Now that is a terrific list William. What is wrong with the people running the Ziegfeld? Why couldn’t they come up with a list like that? Are they all 17 year olds who really should be clerking in a video store and not running a New York cinema?
Vito after the abysmal list from above they just added ET, Back to the Future and Jaws.
And you want Rodgers and Hammerstein?!!!!
They should just tear down the Ziegfeld now, it’s turned into a public menace.
From Ken Roe’s pictures this looks like it has a huge screen with a huge orchestra. Is this really the case? Though modernistic in design it reminds me of the old Times Square road show houses. If only we still had a theater like this in New York!
Anybody know the size of the 70mm screen?
To Ken Roe,
Any photos of the front of the house when it was a road show theater? It looks like it was one of the best in London. The tearing down of the wonderful exterior is one of the reasons I never want to return to this city. Since the thatcher revolution the Londoners have destroyed what Hitler didn’t.
When I see photos of the skyline with all the steel office buildings rising in the midst of so many beautiful neighborhoods it is heartbreaking.
That’s the problem today with revivals. You rarely get a chance to see some of these films on a big screen. Then the programmers don’t make the effort to get excellent prints and the opportunity is shot.
As in the last festival the Ziegfeld gets My Fair Lady and the responses made it seem as if you would have done better to watch it on DVD. So when are you going to get the opportunity again?
As I’ve said before the gods of classic cinema have played a horrible joke on us- giving New York’s best programmer the worst facilities at Film Forum.
And why do all the great french films play there on extended run and not the Paris?
No some of the choices are so hackneyed and have been done to death.
No Casablanca, or CK or GWTW. These things have been done to death in the theaters and on TCM. And much of the rest is schlock. Who are these programmers?!!!I’m surprised not to see Sunset Boulevard.
In LA there are so many 70mm festivals. Why aren’t they showing Magnificent Men in their flying Machines or Mad Mad World or Oklahoma or Fair Lady or some of the other epics.
Even SOM has not been seen in 70mm in NY in at least 20 years.
Why is it when I see the programming at Film Forum and I always think great films lousy theater.
When I see the classic programming at Loew’s Jersey or Ziegfeld I always think Lousy programming.
Also is West Side Story planned for Loew’s Paradise in the fall?
I love this film but I’d like to see something different every once in a while.
LIM if you were the manager at the Warner Twin could you tell us how much of the old Strand still existed. I always assume that if a theater was fit for cinerama in the 50’s they just built a smaller theater within the larger. In your wanderings around the place did you still see much of the original structure? Had much of its history been preserved?
But even the day after I wonder if there were many people in theaters. How long did it take for business to rebound?
Does anybody know about the extra reserved seats which is in the ad?
Does this mean that Thanksgiving weekend still did so well in ‘63 that the second mezz was turned into reserved seating?
Being that a few of you are on this page may I direct you to the page of the Baronet in Asbury Park. There MikeH has a wonderful post from yesterday describing what it was like working for the Walter Reade organization in ‘65 at a couple of Asbury movie palaces. These were the final golden days of single cinema exclusive first run film engagements when movie going could be like going to a Broadway show.
Any body have more information or photos inside and out of this theater when it was a single hard ticket house?
By the time I saw it in the mid 70’s it was already a quad I believe.
Just double checked. Yes it showed the Todd AO South Pacific. I would have assumed it would have played at the St James. So it looks like Asbury had 3 deluxe road show houses. Wow.
The 70mm in New York site also includes opening dates for hard ticket movies that opened in Asbury Park and though I am not sure 100% I believe that SP opened in Todd AO at the Lyric and Oliver played there as well while Funny Girl played at the St James.
Do you recall what the Lyric looked like inside? What kind of theater it was?
Interestingly from what I can see on the 70mm in New York site the Lyric also played some important hard ticket product like South Pacific and Oliver so it must have been a nice sized house though I have no idea how many seats it had.
When I passed by it during the 80’s it was shuttered though I remember some plastered posters on the outside wall for martial arts movies.
Mike wasn’t there also a very small second or third run cinema right near the boardwalk at the border of Ocean Grove and Asbury which I seem to remember from the beginning of the 70’s which sold tickets for one dollar?
Mike thank you so much for your evocation of the last golden era of Hollywood moviegoing and Asbury’s final days as a wonderful vacation resort. So while my family and I were on the beach during the day and on the boardwalk at night you were running things at the these great theaters just a few blocks away. What a great job!
I returned as a young teenager and saw Dolly at the St James on a Sat matinee in July but it was running continuous perfs and the place was absolutely empty. How things had changed in five years. The resort itself seemed quiet.
The next time i returned in the summer of ‘79 the Mayfair and the St James were a parking lot and the Paramount was a silent hulk.
I bet you didn’t realize you were seeing the end of two eras.
MikeH,
I was a child vacationing with my family in Ocean Grove in the summer of ‘65. To me the place was a paradise. I remember walking by the St James and Paramount and seeing the photos of SOM and My Fair Lady. Remember seeing Walt Disney’s Cinderella at the Mayfair and going to a nearby drive in to see Lord Jim.
I also remember the Swan boat in a small artificial lake by the Mayfair.
Only wish these theaters had survived so I could have seen them as an adult.
Did the St James and the Paramount do well as roadshow houses during this period? Did the middle and lower class families pay hardticket prices for these films? Any memories you have of this time period would be greatly appreciated. Also do you know if SOM and MFL played in Asbury in 70mm or were they 35mm stereo prints?
The upcoming swashbuckling and Tashlin series look great. These are the kinds of films I always look for in the Loew’s Jersey programming and always in vain. Gorgeous b and w classics and glossy 50’s and 60’s comedies and musicals.
To see Scarlet Pimpernel and Zenda in a movie palace!
If you were around in New York on their first release you got to see them at the Music Hall.
Does anybody familiar with distribution during the roadshow era know if a film which had a long run in New York had its national distribution held until the end of its Times Square hard ticket run?
I doubt if in the smaller cities throughout the country runs in a single theater were so long. So for instance did the whole country wait until the summer of ‘66 for My Fair Lady to end its Criterion run though its hardticket run had ended long before in many other cities?
Did the whole suburban market have to wait til the summer of 63 for West Side Story to end its Rivoli run?
I don’t know how many of you have seen the Biography two hour program on the early rock and roll songwriters of the Brill buiding but it is a must.
Great footage of Times Square during the era and great color film of the camera sweeping from the Astor to Loew’s State. Though this might have been before the era they were talking about with Stalag 17 and The Moon is Blue playing. I think 7 Year Itch was playing at the State but the entire marquee was not shown.
Anyway the Square sure looked magnificent.
Better than Florence during the Renaissance!
Warren didn’t you or somebody recently post an ad for an aquatic revue at the Loew’s State? Do you have any idea how they worked in a proscenium theater? Was there a huge glass enclosed tank on stage?
How unfortunate is it that we have no color photos of the interiors of the Chi Paradise, the Roxy or the Brooklyn and Times Square Paramounts and Kings. I believe the color plates are all illustrations. The only color picture I’ve seen of the San Francisco Fox is of the Lobby.
I meant to write photo after vintage. The Loew’s is a theater not a wine. The book is the Best Remaining Seats. And if you haven’t seen it you’re in for a spectacular treat.
Well then Shorty C there is a great vintage of the interior in the Ben Hall book. It is stupendous. And people praise junk like the Gehry airplane hangars(Disney concert Hall etc.)
Now that is a terrific list William. What is wrong with the people running the Ziegfeld? Why couldn’t they come up with a list like that? Are they all 17 year olds who really should be clerking in a video store and not running a New York cinema?
Vito after the abysmal list from above they just added ET, Back to the Future and Jaws.
And you want Rodgers and Hammerstein?!!!!
They should just tear down the Ziegfeld now, it’s turned into a public menace.
From Ken Roe’s pictures this looks like it has a huge screen with a huge orchestra. Is this really the case? Though modernistic in design it reminds me of the old Times Square road show houses. If only we still had a theater like this in New York!
Anybody know the size of the 70mm screen?
To Ken Roe,
Any photos of the front of the house when it was a road show theater? It looks like it was one of the best in London. The tearing down of the wonderful exterior is one of the reasons I never want to return to this city. Since the thatcher revolution the Londoners have destroyed what Hitler didn’t.
When I see photos of the skyline with all the steel office buildings rising in the midst of so many beautiful neighborhoods it is heartbreaking.
That’s the problem today with revivals. You rarely get a chance to see some of these films on a big screen. Then the programmers don’t make the effort to get excellent prints and the opportunity is shot.
As in the last festival the Ziegfeld gets My Fair Lady and the responses made it seem as if you would have done better to watch it on DVD. So when are you going to get the opportunity again?
As I’ve said before the gods of classic cinema have played a horrible joke on us- giving New York’s best programmer the worst facilities at Film Forum.
And why do all the great french films play there on extended run and not the Paris?
No some of the choices are so hackneyed and have been done to death.
No Casablanca, or CK or GWTW. These things have been done to death in the theaters and on TCM. And much of the rest is schlock. Who are these programmers?!!!I’m surprised not to see Sunset Boulevard.
In LA there are so many 70mm festivals. Why aren’t they showing Magnificent Men in their flying Machines or Mad Mad World or Oklahoma or Fair Lady or some of the other epics.
Even SOM has not been seen in 70mm in NY in at least 20 years.
Why is it when I see the programming at Film Forum and I always think great films lousy theater.
When I see the classic programming at Loew’s Jersey or Ziegfeld I always think Lousy programming.
Also is West Side Story planned for Loew’s Paradise in the fall?
I love this film but I’d like to see something different every once in a while.
LIM if you were the manager at the Warner Twin could you tell us how much of the old Strand still existed. I always assume that if a theater was fit for cinerama in the 50’s they just built a smaller theater within the larger. In your wanderings around the place did you still see much of the original structure? Had much of its history been preserved?
But even the day after I wonder if there were many people in theaters. How long did it take for business to rebound?
Does anybody know about the extra reserved seats which is in the ad?
Does this mean that Thanksgiving weekend still did so well in ‘63 that the second mezz was turned into reserved seating?
Being that a few of you are on this page may I direct you to the page of the Baronet in Asbury Park. There MikeH has a wonderful post from yesterday describing what it was like working for the Walter Reade organization in ‘65 at a couple of Asbury movie palaces. These were the final golden days of single cinema exclusive first run film engagements when movie going could be like going to a Broadway show.
Well you guys have been going on about this place for a while now and I am dying of curiousity. I bet it was a beauty.
So where are the pictures of the interior so we can get a sense of how beautiful this theater was.
Any body have more information or photos inside and out of this theater when it was a single hard ticket house?
By the time I saw it in the mid 70’s it was already a quad I believe.
Just double checked. Yes it showed the Todd AO South Pacific. I would have assumed it would have played at the St James. So it looks like Asbury had 3 deluxe road show houses. Wow.
The 70mm in New York site also includes opening dates for hard ticket movies that opened in Asbury Park and though I am not sure 100% I believe that SP opened in Todd AO at the Lyric and Oliver played there as well while Funny Girl played at the St James.
Do you recall what the Lyric looked like inside? What kind of theater it was?
Interestingly from what I can see on the 70mm in New York site the Lyric also played some important hard ticket product like South Pacific and Oliver so it must have been a nice sized house though I have no idea how many seats it had.
When I passed by it during the 80’s it was shuttered though I remember some plastered posters on the outside wall for martial arts movies.
Mike wasn’t there also a very small second or third run cinema right near the boardwalk at the border of Ocean Grove and Asbury which I seem to remember from the beginning of the 70’s which sold tickets for one dollar?
Mike thank you so much for your evocation of the last golden era of Hollywood moviegoing and Asbury’s final days as a wonderful vacation resort. So while my family and I were on the beach during the day and on the boardwalk at night you were running things at the these great theaters just a few blocks away. What a great job!
I returned as a young teenager and saw Dolly at the St James on a Sat matinee in July but it was running continuous perfs and the place was absolutely empty. How things had changed in five years. The resort itself seemed quiet.
The next time i returned in the summer of ‘79 the Mayfair and the St James were a parking lot and the Paramount was a silent hulk.
I bet you didn’t realize you were seeing the end of two eras.
MikeH,
I was a child vacationing with my family in Ocean Grove in the summer of ‘65. To me the place was a paradise. I remember walking by the St James and Paramount and seeing the photos of SOM and My Fair Lady. Remember seeing Walt Disney’s Cinderella at the Mayfair and going to a nearby drive in to see Lord Jim.
I also remember the Swan boat in a small artificial lake by the Mayfair.
Only wish these theaters had survived so I could have seen them as an adult.
Did the St James and the Paramount do well as roadshow houses during this period? Did the middle and lower class families pay hardticket prices for these films? Any memories you have of this time period would be greatly appreciated. Also do you know if SOM and MFL played in Asbury in 70mm or were they 35mm stereo prints?
The upcoming swashbuckling and Tashlin series look great. These are the kinds of films I always look for in the Loew’s Jersey programming and always in vain. Gorgeous b and w classics and glossy 50’s and 60’s comedies and musicals.
To see Scarlet Pimpernel and Zenda in a movie palace!
If you were around in New York on their first release you got to see them at the Music Hall.
Does anybody familiar with distribution during the roadshow era know if a film which had a long run in New York had its national distribution held until the end of its Times Square hard ticket run?
I doubt if in the smaller cities throughout the country runs in a single theater were so long. So for instance did the whole country wait until the summer of ‘66 for My Fair Lady to end its Criterion run though its hardticket run had ended long before in many other cities?
Did the whole suburban market have to wait til the summer of 63 for West Side Story to end its Rivoli run?
I don’t know how many of you have seen the Biography two hour program on the early rock and roll songwriters of the Brill buiding but it is a must.
Great footage of Times Square during the era and great color film of the camera sweeping from the Astor to Loew’s State. Though this might have been before the era they were talking about with Stalag 17 and The Moon is Blue playing. I think 7 Year Itch was playing at the State but the entire marquee was not shown.
Anyway the Square sure looked magnificent.
Better than Florence during the Renaissance!
Warren didn’t you or somebody recently post an ad for an aquatic revue at the Loew’s State? Do you have any idea how they worked in a proscenium theater? Was there a huge glass enclosed tank on stage?
How unfortunate is it that we have no color photos of the interiors of the Chi Paradise, the Roxy or the Brooklyn and Times Square Paramounts and Kings. I believe the color plates are all illustrations. The only color picture I’ve seen of the San Francisco Fox is of the Lobby.
I meant to write photo after vintage. The Loew’s is a theater not a wine. The book is the Best Remaining Seats. And if you haven’t seen it you’re in for a spectacular treat.
Well then Shorty C there is a great vintage of the interior in the Ben Hall book. It is stupendous. And people praise junk like the Gehry airplane hangars(Disney concert Hall etc.)