Roxy Theatre
153 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
153 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
83 people
favorited this theater
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Going to work as a projectionist and finding hundreds of people on line waiting to enter the wonders of a movie palace is one of the greatest joys of my life. The thrill of looking down from from my booth porthole to hundreds if not thousands of people and listining to the roars of laughter at “Some Like It Hot” or the screams during “Physco” can not be described. I can not forget seeing countless numbers of kids enjoying a movie matinee of westerns, cartoons and The 3 Stooges. When I dimmed the lights at the start of the show and heard all those children scream delight in anticipation of what I was about to present to them would always choke me up a little. Well…. you just had to be there.
Better link: www.historictheatres.org
(Link above has an extra comma!)
Make it five. I care too. I enjoy all the postings and have learned so much that I didn’t know before. It’s just great that we can all share our knowledge with one another.
Vincent I also care so now there are four people on the planet.I enjoy the postings from Warren,Vito and yourself. I wish there was a time machine and we could go back to this era of movie palace we all love.I think in our postings we are helping keep this part of our history alive. I at least attended the San Francisco Fox as a child but I wish I could have attended the Roxy I probably wouldn’t want to leave. I love Radio City but the Roxy was the Cathedral of motion pictures.brucec
Warren and Vito,
We are probably the only 3 people on the face of the planet who know or care that King Kong opened at the new Roxy and not the old Roxy. As New York compulsively destroys its history and diminishes its quality of life out of monstrous greed(a Manhattan football stadium anyone?) you’ve got to admit this is nothing but arcane info with no relation to life as we know it. We’re talking about another civilization.
Correction on Market St. The City of San Francisco is to blame for letting the theatre district portion of Market Street decline so badly and its still a mess today. The Golden Gate has to post security in front of the theatre on show nights because the area is so bad. Both Oakland and San Jose have worked on improving there main street where San Francisco has done nothing to improve Market between the old JC Penney Dept store and the Orpheum. Its a disgrace for a city that is ranked one of the worlds top tourist destinations.The Warfield never deteriorated its the best preserved downtown movie palace the city has. The Warfield was completely renovated/restored in 1969 by National General with the intention of making the Warfield a reseved seat roadshow house. By 1971 the era of the roadshow was over. I remember when Mike Thomas took over the Warfield and it was in beautiful condition. I saw live in person films tributes to Mae West,Lana Turner,Sophia Loren and Joan Fontaine in the late 1970’s at the Warfield. The Warfield was in great condition when it became a concert venue.Who would brave this part of Market Street to see a movie today its scary enough to attend a broadway show at the Golden Gate.brucec
Good job Warren!, I too read the article and sorta just grunbled something to myself about getting the facts straight. I am Glad you took action, This is not trivia they are writting about, it’s historic fact.
Scott very nicely put about San Francisco’s Market street movie district.
I’ve only been in the Orpheum, Golden Gate, Warfield, St. Francis and the Strand Theatres along Market Street. Boy, that street had some very incredible theatres at one time.
In reading these comments about movie palaces, I would like to add comments about San Francisco’s Market Street. Market Street was at one time a major street for movie theater going and you had all levels of theaters on that street, from first-run/roadshow(United Artists, St Francis, Fox, Paramount, Orpheum(a Cinerama house), RKO Golden Gate) to second-run (Fox Warfield, Esquire) to last run(grindhouses like Pix, Regal, and Hub). The early 1960’s saw major changes as Market Street started going into decline. Some theaters would close(Fox & Paramount in early 1960’s, Orpheum in the mid-1960’s which resulted in the Golden Gate becoming a Cinerama theater), some would turn to “adults only”(Hub, Centre, Pix), and the others would hang on. Around 1970, BART construction began, which tore up Market Street and claim some more theaters(most notably Esquire and Pix). The three first-run houses changed as well. Both the Golden Gate and St Francis had twinned. Golden Gate would largely show action and kung-fu films. The St Francis alternated between action and second-run product. United Artists changed its name to Market Street Cinema, and largely showed blaxploitation and some second-run. Several more theaters turned to hard porn(Centre, Guild became Pussycat, Regal became Mitchell Brothers Bijou—Even Market Street Cinema went porn in 1980). Second-run theaters like the Warfield and the Esquire had deteriorated and largely became havens for bums to get a cheap place to sleep. About 1 ½ yrs ago, the last theater to show movies on Market Street closed—The Strand. It was a theater that went from second run to grindhouse to revival house and ended as a seedy porn theater(showing video) and it was shut by the police due to open drug dealing that was rampant there.
Luckily, the Orpheum and the Golden Gate show Broadway shows there now.
Reading these posts here and for other showplaces makes me a litle nauseous over what we’ve lost.
Warren I agree with you, but I think most of the movie palaces may have lasted a little longer like in Canada and Britain.The Chicago loop was vital until the early 1970’s until exploitation became the norm. Hollywood Blvd did very well during the 1970’s day and date with Westwood on Exclusive Runs. The urban core in most of our downtowns were declining in the 1960’s some faster than others. I still think if more thought and imagination many of our great cinemas could have been incorporated within a megaplex like the Cinerama Dome,Gruaman’s Chinese,Odeon in London,and the Rex in Paris. I think in Times Sqaure the Criterion could have been incorporated into a megaplex. I think City planners in New York City should have pushed for a megaplex on Times Square as well as 42nt St. I loved the era of the exlusive run because these theatres were deluxe houses and put on a great show. I know Chicago didn’t want any new megaplex built in the Loop they wanted them off North Michigan Ave across the river.I think if the Roxy had lasted a little longer it would have made a great mid size concert hall the way Radio City became in the late 1970’s.brucec
As Warren put it.
Any Palaces that survived would have required being turned into multiplexes, performing arts centers, churches….
But if you look at the size of some of these palaces like the Roxy or Capital. With 5000+ seats they would have to gut most of the theatre to make those extra screens. Around the same time frame the parent company National Theatres (Fox Theatres) decided to drop the Fox Theatre in San Francisco. Ok the Fox lasted two more years, but they dropped many of their large sized palaces during that time. Many of them dating back 30-40 years. If you look at theatres that were built in the early 60’s, you will see what the theatre chains thought what was a modern movie theatre. Many of these theatres draped over their original auditoriums. In 1960 when the movie “Spartacus” opened at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. Stanley Kubrick had the theatre reduce the seating area by draping far sides and upper balconys of theatres. When the Capital Theatre was turned in a Cinerama Theatre they draped over large areas in the upper balcony. The large palaces that once were the flag ships in cities were now big white barns to their chains. With what the exhibition and distribution of films were during this time. The large theatre near the Roxy were all first run / Roadshow houses. During Roadshow times you were running two – three performances a day, for sometime up to two years( with some pictures). You were contracted to run so many weeks. The start of the runs were great, but if something bigger was set to open soon after. You were stuck sometimes running to less than half in your houses. So if you look at which ones left first. The Roxy left in the early 60’s, the Paramount lasted the the mid 60’s, the Capital to the late 60’s. The Warner was twinned and had an extra screen in the rear. The Rivoli was twinned and UA damaged the front area so it could not be landmarked. The State was twinned and lasted till the late 80’s. The Palace Theatre went back to Broadway stage shows, after a return to 70MM Roadshow type reissues. Criterion last the longest for the Times Square area theatres. Remember we almost lost Radio City back in 1978. (At that time of the final benefit performance would have been “The Three Musketeers” on April 12th. 1978).
I wonder how different things might have been had the goverment kept out of the movie biz. Would some of the palaces still be around? Would we have lost MGM and RKO?
Tivia: The Roxy (Cathedral of the Motion Picture) was demolished in 1960 and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer(The Tiffany’s of the major studios) was seperated from Loews Inc. the last major studio to comply with the government consent decree which forced the major studios to divest there theatres in the US. The greatest movie palace ever built was destroyed and Loew’s M-G-M was spit up with the help of the government, only survived until 1969 until Kerkorain got his hands on it.I regret that I never was able to attend a movie and a stage show at the Roxy.brucec
The Walker made it to the 90’s and now a store sits inside…
Where this?
I can only imagine how incredible the Roxy must have been. 44 years after it’s closing my mother still talks about seeing movies there with my grandmother and the elaborate stage shows. Yes the Astor was a great modern day single screen, but think The Walker made it to the 90’s and now a store sits inside and all the walls and ceiling are intact behind the plaster boards. It was no Roxy but it was damn beautiful. Thanks UA, another place you destroyed.
Vincent—
Another literary reference to the Roxy occurs in Thomas Merton’s autobiographical Seven Storey Mountain, with a terrific description of a show at that theater ca. 1940.
Warren, when the Strand, the Criterion and the Rivoli all came down at about the same time there wasn’t even a murmur and I was so sick I’ve hardly been to Times Square since. Paul Goldberg(?)the architecture critic of the NY Times called it exhilarating and I can’t write what I wanted done to him.
There is in The Great Gatsby an afternoon when the characters decide to take their cars into the city and they talk about going to one of the air-conditioned theaters(unnamed) at around 50th street and it thrilled me to know at the time I read it that two of those theaters about which Fitzgerald wrote were still standing-the Strand and Rivoli. The Roxy hadn’t been built yet.
Yes, it happened rather quickly with little or no fanfare. Of course the Fox Fanfare will forever ring in memory of the great roxy
I can still hear it as the great curtains parted.
Thanks for the laugh Vincent, to see the threads on the Astor Plaza closing you would think it was the greatest ever. Please, I can only guess all those people crying over the loss of the Astor Plaza never saw a real movie palace like the Roxy.I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m sad for the loss of the Astor, it represented one of the last single screen theatres in NY, but there is, of course, no comparison to the closing of the Roxy.
No Vincent, You were right first time – the Astor Plaza IS just a hole in the ground. The Roxy was and still is the Cathedral of the Motion Picture and demolition can’t take that away from us!
I thought the greatest theater ever was the Astor Plaza.
another link to the greatest theater ever:
http://www.gabesplayerpianos.org/html/Roxy.html
I have just met am 86 yr old woman at the local laundromat who says she was a dancer at the Roxy in 1931. After reading the comments and seeing a rendering of the interior, I’m going to have more questions to ask her when we return to vist and wash our clothes next week. She danced under the name Terry Carlton. She left the Roxy and moved to Berlin where she danced for one of the theaters there, which I’ll find out about next week.
Viv
Simon L— On the Radio City Music Hall page, you again bring up a terrific recall of the Roxy’s stage shows when you mention the NY Philharmonic’s appearance with “The Black Rose.†Another orchestra that filled the Roxy’s pit was Phil Spitalny’s all-woman philharmonic orchestra, appearing several times in the late 40’s and early 50’s. The Roxy offered some classical and modern ballet from time to time, but didn’t have a resident ballet company, right?
You also mention “Dancing Waters†at RCMH in January ’53 (yup, I saw it then too). I’d always thought that show was designed to out-rival the Roxy, which had remodelled its procenium and stage the previous December. At that time, Roxy introduced Ice Colorama, a full ice stage with blinking multi-colored flourescent lights embedded beneath its translucent surface. Its debut came with the Christmas show featuring the boom-ba-boom “Stars and Stripes Forever†with Clifton Webb, followed by the scarlet-and-black (what do you call a Technicolor film-noir?) of “Niagara†with Marilyn Monroe. To set down a gauntlet, RCMH brought on “Dancing Waters,†with the Minnelli-style Hollywood-noir, “Bad and the Beautiful.†The Roxy then responded with Disney’s “Peter Pan,†filling the house with thousands of kids and their parents.
I remember that the Ice Colorama stage show for the latter featured a clone of the Wizard-of-Oz narrative, concerning a Wicked Witch (performed by a male ice-skater) who hurtled across the stage at enormous speed, pursued by the good-guy Ice Blades and Roxyettes, with flashing flourescent lights in tempestuous neon hues, accompanied by off-stage thunder and a crashing orchestral score (it might have been “A Night on Bald Mountain,†no?). We stayed to see the stage show a second time, moving up to the vast balcony for a better view of the Colorama effects.