100 Third Ave.'s theater past

Last Thursday, we pointed out that 74 Third Ave., the former home of Nevada Smith's, was nearly demolished...

Meanwhile, if all goes to plan, Nevada Smith's should be reopening one day up the Avenue at 100 Third Ave., a building that has been under renovation for a seemingly long time. (We recently noted the building's new, gargantuan addition.)

Anyway, here's a quick snapshot on the history of 100 Third Ave.

The Bright Light Film Journal has an overview of the address, noting that it opened in 1880 as a restaurant ... later becoming a music hall. In 1910, the building began life as a theater called the Comet...

[Via Cinema Treasures]

... and later the Lyric (circa 1936 here)...

[NYPL]

According to Cinema Treasures, it became the Jewel Theatre, which played all male films, in the 1960s. Some Cinema Treasure commenters posted movies ads for the theater.

From 1975:

From 1971:

Per the Bight Lights Film Journal:

Sporting tacky ornamentation like Greek pillars and an obsessive fondness for the ever popular whorehouse red, it was just as garish as its Times Square brethren. In the '70s it screened such fare as Joe Gage's Kansas City Trucking Company and El Paso Wrecking Corp., which ads billed as "Lusty, dusty, sweaty and hardhitting!"

In the 1980s, the place was renamed the Bijou, according to Cinema Treasures, and continued to show XXX fare.

In February 1989, City officials closed the theater (and the Variety the next block up), "charging that the owners of the Bijou Cinema were 'essentially operating an AIDS breeding ground with profit being the driving force,' Dr. Stephen C. Joseph, the New York City Health Commissioner," told The New York Times.

You can read more details at the Bright Lights Film Journal here.

Jeremiah's Vanishing New York has more history on other nearby, now-defunct theaters here.