Capitol Theatre
1645 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
1645 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
35 people
favorited this theater
The Capitol Theatre was located where the Paramount Plaza stands today, directly across from the Winter Garden Theatre.
Opened in 1919, the Capitol Theatre in 1924 was taken over by Loew’s Inc. and became the flagship movie palace for MGM Films. The Capitol Theatre hosted World Premiere’s of many now ‘classic’ films. The theatre presented movies and stage shows except from 1935 to 1943 when no stage shows were included in the program. The shows were too expensive to produce during the Great Depression and were only revived when World War II brought an economic boom. In 1952 stage shows ceased to be held. A larger, 25 foot x 60 foot wide screen was installed for the June 1953 engagement of “Never Let Me Go” starring Clark Gable.
In 1959 the Capitol Theatre was ‘modernized’ and re-opened as Loew’s Capitol Theatre with “Solomon and Sheba”. The movie palace became a Cinerama showplace.
World Premieres of 70mm films included “Cheyenne Autumn”(December 23, 1964), “Doctor Zhivago”(December 22nd, 1965), “The Dirty Dozen”(June 15, 1967) and “Far From the Madding Crowd”(October 18, 1967).
The Loew’s Capitol Theatre was never twinned or divided into more than one theatre. At the conclusion of the Roadshow engagement of “2001:A Space Odyssey” in 1968. the Loew’s Capitol Theatre closed, and was demolished.
Contributed by
William Gabel
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Recent comments (view all 767 comments)
Eighty-years ago today, MGM’s B&W jungle adventure, “Tarzan the Ape Man,” with “Adonis Swimming Champion” Johnny Weissmuller in the title role, opened its NYC premiere engagement at the Capitol Theatre. Broadway musical comedy star Joe Cook topped the stage show, bringing with him some of the cast from his recent hit, “Fine and Dandy.” The legendary Yasha Bunchuk was conductor of the resident Capitol Grand Orchestra.
Sixty-seven years ago today, the B&W “I’ll Be Seeing You,” a wartime romance produced by Dore Schary for Selznick International, opened its NYC premiere engagement as part of the Capitol’s Easter holiday program. The UA release starred Ginger Rogers, Jospeh Cotten, and Shirley Temple, with the then unknown John Derek in a bit part. Headlining the Capitol’s stage show were Sammy Kaye & His Orchestra, with an audience-participation segment, “So You Want to Lead a Band?”. Also on the bill were the great Spanish-flamenco dancers, Rosario and Antonio, and ventriloquist Paul Winchell with “Jerry Mahoney.” During intermissions, patrons were invited to sing along with the Capitol’s resident organist, Ted Meyn.
John Derek: Then unknown, now unknown.
I still remember the fine performance John Derek gave in “Exodus”, and millions will see him play Joshua when ABC shows DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments” this Saturday night.
I will be seeing John Derek this Saturday night in a real live movie theater, the Portage Theater in Chicago, showing a pristine 35mm real film of “The Ten Commandments”. Should be quite an experience!!
DEFG, You are a hoot. Thanks for details about film ratio. I am looking forward to the screening. I did see it around 1990 but don’t remember if it was scoped or not.I did see “Gone With The Wind” about the same time and the ads did say:First time enhanced wide screen. I thought it was breathtaking with no loss of film. Haven’t seen it again like that. Just 35mm on DVD. Oh well, “Tomorrow is another day”
Portage? I thought this was the page for the Capitol theatre. I hate when I miss a meeting.
Click here for an exterior view of the Capitol Theatre in 1931.
Hello-
a mistake of sorts in the intro needs to be corrected. true the Capitol was running the original roadshow engagement of 2001 in the late spring of 1968 shortly before it closed and was later demolished. but the roadshow run of 2001 did not end at this point as well. said engagement was switched to the Warner Cinerama at Bway & 47 St. where it continued to do good business for several more weeks.
A fair point, bigjoe59. It should read that the theater was demolished after the roadshow engagement of “2001: A Space Oddyssey” was moved over to the Warner in September of 1968.