I doubt Cleaview was behind this. Their Chelsea cinema has nine screens, not eight. I alway take these surveys with a grain of salt. All through the eighties the Angelika was consistently voted as New York’s best by reporters wanting to appear trendy.
Jodar, Digital and 3D formats cost a lot, have training, maintenance and parts demands, are obsolete once bought as they are constantly being improved, and most importantly, audience reaction has been indifferent so far as they generally can’t tell the difference.
As for MEET THE ROBINSONS, it is the latest version of what always killed 3D in the past. A bad movie.
As both you and Vito proved, it didn’t get you to wait to see it at the Ziegfeld. ROBINSONS did not cause a rush at the boxoffice in any format.
Industry hype never led audiences to drive past one theatre in favor of another unless the distinction was dramatic. THX, Dolby and even the multiplex mutation of 70mm did not come close to having the impact of say, Cinemascope or stadium seating. And neither has digital conversion, inevitable as it is.
I realise no one with more insight has answered, so here are my experiences.
When I worked for ABC Florida State Theatres in the early seventies we were aligned with Warner Bros. and United Artists. We would play all their films without exception along with half of the Buena Vista product in rotation. There was little diversion on the whole but there were exceptions in zones where we either did not have a theatre or a competitor did not.
In the South Florida area, screens were divided into three “tracks”. The first track consisted of all the larger screens in each booking zone and was the largest group with every zone represented. The second group was around on third the size and represented about half the zones as many did not have more than one screen.
The third group was made up of three screens.
The large track would get wide releases such as James Bond, Disney and the dirty harry sequels. Track two would get the more eclectic films such as MIDNIGHT COWBOY, KLUTE and WHAT’S UP? which needed time to build an audience.
The third track consisted of exclusive long engagements in each major population area, in this case Miami, Miami Beach and Ft.Lauderdale. This track would host long runs of films such as ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST and A STAR IS BORN in smallish screens.
The film bookers negotiated the tracks with each distributors. If the movie proved to be a blockbuster it would simply sell out week after week in the small track with no threat from DVD and with film rentals dropping in favor of the exhibitor. It was not rare for films to sit in the small screen at a twin for six months while flop after flop moved through the big screen for one-week runs. If all three distributors had Christmas films something got bumped till later resulting in some films opening months after their dates elsewhere. When product available was low we would play re-releases usually from those same distributors. BILLY JACK and BLAZING SADDLES (WB), GONE WITH THE WIND and RYAN’S DAUGHTER (UA) were perennial fillers.
I read it as a hooker who refused to give the local cop services for free or maybe he just didn’t like the Irish, but I may just be too cynical for the roaring twenties.
During a recent visit to see WE WILL ROCK YOU (don’t ask) I noticed the proscenium is badly tarnished (damaged?) by what appears to be the show’s excessive use of dry ice special effects.
I understand that damaged may be caused by the wear and tear for the sake of art, but this ain’t no STARLIGHT EXPRESS. And that tells you all you need to know about this show.
No sooner does Lost Memory find this theatre and a crime gets committed.
New York Times January 2, 1925
ARREST POLICEMAN ON WOMAN’S CHARGE
Badly beaten victim says she was attacked in a theatre vestibule late at night
“Policeman William Oehlerking of the East 104th Street Station was arrested yesterday morning …charged with beating a women while he was on post. The alleged assault occurred about 2:30 o’clock in the morning in the outer vestibule of the North Star motion picture theatre at 106th street and fifth Avenue… Mrs O’Brien …could not identify the man she charged with having beaten her. Oehlerking was arrested after Captain Loonam found a belt bearing his shield number in the vestibule of the theatre.â€
“In a change of plans, United Artists and City Investing have dropped the idea of combining the Astor Theatre and the Bijou on Broadway into a single house. Instead, a complete renovating job will be done on the Astor alone. It’ll run to $800,000, the cost to be shared 50-50 by UA and City Investing.
Seating capacity of the Astor will be cut to 1001 from the present 1100 and the new wide screen will measure 50ft. by 27ft. The third balcony will be eliminated and the mezzanine section will be extended…It’ll reopen on Dec. 17 with the preem of ‘On the Beach’, the Stanley Kramer production. “
Frederick Brown buys a block front on fifth avenue from 106th to 107th street…from the Dualin Holding Corporation William A. Daly Vice President… a plot of about 30,000 square feet fronting 201.10 feet on the avenue. 100 feet on 106th street and 196 feet on 107th street, at present time imporved(?) with a movie theatre and three five-story tenements.
The plot is two blocks from the new Museum of New York City..now under construction.
VEIT HARLAN GETS POOR N.Y. PRESS:
‘JEW SUESS’ NOTORIETY PERSISTING:
HOMO THEME AT EASTER ALSO A FACTOR
“With the sole exception of the N.Y. Daily News, every N.Y. newspaper reviewing the German import, “The Third Sexâ€, last week also noted that the picture had been directed by Veit Harlan, the man who made the anti-semitic “Jew Suess†for the Nazis.
Picture itself, with it’s theme of homosexuality, got panned by the mass circulation press, not on account of Harlan, but because the reviewers considered it an inappropriate attraction for the Easter season….
At United Artists, which is half-owner of the Plaza Theatre, where the import opened, the top echelon was reportedly dismayed as considerable reaction to the booking of the Harlan film began to come in. The house is owned 50-50 by UA and Ilya Lopert, who works for UA. Lopert books the house. Story is that the UA brass wasn’t aware of the booking until it got hit with the reaction. Lopert originally owned “The Third Sex†having acquired it for a reported $35,000.
He later sold it to David Dietz of D. & F. Distribution Corp. for $85,000. Dietz is new to the foreign film field and sez he “didn’t knowâ€â€â€¦.
Listed in todays Variety as having hosted the Spanish premier of SPIDER-MAN 3, so it is still going!
This was the World Premier home of Marisol (Pepa Flores) movies during the sixties. She was one of Spainish cinema’s biggest box office draws ever and is now retired.
Tonino, you are correct in that the splitting of the studios from their theatres lead to the closing of many theatres in the fifties that had been artificially kept open by guaranteed product. The elimination of the theatres was a blessing in the disguise for the studios as it allowed them to minimise the losses of attendance caused by TV and drop B movies and double features made to feed the pipeline. This caused a product shortage. It also gave studios some ready cash with which to go into the TV business. It also allowed many independent exhibitors to open small theatres and compete for first run films with old palaces like the RKOs. A cinema like the Casino could hold a film for many weeks on low overhead.
I recall working in an 800 seat theatre in the summer of 1977 while a handful of customers watched A BRIDGE TO FAR while the 200 seater in the mall turned them away from STAR WARS.
Two other elements that hurt some theatres in the seventies were the elimination of product splitting and blind bidding. Theatres could no longer count on studio alignments and bids had to openly divulged AFTER the film was screened. Those studio alignments were back in evidence in Manhattan until well into the nineties as Cineplex Odeon still always played Universal product and Loews played Sony films, products from their parent companies. This was made possible by deregulation during the Reagan years.
When VCRs first became popular they actually helped theatres. People who had never seen the originals rushed the theatres for the sequels and eventually lead to the phenomenon whereby sequels could outgross the originals. VCRs and DVDs introduced stars to whole new generation who had never seen them at a cinema.
I don’t think think day and date showcasing affected Manhattan houses by the seventies as it had been going on since 1962. It did bring first-run to the neighborhoods quicker at the expense of the Times Square theatres. Big houses like this RKO may have been counting the days on their lease as they probably had not sold out in years. The question remains, did many Manhattan leases run out in 1971 or was grind porn THAT lucrative?
Among the missing:
ACADEMY OF MUSIC
GLOBE
RIVERSIDE
DELANCEY
SYMPHONY
Not surprisingly, the Union did not want the platters either, but it became a disability issue.
My experience with New York projectionists was that they were some of the best and some of the worst in the country and their Union support was erratic and based on many things, none of which included job performance. We had guys in Brooklyn who never came to work when it snowed. One guy in Queens who refused to start the movie if there was bulb out anywhere in the building and a business agent who shut a multiplex theatre down when he and his mistress were not let in for free. One guy was collecting his phlegm in jar as proof that the xenon lamp was releasing ozone rays. One guy was arrested on site for stealing an Oscar. One guy brought a crack whore to work with him who promptly took all her clothes off and ran through the screen naked. One guy shut the theatre down when went up on the roof for a smoke and the door shut behind him and back to our Ziegfeld BACKDRAFT darling, he went home once BEFORE putting on the last reel.
On the positive side, one guy in Queens finished the show by hand- spinning the platter during a mid-film power fault.
The test was seriously outdated (people failed because they didn’t understand the questions, let alone the answers). It was difficult because it no longer applied to modern times and the Union could help those they wanted to pass it just a little by supplying a copy in advance.
Sample question:
Who moves to the print from the floor to the projection booth?
Answer:
The “reel” boy.
Remember that there was a serious product shortage in the late sixties-early seventies and that extended runs killed many subrun locations. Although many dollar houses eventually popped up in the suburbs in response, that was not an option in pricey New York and few theatres went into bargain pricing alternatives and survived.
There were two other theatres advertised as being in Richmond Hill in May 1968. A Casino and a Lefferts both advertised at the time. It would appear the Richmond Hill’s end came in mid-May with a double feature of IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT and THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING! THE RUSSIAN ARE COMING! shared with five other Queens runs. This was at a time when the Meadows and Lefrak demanded exclusive Queens runs. The RKO also seems to have been very much a “family†theatre at a time when wholesome product was failing at the box office. If it had held out a little longer may have been split up and stayed open for years.
After May 1968, I can find no other signs of it in the New York Times.
The early multiplexes were roof gardens that showed movies.
The increase by 1965 was mostly due to arthouse boom.
Most buildings in a single year – 1938. 21 new theatres although some were converted playhouses.
Most screen openings – 2000- 53 new screens. The megaplex arrives late in Manhattan.
Most screen closings – 1971- 50 screens disappeared although many just went over to grind porn and therefore off the radar. Some returned by the blockbuster years after JAWS and STAR WARS.
Joe, although my first visit to the deuce (from Florida) was in the mean and nasty mid-seventies, the larger than life movie displays and energy of the street was a life changing experience.
Today, it is still quite exciting but something is missing. It certainly isn’t tacky movies, thugs, drugs, hookers and hustlers as they are still there, if you care to look close enough.
I think it may be the symphony of a street that wasn’t hiding, like it is today and was instead promoting it with a carnival barker’s glee. The decadence was oddly liberating.
I have read that the street has never been wholesome and that the more decadent years started during the second war but the nadir (apex anyone?) had to be the eighties.
Certainly the arrival of a new Ripley’s will bring it down a notch or two and put that she-wolf frisky minx MARY POPPINS back in her place.
A total of 10,000,000 people paid an estimated $5,000,000 to see motion pictures last year in 10 theatres on one block in New York City. The 10 theatres are located on 42nd street between Broadway and 8th Avenue, a street frequently condemned because of its ‘carnival’ atmosphere.
Surrounded by pizza parlors, hot dog stands, shooting galleries, pokerino palaces, and novelty stores, the theatres, the theatres are nevertheless well maintained policed, and managed. This is no skid row.
The theatres â€" seven of which are operated by Brandt Theatres and three by Cinema Circuit â€" offer perhaps the most varied programming that can be obtained in any concentrated area in the world. The type of product available on the street in any one day â€" offers a choice to all tastes â€" from the discriminating intellectual to the uneducated laborer.
Although it is not generally known, each of the 10 theatres on the block follows a specific programming policy. For example, the Brandt’s Lyric and Cinema’s New Amsterdam are first subsequent run houses, playing pictures immediately after their Broadway runs and simultaneously with the key Loew’s and RK theatres. Pictures are booked at these houses for a week’s run. Brandt’s Apollo is an art house which offers the outstanding foreign language imports at popular prices after the films complete their first-run engagements. The bookings are exclusive for the area and the films are played for two to four weeks depending on the draw at the box office.
Brandt’s Times Square is a western and action outlet and the same circuit’s Victory concentrates on exploitation and horror films. The Selwyn (Brandt) and Harris (Cinema) are moveover houses. Brandt’s Liberty and Empire and Cinema’s Anco are strictly reissue outlets. The action and reissue outlets change bills twice a week.
Admission prices are moderate, the first sub-runs charge 40c.– 95c.; the art house ditto; the current product moveovers 30c.– 85c.; and the action and reissue houses 25c. â€" 65c. The theatres operate on an amazing schedule. The majority open at 8 a.m. and run to 3 a.m. the following morning, with several closing at 4 a.m. To maintain this operational schedule, the theatres employ three shifts of employees.
Contrary to general belief, the atmosphere of 42nd St. has not provided the managements wit undue problems of coping with juvenile delinquents and undesirables. According to Martin Levine, general manager of the Brandt houses, the 42nd St. theatres have no more problems than other theatres. As a matter of fact, he maintained, the juves make up only a small portion of the patronage. He noted, for example, that two recent pictures especially aimed at teenagers â€" ‘Shake, Rattle and Roll’ and Elvis Presley’s ‘Love Me Tender’ â€" fared poorly at the box office.
The theatres, however, have taken precautionary measures against young hoodlums and other undesirables. A crew of uniformed Burns guards make frequent tours of the theatres. The Brandt Theatres has long followed the policy of notifying parents when a juvenile is involved in a disturbance.
The 42nd St. patronage comes from all walks of life. Midnight workers are on hand for the 8 a.m. show. Salesmen, shoppers and others with several hours to kill dominate the afternoon audiences. Dater, married couple, and groups of young people make up the evening trade. Show people and other stay-up-laters are among the late film-goers.
The 42nd St. houses offer patrons a chance to catch up on missed pictures, a wide choice of pictures which enables groups to break up and meet later, and prices within the range of the general public. According to the belief of the 42nd St. operators, when a person comes to 42nd St. it’s not with the thought of seeing a specific film. However, after the potential customers looks over the wide selection, he then makes his choice.
19 Years as an Artie
Perhaps the most unique of the 42nd St. operations is the Apollo which has been running continuously for 19 years on an art house policy. Even during the war years when it was difficult to obtain foreign films, the house operated successfully by replaying over and over again the available imports. The house has a steady clientele and for each change of bills it send out 25,000 mailing pieces. The theatre is also a popular place with language students and many times whole classes from various New York high schools and colleges attend afternoon performances to absorb French or Italian, Shakespeare films also draw a large student audience and the management provides special reduced tickets for school groups.
Foreign films with English titles also draw a large audience of deaf and dumb individuals. Many of these people as well as their special schools are on the mailing list.
From a profit and cents standpoint, the 42nd St. houses have managed to buck the general sluggish trend that has hit theatre business throughout the country. For the most part, however, the new, better Hollywood films and the foreign imports do the better business. The theatres have ‘their hands full’ in maintaining a profitable operation at the houses which show the secondary films and the reissues.
The theatre operators have no desire to see the complexion of the street changed. They feel the carnival atmosphere of 32nd St., the pizza parlors, and the other carny attractions are just the things that draw crowds to the street.
This from Variety, November 14, 1956. Kids today!!!
“Wealthy” Tenafly, N.J., Kids Called Monsters
“Malicious mischief committed by disorderly teenagers in the Bergen Theatre, Tenafly, N. J., has reached the point where operator Ray Rhone has barred the teenagers unless accompanied by adults. Among nuisances perpetrated, he said, were ripping seats, stripping tiles from lavatory walls and throwing eggs and other objects.
Particularly on Friday nights, Rhone asserted, the noise and general disorder were so bad that patrons could neither concentrate on what was on the screen nor hear the sound. In his opinion the ill behavior of the teenagers stems from lack of proper parental supervision. Tenafly area, incidentally, is a wealthy suburban district near New York with the price of homes ranging from $20,000 to $60,000."
I doubt Cleaview was behind this. Their Chelsea cinema has nine screens, not eight. I alway take these surveys with a grain of salt. All through the eighties the Angelika was consistently voted as New York’s best by reporters wanting to appear trendy.
Barring, I have a photo I can email you if you wish.
Jodar, Digital and 3D formats cost a lot, have training, maintenance and parts demands, are obsolete once bought as they are constantly being improved, and most importantly, audience reaction has been indifferent so far as they generally can’t tell the difference.
As for MEET THE ROBINSONS, it is the latest version of what always killed 3D in the past. A bad movie.
As both you and Vito proved, it didn’t get you to wait to see it at the Ziegfeld. ROBINSONS did not cause a rush at the boxoffice in any format.
Industry hype never led audiences to drive past one theatre in favor of another unless the distinction was dramatic. THX, Dolby and even the multiplex mutation of 70mm did not come close to having the impact of say, Cinemascope or stadium seating. And neither has digital conversion, inevitable as it is.
TOMMY R
I realise no one with more insight has answered, so here are my experiences.
When I worked for ABC Florida State Theatres in the early seventies we were aligned with Warner Bros. and United Artists. We would play all their films without exception along with half of the Buena Vista product in rotation. There was little diversion on the whole but there were exceptions in zones where we either did not have a theatre or a competitor did not.
In the South Florida area, screens were divided into three “tracks”. The first track consisted of all the larger screens in each booking zone and was the largest group with every zone represented. The second group was around on third the size and represented about half the zones as many did not have more than one screen.
The third group was made up of three screens.
The large track would get wide releases such as James Bond, Disney and the dirty harry sequels. Track two would get the more eclectic films such as MIDNIGHT COWBOY, KLUTE and WHAT’S UP? which needed time to build an audience.
The third track consisted of exclusive long engagements in each major population area, in this case Miami, Miami Beach and Ft.Lauderdale. This track would host long runs of films such as ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST and A STAR IS BORN in smallish screens.
The film bookers negotiated the tracks with each distributors. If the movie proved to be a blockbuster it would simply sell out week after week in the small track with no threat from DVD and with film rentals dropping in favor of the exhibitor. It was not rare for films to sit in the small screen at a twin for six months while flop after flop moved through the big screen for one-week runs. If all three distributors had Christmas films something got bumped till later resulting in some films opening months after their dates elsewhere. When product available was low we would play re-releases usually from those same distributors. BILLY JACK and BLAZING SADDLES (WB), GONE WITH THE WIND and RYAN’S DAUGHTER (UA) were perennial fillers.
I read it as a hooker who refused to give the local cop services for free or maybe he just didn’t like the Irish, but I may just be too cynical for the roaring twenties.
Incidentally, the mice running around on stage during intermission were captivating. The audience stayed in and applauded!
During a recent visit to see WE WILL ROCK YOU (don’t ask) I noticed the proscenium is badly tarnished (damaged?) by what appears to be the show’s excessive use of dry ice special effects.
I understand that damaged may be caused by the wear and tear for the sake of art, but this ain’t no STARLIGHT EXPRESS. And that tells you all you need to know about this show.
According to Variety, March 23, 1960, this was the converted Renata Theatre.
No sooner does Lost Memory find this theatre and a crime gets committed.
New York Times January 2, 1925
ARREST POLICEMAN ON WOMAN’S CHARGE
Badly beaten victim says she was attacked in a theatre vestibule late at night
“Policeman William Oehlerking of the East 104th Street Station was arrested yesterday morning …charged with beating a women while he was on post. The alleged assault occurred about 2:30 o’clock in the morning in the outer vestibule of the North Star motion picture theatre at 106th street and fifth Avenue… Mrs O’Brien …could not identify the man she charged with having beaten her. Oehlerking was arrested after Captain Loonam found a belt bearing his shield number in the vestibule of the theatre.â€
Variety, August 12, 1959
Broadway Astor’s 800G Facelift
“In a change of plans, United Artists and City Investing have dropped the idea of combining the Astor Theatre and the Bijou on Broadway into a single house. Instead, a complete renovating job will be done on the Astor alone. It’ll run to $800,000, the cost to be shared 50-50 by UA and City Investing.
Seating capacity of the Astor will be cut to 1001 from the present 1100 and the new wide screen will measure 50ft. by 27ft. The third balcony will be eliminated and the mezzanine section will be extended…It’ll reopen on Dec. 17 with the preem of ‘On the Beach’, the Stanley Kramer production. “
New York Times May 28, 1929
Frederick Brown buys a block front on fifth avenue from 106th to 107th street…from the Dualin Holding Corporation William A. Daly Vice President… a plot of about 30,000 square feet fronting 201.10 feet on the avenue. 100 feet on 106th street and 196 feet on 107th street, at present time imporved(?) with a movie theatre and three five-story tenements.
The plot is two blocks from the new Museum of New York City..now under construction.
Variety April 1, 1959
VEIT HARLAN GETS POOR N.Y. PRESS:
‘JEW SUESS’ NOTORIETY PERSISTING:
HOMO THEME AT EASTER ALSO A FACTOR
“With the sole exception of the N.Y. Daily News, every N.Y. newspaper reviewing the German import, “The Third Sexâ€, last week also noted that the picture had been directed by Veit Harlan, the man who made the anti-semitic “Jew Suess†for the Nazis.
Picture itself, with it’s theme of homosexuality, got panned by the mass circulation press, not on account of Harlan, but because the reviewers considered it an inappropriate attraction for the Easter season….
At United Artists, which is half-owner of the Plaza Theatre, where the import opened, the top echelon was reportedly dismayed as considerable reaction to the booking of the Harlan film began to come in. The house is owned 50-50 by UA and Ilya Lopert, who works for UA. Lopert books the house. Story is that the UA brass wasn’t aware of the booking until it got hit with the reaction. Lopert originally owned “The Third Sex†having acquired it for a reported $35,000.
He later sold it to David Dietz of D. & F. Distribution Corp. for $85,000. Dietz is new to the foreign film field and sez he “didn’t knowâ€â€â€¦.
Listed in todays Variety as having hosted the Spanish premier of SPIDER-MAN 3, so it is still going!
This was the World Premier home of Marisol (Pepa Flores) movies during the sixties. She was one of Spainish cinema’s biggest box office draws ever and is now retired.
I always thought the ruling was officially only against Paramount with the others seeing the writing on the wall.
Tonino, you are correct in that the splitting of the studios from their theatres lead to the closing of many theatres in the fifties that had been artificially kept open by guaranteed product. The elimination of the theatres was a blessing in the disguise for the studios as it allowed them to minimise the losses of attendance caused by TV and drop B movies and double features made to feed the pipeline. This caused a product shortage. It also gave studios some ready cash with which to go into the TV business. It also allowed many independent exhibitors to open small theatres and compete for first run films with old palaces like the RKOs. A cinema like the Casino could hold a film for many weeks on low overhead.
I recall working in an 800 seat theatre in the summer of 1977 while a handful of customers watched A BRIDGE TO FAR while the 200 seater in the mall turned them away from STAR WARS.
Two other elements that hurt some theatres in the seventies were the elimination of product splitting and blind bidding. Theatres could no longer count on studio alignments and bids had to openly divulged AFTER the film was screened. Those studio alignments were back in evidence in Manhattan until well into the nineties as Cineplex Odeon still always played Universal product and Loews played Sony films, products from their parent companies. This was made possible by deregulation during the Reagan years.
When VCRs first became popular they actually helped theatres. People who had never seen the originals rushed the theatres for the sequels and eventually lead to the phenomenon whereby sequels could outgross the originals. VCRs and DVDs introduced stars to whole new generation who had never seen them at a cinema.
I don’t think think day and date showcasing affected Manhattan houses by the seventies as it had been going on since 1962. It did bring first-run to the neighborhoods quicker at the expense of the Times Square theatres. Big houses like this RKO may have been counting the days on their lease as they probably had not sold out in years. The question remains, did many Manhattan leases run out in 1971 or was grind porn THAT lucrative?
Among the missing:
ACADEMY OF MUSIC
GLOBE
RIVERSIDE
DELANCEY
SYMPHONY
HEIGHTS
Would love to read that book Vito!
Not surprisingly, the Union did not want the platters either, but it became a disability issue.
My experience with New York projectionists was that they were some of the best and some of the worst in the country and their Union support was erratic and based on many things, none of which included job performance. We had guys in Brooklyn who never came to work when it snowed. One guy in Queens who refused to start the movie if there was bulb out anywhere in the building and a business agent who shut a multiplex theatre down when he and his mistress were not let in for free. One guy was collecting his phlegm in jar as proof that the xenon lamp was releasing ozone rays. One guy was arrested on site for stealing an Oscar. One guy brought a crack whore to work with him who promptly took all her clothes off and ran through the screen naked. One guy shut the theatre down when went up on the roof for a smoke and the door shut behind him and back to our Ziegfeld BACKDRAFT darling, he went home once BEFORE putting on the last reel.
On the positive side, one guy in Queens finished the show by hand- spinning the platter during a mid-film power fault.
The test was seriously outdated (people failed because they didn’t understand the questions, let alone the answers). It was difficult because it no longer applied to modern times and the Union could help those they wanted to pass it just a little by supplying a copy in advance.
Sample question:
Who moves to the print from the floor to the projection booth?
Answer:
The “reel” boy.
Of course! How silly of me.
Remember that there was a serious product shortage in the late sixties-early seventies and that extended runs killed many subrun locations. Although many dollar houses eventually popped up in the suburbs in response, that was not an option in pricey New York and few theatres went into bargain pricing alternatives and survived.
There were two other theatres advertised as being in Richmond Hill in May 1968. A Casino and a Lefferts both advertised at the time. It would appear the Richmond Hill’s end came in mid-May with a double feature of IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT and THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING! THE RUSSIAN ARE COMING! shared with five other Queens runs. This was at a time when the Meadows and Lefrak demanded exclusive Queens runs. The RKO also seems to have been very much a “family†theatre at a time when wholesome product was failing at the box office. If it had held out a little longer may have been split up and stayed open for years.
After May 1968, I can find no other signs of it in the New York Times.
Here are some figures on Manhattan. These are from personal files so they have a huge marging of error.
1915 40 sites, 41 screens
1925 45 sites, 48 screens
1935 110 sites, 112 screens
1945 95 sites, 95 screens
1955 61 sites, 61 screens
1965 75 sites, 77 screens
1975 50 sites, 60 screens
1985 69 sites, 116 screens
1995 58 sites, 172 screens
2000 50 sites, 243 screens
2005 44 sites, 232 screens
The early multiplexes were roof gardens that showed movies.
The increase by 1965 was mostly due to arthouse boom.
Most buildings in a single year – 1938. 21 new theatres although some were converted playhouses.
Most screen openings – 2000- 53 new screens. The megaplex arrives late in Manhattan.
Most screen closings – 1971- 50 screens disappeared although many just went over to grind porn and therefore off the radar. Some returned by the blockbuster years after JAWS and STAR WARS.
Screens counts from NATO (National Association of Theatre Owners)
http://www.natoonline.org/statisticsscreens.htm
Paul, my guess is that it would have been Grand Central Palace, the old abandoned exhibition hall inside the Grand Central Terminal.
View link
Joe, although my first visit to the deuce (from Florida) was in the mean and nasty mid-seventies, the larger than life movie displays and energy of the street was a life changing experience.
Today, it is still quite exciting but something is missing. It certainly isn’t tacky movies, thugs, drugs, hookers and hustlers as they are still there, if you care to look close enough.
I think it may be the symphony of a street that wasn’t hiding, like it is today and was instead promoting it with a carnival barker’s glee. The decadence was oddly liberating.
I have read that the street has never been wholesome and that the more decadent years started during the second war but the nadir (apex anyone?) had to be the eighties.
Certainly the arrival of a new Ripley’s will bring it down a notch or two and put that she-wolf frisky minx MARY POPPINS back in her place.
Warren, you just solved another mystery for me. I do show a Wonderland advertising in 1915 but no address.
From Variety January 30, 1957
42nd St. Grind’s $5-mil Gross
10 Film Parlors Carefully Run
A total of 10,000,000 people paid an estimated $5,000,000 to see motion pictures last year in 10 theatres on one block in New York City. The 10 theatres are located on 42nd street between Broadway and 8th Avenue, a street frequently condemned because of its ‘carnival’ atmosphere.
Surrounded by pizza parlors, hot dog stands, shooting galleries, pokerino palaces, and novelty stores, the theatres, the theatres are nevertheless well maintained policed, and managed. This is no skid row.
The theatres â€" seven of which are operated by Brandt Theatres and three by Cinema Circuit â€" offer perhaps the most varied programming that can be obtained in any concentrated area in the world. The type of product available on the street in any one day â€" offers a choice to all tastes â€" from the discriminating intellectual to the uneducated laborer.
Although it is not generally known, each of the 10 theatres on the block follows a specific programming policy. For example, the Brandt’s Lyric and Cinema’s New Amsterdam are first subsequent run houses, playing pictures immediately after their Broadway runs and simultaneously with the key Loew’s and RK theatres. Pictures are booked at these houses for a week’s run. Brandt’s Apollo is an art house which offers the outstanding foreign language imports at popular prices after the films complete their first-run engagements. The bookings are exclusive for the area and the films are played for two to four weeks depending on the draw at the box office.
Brandt’s Times Square is a western and action outlet and the same circuit’s Victory concentrates on exploitation and horror films. The Selwyn (Brandt) and Harris (Cinema) are moveover houses. Brandt’s Liberty and Empire and Cinema’s Anco are strictly reissue outlets. The action and reissue outlets change bills twice a week.
Admission prices are moderate, the first sub-runs charge 40c.– 95c.; the art house ditto; the current product moveovers 30c.– 85c.; and the action and reissue houses 25c. â€" 65c. The theatres operate on an amazing schedule. The majority open at 8 a.m. and run to 3 a.m. the following morning, with several closing at 4 a.m. To maintain this operational schedule, the theatres employ three shifts of employees.
Contrary to general belief, the atmosphere of 42nd St. has not provided the managements wit undue problems of coping with juvenile delinquents and undesirables. According to Martin Levine, general manager of the Brandt houses, the 42nd St. theatres have no more problems than other theatres. As a matter of fact, he maintained, the juves make up only a small portion of the patronage. He noted, for example, that two recent pictures especially aimed at teenagers â€" ‘Shake, Rattle and Roll’ and Elvis Presley’s ‘Love Me Tender’ â€" fared poorly at the box office.
The theatres, however, have taken precautionary measures against young hoodlums and other undesirables. A crew of uniformed Burns guards make frequent tours of the theatres. The Brandt Theatres has long followed the policy of notifying parents when a juvenile is involved in a disturbance.
The 42nd St. patronage comes from all walks of life. Midnight workers are on hand for the 8 a.m. show. Salesmen, shoppers and others with several hours to kill dominate the afternoon audiences. Dater, married couple, and groups of young people make up the evening trade. Show people and other stay-up-laters are among the late film-goers.
The 42nd St. houses offer patrons a chance to catch up on missed pictures, a wide choice of pictures which enables groups to break up and meet later, and prices within the range of the general public. According to the belief of the 42nd St. operators, when a person comes to 42nd St. it’s not with the thought of seeing a specific film. However, after the potential customers looks over the wide selection, he then makes his choice.
19 Years as an Artie
Perhaps the most unique of the 42nd St. operations is the Apollo which has been running continuously for 19 years on an art house policy. Even during the war years when it was difficult to obtain foreign films, the house operated successfully by replaying over and over again the available imports. The house has a steady clientele and for each change of bills it send out 25,000 mailing pieces. The theatre is also a popular place with language students and many times whole classes from various New York high schools and colleges attend afternoon performances to absorb French or Italian, Shakespeare films also draw a large student audience and the management provides special reduced tickets for school groups.
Foreign films with English titles also draw a large audience of deaf and dumb individuals. Many of these people as well as their special schools are on the mailing list.
From a profit and cents standpoint, the 42nd St. houses have managed to buck the general sluggish trend that has hit theatre business throughout the country. For the most part, however, the new, better Hollywood films and the foreign imports do the better business. The theatres have ‘their hands full’ in maintaining a profitable operation at the houses which show the secondary films and the reissues.
The theatre operators have no desire to see the complexion of the street changed. They feel the carnival atmosphere of 32nd St., the pizza parlors, and the other carny attractions are just the things that draw crowds to the street.
This from Variety, November 14, 1956. Kids today!!!
“Wealthy” Tenafly, N.J., Kids Called Monsters
“Malicious mischief committed by disorderly teenagers in the Bergen Theatre, Tenafly, N. J., has reached the point where operator Ray Rhone has barred the teenagers unless accompanied by adults. Among nuisances perpetrated, he said, were ripping seats, stripping tiles from lavatory walls and throwing eggs and other objects.
Particularly on Friday nights, Rhone asserted, the noise and general disorder were so bad that patrons could neither concentrate on what was on the screen nor hear the sound. In his opinion the ill behavior of the teenagers stems from lack of proper parental supervision. Tenafly area, incidentally, is a wealthy suburban district near New York with the price of homes ranging from $20,000 to $60,000."