Criterion Theatre
1514 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
1514 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
18 people
favorited this theater
Showing 276 - 300 of 440 comments found
RE: what Vincent said. My cousin and I had to struggle to find two seats together for “Love Story” at Loew’s State 1. That was also our first $3.00 movie ticket. We thought it was an outrageously high price.
I saw a late Saturday matinee and it was pretty empty(though in 70mm it had continuous perfs without an intermission. The mezz was priced higher-$3.50 than the orch or balc-$3.00.) I believe it ran for 3 weeks with Variety saying its weekly gross was 30K which seems improbable to me. It seems at that point the family movie going audience had completely turned its back on Times Square. My Fair Lady and the Criterion were the perfect movie-theater fit. The mass audience tastes had completely changed and it was painful to see.
By the way at the same time the unwatchable Love Story had long lines a block north at Loews State.
Just curious, how did the 1971 re-release of “My Fair Lady” do at the boxoffice? My guess is not well because by that time (1971) film was just entering it’s 70s golden age (arguable) and a film like Fair Lady just would'nt “jive” with audiences.
I could be wrong but I’m curious…
Vito, the “Looking for Trouble” number was not filmed all in long shots. They had two cameras filming a medium and a close-up, and those are the angles which were used in the 3-D release of the film.
The long shot was only used in the re-cut which RKO did to get censor approval for the flat release of the film.
I remember “The French Line” in 3-D, it did very very well.
Towards the end of the run at the Criterion, when the 3-D craze was nearing it’s end, the Criterion finished the run in 2-D. Jane wore a very skimpy outfit in the big dance number at the end of the movie and it had to be filmed with one camera at a long shot as not to show too much of Ms Russell. Today,“French Line” would be rated G
Howard Hughes had to go to court to get this film released because it was considered indecent. All this fuss over Ms Russels assets in 3D. It was sometimes advertised at the time as “JR in 3D, need we say more?”. Did anyone ever see it in the 3D process? The only time I ever saw it was on the old Million Dollor Movie.
View link
I think this was from the 1971 re-release because it was still being shown in 70mm.
View link
Does anyone know if Courage of Lassie opened at the Loews Criterion in Times Square in July 1946?
I know the summer of 1977 the Astor Plaza had “Star Wars”, and the State must have had 2 better pictures for “Orca” to have opened at the Criterion. Paramount films usually played Loew’s Theatres.
View link
View link
Here is the Criterion day and dating with the Sutton.
This theatre was called the Criterion Center 4 when, around Christmas of 1980, I saw Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull here in a kind of basement cinema.
In the summer of 1951, the Criterion was involved in the infamous “Wonderland War” between rival movie versions of the Lewis Carroll classic. On July 28th, the Criterion opened with the exclusive NYC premiere engagement of Walt Disney’s animated Technicolor feature, “Alice in Wonderland,” released by RKO Radio. Just two days earlier, another “Alice in Wonderland,” a combination of Lou Bunin’s puppetry and live action in Ansco Color, opened at Brandt’s Mayfair, the Trans-Lux 72nd Street, and Brandt’s Midtown. This was produced in England and France, and released by Souvaine Selective Pictures. Neither film thrilled the critics, but the import was unable to compete with Walt Disney’s popularity and did a fast fold.
Alien was the last movie I saw at the Criterion. I went because I had just seen Funny Girl at the Music Hall and was feeling very nostalgic. Superman was the last movie I saw at the Criterion that I liked. I had first seen it in the suburbs. Oh why couldn’t it have opened at the Criterion instead of the Astor Plaza? And two years before why couldn’t Star Wars open there instead of the Astor Plaza?
If only people had realized it was a far greater movie theater than the Ziegfeld.
With the Gordon’s Gin sign above it and the Bond store and the Woolworths it was one of New Yorks greatest blocks. In later years I actually heard while walking on the opposite side of the street on a few occasions strangers comment to each other how the block had really deteriorated and they couldn’t believe it. I guess they had seen it for many years before its descent into cheap camera and souvenir stores and the Criterion’s descent into black exploitation.
When the National(ugh)was playing the ‘73 revival of SOM the Criterion was playing Wattstoxx. A block above Loew’s State was playing Lost Horizon.
How did the Criterion which was New Yorks greatest house in the 60'so quickly lose all its luster and turn into a grind house? Even the Rivoli and the Loew’s State had far better bookings into the 70’s.
“May 25,1979 when Fox opened ‘Alien’ it was only at 70mm houses.” (RobertR, Jun 15, 2005)
This is only partially correct. Most of the initial engagements were 70mm, including all of the NYC area showings. San Diego showed it in 35mm, and other markets had 70mm and 35mm showings. This is explained in detail in this article:
View link
Re the Criterion, there are photos from the the “Alien” engagement on the “Alien Quadrilogy” DVD.
Robert, fun looking at those ads, thanks!
It also reminded me of how in the 60s, the ads no longer carried tags like Roadshow or 70mm stereophonic sound. Of course
“Funny Girl” should have read, “Presented in washed out 70mm blow up. I’m not bitter, I prefered the 70mm to 35mm, even the blow ups. I just wished there had been more movies shot in 70mm.
Still, the Criterion was a great place to see a roadshow. Would you happenen to have any "10 Commandments” ads or from any during the fabulous 50s?
The great days of the Criterion!!
View link
May 25,1979 when Fox opened “Alien” it was only at 70mm houses. The Criterion played it around the clock 24 hours the first 2 days. It also opened at Loews Orpheum and Loews New York Twin. In Long Island it played UA Syosset and in New Jeresy RKO Paramus Quad and the General Cinema Menlo Park Cinema.
Boy how times had changed on Sept 27, 1972 “Blacula” from American International Pictures was playing here in its Exclusive New York Engagement. Nice to know the Criterion was still getting pictures exclusive before they opened all over town. This was the time of all those blacksplotation films. At the same time “Super Fly” was playing at Loews State 2 and Loews Cine.
Look at the Criterion Center from the 1980's
View link
In July, 1947, the then Loew’s Criterion grossed an all-time record of $62,000 in its first week with Universal’s prison melodrama, “Brute Force,” starring Burt Lancaster & Yvonne DeCarlo.
The Criterion’s previous record-holder, with an opening week of $55,600, was Columbia’s Technicolored “The Bandit of Sherwood Forest” (1946), with Cornel Wilde as guess who?
The basement theatres were tiny. I saw Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure at one of them and it felt like you were watching the film on a big screen television. The screen was that small!
The Warner Cinerama kept the Cinerama orchestra just as it was after they separated the balcony without putting in a low ceiling. So the 70mm on Broadway festival at the end of the 70’s was wonderful.
The Criterion during its road show era was one of the greats. Too bad they didn’t maintain this instead of the Ziegfeld. The Criterion was champagne, the Ziegfeld coca cola.
I never went into the basement theatres at the Criterion. Over at the Egyptian UA built a twin in an old store, it was the pitts. Loews did a nice job with the State.
William
To call the Egyptian run down at it’s sad UA end is actually a compliment. It was WORSE then the 42nd St houses in their waning days. I never got to see the Criterion again after they made it a sixplex. As a twin it was not horrible compared to the things we have now, at least the auditoriums were large. How small were the basement theatres? By the way I think the only theatre that survived twinning and was still a class house was the original Loews State. The upstairs theatre contained the whole original house except for under the balcony where they built the new auditorium.