Loew's State Theatre

enormous billboard advertising “The Bible.. In the Beginning, which opened at Loew’s State in Sept. 1966. At that same site, a few pictures earlier the billboard advertises what looks to be a Barnum and Bailey circus event – the sight claims this view is from 1963. The billboard stretches the entire block between 45th and 46th Streets over the Astor and Victoria theaters.
I’m looking for information about what content appeared on that billboard (specifically, I’m interested in what appeared on it in the Spring – Summer of 1964). I assume it wasn’t always movies that appeared at Loew’s because of the Barnum Ad that I saw. Does anyone have any insight into this?

This is definitely the theater jmen2465 remembers. “Star Trek II” opened here in June of ‘82 and “Tron” opened here the following month. I know “Tron” played the State 2 upstairs in the former loge/balcony (hence the “ampitheater” style seating) which was open to the original ornate ceiling and upper side walls and proscenium arch. The former orchestra downstairs suffered a drop ceiling and curtains that obscured the entire perimeter of the theater, giving it the modern unadorned look jmen recalls. Time may have slightly altered jmen’s memories of the two auditoriums being side by side rather than up and down. However, I recall that the lobby was split left and right, with the stairs and escalators to the State 2 against the far right wall. I can’t explain why jmen recalls an organ still being in place at that time.

jmen2465—I agree, Manhattan has lost a large number of theaters over the last thirty years. However, we aren’t running on empty yet. We do still have a little place called Radio City Music Hall.

Not only were the projectors in the upstairs booth at an angle, a projectionist pointed out to me the first time I visited that because the screen was parallel to the back wall after the renovation, the furthest projector back had a lens ¼" focal length longer than the other two. The angle of that booth always intrigued me too. I also had the feeling sitting in the downstairs house that while the screen was parallel to the new projection booth, the proscenium itself was actually at an angle on the stage that matched the angle of the balcony booth. I worked in the downstairs booth, but never upstairs. The upstairs booth was also dropped several feet from its original position after the twinning. I remember seeing windows that would have originally faced out on the street about 10' or so above the booth floor, and a radiator that would have been at floor level hanging from the wall above. When I saw “The Agony and the Ecstasy” 70mm roadshow there the booth was dug into the front of the balcony to give a zero degree projection angle to the curved screen which was mounted in front of the proscenium. The angle of the proscenium to the back wall was concealed, but I remember sitting in the balcony and looking up at the original booth and noting the odd angle. Perhaps the auditorium was laid out like the Roxy to some extent with the stage more slightly angled into a corner. Another house like that in Manhattan is the Beacon, with the projection booth and the spotlight booth above it appearing slightly off center as you look at them from the stage.

To add to the list of Broadway’s legit houses where movies had their premieres there was also the Booth where MGM’s Jullius Caesar opened in 1953.

It’s kind of hard to believe that Lamb, the #1 theatre architect of the day, would “forget” to include dressing rooms in the flagship house of his major client. With vaudeville being a major part of the show in those days it would seem that dressing rooms would be considered part of the stage. That would be like today “forgetting” to put in the candy stand – it doesn’t happen. I could understand the architect forgeting to include a niche in the lobby for a vending machine, but not such a major part of the operation as dressing rooms. If they were indeed not there, there had to be some extenuating circumstances, such as space constraints due to an odd shaped lot, or something like that. In Richard Dziadzio’s post above, he mentions that the projectors in the original booth were mounted at a 15 degree angle to the right leading me to believe that the building was not exactly rectangular. In that case the stage would have been 15 degrees off center, which may have left inadequate space for dressing rooms on one side of the stage.

That’s a great story about the architectural fiasco of the State’s dressing rooms! But why didn’t Loew simply use the several floors of office space above the lobby for a temporary site until the building on E 46 became available? The office workers could have used other space in the neighborhood. In any case, I’m glad to hear that some architects goofed in the grand manner then as others continue to do today.

Understood, Warren. I thought as much. Otherwise, that might have made for some hectic scrambling out on W. 45th Street! Fortunately, vehicular traffic was probably not what it is today in that area.

Yes, the State was equipped with Norelco DP70 type projectors.

This is totally from memory, but I know one of them was “The Golden Child” …. can’t remember the other. Someone with NYT microfiche could look it up… there was even a little blurb about the closing in the NYT.

Here’s “Godzilla, King of the Monsters” from April 1956:

View link

Ed
From what I can tell, Gigi was the only film to play the Royal. The Palace theater shows going back to a legit theater in 1966 (including What it says in At This Theater),but I remember in 68 and 69 they were showing movies again. It wasn’t until 1970 that they permanantly reopened as a legit theater with Lauren Bacall in Applause.