I will happily pay $120 to see the new musical YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN or repeat a classic show like A CHORUS LINE from a good orchestra seat. I will also gladly pay up to $100 for the urgency and suspense of a Yankee game.
I will not pay $20 per seat to see what I recall as akin to watching the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade in from a bad seat at Yankee stadium. It is just not good value for money.
In my opinion, for a suburban family of four the RCMH Christmas show, Broadway musical and live sports are no longer reasonably priced. The latter two can survive without families.
1932 Christmas RCMH opens with an archestra of 90, chorus of 100, ballet of 60 and 48 other performers. Top ticket is $2.50.
In early 1933, due to poor results, movies are introduced and prices are dropped to a range from 33 cents to 99 cents. First-run movies cost at most $2.00 (live orchestra) and a live Broadway show tops at $3.00.
From then on RCMH movie policy is to always keep prices just slightly above first-run Broadway movie theatres in order to attract the masses and fill the large venue.
The organ pit was shut by 1965 when I was there and kids threw gum from the front row for child star Marisol performing live. The Tivoli had an elaborate neon canopy that would date it to the thirties so I suspect sound was not a factor in the organ being removed or covered.
Switching to Spanish films may have eliminated a need for the organ, though.
LM, the Tivoli was very much on a Mexican distribution cycle, although audiences were predominantly Cuban. What happened to organs in the west when Mexican films started flowing into US cinemas?
LM, the photo link says Holguin which is province in Western Cuba. The Lawton Victoria would be in a Havana suburb. I was actually born in Lawton and my uncle was manager of the Victoria in the fifties.
With lip-synching, pre-recorded dancing sounds and a little drag make-up, I could be a Rockett at that distance. Are you guys suggesting that the Rockettes are mostly untalented bimbos with shapely legs who learned how to fan kick in unison?
I have noticed some lip-synching at Broadway shows as well. When did this become acceptable? Radio City should be ashamed for presenting kicking amateurs.
Although it is difficult to sing and dance at the same time thousands of real talents have done so for years. This is just another case of audiences demanding less for more money.
With so many talented unemployed singers and dancers out there Radio City should do better. If a Rockette cannot be consistent enough at every performance she has no business on stage. If a dancer can’t sing she should keep her mouth shut. Those who pay top dollar to see pop stars lip-synching in large arenas are simply paying for being in their presence.
Ed, these were all advertised as showing features albeit some on video. I am aware of Show Palace as a video/peep/book store but I was unsure it ever screened films until I saw these ads.
Show Follies and Jocx do not show as previous names for Cine 1 & 2. I seem to recall a third screen upstairs when it was the West Side 1 & 2 which may have been the Jocx. It struck me as odd then that there was a male theatre upstairs when the venue was a Disney outlet in Times square. I figured Disney accepted the run out of desperation due to their alliance with City Cinemas elsewhere.
I did some porn homework today on the New York Post and the Village Voice and could find the Avon 7 by 1985.
I did stumble into some other oddities not on CT and showing movies (or video?):
1985 Village Voice
Film Charas (350 East 10th St.)Spanish Arthouse
Westworld (354 West St.)Male Porn
Moulin Rouge Triplex (777 Eighth Ave.) Male Porn-all three screens
Follies (7th & 48th St) Male Porn
Tom Cat (1207 West 48th St.) Previously mentioned Male Porn
1989 Village Voice
Jocx (711 Seventh Ave. ) Male Porn
Rick Nelson’s Screening Room (210 West 42nd St. ) Male Porn
(Did Ozzie and Harriet know about this?)
Rainbow theatre (Lower level of Show World, 671 Eighth Ave.) Male Porn
1993 Village Voice
Cinematographe (15 Vandam) Arthouse
Tribeca (41 White St.) Arthouse
Prince (399 West Side Highway) Male Porn
Show Palace (42nd & 8th) Porn
Cinema Classics (332 East 11th St.) Classics
The Lincoln Square announcements are still there including notice of a flashing set of glasses on the screen telling you when to put them on for the 3-D sequence. William Castle would be proud. (Maybe IMAX 3-D horror will work on 42nd street!) I never noticed a platter view.
They still undersell the screen on tall IMAX documentaries due to serious sightline problems. They also used to over-report grosses to the trades but I am not sure if then can still get away with that as EDI collects them electronically.
I did see a Mount St. Helens volcano eruption film in Vegas many years ago when IMAX was just starting. That may have been at Caesar’s Palace.
It can just be a larger clearer image on a standard screen as they have done in Florida before. They used to project with wide stock film that needed the film to be shorter in order to fit the platter. As a result the early IMAX blow-ups of THE MATRIX and BATMAN films were shorter versions.
They now project on digital 3-D but still play shorter version. I suspect it is to buy time for the headphone distribution and collection.
In either case it is a deterioration of a concept that never worked at the boxoffice. The incredible WINGS OF COURAGE presentation I mentioned above was undermined by the fact the film was less than an hour long, the plot was porn light and the heavier speaker head gear gave some people headaches. Still, it was a virtual reality treat to hear Elizabeth McGovern whisper in my ear and the surround sound and giant images of the Andes were breathtaking.
That showing had no similarities to what is now called an IMAX presentation any more than the last few movies advertised as “Cinerama†did.
I am there practically every week since I moved into the neighborhood and the tourist element is insignificant at the movies unless you consider people from The Bronx tourists. The ‘burbs crowd also pack Red Lobster, and The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.
AMC has no down side if the IMAX projectors are free, no screens are lost, and regular films can still show in that screen. In the future if I have a choice between IMAX 3-D and 35mm I will choose the latter as I hate it when they edit the films to accommodate the format and the 3-D gimmick wears thin five minutes in, even when they keep throwing things at you as they do in BEOWULF.
If others think like me, it will soon be KISS ME KATE at Radio City Music Hall all over again.
It’s a watered down version with a much smaller screen. IMAX is going the way of Cinerama by getting less spectacular every year.
When I saw WINGS OF COURAGE in IMAX 3-D with headphone sound to augment the speakers I felt I was seeing the future of the movies. When I recently saw an edited version of HARRY POTTER with ten minutes of lame 3-D effects I felt ripped-off.
IMAX has been struggling mostly by discounting school groups. Why would tourists buy tickets to something almost every town in the world already has?
You have to wonder why they would bother. Every time I have been to Lincoln Square IMAX (the only one in Manhattan) it is empty and this is within walking distance.
When I was a kid the monster had already destroyed New York and London and Tokyo was the real target. I remember people gasping in London theatres during the final scenes of “A.I.” which depicted a shattered lower Manhattan.
I don’t mind seeing New York blown up and it has become a film language tradition for the “end of civilization” that actually compliments the city and makes it seem more important than it really is. I mean if you thought you were the last man on earth would you stay in Manhattan?
We can always ask the French to make us another statue but we can never get back our two hours after watching filmmaking from the mentally challenged Roland Emmerich.
I will check some of my old Village Voice copies to see if I can get any addresses. Does anyone know if The New York Post was the best at keeping porn ads after the 80’s sudden morality binge?
In May 1975 the Park-Miller theatre moved to 7th and 48th Street (most likely the former Avon 7). It is at this time that the Henry Miller may have become the Avon-at-the-Hudson.
Ed, the Cineplex Odeon lease included several unused office spaces floors upstairs and in surrounding buildings that dated back to the agents for the live shows.
There were also changing room upstairs accessed only by fire ladders and an elaborate octagonal waiting area for the downstairs rest rooms.
The basement alone was almost a city block and scary as hell with huge rats living there.
For those missed BWANA DEVIL in 3D, anything in smellovision or BATTLESTAR GALACTICA in Sensurround. Another crap movie in a desperation presentation ripoff gimmick.
This type of crap “digifilm porn” is one of the reason audiences are thinning out from film theatres.
Watch it for free on your iphone or,here is better idea, skip it altogether and keep this hack work out of real theatres!
As a Die hard New Yorker I feel that anything that will take the monopolies away from Broadway’s arrogant unions will help. L.A. theatre is long overdue.
The stagehands union in NYC is a NOT worthy of the Writer’s strike in L.A. and they should be ashamed to be equated as such by the media.
As for “fair share of the profits” I will quote ALL ABOUT EVE.:
“It’s about time the piano realized that it did not write the concerto.”
Oldjoe, you sound very much like Cineplex Odeon management just before we went bankrupt.
I think some of you are missing the point.
I will happily pay $120 to see the new musical YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN or repeat a classic show like A CHORUS LINE from a good orchestra seat. I will also gladly pay up to $100 for the urgency and suspense of a Yankee game.
I will not pay $20 per seat to see what I recall as akin to watching the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade in from a bad seat at Yankee stadium. It is just not good value for money.
In my opinion, for a suburban family of four the RCMH Christmas show, Broadway musical and live sports are no longer reasonably priced. The latter two can survive without families.
It closed in 1989.
1932 Christmas RCMH opens with an archestra of 90, chorus of 100, ballet of 60 and 48 other performers. Top ticket is $2.50.
In early 1933, due to poor results, movies are introduced and prices are dropped to a range from 33 cents to 99 cents. First-run movies cost at most $2.00 (live orchestra) and a live Broadway show tops at $3.00.
From then on RCMH movie policy is to always keep prices just slightly above first-run Broadway movie theatres in order to attract the masses and fill the large venue.
The organ pit was shut by 1965 when I was there and kids threw gum from the front row for child star Marisol performing live. The Tivoli had an elaborate neon canopy that would date it to the thirties so I suspect sound was not a factor in the organ being removed or covered.
Switching to Spanish films may have eliminated a need for the organ, though.
LM, the Tivoli was very much on a Mexican distribution cycle, although audiences were predominantly Cuban. What happened to organs in the west when Mexican films started flowing into US cinemas?
LM, the photo link says Holguin which is province in Western Cuba. The Lawton Victoria would be in a Havana suburb. I was actually born in Lawton and my uncle was manager of the Victoria in the fifties.
The tap can be pre-recorded and smile can be painted on. My legs are good but I’ll to work on my jazz hands and hiding the crotch.
Still unacceptable under any circumstance.
With lip-synching, pre-recorded dancing sounds and a little drag make-up, I could be a Rockett at that distance. Are you guys suggesting that the Rockettes are mostly untalented bimbos with shapely legs who learned how to fan kick in unison?
I have noticed some lip-synching at Broadway shows as well. When did this become acceptable? Radio City should be ashamed for presenting kicking amateurs.
Although it is difficult to sing and dance at the same time thousands of real talents have done so for years. This is just another case of audiences demanding less for more money.
With so many talented unemployed singers and dancers out there Radio City should do better. If a Rockette cannot be consistent enough at every performance she has no business on stage. If a dancer can’t sing she should keep her mouth shut. Those who pay top dollar to see pop stars lip-synching in large arenas are simply paying for being in their presence.
I expect more for my money.
Ed, these were all advertised as showing features albeit some on video. I am aware of Show Palace as a video/peep/book store but I was unsure it ever screened films until I saw these ads.
Show Follies and Jocx do not show as previous names for Cine 1 & 2. I seem to recall a third screen upstairs when it was the West Side 1 & 2 which may have been the Jocx. It struck me as odd then that there was a male theatre upstairs when the venue was a Disney outlet in Times square. I figured Disney accepted the run out of desperation due to their alliance with City Cinemas elsewhere.
I did some porn homework today on the New York Post and the Village Voice and could find the Avon 7 by 1985.
I did stumble into some other oddities not on CT and showing movies (or video?):
1985 Village Voice
Film Charas (350 East 10th St.)Spanish Arthouse
Westworld (354 West St.)Male Porn
Moulin Rouge Triplex (777 Eighth Ave.) Male Porn-all three screens
Follies (7th & 48th St) Male Porn
Tom Cat (1207 West 48th St.) Previously mentioned Male Porn
1989 Village Voice
Jocx (711 Seventh Ave. ) Male Porn
Rick Nelson’s Screening Room (210 West 42nd St. ) Male Porn
(Did Ozzie and Harriet know about this?)
Rainbow theatre (Lower level of Show World, 671 Eighth Ave.) Male Porn
1993 Village Voice
Cinematographe (15 Vandam) Arthouse
Tribeca (41 White St.) Arthouse
Prince (399 West Side Highway) Male Porn
Show Palace (42nd & 8th) Porn
Cinema Classics (332 East 11th St.) Classics
Such treasures!
Operating in 1993 as the Cinematographe.
The Lincoln Square announcements are still there including notice of a flashing set of glasses on the screen telling you when to put them on for the 3-D sequence. William Castle would be proud. (Maybe IMAX 3-D horror will work on 42nd street!) I never noticed a platter view.
They still undersell the screen on tall IMAX documentaries due to serious sightline problems. They also used to over-report grosses to the trades but I am not sure if then can still get away with that as EDI collects them electronically.
I did see a Mount St. Helens volcano eruption film in Vegas many years ago when IMAX was just starting. That may have been at Caesar’s Palace.
It can just be a larger clearer image on a standard screen as they have done in Florida before. They used to project with wide stock film that needed the film to be shorter in order to fit the platter. As a result the early IMAX blow-ups of THE MATRIX and BATMAN films were shorter versions.
They now project on digital 3-D but still play shorter version. I suspect it is to buy time for the headphone distribution and collection.
In either case it is a deterioration of a concept that never worked at the boxoffice. The incredible WINGS OF COURAGE presentation I mentioned above was undermined by the fact the film was less than an hour long, the plot was porn light and the heavier speaker head gear gave some people headaches. Still, it was a virtual reality treat to hear Elizabeth McGovern whisper in my ear and the surround sound and giant images of the Andes were breathtaking.
That showing had no similarities to what is now called an IMAX presentation any more than the last few movies advertised as “Cinerama†did.
I am there practically every week since I moved into the neighborhood and the tourist element is insignificant at the movies unless you consider people from The Bronx tourists. The ‘burbs crowd also pack Red Lobster, and The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.
AMC has no down side if the IMAX projectors are free, no screens are lost, and regular films can still show in that screen. In the future if I have a choice between IMAX 3-D and 35mm I will choose the latter as I hate it when they edit the films to accommodate the format and the 3-D gimmick wears thin five minutes in, even when they keep throwing things at you as they do in BEOWULF.
If others think like me, it will soon be KISS ME KATE at Radio City Music Hall all over again.
Simple. You have to eat before a Broadway show.
The Empire crowd are mostly locals and Lincoln Square usually outgrosses the Empire on a film by film basis.
It’s a watered down version with a much smaller screen. IMAX is going the way of Cinerama by getting less spectacular every year.
When I saw WINGS OF COURAGE in IMAX 3-D with headphone sound to augment the speakers I felt I was seeing the future of the movies. When I recently saw an edited version of HARRY POTTER with ten minutes of lame 3-D effects I felt ripped-off.
IMAX has been struggling mostly by discounting school groups. Why would tourists buy tickets to something almost every town in the world already has?
You have to wonder why they would bother. Every time I have been to Lincoln Square IMAX (the only one in Manhattan) it is empty and this is within walking distance.
When I was a kid the monster had already destroyed New York and London and Tokyo was the real target. I remember people gasping in London theatres during the final scenes of “A.I.” which depicted a shattered lower Manhattan.
I don’t mind seeing New York blown up and it has become a film language tradition for the “end of civilization” that actually compliments the city and makes it seem more important than it really is. I mean if you thought you were the last man on earth would you stay in Manhattan?
We can always ask the French to make us another statue but we can never get back our two hours after watching filmmaking from the mentally challenged Roland Emmerich.
Hmm…good point.
I will check some of my old Village Voice copies to see if I can get any addresses. Does anyone know if The New York Post was the best at keeping porn ads after the 80’s sudden morality binge?
The Avon 7 may have re-opened as the Park-Miller in May 1975 after the gay porn concept left the Henry Miller.
In May 1975 the Park-Miller theatre moved to 7th and 48th Street (most likely the former Avon 7). It is at this time that the Henry Miller may have become the Avon-at-the-Hudson.
Ed, the Cineplex Odeon lease included several unused office spaces floors upstairs and in surrounding buildings that dated back to the agents for the live shows.
There were also changing room upstairs accessed only by fire ladders and an elaborate octagonal waiting area for the downstairs rest rooms.
The basement alone was almost a city block and scary as hell with huge rats living there.
For those missed BWANA DEVIL in 3D, anything in smellovision or BATTLESTAR GALACTICA in Sensurround. Another crap movie in a desperation presentation ripoff gimmick.
This type of crap “digifilm porn” is one of the reason audiences are thinning out from film theatres.
Watch it for free on your iphone or,here is better idea, skip it altogether and keep this hack work out of real theatres!
Ok , I’ll bite.
As a Die hard New Yorker I feel that anything that will take the monopolies away from Broadway’s arrogant unions will help. L.A. theatre is long overdue.
The stagehands union in NYC is a NOT worthy of the Writer’s strike in L.A. and they should be ashamed to be equated as such by the media.
As for “fair share of the profits” I will quote ALL ABOUT EVE.:
“It’s about time the piano realized that it did not write the concerto.”