Roxy Theatre

myrtleleave, that was quite a Christmas season in 1954, if I recall we had “No Business like Show Business” at the Roxy and down the street at RCMH you could see “White Christmas”, anyone remember what was at the Paramount and Rivoli?

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Warren—

Thanks for the bookings of ‘48. They recoup my earliest memories of the Roxy.

My first visit there was for “You Were meant for Me” with that great jazz stage show. The billing must have made an impression on my parents, who were by no means jazz afficionados, but who certainly possessed the instinct to seek out a great show. I have a hazy memory of the b&w Dan Dailey film (a scene that took place on a railroad train sticks in mind), but a more colorful memory of the live music, and especially of a whooping face-off among Armstrong, Teagarden, Hines, et al. that concluded the show. I of course didn’t know who they were, and many years passed before I learned how to use libraries and dig out microfilm archives of the NYT to trace these memories. It then bowed me over to rediscover what a show it must have been.

I next remember seeing “Sitting Pretty” there. Evidently my parents found the previous show so good that they figured a return to the Roxy would be worth the trip on the BMT. My memory conjures up a stage-Irish review with shamrocks and midget leprachauns, and the premiere date of March 10 certainly bears out the St. Paddy motif. I don’t recall the puppet act, but that—plus the sadistic appeal of Clifton Webb as a baby sitter—would surely have spurred our trek to Rothaffel’s Cathedral.

Finally Ernst Lubitsch’s last film, “That Lady in Ermine,” brought us there again that summer, this time with the ice show as an evident drawer. The film’s Austrian setting prompted a stage show with Viennese waltzes by Strauss on ice, a novelty that competed not only with the lavish spectacles up the block at RCMH but also with the full-length ice shows at the formerly “New Roxy” Center on 49 Street. Those three shows sketched out the coordinates of a post-WWII world bounded by Bourbon Street, County Cork, and the Tyrolian Alps, expansive enough for a Brooklyn kid to deal with at the time. Thanks for putting it into context with the full list of bookings for ‘48.

and then came CINEMIRAC
i dont think it was a big hit at the roxy
did it every play on local screens
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yet ANOTHER great job Warren. Thanks for the memories and keep em' comin'.

A christmas movie in June, sometimes it’s true, as Angela as Mame sang: “we need a little Christmas”

Strange how one of the all-time great Christmas movies opened on June 4th. Maybe it was so popular it played right through the rest of the year after leaving the Roxy?

Warren— thanks for ‘46. Yes, Connee Boswell was a great repeater at the Roxy. I wonder whether Senor Wences had anything to do with the success of “Razor” and its ss?

In those above grosses for the Columbia 2, they are showing “Mohammad Messenger of God”. It says something about some reserved seats there and at the Rivoli. Anyone know anything about that?

I looked through my old Variety clippings and found mostly reviews and ads, but I did find one page of NYC grosses including the Music Hall. Unfortunately it was for one of the Music Hall’s worst bombs ever. The date is March 9, 1977. “Star Wars” was a little more than 2 months away. I’m posting here at the Roxy because the Music Hall page is still not working.

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I used to give walking tours of the theater district and one of the things I used to like to do was to stand on the northwest corner of 50th St. and Broadway and point out all the various theaters, etc. that once were (mostly before my time) on 50th St., or just to the north or south of it.

These days, 50th St. is still somewhat lively, but imagine being on this corner in, let’s say, 1933 just after Radio City Music Hall opened up:

Going from east to west, first on Sixth Ave. you have RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL (approx. 5,950 seats); then before you get to Seventh Ave. you have the ROXY (approx. 5,900 seats); then on the south side of 50th St. you have the former EARL CARROLL Theater (about 3,000? seats) which was transformed into a spectacular nightclub in 1933; on the very shallow block between Seventh and Broadway you have the the stage house and dressing rooms of the WINTER GARDEN theater (approx. 1,500 seats); and just to the south of 50th St. you have the the RIVOLI Theater (approx. 2,100 seats); then between Broadway and Eighth Ave. you have the back of the CAPITOL Theater (approx. 5,200 seats); and all the way over on Eighth Ave. on the north side of 50th you have the back of the TIVOLI Theater (approx. 1,400 seats), and across the street from that you have the third MADISON SQ. GARDEN (approx. 18,000[?] seats).

And that’s not even to mention the restaurants (the original “little” Lindy’s was just to the north of the Rivoli and, somewhere along the line, Jack Demsey’s which was across the street from “little” Lindy’s), hotels, etc. PLUS, before the Port Authority bus terminal was built, Greyhound had it’s main bus terminal, I believe, on 50th St. just east of Eighth Ave.

Boy, on a Friday night in the 1930s, 50th St. must have really been jumping!!!

I started collecting Variety in 70 and loved looking at the Times Square and Music Hall grosses. As well as looking at the seating capacities of all the downtown movie palaces in the great American cities other than New York and imagining what they looked like.
My parents having no idea what treasures lay within eventually threw them out.
I’ll never forget the horror I experienced one day finding my father painting a room with an issue being used to cover the floor. What in the world was he thinking?

Ron: I have lots of old Variety clippings. I’ll look through them and see if I have any for the Music Hall grosses. I started buying the paper in 1974, when it was only (I think) 60 cents. Now it must be $3 or $4 or even more per issue.