Loew's State Theatre
1540 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
1540 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
39 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 535 comments
Actually the screen upstairs in 2 was much larger than the downstairs. The old Orpheum was almost identical
bigjoe as I have no interest in most of the box I bought the Oliver 4k on ebay. I’ve read no complaints from others about the tuba sound(I’ll have to watch it. Was saving it for Christmas. It opened at Christmas in ‘68 and I saw it a year later at Christmas when it came to the suburbs. So it’s a Christmas movie to me.) and I wonder why they couldn’t have used music from the overture or entr'acte as all films do for their menu.
perhaps you mis-interpreted the term ‘screen entertainment’ in the adverisement?
I was not in this theater when it was a single screen however I was not impressed by the size of the wide screen in Loew’s State 1. Canby in his review of Oliver! remarks that the screen size is the same as in the old theater. For such a large roadshow theater it was a disappointment. And going through the photo section I see a trade paper saying in ‘59 that the 70mm screen was 50’. Small to my way of thinking.
Hello-
recently I bought the 4K Columbia Classics Vol. 2 set primarily for Oliver since I was dissatisfied with the Twilight Time blu-ray disc released a few years back.
two thoughts-
*the richness of the colors and the clarity of the picture is A+ but there’s a defect so to speak on the audio tracks. thru out the film every often you hear a rather audible sound as if someone was lightly blowing on a tuba. I haven’t watched the blu-ray to hear if the audio defect is repeated.
*when the main menu comes up with play, settings. scenes extras etc… the music playing is always from the film. but the music playing on main menu of the 4K of Oliver is not from the film and I have no idea what ‘ music it is.
Fifty years ago today, George Lucas’s directorial debut, “THX 1138,” opened here (and Loews Cine).
Guodone, I recently posted this to the Odeon Sheffield CT page in Great Britain. It is the order form they used there for tickets by mail for “Oliver!”.
http://cinematreasures.org/members/davidzornig/photos/318168
I saw Oliver! there in 1969. We had to buy tickets in advance. I think they came in the mail, packed in a small envelope. I posted a picture of the marquee that my dad took on Good Friday, 1969.
Hello-
to vindanpar- I saw Oliver twice during its roadshow engagement here. once the week before Christmas and then in February. after the second time i wrote a letter to Columbia Pictures whose New York offices at the time were at 715? Fifth Avenue. about a week one day when I got home from school my mother said a big package had come for me. it was from Columbia Pictures. i don’t think a studio would send out a similar package today. inside were a set of all full size posters for the film, a packet with all the b&w stills they had released, all color lobby cards both legal size and twice as large. nice hey?
Without a Stitch even had Valenti bemoaning the fact that porn was now playing first run on Broadway at a deluxer. I’d call it the beginning of the end of Times Square but it was probably the triple blow destruction of the Paramount, Capitol and Astor Hotel. The horrible Allied Chemical building didn’t help much either.
The winter photo could very well be early `69 as you say. The very first photo on the Loew’s State page shows “Oliver!” sharing the bill with “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, the latter which was released 12/18/68 in the U.S. Surely with the success of both films, they would have ran well past Christmas into the following year. Link to that photo below.
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/557/photos/1011
The winter photo with Oliver on the marquee actually looks like'69. Is that the Krakatoa East of Java 45th to 46st billboard going up? They knew Star was being pulled early at the Rivoli so that had to come down but I believe it made it through the holiday season. I saw it then. Looks like Ice Station Zebra is still at the Cinerama or at least the billboard is still up.
Well Oliver was a blowup like Funny Girl a block south so I don’t think that counts. They look good but they would have looked better in 70mm. Too bad at this point fewer films were using this process along with the following years PYW. After Airport they were all blowups I believe until Tron(actually a mutt, but I kind of enjoyed it for its visual effects) a disappointment which seems to be getting a lot of love close to 40 years on. The Disney ride currently in Shanghai will open in Orlando in ‘21. The pov is on youtube which if you get it through your tv looks kind of cool.
Well Kennedy does not actually do the hatchet job I was expecting. In fact he seems to have found it not half bad. I was fortunate enough to have seen it at the Warner Cinerama with its quite spectacular sound system and 80ft screen.
When the State reopened as a twin, both attractions were in 70MM.
“Paint Your Wagon” had its world premiere here (screen #2) fifty years ago today. And here’s a new 50th anniversary retro piece some of you roadshow and musical enthusiasts might enjoy reading. vindanpar probably won’t like it, though. ;–)
This theatre also screened the World premiere of the movie “Annie get your gun”(1950) with Betty Hutton. Betty Hutton wasn’t invited to the World premiere i believe? This theatre has it’s own page on Wikipedia.
Regarding “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” one of the initial pair of films to play Loew’s State upon its twinning, I’m sharing links to recently published historian Q&A and roadshow bookings articles.
Today marks the 60th anniversary of the grand opening of the modernized Loew’s State on March 29th, 1959, which happened to be the Easter Sunday of that year. “Some Like It Hot,” the premiere attraction, had an invitational performance the night before, with Marilyn Monroe and husband Arthur Miller among the honored guests. Ad displayed here
Sorry looks like I asked you this last year and you gave the dimensions. Honestly I think the two multiplexes where I saw Cleopatra 5 years ago had larger screens. NY is a frustrating place for those of us in love with wide screen revivals. I’m jealous of those on the west coast.
I saw Cleopatra twice in a week when it was released for its 50th anniversary. I had only seen bits and pieces on TV. I thought it magnificent. I find its reputation bewildering. Poor Joe M. He really never recovered. A longer film than GWTW and it flew by.
How large is the screen at the Museum of the Moving Image for 70mm? I saw a cinemascope film there once and found it disappointingly small. Last time I saw Dolly in 70mm was at the Warner Cinerama in ‘78. The Blu Ray is excellent.
Vindanpar, PAINT YOUR WAGON played at the State for 16 weeks. That London run may have been a UK exclusive.
How does this discussion connect to Loew’s State? And it’s the Museum of the Moving Image (not Images), and the location is Astoria, Queens (not Queen).
BobbyS, the Music Box is correct re Around the World if they don’t want to show a print faded to pink. I’m looking forward to seeing Cleopatra this weekend in 70mm at Museum of Moving Images in NYC (Queen) which has a page on this website. Last weekend Hello, Dolly! looked like a new, perfect 70mm print so I hope Cleopatra is same quality.
Thanks HowardB..I just read your link. I asked Music Box Theater people in Chicago why not a print of “Around” shown at their 70mm festival. They said there is not a good print of the film available. “Cleopatra” was outstanding in 70mm. I loved reading about the Todd-AO special projector…No wonder the film was so impressive shown at the Michael Todd theater in Chicago in 1956