Trans-Lux 52nd Street Theatre
586 Lexington Avenue,
New York,
NY
10154
586 Lexington Avenue,
New York,
NY
10154
2 people
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Google street view of the above address shows that it is.
Is that subway grate still there?
The shot of Marilyn Monroe been filmed outside this theater, for the movie, “The seven year itch,, was the first take of the scene(the second take was filmed at the movie studio). Both takes are in the movie.
Photo & description added courtesy Captain Bijou Facebook page.
“Filming Tom Ewell and Marilyn Monroe exiting a theatre playing THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954) for the comedy classic SEVEN YEAR ITCH (1955), directed by Billy Wilder.”
Per IMDB: “The New York movie theater that’s supposedly showing Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) was really showing the Leslie Caron movie LILI (1953) at the time; the side of the theater visible to viewers had the "Creature” title on the marquee (along with a standee of monster and maiden on top of it), but the front of the theater marque (not visible) was still listing “Lili”. A photo of the theater with all “conflicting” marquees visible was tacked up in the Fox photo department for decades."
“That movie house was the Trans-Lux 52nd Street Theatre, located at 586 Lexington Avenue. It closed in 1965 and has since been demolished.”
Blizzard of 1956 photo added via of Neil Marsolek.
Welcome to Cinema Treasures, bonebacker2. By all means feel free to share your memories here. Most of us are more than willing to hear your accounts, and not judge them. I was a manager at theatres for over 43 years from the 70’s to the turn of the century. Most sexual acts against children in theatres occurred in suburban theatres during Disney films during that time. They never happened during more adult films. I thought your “LILI” report was enlightening and hope your share more from your growing up with cinema in NYC during the magical fifties era.
My memory of the Trans Lux 52nd St.
On a Sunday evening in ‘53 or '54, my mother, aunt, myself and my sister, then seven or eight years old, went to the Trans Lux 52nd St. to see “Lili” with Leslie Caron. The movie was extremely popular and famously ran at the Trans Lux 52nd. for a record-breaking run. (Someone posted here that the run lasted two years.) The movie was a sweet — Pauline Kael called it sickeningly sweet —– innocent film to which parents enjoyed taking their younger children.
About half way through the movie, there was a commotion in the seats next to me, and my family suddenly got up and moved to the lobby. My sister had whispered to my mom that a man sitting next to her was touching her leg. My mother and aunt reported this to the management and for about fifteen minutes or more there was a lot of activity in the lobby with an alarmed management. I remember my sister crying, and my mother and aunt being extremely angry and upset. It was never explained to my sister or me exactly what this was all about — we were seven and ten — only that this man was a “pervert.” We were never given any explanation of what a pervert was. We never returned to our seats to the see the rest of the movie.
Sorry, but that’s my only memory (but still quite vivid) of this theatre. In later years, I’ve often dwelled on the irony of this happening during a family outing to see “Lili.”
I live on 1st and 51st. The Trans-Lux was the theatre that Marilyn Monroe walked over the subway grate in front, which blew her skirt up.
The night they filmed it, there were huge crowds, and a (very) angry Joe DiMaggio.
A picture of the exterior from 1952 appears in Boxoffice Magazine, April 19, 1952. Go to page 26.
http://issuu.com/boxoffice/docs/boxoffice_041952
This theatre was already operating as a newsreel site in December 1938.
The 1953 release of “Lili” ran for almost two years.
It closed in 1965 after a run of “cat Ballou”.
The Trans-Lux at 52nd and Lexington was a Thomas Lamb design. A picture of its streamline moderne auditorium was featured in an ad for Anemostat air diffusers that appeared in Boxoffice, January 5, 1946.
I’m pretty sure this theater is demolished, not just closed. There is a modern office building in it’s place. I don’t thing I have ever even seen a photo of this theater. Has anybody?
There is a 1955 ad here:
http://tinyurl.com/mxm5dt
There is a small ad here for “The Shaggy Dog” day and dating with the Odeon.
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Of course the “original Italian version” has Anthony Quinn and Richard Basehart dubbed in Italian. You hear their own voices in the English version.
Proprio quello che intendo anch'io.
D'accordo! For me the best Fellini films are Le notti di Cabiria, La strada, I vitelloni… and I bow to his somewhat later film Amarcord.
Seeing “La strada” at the T-L 52 (along with seeing “Seven Samurai” at the Guild a few months later) provided one of those unforgettable compass points in my movie-going life. As a h.s. kid who’d just discovered the thrill of converting my lunch money into subway tokens and box-office tickets, I found that those fims (and “Rififi” at the Fine Arts and “Ladykillers” at the Sutton and “The Lady Vanishes” at MoMA, all in the same short season) expanded my horizons past the point of no return. They taught me that there is a world beyond my shores and a past full of wit and wisdom beyond my ken. As a cynical college kid a few years later, I renounced “La strada” as too sappy and sentimental when measured against the likes of “La dolce vita” and “8 ½.” Now I’d reverse the judgment.
La Strada, 1956.
The Beatles on a holiday re-issue
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My Father managed the theater for several years in the 50’s and I had been there many times as a child.