That’s interesting information, BoxOfficeBill, about the last draping of the ROXY, and I, for one, have never seen a photo of that era you mention as being in Dec. of ‘52. Since it has not been possible to post photos here for years now, perhaps you can scan that photo in the Theatre Catalog you mention and submit it to Cinema Tour at '’ and maybe that way we can see it there through a link later posted here.
Your love of the grandiose KINGS is well placed, Bruce, and yes, it can be restored just as the NEW AMSTERDAM was as long as something of it remains to be a starting point in the restoration. All it takes is money, LOTS of money. Ironically, I fear that even if money is found for the essential structural and plaster repairs along with other physicals, it is the 3-story-high monumental draperies that will not be replacable, since no drapery makers of that caliber exist any longer, nor the firms such as E.L.Mansure Co. which made the 5-foot-long tassels and 4-foot-long fringe upon them. Such textile artistry was unique to the lavish interior of the KINGS which decorative draperies were intended to convey the opulence of a true king’s palace! Such ornaments of the past are today sneered at as ‘feminine’ and of no material worth in the iconography of the ‘now generation’. I guess I dream as you do of restoring this wonderful venue as the Jehovah’s Witnesses did the STANLEY in N.J., but even such as they who do not have to pay property taxes, still did not attempt to return the original lavish, opulent designs of the original draperies due to the extreme costs involved. The KINGS may never appear again as it did in 1929, but then few things do! If you again come upon any of the original textiles remaining, I strongly suggest that you get permission to remove them (or significant pieces of them) so that you can preserve them in some dry place to have some remaining examples of things to restore, should some miracle arise and an ‘angel’ wants to spend the millions to do a genuine restoration. True restoration can only be done if samples remain to guide and direct that restoration. With such samples preserved, ANYTHING can be reproduced with enough time and money. I volunteer to come and help make up the drawings of those draperies should such funding come to be.
Yes, it was the unmistakeable LOS ANGELES, with the image computer colored to immitate the tints of the M&Ms. The scene following it was also shot in one of the lounges there, it too being tinted and dressed to further the theme of the commercial. It appears that the theatre is largely surviving on commercials these days, but then where else can they go for such a sweeping stairway shot? The FOX in San Francisco is gone, as is the MARBRO in Chicago, and their wonderful UPTOWN is not in any photographic condition. Thank goodness location scouts are aware of the LOS ANGELES and other movie palaces around the nation (and of course, it IS in their ‘back yard’ so moving and location expenses are much lower than going elsewhere)! The Theatre Historical Society once started a file of theatres used as film/commercial/video locations, but I don’t know if it is any longer maintained. Contact them via their web site: www.HistoricTheatres.org
Rapp and Rapp ceased to exist as an architectural firm in the 1950s, but much of their archives remain at the Theatre Historical Society in Elmhurst Illinois, 15 miles west of Chicago. Reach them through their web site: www.HistoricTheatres.org
More information may be available from The Theatre Historical Society of America at: www.HistoricTheatres.org and you can contact their Ex. Director Richard Sklenar via the link on their site for further data from their 40,000 items on nearly 15,000 theatres.
Thanks, Bruce, for that excellent breakdown of the dimensions and physical nature of the wonderful KINGS. I wish I had the proximity and resources to it that you have.
“Traps†are actually small openings in a stage floor covered with doors that open downward instantly so as to cause the dropping of an actor through the floor onto cushions in the below stage space. This was a device often called for in classical plays as well as melodramas of later years. In more advanced theatres, multiple traps could be linked together to open as one, thus opening a large portion of the stage floor for some scenic effects. Perhaps the single best illustration of their use is in the Cary Grant mystery “Charade†where the antagonist is walking across a darkened stage in search of Mr. Grant who is below the stage in the wings putting his hand to the line of trip lines that will release the one appropriate to the one the man is standing on; Mr. Grant is shown estimating the man’s position on the numbered trap doors only by sound of his footsteps above. It is exciting and shows the physical usage of multiple traps in a large stage.
The ROXY and other large facilities not only had stage elevators as that wonderful photo in THE BEST REMAINING SEATS makes clear, but often several traps in each elevator sometimes along with a turntable the width of the stage! When Ben Hall dubbed such “miracles of levitation†he wasn’t far from wrong.
No latter day views of the marquee are shown in the Theatre Historical Society’s Annual on the New York (Times Square) PARAMOUNT, but it is quite likely that they do have other views in their Archive. A letter to them at their address listed on their site: www.HistoricTheatres.org will probably elicit some photocopies to document the changes for you. Of the two early days photos of the marquee in their Annual of 1976, one does show that that light bulb extravaganza was augmented with tall attraction boards above the end boards already a part of the original marquee. This is one of the few major palaces in the nation not to have had a vertical sign, as also did not the PARADISE in the Bronx, but then both had monumental facades not needing such superfluous decoration. It is remarkable, nontheless, how close the modern reproduction shown in the photo on this site above, is to the original. We cannot expect all the detailing of the original which had no doubt rusted out by the ‘50s, since costs were ever higher for such creations in later years. The latest one appears to be primarily neon, which is now cheaper in the long run due to the vastly higher costs of labor today to replace more expensive light bulbs every few months, as compared to the initial cost of neon which is high but can give 50 years of continuous service if properly built. I rejoice that they did see fit to restore both the marquee as well as the name sign above the mock grand window. They lend a magnificence befitting Gotham and fill the nightscape with wonder.
The United States designates its ‘National Treasures’ in buildings in two ways: first is the National Register of Historic Places, and this must be started by locals who can mount an effort to get their State Historic Preservation Officer to designate a building a state landmark according to the guidelines published by the History Div. Of the National Park Service which administers the program. Then, the state must complete forms to petition the Park Service to grant National Register status, but this is largely contingent upon locals being able to get behind the property, and if the owner protests — as often happens — then the designation will often fail. There are a number of technicalities and politics, local, state and national, do figure into the granting of the placement on the Register, which is to document LOCAL and STATE significance, but not necessarily any truly nation-wide significance. In contrast, the NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARKS program is designed to recognize structures that had a national impact, rather than merely local or state importance. A site would have to be first admitted to the Register in order to be considered for the NATIONAL LANDMARKS listing, and then the promoters would have to do far more documenting to convince the feds of the national scope and significance. When I wrote the Nomination documentation for the PABST THEATER in Milwaukee, it went to 800 pages and some 20 pounds sent off to the Park Service, which granted the designation unanimously in 1991. Such documentation is then sent to the National Archives, and a plaque is designed for the premises.
If someone is to get behind the FOX, they must do the research to convince the property owner and other notables of its importance; that will get the officer at the state capitol to grant state recognition, and then one can fill out the Nomination to the National Register. After that is granted, one can attempt to get the more restricted designation of National Historic Landmark. See: www.NationalParkService.gov/history
Miss Barbara: It is good news about the show, but not all of us have cable or cable with the History Channel, so please persuade your people to set up the show as a download on your web site after it is telecast. If they can set it up in more than one format, that will make it available to more people’s computers. Also, ask them to put it out in DVD-R format and most poeple will be able to order it from you and keep it for posterity, which it sounds like they will want to do! You might even ask the Theatre Historical Society if they want to co-sponsor a DVD much as they co-sponsored the 1987 VHS “The Movie Palaces.” Contact their Ex. Director, Rich Sklenar at: and view their history on their site at: www.HistoricTheatrs.org
Mr. Illitch can no doubt afford many, many thousands of dollars in fines, as he awaits the propitious moment to stop paying property taxes if no buyer of the land has stepped forward, and then, like many tens of thousands of other landlords before him, he will abandon the property and let the taxpayers pay for emergency demolition. Hundreds of thousands of dollars will then be spent by the city for a safe demolition, and placed on the property tax bill as a lein upon the next buyer of the land. Then, years from now, when a new land broker is interested, he will seidel up to the politicians and offer to purchse the land from the city provided they give him tax moratoriums, credits for site improvements, waivers of environmental regulations, and forgiveness of any and all leins on the property — and the city will desperately and cravenly agree to all this, thus making the taxpayrs pay twice over for the sins of the previous owners! It’s all called Free Enterprise or what our grandfathers would have called Corruption.
Your memorbilia of the Warners as well as the Robins sounds as though it would be valuable to historians, so may I suggest you consider setting up a bequest so that the materials are sent to the organization of your choosing when you leave this scene. If a university library or archive (the most reliable in the long term) is not interested, may I suggest contacting the Theatre Historical Soc. of America: www.HistoricTheatres.org or the library of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Pasadena: www.Oscar.org ?
Sorry about the link error; I was not saying that the views are to be seen at their site, only that this is the organization that was responsible for the Aurora photos and brochure of Conrad Schmitt’s restoration there.
As to why they appear on a site devoted to the Boston PARAMOUNT, I can only guess that it was a mix up at the advertising or web site producers' offices, or that they wanted to present the impression that their work would equal that done to the Aurora PARAMOUNT.
That very photo of the plane in the lobby is reporduced on page 160 of David Naylor’s GREAT AMERICAN MOVIE THEATRES, to be seen at many libraries, and sometimes available from such as www.Amazon.com
Yes, the photos there are definitely of the restored PARAMOUNT in Aurora, Illinois. Those views are from the brochure about the theatre in Aurora by the restorers: the Conrad Studios outside of Milwaukee at www.ConradSchmittStudios.com
I heard it said that the lobby chandelier shown on page 101 of Naylor’s book had fallen years ago. Was there any attempt to reproduce it in the Ford Center?
This is truly one of the greatest of the reamining palaces, and while it is probably a pipe dream to want to see it returned to its 1928 splendor, I nonetheless fervently retain that dream. I hope that grand House Curtain with its jeweled Birds of Paradise has been in storage soemwhere so that it can come back along with the organ to once again entertain LIU students as well as the public in general, and to bring again to life the world of lush fantasy that this glorious building inspired. That famous 2-page photo of it in “The Best Remaining Seats” by the late Ben M. Hall shows one of the most spectacular spaces ever designed. Its illumination was so elaborate and glowing that it was the subject of an article in the Illuminating Engineering Society magazine in 1929. Oh, to see all those lights work again!
Joe, thank you for those kind words; it is always rewarding to know that my efforts at description/history do bring alive one of our lost ‘treasures’ to others. I feel as you do that it was a tragic loss indeed, and you are right that no religious group would have been able to make use of such decor, even if they had the funds to restore and maintain it, and without any parking, its fate was sealed in that area of White Flight to the suburbs, something that occurred faster and more thoroughly in Milwaukee than in most cities.
Unfortunately, the architects never again got the opportunity to invest such imagination in a theatre.
Miss Patsy’s intemperate scolding of Milwaukee is unwarranted, since the city had little reasonable choice. By the time the absentee owner stoped paying taxes on it, he and the tenants had let the theatre decay to the point that it would have cost a fortune to restore, and to what use even if funds were available? The neighborhood was then and is now in sad decay, quite unable to support a movie palace of this size and splendor. No one stepped forward to rescue the EGYPTIAN, and the city was faced with a wreck that housed only vandals and transients via illegal entry. As my description above makes clear, the place was a public nuisance and threat to safety. If it had not been demolished, it was only a matter of time before children, no to mention adults, would have been injured in there or outside as portions of the marquee and walls had already fallen.
Sad to say, this is the situation with the venerable KINGS in Brooklyn, the UPTOWN in Chicago, and any number of other wonderful Cinema Treasures soon to be lost to us. Milwaukee is not alone in putting off spending a small fortune to demolish old theatres when they become a public threat and no one comes forward to rescue them, but eventually they must do what has to be legally done. I hate to see any building destroyed, but I would rather that then see it entomb the unwary citizen!
If I understand your mission correctly, your planned book is primarily a photo artist’s Portfolio, not a scholarly review of the theatres presented. I conclude that you are looking for publicity for your prints and book, not donations of photos by others of theatres no longer open for you to photograph. There is certainly nothing wrong with a book/portfolio, but it is a different thing than the great effort of the owners of this site when they created their “Cinema Treasures” volume last year. Vintage photos are abundant in there. I hope your efforts will give us new and better views of the theatres still with us. Best Wishes. Jim Rankin, member Theatre Historical Soc. of America (www.HistoricTheatres.org; you might contact them for publicity in their NewsFlash or “Marquee” magazine).
TC: What do you mean, please, about a “backlit” sky? Usually, ‘backlit’ implies that the ‘sky’ is of a translucent material such that lights behind it can shine through, and the TAMPA is a traditional movie palace with a plaster sky, as far as I know.
YankeeMike: There are several theatres around the nation that have either the clouds or the stars working, and a few that have both. The unforgetable CORONADO in Rockford, Illinois comes quickly to mind and it has a wonderful new book out about it. The fabulous FOX in Atlanta is a notable example, even the little PATIO in Chicago had both before it closed a couple of years ago and now stands idle, as does the AVALON in Milwaukee, but its cloud machine disappeared years ago. The 3700-seat PARADISE in the Bronx is supposedly restoring its ‘sky’ too, but if it will ever reopen remains to be seen.
“Lostmemory” (who apparently has quite a good memory) is quite right: both views are of our odd little LINCOLN, and it is odd as DavidH brought out in a message to me, that of all the former theatres about town, this is the only one that retains its metal letters of the original name on the front, as shown in those views. The canopy marquee and vertical sign are gone, but the painted metal letters are still there to this day, but something tells me that the new Mexican ownership will remove them for something in Spanish when money becomes available in the current creeping conversion to a glass front store of some type. The new owner is a Chicago man since 2003, according to the tax assessors' records on-line.
It is nice that vintage films and even variety acts are working at some places as the commenters above relate, but it is naïve to believe that such policies will work everywhere, especially in New York City, probably the most money-oriented place in the nation, if not the world. The song is true that ‘if it will play there, it will play anywhere’ in so far as one may mean survive there. New York City has many theatres only because it has a huge and dense population to support them, but at the same time, theatre managements that can rightly expect much greater profits in that locale. In reality, sub-run or film festival theatres are failing all across the nation and the studios don’t care because they now make more money on foreign distribution and DVDs than on traditional film distribution. We can keep our heads in the sand and pine for the olden days, but they will not return; technology as much as the changes in urban life is quickly making the cinema building obsolete, and with so many choices in entertainment, only a few of our beloved theatres/cinemas will survive into the next generation, largely as dinner theatres or the like. Yes, every theatre/cinema can have a vintage film festival at times, but very few of them can count on them to survive, least of all the behemoth of RCMH. By all means, let’s continue to celebrate the memory of this great venue, but don’t lets be silly in proposing desperate methods to possibly help the theatre; the owners couldn’t care less about our sentiments. And the city is not likely to take on the enormous expense of owning the structure or even contributing tax dollars to it. Theatres are among the most expensive of buildings to maintain, and therefore I am sure that if a referendum were to be held asking taxpayers if they want the city to buy the building by paying the owners probably upward of 200 million dollars for the structure and land, as well as probably a half million yearly for upkeep, and you will see one of the quickest defeats of a referendum in history. People love to be nostalgic, but NOT with their pocketbooks!
The famous Supreme Court ‘Paramount decree’ of 1948 may have busted up the legal vertical integration at the time, but essentially we are now right back were we started, with the studios in full control of the theatres, but with no responsibility to maintain them! For them, it is now the best of all worlds: no responsibility (or expense!) for the exhibition venue, ability to deny titles to anyone, ability to sell and control via exorbitant terms, and no real possibility of losing that control since big business owns the politicians and hence the courts. Some reading in the Archived comments on the FORUMS of the site: www.BigScreenBiz.com will quickly acquaint you with the ever-tightening straight jacket that the movie house owners must now wear. So, don’t blame your local theatres for high ticket prices or silly films or unavailability of a title; it is all the studio’s and distributor’s fault, and Radio City Music Hall is no exception to this sad state of affairs.
The investors as part of the ultimate owner of RCMH expect to get a return on their investment, and they don’t particularly care how they make money, just so they do! If the Hall were to be able to book films requested and it failed to make money for some time, it would be quickly demolished as unprofitable, and the landlord would not bat an eyelash at its demise as they looked for more profitable uses, and the public could not really complain since ‘they failed to FILL the seats continually.’
That’s interesting information, BoxOfficeBill, about the last draping of the ROXY, and I, for one, have never seen a photo of that era you mention as being in Dec. of ‘52. Since it has not been possible to post photos here for years now, perhaps you can scan that photo in the Theatre Catalog you mention and submit it to Cinema Tour at '’ and maybe that way we can see it there through a link later posted here.
Your love of the grandiose KINGS is well placed, Bruce, and yes, it can be restored just as the NEW AMSTERDAM was as long as something of it remains to be a starting point in the restoration. All it takes is money, LOTS of money. Ironically, I fear that even if money is found for the essential structural and plaster repairs along with other physicals, it is the 3-story-high monumental draperies that will not be replacable, since no drapery makers of that caliber exist any longer, nor the firms such as E.L.Mansure Co. which made the 5-foot-long tassels and 4-foot-long fringe upon them. Such textile artistry was unique to the lavish interior of the KINGS which decorative draperies were intended to convey the opulence of a true king’s palace! Such ornaments of the past are today sneered at as ‘feminine’ and of no material worth in the iconography of the ‘now generation’. I guess I dream as you do of restoring this wonderful venue as the Jehovah’s Witnesses did the STANLEY in N.J., but even such as they who do not have to pay property taxes, still did not attempt to return the original lavish, opulent designs of the original draperies due to the extreme costs involved. The KINGS may never appear again as it did in 1929, but then few things do! If you again come upon any of the original textiles remaining, I strongly suggest that you get permission to remove them (or significant pieces of them) so that you can preserve them in some dry place to have some remaining examples of things to restore, should some miracle arise and an ‘angel’ wants to spend the millions to do a genuine restoration. True restoration can only be done if samples remain to guide and direct that restoration. With such samples preserved, ANYTHING can be reproduced with enough time and money. I volunteer to come and help make up the drawings of those draperies should such funding come to be.
Yes, it was the unmistakeable LOS ANGELES, with the image computer colored to immitate the tints of the M&Ms. The scene following it was also shot in one of the lounges there, it too being tinted and dressed to further the theme of the commercial. It appears that the theatre is largely surviving on commercials these days, but then where else can they go for such a sweeping stairway shot? The FOX in San Francisco is gone, as is the MARBRO in Chicago, and their wonderful UPTOWN is not in any photographic condition. Thank goodness location scouts are aware of the LOS ANGELES and other movie palaces around the nation (and of course, it IS in their ‘back yard’ so moving and location expenses are much lower than going elsewhere)! The Theatre Historical Society once started a file of theatres used as film/commercial/video locations, but I don’t know if it is any longer maintained. Contact them via their web site: www.HistoricTheatres.org
Rapp and Rapp ceased to exist as an architectural firm in the 1950s, but much of their archives remain at the Theatre Historical Society in Elmhurst Illinois, 15 miles west of Chicago. Reach them through their web site: www.HistoricTheatres.org
More information may be available from The Theatre Historical Society of America at: www.HistoricTheatres.org and you can contact their Ex. Director Richard Sklenar via the link on their site for further data from their 40,000 items on nearly 15,000 theatres.
Thanks, Bruce, for that excellent breakdown of the dimensions and physical nature of the wonderful KINGS. I wish I had the proximity and resources to it that you have.
“Traps†are actually small openings in a stage floor covered with doors that open downward instantly so as to cause the dropping of an actor through the floor onto cushions in the below stage space. This was a device often called for in classical plays as well as melodramas of later years. In more advanced theatres, multiple traps could be linked together to open as one, thus opening a large portion of the stage floor for some scenic effects. Perhaps the single best illustration of their use is in the Cary Grant mystery “Charade†where the antagonist is walking across a darkened stage in search of Mr. Grant who is below the stage in the wings putting his hand to the line of trip lines that will release the one appropriate to the one the man is standing on; Mr. Grant is shown estimating the man’s position on the numbered trap doors only by sound of his footsteps above. It is exciting and shows the physical usage of multiple traps in a large stage.
The ROXY and other large facilities not only had stage elevators as that wonderful photo in THE BEST REMAINING SEATS makes clear, but often several traps in each elevator sometimes along with a turntable the width of the stage! When Ben Hall dubbed such “miracles of levitation†he wasn’t far from wrong.
No latter day views of the marquee are shown in the Theatre Historical Society’s Annual on the New York (Times Square) PARAMOUNT, but it is quite likely that they do have other views in their Archive. A letter to them at their address listed on their site: www.HistoricTheatres.org will probably elicit some photocopies to document the changes for you. Of the two early days photos of the marquee in their Annual of 1976, one does show that that light bulb extravaganza was augmented with tall attraction boards above the end boards already a part of the original marquee. This is one of the few major palaces in the nation not to have had a vertical sign, as also did not the PARADISE in the Bronx, but then both had monumental facades not needing such superfluous decoration. It is remarkable, nontheless, how close the modern reproduction shown in the photo on this site above, is to the original. We cannot expect all the detailing of the original which had no doubt rusted out by the ‘50s, since costs were ever higher for such creations in later years. The latest one appears to be primarily neon, which is now cheaper in the long run due to the vastly higher costs of labor today to replace more expensive light bulbs every few months, as compared to the initial cost of neon which is high but can give 50 years of continuous service if properly built. I rejoice that they did see fit to restore both the marquee as well as the name sign above the mock grand window. They lend a magnificence befitting Gotham and fill the nightscape with wonder.
The United States designates its ‘National Treasures’ in buildings in two ways: first is the National Register of Historic Places, and this must be started by locals who can mount an effort to get their State Historic Preservation Officer to designate a building a state landmark according to the guidelines published by the History Div. Of the National Park Service which administers the program. Then, the state must complete forms to petition the Park Service to grant National Register status, but this is largely contingent upon locals being able to get behind the property, and if the owner protests — as often happens — then the designation will often fail. There are a number of technicalities and politics, local, state and national, do figure into the granting of the placement on the Register, which is to document LOCAL and STATE significance, but not necessarily any truly nation-wide significance. In contrast, the NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARKS program is designed to recognize structures that had a national impact, rather than merely local or state importance. A site would have to be first admitted to the Register in order to be considered for the NATIONAL LANDMARKS listing, and then the promoters would have to do far more documenting to convince the feds of the national scope and significance. When I wrote the Nomination documentation for the PABST THEATER in Milwaukee, it went to 800 pages and some 20 pounds sent off to the Park Service, which granted the designation unanimously in 1991. Such documentation is then sent to the National Archives, and a plaque is designed for the premises.
If someone is to get behind the FOX, they must do the research to convince the property owner and other notables of its importance; that will get the officer at the state capitol to grant state recognition, and then one can fill out the Nomination to the National Register. After that is granted, one can attempt to get the more restricted designation of National Historic Landmark. See: www.NationalParkService.gov/history
Miss Barbara: It is good news about the show, but not all of us have cable or cable with the History Channel, so please persuade your people to set up the show as a download on your web site after it is telecast. If they can set it up in more than one format, that will make it available to more people’s computers. Also, ask them to put it out in DVD-R format and most poeple will be able to order it from you and keep it for posterity, which it sounds like they will want to do! You might even ask the Theatre Historical Society if they want to co-sponsor a DVD much as they co-sponsored the 1987 VHS “The Movie Palaces.” Contact their Ex. Director, Rich Sklenar at: and view their history on their site at: www.HistoricTheatrs.org
Mr. Illitch can no doubt afford many, many thousands of dollars in fines, as he awaits the propitious moment to stop paying property taxes if no buyer of the land has stepped forward, and then, like many tens of thousands of other landlords before him, he will abandon the property and let the taxpayers pay for emergency demolition. Hundreds of thousands of dollars will then be spent by the city for a safe demolition, and placed on the property tax bill as a lein upon the next buyer of the land. Then, years from now, when a new land broker is interested, he will seidel up to the politicians and offer to purchse the land from the city provided they give him tax moratoriums, credits for site improvements, waivers of environmental regulations, and forgiveness of any and all leins on the property — and the city will desperately and cravenly agree to all this, thus making the taxpayrs pay twice over for the sins of the previous owners! It’s all called Free Enterprise or what our grandfathers would have called Corruption.
Your memorbilia of the Warners as well as the Robins sounds as though it would be valuable to historians, so may I suggest you consider setting up a bequest so that the materials are sent to the organization of your choosing when you leave this scene. If a university library or archive (the most reliable in the long term) is not interested, may I suggest contacting the Theatre Historical Soc. of America: www.HistoricTheatres.org or the library of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Pasadena: www.Oscar.org ?
Sorry about the link error; I was not saying that the views are to be seen at their site, only that this is the organization that was responsible for the Aurora photos and brochure of Conrad Schmitt’s restoration there.
As to why they appear on a site devoted to the Boston PARAMOUNT, I can only guess that it was a mix up at the advertising or web site producers' offices, or that they wanted to present the impression that their work would equal that done to the Aurora PARAMOUNT.
That very photo of the plane in the lobby is reporduced on page 160 of David Naylor’s GREAT AMERICAN MOVIE THEATRES, to be seen at many libraries, and sometimes available from such as www.Amazon.com
Yes, the photos there are definitely of the restored PARAMOUNT in Aurora, Illinois. Those views are from the brochure about the theatre in Aurora by the restorers: the Conrad Studios outside of Milwaukee at www.ConradSchmittStudios.com
I heard it said that the lobby chandelier shown on page 101 of Naylor’s book had fallen years ago. Was there any attempt to reproduce it in the Ford Center?
This string of news story and comments should bring us up-to-date:
http://cinematreasures.org/news/12788_0_1_0_M/
This is truly one of the greatest of the reamining palaces, and while it is probably a pipe dream to want to see it returned to its 1928 splendor, I nonetheless fervently retain that dream. I hope that grand House Curtain with its jeweled Birds of Paradise has been in storage soemwhere so that it can come back along with the organ to once again entertain LIU students as well as the public in general, and to bring again to life the world of lush fantasy that this glorious building inspired. That famous 2-page photo of it in “The Best Remaining Seats” by the late Ben M. Hall shows one of the most spectacular spaces ever designed. Its illumination was so elaborate and glowing that it was the subject of an article in the Illuminating Engineering Society magazine in 1929. Oh, to see all those lights work again!
Joe, thank you for those kind words; it is always rewarding to know that my efforts at description/history do bring alive one of our lost ‘treasures’ to others. I feel as you do that it was a tragic loss indeed, and you are right that no religious group would have been able to make use of such decor, even if they had the funds to restore and maintain it, and without any parking, its fate was sealed in that area of White Flight to the suburbs, something that occurred faster and more thoroughly in Milwaukee than in most cities.
Unfortunately, the architects never again got the opportunity to invest such imagination in a theatre.
Miss Patsy’s intemperate scolding of Milwaukee is unwarranted, since the city had little reasonable choice. By the time the absentee owner stoped paying taxes on it, he and the tenants had let the theatre decay to the point that it would have cost a fortune to restore, and to what use even if funds were available? The neighborhood was then and is now in sad decay, quite unable to support a movie palace of this size and splendor. No one stepped forward to rescue the EGYPTIAN, and the city was faced with a wreck that housed only vandals and transients via illegal entry. As my description above makes clear, the place was a public nuisance and threat to safety. If it had not been demolished, it was only a matter of time before children, no to mention adults, would have been injured in there or outside as portions of the marquee and walls had already fallen.
Sad to say, this is the situation with the venerable KINGS in Brooklyn, the UPTOWN in Chicago, and any number of other wonderful Cinema Treasures soon to be lost to us. Milwaukee is not alone in putting off spending a small fortune to demolish old theatres when they become a public threat and no one comes forward to rescue them, but eventually they must do what has to be legally done. I hate to see any building destroyed, but I would rather that then see it entomb the unwary citizen!
If I understand your mission correctly, your planned book is primarily a photo artist’s Portfolio, not a scholarly review of the theatres presented. I conclude that you are looking for publicity for your prints and book, not donations of photos by others of theatres no longer open for you to photograph. There is certainly nothing wrong with a book/portfolio, but it is a different thing than the great effort of the owners of this site when they created their “Cinema Treasures” volume last year. Vintage photos are abundant in there. I hope your efforts will give us new and better views of the theatres still with us. Best Wishes. Jim Rankin, member Theatre Historical Soc. of America (www.HistoricTheatres.org; you might contact them for publicity in their NewsFlash or “Marquee” magazine).
TC: What do you mean, please, about a “backlit” sky? Usually, ‘backlit’ implies that the ‘sky’ is of a translucent material such that lights behind it can shine through, and the TAMPA is a traditional movie palace with a plaster sky, as far as I know.
YankeeMike: There are several theatres around the nation that have either the clouds or the stars working, and a few that have both. The unforgetable CORONADO in Rockford, Illinois comes quickly to mind and it has a wonderful new book out about it. The fabulous FOX in Atlanta is a notable example, even the little PATIO in Chicago had both before it closed a couple of years ago and now stands idle, as does the AVALON in Milwaukee, but its cloud machine disappeared years ago. The 3700-seat PARADISE in the Bronx is supposedly restoring its ‘sky’ too, but if it will ever reopen remains to be seen.
“Lostmemory” (who apparently has quite a good memory) is quite right: both views are of our odd little LINCOLN, and it is odd as DavidH brought out in a message to me, that of all the former theatres about town, this is the only one that retains its metal letters of the original name on the front, as shown in those views. The canopy marquee and vertical sign are gone, but the painted metal letters are still there to this day, but something tells me that the new Mexican ownership will remove them for something in Spanish when money becomes available in the current creeping conversion to a glass front store of some type. The new owner is a Chicago man since 2003, according to the tax assessors' records on-line.
It is nice that vintage films and even variety acts are working at some places as the commenters above relate, but it is naïve to believe that such policies will work everywhere, especially in New York City, probably the most money-oriented place in the nation, if not the world. The song is true that ‘if it will play there, it will play anywhere’ in so far as one may mean survive there. New York City has many theatres only because it has a huge and dense population to support them, but at the same time, theatre managements that can rightly expect much greater profits in that locale. In reality, sub-run or film festival theatres are failing all across the nation and the studios don’t care because they now make more money on foreign distribution and DVDs than on traditional film distribution. We can keep our heads in the sand and pine for the olden days, but they will not return; technology as much as the changes in urban life is quickly making the cinema building obsolete, and with so many choices in entertainment, only a few of our beloved theatres/cinemas will survive into the next generation, largely as dinner theatres or the like. Yes, every theatre/cinema can have a vintage film festival at times, but very few of them can count on them to survive, least of all the behemoth of RCMH. By all means, let’s continue to celebrate the memory of this great venue, but don’t lets be silly in proposing desperate methods to possibly help the theatre; the owners couldn’t care less about our sentiments. And the city is not likely to take on the enormous expense of owning the structure or even contributing tax dollars to it. Theatres are among the most expensive of buildings to maintain, and therefore I am sure that if a referendum were to be held asking taxpayers if they want the city to buy the building by paying the owners probably upward of 200 million dollars for the structure and land, as well as probably a half million yearly for upkeep, and you will see one of the quickest defeats of a referendum in history. People love to be nostalgic, but NOT with their pocketbooks!
To “C.Connolloy†and others: Re FILMS AT RCMH: The reason that films are not shown is that rarely can they FILL that many seats with their attendant overhead , by bringing in enough people to fill them to cover the rent of the films. It is a complex subject once one realizes that it is the film studios and their distributors that really control the market and therefore the theatres, indirectly. Since the studios and their henchmen are in the driver’s seat, they can dictate almost any terms they want to the theatres, and the décor, size or prestige of any one theatre are of no moment to them! They exist strictly for profit, and will happily bend any theatre management ‘over the coals’ if they think that they can extract one more penny out of those willing to deal with them. The copyright laws firmly protect them against anyone trying to show their films without signing their detailed agreements whereby the studio controls the type of exhibition, the length of show, the type of show, the sound system employed, the nature and presence of any ads on screen, the sharing of ancillary incomes (mostly refreshments), the nature, scope and type of advertising by the theatre, and whether or not they will allow any one theatre to show a film at all.
The famous Supreme Court ‘Paramount decree’ of 1948 may have busted up the legal vertical integration at the time, but essentially we are now right back were we started, with the studios in full control of the theatres, but with no responsibility to maintain them! For them, it is now the best of all worlds: no responsibility (or expense!) for the exhibition venue, ability to deny titles to anyone, ability to sell and control via exorbitant terms, and no real possibility of losing that control since big business owns the politicians and hence the courts. Some reading in the Archived comments on the FORUMS of the site: www.BigScreenBiz.com will quickly acquaint you with the ever-tightening straight jacket that the movie house owners must now wear. So, don’t blame your local theatres for high ticket prices or silly films or unavailability of a title; it is all the studio’s and distributor’s fault, and Radio City Music Hall is no exception to this sad state of affairs.
The investors as part of the ultimate owner of RCMH expect to get a return on their investment, and they don’t particularly care how they make money, just so they do! If the Hall were to be able to book films requested and it failed to make money for some time, it would be quickly demolished as unprofitable, and the landlord would not bat an eyelash at its demise as they looked for more profitable uses, and the public could not really complain since ‘they failed to FILL the seats continually.’