Ziegfeld Theatre
141 W. 54th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
141 W. 54th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
131 people
favorited this theater
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I went to the Ziegfeld this afternoon to catch the 1pm show, only to find that as of today, the weekday schedule has been modified to three showings (2PM, 5:30 and 8:30). Unfortunately, my schedule today didn’t permit me to wait for the 2pm show, so I’ll have to come back another day. There was one other person waiting outside the box office (which was closed with a sign indicating “We’ll be back at 1:30”). Looking ahead at the schedule, seems that Friday – Sunday will remain on a four-a-day schedule (1, 4, 7 and 10pm).
One reason they are spending money could be that they have too. It could be in the contract with the Director, since he is an “A List Director”. Many times they have to do special ads, billboards them.
There’s a good-sized “Blade Runner” ad in today’s Times. It’s good to see WB putting their money behind it. It’s also good to see ANY ad for an exclusive engagement at the Ziegfeld – reminds me of the good old days.
Hi AL and HOWARD.
A bit “off topic” but…
Funny you mention EVITA. I saw a screening of that at the old GOTHAM CINEMA and later paid to see it again at the LOEWS auditorium at Lincoln Square. Both times, were phenomenal experiences. Yes, the music was VERY loud, but the words were “just right” so it really could not have been turned down – whatcha gonna do? Lincoln Square is now a “we play all movies at 4.5” theatre. Such a shame.
SPIDERMAN 3 @ The Ziegfeld this summer was WAY too soft. Entire sentences of dialog were lost. I asked for more volume, and I got it (just a little-it STILL wasn’t loud enough, but better) for about 10 minutes and then it was turned back down. And no – it’s NOT my hearing, I hear very well ;–) In fact, I used to be the only person who was able to hear the infamous SDDS left channel dropout!
The UA EAST! I haven’t been there in years. It was awful last time I was there, but then it WAS a UA. Regal seems to do a better job. In fact, I find the most consistently fine presentations at the Regal Union Square, Regal E-Walk & Regal Battery Park. Aside from the Ziegfeld, those are pretty much the only theatres I attened. OH – and auditorium 7 at the Clearview Chelsea…
Howard: Well, yes and no. The TI DLP chips for DCinema are 1.89 aspect ratio (2040x1080). Thus 1.85 material essentially fills the whole chip. 2.35/2.40 materal can be letterboxed across the chip as you see on television (although since the chips are wider than the HDTV 1.79 ratio, the bands top and bottom are thinner.) Then if the lens is zoomed out (or another focal length is used) the picture can fill the whole screen top to bottom and side to side. The other approach is to scale the material to the chip size, in essence squeezing it. Then an anamorphic lens stretches the squeezed image out to full screen width. The squeeze is less than for film — about a 1.25:1 stretch rather than 2:1. There’s much discussion about which is better. I know a couple of screening techs who prefer to zoom the image up because they feel the anamorphic softens the picture. On the other hand, by filling the chips with the squeezed image you get more pixels of resolution. When “Blade Runner” was run at the Rose they used an anamorphic lens, as did the Ziegfeld when they did the pre-screenings of the last “Star Wars” picture since they had a TI prototype projector in the booth. Everyone who’s commented on the “Hairspray” screenings above seemed to think the picture was great even without the extra pixels, which is why I asked how people felt about “Blade Runner”. When I was back in Illinois on vacation this summer, I was shocked to find that all of the screens in the town I was in were now digital except for the restored theatre owned by the city. I had dinner with the motion-picture critic of the paper who said that the picture was “letterboxed”. I take it that either the screen he was watching was in a narrow house which would have similarly letterboxed 35mm Scope films, or that when they had a Scope film they just projected it in the 1.85 sized digital picture because they didn’t want to zoom the image up or add an anamorphic lens. It’s a new world out there, and everyone is still kind of feeling their way.
REndres, thaks for that heads up. Unfortunatly my current, temporary health situation, does not afford me the option of traveling into the city. Hopefully, when I am up to it, I might get a chance to see the documentory at another time.
Perhaps you and some of my other friends here at CT will attend and post some interesting info.
Cinerama was a magnificent process, and a sometimes scary and nerve racking job to operate, but so was 3-D for that matter. It was an oddly scary, yet fun, time to be a projectionist. But Rob you would appreciate that feeling, it was sorta like making a change over at RCMH with 5000+ people in attendance.
These kids today, with their platters and automation, have no idea of what is like to be a real projectionist and run some of the stuff they threw at us in the 50s.
Robert, letterboxed like we see on TV, so the entire Ziegfeld movie screen isn’t being used? Is that what you mean?
Thanks, Robert. I’ve always wanted to see that Cinerama documentary. There’s a rumor that it’s going to be included as an extra on the upcoming Warner DVD of “How the West Was Won”. It’ll feature a new Technicolor print presented in Smilebox (simulated Cinerama) format. Release is scheduled for sometime in 2008. I’ll most likely go to the Museum, though – who wants to wait till 2008?
I was wondering if anyone had any comments about the picture. The Ziegfeld is presenting “Blade Runner” in letterboxed rather than anamorphic form I’ve been told because the NEC 2500 doesn’t put out enough light to compensate for the anamorphic lens. (My NEC here requires a boost from 19% brightness to 38% when adding the anamorphic.) Nonetheless, the picture should look pretty good, albeit not the wraparound size at the Uptown mentioned above.
As an aside, for those of you who are interested (Vito?) and in the area: the Museum of Modern Art is screening David Strohmaier’s “Cinerama Adventure” documentary on October 24th at 6:15 and 8:30 P.M. Strohmaier will be there for a Q.&A. as well. Since many of the comments on showmanship at the Ziegfeld are based on memories of the original Cinerama presentation, you might be interested in the documentary. I’ve saw a rough cut on tape several years ago, and even in that form it’s really excellent.
Roadshow
I have asked the same thingi n abouve posts and never got an answer. I knew Craig when I worked at the Festival in 1980 and 81.
what? no one wants to comment on the presentation of ‘Blade Runner: The Final Cut’?
I just found one ……..lol
I wonder if Craig from Clearview is the same guy who was a manager for Walter Reade back in the late 70s-early 80s…
But,you had to go all the way to China to find one, and an IMAX, yet!
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Saps! Now nobody will answer my question, now that you are stirring up all the current and former union projectionists! I will take them anytime over the usher/managers.
What I did do Saturday was get to a moviehouse I hadn’t been to before, and described the experience here at United Artists East 85th Street:
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While there, I thought to myself “Movieguy ought to find the sound here adequate enough!” I didn’t expect Regal to still be showing slides, as Clearview & AMC have digital preshows. Not many single screens left in Manhattan- Ziegfeld, Paris, Tower East (72nd Street),Clearview’s 62nd & Broadway, and UA East 85th. Does United Artists have any other single screens anywhere?
You can’t win: It’s either an overpaid union projectionist who doesn’t give a damn or an underpaid usher/manager who doesn’t give a damn.
Curtains, yes, and the features should be reasonably loud. Audiences these days expect a real show, at a good volume, in surround sound. I didn’t attend when Movieguy said NOT loud enough. My ticket purchase went elsewhere Saturday.
I wonder if Craig from Clearview is monitoring these comments with respect to the curtain show for “Blade Runner” and their policy of acquiescing to one or two complaints about sound level. Is the inconsistency due to different projectionists being on duty from one night to another? If so, perhaps an admonishment to whoever was working the booth Friday and Sunday. I think it should be a matter of pride for Clearview that the Ziegfeld never offer anything but the very best of showmanship in their presentations. A policy should be put into effect at the Zieg mandating the proper use of both curtains at ALL showings… Even if during a regular engagement where they’d have to close the curtain after the slideshow for a few moments before presenting the trailers and/or feature presentation.
Very true Jeff, as a matter of fact in the early days of automation I was invited to attend a meeting with one of the designers who asked “Ok guys what do you want this thing to do”.
They asked for our impute, what followed was a wide range of automation systems.
Someone asked whether or not the same automation system used in a theatre for film can be used with Digital. The answer is yes, the sane automation system is used. The only difference is instead of a cam device or metallic strip along the film to control the automation, it is done with a script that is written and downloaded with the movie into the computer
Vito, in this day and age, automation could do anything. I even built and programmed an automation system for my home screening room. At the touch of a single start button, the projector starts, and after several seconds the house lights are dimmed, the processor is switched from music to film, the motorized douser is opened, and then the failsafe switches are monitored for film path problems. Any film problems causes a shutdown of the projector, up come the lights, on comes the music. If I had motorized curtains I would have programmed them also into the PLC logic that does everything. It’s possible, but perhaps their equipment isn’t modern or flexible enough for that. And with digital, I would think it would be easier to have a PC issue commands via connected peripherals. I know the old automation systems used motors with cams, some used patch panels, who knows what theirs is? It could just be “open/close” buttons a projectionist is too lazy to push. The Lafayette in Suffern just has open and close buttons, and gee, they always use them! My point? None really, just that with a little effort things can be automated. But, then, you already knew that! We agree.
Okay Vito, Al, William, and REndres, and any other old-school pros, can you please email about an interview on presentation?
Bob T, That explains why the curtain warmers are off, but in a theatre where the house lights are focused downward rather than floods (evidenced by the spots in the mezzanine and dark spots in many of the photos) i would imagine the house lights wouldn’t wash out the screen unless the whole house is on the same circuit. I don’t remember seeing lighting shadows in there at all.
Still happy to hear the place is being cared for and kept up overall.