Fleshback

Cameo Theater
693 Eighth Ave between 43rd and 44th Sts

THEN A hard-core porn palace, the Cameo got its shady rep from films such as the Olga trilogy—Olga’s Girls,White Slaves of Chinatown and Olga’s House of Shame—about a New York dominatrix peddling hookers and smut.

NOW No hookers, more smut. Currently the Playpen, the place is filled with neon-lit X-rated DVD and “live girls” stroke booths.

Liberty Theater
234 W 42nd St between Seventh and Eighth Aves

THEN In the early ’80s, this house showed fare such as Sex and Violence, about a husband and wife kidnapped, tied up and forced to watch one another humiliated (most grindhouse scene: when he’s made to pee on her).

NOW It’s the Times Square Hilton Hotel, where stuff like that probably still happens, just behind closed doors.

The Lyric Theater
213 W 42nd St between Seventh and Eighth Aves

THEN With a big lobby and comfy seats, this spot was Deuce deluxe, and the theater played a few Hollywood hits to go along with Bloodthirsty Butchers, which tells the same gory story as Sweeney Todd.

NOW Still an entertainment site, the very corporate Hilton Theater is currently hosting the Broadway musical The Pirate Queen.

Rialto Theater
1481 Broadway between 42nd and 43rd Sts

THEN The Bingo Brandt chain of theaters was known for anything-goes sex-and-violence grindhouse; appropriately, this outpost ran the “Flesh” trilogy—The Touch of Her Flesh,The Kiss of Her Flesh and The Curse of Her Flesh—about a cuckold out to kill every woman on earth.

NOW The Rialto last housed the tourist-only, motion-simulating Cinema Ride 1998, before being torn down. The Reuters Building now occupies the site.

Jerry Ohlinger's Movie Material Store

Times Square Theater
217 W 42nd St between Seventh and Eighth Aves

THEN You’d come to see stabbing, sex, pickpockets and piss—this was one of the most violent theaters, and it played the sickest fare, specializing in gory, pseudodocumentary Mondo films in the 1980s.

NOW It’s gone, and supposed to be replaced by a Marc Ecko store.

The New Amsterdam
214 W 42nd St between Seventh and Eighth Aves

THEN Between Flying Guillotine and Snuff, junkies shot up.

NOW It’s still the New Amsterdam, although if anyone’s doing drugs, it’s because of Mary Poppins.

All “then” info gleaned from Sleazoid Express by Bill Landis and Michelle Clifford.

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