The first commercial festival of Cuban films was held at the Olympia in March 1972 way before the Jean Renoir opened. It lead to the commercial release of the now classic MEMORIES OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT.
You will find NYT articles about the decline of Times Square going back to prohibition when drugs and prostitution started to thrive on 42nd street. Even the Busby Berkeley movie musical (1933) already references the violence and sleaze. The situation became obvious when the fleets visited promiscuous war time New York. Even male prostitution was already a “problem”.
In the 19th century, before the Times and the theatres, prostitutes allegedly worked under the 42nd street cattle run. The street was never wholesome and every generation redefines their limits for tolerance of what goes on there. I draw the line at flying nannies.
I also loved those elaborate displays often put up for only a few day’s run. I laughed at the fake nurses waiting to take your blood pressure in case you might die watching some horror flick and those XXX films that ensured you would want to “Come and Come Again!”
As one book describes it, 42nd street has always been the symbol of unchecked capitalism in America. If nothing else, you have to admit it is still that.
I think Ed was referring mainly to 42nd street itself which was relatively intact through the eighties with architecturally impressive and profitable theatres. Unlike Hollywood, 42nd street theatres were thriving in spite of the real life horror show outside their doors (and sometimes inside). Their owners were forced to sell very profitable businesses in order to attract the new investments.
42nd street redevelopment sent drug dealers and the sex establishments “showcase” to a neighborhood near you, as it spread across the city instead of being most concentrated in one red light district.
I, like Ed, also do miss the divine decadence that was once 42nd Street and wish more of it had been conserved. However, at the risk of sounding hypocritical, I have since moved a block away, a move I would have never entertained before the clean-up.
The Playpen itself is a victim of this reinvention of a neighborhood that was always sleazy and to a certain extent still is. The sex shop that the Ideal eventually became bothered no one except those prudes who are in denial that this stuff will always be around next to someone in the city. My previous New York residence in Greenwich Village has since been transformed into a bar, a tattoo parlor and a sex shop. So goes the city.
On the issue of newspaper ads, demographic studies are showing that the core movie audience (15-25 year olds) no longer read newspapers. Many recent exploitation and ethnic films have not bothered to place ad in the NYT at all. The consistent appearance of directory ads for the specialty theatres goes along with their over 30 demo.
Teenagers often use their cell phones or computers to get showtimes.
AMC both started and ended the shoebox auditorium. I remember that Hialeah threeplex and it was outdated the day it opened. Although all chains have bad sites, GCC built bad sites. The GCC twin conversions were worse than others with no reseating and serious sound bleed. I stopped going to the Riviera and 170th Street for that reason alone. GCC and UA were still building shoebox auditoriums way after audiences were already rejecting them. Neither company survived the recent bankrupcies.
There is no doubt the Ziegfield has inadequate facilities for 1200 people to go to the restroom at once. Name a cinema (or theatres) in the world that does.
I have no doubt that Digital is the future for practical reasons. I do not believe it enhances the audience experience one bit and I believe those gain financially from it (distributors) should pay or at least finance conversions.
I personally applied (and received) 72 of those 239 (2K) Arts Alliance UK government funded digital projectors. The Arts Alliance expects them to be obsolete within five years. Imagine if we had BOUGHT them!
Cinema chains sell projectors because they are, unfortunately, closing sites. Not because they are converting to digital.
Although the Ireland plan has been in talks since 2004, contrary to all the press releases it has yet to happen. Also, it will be government funded. The installations so far are in government subsidized theatres only. I work for a company with Irish theatres and they are still talking.
The founder’s family sold Wometco Theatres to KKR in 1984 for peanuts. The company was a ghost of its past as the Florida leader. The Wometco logo disappeared from marquees soon after in spite of real estate holding company names.
The European Arts Alliance plan has yet to start and has distributors financing it through film rental, similar to the way Fox paid for Cinemascope conversions in the 50’s. This is the way it should be done in the U.S.
NO SENSIBLE EXHIBITOR IS PAYING ANYWHERE.
General Cinema entered the South Florida market by buying Loews theatres in the late seventies and doing overnight cheap twinnings. They did not even bother to re-align the seats. GCC, a company that stayed in business during this period thanks to Pepsi bottling profits had, without a doubt, some of the worse theatres in South Florida as a result. They built a few several United Artist clone shoebox multiplexes like Hialeah that lasted a decade before audiences discovered AMC.
Wometco and Loews were always the class acts in Florida. I know because I worked for ABC there.
The Ireland digital initiative is to be funded by the government arts council and has yet to happen. NO exhibitor in Ireland is paying. About 80% of the UK digital systems are also government funded. Do you think American tax payers will be happy to pay for digital theatres?
If you worked in South Florida in the late seventies then you would know that the major chains, ABC Florida State (Plitt) and Wometco were in serious financial trouble and for sale. Neither made it through the eighties. A combination of blind bidding, advance guarantees, bad films and dwindling audiences caused partially by VHS, made them unprofitable businesses. Only exhibitors with deep pocket survived the early VHS dip and it was the multiplex that saved the day.
There is nothing in the digital plan that benefits exhibitors and the “fat girls†movies are on youtube for free, where they belong.
You could turn that distib/exhib profit model upside down if you wish. Since distributors get paid over 50% of the total gross, their margin is always higher. Both sides have expenses and both are owned by investors who are greedy for profit.
Distributors buy cheap film stock because the product often lasts two weeks only on screen anyway. As for the notion of digital enhancing long run print wear, what long run?
When exhibitors overbuild, as in the case of the late nineties, the distributors take the opportunity to increase terms on the now competitive market and get higher percentages, making matters worse for their alleged partners. When distributors over-produce crap films, exhibitors find a way to get the films out there and make them work even when better films are available. (see BRATZ right now)
Digital is simply a distributor cost saving that does not benefit the exhibitor or the movie-goer in any way.
With the exception of National Amusements (Showcase) you will find that very few cinema operators own their buildings. One of Cineplex Odeon’s questionable practices was to sell off those they did own and report the sale as “income” during bad years and not letting stockholders know that this new income was the result of a permanent asset loss.
It was the lack of Ziegfeld ownership that kept Garth Drabinsky from twinning the place.
According to the New York Times, PORGY & BESS aired on March 3, 1974 on channel 11 and on November 7, 1972 at 8:00pm, same channel.
A lot of sales fanfare within the industry for 4K, but not outside because the audience can’t tell the any difference.
The first commercial festival of Cuban films was held at the Olympia in March 1972 way before the Jean Renoir opened. It lead to the commercial release of the now classic MEMORIES OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT.
Absolutely. The old 42nd street never died. It had to be murdered, with the likes of Brandt being thrown out kicking and screaming in court.
You will find NYT articles about the decline of Times Square going back to prohibition when drugs and prostitution started to thrive on 42nd street. Even the Busby Berkeley movie musical (1933) already references the violence and sleaze. The situation became obvious when the fleets visited promiscuous war time New York. Even male prostitution was already a “problem”.
In the 19th century, before the Times and the theatres, prostitutes allegedly worked under the 42nd street cattle run. The street was never wholesome and every generation redefines their limits for tolerance of what goes on there. I draw the line at flying nannies.
I also loved those elaborate displays often put up for only a few day’s run. I laughed at the fake nurses waiting to take your blood pressure in case you might die watching some horror flick and those XXX films that ensured you would want to “Come and Come Again!”
As one book describes it, 42nd street has always been the symbol of unchecked capitalism in America. If nothing else, you have to admit it is still that.
I think Ed was referring mainly to 42nd street itself which was relatively intact through the eighties with architecturally impressive and profitable theatres. Unlike Hollywood, 42nd street theatres were thriving in spite of the real life horror show outside their doors (and sometimes inside). Their owners were forced to sell very profitable businesses in order to attract the new investments.
42nd street redevelopment sent drug dealers and the sex establishments “showcase” to a neighborhood near you, as it spread across the city instead of being most concentrated in one red light district.
I, like Ed, also do miss the divine decadence that was once 42nd Street and wish more of it had been conserved. However, at the risk of sounding hypocritical, I have since moved a block away, a move I would have never entertained before the clean-up.
The Playpen itself is a victim of this reinvention of a neighborhood that was always sleazy and to a certain extent still is. The sex shop that the Ideal eventually became bothered no one except those prudes who are in denial that this stuff will always be around next to someone in the city. My previous New York residence in Greenwich Village has since been transformed into a bar, a tattoo parlor and a sex shop. So goes the city.
Rudy claimed the credit for a plan that predated mayor Lindsay.
On the issue of newspaper ads, demographic studies are showing that the core movie audience (15-25 year olds) no longer read newspapers. Many recent exploitation and ethnic films have not bothered to place ad in the NYT at all. The consistent appearance of directory ads for the specialty theatres goes along with their over 30 demo.
Teenagers often use their cell phones or computers to get showtimes.
As for IFA, I suspect that Yoda he might be.
I understand the site will be a hotel.
Greek mythology. Orpheus, “Father of songs”.
I do believe SNF STILL holds the record as the best selling movie soundtrack album of all time.
What a bunch of BS.
Digital is watered down cinema and the quality STILL sucks!
No one , I repeat NO ONE has has bought into the latest Arts Alliance sales pitch.
The Fairfax was renamed the Paramount. This Paramount in 1938 is either a major remodel or a complete reconstruction.
Opened as THE COLONY, SPARKS' NEW WONDER THEATRE on January 25, 1935 with CLIVE OF INDIA starring Ronald Colman and Loretta Young.
As the Arista Cine Malibu:
View link
Lorenzo,
AMC both started and ended the shoebox auditorium. I remember that Hialeah threeplex and it was outdated the day it opened. Although all chains have bad sites, GCC built bad sites. The GCC twin conversions were worse than others with no reseating and serious sound bleed. I stopped going to the Riviera and 170th Street for that reason alone. GCC and UA were still building shoebox auditoriums way after audiences were already rejecting them. Neither company survived the recent bankrupcies.
There is no doubt the Ziegfield has inadequate facilities for 1200 people to go to the restroom at once. Name a cinema (or theatres) in the world that does.
I have no doubt that Digital is the future for practical reasons. I do not believe it enhances the audience experience one bit and I believe those gain financially from it (distributors) should pay or at least finance conversions.
I personally applied (and received) 72 of those 239 (2K) Arts Alliance UK government funded digital projectors. The Arts Alliance expects them to be obsolete within five years. Imagine if we had BOUGHT them!
Cinema chains sell projectors because they are, unfortunately, closing sites. Not because they are converting to digital.
The exclusive reserved performance engagement of a film about a man in love with a pig. Ah, the sixties!
View link
Although the Ireland plan has been in talks since 2004, contrary to all the press releases it has yet to happen. Also, it will be government funded. The installations so far are in government subsidized theatres only. I work for a company with Irish theatres and they are still talking.
The founder’s family sold Wometco Theatres to KKR in 1984 for peanuts. The company was a ghost of its past as the Florida leader. The Wometco logo disappeared from marquees soon after in spite of real estate holding company names.
The European Arts Alliance plan has yet to start and has distributors financing it through film rental, similar to the way Fox paid for Cinemascope conversions in the 50’s. This is the way it should be done in the U.S.
NO SENSIBLE EXHIBITOR IS PAYING ANYWHERE.
General Cinema entered the South Florida market by buying Loews theatres in the late seventies and doing overnight cheap twinnings. They did not even bother to re-align the seats. GCC, a company that stayed in business during this period thanks to Pepsi bottling profits had, without a doubt, some of the worse theatres in South Florida as a result. They built a few several United Artist clone shoebox multiplexes like Hialeah that lasted a decade before audiences discovered AMC.
Wometco and Loews were always the class acts in Florida. I know because I worked for ABC there.
Lorenzo, you are not doing your homework.
The Ireland digital initiative is to be funded by the government arts council and has yet to happen. NO exhibitor in Ireland is paying. About 80% of the UK digital systems are also government funded. Do you think American tax payers will be happy to pay for digital theatres?
If you worked in South Florida in the late seventies then you would know that the major chains, ABC Florida State (Plitt) and Wometco were in serious financial trouble and for sale. Neither made it through the eighties. A combination of blind bidding, advance guarantees, bad films and dwindling audiences caused partially by VHS, made them unprofitable businesses. Only exhibitors with deep pocket survived the early VHS dip and it was the multiplex that saved the day.
There is nothing in the digital plan that benefits exhibitors and the “fat girls†movies are on youtube for free, where they belong.
You could turn that distib/exhib profit model upside down if you wish. Since distributors get paid over 50% of the total gross, their margin is always higher. Both sides have expenses and both are owned by investors who are greedy for profit.
Distributors buy cheap film stock because the product often lasts two weeks only on screen anyway. As for the notion of digital enhancing long run print wear, what long run?
When exhibitors overbuild, as in the case of the late nineties, the distributors take the opportunity to increase terms on the now competitive market and get higher percentages, making matters worse for their alleged partners. When distributors over-produce crap films, exhibitors find a way to get the films out there and make them work even when better films are available. (see BRATZ right now)
Digital is simply a distributor cost saving that does not benefit the exhibitor or the movie-goer in any way.
Distributors save millions by not shipping prints around the world. Digital systems do not run themselves. You still need a trained technicians.
The problem with bad sound is the result of cheap film stock purchsed by distributors cutting corners.
Exhibitors would be dumb to pay for digital when the public cannot tell the difference if the print is good.
The North Miami circa 1958.
View link
The LOEWS 170th Street Theatre marquee.
View link
With the exception of National Amusements (Showcase) you will find that very few cinema operators own their buildings. One of Cineplex Odeon’s questionable practices was to sell off those they did own and report the sale as “income” during bad years and not letting stockholders know that this new income was the result of a permanent asset loss.
It was the lack of Ziegfeld ownership that kept Garth Drabinsky from twinning the place.
Isabelle, MARIENBAD is on DVD and VHS and you can order it on amazon.com