Roxy Theatre
153 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
153 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
83 people
favorited this theater
Showing 176 - 200 of 1,209 comments
Hello-
i thank my fellow posters for their replies to all of my questions. its been most helpful.
as you know for the past several weeks i have been browsing a neat list this site complied of all the movie theaters that ever existed in New York State. the purpose being to find the oldest built from the ground up or to use the more proper term purpose built built movie theater in Manhattan. to which on the list i just looked up the theaters listed under New York,New York. now for some time the furthest back i could go
using my criteria was the Regent and the Bunny both of 1913. then i found out the late Apollo of 42 St. was built in 1910 to exhibit both movies and vaudeville. well i found an even older theater that was built to exhibit both films and vaudeville. the Cresent later known as the Gem was built at 36 West 135 St. it opened on Dec. 16, 1909 with a program of both movies and vaudeville. now whether in the design and construction stages the builder intended to show films well who knows. it may only have been a thought after the construction was finished. but the important fact remains that on the opening night the program consisted of movies as well vaudeville. the theater ceased operation in 1937 and for many years the building was used by a community organization. the building is now demolished.
As Joseph mentioned, the Roxy had some first rate product. They just weren’t big hits.
Hello Again-
in the last say year and a half of the Roxy’s life i was under the assumption that in the movie industry at the time it was quite clear what was considered an A film or a B film. for instance both the Loew’s Capitol and the Paramount went out playing A films. so it would have been nice if the Roxy’s final film had been a big A film.
RE:
“The Roxy closed in March 1960, but its fate was probably sealed much earlier when it was purchased by Rockefeller Center in 1956.”
Very true. If the Capitol and the Roxy switched places, the Capitol would have been the first to go. Rockefeller Center was certainly thinking future expansion when the Roxy property was purchased in 1956.
To bigjoe 59 –
I am not sure what you mean,consider or understand what are “A, B or C” films. But the last several movies to play the NYC ROXY include DAMN YANKEES, RIO BRAVO, IMITATION OF LIFE, LIL ABNER, and others, all major product. Covers of several of the programs are in the photo section.
The last film was “THE WIND CANNOT READ”.
I am not sure what qualifies as ‘A’ level but the “THE WRECK OF THE MARY DEARE” played in late 1959.
Hello-
as i said in my previous post in its last days the Roxy was playing many B if not C films. in fact the last film to play the Roxy was what a friend of my parents referred to as a C film. i forget the title but in had “Wind” in it. to which what was the last first run A level film that the Roxy played?
The Paramount and the Capitol were operated by large theater chains with much greater booking clout than the Roxy, which in its last few years was basically an independent operation. It had its share of blockbuster hits but in between it had to scramble for decent titles. That’s partly why it continued to combine its films with stage shows long after the other Times Square palaces had dropped theirs.
The theatres were contracted to the studios. The Roxy was aligned to 20th Century Fox who produced flop after flop during this period.
Hello- thanks for the info. there were many large grand old movie theaters that continued to operate as single screen first run movie theater for several years after the Roxy was torn down. the Criterion, Loew’s State, Loew’s Capitol, the Rivoli, the Warner the Demille and the Paramount. i guess they were able to survive as single screen movie theaters long after the Roxy was torn down because they were manageably large whereas the Roxy which had like twice the seating capacity of the Paramount was just to frigging big for its own good.
also what are your thoughts on the fact that till the day they closed down both the Loew’s Capitol and the Paramount were still playing first run A level movies. respectively PLANET OF THE APES and 2001:A SPACE ODYSSEY for the Capitol and THUNDERBALL for the Paramount. a friend of my parents said that in its last 2 years or so the Roxy at times played B or even C movies. now this was long before mutliplexes when studios opened a film in 2000 to 3000 theaters on the same day. so if the Capitol and the Paramount were able to book first run A level films till the day they closed why wasn’t the Roxy?
The Roxy was demolished in the autumn of 1960. The famous Life Magazine photo of Gloria Swanson standing in the ruins of the rotunda dates from October 24, 1960.
I don’t think the Roxy was any less viable financially than the Paramount, Capitol or other large ornate movie palaces. It remained a popular theater. All of them suffered from the precipitous decline in movie attendance in the post WWII era that all film theaters did nationwide. The Roxy may have been the first to go, but the writing was on the wall for all of them, at least in terms of continuing on as they had done. If the Roxy had survived another 10 years, no doubt it would have been subdivided and whatnot as all of the other Times Square movie palaces eventually were before they disappeared altogether.
The Roxy closed in March 1960, but its fate was probably sealed much earlier when it was purchased by Rockefeller Center in 1956. They plan well into the future and I imagine their interest in owning the Roxy wasn’t for its future as a film showcase. The Roxy not only had valuable air rights that were coveted by Rockefeller Ctr, but it was also located on very valuable real estate that was adjacent to the site of the new construction that they were developing on the west side of 6th Ave.
Hello-
i was able to attend many of the great old movie houses in the Times Square area when they were still more or less in their original condition and they before were twined or torn down. the Roxy wasn’t one of them. to which i have what i hope is a simple question. the decision to tear down the Roxy was made i believe in June of 1960. so as well loved as the theater was and had ornate as it was by June 1960 wasn’t a movie theater as HUGE as the Roxy just plain economically unviable?
It’s sad how urban renewal and the city can destroy the past.
My grandfather Frank White played the lead organ in the early years.
Sorry I missed the Roxy Theatre, being born in 1961. Guess there is absolutely no chance it could ever be rebuilt? Let’s see: $150 million for the building alone (given inflation since 1927), plus the cost of demolition of the crappy office building that replaced it, plus the cost of the land and existing crappy building. I suppose not. “You don’t appreciate what you’ve got till its gone…” Great Roxy Theatre, you are dearly missed. Can we at least have a plaque on TGI Fridays? Perhaps on 50th Street in an inconspicuous place? Just a thought.
Every theater’s status is either “Open” or “Closed” (green for open, red for closed). Then next to that is a description: “1 screen”, etc. So the Roxy’s status is correct. It says “Closed, Demolished”.
I agree that having three status categories: Closed, Open, or Demolished would be more helpful and accurate. But that’s not how the database is set up.
moviebear1 Just figured out how to post a photo of my model! I have more, but this website tells me they’re too big to post! I’ll keep trying (I’m computer-challenged … wish me luck) Thanks for your request! Bill
A new book about SL “Roxy” Rothafel is about to be published:
http://www.amazon.com/American-Showman-Rothafel-Entertainment-1908-1935/dp/0231159048/ref=reg_hu-rd_add_1_dp
Members of the Rothafel family were interviewed by the Author
being on the west coast I’d love to se some pictures of your model. Any chance you would be willing to share some?
AlAlvarez, I beg to differ. The war and post-war years 1941 to 1950 were very successful years for the Roxy, with the grosses and attendance often on a par, sometimes surpassing, the Music Hall. A major factor in the disparity of grosses is that the Roxy maintained a children’s price, ranging over those years from.25 to .50 while there was only one price for all at the Hall. When it comes to business, the Paramount out-did all the main-stem houses and it had half the seating capacity. The Roxy had a great run with big name performers and a resident company for more than a decade.
A February 21, 1960 NY Times article on the Roxy closing makes this interesting observation:
“The poor old Roxy was never too successful, sandwiched as it is between the Scylla of the older capitol and the Charybdis of the newer Music Hall. Its various programs of pictures with stage shows (and without stage shows) have had to compete with programs that have usually been a little better at one or the other of those near-by theatres.”
Thanks, Ed, for your nice compliments about my Roxy model! I have not been back to look at it for years, but have been told that it is no longer enclosed in glass. If you do visit again, please give me an update! Meanwhile, I have to get back to work on Model Number Five!
Tinseltoes: Sorry, I just realized that I’d already commented, a year ago, regarding our mutual interest. Hoping to share more with you!
Bill
BillSavoy! What a pleasure to learn that you are the artist responsible for that remarkable scale model of the Roxy at the Museum of the Moving Image! And even more pleasurable to be able to directly express my thanks and admiration to you for providing such a lovingly detailed representation of this spectacular old movie palace! I must have spent a good twenty minutes pouring over every inch of your model when I last visited the museum about 7 or 8 years ago. In fact, I sang its praises in a post on this page (I dare you to find it among the more than 1300 comments already posted here) from back in March of 2005. My one criticism – and I hope this has since been corrected – is that the lighting around the display case produced annoying and obscuring glares on the glass. One has to lean in close to block these out and truly enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Thank you so much for that work. I am now inspired to take another trip into Astoria to check it out again!
Hooray for the ROXY! Happy 85th anniversary! Never to be forgotten!