Rivoli Theatre
1620 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
1620 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
49 people
favorited this theater
Showing 476 - 500 of 1,005 comments
Does anyone know when the Rivoli’s “Oklahoma”-pattern curtain was removed? Or was it just never used post “80 Days”?
When I went to the Rivoli I think In the 80’s they had removed the giant curved D-150 curved screen. The sign above the Rivoli out side said A D150 Theatre. That is what I went to see the screen not the movie. I had a big fight with the UA manager. I wanted my money back and told him it was false advertising to advertise a screen you did'nt have. He gave me my money back after I told him I’d call the police. To bad I missed it by just a few weeks.
What madness, it will soon bcome a toy for folks to play with causing even more disruptions than we already have.
Ridiculous!
Well the manager will just send a usher to handle it.
In the long run how effetive will it be? I’m sure the manager will get tired responding to all the complaints.
Thank god this wasn’t needed at the Rivoli during the roadshow period. Though after that they probably could have used it big time with all the junk the theatre was showing.
I saw another news clip on the “Today” show this morning regarding this device. I believe it’s called the “TECHNO-TATTLETALE” and Regal Cinemas is trying it out. You can press buttons for picture problems, sounds problems or disruptive people problems.
Apparently, there is a new device that one or more theater chains are trying called the “TECHNO-TATTLER” which a movie-going audience member can use to silently alert the theater manager during a movie if someone is behaving in an inconsiderate manner.
FINALLY, SOME OF US WILL STRIKE BACK!!!
Does anyone have any additional information about this device?
I think it is a sign of the times. I had the same experience at the Lincoln Art with a foreign film and senior citizens chattering away and playing with their phones.
Richard W. Haine,
Amen to you, too, my friend. What you say about theaters themselves is not without merit. I have noticed people conduct themselves with more consideration and grace in a theater like The Paris or the IFC Center than in any typical multiplex “amusement park”.
What I’ll never ever be able to understand is why, in any type of theater, would a person pay the skyrocketing ticket and food prices only to spend more of their time talking and playing with their cell phone?
Am I completely unreasonable to consider this behavior UNINTELLIGENT???
DennisZ,
If I ever met you, I would shake your hand proudly and maybe even throw in a hug to boot! You have just thoroughly described why I choose to call myself “Love movies – hate going”.
I’m 40 years old, but just old enough to still remember the days of single-screen neighborhood playhouses, double features and sometimes even a cartoon before the movie. Today, because of the reasons you described, going to the movies has become a stressful chore instead of fun. If I do choose to go now, I’m incredibly picky about what I see, the day of the week and the time I see it.
The final straw came for me last summer when I went to see MIAMI VICE in Hampton Bays. My first mistake was going to see it on a Saturday night of opening weekend instead of waiting at least a week. Most people are usually smart enough to know not to talk on their cell phones during the movie or they’ll get their asses kicked! BUT WHERE DID PEOPLE GET THE IDEA THAT IT’S OKAY TO PLAY WITH THEIR PHONES DURING A MOVIE (MAINLY THE SCROLL FEATURE) AND GENERATE THAT DISTRACTING BRIGHT LIGHT FOR OTHERS TO SEE??? Well, would you believe that on that night, I had an entire family of people in the row in front of me doing that??? I almost started a fight with them.
DVDs are definately taking over. I fear by the time my infant son becomes a father, movie theaters of all kinds will become extinct.
So, now you know. I love movies, I hate going.
No, you posted it in the wrong theatre. That is the former Criterion Theatre in Times Square (now a Toys R Us location).
Fascinating, William. Thanks for posting the link. And later on, those new “modern” clean lines that replaced the old fashioned “gingerbread” plaster decoration on the auditorium sidewalls were hidden behind an apron of heavy drapes that ran from the proscenium curtains to the back wall of the theater. A shame that so much of the original decor was lost – not only in the Rivoli but in many of the Broadway palaces during the road-show era. But I would have the 1970’s Rivoli back today, drapes, kitschy carpeting, streamlined look and all.
Here the Modern Theatre article about the conversion of the Rivoli Theatre into a Todd-AO house.
View link
The American Film Institute Desk Reference also backs this up but what the hell do they know.
Lanza was under contract to MGM and notoriously difficult to work with. He was always involved in battles at MGM with Louis B. Mayer, directors and stars. It was agreed that only his voice would be used in THE STUDENT PRINCE in order to keep him off the set and further projects at the studio. THE VAGABOND KING was a Paramount film and SEVEN HILLS OF ROME was filmed in Italy and away from the MGM lot while he was possibly already ill.
That compromise on THE STUDENT PRINCE was part of an agreement to lift an injuction against Mario Lanza by MGM for walking off the set and costing the studio a fortune.
You can find out more about the Mario Lanza battles in the Charles Higham book MERCHANT OF DREAMS: LOUIS B. MAYER, MGM AND THE SECRET HOLLYWOOD including Mayer’s purchase of the Rivoli, and eventually other United Artists theatres, in defiance of the Paramount Consent Decrees.
Did negotiations fail or was he ill? I think his not doing Student Prince was a great loss and in The Hills of Rome(I believe,is there a 7 in there?)this 30 something looks 50 something.
Vincent, checking the IMDB, apparently the film was thought “lost” until 1998, but was found and has since been restored, but not released. There is apparently a clip in “Broadway: The American Musical” that aired on PBS, but that appears to be the only place anything can be seen from this.
Warren,
Does The Vagabond King still exist?
Concerning Los Memory’s picture of opening night of SOM at the Rivoli does anybody have the picture I once saw in a publication?
This showed a line of people outside the Rivoli waiting to buy their reserved seat tickets and showed a closeup of one of the outdoor displays showing pictures from the film.
If you could post it I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks for the great “Jaws” ad, Robert. I saw it again last night (the Ziegfeld standing in for the Rivoli) and it was just as exciting the 14th time as it was the first!
The start of summer blockbusters and repeated movie going on the first release
View link
Christmas in the glory days
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One of the Roadshow swan songs
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The “Little Tough Guys” in Warren’s ad from 1938 were a comedic Universal Studios knock off of Warner Brothers' Dead End Kids during a time before the latter bunch would morph into the low brow Bowery Boys. At this point, the Dead End Kids were still playing it fairly serious, having been featured in not only the original “Dead End” but in the drama “Crime School” as well, both along side Humphrey Bogart. Still to come was the classic “Angels with Dirty Faces” and several other dramatic (or at least semi-dramatic) features for Warners before Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall would settle into the broad caricatures of Slip Mahoney and Satch Jones and lead the Bowery Boys into dozens of low budget programmers for Universal and Monogram.
You might say that the “Little Tough Guy” series was the prototype for the Bowery Boys formula. No need to thank me for the OT bilge.
Anyway, for Independence Day 1986, low brow comedy found its way back to the Rivoli – by now stripped of even its great name and advertised as the seemingly generic UA Twin:
No Respect – NY Post 7/4/86
In Woody Allen’s “Broadway Danny Rose” you get a nice view of the Rivoli as Woody crosses from the west side of Broadway (In front of Colony Records) east.