Criterion Theatre
1514 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
1514 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
27 people favorited this theater
Showing 401 - 425 of 606 comments
I forgot to mention that the only reason the Star is Born footage is so common was because a private collector got hold of a kinescope print, and sold bootleg copies on VHS.
It was aired locally on KTLA in Los Angeles live from the Pantages Theater, and somebody at the station made the decision (and spent considerable money) to make a 16mm kinescope. Video tape was not used for recording television programs at that time, it was still in the experimental stage. The kinescope system was a camera filming off a high quality, low contrast monitor.
I’m sorry to say that the filming of this particular premiere broadcast was the exception and not the rule.
So how is it the complete televised Star is Born is still around?
Quite right Bob, as I recall, most of the premieres were part of the newsreels in those days. Fox Movietone often included Roxy premieres, movie promotion and premiere coverage all in one.
Newsreel footage probably still exists because it was shot on 35mm or 16mm film. The live TV broadcasts are most likely gone.
Good idea Vincent, having attended many of the Fox openings at the Roxy and Paramount, I know there were always cameras there, the film must be somewhere.
They were all aired live and unless they were kinescoped or videotaped (which is unlikely,) they are gone forever.
I wish that all those 60’s televised premieres would be made available on the DVD’s in their entirety. The only ones I know of are the ‘56 Star is Born and and the abridged newsreel of Grand Hotel.
Imagine that poor Program Director having been hung out to dry all because of a typical NYC traffic jam! That’s like being fired because the sky is blue!
On the night “My Fair Lady” premiered at the Criterion, Channel 5 presented a half-hour live special at 7:30, with arriving celebrities greeted by Arthur Godfrey. He kept plugging Audrey Hepburn’s upcoming appearance and interview, but her car was delayed in traffic, and she only was seen over closing credits and entered the lobby during the fade to black. This fiasco resulted in the loss of the station’s Program Director and thousands of dollars in make-good commercials for the sole sponsor.
Oh, I forgot to mention the name of the picture which was of course “The Robe”
Thank you Warren.
Working in the theatres in those times were something very special, when I was assigned to do a shift at the SI Paramount I could not wait to get there. It was one of Fabian’s favorite theatres, we got all the new toys to play with : )
The Parampount was the first SI theatre to install CinemaScope, I remember working most of Christmas Eve, much to the horror of my family, while the new screen and sound system were installed for the Christmas day opening.
Warren, I worked the SI Paramount for that engagement, would you happen to have the newspaper ad?
The one film title that I can make out on the picture of the UA Criterion is “Free Willy”.
MikeRa… the ad for the Broadway play “Miss Saigon” visible on the left side of the photo next to the Coca Cola display, places this photo no earlier than 1991 (which is when the show premiered at the Broadway Theater). I can’t make out the film titles on the marquee, though the one on the top (with the red lettering) looks like it lists “Bruce Willis” as a star.
Here is a link to a late 1980’s or early 1990’s photo of the UA Criterion Theatre
Thanks, Bob. I think someone had commented on this page that some small portion of the theater was still visible toward the rear of the 2nd story in Toys ‘r’ Us. I found this article (from June 2004, so it predates the opening of the Bond 45 Restaurant Warren references above), which contains some history of the so-called Bow Tie building and includes a passage near the very end that refers to the “midnight blue ceiling” and roof trusses of the Criterion still being visible above the huge doll house that is one of the toy store’s various “attractions.” The description “midnight blue” would seem to suggest an atmospheric design (which we know the Criterion did not have) so I’m not sure I’d lend much credence to the reference. But perhaps this exposes truss work is what might have been alluded to in the earlier comments here on this page.
I talked with one of the workers when they were gutting out the theater. Nothing remains, it was cleared right to the brick walls. He did tell me that they found an old abandoned studio in the theater that was used for broadcasting movie premieres over the radio.
The restaurant occupies the entire orchestra section of the auditorium. The stage is now Starbucks.
I believe it was only there for South Pacific. Anybody out there see it before it moved to the Rivoli? And as for that why did a big hit film like that move to the Rivoli anyway? What film did they move it for?
Getting back to the question of a curved screen install, I may be wrong but I don’t it ever happened.
I was in here opening week 0f Dec. 1962 for Lawrence of Arabia.It was the bright red curtain and a flat screen (I took and still have a color slide of the opening title off the Very flat screen) my last time in here before it was upstairs/downstairs split was the Gilda Radner concert film. It was the same old dirty red curtain and flat screen.
Any properly 70mm curved screen installation would normally have
a projection booth installed at a near zero projection angle.
Example in NYC the WARNER (downstairs),the Rivoli ( balcony cut ),
the Loews State (balcony cut in the 1959 remodel for Ben Hur ).
The Criterion booth at the rear of the small balcony could have
had a little too slight of an angle without a keystone problem, at least for a Times Sq. quality install.
Can anybody remember anything else?
Getting back to the question of a curved screen install, I may be wrong but I don’t it ever happened.
I was in here opening week 0f Dec. 1962 for Lawrence of Arabia.It was the bright red curtain and a flat screen (I took and still have a color slide of the opening title off the Very flat screen) my last time in here before it was upstairs/downstairs split was the Gilda Radner concert film. It was the same old dirty red curtain and flat screen.
Any properly 70mm curved screen installation would normally have
a projection booth installed at a near zero projection angle.
Example in NYC the WARNER (downstairs),the Rivoli ( balcony cut ),
the Loews State (balcony cut in the 1959 remodel for Ben Hur ).
The Criterion booth at the rear of the small balcony could have
had a little too slight of an angle without a keystone problem, at least for a Times Sq. quality install.
Can anybody remember anything else?
I remember the basement as a large white elegant edwardian oval lounge for the rest rooms. Am I correct?
By the time I first came here it was already a twin; then slowly but surely further carved up; the basement was a carnival of lost souls.
Warren thanks but how are those magazines researched today?
And if the it turns out the Criterion did not have an extra large screen for those 70mm roadshows I am going to be very disillusioned.
Like reading here in Cinema Treasures that the Virginia on the boardwalk that I used to walk by as a boy in Atlantic City where the big roadshows would play was in reality a dump with no curtain.
I still refuse to believe its true.