Comments from vindanpar

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vindanpar
vindanpar commented about WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORYad on Nov 9, 2019 at 5:03 am

Last summer of Palisades Park. The up coming Winston Towers condos will cost you 22k a pop.

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about Virginia Theatre on Nov 5, 2019 at 11:42 am

Funny how still in ‘67 the newly posted picture could be from the 50s except for the film and the women’s clothes. In a matter of only a few years this was sadly going to drastically change. And films on the boardwalk would be movies like Klute and Shaft.

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about Loew's State Theatre on Nov 3, 2019 at 9:42 am

The winter photo with Oliver on the marquee actually looks like'69. Is that the Krakatoa East of Java 45th to 46st billboard going up? They knew Star was being pulled early at the Rivoli so that had to come down but I believe it made it through the holiday season. I saw it then. Looks like Ice Station Zebra is still at the Cinerama or at least the billboard is still up.

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about The Bible....souvenir book on Oct 27, 2019 at 5:23 pm

And I wonder in what cities they played in D150 theaters. NY wasn’t one of them.

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about Criterion Theatre on Oct 26, 2019 at 8:20 pm

Reds had a souvenir program? Didn’t even know Star Wars had one when it opened. In fact last one I remember seeing on sale at a counter was Cabaret at the Ziegfeld.

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about Radio City Music Hall on Oct 26, 2019 at 8:12 am

Interesting that a few times in the 30s up until the very early 40s a Christmas film didn’t make it to the New Years holiday. I wonder if it was because the Christmas film was a disappointment in terms of attendance or they just wanted a new film. The very first Christmas film made both holidays. I believe Babes on Broadway(for some reason the only Garland/ Rooney to play the Hall) and Philadelphia Story were the last New Years' films and huge hits. Or did H.M.Pulhman Esq. also not make New Years?

I saw Carnovsky 40 years later in King Lear in CT. And amazingly Colbert a few times on Broadway.

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about Loew's State Theatre on Oct 25, 2019 at 6:09 am

Well Oliver was a blowup like Funny Girl a block south so I don’t think that counts. They look good but they would have looked better in 70mm. Too bad at this point fewer films were using this process along with the following years PYW. After Airport they were all blowups I believe until Tron(actually a mutt, but I kind of enjoyed it for its visual effects) a disappointment which seems to be getting a lot of love close to 40 years on. The Disney ride currently in Shanghai will open in Orlando in ‘21. The pov is on youtube which if you get it through your tv looks kind of cool.

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about Loew's State Theatre on Oct 25, 2019 at 6:04 am

Well Kennedy does not actually do the hatchet job I was expecting. In fact he seems to have found it not half bad. I was fortunate enough to have seen it at the Warner Cinerama with its quite spectacular sound system and 80ft screen.

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about Criterion Theatre on Oct 23, 2019 at 3:45 am

May I add that you have given us a wonderful shot of the world premiere of this film in front of the Criterion. May you post many more but without the tart observations which definitely put a crimp in your contributions. I may not like a crude trashy racist graphic exploitation film like Mandingo which turned the Criterion into a sleazy 42nd street grind house a couple of blocks north but as a gentleman I simply stay clear of discussing it.

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about Criterion Theatre on Oct 23, 2019 at 3:30 am

DEFG Let me put you straight. You clearly have missed quite a bit. On this site we discuss many things. Not only the theaters, but the movies that played there, the memorabilia that was sold in the theater and how the movies are presented to us in the present day. Sometimes we go off on tangents but that is because we all find ourselves on the same page and the thought of one film that played here might bring us to a film that played at a theater close by. But if you switched to that theater no one would know you had written a response.

In case you are unaware these theaters sold such important memorabilia as souvenir books. I had remarked that when I saw Nick and Alex at this theater the book was not available and found it strange as it exists. This brought us to a discussion of the film itself and I was informed by bigjoe that it was available on bluray. Sadly I missed it as it sold out but he is now informing me of what he found to be an excellent bluray of Anne. If he had informed me of this on the Plaza page I very probably would have missed it.

The Criterion stopped being a treasure in 1980 when it was sliced and diced which is now 40 years ago. There are precious few of us left who can offer our experiences of what it was like to enter into these magical places to see films.

Earlier in the month I talked about Marni Nixon dubbing in the film of My Fair Lady. My Fair Lady had its world premiere at this theater in Oct of ‘64. This started a discussion of dubbing in films. Now we couldn’t go jumping about to all the theaters that featured movies in which actors were dubbed could we?

I hope you can join us in these somewhat wandering nostalgic threads as longtime contributors are inevitably joining the Roxy and Carthay Circle in the sky. But lay off Funny Girl. It is a Criterion Theater classic and its last hit roadshow film. If you feel a deep need to trash it go to Amazon where your type are welcomed though admittedly by very few.

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about RKO Warner Twin Theatre on Oct 14, 2019 at 6:51 pm

bigjoe do you have the original 2001 souvenir book? The long horizontal rectangular one with the original space exploration cover art? How many do you have and what condition are they in? It goes for quite a bit of money on ebay. I have mine in a closet somewhere. Haven’t looked at it since forever. Though I brought it with me to the play Doubles to get Dullea to sign it but chickened out at the last minute. Got it new by going to the National Publishers office itself where I got a slew of in new condition souvenir books. You see the address for it in many of the 60s roadshow films books. But I’m sure you know this.

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about Rivoli Theatre on Oct 14, 2019 at 5:20 pm

For anyone who wants to see the back wall of the Rivoli with its 7th Av billboard when it was showing 80 Days there is a photo of it on ebay. I had never seen it before though there are a number of photos of the front marquee. From France $165.There must be some fan of the Rivoli with deep pockets.

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about Virginia Theatre on Oct 14, 2019 at 3:56 pm

Happened at the Paramount in Asbury Park as well. I assume this is the only time in Jersey shore history a film played through the autumn and winter through to the following summer. Even the other biggest roadshow hits like South Pacific(surprisingly,) WSS and MFL were gone by the autumn while they continued their big city engagements.

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about RKO Warner Twin Theatre on Oct 14, 2019 at 9:24 am

Alvarez you are fast.

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about RKO Warner Twin Theatre on Oct 14, 2019 at 9:11 am

Mike knew that but he was being difficult.
What’s an anagram for Cinerama?

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about Virginia Theatre on Oct 14, 2019 at 6:56 am

Virginia had the 70MM roadshow version of GWTW so this would have been the time period of Camelot. I remember all the display photos outside the theater walking by it in the summer of ‘68. Above the theater was a faded billboard of Thoroughly Modern Millie which might have played there summer of '67.

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about RKO Warner Twin Theatre on Oct 13, 2019 at 7:12 pm

Was reading about Jack Davis and when his father took his first trip to NY he walked out of the subway in Times Square and saw the IAMMMMW billboard. He was like Wow! Davis was very proud.

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about Belasco Theatre on Oct 10, 2019 at 9:38 am

I do think it’s fun that he’s mimicking when films played at legitimate theaters early in the 20th century. The odd thing is that there will be 8 performances a week rather than 10 or 14(I’d love to see a sign out front (Two Performances Daily.)Will there be reserved seats,a film program? One thing I object to very strongly is the pricing. There are no tiered prices and $15 is a very paltry sum for a roadshow run. A mezz as well as orchestra ticket should be at least $40. Because it’s a drama. A musical would be more.

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about Criterion Theatre on Oct 9, 2019 at 5:05 pm

How is Russell? Could they have kept her tracks in? I heard Kirk sing some of Gypsy in a tribute to Styne at Avery Fisher. Unfortunately I forget what exactly.

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about Criterion Theatre on Oct 8, 2019 at 5:42 pm

I believe she knew. It caused quite the kerfluffle before the film opened. Nixon claimed Previn blamed her for spilling the beans. Though how could anyone not know Hepburn did not have a trained voice after Funny Face and Breakfast? I think there is also a clip of the red carpet interviewer asking Hepburn about it as she stops to talk at the entrance of the Criterion going into the world premiere. Why such a shrewd experienced actress like her did not have it in her contract that she would do her own singing I do not understand. The way she was led on caused her great embarrassment. Watch her give the Oscar to Rex on youtube. This lady was beyond classy.

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about Criterion Theatre on Oct 7, 2019 at 9:22 pm

Didn’t even know Chips made it to cd let alone a 3 cd set. Those prices are quite the sucker punch. Big joe did you grab it when it came out? The middle part of Just You Wait is Nixon. You can hear the voice change when it begins One day I’ll be famous, then Hepburn starts again with And they’ll march you Henry Higgins. I always wondered if Nixon got a % of the lp sales and how much because it was a huge bestseller. She was refused WSS so Bernstein gave her a small part of his. Which probably ended up being a ton of money.

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about Criterion Theatre on Oct 6, 2019 at 10:52 pm

O'Toole was dubbed in Chips? It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen it. He certainly deserved the Oscar over Wayne though I suppose if you see Wayne’s name on a list of nominees you think well yes and you put a check next to it.

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about Criterion Theatre on Oct 6, 2019 at 9:31 pm

While not a fan of the film I’ve been a fan of the score(buying a cutout of the lp,there were a lot of those) since I was very young. The Bobby Darin album is also worth getting. And the 2 cd set is indeed excellent. Remarkable that all these isolated musical tracks were kept for an unsuccessful film when My Fair Lady’s extended cd had to use the musical tracks from the film soundtrack thereby having to include the extraneous noises. Were all those musical tracks tossed?

I wish the stage show had worked to give those songs a new lease on life. And I wish I could have seen it in Todd AO at Loew’s State as there are some wonderful visual sequences. Hell I wish I could have seen anything there before it was twinned.

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about Criterion Theatre on Oct 5, 2019 at 10:18 am

Well Harrison on a giraffe was certainly a very famous image from Dolittle dominating the cover of the soundtrack album and block long billboard in front of Loew’s state and not simply a staged photo for publicity but a scene from the film cut before the opening due to disappointing previews.

vindanpar
vindanpar commented about Criterion Theatre on Oct 3, 2019 at 7:23 pm

Just when exactly was it pointed out to them they got the title wrong? Like just after all the print advertising was made and they said the heck with it? It sounded good to me.