Loew's Capitol Theatre
1645 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
1645 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
47 people
favorited this theater
Showing 926 - 950 of 1,085 comments
Nice set of photos, RobertR. Thanks for the link.
Thanks, Robert. I remember that big balcony from seeing “2001” there in 1968, and according to an earlier post that wasn’t even the whole balcony like in your picture – the top of it had been curtained off.
Another great shot.
Here is an awesome shot of the Capitol. Sure looks different from when I saw it in the Cinerama years.
Here’s a picture of the Capitol’s Cinerama screen, taken right before the opening of “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm” in 1962:
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Here’s a New York Times ad from April 1968 for the Capitol’s last feature. If this beautiful theater had to go under, at least it went out on top.:
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Sony’s deal to Purchase Metro-Goldywn-Mayer closed on Friday April 8th according to Daily Variety. The Capitol was MGM’s flagship theatre since 1924 until it showed its last MGM film “2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968. The Capitol was a very successful Movie Palace during its lifetime. It didn’t suffer a decline the way many movie palaces in Times Square did during its lifetime. It was modernized for Cinerama but never twinned.brucec
Whoops. I didnt realize she had died. Thanks for the info.
From IMDB regarding Ms. Granville:
After her marriage to Mr. Wrather in 1947, she appeared in only three more movies. She became an executive in the Wrather Corp., and first Associate, then executive producer of their “Lassie” TV series. After Jack Wrather’s death in 1984, she took over as chairman of the board. She was also involved in many civic, and cultural groups, and she was chair of American Film Institute, and trustee of John F. Kennedy Center, and other well known organizations, and charities. She died of cancer in Santa Monica in 1988. Had four children.
With a recitation what exactly would one recite on the stage of a huge movie palace?
Bonita Granville married producer Jack Wrather. They produced the Lassie series. I think she’s still alive.
OMG, Bonita Granville. Now there’s a blast from the past. I hadn’t heard anything of her in ages. I had the impression that her show business career just faded away. Whatever became of her anyway?
Bill: YES, YES, YES!!!! I realized the EXACT same thing when I saw it on that Saturday night. He could’ve told her what to do OR had her bring the baby to his house. That’s a major plot hole. I love that scene between Moses and Nefritiri (sp?). Here’s Moses and “God-ded” up and stuff (and stiff as a board) and there’s Baxter, all heavy breathing, obviously in heat.
One scene from “The Ten Commandments” always bothered me. Before the final plague, Anne Baxter tells Heston, “I saved your son.” Heston says, “I cannot save yours.” But he could have, very easily, just by telling her about the lamb’s blood. I guess he didn’t really want to save him, Pharaoh needed to be taught the ultimate lesson, etc. Still a great movie.
If only movies today were as much fun.
There isn’t one director today who has come up with a scene half as good as Colbert in the drink in Sign of the Cross.
I watched (again…) most of it when ABC aired it on a Saturday night (3/19). Oh, GOD…the campiness of it all!
I have a new favorite HAM scene: it’s when Ramses summons Moses after the final plague (the one where all the first born of Egypt die). So, Moses finally gets what he wants after all: he and his people can leave Egypt. Ramses tells him so.
Now, you’d think, in a realistic sense, that Moses would be at least somewhat humbled and leave quietly, right? I mean the guy’s gotta know that Ramses son is dead. But noooooooooooooo, not Heston’s (or DeMille’s Moses). He goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on rambling about God. At one point, I expected (HELL would’ve LOVED) to see Ramses scream at Moses: “Oh, for God’s sake! I just let you and your people go! So would you PLEASE SHUT THE HELL UP!”
DeMille made films in the sound era. But from his direction, he was still locked in 1925.
CConnolly: Back in February you were posting here about “The Ten Commandments.” Well, the American Film Institute will be announcing their 100 Greatest Movie Quotes in June, and here is the link to the 400 nominated quotes they’ll be choosing from. Check out #348.
http://afi.com/Docs/tvevents/pdf/quotes400.pdf
That’s quite a parade of films in those seventeen months. A three-week run for the best of them must have meant good b.o. receipts. I’d be curious to check them against competition at the Roxy, Paramount, RCMH, and others in the same weeks. Thanks for the listings, Warren.
Since “Gone With the Wind†opened at The Capitol, I thought this might be a good enough place to tell a funny story about that movie.
It’s from a woman I used to work with. Her Mother is from the U.K. and she said that when “GWTW†opened in London, it was at the height of the Blitz. A truly horrific time for those people.
Anyway, her Mother went to see “GWTW†one afternoon. She bought her ticket and waited in line. She said the crowd was HUGE, perhaps thousands of people either waiting to get in or buy tickets for later shows.
Then the air raid siren went off.
Luckily it was a false alarm.
Not a single person got off the line.
I think it’s a great story that demonstrates the power that movies had once.
That’s probably it. The street looked seedy and back in 1938, from what my Dad used to tell me, 3rd Ave was not a great place.
Is it listed here?
I was looking at a book of photos taken by Weegee (did I spell that right?). Anyway, the book had an interesting shot of a dead body in front of a Manhattan theater called “Tudor”. It was playing (ironically) a movie called “Joy of Living” with Irene Dunne. I looked on this site and could not find Tudor listed.
Anyone know of it? From the photo, it looked like a neighborhood house.
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY was certainly released in 3-channel stereophonic sound. The 35mm magnetic tracks were on a dubber which was interlocked with the picture.
There were a great many films released in stereo during that period, and most of those tracks are lost today.
Ha! Bosley Crowther didn’t mention the most annoying feature of early wide screen projection: shutter flicker from the enlarged frame. I first saw the Capitol’s wide screen for “From Here To Eternity” in August ‘53, and it struck me as magnificent: rather wider than most and filling the entire proscenium with a gentle curve. And though I might have been wishfully imagining it, I believe the Capitol showed “FHTE” with stereophonic sound, or so I recall hearing planes scoot across the auditorium during the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Three years passed before I returned to the Capitol (“War and Peace,” August ‘56), and it seemed to me then that a somewhat smaller, flatter screen had replaced the earlier one, and that the remainder of the proscenium was newly swathed with billowing traveller curtains. But the shutter flicker had disappeared, and the prolection and sound were flawless.
Warren your post about China Seas was very interesting in that I guess this marked the end of the first road show era. Previously films like Anna Karenina and Camille would have played at the Astor on hard ticket. I wonder what were the exact reasons for this change in distribution practices. When Gone With the Wind was road showed at the Astor it had to share it with the Capitol on contiuous performances. Did MGM by the mid 30’s get tired of not making enough money on an initial Broadway release?
BoxOfficeBill, Jerry Lewis played the Capitol theater in the late 1940’s with Dean Martin. One engagement was with “Naked City” as the feature attraction. Lewis has color home movies of this engagement, including some spectacular night-time views of the Capitol’s brilliant color marquee.