ran the Temple Luggage Shop, in the retail part of the building, a couple doors down from the boxoffice. Big theater, big screen, big sound, gone forever. Movie palace days, 1960s America.
The POST DRIVE-IN was THE REAL DEAL for horror-film double-features 1960s New Haven area. It was “Be There or Be Square”: they played all the iconic double-features: “Horrible Dr. Hichcock”/“Awful Dr.Orloff”, “Hercules In The Haunted World”/“Castle Of Blood”, etc. etc. The POST holds the distinction of being the LAST obscenity bust New Haven area—-for BLOOD FEAST (1963). Covered in the New Haven Register. I knew the son of the owner and he said the State Police seized the print of the film and it was not returned. The other well-known obscenity bust back then was in Providence, R.I. for CIRCLE OF LOVE (‘64)—-the judge found it “not obscene”, covered in weekly Variety and Boxoffice. Drive-In days, 1960s.
I lived @ FIFTH AVENUE CINEMA mid-1960s-70s. Living 4 blocks south, at the Hotel Marlton 5 West 8th St., it was the movie theater of choice—-the Art and the 8th St.Playhouse were for the fairies & débutantes at NYU and the bridge-&-tunnel mutts who got off on “Rocky Horror Show” [hawk-ptoo]. I saw a double-bill here that can’t be beat—–“L'Aventura” / “Last Year At Marienbad”. Saw them again recently—-after all the jokes, these two are among the very few from the ‘60s to have survived, their power intact. The snapper here is that not only has Parson School Of Design taken over the 5th Ave. for an auditorium, they’ve taken over my old home, the Hotel Marlton for dorms !!! Am I to be spared nothing ??
Loew’s DELANCEY [natives pronounced it “Lowee’s, btw—-you did too if you didn’t want to get tabbed as an auslander]was THE REAL DEAL for action double-features 1960s-70s. It was like Times Square come to the Lower East Side [=L.E.S.]. HUGE screen, master-blaster sound system and balcony made for a well-spent $1.25 [early show]. Saw the best double-feature of the early 1970s there: "Hammer Of God” with “Hatchet For The Honeymoon”—-top-shelf Shaw Bros. kung-fu with Mario Bava horror. Gets no better. Now they pay $20 to sit in a cracker-box and watched feature-length model shoots [hawk-ptoo]
The Music Palace was THE REAL DEAL NYC mid-1960s-70s for first-run kung-fu films—-beautiful color/scope prints, subtitled [English bottom/Chinese right side] in the classiest movie theater in lower Manhattan. We saw “Come Drink with Me” and “Jade Raksha” here—-could never get enough of Chen Pei-Pei, who’s still in there swinging, bless her heart. Angela Mao-Ying was another fave. The Music Palace specialized in Golden Harvest releases, some Shaw Bros. The Sun Sing and Canal Street played films of lesser producers, and were definitely scuzzier. The Governor on Chatham Square [demolished, now Hong Kong Supermarket, where I shop]played Cantonese films exclusively—-the majority of NYC were Cantonese, until the Asian Exclusion Act of 1924 was repealed 1964. Isn’t it strange how the food/films of our youth retain a special place within us—-I’ve eaten many kinds of Chinese food, by I always reset to my default: Cantonese. The kung-fu films of today, with their CGI-enhancements, just don’t have the mega-ton blast effect of Chen Pei-Pei laying waste to regiments of bad guys, tornado-like, with two broad swords. Golden days, gone forever.
The Lawrence was open well into the mid-1960s. we saw all the Russ Meyer flicks there, including many “adult” films [tame today] like “The Doll” [Sweden,‘64], “Cold Wind In August”, “High Yellow” and others.