Roxy Theatre
153 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
153 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
83 people
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I seriously doubt that Scorsese (all of 16 years old in 1958) would have been able to tell the difference between horizontal and standard 35mm presentation of VistaVision on the huge Paramount screen.
Martin Scorsese.
I seriously doubt that Scorcese (all of 16 years old in 1958) would have been able to tell the difference between horizontal and standard 35mm presentation of VistaVision on the huge Paramount screen.
Re Vito’s comment October 7: “…was very surprised that the Criterion,which was renovated for the movie, did not install VistaVision projectors, but again it was all about the photography, not the projection.”
I also find it curious that VV possibly may not have been installed there in 1956. The majority opinion is that VV horizontal projection had pretty much died out by that time. However, on the restored “Vertigo” DVD, there’s an interview with M. Scorcese, who knows a thing or two about widescreen, and he says (this is very nearly an exact quote)..“I saw ‘Vertigo’ at the Paramount in its original horizontal glory.” And this, of course, would have been in 1958. Whaddya think?
The last booking :(
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John Ford’s The Quiet Man opened at the Capitol Theatre on August 21, 1952 and was reviewed the following day in the New York Times. I just found the review and it indicates the Capitol Theatre.
The pic of Swanson IS famously in the rubble of the foyer, or the Grand Rotunda, not the stage.
Also, can anyone tell me where THE QUIET MAN played. I have a Republic book that has an anecdote about it being the only Rep film to play Radio City because Yates went every day just to watch the logo come up on the screen there. Can that be true? In Sydney, Republic Films usually played the Plaza, our single level Roxy lookalike (see previous comments), but other Rep films like WAKE OF THE RED WITCH and JOHNNY GUITAR, SANDS OF IWO JIMA also played out best biggest cinemas. Monogram’s million dollar SUSPENSE (1946) also made the grade. Did any of these titles play either the Roxy RCMH or Capitol or Strand? I understand the prestige of those NY houses and am keen to know where hit pics from Rep, Monogram and Allied Artists played: IT HAPPENED ON 5TH AVENUE, THE GANGSTER, FRIENDLY PERSUASION etc. Thankyou to all who can help. All those films where prestige releases here in Australia.
1938 “Suez” and a stage show (of which they give no details)
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Wow Warren, that’s a great photo:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/Gloria.jpg
That is such an incredibly reality shaking photo for her to be on the stage, amid the rubble of the theater.
There is an ad here from March of 1955, the Roxy had “Untamed” with Tyrone Power and Susan Hayward
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1954 saw the serious Gregory Peck film “Night People” playing along with Cinemascope shorts.
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If I recall correctly (I don’t have my copy of the book on hand for reference at the moment), a story related in Ben M Hall’s ‘Best Remaining Seats’ mentions that during construction of the Roxy, Gloria Swanson visited the theatre and climbed the scaffolding to where Roxy was supervising some work on the dome. On a whim she etched something like ‘I love you Roxy’ into the wet plaster. Rather than being annoyed Roxy ordered it preserved and had it gilded along with the rest of the dome.
Dear Warren, after scrolling the entire site looking for mention of a ss featuring Milton Berel, I finally found it at the end. Your mention is for the movie Stella in 1950, however, the memory that I have is of Milton Berle and Dagmar. Do you have any further information on this for me. I have very veague memories of attending the Roxy with my mother in the early to mid-fifties. I would love to have more info.
Thanks,
You guys are amazing.
Warren, a shameless plug to be sure, but a welcome bit of information nevertheless.
Warren—
Thanks for another splendid list. I saw none of those shows there then, but as a compulsive newspaper reader at the time, I recall ads for most of them. Your list retrospectively explains why some particular come-ons remain in memory. The “China Doll” stage show with “Under My Skin” evidently prompted the Roxy mgt to push for extra publicity at the time. Likewise the Easter competition for “Cheaper By the Dozen” encouraged lavish advertising.
The contemporary fame of Faye Emerson, now a largely unknown minor movie star and major TV variety show hostess celebrated for her marriages (Eliot Roosevelt, Skitch Henderson) no doubt boosted “Love That Brute,” but the then-dim star of Lucy and Desi (just before exploding to superior magnitude) did little to brighten the run of “Night and the City” (now a cult favorite). What irony.
I remember that “The Gunfighter” and “Broken Arrow” got strong publicity at the time, when current competition with RCMH had already fallen by default to the Roxy’s favor: “The Next Voice You Hear” was one of the worst films ever to play at RCMH, while “The Men” featured a Marlon Brando who was practically unknown outside of B'way live theater: Marlon who?
And Martha Stewart! I had to research this one. You can Google “Martha Stewart singer 1950” to find data about her tragic early widowhood and a brief film career that included playing the murdered hat-check girl in Nicholas Ray’s “In a Lonely Place.” She was an add-on for the fabulous stage show with “Wabash Avenue,” one of the few shows to run beyond two weeks, and carried the stage show with “All About Eve” which ran a record six weeks, even with the bizarre opening policy of not seating patrons after the start of the film. What was Roxy thinking of?
It was a Gloria Swanson movie that opened the Roxy during her heyday. I think it was sad day for her as well as the theatre.brucec
Thanks for posting ‘that’ photograph Warren. I didn’t know that it was a colour photo, as I have only seen it previously reproduced in b&w.
I wonder who thought up the idea behind the photo, was it a local newspaper to support an article on the demolition of the Roxy, or a publicty shot for Gloria Swanson?
Thanks Warren, that was my feeling as well, good point about the half empty house. The same applied to the Roxy, although many 20th Century Fox pictures played there, the roadshows went into smaller houses like the Rivoli.
Veyoung, I believe because the “Ten Commandments was a hard ticket roadshow event it went to the criterion which was a roadshow house, I don’t ever recall the Paramount being used for roadshow
engagements(Warren?) I was very surprised that the Criterion,which was renovated for the movie, did not install VistaVision projectors, but again it was all about the photography, not the projection.
As for CinemaScope 55 at the Roxy, what you are talking about does ring a bell, thanks for pointing that out.
Hi, Vito and other NY projectionists and wide-screen fans: In the case of VV, there seems to be a lot of discussion about when/where/and how long it was actually used. In the “restored” ‘Vertigo’ DVD, there is a special segment with M. Scorcese, who would know a lot about widescreen, who says he saw “Vertigo” in (almost word-for-word quote) “its full horizontal projection system at the Times Square Paramount”. This would have been in 1958. I still can’t imagine that Paramount ran the world premiere engagement of “Ten Commandments” in 1956 at the Criterion not in full VV. All things are possible, but this would have been hard to believe.
In the case of CS55, the first few engagements were somewhat special in that, though 35mm projection prints were used, sound was provided by 6-track mag interlock. The full projection frame, w/o sound track, provided an anamorphic ratio of 2.55:1, the same as the original 35mm CS. Notice that the first theatres to run “CS55” were the same first houses to run “CS35”, to wit: New York, Roxy; Hollywood, Chinese; Philadelphia, Fox; and (I believe), Chicago, State-Lake.
I believe the feeling was that the movie was photographed in CinemaScope 55 which made the reduction prints look better than had it been shot in 35mm, so the advertising of CinemaScope 55 refered to the photography rather than the projection. It was Zanack’s little joke. The same thing happened with VistaVision which was in all the movie ads and even on some marquees, but again except for the Paramount and one film at Radio City, reduction prints were used.
brucec
You make very good points. Didn’t the Roxy go discount and then some re-issues and finally a double bill at the end?
does anybody know if the roxy and radio city were onwned by the same company? maybe somebody can answer this question.
The Roxy seemed to be very profitable until it was sold by National Theatres(20th-Century-Fox). A great deal of money was spent to install “Windjammer” in 1958 and it was torn down just two years later. Warren it would interesting to see the grosses after the “Windjammer” run 1958-1960. According to Simon 1956 was a peak year for the Roxy with such big hits as “The King And I” 9 weeks,“Bus Stop” 6 weeks,,“Giant” 9 weeks and “Anastasia” 9 weeks. I would like to know if Fox was forced to sell the theatre due to the consent decree. When the dicision was made to tear down the Roxy theatre, that could explain the poor bookings in 1960 not to draw to much attention to the theatre. The Roxy seems to have gone from being very successful to being torn down very quickly. Im surprised there was no farewell show for such a famous theatre which would have drawn a lot of business.I think the owners at the time wanted this theatre torn down as quickly and as quietly as possible. The Roxy was able to program more adult themed movies with there stage shows compared to Radio City which became more and more family oriented as the decade moved on. The Capitol which was torn down 8 years later made a lot of money when it was torn down for a skyscraper even though the theatre was still a success. The Fox San Francisco went out with a bang where the Roxy went out with a wimper. Thank God for Ben Hall which gave this great theatre its due after it was torn down.brucec
Warren that was a wicked thing to say.