Loew's Capitol Theatre
1645 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
1645 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
47 people
favorited this theater
Showing 376 - 400 of 1,085 comments
Hello-
to vindanpar- in answer to your pointed “why does it matter in 2016” question the answer is simple. i have a decent sized movie memorabilia collection a big part of which are movie souvenir programs. to which there are a number of the big roadshow films which played the 7 Times Square theaters i mentioned in my original post that i have never come across a souvenir program for. so though ever roadshow film i went to had a souvenir program i wondered if some for whatever reason didn’t.
to patryan6019- thanks for the info about Patton. that was a big highly promoted roadshow film so i
am quite surprised it did not have a souvenir program. i wonder what Fox’s reasoning was. also for this theater i have never come across a souvenir program for Cheyenne Autumn which opened here Dec. of 1964 on a roadshow engagement.
I know I’m the last person in the world who should be asking this question bigjoe59 but why in the world in 2016 does this matter?
For what it’s worth when I saw MFL in Jan of 71 at the Criterion though it was a Super Panavision 70 print it was continuous perfs without intermission and the souvenir program was a flimsy flyer compared to the hardcover edition of the original run.
bigjoe59…There were no programs sold in the US for Patton.
Hello to All-
I thank everyone for their replies but the central question I asked in my original post still hasn’t been answered. of the 7 theaters in the Times Square area the studios used for most of their roadshow engagements(Criterion,Loews State, RKO Palace, Demille, Warner, Rivoli and Loews Capitol)does anyone know of a roadshow engagement at one of those 7 theaters that did not have a souvenir program? thanks in advance for any info.
A quick check on ebay shows programs on sale on all those titles, bigjoe59, although the TANGO program is Japanese.
Hello to All-
to patryan6019- i have souvenir programs for all the films you listed except Last Tango In Paris, Young Winston, The Last Valley or Ryan’s Daughter. in fact i don’t think LTIP had one. and eventhough i saw TLV in its first run engagement at the Rivoli twice i never remember seeing one for sale. also i saw RD at the Ziegfeld twice and again don’t remember a program being sold.
to Coate-
i am aware several other theaters in Manhattan hosted roadshow engagements. in fact i went to all the ones you listed. what i am trying to find out is if any of the roadshow engagements that played the 7 big theaters in the Times Square area i listed in my original post did not have a souvenir program.
Ryans was a very limited roadshow because most engagements were not using 70mm prints, a sign of the impending end of the real processes being replaced by blown up 35mm that in no way could compare to those images and actual 6 channels of sound.
FWIW, “Ryan’s Daughter” actually was a roadshow in some locales. In most major markets it was a reserved performance engagement (including the NYC run), but it played with reserved seating in markets in which it was booked into a Syufy theater (i.e. San Jose, Orange, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, etc.). And in Chicago the engagement at the Michael Todd switched to a reserved-seat policy a few weeks into the run.
I couldn’t believe my bad luck.
When I was finally old enough to go on my own to roadshow films(my parents thought people were crazy to pay those prices when you could fill up the station wagon and take the entire family to a drive-in with kids getting in free-think the perfect drive-in double bill: My Fair Lady and For Those Who Think Young) I got stuck with Fiddler at the Rivoli, oy, and Nicholas at the Criterion.
And flame throwers couldn’t get me into Tora Tora Tora or Florence Henderson in Super Panavision 70.
Then they bring back Lawrence and put it in the Rivoli. Perfect right? No. They show the cliff notes version.
Life, as they say, is not fair.
Another roadshow-era oddness that always gets ignored is “I AM CURIOUS (YELLOW)” at the Evergreen in Greenwich Village.
Gosh I think I saw all of those films first run. But not in NY.
Mean!
But I agree with you.
Except for Ryan’s Daughter which is a pretty great film. The storm alone is one of the most stupendous sequences ever put of film. Lean hadn’t lost his touch but got put through the meat grinder by those wretched New York film critic hacks who couldn’t review a grocery bill without mucking it up.
Good grief, with that line-up of roadshow offerings it’s a good thing theaters didn’t have the new reclining seats or the racket of snoring would have drowned out the soundtracks…!
bigjoe59…what programs do you have of the last roadshows (working backwards): Paris, Mancha, Winston, Nicholas, Fiddler, Norway, Tora. And non roadshown Valley and Ryans.
“A Man for All Seasons” played roadshow at the Fine Arts for more than a year (12/12/1966-12/17/1967).
bigjoe59…. There were several other NYC theaters that played roadshows during the era you’re describing besides the ones you cited. I don’t have a complete listing, but just from the latter half of the 1960s and into the early 1970s, consider the following:
57th St. Lincoln Art (“The Lion in Winter”)
Columbia (“Young Winston”)
Coronet (“The Taming of the Shrew”)
Fine Arts (“The Charge of the Light Brigade”)
Ziegfeld (“Marooned”)
And if you wish to count modified roadshows (i.e. reserved performance engagements), then consider:
86th St. East (“The Great Waltz”)
bigoe59, if you look at the semi-Roadshow runs of well received, edgy, classic foreign films (LA DOLCE VITA, THE EASY LIFE, LES LIASONS DANGEURESES, FELLINI SATYRICON) you will see what UA was trying to re-create.
Hello-
to Al A. i do tend to forget Last Tango in Paris don’t I. but its always been my suspicion that UA opted for a reserved seat run at the Trans Lux East to make the film appear “important” and not because it was warranted by the budget.
also my question pertained to the 7 Bway houses that the studios used for their roadshow runs. so does anyone remember/know of a roadshow film which played one of the 7 Bway houses during the 20 year period I mentioned in my original post that did not have a souvenir program?
If I recall correctly, some were cut and some were uncut…
I will give “CALIGULA” a pass since it was eight years after the Roadshow era and quite an anomaly. But “LAST TANGO” was very much a part of the trend to move Roadshows out of Broadway and into the prestigious upper east side, before the whole concept died out with spontaneous youth audiences controlling all ticket sales in the mid-seventies. I do think “CALIGULA” uncut had a souvenir program, though.
I kind of remember a hard ticket for Caligula. (Something was hard, anyway…)
Let’s not forget that “LAST TANGO IN PARIS” was a roadshow AFTER “MAN OF LA MANCHA”. We have a legacy of ignoring movies, and theatres we find morally offensive in hindsight. But not here on Cinema Treasures.
I would think that Gigi would have had one two particularly since it was screened at a Broadway Theater.
Hello- the heyday of the reserved seat or roadshow engagement was the Sept. 1952 opening of This Cinerama to the Dec. 1972 opening of Man of La Mancha. there were seven theaters used by the studios in the Times Square area for their roadshow engagements this theater plus the Criterion, Loews State, RKO Palace, Demille, Warner, and the Rivoli. which is where my question comes in. while I didn’t go to every roadshow engagement in the approx. 20 year period every one i did attend had a souvenir program. so does anyone remember attending a roadshow engagement in that 20 year period at one of the seven theaters that did not have a souvenir program?
Bill you only post this to make us jealous.
Well I saw it at the Rivoli in ‘76 and it was pretty fabulous there!