AMC Empire 25

This page has a nice shot of the by-then long-closed Liberty and Empire Theaters in 1996, with their vacant marquees all lit up during a snow storm. You can see the “Pandora Theater” sheilds on the doors to the Empire as well as the faux lower facade elements that were left over set dressings for the location shoot of “The Last Action Hero” in ‘92.

When this photo was taken, the New Victory Theater had already been re-opened as a children’s theater the year before and Disney’s restoration of the New Amsterdam was well underway. Nineteen Ninety-Six would also see the last porno establishments on the block permanently closed to make way for redevelopment, including the entire stretch of storefronts across the street from Eighth Avenue to the Selwyn Theater building which housed a number of peep-shows, adult book shops and the XXX Harem Theater.

You can just make out the glow from the lit-up marquee of the Movieplex 42 at the right edge of the photo – which would also finish out its short life before the year was out.

frankie —youcould have said the couple……….no need for black

I went here with a friend to see the horrible “All The King’s Men.” The black couple behind us wouldn’t shut up, so we had to change our seat.

Ed, that’s the Empire booth all right. That’s one of the steeper balconies (note the handrails at the end of each aisle). Also notice the light coming through what looks like a hole at the bottom of the booth on the right hand side of the picture. That hole (which I remember as being squared off and neater) is at floor level. You could stand in the rewind “room” at the bench which ran at right angles to the front wall just next to the entrance door at that end of the booth and ran to the back wall, and look through an opening in that “wall” at bench level, across the booth and through the floor level opening to see at least the top of the screen. It may not be the steepest angle booth I’ve ever been in, but it was close. Notice also the conduit run on the outside of the booth. Since it was an asbestos booth, the “walls” were just asbestos panels probably around an inch thick, thus there was no place to bury the conduit in the walls. A lot of the booths built in former legit theatres were of similar construction, just dumped in at the back of balconies, in this case on a platform built up over the seats a few rows out. It hadn’t changed any from 1958 when I was there in the 70’s, but the upper balcony wasn’t open and was kept locked up until the show was over, and the staff unlocked the gates to let me out. Great shot!

While I’m harking back to old posts, RobertR posted this newspaper clipping back in May and I was wondering if anyone could identify the Manhattan Theater at 51st and B'way where “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is playing and the Stanley on 7th Ave near 42nd Street where the seemingly racist wartime propaganda film “Ravaged Earth” is playing. Would these be AKA’s for the old Warner and Rialto Theaters, respectively?

Here’s a 1993 article I found on the NY Times' online archives. The link should work indefinitely as the article is free – at worst you may have to register on the website which is free. Anyway, it’s an interesting piece about how the Empire’s facade was dressed up (and then distressed) for filming of the Schwarzenegger movie “The Last Action Hero.” The article was written at a time when re-development plans for the Duece had stalled for a couple of years and most of the old Duece grind houses sat empty in a state of advancing decay awaiting their fate.

I remember all the hooplah when they had that giant inflated Lou Costello “tug” the Empire down the block to its present location. The process made it to segments on all the local news channels at the time as well as all the daily papers. I remember thinking back on my days seeing films on 42nd Street when I read the about the plans to have the shell of the theater used as an entrance to a large multiplex and how escalators would transport ticketholders through the old proscenium, thinking what a great idea that was. The original Empire was a pretty cozy place and had virtually no lobby space. Converting the old auditorium to one of the multiplex’s screens would have been impossible unless the complex’s lobby was built adjacent to the theater and one entered along the side wall of the auditorium. As far as returning it to legitimate use, it might have made a nice companion to the jewel box Victory at the other end of the Duece and surely would have been re-fitted to under 500 seats in order to expand the lobby and skirt the union demands of legit B'way houses. I wonder if it would have found a niche as the New Victory did.

That gadget with the blinking red light sounds like a night vision goggle. When a bootleg DVD is traced to a particular theatre, the goggles and bag searches can help track cam corder pirates on new movies.

I don’t think we can hold AMC Empire responsible for Times Square audiences but their staff behaviour and absence of duty managers is indeed often unforgivable.

Bway… LuisV is correct. After most of those theaters closed and sat vacant for a few years, the city allowed some artists to display these short phrases on the marquees of all the Duece grind houses. Only the Harris was spared, as it was still in full operation during the project. I can’t recall if the Harem was still in operation at the time. The Roxy Twin adjacent to the New Amsterdam was still advertising porn, while the other Roxy Twin by the Empire was in mid conversion to the shortlived Movieplex 42. The Anco had been converted to retail for a number of years by this time. All the others, however, had these sayings on the marquees. A different saying on each face of each marquee to boot. Check out the other CT pages for the Victory, New Amsterdam, Selwyn, Lyric, Liberty, Harris and Times Square theaters for other shots I took at the same time.

Ed, was that a movie playing at the Empire, “WHat will save us now that sex won’t”, or was that something to say that now that porn is out of the theater, what will keep it alive?

Great ad, Warren! You think anyone could get away with such a racist Al Quaeda caricature today as the Japanese one seen in the center of that block of ads?

I’ve added a few shots I took in 1993 of the Empire to my photbucket album. At the time, all of the Duece grind houses (except the Harris) were closed and stripped of their signage. Their bare marquees were being used for some sort of public poetry project. The Empire still had the set dressings on its exterior left there by the makers of the Arnold Schwarzenegger film “The Last Action Hero”. The Empire was featured in that flick as “Arcade’s Pandora Theater” and a pair of ornamental cartouches on the lower facade (at either side of the marquee) as well some intricately carved shields on the theaters doors were added and left in place by the set decorators:

Empire facade
Faux “Pandora” cartouche
42nd Street Focus Group sign
“Pandora” door shield

That sign in the 3rd picture is interesting, albeit a bit hard to read in the print due to the glare in the display case glass. Here’s what it reads, as best as I can determine (guesses on illegible words in parentheses):

“We are in the middle of an experiment to find out how to control an element that we don’t like. Maybe this element that we are all so frightened about will ultimately, when social realities change, participate in finding new places to go. We can’t plan this whole thing (wondering) about whether or not these people are going to continue to stand (on the corner) or not. It’s self defeating in my opinion. We have to take 42nd Street and assume with the proper control those people will go away. 42nd Street Focus Group.”