Roxy

Chapter 9
The Roxy Art Theater

This pocket-sized building used to be the Roxy. You can see where the box office used to be. I could barely squeeze into that space. The projection booth must have been crammed just behind the ad that now reads “Go Lobos!” Before becoming the Roxy, Christmas trees were sold on this property (November 1941). By May 1944 it was the Banana King Market, which also sold Christmas trees. In October 1945 it became Ken Carmichael Realtor Insurance. By February 1955 it was a liquidation outfit called Used Furniture Exchange. By January 1957 it was Business Machines Company. By May 1962 it was Jobs Unlimited. After the Roxy closed, it became, by March 1967, a PR firm called Richard G. Geha & Associates which must have had poor PR, as it shuttered immediately. Then it became Campus Billiards, which was for sale by February 1968 and reopened by November 1969. As Grasshopper Books, Inc., it declared bankruptcy by February 1971. I remember it as the main entrance to Living Batch Books, which moved around the corner a few years later. Now it’s the thorax of the expanded Frontier Restaurant.

The Roxy, 83 seats(?), at 2406 Central Ave SE, opened Monday, 15 April 1963, with Russ Meyer’s Eve and the Handyman, and continued mostly with nudie cuties, but it occasionally presented other items, such as Antonioni’s Eclipse and the shortened Birth of a Nation. There was also Tales of Paris, aka Les Parisiennes (26 July 1963) and The Pit of Loneliness, aka Olivia (1 November 1963) and Some Kind of a Nut (formerly Down among the Z Men) (6 December 1963). They tried. They really tried to break out of the mold. The owner/operators were Tom Coleman and Don Dee Dunham (remember him?) through their C & D Enterprises.

Can anybody help me find the family or friends or heirs of Thomas Eugene Coleman (Jun 1938 – 2 Jan 1997, formerly of 6410 Commercial St NE and 5976 Avenida Barranca NW)? Pretty please with sugar and honey on it?

Thomas Eugene Coleman, 1954 high-school yearbook

Various newspaper sources gave the seating capacity as about 75 or 77, not 83. So, who knows? You probably don’t understand the Tucson reference. I certainly didn’t, and so I looked it up: The Movie was the former Portofino’s Caffe Espresso at 1039 E 6th St in Tucson AZ, remodeled to become a 75-seat “art” house owned by Louis Leithold’s Tucson Cinema Guild. Leithold hired a Jim Webb to open the venue on Saturday, 4 February 1961. A Jerry Davich served as manager. Just two months after the above news story about Tom Coleman’s Roxy, The Movie was taken over by Louis K. Sher’s Art Theatre Guild of America, Inc., and a William Ramsay was appointed manager (Ramsay’s name has already appeared above in a news item about Don Pancho’s). The Movie lasted just about two weeks beyond the takeover and its last show was Saturday, 29 June 1963. Ramsay promised to redecorate and reopen the cinema by about 1 October 1963. In fact, Ramsay and the ATGoA demolished The Movie and then promised to replace it with a larger cinema, but I don’t think that ever happened. Was The Movie a good business model for the Roxy to emulate? I think not.

List of Films Presented
at the Roxy Art Theatre
(Titles in bold are NOT nudie-cuties)

Mon 15 Apr 1963	Eve and the Handyman (1961)
Fri 03 May 1963	The Birth of a Nation (1930 abridged reissue of the 1915 original; premièred at Don Pancho’s 17 Apr 1966) SHORT: The Tramp (1915, premièred probably at B probably in 1915; reissued by Jacob Harris “Jack” Hoffberg Productions probably in 1948. Who did the music? Does anybody know?)
Fri 17 May 1963	Room Mates (1961) The Immoral Mr. Teas (1959)
Fri 24 May 1963	The Immoral Mr. Teas (1959)
Fri 19 Jul 1963	Young Sinners (1959) Naked in the Deep (1961, now lost; if you know where a copy is hiding, please let me know. Thanks! Despite the partial nudity, this was supposedly a superb anamorphic Eastmancolor documentary, I presume about the Ama pearl divers, and it won an award at the Venice Film Festival.)
Fri 26 Jul 1963	Tales of Paris (1962, deceptive ad, not a nudie)
Fri 02 Aug 1963	One Plus One (aka 1+1, 1961)

Tue 06 Aug 1963	Eclipse (1962, Albuquerque première)


Fri 16 Aug 1963	Pagan Hellcat (Maeva, 1961, supposedly written by Maya Deren) This film seems to have vanished. If you can find a copy, please let me know. Thanks!

Fri 23 Aug 1963	Have Figure Will Travel (1963)
Fri 13 Sep 1963	Europe in the Raw (1963)
Tom Coleman’s remarks are a bit slanted, no? Let us perform an action replay of one particular remark: “It’s almost a necessity to run nudies periodically to make up for the losses we sustain on art films.” Huh? The Roxy almost never ran “art films.” The Roxy ran almost exclusively nudie-cuties. Coleman’s statement, if he indeed said such a thing, was a misrepresentation at best. He mentions three art houses and implies that the Roxy is one of them. Which were the other two? I assume he meant Don Pancho’s and the Lobo, but what about the Esquire, which was running a few “art” films at the time? The Esquire bounced around from second run to nudie-cutie to Méxican to horror to artsy, hoping to find the winning formula. It never found the winning formula. The one and only time I attended, it was a grocery store. The land it stood on is now part of a park.
Fri 11 Oct 1963	Eve or the Apple (1957)
Fri 18 Oct 1963	Take off Your Clothes and Live (1963)

Fri 01 Nov 1963	Pit of Loneliness (aka Olivia, 1951)
Fri 08 Nov 1963	Girl in Trouble (1963)
Fri 15 Nov 1963	Kipling’s Women (1961)
Fri 06 Dec 1963	Some Kind of a Nut (1952) Caged Women (1953)
Fri 13 Dec 1963	Knockers Up (1963)
24-25 DEC	CLOSED FOR THE HOLIDAY
Fri 03 Jan 1964	Garden of Eden (1954) Lady Godiva (1951, deceptive ad, not a nudie) Girl Gang (1954, deceptive ad, not a nudie)
Fri 17 Jan 1964	The Immoral Mr. Teas (1959)
Fri 24 Jan 1964	Strange Lovers (1963)
Fri 31 Jan 1964	The Wild and the Naked (1962)
Tue 04 Feb 1964	Forbidden Paradise (1958)
Tue 11 Feb 1964	The Ruined Bruin (1961)
Fri 28 Feb 1964	Nature’s Paradise (1959)
Fri 06 Mar 1964	Wild Gals of the Naked West! (1962)
Fri 20 Mar 1964	The Naughty Shutter (1963)
Tue 24 Mar 1964	Nude on the Moon (1961)
Tue 31 Mar 1964	Steam Heat (1959)

Tue 14 Apr 1964	Heavenly Bodies! (1963)
Tue 28 Apr 1964	As Nature Intended (1961)
Tue 05 May 1964	Knockers Up (1963)
Tue 12 May 1964	Girlsapoppin (1964)
Tue 19 May 1964	Paradisio (1962)
Tue 02 Jun 1964	The Sin of Mona Kent (1961)
Tue 09 Jun 1964	Mr. Peters’ Pets (1962)
Tue 23 Jun 1964	*The Twilight Girls* (aka Les collégiennes, 1957, deceptive ad, not a nudie, well, not exactly; Radley Metzger spiced it up for the US release; well, hey, that’s Radley for you)
Tue 30 Jun 1964	Hideout in the Sun (1960)
Tue 07 Jul 1964	Boin-n-g (1963)
Tue 14 Jul 1964	The Naked Tales of Christine Keeler (1963, surely a reissue of The Christine Keeler Story) Christine Keeler’s Sex Trap (1963, probably a reissue of Tales of Christine) GalArama (1949, surely a reissue of The French Peep Show, Russ Meyer’s legendary lost first film; if you know where a copy is hiding, please let me know. Thanks!) Ding-Dong Bell (1963, probably a reissue of Bell, Bare and Beautiful)
Tue 21 Jul 1964	Nature’s Sweethearts (1963)
Tue 28 Jul 1964	Erotica (1961)
Tue 04 Aug 1964	The Saucy Aussie (1963)
Tue 11 Aug 1964	Vice Girls, Ltd. (1964)
Tue 18 Aug 1964	The Wild and the Naked (1962)
Tue 25 Aug 1964	Peep Shows of Paris (1949, surely another reissue of The French Peep Show, Russ Meyer’s legendary lost first film; if you know where a copy is hiding, please let me know. Thanks!)
Tue 01 Sep 1964	The Fourth Sex (1963)
Tue 08 Sep 1964	Naked Complex (1963)
Tue 15 Sep 1964	The Undressed West (1964)
Tue 22 Sep 1964	Queens Wild (1961)
Tue 29 Sep 1964	Day of a Stripper (1964)
Tue 13 Oct 1964	A 1,000 Shapes of a Female (1963)
Tue 20 Oct 1964	Hollywood Nudes Report (1963)
Tue 27 Oct 1964	Kipling’s Women (1961)
Tue 03 Nov 1964	She Should Have Stayed in Bed (1963)
Tue 10 Nov 1964	Nude Las Vegas (1964)
Tue 17 Nov 1964	The Orgy at Lil’s Place (1963) Nudist’s Memories (1961)
Tue 01 Dec 1964	Adam and Six Eves (1962)
Tue 08 Dec 1964	The Touchables (1961)
Tue 15 Dec 1964	Sexy Proibitissimo (1963)
Fri 25 Dec 1964	CLOSED FOR THE HOLIDAY
Tue 29 Dec 1964	White Slaves of Chinatown (1964)
Tue 12 Jan 1965	The Festival Girls (1961)
Tue 26 Jan 1965	Hollywood’s World of Flesh (in partial color) (1963)
Tue 09 Feb 1965	Once upon a Knight (1961)
Tue 16 Feb 1965	The Erotic Mr. Rose (1964)
Tue 23 Feb 1965	House on Bare Mountain (1962)
Tue 09 Mar 1965	Olga’s Girls (1964)
Fri 19 Mar 1965	Surftide 77 (1962)
Tue 30 Mar 1965	The Fourth Sex (1963)
Tue 06 Apr 1965	The Orgy at Lil’s Place (1963) Nudist’s Memories (1961)
Tue 13 Apr 1965	*Soft Skin on Black Silk* (aka Un mundo para mí, 1959, deceptive ad, not a nudie, well, not exactly; Radley Metzger spiced it up for the US release; well, hey, that’s Radley for you)
Tue 20 Apr 1965	The Naked Witch (1961) The Flamboyant Sex (1962)
Tue 27 Apr 1965	Bachelor Tom Peeping (1962)
Tue 04 May 1965	Play Girl after Dark (aka Too Hot to Handle, 1960; does the original color UK version still exist?) Day of a Stripper (1964)
Tue 11 May 1965	Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1964) As Nature Intended (1961)
Wed 19 May 1965	SINderella and the Golden Bra (1964)
Wed 26 May 1965	SINderella and the Golden Bra (1964) SHORT: The Topless Bikini (1965, no info about this film at all, anywhere)
Fri 04 Jun 1965	Strange Compulsion (1964)
Tue 15 Jun 1965	The Unsatisfied (aka Juventud a la intemperie, 1961)
Tue 29 Jun 1965	Daniella by Night (1961)
Tue 06 Jul 1965	Sin in the Suburbs (1964)
Tue 13 Jul 1965	*The Twilight Girls* (aka Les collégiennes, 1957, deceptive ad, not a nudie, well, not exactly; Radley Metzger spiced it up for the US release; well, hey, that’s Radley for you) *Soft Skin on Black Silk* (aka Un mundo para mí, 1959, deceptive ad, not a nudie, well, not exactly; Radley Metzger spiced it up for the US release; well, hey, that’s Radley for you)
Tue 27 Jul 1965	One Naked Night (1965)
Thu 05 Aug 1965	The Lovers (aka Les amants, 1958, deceptive ad, not a nudie)
Tue 10 Aug 1965	Sweet Ecstasy (aka Douce violence, 1962)
Tue 17 Aug 1965	*Flaming Desire!* (aka The Small Hours, 1962, deceptive ad, not a nudie)
Oooooo. Oooooo. Oooooo. Oooooo. Oooooo. Look what the Albuquerque Museum found! Photo taken on Sunday, 22 August 1965 at about 10:00 or 10:30 in the morning. This is from a small piece of paper that has tiny, blurry photos of some cinema frontages. Nobody knows where this small piece of paper came from. Note the display windows with the arch outlines. That was copied from Don Pancho’s.
Tue 24 Aug 1965	Eve and the Merman (1965)
Tue 31 Aug 1965	Nudes on the Rocks (1963)
Tue 07 Sep 1965	The Smut Peddler (1965)
Tue 14 Sep 1965	Sextet (1964)
Tue 21 Sep 1965	Crazy Wild and Crazy (1964)
Tue 28 Sep 1965	Lorna (1964)
Tue 05 Oct 1965	Lust and the Flesh (1965)
Fri 15 Oct 1965	Chained Girls (1965)
Tue 26 Oct 1965	Mme. Olga’s Massage Parlor (1965)
Tue 02 Nov 1965	Warm Nights and Hot Pleasures (1964)
Tue 09 Nov 1965	Watch the Birdie (1965)
Tue 16 Nov 1965	Impossible to identify
Tue 23 Nov 1965	Lullaby of Bareland (1964)
Tue 30 Nov 1965	The Skin Game (1962)
Tue 07 Dec 1965	Touched by Temptation (1965) Shame in the City (1965)
Tue 14 Dec 1965	The Love Makers (aka La Viaccia, 1961, deceptive ad, not a nudie)
Thu 16 Dec 1965	Kiss Me Quick (1964)
Tue 21 Dec 1965	The Weird Lovemakers (1960, dubbed)
Tue 28 Dec 1965	Tales of a Salesman (1965)
Tue 04 Jan 1966	Everybody Loves It (1964)
Tue 11 Jan 1966	Warm Nights and Hot Pleasures (1964) The Twilight Girls (aka Les collégiennes, 1957, deceptive ad, not a nudie, well, not exactly; Radley Metzger spiced it up for the US release; well, hey, that’s Radley for you)
Tue 18 Jan 1966	Love Hunger (aka La flor de Irupé, 1962, deceptive ad, not a nudie)

Tue 25 Jan 1966	Hawaiian Thigh (1965)
Tue 01 Feb 1966	*Pleasures & Vices* (aka Gueule d’ange, 1955, deceptive ad, not a nudie) SHORT: *Nudes & Variations* (1959, deceptive ad, not a nudie)
Tue 08 Feb 1966	Bad Girls for the Boys (1966)
Tue 15 Feb 1966	The Nude Scrapbook (1965)
Tue 22 Feb 1966	Nudes on Tiger Reef (1965)
Tue 01 Mar 1966	The Sadistic Lover (1966)
Tue 08 Mar 1966	If you can identify this movie, please let me know. Thanks! Courtesy of the Video Zeta One website, I am learning a little bit. The gal in this photo looks to me like one of the Bennett twins, either Dawn or Darlene (noms de l’écran), though I cannot be certain about that. Since this movie opened on 8 March 1966 in Albuquerque, we know that it is not newer than that. We see from the showtimes that the film is just over an hour long. We know from the display ad that the title was considered unprintable. Altogether, that places some boundaries upon our inquiry. I just spent hours searching the Internet, within those boundaries, and came up empty. I did find a lovely article about the twins, though. Oh my heavens! Total waste of time I committed. The university’s daily advertised the film and did not shy away from printing the title: The Slut (1965), another of those gawdawful Nick Millard flicks, and not a trace of the Bennett twins anywhere. So much for my powers of cognition. I wonder if this is a lost film.
Tue 15 Mar 1966	Her Bikini Never Got Wet (1962)
Tue 22 Mar 1966	The Festival Girls (1961)

The Roxy’s last show was on Monday, 28 March 1966, just a few weeks after C & D Enterprises opened The Guild. The Roxy then permanently “Closed for Remodeling.” I never saw the Roxy, which was long gone by the time I moved to Albuquerque. The shell of that building is now incorporated into the Frontier Restaurant, and you can still see where the microscopic box office was.

Continue to the next chapter.