Embassy 1,2,3 Theatre
707 7th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10036
707 7th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10036
38 people
favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 100 of 1,093 comments
It was Walter Reade’s prime house before the Ziegfeld opened. It went from 70mm roadshows to almost becoming a porno house when it was triplexed to becoming a Peter Elson grind house. I was in the booth on a visit when “Fisherman” was being shown there, then spent time in the booth during the tirplexing, and finally worked there during the last years. It is not surprising that the condition deteriorated it was a completely different operation. In between the roadshow years and the time it was triplexed there was a fire in the balcony that left damage that wasn’t cleaned out until the triplexing. There were still remnants of its glory days, but it had definitely gone down hill.
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I went to see Hawaii twice during its roadshow engagement and The Shoes of the Fisherman once during its roadshow engagement. my point being simple. when it was a prime roadshow I’m sure they kept it immaculate. but as I have said before in its last 2/3 years of its operation the men’s restroom on the orchestra level and the men’s room for the upper and lower balcony were in horrid condition. I’m surprised the theater was never closed down for being a public health hazard.
Interesting. Thank you for Cinderella ad.
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in terms of davepring’s post. from a reliable source I read that the real reason Sinatra left the filming of Carousel was not because for the “if I’m shooting 2 films I want be paid twice” reason. it turns out his paramour at the time Ava Gardner was shooting in Europe and she sent him a note stating that if he didn’t get the set asap she would have an affair with her co-star.
The film was Carousel and the process was CinemaScope 55
The double shooting was something Frank Sinatra objected to on some other film. He maintained he was to be making two films and should be paid accordingly. Don’t remember the film he turned down or what the second process was.
Shot twice – IIRC, they would do the setup for the Todd-AO first, then do the CinemaScope take after.
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a question pertaining to the ad on photo pg.1 for the continuous performance engagement of Oklahoma. was the film shot with a Todd-AO camera side by side with a Cinemascope camera? or was the film shot once in Todd-AO and then reshot in Cinemascope?
Mayfair photo added to gallery, from the 1939-41 NYC Tax Photos collection.
Thank you. I shall add the photo there as well.
They’re beneath the marquee of the RKO Palace. which was just north of the Embassy and closer to the Mayfair.
1956 Mayfair marquee photo added. Haven’t figured out what marquee the ladies are beneath in the foreground yet though.
Warren G. Harris has an impressive list of books on Amazon. Seems to be a major Hollywood golden age historian.
@vindanpar: ‘Comfortably Cool’ is a vital contributor to this site, yet he’s been a curmudgeon since the time when he was posting as Warren G. Harris.
Was the Hawaii billboard picture taken down?
CC Cinema Treasures would not be nearly as good without you here.
But you are at times a curmudgeon. Sometimes we all meet on one page and then go off on tangents which might interest some if not all of us. Discussing the best possible way of seeing a roadshow print in 2018 of Hawaii on a page devoted to the theater where it had its world premiere seems especially apropos.
Unless somebody decides to rebuild the theater and show a roadshow print its blu ray is the best we can do. It seems the contributors who attended these theaters when they were single theaters are fewer and fewer.
These exchanges seem more suited to a website for “DVD Treasures,” discussing a medium that contributes to the ongoing decline in cinema attendance.
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thanks to Peter A. for clearing up my questions about the Twilight Time Hawaii Blu-ray. many prominent road- show films can’t have complete roadshow prints on Blu- ray since in many cases the complete roadshow print no longer exists. but it does for Hawaii so the fact their did an HD transfer of the general release print only baffles logic.
also for another bit of info. I always thought Twilight
Time did the remastering themselves.
Pete: Thanks for answering Joe’s question better than I ever could. Seeing your name brings back great memories of a certain beautiful movie theater in Suffern, NY.
The only transfer of Hawaii that exists in HD is of the general release version, MGM has not restored or transferred the Roadshow version in HD. Twilight Time does not do transfers or restorations, they release the masters that the studios supply them with. MGM needs to step up and properly restore it.
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to Bill H.– i agree its fortunate that the complete roadshow cut of Hawaii at least exits. but to repeat my question since the roadshow cut was in decent condition why use the general release print for the blu-ray?
also if they had used the original Super Panavision 70 negative for the Twilight blu-ray of Exodus how different would it have looked and sounded?
Thank you for that billboard photo. Those old painted Times Square movie ‘spectaculars’ were quite wonderful. Correct me if I’m wrong but I think that the two small boats were sticking out making it 3D but maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me as it doesn’t look that way there. Also on the blu ray.com review it says even first run 70mm blow up engagements were in mono. How odd for a roadshow epic film made in'65.
I saw it when it came to the suburbs so I obviously saw the cut version. But I remember the boys in elementary school talking about the topless women(wow!) which were not cut out. I guess they considered it a family film because it was in a National Geographic natives are different way.
As for Exodus, I’m grateful that the Blu-ray looks as good as it does. The original DVD was a blurry mess.
Joe, I wish I knew. I’m just glad the long version is at least available. It wasn’t on the previous DVD release.
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to Bill H.– you might be able to answer this question. why in the name of God, Mother Nature and all things would Twilight Time have used the general release print to do the HD transfer when a complete copy of the original roadshow cut exists. I can think of no rationale behind their decision.
also I think the Twilight Time Blu-ray of Exodus is perfect in both picture and sound. if they had used the original Super Panavision 70 print instead how would Blu-ray disc have looked and sounded differently?