The way the law is written, if you can prove that the disability adjustment creates a financial hardship, you need not do it. No theatre can financially justify AD/subtitling because it is expensive and gets very little use. The law is hasty and poorly written and it hurts disabled people more than the targeted businesses, so getting companies like AMC to cooperate is crucial. That is what makes this group’s efforts so pathetically stupid. AMC is one of the few companies who installed them.
Since 90% of the people who use the system do not consider themselves disabled, AMC could remove them all tomorrow and gain financially from doing so. When the business gets slow, PR be damned. No other theatre chain will bother now.
These lawsuits are even more uselessly frivolous than the hot coffee contingent. This is equivalent to those who sue McDonald because they got fat. DONâ€T EAT AT McDONALDS! Why don’t disabled people rally around AMC’s competitor? Because they didn’t install them anywhere, that’s why. Where is that lawsuit? There is none because there is no law that says they have to.
These disability activists need a reality check and the ability to take control of their own lives and government instead of whining at easy PR targets like AMC. It is a short term strategy that makes it impossible for those who have made inroads with companies like AMC to get them to do the right thing in the future. The best message is to make the system pay off at the box office and they don’t, because for all the whining, most disabled people watch movies at home like everyone else.
Why didn’t they just drive to the other AMC and show financial strength or take on city hall and then someone might take this seriously. I bet you can hear tumbleweeds at the subtitled showings in Arizona anyway and this is all counterproductive posturing by a group that already sold out to their real enemy, City Hall.
By the way, Broadway show giving you a discount for sitting in a specific segregated place is the modern equivalent of the black peanut gallery. At many business you can go in the back entrance on your wheelchair. I am amazed you think this is just dandy and that this lawsuit is not frivolous.
The people in Arizona have bigger fish to fry. A cinema chain with accessibility in one site and not another is being punished. Their competitors who installed nothing are not.
Although their disability point is justified, the approach in Arizona is a stupid as it can get. If AMC removed AD/subtitling from all Arizona theatres they are off the hook, because the laws are written as clear as mud and do not address anything except wheelchair ramps.
Actions such as the one in Arizona ARE the reasons these systems are not being installed elsewhere.
My point is that only those who try to do the right thing get burned by short-sighted disability groups who undermine their own national efforts with local nuisance lawsuits against the very companies who try. The politicians who opposed the local city office elevator because it costs too much are then cheering them on against AMC and the disabled groups are actually greatful to them.
Any theatre chain will invest in growing and profitable locations. The rest will simply close if pressured to incur even more expense when they are already operating at a loss.
I have seen the appalling seating options for wheelchairs at even the newest Broadway theatres. If that made you happy then maybe AMC should revert to 1960 standards and give you a discount, two choices and then make you wait until they become “available” on some Wednesday afternoon, if you let them know in advance. I thought it was precisely THAT demeaning practice which disabled lobbyists were fighting.
Were you able to go to a signed or Audio Description performance? Most show don’t bother and those that do only do so on request for large groups.
Did you get to use the New York subway system? I guess not. Only 53 stations out of over 460 have accessibility. Did you visit the public library? I guess not. In a network of over 89 libraries only a handful can you past the front door. The government is easy on themselves when they pass legislation, you see.
Did you go to the AMC Empire? It is almost 100 per cent accessible for many disabilities WITHOUT letting them know what your needs are.
There was another 48th St theatre (217 West 48th St) that ran movies concurrent with Belmont/Music Hall from 1940-1945. It also ran Spanish language films, Swedish films and occasionally silent programs.
You have a point, Warren. They do look similar once the bridge was altered. If we can tie the New Strand to the Florence (Sun Sing in 1922) then we have confirmation that they were all one and the same.
Fuuny how the memory plays games. I saw PINOCCHIO when I was about four and I could have sworn Jiminy Cricket was the star. It took me years to find “the cricket movie”. (I bet you I dozed off after the CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT number.)
Cineplex Odeon contemplated removing it for that very reason. For months at a time it was indeed not used. Clearview changed that.
Radio City has a team of stagehands that can handle such emergencies. Movie theatres don’t use stagehands anymore as it is expensive overkill. The full-time “stagehand” man they had when I was there would not touch the curtain anyway. I personally tried to budge it with some ushers and it would not move even when not wrapped around a drum.
Chalk it up to poor installation, safety breaks, heavy fabric, or lazy stagehands, the fact remains that it was more trouble than it was worth often cost more to fix than what the Ziegfeld had grossed that week. Be thankful it is still there at all.
As I stated in a previous post and having once worked at the Ziegfeld, the curtain system was broken 80% of the time and we used to tie it up so we could run the film as it was too heavy to run manually. I suspect it is either broken or they do not want to risk losing a sold-out show of HAIRSPRAY to a curtain.
You can do the preshow and then open and close the curtain before the feature. Although I hate them as well, the preshow is here to stay. The revenue of preshow alone can pay for digital delivery.
I think it is very telling of conditions today that Justin thinks masking is a new invention. We have a generation used to crap presentation and we then wonder why so many stay home between blockbusters.
The Mitchell Brothers made Marilyn Chambers a star.
Walt Disney made Annette Funicello a star.
To all those who kept downtown palaces and small town drive-ins open for so many years past their sell-by dates, we salute you both!
…and Michael, thank you for acknowledging Mr. Mitchell’s significant contribution to our industry. He was indeed a beacon at a time when the public turned its back on almost everything mainstream, and instead embraced things BEHIND THE GREEN DOOR.
The way the law is written, if you can prove that the disability adjustment creates a financial hardship, you need not do it. No theatre can financially justify AD/subtitling because it is expensive and gets very little use. The law is hasty and poorly written and it hurts disabled people more than the targeted businesses, so getting companies like AMC to cooperate is crucial. That is what makes this group’s efforts so pathetically stupid. AMC is one of the few companies who installed them.
Since 90% of the people who use the system do not consider themselves disabled, AMC could remove them all tomorrow and gain financially from doing so. When the business gets slow, PR be damned. No other theatre chain will bother now.
These lawsuits are even more uselessly frivolous than the hot coffee contingent. This is equivalent to those who sue McDonald because they got fat. DONâ€T EAT AT McDONALDS! Why don’t disabled people rally around AMC’s competitor? Because they didn’t install them anywhere, that’s why. Where is that lawsuit? There is none because there is no law that says they have to.
These disability activists need a reality check and the ability to take control of their own lives and government instead of whining at easy PR targets like AMC. It is a short term strategy that makes it impossible for those who have made inroads with companies like AMC to get them to do the right thing in the future. The best message is to make the system pay off at the box office and they don’t, because for all the whining, most disabled people watch movies at home like everyone else.
Why didn’t they just drive to the other AMC and show financial strength or take on city hall and then someone might take this seriously. I bet you can hear tumbleweeds at the subtitled showings in Arizona anyway and this is all counterproductive posturing by a group that already sold out to their real enemy, City Hall.
By the way, Broadway show giving you a discount for sitting in a specific segregated place is the modern equivalent of the black peanut gallery. At many business you can go in the back entrance on your wheelchair. I am amazed you think this is just dandy and that this lawsuit is not frivolous.
The people in Arizona have bigger fish to fry. A cinema chain with accessibility in one site and not another is being punished. Their competitors who installed nothing are not.
Although their disability point is justified, the approach in Arizona is a stupid as it can get. If AMC removed AD/subtitling from all Arizona theatres they are off the hook, because the laws are written as clear as mud and do not address anything except wheelchair ramps.
Actions such as the one in Arizona ARE the reasons these systems are not being installed elsewhere.
My point is that only those who try to do the right thing get burned by short-sighted disability groups who undermine their own national efforts with local nuisance lawsuits against the very companies who try. The politicians who opposed the local city office elevator because it costs too much are then cheering them on against AMC and the disabled groups are actually greatful to them.
Morons indeed.
Wishing you all the best, Mike!
Al
The “people” in New York attacked movie theatres and soft peddled everything else.
Any theatre chain will invest in growing and profitable locations. The rest will simply close if pressured to incur even more expense when they are already operating at a loss.
I have seen the appalling seating options for wheelchairs at even the newest Broadway theatres. If that made you happy then maybe AMC should revert to 1960 standards and give you a discount, two choices and then make you wait until they become “available” on some Wednesday afternoon, if you let them know in advance. I thought it was precisely THAT demeaning practice which disabled lobbyists were fighting.
Were you able to go to a signed or Audio Description performance? Most show don’t bother and those that do only do so on request for large groups.
Did you get to use the New York subway system? I guess not. Only 53 stations out of over 460 have accessibility. Did you visit the public library? I guess not. In a network of over 89 libraries only a handful can you past the front door. The government is easy on themselves when they pass legislation, you see.
Did you go to the AMC Empire? It is almost 100 per cent accessible for many disabilities WITHOUT letting them know what your needs are.
Shame on AMC for bothering!
Warren, you’ll find the Terrace shows up again sporadically in 42, 43, 48 and 49 in the NYT.
What a wonderful shot of the city, J.F. Beautiful resolution for an old camera.
CIVILIZATION at the Criterion dates back to the latter half of 1916 so this photo actually belongs on the older Criterion page.
/theaters/16481/
Two points, Erik.
Revenue is not profit. Most cinema operate on very slim profit margins that can lead to loss at year end even after a great summer.
It is fair enough to target cinema but where is equal the outrage against legitimate theatres, restaurants and government offices?
Cinemas get punished because they try hardest. If AMC had never put AD into any screen there would be no lawsuit.
Next time you go to Broadway, try to see play in a wheelchair.
By the way, that 48th Street I mentioned above is probably the Walter Kerr, currently running the musical GREY GARDENS.
Richard, I think it gets more complicated.
There was another 48th St theatre (217 West 48th St) that ran movies concurrent with Belmont/Music Hall from 1940-1945. It also ran Spanish language films, Swedish films and occasionally silent programs.
You have a point, Warren. They do look similar once the bridge was altered. If we can tie the New Strand to the Florence (Sun Sing in 1922) then we have confirmation that they were all one and the same.
Fuuny how the memory plays games. I saw PINOCCHIO when I was about four and I could have sworn Jiminy Cricket was the star. It took me years to find “the cricket movie”. (I bet you I dozed off after the CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT number.)
Interesting Warren, the 48th St Music Hall had an address of 194 West 48th Street but it does appear in ads as the Belmont disappears in 1940.
Richard, The New York Times does not name which Chaplin short was shown but it does mention Hoot Gibson in FIGHTIN'IT OUT on that program.
Richard, on Thanksgiving weekend 1940 the 48th St.Music Hall was showing:
BRAVEHEART with Rod La Roque
Charles Chaplin in THE CURE
and Pearl White in the 18th chapter of PLUNDER
The Miami was on its second week of a new Soviet film called THE GREAT BEGINNING.
Cineplex Odeon contemplated removing it for that very reason. For months at a time it was indeed not used. Clearview changed that.
Radio City has a team of stagehands that can handle such emergencies. Movie theatres don’t use stagehands anymore as it is expensive overkill. The full-time “stagehand” man they had when I was there would not touch the curtain anyway. I personally tried to budge it with some ushers and it would not move even when not wrapped around a drum.
Chalk it up to poor installation, safety breaks, heavy fabric, or lazy stagehands, the fact remains that it was more trouble than it was worth often cost more to fix than what the Ziegfeld had grossed that week. Be thankful it is still there at all.
As I stated in a previous post and having once worked at the Ziegfeld, the curtain system was broken 80% of the time and we used to tie it up so we could run the film as it was too heavy to run manually. I suspect it is either broken or they do not want to risk losing a sold-out show of HAIRSPRAY to a curtain.
This NEW STRAND was open in 1924 under the Manhattan Bridge (78 East Broadway). Does anyone have any more info so they can list it on CT?
View link
There are no theatres near east 42nd street, so no, however, the Chrysler building is closed and being checked for structural damage.
That would be a tragedy!
For Cinema Treasures in peril check out the flooding in England…
You can do the preshow and then open and close the curtain before the feature. Although I hate them as well, the preshow is here to stay. The revenue of preshow alone can pay for digital delivery.
I think it is very telling of conditions today that Justin thinks masking is a new invention. We have a generation used to crap presentation and we then wonder why so many stay home between blockbusters.
You can get pictures from the HAIRSPRAY premiere on thousands of websites (IMDB for starters). CT is about preservation.
The Meadows, opening day newspaper ad and a daytime shot soon after re-opening as a Cineplex Odeon multiplex.
View link
The latest Google map shows it gone but the building on the corner is still there.
Warren, your photo link is missing the sign for an 86th Street theatre on the north side of the street. I thought that was your point (?)
Gents, this page from the book NEW YORK THEN AND NOW might help.
View link
The Mitchell Brothers made Marilyn Chambers a star.
Walt Disney made Annette Funicello a star.
To all those who kept downtown palaces and small town drive-ins open for so many years past their sell-by dates, we salute you both!
…and Michael, thank you for acknowledging Mr. Mitchell’s significant contribution to our industry. He was indeed a beacon at a time when the public turned its back on almost everything mainstream, and instead embraced things BEHIND THE GREEN DOOR.