Ziegfeld Theatre

Are all of these new prints in 70mm using DTS sound, or are there still existing prints floating around that are magnetic? I don’t believe the Ziegfeld has magnetic capabilities, and I think the DTS is only on the one projector that uses the platter. It seems the Ziegfeld would have to make some commitments to new equipment if they want to get off the 70mm platter.

I think that’s why LA has “all the 70mm fun”, their 70mm houses run reel-to-reel.

Again, MAKE IT HAPPEN!

A 70mm print of Mad World would bring me into the city! But you have to show it on a weekend evening (Fri or Sat) for it to be convenient to get to.

The Claremont in Montclair is showing Mad World in a few weeks, but it’s a 35mm print, and probably on a small screen. I’d love to see this on the Ziegfeld’s screen with a large audience!

Make it happen!

I hope to make it down for “Blade Runner.” How about that “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” 70mm print that was shown last year out west? I wonder if the folks (like myself) who would be interested in attending such a festival wouldn’t be more interested in securing grade A 70mm prints than they would in the actual titles being shown. I know it sounds a bit silly, but I’d almost rather see a pristine 70mm print of “Far and Away” than a badly beat-up 70mm print of “2001: A Space Oddyssey.” And I don’t think you’d get your hands on many quality 70mm prints if the film is to be run on a platter.

I wonder if it wouldn’t be worth pursuing the possibility of a venture between the Ziegfeld and a studio that might be interested in striking new 70mm prints to celebrate the classics in its library. Sort of like what Warner Brothers did at Radio City Music Hall a few years back.

I think the PG-rated version of SNF was released in 1978 to capitalize on the soundtrack’s popularity with a younger audience than would have normally been permitted to see the original R-rated cut. If I’m not mistaken, the PG version was later re-released as a late-run double feature with “Grease” sometime in late ‘78 or '79. Maybe even later than that.

Craig… any word on another run at the classic series later this year or perhaps when the winter doldrums hit next February? And will management ever consider at least a temporary abandonment of the platter system in order to accommodate a possible 70mm festival???

Hi All,

Dirty Dancing is a new, remastered print.

Saturday Night Fever is also a new, remastered print. Clearview is running the original Rated R version.

Craig O'Connor

If memory serves, when we opened “Saturday Night Fever” in Hawaii it was R rated. A PG-13 version followed a bit later. Perhaps Michael Coate or someone remembers the history between these two versions.
I assume the Ziegfeld will present the more family friendly
PG-13 version,I have not seen the R version around in years.
“Dirty Dancing” has some history in my life because it was the last time I ran a movie reel-to-reel. I had just finished my run working at the D-150 in Woodbury, Long Island.

to be more exact, it looks like one week of Dirty Dancing, then one week of Saturday Night Fever.

Deester, why do you think Ben Hur was “never” actually shown as wide as 2.7? This website seems to state that in Germany, Ben Hur will be presented in October in 2.76 aspect ratio

http://www.in70mm.com/festival/2007/index.htm

I also seem to recall reading that in certain roadship presentations it was indeed originally so presented?

Some 70mm films were actually wide than the original Cinerama. Ben-Hur could be exhibited at 2.7:1 (although it never was actually shown that wide), and even the original Cinemascope AR was 2.55:1, very close to Cinerama’s 2.6:1.

People think that 70mm means the screen image will be extra wide, rather that the film itself is 70mm wide and thus the picture on the (usual-sized widescreen) will be sharper and clearer.

…and something else that often goes unnoticed in the fray is that Cinerama Releasing in no way tried to hide the fact in its publicity and advertising campaign that this was a 70mm presentation, not the original 3x35 format. Not that it went out of its way either to educate the public about the difference, but it sure didn’t try to right out “fool the audience.”

Keep in mind that CRC’s original plans for a 70mm reissue of TIC were to have the three negatives printed anamorphically, which would have matched the original 3-strip aspect ratio and would not have lost any of the side-panel images. OTOH, given that the Ziegfeld’s 63-foot “Cinerama” screen was the theatre’s absolute maximum width using the 128-degree curvature, this type of projection would have yielded an image only 23 feet high, plus/minus a few inches, using the “squeezed” 2.7:1 ratio. “Unsqueezed,” as was actually done here, the screen was 27 feet tall, and gave more of a “floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall” effect. And, of course, Canby’s assertion about the “same sound system” is totally wrong and baseless. Originally, Walter Reade (Sr.) wanted to run 3-panel Cinerama at his DeMille and announced such plans soon after he was elected to the Board of Cinerama, Inc. in 1960. He also wanted 70mm Cinerama at the Ziegfeld, but by the time this theatre opened, the available fare had dwindled down to a trickle.