Embassy 1,2,3 Theatre

William-I didn’t know the Egyptian was closed, too bad.

Chris-A grind house is a theatre that runs continuous showings all day 7 days a week. The last time I was in the Chinese theatre was in 1978 and they were a grind house then running “The Boy’s From Brazil”.

The Egyptian Theatre was a second run house in it’s final days open for United Artists Theatres.

most grand movie theaters/palaces were built say 1913-1941. many unfortunately have been razed.likewise many still standing have
been boarded up or gutted for retail use. therefore i have this question- of all the grand movie theaters/palaces still standing
are there any that have never shown porn, never been a second run
or grind house, never been converted to a concert hall or
performing arts center,never been twined, tri-plexed or even
quaded but have stayed in more or less their original state and
as first run theaters from opening day? the only one in the
country i can think of is Grauman’s Chinese.

I’d love to see one of the Times' ads, especially near the beginning of the run.

Thanks Al I’ll check it out.

techman,

Nearly six months of ads in the New York Times saying so.

“Gigi did have a roadshow engagement at the Royale with overture, intermision, etc.
The info is in this link, scroll down to Gigi.
posted by AGR on Jan 25, 2011 at 9:53am”

“GIGI” ran at the Royale for almost six months before moving to the Sutton.

posted by AlAlvarez on Jan 25, 2011 at 12:21pm"

AGR- I looked at the link, however, all it says is what I agree with, namely that it “had its grand premiere at the Royale Theater”

Al- Where did you get the info on Gigi at the Royale? The film opened at the Royale in May 1958. I have all the print records from Gigi. They were part of the literally thousands of documents I inherited when I bought Bill Nafash’s service business in 1972. They ran 4 track mag prints at the Sutton and had trouble with ALL the prints warping and causing focus problems. In a letter from Bill Nafash to MGM’s “Metrocolor Lab Division”, he believed it was caused as a result of the way they were striping the prints and the magnetic oxide they used. Also, while it’s not clear in the documents I have, it appears that they were NOT dual mag/optical prints. I concluded that from a memo where they had to use a backup print because someone had magnetized the projector by improperly degaussing the penthouse and projector, causing virtually all the sound to be erased.-lol

The Royale is now the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre (Source: Wikipedia).

The Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 242 West 45th Street (George Abbott Way) in midtown-Manhattan.
Designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp, it opened as the Royale Theatre on January 11, 1927 with a musical entitled Piggy. Producer John Golden leased the theatre and renamed it for himself from 1932 to 1937 (when he moved to the Theatre Masque next door). The Shubert Organization then assumed ownership and initially leased the theatre to CBS Radio. In 1940 the Royale was restored to use as a legitimate theatre under its original name. On May 9, 2005, it was renamed for longtime Shubert Organization president Bernard B. Jacobs.

“GIGI” ran at the Royale for almost six months before moving to the Sutton.

William, I don’t believe there were roadshow performances of GIGI at the Royale Theater. Only the premiere was there.

William, thank you. L.A. always confuses me. I visited both MGM and Columbia on that trip,and the Head Projectionist at Columbia who was an ex-Marine, gave me detailed instructions as to how to get there by L.A. Public Transit. When I made the appointment with MGM I was told there was no way to get there from the Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire short of taking a taxi. He was right!

Robert, the MGM lot was on the other side of the hill in Culver City, not in Burbank.

Just a couple of comments on “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” mentioned above. I remember seeing it when it opened in Chicago with a friend from college who was visiting. We had gone in to see the roadshow presentation of “Mad, Mad, World” which I had seen before. Unfortunately, this time there was a terrific hum on one 70mm machine which affected all 6 channels making for a very uncomfortable experience. Coming out we decided to go down the street to see “Unsinkable” which was also being shown in 70mm at the Palace in non-roadshow form. We were delighted to find the projection and sound perfect.

Later that year, I visited the MGM lot in Burbank, and mentioned to the Head Projectionist how much we had enjoyed “Unsinkable”. He said they had not planned to make any 70mm prints, only 35mm and mostly mono-optical when they decided to try a 70mm version at a preview screening. He said it was as if they were watching a completely different picture from the one they had been seeing, with a terrific audience response. While they didn’t release it as a roadshow, they did pull 70mm prints for major cities.

Interestingly enough, Radio City played only a 35mm 4 track print, largely due to Head Projectionist Ben Olevsky’s objection to installing 70mm at the Hall. “Unsinkable” was one of the few pictures in 70mm short enough to fit into the Hall’s stageshow/movie policy at the time, and Ben said he had been told there wouln’t be any more 70mm prints like it released, so it wasn’t worth the trouble to install the equipment. He won the battle, but eventually lost the war when Universal four-walled the house and insisted that Ross Hunter’s “Airport” be shown in 70mm.

(Later we did do three 70mm roadshow features: “Gone With The Wind”, “Dr. Zhivago” and “2001” along with a VERY short stage show.)