Palladium Times Square

Re: AndyT’s statement.

While there are sound business reasons why theaters are run by cashcows and not people who treasure the moviegoing experience, it doesn’t mean we have to like it.

For you to say we our all the reasons why theaters do what they do. yes , I agree. But, to think about, the reason we all stopped going to the theaters and stayed home and watched home video is because the theaters gradually declined in their quality. I’m not just talking about the movies. There were alot of bad films in the 40’s, 50’s, 70’s etc. But theaters,are run by idiots. That is Bad Business. When you pay admission, you expect a quality product. So yes, after you shelled out money to get a bad product (meaning theater quality) you decide to stop coming.

How bout starting a NEW chat as to why we all stopped going to the theaters. What we all wax on about here Andy, is the time when theaters were run by theater people. My first job was an usher in the 70’s. I had to stand a post, chase out smokers, keep the noisemakers quiet and makesure the film was always a quality showing. There wasn’t an out=of-focus, poorframed, un-climated controlled film on my watch.

Today. you leave your seat (missing 5 minutes of the flick) to walk across a multiplex city to flag down some kid to tell the asleep projectionist to frame the friggin film. I don’t pay for that, nor should anyone.

You know Andy? “If you build it they will come”…they haven’t, but we still do cause we have nothing else. So we bitch and moan on this site about the way things are done. The right way. Unfortunately (and this is where I see your point)the right way doesn’t put money in wallets, especially when the way things are done today is…the wrong way.

Sorry about the spaces and typo’s. I tried to preview what I was sending and it only messed it up.

The AMC Empire on 42st does the same thing. Slide shows, rock music and lots of commercials! The way they raise the ticket prices every 6 months (The AMC is now $10.50) you would think they could stop playing the same irratating commercials.

(Heavy Sigh). I always feel like the bad guy who attempts to introduce a reality check into the conversation. Please understand that I love old (and big, and single-screeen and neighborhood) theaters as much as everyone, but I also understand the realities. So often on this wonderful site I see comments such as “I was only there once” or “Maybe I should go take a look before they close it down.” The reality is that there are rock-solid business reasons that we have lost these treasures. Everything from television to video to no parking to no maintenance to changing cities and horrible maintenance. But it’s good to remember that all of us are part of the reason for the changes. We stay home and watch TV —– we move to the suburbs —– we sit in front of our computers bemoaning the changes. Yes, we ought to work to save history, but it does no good to criticize business for not keeping a 2,000-seat theater open for 20 of us to watch a film. And it does no good to criticize today’s non-filmgoers or (worse) filmgoers for their habits.

I agree with YankeeMike, especially if they pay tribute to the height of this theater’s glory days and show the original “Star Wars”.

Bill’s comment said it well. Curtains, missing now from our theatres, for me added to the granduer of the movie going experience. When I worked as a projectionist during the 50s and 60s, we always closed the curtains at the end of whatever preceeded the main feature, (cartoon, tralilers etc), and reopened them at the start of the feature, most imes the stage lights were also raised and then lowered again. THAT was showmanship. The showing of a white screen was not permitted, as well as showing the screen masking moving going from one format to another, it was timed so that the curtains hid the movement of the masking. The audience never saw the masking move or a white (blank)screen.In addition the curtains had to be timed, thru the use of a cue mark on the film, to be fully closed at the same moment the movie faded out.

We all think alike here…but unfortunately guys, we arethe minority…Why don’t they build there office buildings elsewhere??? We are dealing with business people who care nothing about old theaters, The Astor Plaza, Ziegfeld, etc. They will build cruddy multiplex after multiplex, if it means getting butts in the seats to make the almighty dollar…no matter how many crappy films there are out there.

Aside from the execs screwing everything up…have you ever talked to patrons themselves….they could care less…most don’t know the difference between 70MM and VHS slowspeed playback…they don’t care,just show the flick and let me eat my 8 dollar popcorn is their motto. Why does Scooby Doo make 50 million opening weekend??? Because a family of 4 will spend $9 admission plus $30 for all the snacks. That’s what these businessmen care about. Not whether the curtain opens, or what frame it is shown in or how many FPS. or Dolby, DTS, 6-Track or single speaker mono. Just see the movie, eat your friggin pocorn, then get out and make room for the next crowd.

The only great theater that would come , is if we all here opened one and ran it ourselves. But, we’d probably go out of business because let’s face it….how many shows of Around the World in 80 days in 70MM would be profitiable anyway after 1 show.

Passion and love for movies is great, we all have it, but, unfortunately the almighty dollar would beat us down….which once again is why all these great theaters will close so the teens could have another haven of small minded ignorance to drain cash out of.

It’s sad. But regardless, my passion is still there . I guess I’ll have to keep it there. Right now on TV they’re raving about Spiderman2 (look at the money it made) how real the effects were (are they kidding)In a month, it’s yesterday’s news, making room for the next one, by Thanksgiving it’s on DVD. Cash cash cash. 30 years from now, I doubt that there’ll be a younger version of us here, pushing for a 35MM re-release.

Keep the faith guys.
Rhett

Warren wrote: Why can’t they build theatres along with the office buildings?

I believe the National General/Mann National (now Good Morning America’s Times Square office) was built as a part of an office development, too.

Dang typo again! The last sentence should read “crackerbox,” not crackbox! :) I need my coffee.

It’s truly sad that major companies like Viacom or ABC/Disney can’t pick a different location to build their offices. Why must great movie theaters be picked on? Probably the size of the building, but there must be a hundred different places to put their offices in Manhattan.

We just recently (from what I’ve heard) lost the Century Plaza Theaters in Century City (Los Angeles) to a major office building. The Shubert Theater (live theater) was also taken in the demolition. The new office building will house the new headquarters for CAA.

The Century Plaza was a great theater. Though I had not been to the theater before one of the two original auditoriums was split (though actually nicely done), it was a nice theater with great projection, comfortable seats and excellent HPS-4000 Sound. From what I hear, Astor Plaza is very similar in design.

We also had the sister theater to the entury Plaza, Orange City Center. This was originally a two screener that featured 70mm projection. This is where I saw “Star Wars” in 1977. In 1985, the main large theater was split into three screens. The end result were two dinky auditoriums and a main auditorium with terrible sightlines.

I know that some feel that so-called “luxury” theaters built after the golden age of the movie palaces pale in comparison, but I feel that they were nice, too. You got a fairly large auditorium with state-of-the-art projection and sound (which I still think trumps today’s current “state-of-the-art” presentation for the most part). True, these kind of theaters weren’t always as ornate as their older siblings, but you normally got a much better presentation than almost any theater around town.

Today, almost every movie presentation (if you can call it that anymore) and almost every megaplex is built from a cookie cutter. I kind of crack up at some new theaters that build “historical” marquees above their auditorium entrances and name certain auditoriums after classic and demolished movie theaters. Can you imagine 30-50 years from now going to a movie complex and seeing a fake marquee for the auditorium that says “AMC Empire 30 minus 29,” or “Crackerbox Auditorium: This auditorium is patterned after the classic crackbox stadium auditoriums of the mid-late 90’s. Enjoy the show.”

Good grief.

I thought Hello Dolly was a flawed film but I still liked it on the Big Screen. I saw it in 1969 at Grauman’s Chinese. The movie cost 26 million back in 1969 the most expensive Musical up to that time. The Production Values were great and the Hello Dolly Street set at 20Th Century-Fox was one of the largest ever built. The movie was nominated for Best Picture but lost to Midnight Cowboy which reprsented the new Hollywood.brucec