These are all great, great stories, hilarious, esp. Joe B.'s story about the revival house filled with unruly patrons, i.e., "You bitches just have NO RESPECT!!" And yes, as far as Claude Litton goes, as I've said many times, he's SO DIFFERENT from his Internet persona; I've always said that Claude reminds me of a gentle, respectful and protective sage that you'd find in any RKO movie. Meanwhile, FRANC is spot on about Mamma Leone's. My FIRST visit to NY many years ago -- yup, I was one of those idiots who ATE that spaghetti with ketchup sauce and immediately got the dry heaves, I'm not joking. Just awful, a big rip-off. It reminds me of that Woody Allen joke, "the food in this place is terrible!" "I know, and such small portions."
I'm in NY often for both business and for fun -- but what always gets me is this: why do most New Yorkers move away? The weather? What? Too expensive? NY isn't JUST Manhattan as some would like you to believe. I NEVER run out of things to do; for ex., on a lark, I rode the train to visit Jackie Robinson's grave a few years ago and it was deserted. After decades of lifting weights, hiking trails and what not, NYC permanently transformed me into an urban mind-set w/its arts, films, books, diversity and all that jazz, etc. Greatest city in the world and I've been almost everywhere. Yet I know pals in Brooklyn and in Manhattan -- who have NEVER walked across their own spectacular Brooklyn Bridge. That cracks me up. The only thing preventing me from moving east is the big family I married into here. I guess it's analogous to my not appreciating the self-proclaimed "world famous" San Diego Zoo; but hell, at least I can say that I've traipsed through it a few times. -d. -----Original Message----- Date: Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:17:45 -0400 From: [email protected] Subject: Re: NEW YORK THEATERS To: [email protected] Someone in Manhattan bought the remnants of an old Horn and Hardart and opened one in the early 90s in the East 50s but it wasn't the same at all. They used the automat dispensers for decoration only. They lines the walls but didn't work. The novelty wore off quickly and the restaurant folded. The building that the H&H was in on W57th Street still exists and is currently being used by a Seafood restaurant. Momma Leone's served spaghetti with Ketchup sauce to gullible tourists on theatre packages up until the early 90s also. Being of Italian descent, I resented that restaurant and what they called Italian-American food. Luckily that's one is gone for good. FRANC -----Original Message----- From: MoPo List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Richard Halegua Comic Art Sent: Saturday, June 20, 2009 5:26 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [MOPO] NEW YORK THEATERS i was trying to remember the name of Momma Leone's it wasn't my favorite Italian joint, being uptown and all, but I used to go there from time to time if we couldn't go to Little Italy the Horn & Hardart I remember best is the one that was across from Grand Central.. Tads was a few doors down I think that H&H was open until the early 80s, or at least until the late 70s At 02:15 PM 6/20/2009, Richard Del Belso wrote: You're right, Rich...it was called Horn and Hardart. there was even one on 57th Street, near 6th Avenue. I had forgotten about Tad's...perhaps that's for the best. does anyone remember the Brass Rail, or Mamma Leone's besides me? I used to eat there a lot ( again...a lot of food, for cheap) even though there weren't any movie posters there. Richard Del Belso -----Original Message----- Date: Sat, 20 Jun 2009 12:55:46 -0700 From: [email protected] Subject: Re: [MOPO] NEW YORK THEATERS To: [email protected] yeah there were a few of those. One used to be right by Grand Central Station Horn & Hardart's I want to say was the name..... they were famous in the 1930s as places where out of work people would go in and at the time you could get a cup of hot water without having to pay first. Ketchup & crackers were still available on the condiments counter & they would put ketchup in the hot water, stir it up and make tomato soup and then crumble the crackers into it. I think you were able to do this into the 1960s before they changed it so you had to pay first so they would give you a cup and the crackers were taken off the counter I can't remember what 1930s movie showed this practice you know what folks.. reminiscing can be fun!!! Rich At 12:43 PM 6/20/2009, Roland Lataille wrote: Hey, I remember going to a restaurant and you put coins in a slot, opened the little glass door and took out a sandwich or a piece of cake. What were those called? --- On Sat, 6/20/09, Richard Halegua Comic Art [email protected] wrote: From: Richard Halegua Comic Art [email protected] Subject: Re: [MOPO] NEW YORK THEATERS To: [email protected] Date: Saturday, June 20, 2009, 3:18 PM Times Square was one of the most interesting places on Earth for many years. I always liked it because it was an anachronism of life.. in the winter a limousine could be dropping off a guy in $1000 tailored suit with a fur-coated babe on each arm and they might have to step over a homeless guy sleeping on the subway grating (warm air comes up through the gratings), there would be a couple society ladies headed up to Broadway to see a play and then a couple hookers rousting a guy while a couple dopers would be buying from a pusher. Every kind of person you could imagine was standing on that street trying to make plans One of the most obvious places was a pinball & later video game parlor called Fascination and Melody Burlesque was down the street. There were several theatres showing Kung-Fu flicks and to this day I have never been able to find a copy of one of my favorites - Mad Monkey Kung-Fu. I remember seeing it on a double bill with the 12 Drunken Masters In front of some of the theatres were hawkers trying to get you in and there was the porno bookstore on ground level that had the private booths upstairs. All the babes would be advertising to get you to walk into "their booth" for a show. I remember running into a comic book dealer friend up there once and even though he was a buddy, he was so embarassed he left almost immediately There was a Howard Johnsons and if I remember correctly Dempsey's too. I think Dempseys had a sign that told you how great their pie was and there was a Nathan's hot dogs joint. I was surprised on more than one occasion to see Carol Channing, Walter Cronkite (Walter is about to take his last breath folks) or other actors there. Once - and this would be specifically be 1978 because of the girlfriend I was with - we were having milkshakes and Will Geer sat down at our table (Nathan's had those long 16 people tables). I asked him for his autograph and he said "Sure. Just let me finish my hot dog". I know I had seen teh flea circus that Richard Del Belso mentioned, but I was pretty young. Maybe 5-6, so I don't recall any of it sadly, all of this is gone now.. Left in our collective memories which will also be gone to the black hole at some point and all that will remain will be pictures. I lived in Queens and the theatre I most often went to as a kid & young teen was the Lefferts Theatre on Lefferts Boulevard and 120th street. I remember seeing a double bill Hard Day's Night & HELP! in 1965. I was with my 2 brothers (I was 8, my brothers 10 & 11). Before the movie they had the Dave Clark 5 short, Manfred Mann and some others and outside they had scads of posters including the billboard on the side of the building that was 120th st. The Beatles heads were enormous. They also had freebies like a beatles wig and stuff. It was a big weekend and the theatre was jam packed and if I remember correctly, it was just 75 cents!! We were there all day long. Nobody chased us out after the first feature. Not too long ago I was able to score the Dave Clark 5 1sh that was displayed. The theatre was great - they had stills and posters and lobby cards all over the outside and on the inside too. the Lefferts was a fun theatre too. Saturdays always had matinees and they may have been just a quarter. Always a double bill, cartoons, in the mid-60s they showed the Superman, Batman, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials - one episode of Batman and Supe or later Flash & Buck each week and you got a little wallet card they would punch out. If you saw episodes 1-11, you got to see episode 12 for free (I guess that meant we got in free that week period) across the street and down a block or so was Uncle Jack's toy shop. I bought all the Aurora monster kits there and the old man was as nice as anyone you could meet. If he didn't have the toy or model you wanted, he would order it for you for a 10 cent deposit and seeing as he didn't have the Bride of Frankenstein model kit in stock, I ordered that one. Sometime in the late 60s I remember the shop was closed for a few days because a couple junkies had robbed & beaten him also, Bruce is right.. at 8-9-10-11, we used to get on the subway by ourselves and go all the way to Manhattan. When I was 9 I took the trains all the way up to the Bronx - by myself - with $100 cash that I had made selling comics - to go to a guy's house who was a friend of Gary Dolgoff so I could buy early Marvels. I came back - again, all by myself - with 2 shopping bags full of comics. I don't think anyone bothered me. I also used to take the trains regularly at that age to go to the Museum of Natural History on 79th street in Manhattan because I was in love with dinosaurs and they had the best exhibit of fossils and the rooms with live lizards were totally kick-ass. NYC was lots of fun back in those days, but I haven't been back since 1992 or 93, even though I've been planning on going for a visit for some years. The first place I'm going to head to os Katz's Delicatessen on Houston St and have some corn beef, some of their hand made hotdogs and a potato kanish Rich At 08:03 AM 6/20/2009, Bruce Hershenson wrote: Richard One of the great disappointments of my childhood was when my uncle (a weird guy and the highlight of my childhood) promised to take me to HUBERT'S FLEA CIRCUS. It must have been around 1964 or 1965 when I was around 11 or 12. I was really excited, and I met him at Penn Station (my parents used to let the 11 year old me go by myself to Manhattan, where strikes me as crazy in retrospect), and we went to Times Square, and if I remember right it was in the basement of some building, but the flea circus was gone (although the sign was still there). So I never did get to see those trained fleas! Bruce On Sat, Jun 20, 2009 at 9:40 AM, Richard Del Belso <[email protected] > wrote: Bruce, claude... The "art house" on 42nd street back in the day was called the Apollo. I used to go there late at night, after doing my college homework, and see double bills of old Ingmar Bergman movies, like THE NAKED NIGHT and MONIKA. It was a "grind house'..just kept repeating the shows all day and all night. The Theater is still there but It has been converted into a legitimate playhouse now, under a different name, repudiating its somewhat unsavory past. So has the theater next door, the Victory. Across the street is the New Amsterdam , which was originally used as a legit theater for the Ziegfeld Follies. When I was in college, it had fallen into disrepair and was just another grind house showing third-run American movies and exploitation films...but signs of its former glory were still visible. After almost falling apart, the theater was beautifully restored and the musical version of THE LION KING was installed there. I think disney put up a lot of the money for the restoration, as they did in LA for the El Capitan. Around 1960, i once went down to the penny arcade on the corner of 42nd St. and Broadway to see the flea circus. Yes, it was a real flea circus (HUBERT'S FLEA CIRCUS) where the guy had put thin-stretched strands of gold wire around the necks of these tiny fleas, which he kept in a box filled with cotton wadding. he could pick them up by the wire, and then attach them to toy chariots to stage a chariot race, or turn them upside down and place balsa wood balls on their legs to stage a 'who can kick the ball farthest" contest. he also had cut out tiny paper triangular costumes in different colors and placed one over each flea. the fleas wold then naturally start to jump, and the costumes would wriggle, which, when set to music, became 'the dancing fleas". The cost for this never-to-be-forgotten display of weirdness? One quarter! Ah, New York, New York. I'm with Claude...a total New York-o-phile. but I had to move to LA in 1976, and I have to admit it's pretty nice there, too...Academy screening are one of the nicest things about life here. ciao for now... Richard Richard Del Belso -----Original Message----- Date: Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:32:37 -0400 From: [email protected] Subject: Re: [MOPO] NEW YORK THEATERS To: [email protected] In the 70's there were a huge amount of those theaters and peep shows in that area. This went from 8th Ave to 6th Ave and from 40th St to 50th St. There were also a huge amount of street walkers hanging around all the theaters and they were very dangerous if you were not polite. I remember when one man was approached and instead of saying "no thanks" called her a whore. She stabbed him right in broad daylight. In my college years I went to a theater on 86th St. where they only showed films in German. I used to go on Fridays when classes ended early. 86th St. was known as Germantown. We went to a famous German restaurant there when I graduated from law school. I don't recall the name. The real estate boom also killed the area and the developers moved in. Today it hardly exists. This is a part of town that I really miss. Claude In a message dated 6/20/2009 9:21:22 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: In my youth they would still show some classic movies in the falling down Times Square theaters. I think the admission was like $1.75. I remember once I went to some classic movie, and a scary guy was hanging by the ticket booth. I gave $2 to the ticket taker, and was handed a quarter back, and the scary guy said, "Give me the quarter". I just kept walking and he said, "Give me the quarter or I'll kill you"! I kept walking, and he said, "I am going to wait right here, and whenever you come out, I will kill you." I went in and watched the movie, and the whole time I kept thinking of that guy. When it was over I went out, and he was nowhere to be seen. If that was the present day, I would give him the quarter! Bruce On Sat, Jun 20, 2009 at 7:47 AM, Claude Litton <[email protected] > wrote: I have seen them all since I was 17 years old. I went to college and law school in New York City and have spent my working life there. I have walked the streets of NYC for over 50 years and have always been thrilled with everything. I have been involved with NYC real estate all these years and still love it. I went to NYU in Greenwich Village and my friends and I used to peek in at the old burlesque theaters (before we got kicked out) and got to the movies in virtually every theater already mentioned in other emails (so I wont repeat them). I remember all the old decrepit Times Square theaters before they cleaned up the area. The police used to walk 4 abreast because the area was so dangerous and I am speaking about daylight hours, not just at night. I remember going to the theaters on 57th street when one of them was an art theater and the other was showing xxx films. I remember Deep Throat and the Devil In Miss Jones playing for many years as a double bill. The Paris Theater showed art films for many, many years before the real estate got too valuable and getting old movies on VHS destroyed the market for these theaters. My office is at 295 Fifth Avenue across from the Empire State Building and if anyone is in NYC they are welcome to visit. I have over 50 movie posters framed in my office suite including 6 of my Chan 3 sheets. Joe Bonelli stopped in last year and we had a great time. Just email me in advance to make certain I am in because I don't work as many hours as I did when I was younger. I stopped going to work on Fridays 9 years ago and leave at 2 pm. Claude Litton In a message dated 6/20/2009 3:06:34 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: I was lucky enough to be in NYC when HORROR OF DRACULA had just opened at the Marfair Theater so I got to see the hugh Times Square wrap-around billboard poster above the theater. I also got to see the display of the fiends (in a hugh fish tank) from FIEND WITHOUT A FACE located right in front of the theater in Times Square. Anybody else in our group see these fantastic advertising displays???? Larry Springer Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
