Boyd Theatre

Dreams are great. Reality is that nowhere in the USA is there a movie palace that was built to seat more than two thousand people and still open for daily movies ! There are many movie palaces hosting live performances and some have a film series. Clear Channel believed, and Friends of the Boyd agree, that the Boyd is a viable theater. New owner Live Nation is changing its focus on Rock N'Roll rather than Touring Broadway Musicals, so the Boyd project is stalled.

Advocacy as a daily movie palace, with one screen, would be useless. Bloggers kept suggesting such for New York City’s DeMille, /theaters/501/ and that space is being gutted! There just aren’t enough fans who would keep any theater built this big in the black, not in New York City, and not in Philadelphia.

Friends of the Boyd follow the path that has saved countless former movie palaces nationwide, which is mixed use. Live events will pay the bills and bring many people to the Boyd to enjoy first class entertainment there. A film series of classics, festivals, and premieres, will enable people to also experience the Boyd for film. Restored to its original Art Deco glamour, the Boyd will once again be a showplace and entertain future generations.

To add to “My Dream” by Fever Dog on Sept. 9th – I would reopen the Boyd Theatre with the Cinerama screen used in the 60’s,70’s. The ushers and usherettes would wear the style of uniforms back then – red blazers, white shirts, and gray slacks/skirts. I would show only the Cinerama and 70mm epics of days past – “HTWWW”, “2001”, “Lawrence”, “Indy Series”, “Ben Hur”, “MFL”, “SOM”, etc, etc. There was something lacking when the Boyd became the Sameric and that large curved screen was replaced with a still large flat screen. And movie presentations of today are totally lacking the magic and charm of the movie palaces of yesterday. You were transported even before the movie started. As I have mentioned on this thread many times, growing up we drove regulary the 60 miles to see the big screen epics at the Boyd. And I think people would do it again. Give the true movie lover/goer a reason to skip the shoe box megaplexes of today, and they will in a heartbeat.

Here is an undated photo of the Boyd:
http://tinyurl.com/2qdbgt

Here’s today’s Weekly Update:(1) After last week’s update, we were asked why the Boyd owner ceased renovation. The Boyd and other theaters nationwide are for sale because the new company Live Nation chose to focus on Rock n'Roll rather than the mix of entertainment uses that Clear Channel intended for the Boyd when they purchased it. Friends of the Boyd have asked Live Nation to sell the Boyd to another company that wishes to program it broadly. We will help obtain sufficient funding for the renovation.

(2) Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer discusses the $1.3 billion dollar impact, and 40,000 jobs that arts and culture has on the Philadelphia area. View link
Arts and culture will have an even bigger impact on Philadelphia when the BOYD reopens as a major showplace theater! We have told you that the Econsult report summarized here http://www.econsult.com/files/boyd.pdf shows that a reopened Boyd Theatre would generate $120 million a year including related expenditures, and when including those related expenses, a total of 520 jobs.

As the Inquirer states, the arts do not receive enough public funding in Philadelphia. The Boyd will not need annual support as the shows will run in the black, but may need onetime public support to assist with the physical rehabilitation so it can reopen. Most movie palaces nationwide received funding from cities and states, for restoration and updating, so they could again serve their communities.

(3) This Weekly Update has frequently mentioned the Philadelphia region’s historic cinemas, most of which now show arthouse films. Since the Boyd then named the Sameric closed in 2002, Philadelphia residents see mainstream movies in multiplexes. http://cinematreasures.org/ encourages moviegoers to comment on those theaters, and record the history of those theaters. Philadelphia multiplexes showing mainstream movies include the BRIDGE /theaters/10911/ the PEARL /theaters/17993/ and the RIVERVIEW /theaters/20973/

http://cinematreasures.org/ also profiles historic movie palaces. All the movie palaces featured in downtown Philadelphia are history, except one -the Boyd. We must not allow the Boyd to be enjoyed only on cyberspace! The Boyd must be restored and reopened. Thanks to Patrick Crawley and Ross Melnick for inventing cinematreasures in 2000, as volunteers, and thanks to them and to YOU for your continued support of the Boyd.

Howard B. Haas
www.FriendsOfTheBoyd.org

Here’s today Weekly Update sent out to our supporters. We urge all interested parties to directly visit our website and enter yourselves to receive updates, and look at the other ways to help.

The most frequent recent question asked of us, of people who are quite upset “Is the Boyd being turned into a store?” NO, the former three small auditoriums next door are being turned into a retail store, a Gap Outlet. People then followup with “Wasn’t that space part of the theater?” Yes, but that space was a modern addition. The historic Boyd Theatre is not being turned into a retail store.

Recently, the national head of an organization concerned with theaters commented that given the current situation- of the Boyd being for sale-it is too bad that there’s still a demolition permit issued. Fortunately, that’s wrong, too. Years ago, the City refused to renew the demolition permit, explaining that demolition permits are not tools for developers or mechanisms to increase property values. Just as we would with an application to turn the historic theater into a store, Friends of the Boyd would vigorously fight the issuance of a demolition permit. Even if it was issued, we would litigate and publicly protest and make a huge fuss, as we did previously.

Downtown Philadelphia’s last surviving movie palace is important, as you appreciate, and needs to be restored, and reopened. We continue to ask Live Nation to ensure that when the company sells the Boyd, they sell it to a new owner who wants to reopen it, and we will help. Thank you for your support.

Howard B. Haas
www.FriendsOfTheBoyd.org

My dream is to reopen this theater with no concern about turning a profit. I’d install a 70mm projector for special screenings of Lawrence of Arabia and 2001, while also showing funky midnight shows of whatever I pleased (Beyond the Valley of the Dolls would be awesome!). I would make the three extra smaller theatres into two, with top-of-the-line sound systems.

Ushers would keep a constant eye on patron’s behavior. Cell phone reception would be blocked. There’d be no commercials before screenings. Projection and sound would be flawless for every showing. And, I’d allow smoking in the balcony if it wasn’t banned in Philly.

All I do is dream…dream dream dream…

One thing that Philly lacks right now that those other city’s you mention have is checks and balances. For instance, with a mayoral race going on here, the city’s most likely next mayor, Michael Nutter, wants to give Philadelphia police the power of stop and frisk. The introduction of martial law, in other words. The mayor of Baltimore wanted to bring the same to Baltimore, but there the Baltimore Sun was quick to state the truth that it would be the same as when Fascism was on the rise in Europe. Checks and balances, i.e.

And the reason for the big difference between Philadelphia and those other cities you mention, brucec, is because those other cities have not been written off the way Philly has. Unlike Philadelphia they are still vital to the U.S. over all. And they are vital because they still have some sort of checks and balances in place.

And to restore a movie palace and make that restoration stick, you have to have checks and balances firmly in place. But sadly, the way Philadelphia is right now, I would compare trying to restore a movie palace here at this point in time to the prospect of trying to do so in Germany at the height of the Nazi Third Reich. For there’s a breakdown of law going on here, a breakdown in a truthful press and so on — as in “Sound familiar?” when referring back to the WWII era?

Just to clear up the misunderstanding if you’re referring to any of my posts here and elsewhere, I never said that the Boyd Theatre should become a movie palace again exclusively, ONLY that I see that as its highest calling. My only objections to alternative uses of it are alternative uses that would block that goal from being reached. And some — somehow — interpreted that as meaning I’m against any sort of live performances there.

But for the record, as long as its highest calling aspect is kept perfectly intact, I am not opposed to live performances being presented there in the least. Quite the contrary I think that goal is great. I do, however, warn of the tremendous competition it would face in that regard. For Philadelphia is no stranger to live performance outlets at this point in time. Meaning, I would hate to see it rule out its highest calling aspect completely and then not be able to compete as much as it would need to to stand strong.

It might also help if you understand that my perspective is that of one who lives up in Northeast Philadelphia which at this moment has a very bad relationship with the rest of the city — while it’s completely under the command of Center City at the same time. That is, a Center City that knows nothing about it at this point yet retains full control over it as a matter of rote nevertheless, compliments of something called the 1854 Consolidation, which probably made a lot of sense in 1854. But makes no sense at all today.

And when the relationship between Northeast Philadelphia and Center City was much better than it is today, the Boyd Theatre when it was a major east coast movie palace was a most memorable highpoint of that relationship.

And there was a period back then when the sidewalks of Center City did not role up at 7:00 P.M. as you say. Northeast Philadelphia’s sidewalks at that time did, yes. But Center City at that time was a major world port o' call. You went downtown in the evenings and everything was happening there, whether it was a premiere at the Boyd with searchlights swirling in the air or what have you. It was the flourishing downtown at night, that’s what I remember, and what I think of when I think of the Boyd at its height.

And then another era arrived which was as you say. The era of the very dark and nothing happening downtown Philadelphia at night. And right now everything is being measured against that particular era with the other being long forgotten. Or that is to say we’re not supposed to remember the other era prior to that one you describe. But I do. And it was great. And Northeast Philadelphia was a very instrumental part of it.

The Boyd went from being a destination theater, which is what it was when at its height, to a convenience theater, which is what it was reduced to in its last phases. When it was at its height people traveled long distances to come to it. It was in the heart of the great city and in many ways it was the heart of the great city. It pumped the life’s blood into everything all around it, into the whole entire city really. Sure, there was the Art Museum, Wannamakers, and other major Center City Philadelphia attractions as well. Not to mention other Center City movie palaces at the time. But something about the Boyd, just the name itself if nothing else, pulsated power.

And then, as with so much else, the wrong people got ahold of it. And great thrones just in themselves do not make for great kings. In any event, the wrong people got ahold of it and people stopped flocking to it far and wide accordingly.

I don’t know if Philadelphia at this point can ever be the great city again. For great cities require great people. And you won’t find much of that in Philadelphia now. So how could the Boyd itself ever be great again therefore? There’s some people in Philadelphia now who think of themselves as “great” due to the great thrones they sit in. Or once great thrones I should say, the Boyd being one. The Art Museum being another. Wannamakers being a third.

Philadelphia could be a great city again — IF great people were to come back to it. But short of that? No, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for anything special to happen with the Boyd. For I don’t see any great people coming back to this city. Not a one. And thrones just in themselves are empty thrones is all. Vacant and collecting dust.

The thought crossed my mind today as I was reflecting on how the Boyd Theatre once had been that it was a “power theater,” emphasis on the word “power.” When it had been at its height of glory, along with the city of Philadelphia itself, a movie had to be mighty special if it was shown at the Boyd, a true sign that the movie in question had made the grade. But I don’t think there’s a living soul in Philadelphia today that could even begin to grasp that which I’m saying now. So you do wonder what you’re supposed to do with such memories. It’s like remembering how great Kennedy once was or something as you look at who America’s stuck with today and the choices it’s being given for come tomorrow. Great memories. But what are you supposed to do with them? For that was then. The once powerful theater in the great roaring city…now never to roar again (or so it seems.)

But for whatever it’s worth I’m glad I got to see experience the Boyd when it was the great powerful theater in the great powerful city, and would feel a much poorer man without such memories. So in that sense I guess those memories are worth something. Such memories help you retain a sense of which way is up despite all that’s being bullhorned now.

I am having a great time reading the above comments regarding Philadelphia’s old Boyd Theater. The only movie I saw at The Boyd was DOCTOR ZHIVAGO in March of 1966. I was 17 at the time and lived in nearby Moorestown, NJ. If I remember correctly, the theater’s interior was an all red motif: walls, floor and the huge curtain that covered an enormous wide, curved screen. Watching DOCTOR ZHIVAGO at The Boyd was an unforgettable visual and aural experience. Those who tend to dismiss ZHIVAGO as a bland, expensive soap opera have no idea how visually overpowering that movie was in its 70mm presentation at The Boyd. Director David Lean was by that time (from the late 50’s on starting with THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI) making spectacular, lengthy film epics and ZHIVAGO was a directorial masterpiece. I’ll never forget watching the early sequence when the young Yuri witnesses his mother’s burial. The stunning, brooding cinematography enveloped the movie audience, as did the sound: the men hammering the casket closed, the casket slowly lowered into the earth, clumps of dirt hitting the coffin and one chilling shot of the young boy’s mother’s corpse lying interred in her final resting place: it sent chills down the spine. The epic train ride to The Urals was another mesmerizing sequence among many others.

I went back to The Boyd several times to see ZHIVAGO. Subsequent viewings of the film during its non-roadshow, nation wide release were fine but couldn’t compare to the 70mm presentation at The Boyd.

Moviegoing just isn’t the same anymore. Mall cinemas have no personality whatsoever and audience behavior now is beyond rude in many cases. Event movies such as GONE WITH THE WIND, BEN-HUR, ZHIVAGO seem to be things of the past, although great movies are still being made. (BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, the two recent Clint Eastwood war films, VOLVER, LITTLE CHILDREN and PAN’S LABRYINTH are cases in point). I’m lucky enough and old enough to remember when moviegoing was fun and often a great experience. And The Boyd Theater and that first viewing of DOCTOR ZHIVAGO will always be a fond memory for me.

This being an election year, not to take the focus off crime and other big city problems, I would like to see the canidates stand on restoring the Boyd. With Rittenhouse Square, the new Condos, and all the resturants, and not to mention that the Adcademy of Music was never ment to have plays there. I would not like to see this theater become the biggest “dollar store” in the Delaware Valley.

No , I heard work coming from inside the theater. I looked inside, and found the inside lobby, cleared out. The exit doors in the smaller theaters were open, already gutted, no workers in there. Keep up the good work, Mr. Haas.