From The Tivoli To The Adonis Webinar

Service Description

From 1975 to 1990, the Adonis was New York City’s largest and most notorious gay adult movie theater. It was located on Eighth Avenue between 50th and 51rst Streets, on the border between Hell’s Kitchen (Clinton) and the Theater District. It anchored the northern end of the Minnesota Strip, an infamous stretch of Eighth Avenue known for its porno theaters, peep shows, and prostitutes—both male and female, and those in-between. But how did it get there, and what became of it? It started out in the 1920s as a 3000-seat Art Deco movie palace called the Tivoli. What roles did Prohibition, the Great Depression, World War II, suburbanization, the sexual revolution, the gay liberation movement, the fiscal crisis, the AIDS and crack epidemics, real estate, and VCRs play in its rise and fall? And why will we probably never see its like again? Along the way we will meet: • The Holocaust survivor who built a porno empire on the Minnesota Strip. • The adult film director who put the Adonis on the map. • The real estate developer who dreamed of turning the Minnesota Strip into the next Wall Street. • The white-shoe law firm attorney with a terrible secret. • The depraved killer who exposed the hypocrisy of the business elite. • The Greek financier and former First Lady who rubbed shoulders with pornographers. • And a half dozen New York City mayors who all vowed to “clean up Times Square”—with decidedly mixed results. As one movie reviewer wrote, “get your hot buttered popcorn, relax, and enjoy the show!”