Loew's Capitol Theatre
1645 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
1645 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
47 people
favorited this theater
Showing 651 - 675 of 1,085 comments
In this ad you can see two Cinerama pictures from United Artists within 4 blocks of each other, one great (“Greatest Story”) and one lousy (“Hallelujah Trail” at the Capitol – I never liked that movie. Maybe it was better in Cinerama …) Whatever you or I may think of the movies, though … what a choice to have!
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And between the Warner and the Victoria, “How to Marry a Millionaire” is showing in CinemaScope at the Globe. And I’ll bet those are red marquee letters too.
You can see “This is Cinerama” is at the Warner Theatre in it’s 9th. month. The Victoria Theatre is playing “Forever Female” with William Holden and Pat Crowley.
This February 1954 view of the Capitol signage is from a new collection of Life Magazine images on Google. Apologies if I missed this photo anywhere in the above posts.
http://tinyurl.com/5bbdr8
Marble staircases, ornate ceilings made of marble and plaster, now thats a movie palace. It beats any of these sheetrock multiplexes they build today.
That marble staircase originally had no escalators in the middle of it, and I think a lot of elegance was lost when they were put in. If I’d owned the place I’d never have done it, but it’s all moot now anyway and it’s still a damn shame the theatre is no more.
Rory, you hit the nail on the head!
JoeB
Going to the movies at a theatre today just isn’t the same as it was, even as recently as the late 70s. It’ll never be the same. Theatres no longer have the kind of lobbies they used to, nor the poster displays, and just looking at what’s now being asked for popcorn and sodas is enough to make you cry. Even though I like the new stadium seating of some newer theatres, it still kind of sucks going to the movies these days — plus most movies suck!
Now that is sad. It might be any mallplex theatre rather than the once grand NY Capitol theatre. There is absolutely no hint of its original splendor.
Also, was the vast backstage area just sitting vacant after the Cinerama installation?
Warren:
Do you know what happened to the projection equipment from Cinerama and the old upstairs booth? Was it sent to other theatres or did it all become part of the demolition wreckage?
Thanks for that post Warren, but how depressing!
Leon, A small point, but you may be confusing two films by the title “See No Evil.” The that played at RCMH in 1971 was the GP-rated (now PG) thriller in which Mia Farrow played a blind girl terrorized by a killer. It wasn’t especially good, but it was an inoffensive variation on the Audrey Hepburn blind-lady thriller, “Wait Until Dark,” which had a successful 1967 run at RCMH.
A later, unrelated movie called “See No Evil” was a graphically violent R-rated exploitation film; it did not play the Music Hall.
As far as I know, Wanda was also the first Daily News critic to give 4 stars to a science fiction film, “The Day the Earth Caught Fire” (1962):
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The films that came before it which we now consider sci-fi classics could never get beyond ½ (“The Time Machine”, “The Thing”, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”) or (“The Day the Earth Stood Still”, “The War of the Worlds”, “Journey to the Center of the Earth”). “Forbidden Planet” got **.
I could be all wrong here: “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” may have gotten ****. Gotta check up on that at the New York Public Library.
I always had a special respect for Wanda Hale because she was one of the few New York daily critics who appreciated “2001”.
I thought Hale lasted into the 70’s. I seem to remember her lamenting the state of the Music Hall movies when See No Evil opened there(truly a bottom bill of a drive-in blood fest) and happy that a Christmas movie like 1776 was playing there.
In fact I am truly surprised that they went back to the 30’s.
Wow, what a change they saw in movies and theaters.
Vis a vis the women film critics for the New York Daily News: I once read that the name Kate Cameron was a nom de plume, just as Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren were.
Whatever her real name, Kate Cameron’s surname reportedly was an in-joke: Camera On.
You’re very welcome, Joe.
Wanda Hale must’ve been with the paper for more than 30 years – I can recall reading her reviews up until the late 1960s.
In the Movie Time Table (on the review page), you can see that the last showing of “Oz” at the Capitol started at 1 AM. Wow. No Judy and Mickey stage show for those patrons, though.
Bill, thanks for the great New York Daily News reviews of “Gone With the Wind”. Four stars **** from both critics.
Growing up in Brooklyn I read the Daily News reviews of Wanda Hale and Kate Cameron. Those were the days.
Joe B.
Pre opening ad of WOO has Four Feather on it’s final day. What a great time to be going to the movies.
Not one, but two 4-star reviews for the same picture on the same page, 12/20/1939. Has this ever happened before or since?
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4-star Daily News review of “The Wizard of Oz”, 8/18/1939:
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This image is bigger:
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Lots of information (some of it inaccurate – we never do get to see Emerald City from the stratosphere) in this New York Daily News ad for “The Wizard of Oz”:
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Sorry I got to the Capitol only twice – “Kings Go Forth” and, near the end, for “In the Heat of the Night.”