As Mame opened in spring of ‘66 and Lansbury played in it through early '68 I wonder why they were redoing the billboard in'67. Maybe to put in Tony Winner? Looks like Bea Arthur was out at this point.
Cleopatra also got a fair amount of lousy reviews and was nowhere the hit it needed to be. I’m sure the Rivoli paid a ton of money for the film and needed a sold out hit for one and a half to two years to make a healthy profit on it. It needed to be a hit on the level of Ben Hur with a lot of Oscars being awarded to it. The fact that none of it happened made it ‘an inferior product.’
I’m a fan of the film myself and do not understand all the negativity surrounding it for decades even if there was all that pre-opening Taylor/Burton nonsense. I would give anything to see the original Mankiewicz 6 hour version which is lost forever. I saw it twice when the restored version was released in theaters in 2013. I had previously seen bits and pieces of it on TV. The 4 hours flew by.
I had no idea the Booth held the initial engagement of Julius Caesar. They were really out for the carriage trade with this one. Though the screen would have had to have been on the small size considering the intimacy of this theater.
The Cinerama Dome is closed for good? This is horrible. I was never in it and I’ll most probably never go to California again but I wanted it to always be there.
The Rivoli was ‘up’ on 49th Street and still showing The Sound of Music first run. It would have played the film into ‘67 but Fox wanted to get the film into the nabes and wanted the theater for The Sand Pebbles.
It never showed a D-150 movie. I think there were only two. I don’t even think it used its D-150 screen very often.
There is footage of the Royal premiere of Star! on youtube. As both Julie Andrews and Daniel Massey(at least we don’t see him but we see Noel Coward) are not there it doesn’t seem very exciting. And the Duke and Duchess of Kent? This makes it Royal? A wet firecracker. Like the film.
I saw this at MOMA many years ago. At the time I had no idea who Annabella was. She was at the presentation and spoke afterwards. A very elegant soignee old woman.
The stage show with the cars was a commercial for GM. They were also part of the finale ‘merry maypole romp.’ The ‘ballet’ was the dancers riding bicycles. The Matthau comedy festival would continue with the following feature Plaza Suite.
May was so furious with this cut of the film she demanded Paramount remove her name. They didn’t. If she had had her way the film would not have been the Easter movie. Though I have no idea at the time what they could have replaced it with as family films were no longer being made in this period.
Plaza Suite was not a family film and neither was the big summer film Murphy’s War which was a very depressing though not bad movie and the only time I heard f-ck in a Music Hall movie as I’ve already written about.
This theater housed the original Broadway production of Kiss Me Kate for a year and a half at which point it moved to the Shubert. Why such a big Cole Porter Broadway musical would play here so far uptown mystifies me. It didn’t keep it from being a smash it but still. Nothing else was available?
Anthony(Tony) Mordente was in the original cast of WSS, married Chita Rivera, is in the film of WSS and when Robbins was fired staged Peter Gennero’s Dance at the Gym choreography for the movie which I think is the highlight though others might prefer Robbin’s staging of America or Cool.
If you’ve seen the bluray of Hit the Deck that Hallelujah finale must have been mighty impressive on the Music Hall’s vast CinemaScope screen and in stereo.
Jeez Louise that was longer than Gone With the Wind. Everything but the bloodhounds nipping at his rear end.
‘and in private exclusive appointments where I was paid handsomely by the hour, never expecting to engage in any activity that endangered me legally, physically, or morally.’
Then what were they paying you for afternoon tea with cucumber sandwiches?
I saw this here. Scraping the bottom of the barrel with anything it could get its hands on. But a very nice picture of the Hall when it was still showing movies.
This is very late for a roadshow run considering the film opened in Dec ‘65. A year later is very unusual especially that the film was already played out in its first run engagements and going wide in other markets. As you can see from grindhouse’s other ad 6 weeks later it was already showcase. I would have thought the Syosset would have gotten it in spring or early summer of '66 when other suburban hard ticket venues would have had it. Especially that it was shown in Panavision not even taking advantage of the theater’s 70mm capabilities.
Well now I’ve seen everything. A Cinerama drive in. Did you have to reserve your parking space in advance? Did they give you seven speakers for your car? How did they afford the three projectionists? And the putting up and dismantling of the screen for flat film must have been expensive and a pain.
This stage show was the same that played with the ‘71 Wuthering Heights though the overture might have been different.
The Rockettes Bayou Rhythm number was sensational and one of the best I saw them do in the 70s. It’s unfortunate these numbers have been lost and they only do Christmas routines now.
Though its 70mm 6 track stereo days were over until its revival in the 70s. Unless you wanted to fly to see it at the Dominion in London where it was still on its first run hard ticket engagement.
I don’t see the C condemned rating in the ad which was given by the catholic church to this film as in suitable for no one. In other words the Music Hall’s first Christmas film was a dirty picture. It played for two weeks a hit holiday film for the time and Gene Raymond spoke about riding past the Hall and seeing the crowds lined up for the film and thinking those poor people are going to see a turkey. I don’t know why he felt that way as it is a lot of fun with some terrific Youmans' songs.
In The Godfather scene I believe there’s a news stand where there never had been a news stand because it would be in the way of pedestrian traffic and the area would most likely have been swarming with people either trying to get into the Hall or leaving it when the Christmas show was playing. I hate when they don’t get these things right. It throws me out of the movie.
Yes Jack Valenti lamented at the time of Without a Stitch about porn coming to a first run Broadway house. Especially one that recently had a year long run of a family roadshow.
Beautiful photo. Wish there were many more like this of midtown marquees. Close enough to get a full picture of the marquee and all adjacent artwork surrounding entrance. And in color. They are all too few at least those that survive. I’m sure the theater and the studios made many of them when a film first opened.
I find it interesting that this east side art house foreign film about a grown man’s obsession with a beautiful boy was playing at the Rivoli and the Fox in Hackensack. I saw my mother taking the DVD out of the library once and asked her if she knew what it is about and when I told her she immediately put it back.
By the way it is a very beautiful film but it is no longer the 70s and things are very different.
CMBMN doesn’t count because it is such schlock and has all the passion and sensuality of the Guiding Light
As Mame opened in spring of ‘66 and Lansbury played in it through early '68 I wonder why they were redoing the billboard in'67. Maybe to put in Tony Winner? Looks like Bea Arthur was out at this point.
Cleopatra also got a fair amount of lousy reviews and was nowhere the hit it needed to be. I’m sure the Rivoli paid a ton of money for the film and needed a sold out hit for one and a half to two years to make a healthy profit on it. It needed to be a hit on the level of Ben Hur with a lot of Oscars being awarded to it. The fact that none of it happened made it ‘an inferior product.’
I’m a fan of the film myself and do not understand all the negativity surrounding it for decades even if there was all that pre-opening Taylor/Burton nonsense. I would give anything to see the original Mankiewicz 6 hour version which is lost forever. I saw it twice when the restored version was released in theaters in 2013. I had previously seen bits and pieces of it on TV. The 4 hours flew by.
I had no idea the Booth held the initial engagement of Julius Caesar. They were really out for the carriage trade with this one. Though the screen would have had to have been on the small size considering the intimacy of this theater.
Audrey would soon be duking it out with Julie across the street in My Fair Lady at the Egyptian. Don’t let those Academy Awards pictures fool you.
The Cinerama Dome is closed for good? This is horrible. I was never in it and I’ll most probably never go to California again but I wanted it to always be there.
The Rivoli was ‘up’ on 49th Street and still showing The Sound of Music first run. It would have played the film into ‘67 but Fox wanted to get the film into the nabes and wanted the theater for The Sand Pebbles.
It never showed a D-150 movie. I think there were only two. I don’t even think it used its D-150 screen very often.
There is footage of the Royal premiere of Star! on youtube. As both Julie Andrews and Daniel Massey(at least we don’t see him but we see Noel Coward) are not there it doesn’t seem very exciting. And the Duke and Duchess of Kent? This makes it Royal? A wet firecracker. Like the film.
I saw this at MOMA many years ago. At the time I had no idea who Annabella was. She was at the presentation and spoke afterwards. A very elegant soignee old woman.
The stage show with the cars was a commercial for GM. They were also part of the finale ‘merry maypole romp.’ The ‘ballet’ was the dancers riding bicycles. The Matthau comedy festival would continue with the following feature Plaza Suite.
May was so furious with this cut of the film she demanded Paramount remove her name. They didn’t. If she had had her way the film would not have been the Easter movie. Though I have no idea at the time what they could have replaced it with as family films were no longer being made in this period.
Plaza Suite was not a family film and neither was the big summer film Murphy’s War which was a very depressing though not bad movie and the only time I heard f-ck in a Music Hall movie as I’ve already written about.
This theater housed the original Broadway production of Kiss Me Kate for a year and a half at which point it moved to the Shubert. Why such a big Cole Porter Broadway musical would play here so far uptown mystifies me. It didn’t keep it from being a smash it but still. Nothing else was available?
Anthony(Tony) Mordente was in the original cast of WSS, married Chita Rivera, is in the film of WSS and when Robbins was fired staged Peter Gennero’s Dance at the Gym choreography for the movie which I think is the highlight though others might prefer Robbin’s staging of America or Cool.
If you’ve seen the bluray of Hit the Deck that Hallelujah finale must have been mighty impressive on the Music Hall’s vast CinemaScope screen and in stereo.
Jeez Louise that was longer than Gone With the Wind. Everything but the bloodhounds nipping at his rear end.
‘and in private exclusive appointments where I was paid handsomely by the hour, never expecting to engage in any activity that endangered me legally, physically, or morally.’ Then what were they paying you for afternoon tea with cucumber sandwiches?
What, no Mascagni? How peculiar.
I saw this here. Scraping the bottom of the barrel with anything it could get its hands on. But a very nice picture of the Hall when it was still showing movies.
This is very late for a roadshow run considering the film opened in Dec ‘65. A year later is very unusual especially that the film was already played out in its first run engagements and going wide in other markets. As you can see from grindhouse’s other ad 6 weeks later it was already showcase. I would have thought the Syosset would have gotten it in spring or early summer of '66 when other suburban hard ticket venues would have had it. Especially that it was shown in Panavision not even taking advantage of the theater’s 70mm capabilities.
I do think it’s lousy they didn’t put Natwick in there.
Where in the world is Franco Nero?
Well now I’ve seen everything. A Cinerama drive in. Did you have to reserve your parking space in advance? Did they give you seven speakers for your car? How did they afford the three projectionists? And the putting up and dismantling of the screen for flat film must have been expensive and a pain.
This stage show was the same that played with the ‘71 Wuthering Heights though the overture might have been different. The Rockettes Bayou Rhythm number was sensational and one of the best I saw them do in the 70s. It’s unfortunate these numbers have been lost and they only do Christmas routines now.
Though its 70mm 6 track stereo days were over until its revival in the 70s. Unless you wanted to fly to see it at the Dominion in London where it was still on its first run hard ticket engagement.
I don’t see the C condemned rating in the ad which was given by the catholic church to this film as in suitable for no one. In other words the Music Hall’s first Christmas film was a dirty picture. It played for two weeks a hit holiday film for the time and Gene Raymond spoke about riding past the Hall and seeing the crowds lined up for the film and thinking those poor people are going to see a turkey. I don’t know why he felt that way as it is a lot of fun with some terrific Youmans' songs.
In The Godfather scene I believe there’s a news stand where there never had been a news stand because it would be in the way of pedestrian traffic and the area would most likely have been swarming with people either trying to get into the Hall or leaving it when the Christmas show was playing. I hate when they don’t get these things right. It throws me out of the movie.
Yes Jack Valenti lamented at the time of Without a Stitch about porn coming to a first run Broadway house. Especially one that recently had a year long run of a family roadshow.
Beautiful photo. Wish there were many more like this of midtown marquees. Close enough to get a full picture of the marquee and all adjacent artwork surrounding entrance. And in color. They are all too few at least those that survive. I’m sure the theater and the studios made many of them when a film first opened.
I find it interesting that this east side art house foreign film about a grown man’s obsession with a beautiful boy was playing at the Rivoli and the Fox in Hackensack. I saw my mother taking the DVD out of the library once and asked her if she knew what it is about and when I told her she immediately put it back. By the way it is a very beautiful film but it is no longer the 70s and things are very different.
CMBMN doesn’t count because it is such schlock and has all the passion and sensuality of the Guiding Light