Loew's Capitol Theatre
1645 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
1645 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
47 people
favorited this theater
Showing 526 - 550 of 1,085 comments
By the way Bobby, the excellent documentary “CINERAMA ADVENTURE” had that fact wrong. “THIS IS CINERAMA” opened at the Broadway theatre and didn’t move to the Warner/Strand until a year later.
The documentary features both theatres but erroneously identifies both as “The Warners”. I do suspect the Broadway was managed by Warner Bros. Theatres at the time.
It was the same Bobby.
Was the Capitol Theater called Loew’s Cinerama in the 50’s. I saw a bio of Cinerama recently and they mentioned the Warner theater was where it was first shown and played two years “This is Cinerama”? A theater called LOEW’S CINERAMA was also mentioned in Ny as showing this process.
Of course you are right bigjoe59, when it comes to economics, the Roxy was probably losing money for years before it finally closed. What would have been needed was for it to be adapted for other uses such as happened with the Metropolitan in Boston (now Wang centre) which is also a huge theatre or the Fox in St. Louis/Detroit. Of course this is the case with Radio City Music Hall so whether NYC could accomodate another huge space like that is open to question. Of course this is all hypothetical now as it’s gone and to quote the late Bob Hope “Once it’s gone it’s gone!”
Here are two programs from the silent era from the Capitol, from 1921 and from 1922.
I believe I read somewhere where the opera company was thinking of taking over the Roxy or the Capitol theatres as their home…But as we all know it was ruled out and we have Lincoln Center today.
Hello-
i certainly agree with the sentiment of Paul L.’s post but and there always a but. as much as NYC’s long gone movie palaces are beloved by film buffs the majority of said film buffs don’t seem to want to acknowledge one very simple fact. that fact being that by the late 50s said movie palaces the Roxy especially because of its huge size had become just plain economically un-viable as a single screen movie theater. in fact i bet the Roxy because of its size had become economically un-viable as a single screen movie theater yearssssss before it was decided to demolish it.
Don’t forget about the former Loew’s 175th Street and Radio City Music Hall. Not that I disagree with your sentiments, paullewis!
For me, the great movie palaces were New York, the Capitol and Roxy being the finest. The city lost it’s soul when these wonderful places of mass entertainment were demolished and it’s never been the same since. No other city on earth could boast so many of the best, yet only the Beacon and Hollywood remain in Manhattan.
No wonder the loews men were smiling. All this money without having to pay for a stage show and musicans and all the unions they had to deal with on a weekly basis. Just a few cashiers, ushers, and an organist or two and we are good to go!!! Probably the beginning of the end for the stage show. Radio City continued to the 1970’s.
What a great photo Tinseltoes. That is some magazine you discovered..Even an empty theater such as this Capitol has magic !!
A fair point, bigjoe59. It should read that the theater was demolished after the roadshow engagement of “2001: A Space Oddyssey” was moved over to the Warner in September of 1968.
Hello-
a mistake of sorts in the intro needs to be corrected. true the Capitol was running the original roadshow engagement of 2001 in the late spring of 1968 shortly before it closed and was later demolished. but the roadshow run of 2001 did not end at this point as well. said engagement was switched to the Warner Cinerama at Bway & 47 St. where it continued to do good business for several more weeks.
Click here for an exterior view of the Capitol Theatre in 1931.
DEFG, You are a hoot. Thanks for details about film ratio. I am looking forward to the screening. I did see it around 1990 but don’t remember if it was scoped or not.I did see “Gone With The Wind” about the same time and the ads did say:First time enhanced wide screen. I thought it was breathtaking with no loss of film. Haven’t seen it again like that. Just 35mm on DVD. Oh well, “Tomorrow is another day”
I will be seeing John Derek this Saturday night in a real live movie theater, the Portage Theater in Chicago, showing a pristine 35mm real film of “The Ten Commandments”. Should be quite an experience!!
I still remember the fine performance John Derek gave in “Exodus”, and millions will see him play Joshua when ABC shows DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments” this Saturday night.
John Derek: Then unknown, now unknown.
Garbo talks!
Eighty two years ago.
“In 1952 stage shows ceased to be held.” On Dec 24, 1952 the film “Against All Flags” opened at the Capitol with a stage show featuring Johnnie Ray, Gary Morton, Georgia Gibbs and Ray Anthony and his orchestra. [NY Times, Nov 18, 1952: Column, “Of Local Origin” The column also states that “According to the management, this marks the the first time in a year and a half that the theatre has offered a stage and screen show. Stage and screen shows will be presented at the Capitol whenever the proper stage attractions can be booked, a spokesman for the house said yesterday.” My friends and I, all junior high students and big Johnnie Ray fans saw this stage show about 15 times! The stage show continued into January 1953.
Wow what a show and a movie too!! Inagine the choice for a New Yorker at that time. One movie palace after another to attend on any given day, Thanks Tinseltoes for the history lession..
Wow!! I bet nobody forget that experience.. Thanks Tinseltoes for your updates. Just imagine, all that for a couple of dollars…..
You are right Tinseltoes.
Hi Tinseltoes, thanks for the suggestions. I’ve been through the material at Lincoln Center, including the scrapbooks that the Capitol (NOT the Roxy!) kept, and I have read Variety, Billboard, many of the NY newspapers AND the papers devoted to the movies in the 1920s (as well as The Metronome, Musical Courier, Musical America, Musical Digest, etc.). Zeitlin was mentioned in a Capitol press release in 1927 (the text of which appeared in a number of papers), and his death, in 1930, was reported almost everywhere (from the NYTimes on down). So you certainly could have come across his name.
Zeitlin receives credit for a couple of his overtures in theatre programs that I have seen, but Yasha Bunchuk (the conductor at the Capitol, beginning in 1929) is credited with several others that (I think) may have been composed by Zeitlin. Hence my interest in finding programs.