Paree Adult Cinema and Live Show
753-59 7th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10019
753-59 7th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10019
No one has favorited this theater yet
Showing 1 - 25 of 29 comments
Anyone who would dismiss Times Square based on their disapproval of what may be happening on the fringes is seriously closed minded, and this poster had already admitted to that. Most of it still happens today behind the facade of the new Disneyscape, as vice never dies.
I never understood the mindset that could blame a sexuality transmitted disease on a building. I suppose if we shut down the Port Authority in Times Square it would end teenage prostitution in America.
AIDS is still thriving in many parts of the world without a porn cinema in sight, including sections of NY and LA.
Listen, I’m only a cheerleader, but I spent many hours in the movie houses that once lined W. 42nd Street, Broadway and Seventh Avenue back in the ‘80’s. Pornography was never my thing – Kung Fu and horror films were my usual vices. I enjoyed seeing films at these theaters for a variety of reasons, including the fact that admissions were cheap, the bill of fare included double and even triple features along with red-band trailers (never got those in Queens!) and the often hilarious running commentary from folks in the audience. And, yes, I would sometimes find myself looking past the grime and decay and admiring some of the stunning architecture within those dirty walls.
For a budding cineast such as myself, Times Square was a wonderland. The history of the area is frequently sordid but it is also endlessly fascinating – and I’m happy to have been able to experience some of it while I was able. In fact, I still patronize many of the surviving and re-born establishments whenever I get the chance.
You remain a pompous boor. You are the only one making personal attacks (calling me trashy, promiscuous, imperious and low-class. I resent being called imperious!)
When it comes down to it, you can get an STD at the Waldorf-Astoria if you'e with the wrong partner, so don’t be so lofty.
Anyway, you said in a previous post that you went to two adult theaters and never touched anyone and never went back. (You went dancing instead — how was all the drug use and unsafe behavior in THOSE venues?)
In reality, you never even considered having your so-called “Times Square Experience” in any event. (It seems every city and town in America had porno theaters at the same time; nothing unique to Manhattan.)
There was (is) so much more to the area than merely hooking up. That is the Times Square Experience we have spent years here discussing. And plenty of our members DID just sit there and admire the architecture. (Ed, that’s your cue…)
“I seriously doubt if anyone in an adult theater spent any time admiring the proscenium.”
Check out the Adonis page and you will find out you are also wrong about that, aside from being homophobic, racist and apparently fattist.
…And how!
MovieMan, too bad you missed the entire Times Square experience — from visiting the Lyric and New Amsterdam on 42nd Street, up the square to the Paramount, State, Criterion, Astor, DeMille, Rivoli and especially the Capitol. And why not stop in at the Adonis, Cameo, Tivoli, Pussycat, World and Victory, all old movie theaters repurposed in their last years for the adult trade. Nobody ever got an STD sitting in a theater seat admiring the proscenium.
That’s the Times Square experience I meant — the lights, the sounds, the sights, with a hint of danger and excitement around every corner. The roar of the greasepaint, the smell of the crowd….“Annie” playing next to “Anal Intruders!” It was really unique and will never be duplicated.
“It was really unique and will never be duplicated.”
I have to agree….
Saps, I understand your well intended contribution. It is what makes cinematreasures work for many of us.
Moviemanforever, what are you afraid of? It happened already, buddy! Please tell us what your roll was or stay away and deny.
I hasten to add, that there was some definite dirty going on in some of the straight theaters in the area… If one would classify any of the grinds on 42nd Street as “straight” theaters! I just mean non-porn houses. Some of those rest rooms and balconies were as rife with carnal activity as a room at one of the many short-stay flop houses in the area!
I think a lot of the “dirty” was going on in the porn theaters and those musty old 2nd-floor taxi-dance ballrooms that managed to survive into the ‘70’s and '80’s. When I used to get off the Subway at Seventh Ave and 53rd Street, walking down into Times Square was always a matter of dodging street-hawkers trying to lure you inside the various adult establishments that lined the strip. Never mind that my pals and I were like 15 or 16 years old!
The Metropole is one venue I have attended. The “entertainment girls” chatted you up while ordering $10.00 bottles of “champagne”, ( I think it was dressed up Perrier), and you paid for it. That is how the Metropole made much of it’s money. The pole dancers were actually carefully chosen and quite beautiful, as you would expect in Times Square.
…and as Dolly Parton would say “There’s nothing dirty going on!”, as far as I could see.
By the way… is the Metropole the go-go where Felix Unger goes to drown his sorrows at the very beginning of the film “The Odd Couple”?
A few days ago, I asked about the old Metropole Cafe that was in the vicinity of this theater (and all the other addresses and C of O’s we were trying to sort out)…
Here’s a shot of some street musicians playing for change next to the old Metropole sign. One of the images in this series shows the Orange Julius and Doll Theater marquee that was on the southeast corner of 48th Street and Seventh Avenue. That places the Metropole on the east side of Seventh Ave (odd address number) between 48th and 49th Streets.
Warren, Ed,
I am so glad this unravelling series porn mystery is bringing us together.
Lost Memory, can we have a (very heterosexual, of course) group hug?
Absoultely positive about that. The address is verified in several different Times' articles and via a search of NYC Building Records. The Paree was somewhere on the 2nd floor of that office building in space that had previously been occupied by a pool hall. The pool hall dates back to the early 1960’s and was familiar to the police department for its own history of public misconduct (ranging from fights, vagrancy and solicitation). If I’m not mistaken, one of the articles also makes reference to the Woolworth’s on street level. Anyway, the Earl Carroll only occupied a tunnel lobby through the office building that fronted Seventh Ave with the theater in an adjacent building behind the structure (the facade of which was on 50th Street). So the Paree (and other space) could have easily been above a portion of the Woolworth’s store.
Al… that article is mistaken about the address of the San Francisco. It was reported correctly (or so I assume) in two other Times articles as 1541 Broadway – placing it just to the north of the old Astor entrance (which ibdb.com lists as 1537 Broadway). The entrance to the San Fran (as with the Ripley’s it replaced) was actually in the adjacent building through which the Gaiety/Victoria also had its Broadway entrance a few doors up the block.
Hi Guys, I have been out of town.
I show the Circus and all male Big top co-existing at 1604 Braodway.
There was a 49th Street Playhouse operating in 1982 that I cannot place.
732 Seventh Avenue is the Mini but I have no proof it was also the Frisco.
This from a NYT raid story, Dec. 9, 1972
“Three sheriff’s deputies and a squad of policemen stood guard, as a crew of movers supervised by an attorney, Mark Belnick, removed the property of "San Francisco Adult Movies” from 1531 Broadway, between 45th and 46th streets, and put it into a avan for shipmentto a warehouse. "
That address is the old Astor also. (???)
Embassy 49th opened in the same location as the World Theater. And, yes, odd numbered addresses should be on the north side of the cross-streets in Manhattan. Hmmm. My memory may be faulty on which side of the street the World was on. I could have sworn it was on the south side of 49th. But then, that should be an even address number if so. The Ambassador Theater on the next block west, and which is definitely on the north side of 49th has an address of 219 West 49th. I think we need AlAlvarez to swoop in here and help sort out the addresses. I know that he has the addresses for a number of theaters (big and small) concentrated right in this area – which he posted at some point on the Rivoli page, I think.
I was going to suggest that, actually. The World was on the same square block but at its northern perimeter on the south side of 49th Street. You should be able to trace a C of O on that site all the way back to the Punch & Judy Theater, which first opened back in 1914. I think that only had about 300 seats, however. And the building was mid-block at 153-155 W. 49th. Perhaps the owners of the World created an additional theater space on the block?
Ha… And then I’ll add a photo of a building with an enormous paper bag over it’s facade!
I am definitely lost, Lost! The c of o’s you’re looking at for 732 Seventh and 1604 B'way must be a building to the north of the old Studebaker and possibly immediately adjacent – since it did not occupy the entire block. Perhaps the Avon – closer to 48th Street – was on the ground floor of the Studebaker while the Frisco was in an adjacent structure. But at least now we are talking about the right block. Where was the Metropole Go Go in all of this… wasn’t it near here? Perhaps the cabaret? Al… do you recall?
Maybe I’ll just submit a “shell” listing for the Frisco with very limited information and we can then move this discussion to that page and try to solve the mystery without cluttering the Paree page.
Is it possible that the 1969 C/O for 598 seats be for the Cine Lido? While it had an address of 200 W. 48th, the building where it occupied space might have been known as 1578-1590 Broadway. And 1969 also coincides with the closing of Lou Walter’s Latin Quarter night club – which I believe was at least in part converted for the Cine Lido. AlAlvarez' listing for the Cine Lido lists the seating capacity at 575 which is pretty damn close.
It isn’t the Frisco. The Frisco was definitely “above” the Avon address of 724 Seventh Avenue. The address 710-720 is a block to the south. Ditto the 1578-1590 B'way address – between 47th nd 48th. The Avon and Frisco occupied space in the old Studebaker Building that had a main address of 1600 Broadway (as does the high rise luxury condo that replaced it).
In the thread on the Eros Theater page, RobertR posted a 1969 article that refers to a “New Mini Cinema” with 130 seats on Seventh Ave at 48th Street and AlAlvarez chimes in that the Mini operated in ‘73-'74 at 732 Seventh Ave. That address jibes with the location of the Frisco… could the two theaters have been the same, operating as the New Mini before changing to Frisco around '73-'74? If not, the Mini was just a door or two away from the Frisco.
From an ad I have for the Avon, I know that theater’s address was definitely 724 Seventh Ave just north of the corner of 48th and 7th. That would make the Frisco more like 730 or so. That would also mean we have a bit of a mystery theater attached to that C of O at 710-720.
Lost… the Frisco lasted into the early ‘80’s at least. I think 710-720 Seventh would be on the block of the old building between 47th and 48th that housed the Castro Convertible showroom and the Playland amusement arcade. I only assume this because across the street on the east side of the block you had the Mayfair/Demille at 707 Seventh, the CIne 1&2 at 711 and the Doll at 719. I always thought the Frisco and the Avon 7th were both on the 48th to 49th Street block.
I have this tiny photo of the Frisco marquee where you can see the Avon marquee down the block to the south. The marquee might actually read Avon II, which would have been an alternate name to distinguish it from the Avon on 42nd Street between 6th and B'way. Anyway, along the left side of the frame, you can barely make out the corner of the Mayfair/Demille building on 47th and the facade of the RKO Palace further down the street. That places the Frisco and Avon in the Studebaker building that ran between Seventh and B'way on the north side of 48th Street. That one square block bounded by 7th, B'way, 48h and 49th was littered with a number of porn establishments during the ‘70’s and '80’s.
The site where I found that photo (used in connection with a Roger Ebert piece) dates the image to 1973. And does 598 seats strike anyone else as being rather large for a porn theater during the days of 130 seat mini-cinemas?
No I don’t have the Frisco address but I expected it to be around 720 Seventh Avenue, not Broadway.