Ziegfeld Theatre
141 W. 54th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
141 W. 54th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
131 people
favorited this theater
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I’m sure I’ve said this before, but the Ziegfeld is not a good place to see a movie. Most people don’t realize how bad the sound is in there. There were plenty of things in Chinatown that were barely audible (and I don’t think the movie was mixed that way).
The other odd thing about the Ziegfeld is that everybody thinks it’s some kind of movie palace with a great history, since it houses all those theatrical artifacts in the lobby. It is NOT the original Ziegfeld theater where Show Boat premiered, nor is it built on that site (it’s down the block from the original site).
It is a barn, and not particularly beautifully done — very 60s rococco (SIC), if you ask me.
There is an old movie palace in Manhattan that is worth preserving — the Beacon at 76th street. Also, the old Mark Hellinger theater, now Times Square Church, was built as a movie palace.
The 1973 reissue of “This is Cinerama” was optically converted from the 3-strip original to 70MM. And in many cases for this reissue a special curved screen was installed in front of the regular screen for theatres that did not have a curved screen.
Howard see above posts about Cinerama at the Ziegfeld in ‘73.
Also look up Vincent Canby’s '73 article in the Times.
It was a case of why did they bother.
Did anybody catch Chinatown in the last few days, and if so, how was the print and sound?
The wonderful long list of movies above (we’d love one for the Boyd in Philadelphia!) lists in 1973, This is Cinerama, which played before my time in 3 strip Cinerama at the Boyd in its original run. How did it play at the Ziegfeld? 35 MM or 70 MM? Surely not with 3 projectors and a special wide screen? What is the experience of seeing this movie in a theater that isn’t set up for 3 strip Cinerama?
Howard is right – it felt great to walk in and see the curtain closed, just like the old days.
Attended Godfather I and Part II today. Both were great prints. I had excellent sound, including side and/or back sound in the auditorium. I had a 1997 re-release in DTS, so probably digital sound.
II sounded loud and very good as Bill said, but not quite the same as I. So, I asked an usher, who walked up to the projection booth and returned, telling me “SR” which I take to mean SR Dolby.
For first run movies, the curtain is open before you enter the auditorium, there are slides, then they close the curtain briefly before the pre-show. For the classic series today, the curtain was closed when you entered the auditorium and stayed that way until it opened for commercials, then the classic movie. It was nice to sit there and look at the curtain.
When I entered, I asked the ticket taker and she said about 800 per day, not good, but not bad. That would have been Friday, Saturday. As Bill says, a good sized house considering Superbowl Sunday. I’ve attended various first run movies there with far less people attending.
They had the curtain open to scope, but as these films are flat, the black matting was seen. That shouldn’t keep anybody away, but the right way is to see curtain and film, not matting.
All things considered, an excellent experience with great prints, great sound, and fantastic movies.
Just got back from “The Godfather Part II”. The print was in very good condition. Some scenes were very dark, but I’m sure that’s the way it was supposed to look. And the sound was great – when Pacino screamed at Michael V. Gazzo, “In my HOME!”, it shook the Ziegfeld to its core.
It wasn’t a full house by any means, but it was a good-sized crowd considering it was Super Bowl Sunday. Here’s something that gave me hope for more classic movies at the Ziegfeld: all patrons were given a card where they could list what classics they’d most like to see at the theater in the future. I asked for “2001” and “Ryan’s Daughter”.
The Boatniks was a Ziegfeld premiere exclusive. It never played at Radio City Music Hall. After an excellent run, Walter Reade dropped the admission to The Boatniks at Ziegfeld to $1 admission for kids.
Sorry… forgot the link!
http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/62811.htm
Still no print ads anywhere in the local papers, but there is {url=]this New York Post article[/url] from Lou Lumenick about the series. I submitted a news item to Cinema Treasures today to try and spread the word beyond this particular page. In any event, I have plans with my gal to see “West Side Story” next weekend and “Ben-Hur” the weekend after that. Plus, the kids are all excited to see “Raiders of the Lost Ark” on the big screen in March. I hope word of mouth and the Post article can generate enough interest to make this program a great success and encourage Clearview to try it again somewhere down the line.
Pacific’s Cinerama Dome ad line for their display ads was “Where Movie Going is an Event”.
“Movies…the way they were meant to be seen!”
Gee, it seems that I’ve heard that somewhere before…
The website says “Check Local Newspaper Listings”. Maybe Thursday or Friday?
This reminds me of when “2001: A Space Odyssey” played the Loew’s Astor Plaza in December 2001. The New York Times ad in the Friday paper was so small it could easily be overlooked, and no other papers ran any ads at all. Hundreds of people still managed to find out about it and showed up for the Friday night show.
Bob, my comment referred to the fact that if the same film played with the tiny Coronet, the Coronet always outgrossed the Ziegfeld. If a film moved to the National or Warner, it picked up. It was always a battle to book the Ziegfeld unless an exclusive was on offer by a distributor trying to establish a film.
Time Out is sponsoring the series – or is otherwise involved – so that makes sense. But shouldn’t the advertising be just a bit more widespread?
There is an ad for series in the current TimeOut Magazine.
And P.S…. Still looking for advertisements for the upcoming series. There was no mention of it in the Sunday Times Arts & Leisure section. Are they waiting for the Friday Weekend section to spread the word? Or are they looking only to pull in passersby and visitors to Clearview Cinemas website and the folks on Cinema Treasures?!?
Another great list, Al… Thanks for the stroll down memory lane. I know my parents made the trip in from Queens with me to see “That’s Entertainment” here. It’s possible I saw “Earthquake” here as well, but I think that might have been elsewhere in Manhattan on the upper East Side where my Mom’s freind Lilliana – who accompanied us – lived. Saw “The Grateful Dead”, “Hair” (my first trip into the city on my own – St. Patty’s Day ‘79) and “Apocalypse Now” to round out the '70’s. The following decade my pals and I came in to see “Pink Floyd’s The Wall” and I saw “Fantasia” here a couple of times during the '80’s. The only other film I can be certain of seeing here on the list is “Yentl”, though I might have also seen “Tough Guys” here in '86. I look forward to a '90’s list, Al… I believe on Christmas Day 1990 I was sitting in the Ziegfeld anxiously watching (and being ultimately disappointed by) “The Godfather, Part Three.”
GREASE was a moveover from either the Loew’s Astor Plaza or the Loew’s State where it originally opened. But of course it was better at the Ziegfeld.
Bill, you are probably right. I have a small gap in THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL period (newspaper strike, I think) and those 1986 double features were a Kirk Douglas/Burt Lancaster prelude to TOUGH GUYS that may have included even more titles for a day or two.
Just about a week before its DVD release, I’d like to salute David Lean’s RYAN’S DAUGHTER for being the long-run champ of the Ziegfeld.
Al: Wow – another one of your fantastic lists. Thanks for it. I’d like to make two additions, though. In 1978, between REVENGE OF THE PINK PANTHER and THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL, I saw GREASE at the Ziegfeld. And in 1986 I saw a Kirk Douglas/Burt Lancaster double feature of LUST FOR LIFE and THE PROFESSIONALS. LUST FOR LIFE had turned completely pink, but it was still in CinemaScope on the big Ziegfeld screen.
The Ziegfeld history has always been straddled with the legacy
of being an off-the-beaten path pseudo movie palace that opened
at just the wrong time.
It was the last choice run for many distributors and has survived thanks to the creative programming and massive efforts over the years of the Walter Reade Organisation followed by equal support from Clearview and, yes, even Cineplex Odeon who insisted on always keeping it open.
Contrary to popular opinion, New Yorkers have never truly supported the Ziegfeld, preferring to see their movies elsewhere when possible. The theatre was often out-grossed when playing day and date with a Broadway house or the upper east side.
It is ironic that the demise of the Broadway palaces is what allowed the Ziegfeld to survive, mostly thanks to exclusive engagements for which it would never have been first choice.
Straddled in its early days by huge overhead including three projectionists on 70mm and a full time stagehand (there is no stage), the theatre often closed between movies rather than incur losses.
That glorious curtain so many of you love was often the source of grief. Many a sold out show was refunded over the years when the damn thing simply wouldn’t rise. Due to its weight, it was practically impossible to run manually. Hence, it is often left open at all times.
The choice location for many movie premieres, the promoters were forced to hire extras to form the crowd of gawking fans outside when not enough celebrity hunters bothered to find their way to 54th Street.
Between the opening weeks of big film exclusives the Ziegfeld had several weeks of tumbleweeds going through its now seemingly massive seating.
Ziegfeld Filmography. Dates are within a week.
12/18/69 MAROONED
02/25/70 GONE WITH THE WIND
03/04/70 DOCTOR ZHIVAGO
03/11/70 THE BIBLE…IN THE BEGINNING
03/18/70 THE SOUND OF MUSIC
03/25/70 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
05/06/70 WAR AND PEACE (USSR)
06/03/70 THE GREAT ZIEGFELD/ZIEGFELD GIRL/ ZIEGFELD FOLLIES
06/17/70 THE SAND PEBBLES
07/01/70 GONE WITH THE WIND
07/08/70 THE BOATNIKS
08/05/70 AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS/WEST SIDE STORY
08/19/70 SOLDIER BLUE
10/14/70 A HARD DAY’S NIGHT/ HELP!/ YELLOW SUBMARINE/ LET IT BE
10/28/70 A NIGHT AT THE OPERA/ AT THE CIRCUS/ A DAY AT THE RACES/ THE BIG STORE
11/11/70 closed
11/18/70 RYAN’S DAUGHTER
07/07/71 PETER RABBIT AND THE TALES OF BEATRIX POTTER
08/04/71 CLEOPATRA
08/18/71 KLUTE
08/25/71 THE ANDERSON TAPES
09/01/71 BANANAS
09/08/71 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY/ YELLOW SUBMARINE
09/15/71 closed
12/22/71 STAR SPANGLED GIRL
02/02/72 closed
02/16/72 CABARET
08/16/72 WOODSTOCK
08/23/72 WAR AND PEACE (USSR)
08/30/72 closed
09/20/72 BLACKBOARD JUNGLE/ ROCK ROCK ROCK/ THE THING/ THE WILD ONE/ JAILHOUSE ROCK
09/27/72 closed
10/18/72 FELLINI’S ROMA
12/13/72 SLEUTH
03/28/73 I AM A DANCER
05/16/73 THIS IS CINERAMA
08/22/73 ROMEO AND JULIET (1968)
10/24/73 FROM THE MIXED UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER
11/07/73 closed
12/19/73 THE DAY OF THE DOLPHIN
04/17/74 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN THE ROLLING STONES
05/01/74 closed
05/29/74 THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT
10/02/74 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
11/20/74 EARTHQUAKE
03/26/75 TOMMY
07/02/75 ROLLERBALL
08/27/75 THE JOLSON STORY
09/10/75 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
10/01/75 GIVE ‘EM HELL, HARRY!
10/15/75 LISZTOMANIA
11/12/75 CONDUCT UNBECOMING
11/26/75 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
12/10/75 closed
12/24/75 BARRY LYNDON
03/31/76 MOSES
05/19/76 THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT PART 2
07/28/76 THE RETURN OF A MAN CALLED HORSE
09/22/76 closed
10/13/76 SOLARIS
11/10/76 closed
12/29/76 A STAR IS BORN
02/23/77 closed
06/01/77 THE GRATEFUL DEAD
06/22/77 NEW YORK, NEW YORK
08/31/77 closed
10/12/77 TOMMY
11/16/77 CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND
05/03/78 THE LAST WALTZ
07/26/78 REVENGE OF THE PINK PANTHER
10/11/78 THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL
11/15/78 THE LORD OF THE RINGS
02/14/79 MURDER BY DECREE
03/21/79 HAIR
05/23/79 THE PRISONER OF ZENDA
06/27/79 THE MUPPET MOVIE
07/18/79 DRACULA
08/15/79 APOCALYPSE NOW
11/14/79 THE ROSE
02/20/80 SATURN 3
03/26/80 APOCALYPSE NOW
04/23/80 THE WATCHER IN THE WOODS
05/07/80 FANTASIA
05/21/80 FAME
06/25/80 CAN’T STOP THE MUSIC
08/06/80 RAISE THE TITANIC
10/22/80 TIMES SQUARE
11/26/80 PAUL McCARTNEY & WINGS ROCKSHOW
12/24/80 THE JAZZ SINGER
02/18/81 CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (Special Edition)
03/18/81 FANTASIA
04/22/81 LION OF THE DESERT
06/10/81 closed
07/01/81 THE GREAT MUPPET CAPER
08/12/81 BEATLEMANIA
08/26/81 HONKY TONK FREEWAY
10/14/81 closed
12/16/81 PENNIES FROM HEAVEN
02/17/82 QUEST FOR FIRE
03/24/82 VICTOR/ VICTORIA
05/26/82 AC/DC LET THERE BE ROCK
06/16/82 GREASE 2
07/21/82 RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
08/11/82 PINK FLOYD THE WALL
09/29/82 YES, GIORGIO
11/03/82 TESS
11/10/82 FANTASIA
12/08/82 GANDHI
07/20/83 STAYING ALIVE
10/05/83 BRAINSTORM
11/23/83 YENTL
02/22/84 FANTASIA
03/21/84 A STAR IS BORN
04/04/84 ANTARCTICA
05/02/84 closed
06/27/84 THE KARATE KID
09/19/84 LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
10/03/84 closed
10/24/84 THE RAZOR’S EDGE
12/19/84 A PASSAGE TO INDIA
04/03/85 KING DAVID
05/01/85 closed
07/03/85 ST. ELMO’S FIRE
07/17/85 SILVERADO
08/28/85 GHOSTBUSTERS
10/16/85 FANTASIA
11/27/85 WHITE NIGHTS
02/05/86 DOWN AND OUT IN BEVERLY HILLS
03/26/86 JUST BETWEEN FRIENDS
04/23/86 ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS
06/04/86 closed
07/02/86 AMERICAN ANTHEM
07/23/86 PIRATES
08/06/86 FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR
09/10/86 closed
09/24/86 PATHS OF GLORY/ FROM HERE TO ETERNITY
09/27/86 BIRMAN OF ALCATRAZ/ I WALK ALONE
10/01/86 ELMER GANTRY/ ALONG THE GREAT DIVIDE
10/08/86 TOUGH GUYS
11/19/86 closed
12/03/86 NUTCRACKER
12/31/86 WISDOM
01/28/87 closed
02/04/87 OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE
03/18/87 HEAT
04/08/87 closed
04/15/87 THREE FOR THE ROAD
04/22/87 closed
05/20/87 ISHTAR
06/24/87 ROXANNE
08/12/87 WHO’S THAT GIRL
09/02/87 THE FOURTH PROTOCOL
10/14/87 HAIL! HAIL! ROCK N’ ROLL
11/04/87 closed
11/11/87 CRY FREEDOM
01/20/88 GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM
03/23/88 D.O.A.
04/20/88 APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH
05/04/88 POWAQQATSI
06/29/88 WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?
08/17/88 THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST
11/30/88 COCOON: THE RETURN
01/11/89 TALK RADIO
02/15/89 LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
07/05/89 THE KARATE KID PART III
08/09/89 THE ABYSS
09/20/89 SEA OF LOVE
11/01/89 THE BEAR
12/20/89 BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY
BORING! lets get back to movie talk!
Please excuse my third comment in a row, but I have just seen this posting by Theaterbuff1 at /theaters/7096/
“Actually what I really should’ve said in my earlier commentary above was that after the federal government moved its Northeast Philadelphia headquarters into the former GCC Northeast 4 building — along with all Philadelphia attorneys who practice Social Security Disability law — at that point it would make perfectly good sense to bring out the wrecking ball and go ahead and knock the whole building to the ground.”
My question is whether Theaterbuff1 is saying he would use a wrecking ball or other means of destruction like a bomb to attack a federal building and kill people inside. After Oklahoma City and 9-11, we should all be on the alert for such threats, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other government agencies would be interested in knowing of such threats or intentions of death and destruction.
As New York City pages including the Ziegfeld page seem to be the pages most heavily used, it seems appropriate given his comments above, to enter this here. Like all Americans, Philadelphians were shocked at 9-11, and we don’t need these kinds of postings.
I don’t find the post amusing, especially he knows that I am among the lawyers he is referring to. And, before I hear his reply, I will say that I’ve never advocated for the destruction of any theater building. I’ve volunteered since 2002 to save movie palaces and theaters and other buildings, not destroy them.