Loew's Capitol Theatre
1645 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
1645 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
47 people
favorited this theater
Showing 576 - 600 of 1,085 comments
43 years ago today at the Capitol: the press screening of “2001: A Space Odyssey”, with Stanley Kubrick in the projection booth.
Paul Noble, who was there, posted the following 3 years ago:
Three nights in advance of the NY premiere, I attended the first press screening of 2001 at the Capitol at its full-length. I believe it clocked in at 161 minutes. The place was packed, but after intermission several hundred people were missing. During the closing credits, there were just two of us left, the other being Gene Shalit who was “conducting” “The Blue Danube”. I turned around at the end and waved to Kubrick in the booth and gave him a thumbs up. In the lobby, I joined a heated conversation with Judith Crist, Bruce Bahrenberg and other critics, who were loudly putting the picture down. I told them about “The Sentinel,” the landmark Clarke short story, and what the possible meaning of the picture was. They laughed me out of the lobby! The director cut the film, supposedly on the print, over the next few days, and the shortened version was the one which opened at the premiere. I’m still a great fan of 2001 with its enormous impact on future motion pictures, and the Capitol Cinerama as it was on that night with that gigantic curved screen, even in sharp focus from my third row seat!
posted by PaulNoble on Apr 3, 2008 at 1:54pm
Sorry for the intrusion, just want to re-link to notifications on this page. The Widescreen Museum site is endlessly fascinating, by the way. I could (and have) lost myself for hours within its pages.
Mike: In the VistaVision section of the American WideScren Mujseum look at the ad for Strategic Air Command’s LA opening which will give you an idea of the screen Paramount Pictures' VistaVision used for the proper horizontal showing of this process. Here is the link:
View link
Mike: VistaVision was a 65mm process in which the film was filmed and projected horizontally and the image projected was taller than CinemaScope. Only a few theaters had 65mm horizontal projectors, I think in NYC only the Paramount and Radio City had it. The general releases were 35mm prints projected vertically in regular wide screens, if it was a scope screen it only covered the center part of the screen like any other 35mm wide screen film. However, the fact that VistaVision films were shot in 65mm, the reduced 35mm print was very sharp. The “change” signal at the right top of the screen indicated to projectionists that the projected film could be bigger or wider, since main action was usually centered when shooting the film. Recommend you take a look at the VistaVision page on the American WideScreen Museum website.
I have a question. What was Vista vision? Was that another name used instead of cinemascope?
Interesting story re the Hollywood. What is now the entrance was originally the side entrance. The original entrance (art deco I believe) was on Broadway in the middle of the block. If you walk by you will see what appears to be an entrance to a small office building . That was the original entranceway. They jettisoned it as they had to pay separate rent for it and decided it was not worth it. No idea when this took place however.
I agree William but also, Cinerama was born here at the Broadway theater and we don’t have a Cinerama Theatre as LA and Seattle do.
Tinseltoes, thanks for all the info you enlighten us with.
When it was remodeled for the 2 3 strip Cineramas, a number of rows were taken out from the rear of the orchestra & replaced with a japanese garden with bridges & ponds. It was really nice, The staircase as soon as you cam in was there but the steps .ere replaced with a gold colored escalator.Once the Roxy went, it was only a matter of time before all of the Times Square Palaces went down. Most cities have 1 or more of palaces left. Only in NY, the entertainment capital of the world do we knock them all down. Lamb theaters really took a hit.
Capitol
State
Mark Strand
Rivoli
This photograph of the Capitol Theatre was taken in 1930 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto and Mann.
to Michael C. i apologize for the repetitive nature of my
questions. as you suggested i looked at the Grauman’s Chinese
page and the Cinerama Dome Page. i did find my answers. i will
be sure in the future to browse the comments section for each theater before i ask further questions.
ChrisD…If you are aware that many roadshow films were 35mm, why then are you focusing only on the 70mm era of 1955-1972? (Roadshows began long before ‘55 and went on beyond '72.)
And, Chris, did you even see my response to your comment on the Grauman’s Chinese page?
And regarding your question posed on the Cinerama Dome page, had you bothered to scroll through the existing comments, you would have found the answer to your question (see my comment of Feb. 4, 2008) and thus would not have needed to ask it.
Frankly, at this point, your questions are getting annoying since you’re essentially posting the same question on multiple pages and then not always bothering to check up on subsequent comments.
i thank Michael C. for the info. the sites were quite fascinating. but many roadshow films were not in 70MM or Cinerama. so i was
wondering how i could get as complete a list as possible of the
films which played the Loew’s State/Loew’s State 1 & 2 on
a roadshow engagement during the 1955-1972 period.. many thanks in advance.
ChrisD… See 70mm in New York and Remembering Cinerama (Part I: New York).
my first visit to the Capitol wasn’t until the end of its
existence. the film was the first run engagement of PLANET OF
THE APES in March? of 1968. i subsequently went to see “2001"
twice during its exclusive roadshow engagement. since "2001”
was the only roadshow film i saw at the Capitol would anyone
have as complete a list as possible of the roadshow films that
played the Capitol prior to “2001”. many thanks in advance.
Here’s a program from July 1922 for the Capitol Theatre.
The stage program accompanying the main feature, The Country Flapper, was pretty spectacular. You can see the entire contents at The Silent Film Still Archive.
Can anyone shed any light on what actually happened to the Capitol's
Estey organ and its later horseshoe console? Did the organ go down with the building?
Thanks Tinseltoes. I always wondered why I Married a Witch was released by UA, but its credits were filled with the top names at Paramount like Gordon Jennings, whose photographic effects for that film were excellent (as always).
In the summer of 1968, I was an usher at the Westhampton Theatre in Richmond (VA) and we were scheduled to open 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY in 70mm reserved seats that July. I went to New York with my dad in June so I made a point of going to see it at the CAPITOL on their curved Cinerama screen. The marquee, as pictured on the site, was incredible. It looked like the theatre was dedicated to this film forever. When we opened in Richmond, MGM actually gave us large plastic signs to replace to marquee but nothing as elaborate as the Capitol. The curved screen was great. It was a phenomonenal experience.
To Steve Goldschmidt:
Your grandfather was something of a legend in the annals of projection. It’s said that he conferred with Francis B. Cannock and Edwin S. Porter on the design of the first Simplex projector
Next to next to last, AlA!
“The Dirty Dozen” opened on Jun 16th. 1967
“Far from the Madding Crowd” opened on Oct 18th. 1967.
“Planet of the Apes” opened on Feb. 8th. 1968
“2001: A Space Odyssey” opened on Apr. 4th. 1968.
Nope. “PLANET OF THE APES”.
The next to next to last feature at Loew’s Capitol was “Far from the Madding Crowd”. It had a hard ticket run of several months in ‘67-'68.
Some people might think that the above list is not true Cinerama films, like “Brothers Grimm” or “How the West..”. It’s all about full favor Cinerama or Cinerama, like IMAX or IMAX lite.
I don’t know where Warren got the Consumer Fraud info from? And the Warner/Strand was better known as the NYC’s Cinerama house. In Los Angeles we had two Cinerama houses the Warner Cinerama (aka Pacific 1,2,3 and the Cinerama Dome (1963). In 1968 Stanley Warner sold the Warner houses in Southern California to Pacific Theatres (Cinerama’s parent company). “2001” was the last Cinerama show in the Hollywood Warner Cinerama, Pacific favored the Dome for Cinerama.