Frederick Brown buys a block front on fifth avenue from 106th to 107th street…from the Dualin Holding Corporation William A. Daly Vice President… a plot of about 30,000 square feet fronting 201.10 feet on the avenue. 100 feet on 106th street and 196 feet on 107th street, at present time imporved(?) with a movie theatre and three five-story tenements.
The plot is two blocks from the new Museum of New York City..now under construction.
VEIT HARLAN GETS POOR N.Y. PRESS:
‘JEW SUESS’ NOTORIETY PERSISTING:
HOMO THEME AT EASTER ALSO A FACTOR
“With the sole exception of the N.Y. Daily News, every N.Y. newspaper reviewing the German import, “The Third Sexâ€, last week also noted that the picture had been directed by Veit Harlan, the man who made the anti-semitic “Jew Suess†for the Nazis.
Picture itself, with it’s theme of homosexuality, got panned by the mass circulation press, not on account of Harlan, but because the reviewers considered it an inappropriate attraction for the Easter season….
At United Artists, which is half-owner of the Plaza Theatre, where the import opened, the top echelon was reportedly dismayed as considerable reaction to the booking of the Harlan film began to come in. The house is owned 50-50 by UA and Ilya Lopert, who works for UA. Lopert books the house. Story is that the UA brass wasn’t aware of the booking until it got hit with the reaction. Lopert originally owned “The Third Sex†having acquired it for a reported $35,000.
He later sold it to David Dietz of D. & F. Distribution Corp. for $85,000. Dietz is new to the foreign film field and sez he “didn’t knowâ€â€â€¦.
Listed in todays Variety as having hosted the Spanish premier of SPIDER-MAN 3, so it is still going!
This was the World Premier home of Marisol (Pepa Flores) movies during the sixties. She was one of Spainish cinema’s biggest box office draws ever and is now retired.
Tonino, you are correct in that the splitting of the studios from their theatres lead to the closing of many theatres in the fifties that had been artificially kept open by guaranteed product. The elimination of the theatres was a blessing in the disguise for the studios as it allowed them to minimise the losses of attendance caused by TV and drop B movies and double features made to feed the pipeline. This caused a product shortage. It also gave studios some ready cash with which to go into the TV business. It also allowed many independent exhibitors to open small theatres and compete for first run films with old palaces like the RKOs. A cinema like the Casino could hold a film for many weeks on low overhead.
I recall working in an 800 seat theatre in the summer of 1977 while a handful of customers watched A BRIDGE TO FAR while the 200 seater in the mall turned them away from STAR WARS.
Two other elements that hurt some theatres in the seventies were the elimination of product splitting and blind bidding. Theatres could no longer count on studio alignments and bids had to openly divulged AFTER the film was screened. Those studio alignments were back in evidence in Manhattan until well into the nineties as Cineplex Odeon still always played Universal product and Loews played Sony films, products from their parent companies. This was made possible by deregulation during the Reagan years.
When VCRs first became popular they actually helped theatres. People who had never seen the originals rushed the theatres for the sequels and eventually lead to the phenomenon whereby sequels could outgross the originals. VCRs and DVDs introduced stars to whole new generation who had never seen them at a cinema.
I don’t think think day and date showcasing affected Manhattan houses by the seventies as it had been going on since 1962. It did bring first-run to the neighborhoods quicker at the expense of the Times Square theatres. Big houses like this RKO may have been counting the days on their lease as they probably had not sold out in years. The question remains, did many Manhattan leases run out in 1971 or was grind porn THAT lucrative?
Among the missing:
ACADEMY OF MUSIC
GLOBE
RIVERSIDE
DELANCEY
SYMPHONY
Not surprisingly, the Union did not want the platters either, but it became a disability issue.
My experience with New York projectionists was that they were some of the best and some of the worst in the country and their Union support was erratic and based on many things, none of which included job performance. We had guys in Brooklyn who never came to work when it snowed. One guy in Queens who refused to start the movie if there was bulb out anywhere in the building and a business agent who shut a multiplex theatre down when he and his mistress were not let in for free. One guy was collecting his phlegm in jar as proof that the xenon lamp was releasing ozone rays. One guy was arrested on site for stealing an Oscar. One guy brought a crack whore to work with him who promptly took all her clothes off and ran through the screen naked. One guy shut the theatre down when went up on the roof for a smoke and the door shut behind him and back to our Ziegfeld BACKDRAFT darling, he went home once BEFORE putting on the last reel.
On the positive side, one guy in Queens finished the show by hand- spinning the platter during a mid-film power fault.
The test was seriously outdated (people failed because they didn’t understand the questions, let alone the answers). It was difficult because it no longer applied to modern times and the Union could help those they wanted to pass it just a little by supplying a copy in advance.
Sample question:
Who moves to the print from the floor to the projection booth?
Answer:
The “reel” boy.
Remember that there was a serious product shortage in the late sixties-early seventies and that extended runs killed many subrun locations. Although many dollar houses eventually popped up in the suburbs in response, that was not an option in pricey New York and few theatres went into bargain pricing alternatives and survived.
There were two other theatres advertised as being in Richmond Hill in May 1968. A Casino and a Lefferts both advertised at the time. It would appear the Richmond Hill’s end came in mid-May with a double feature of IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT and THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING! THE RUSSIAN ARE COMING! shared with five other Queens runs. This was at a time when the Meadows and Lefrak demanded exclusive Queens runs. The RKO also seems to have been very much a “family†theatre at a time when wholesome product was failing at the box office. If it had held out a little longer may have been split up and stayed open for years.
After May 1968, I can find no other signs of it in the New York Times.
The early multiplexes were roof gardens that showed movies.
The increase by 1965 was mostly due to arthouse boom.
Most buildings in a single year – 1938. 21 new theatres although some were converted playhouses.
Most screen openings – 2000- 53 new screens. The megaplex arrives late in Manhattan.
Most screen closings – 1971- 50 screens disappeared although many just went over to grind porn and therefore off the radar. Some returned by the blockbuster years after JAWS and STAR WARS.
Joe, although my first visit to the deuce (from Florida) was in the mean and nasty mid-seventies, the larger than life movie displays and energy of the street was a life changing experience.
Today, it is still quite exciting but something is missing. It certainly isn’t tacky movies, thugs, drugs, hookers and hustlers as they are still there, if you care to look close enough.
I think it may be the symphony of a street that wasn’t hiding, like it is today and was instead promoting it with a carnival barker’s glee. The decadence was oddly liberating.
I have read that the street has never been wholesome and that the more decadent years started during the second war but the nadir (apex anyone?) had to be the eighties.
Certainly the arrival of a new Ripley’s will bring it down a notch or two and put that she-wolf frisky minx MARY POPPINS back in her place.
A total of 10,000,000 people paid an estimated $5,000,000 to see motion pictures last year in 10 theatres on one block in New York City. The 10 theatres are located on 42nd street between Broadway and 8th Avenue, a street frequently condemned because of its ‘carnival’ atmosphere.
Surrounded by pizza parlors, hot dog stands, shooting galleries, pokerino palaces, and novelty stores, the theatres, the theatres are nevertheless well maintained policed, and managed. This is no skid row.
The theatres â€" seven of which are operated by Brandt Theatres and three by Cinema Circuit â€" offer perhaps the most varied programming that can be obtained in any concentrated area in the world. The type of product available on the street in any one day â€" offers a choice to all tastes â€" from the discriminating intellectual to the uneducated laborer.
Although it is not generally known, each of the 10 theatres on the block follows a specific programming policy. For example, the Brandt’s Lyric and Cinema’s New Amsterdam are first subsequent run houses, playing pictures immediately after their Broadway runs and simultaneously with the key Loew’s and RK theatres. Pictures are booked at these houses for a week’s run. Brandt’s Apollo is an art house which offers the outstanding foreign language imports at popular prices after the films complete their first-run engagements. The bookings are exclusive for the area and the films are played for two to four weeks depending on the draw at the box office.
Brandt’s Times Square is a western and action outlet and the same circuit’s Victory concentrates on exploitation and horror films. The Selwyn (Brandt) and Harris (Cinema) are moveover houses. Brandt’s Liberty and Empire and Cinema’s Anco are strictly reissue outlets. The action and reissue outlets change bills twice a week.
Admission prices are moderate, the first sub-runs charge 40c.– 95c.; the art house ditto; the current product moveovers 30c.– 85c.; and the action and reissue houses 25c. â€" 65c. The theatres operate on an amazing schedule. The majority open at 8 a.m. and run to 3 a.m. the following morning, with several closing at 4 a.m. To maintain this operational schedule, the theatres employ three shifts of employees.
Contrary to general belief, the atmosphere of 42nd St. has not provided the managements wit undue problems of coping with juvenile delinquents and undesirables. According to Martin Levine, general manager of the Brandt houses, the 42nd St. theatres have no more problems than other theatres. As a matter of fact, he maintained, the juves make up only a small portion of the patronage. He noted, for example, that two recent pictures especially aimed at teenagers â€" ‘Shake, Rattle and Roll’ and Elvis Presley’s ‘Love Me Tender’ â€" fared poorly at the box office.
The theatres, however, have taken precautionary measures against young hoodlums and other undesirables. A crew of uniformed Burns guards make frequent tours of the theatres. The Brandt Theatres has long followed the policy of notifying parents when a juvenile is involved in a disturbance.
The 42nd St. patronage comes from all walks of life. Midnight workers are on hand for the 8 a.m. show. Salesmen, shoppers and others with several hours to kill dominate the afternoon audiences. Dater, married couple, and groups of young people make up the evening trade. Show people and other stay-up-laters are among the late film-goers.
The 42nd St. houses offer patrons a chance to catch up on missed pictures, a wide choice of pictures which enables groups to break up and meet later, and prices within the range of the general public. According to the belief of the 42nd St. operators, when a person comes to 42nd St. it’s not with the thought of seeing a specific film. However, after the potential customers looks over the wide selection, he then makes his choice.
19 Years as an Artie
Perhaps the most unique of the 42nd St. operations is the Apollo which has been running continuously for 19 years on an art house policy. Even during the war years when it was difficult to obtain foreign films, the house operated successfully by replaying over and over again the available imports. The house has a steady clientele and for each change of bills it send out 25,000 mailing pieces. The theatre is also a popular place with language students and many times whole classes from various New York high schools and colleges attend afternoon performances to absorb French or Italian, Shakespeare films also draw a large student audience and the management provides special reduced tickets for school groups.
Foreign films with English titles also draw a large audience of deaf and dumb individuals. Many of these people as well as their special schools are on the mailing list.
From a profit and cents standpoint, the 42nd St. houses have managed to buck the general sluggish trend that has hit theatre business throughout the country. For the most part, however, the new, better Hollywood films and the foreign imports do the better business. The theatres have ‘their hands full’ in maintaining a profitable operation at the houses which show the secondary films and the reissues.
The theatre operators have no desire to see the complexion of the street changed. They feel the carnival atmosphere of 32nd St., the pizza parlors, and the other carny attractions are just the things that draw crowds to the street.
This from Variety, November 14, 1956. Kids today!!!
“Wealthy” Tenafly, N.J., Kids Called Monsters
“Malicious mischief committed by disorderly teenagers in the Bergen Theatre, Tenafly, N. J., has reached the point where operator Ray Rhone has barred the teenagers unless accompanied by adults. Among nuisances perpetrated, he said, were ripping seats, stripping tiles from lavatory walls and throwing eggs and other objects.
Particularly on Friday nights, Rhone asserted, the noise and general disorder were so bad that patrons could neither concentrate on what was on the screen nor hear the sound. In his opinion the ill behavior of the teenagers stems from lack of proper parental supervision. Tenafly area, incidentally, is a wealthy suburban district near New York with the price of homes ranging from $20,000 to $60,000."
This from Variety, November 7, 1956 about a Baytown theatre. Does anyone from Baytown remember what started it?
Massed Assault on Theatre!
“Some 500 teenagers, bent on revenge for a "raw deal”, ran amok here last Wednesday night (310, egg-and-feathering a theatre, barricading a city street and beating a policemen with a club.
The yelling gang – both boys and girls – commandeered a city dump truck, roused the town with a garbage can “tom-tom” dance, let air out of tires and damaged two city patrol cars.
The horde showed up at the Bay Theatre where the manager, H.E. Brunson, had frequently called police for aid against rowdy-ism, and threw dozens of eggs at the theatre front. Then the gang smeared feathers in the “omlet”."
Vito, many Manhattan houses are now part time union or non-union. In many cases union projectionists do maintenance and repairs and other staff build up prints and run the show. The Ziegfeld was one of the last Cineplex Odeon theatres to install platters since it was single screen and often ran 70mm. Platters were considered more of a multiplex necessity. One of the projectionists filed a grievance demanding platters, which were eventually negotiated.
The BACKDRAFT incident was one of many less publicised screw-ups from an incompetent projectionist who allegedly had a substance abuse problem. The Old Waverly had a similar problem and this may be the reason it chose to reopened non-union.
If you check the 306 website you will find they are concentrating more on business conference presentations as a growth market as the actual number of theatres dwindle, albeit with more screens.
Just to clear up two items, the platters were not installed due to the BACKDRAFT debacle. They were installed much later due to grievance from a 306 projectionist with a bad back who had trouble lifting the reels. Running reel to reel may now actually be a contract violation.
MY FAIR LADY did fairly well on its opening weekend then died after exhausting its obviously finite audience. When you consider the cost of restoring the print, that run not only failed but stopped other planned restorations from taking place.
Although many Manhattan theatres are no longer union, the ratio of good/bad projectionists appears to be the same as before.
I can confirm that the ad for HIM posted above ran in the New York Times on March 29, 1974. Later ads included review quotes from Al Goldstein, The Village Voice, Gay Scene, Michael’s Thing, Variety, and Where it’s at.
It would appear it was not only a real movie but that it ran for around two months at the 55th St. Playhouse.
The review above is re-print from allmovie.com and not an actual NYT review, so a theatre is not mentioned. Wakefiled Poole’s filmography does not list HIM although he did film a bible epic released as IN THE BEGINNING in New York.
That 1994 re-release of MY FAIR LADY was a box office disaster. Meryl Streep’s THE RIVER WILD was rushed in to cover (it was supposed to open at the National). It sold the place out.
New York Times May 28, 1929
Frederick Brown buys a block front on fifth avenue from 106th to 107th street…from the Dualin Holding Corporation William A. Daly Vice President… a plot of about 30,000 square feet fronting 201.10 feet on the avenue. 100 feet on 106th street and 196 feet on 107th street, at present time imporved(?) with a movie theatre and three five-story tenements.
The plot is two blocks from the new Museum of New York City..now under construction.
Variety April 1, 1959
VEIT HARLAN GETS POOR N.Y. PRESS:
‘JEW SUESS’ NOTORIETY PERSISTING:
HOMO THEME AT EASTER ALSO A FACTOR
“With the sole exception of the N.Y. Daily News, every N.Y. newspaper reviewing the German import, “The Third Sexâ€, last week also noted that the picture had been directed by Veit Harlan, the man who made the anti-semitic “Jew Suess†for the Nazis.
Picture itself, with it’s theme of homosexuality, got panned by the mass circulation press, not on account of Harlan, but because the reviewers considered it an inappropriate attraction for the Easter season….
At United Artists, which is half-owner of the Plaza Theatre, where the import opened, the top echelon was reportedly dismayed as considerable reaction to the booking of the Harlan film began to come in. The house is owned 50-50 by UA and Ilya Lopert, who works for UA. Lopert books the house. Story is that the UA brass wasn’t aware of the booking until it got hit with the reaction. Lopert originally owned “The Third Sex†having acquired it for a reported $35,000.
He later sold it to David Dietz of D. & F. Distribution Corp. for $85,000. Dietz is new to the foreign film field and sez he “didn’t knowâ€â€â€¦.
Listed in todays Variety as having hosted the Spanish premier of SPIDER-MAN 3, so it is still going!
This was the World Premier home of Marisol (Pepa Flores) movies during the sixties. She was one of Spainish cinema’s biggest box office draws ever and is now retired.
I always thought the ruling was officially only against Paramount with the others seeing the writing on the wall.
Tonino, you are correct in that the splitting of the studios from their theatres lead to the closing of many theatres in the fifties that had been artificially kept open by guaranteed product. The elimination of the theatres was a blessing in the disguise for the studios as it allowed them to minimise the losses of attendance caused by TV and drop B movies and double features made to feed the pipeline. This caused a product shortage. It also gave studios some ready cash with which to go into the TV business. It also allowed many independent exhibitors to open small theatres and compete for first run films with old palaces like the RKOs. A cinema like the Casino could hold a film for many weeks on low overhead.
I recall working in an 800 seat theatre in the summer of 1977 while a handful of customers watched A BRIDGE TO FAR while the 200 seater in the mall turned them away from STAR WARS.
Two other elements that hurt some theatres in the seventies were the elimination of product splitting and blind bidding. Theatres could no longer count on studio alignments and bids had to openly divulged AFTER the film was screened. Those studio alignments were back in evidence in Manhattan until well into the nineties as Cineplex Odeon still always played Universal product and Loews played Sony films, products from their parent companies. This was made possible by deregulation during the Reagan years.
When VCRs first became popular they actually helped theatres. People who had never seen the originals rushed the theatres for the sequels and eventually lead to the phenomenon whereby sequels could outgross the originals. VCRs and DVDs introduced stars to whole new generation who had never seen them at a cinema.
I don’t think think day and date showcasing affected Manhattan houses by the seventies as it had been going on since 1962. It did bring first-run to the neighborhoods quicker at the expense of the Times Square theatres. Big houses like this RKO may have been counting the days on their lease as they probably had not sold out in years. The question remains, did many Manhattan leases run out in 1971 or was grind porn THAT lucrative?
Among the missing:
ACADEMY OF MUSIC
GLOBE
RIVERSIDE
DELANCEY
SYMPHONY
HEIGHTS
Would love to read that book Vito!
Not surprisingly, the Union did not want the platters either, but it became a disability issue.
My experience with New York projectionists was that they were some of the best and some of the worst in the country and their Union support was erratic and based on many things, none of which included job performance. We had guys in Brooklyn who never came to work when it snowed. One guy in Queens who refused to start the movie if there was bulb out anywhere in the building and a business agent who shut a multiplex theatre down when he and his mistress were not let in for free. One guy was collecting his phlegm in jar as proof that the xenon lamp was releasing ozone rays. One guy was arrested on site for stealing an Oscar. One guy brought a crack whore to work with him who promptly took all her clothes off and ran through the screen naked. One guy shut the theatre down when went up on the roof for a smoke and the door shut behind him and back to our Ziegfeld BACKDRAFT darling, he went home once BEFORE putting on the last reel.
On the positive side, one guy in Queens finished the show by hand- spinning the platter during a mid-film power fault.
The test was seriously outdated (people failed because they didn’t understand the questions, let alone the answers). It was difficult because it no longer applied to modern times and the Union could help those they wanted to pass it just a little by supplying a copy in advance.
Sample question:
Who moves to the print from the floor to the projection booth?
Answer:
The “reel” boy.
Of course! How silly of me.
Remember that there was a serious product shortage in the late sixties-early seventies and that extended runs killed many subrun locations. Although many dollar houses eventually popped up in the suburbs in response, that was not an option in pricey New York and few theatres went into bargain pricing alternatives and survived.
There were two other theatres advertised as being in Richmond Hill in May 1968. A Casino and a Lefferts both advertised at the time. It would appear the Richmond Hill’s end came in mid-May with a double feature of IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT and THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING! THE RUSSIAN ARE COMING! shared with five other Queens runs. This was at a time when the Meadows and Lefrak demanded exclusive Queens runs. The RKO also seems to have been very much a “family†theatre at a time when wholesome product was failing at the box office. If it had held out a little longer may have been split up and stayed open for years.
After May 1968, I can find no other signs of it in the New York Times.
Here are some figures on Manhattan. These are from personal files so they have a huge marging of error.
1915 40 sites, 41 screens
1925 45 sites, 48 screens
1935 110 sites, 112 screens
1945 95 sites, 95 screens
1955 61 sites, 61 screens
1965 75 sites, 77 screens
1975 50 sites, 60 screens
1985 69 sites, 116 screens
1995 58 sites, 172 screens
2000 50 sites, 243 screens
2005 44 sites, 232 screens
The early multiplexes were roof gardens that showed movies.
The increase by 1965 was mostly due to arthouse boom.
Most buildings in a single year – 1938. 21 new theatres although some were converted playhouses.
Most screen openings – 2000- 53 new screens. The megaplex arrives late in Manhattan.
Most screen closings – 1971- 50 screens disappeared although many just went over to grind porn and therefore off the radar. Some returned by the blockbuster years after JAWS and STAR WARS.
Screens counts from NATO (National Association of Theatre Owners)
http://www.natoonline.org/statisticsscreens.htm
Paul, my guess is that it would have been Grand Central Palace, the old abandoned exhibition hall inside the Grand Central Terminal.
View link
Joe, although my first visit to the deuce (from Florida) was in the mean and nasty mid-seventies, the larger than life movie displays and energy of the street was a life changing experience.
Today, it is still quite exciting but something is missing. It certainly isn’t tacky movies, thugs, drugs, hookers and hustlers as they are still there, if you care to look close enough.
I think it may be the symphony of a street that wasn’t hiding, like it is today and was instead promoting it with a carnival barker’s glee. The decadence was oddly liberating.
I have read that the street has never been wholesome and that the more decadent years started during the second war but the nadir (apex anyone?) had to be the eighties.
Certainly the arrival of a new Ripley’s will bring it down a notch or two and put that she-wolf frisky minx MARY POPPINS back in her place.
Warren, you just solved another mystery for me. I do show a Wonderland advertising in 1915 but no address.
From Variety January 30, 1957
42nd St. Grind’s $5-mil Gross
10 Film Parlors Carefully Run
A total of 10,000,000 people paid an estimated $5,000,000 to see motion pictures last year in 10 theatres on one block in New York City. The 10 theatres are located on 42nd street between Broadway and 8th Avenue, a street frequently condemned because of its ‘carnival’ atmosphere.
Surrounded by pizza parlors, hot dog stands, shooting galleries, pokerino palaces, and novelty stores, the theatres, the theatres are nevertheless well maintained policed, and managed. This is no skid row.
The theatres â€" seven of which are operated by Brandt Theatres and three by Cinema Circuit â€" offer perhaps the most varied programming that can be obtained in any concentrated area in the world. The type of product available on the street in any one day â€" offers a choice to all tastes â€" from the discriminating intellectual to the uneducated laborer.
Although it is not generally known, each of the 10 theatres on the block follows a specific programming policy. For example, the Brandt’s Lyric and Cinema’s New Amsterdam are first subsequent run houses, playing pictures immediately after their Broadway runs and simultaneously with the key Loew’s and RK theatres. Pictures are booked at these houses for a week’s run. Brandt’s Apollo is an art house which offers the outstanding foreign language imports at popular prices after the films complete their first-run engagements. The bookings are exclusive for the area and the films are played for two to four weeks depending on the draw at the box office.
Brandt’s Times Square is a western and action outlet and the same circuit’s Victory concentrates on exploitation and horror films. The Selwyn (Brandt) and Harris (Cinema) are moveover houses. Brandt’s Liberty and Empire and Cinema’s Anco are strictly reissue outlets. The action and reissue outlets change bills twice a week.
Admission prices are moderate, the first sub-runs charge 40c.– 95c.; the art house ditto; the current product moveovers 30c.– 85c.; and the action and reissue houses 25c. â€" 65c. The theatres operate on an amazing schedule. The majority open at 8 a.m. and run to 3 a.m. the following morning, with several closing at 4 a.m. To maintain this operational schedule, the theatres employ three shifts of employees.
Contrary to general belief, the atmosphere of 42nd St. has not provided the managements wit undue problems of coping with juvenile delinquents and undesirables. According to Martin Levine, general manager of the Brandt houses, the 42nd St. theatres have no more problems than other theatres. As a matter of fact, he maintained, the juves make up only a small portion of the patronage. He noted, for example, that two recent pictures especially aimed at teenagers â€" ‘Shake, Rattle and Roll’ and Elvis Presley’s ‘Love Me Tender’ â€" fared poorly at the box office.
The theatres, however, have taken precautionary measures against young hoodlums and other undesirables. A crew of uniformed Burns guards make frequent tours of the theatres. The Brandt Theatres has long followed the policy of notifying parents when a juvenile is involved in a disturbance.
The 42nd St. patronage comes from all walks of life. Midnight workers are on hand for the 8 a.m. show. Salesmen, shoppers and others with several hours to kill dominate the afternoon audiences. Dater, married couple, and groups of young people make up the evening trade. Show people and other stay-up-laters are among the late film-goers.
The 42nd St. houses offer patrons a chance to catch up on missed pictures, a wide choice of pictures which enables groups to break up and meet later, and prices within the range of the general public. According to the belief of the 42nd St. operators, when a person comes to 42nd St. it’s not with the thought of seeing a specific film. However, after the potential customers looks over the wide selection, he then makes his choice.
19 Years as an Artie
Perhaps the most unique of the 42nd St. operations is the Apollo which has been running continuously for 19 years on an art house policy. Even during the war years when it was difficult to obtain foreign films, the house operated successfully by replaying over and over again the available imports. The house has a steady clientele and for each change of bills it send out 25,000 mailing pieces. The theatre is also a popular place with language students and many times whole classes from various New York high schools and colleges attend afternoon performances to absorb French or Italian, Shakespeare films also draw a large student audience and the management provides special reduced tickets for school groups.
Foreign films with English titles also draw a large audience of deaf and dumb individuals. Many of these people as well as their special schools are on the mailing list.
From a profit and cents standpoint, the 42nd St. houses have managed to buck the general sluggish trend that has hit theatre business throughout the country. For the most part, however, the new, better Hollywood films and the foreign imports do the better business. The theatres have ‘their hands full’ in maintaining a profitable operation at the houses which show the secondary films and the reissues.
The theatre operators have no desire to see the complexion of the street changed. They feel the carnival atmosphere of 32nd St., the pizza parlors, and the other carny attractions are just the things that draw crowds to the street.
This from Variety, November 14, 1956. Kids today!!!
“Wealthy” Tenafly, N.J., Kids Called Monsters
“Malicious mischief committed by disorderly teenagers in the Bergen Theatre, Tenafly, N. J., has reached the point where operator Ray Rhone has barred the teenagers unless accompanied by adults. Among nuisances perpetrated, he said, were ripping seats, stripping tiles from lavatory walls and throwing eggs and other objects.
Particularly on Friday nights, Rhone asserted, the noise and general disorder were so bad that patrons could neither concentrate on what was on the screen nor hear the sound. In his opinion the ill behavior of the teenagers stems from lack of proper parental supervision. Tenafly area, incidentally, is a wealthy suburban district near New York with the price of homes ranging from $20,000 to $60,000."
This from Variety, November 7, 1956 about a Baytown theatre. Does anyone from Baytown remember what started it?
Massed Assault on Theatre!
“Some 500 teenagers, bent on revenge for a "raw deal”, ran amok here last Wednesday night (310, egg-and-feathering a theatre, barricading a city street and beating a policemen with a club.
The yelling gang – both boys and girls – commandeered a city dump truck, roused the town with a garbage can “tom-tom” dance, let air out of tires and damaged two city patrol cars.
The horde showed up at the Bay Theatre where the manager, H.E. Brunson, had frequently called police for aid against rowdy-ism, and threw dozens of eggs at the theatre front. Then the gang smeared feathers in the “omlet”."
Vito, many Manhattan houses are now part time union or non-union. In many cases union projectionists do maintenance and repairs and other staff build up prints and run the show. The Ziegfeld was one of the last Cineplex Odeon theatres to install platters since it was single screen and often ran 70mm. Platters were considered more of a multiplex necessity. One of the projectionists filed a grievance demanding platters, which were eventually negotiated.
The BACKDRAFT incident was one of many less publicised screw-ups from an incompetent projectionist who allegedly had a substance abuse problem. The Old Waverly had a similar problem and this may be the reason it chose to reopened non-union.
If you check the 306 website you will find they are concentrating more on business conference presentations as a growth market as the actual number of theatres dwindle, albeit with more screens.
Just to clear up two items, the platters were not installed due to the BACKDRAFT debacle. They were installed much later due to grievance from a 306 projectionist with a bad back who had trouble lifting the reels. Running reel to reel may now actually be a contract violation.
MY FAIR LADY did fairly well on its opening weekend then died after exhausting its obviously finite audience. When you consider the cost of restoring the print, that run not only failed but stopped other planned restorations from taking place.
Although many Manhattan theatres are no longer union, the ratio of good/bad projectionists appears to be the same as before.
LOL. Good ‘ole Wikipedia!
Michael Medved’s book addresses the 1974 film and even quotes the ad copy.
I can confirm that the ad for HIM posted above ran in the New York Times on March 29, 1974. Later ads included review quotes from Al Goldstein, The Village Voice, Gay Scene, Michael’s Thing, Variety, and Where it’s at.
It would appear it was not only a real movie but that it ran for around two months at the 55th St. Playhouse.
The review above is re-print from allmovie.com and not an actual NYT review, so a theatre is not mentioned. Wakefiled Poole’s filmography does not list HIM although he did film a bible epic released as IN THE BEGINNING in New York.
Historical reality check.
That 1994 re-release of MY FAIR LADY was a box office disaster. Meryl Streep’s THE RIVER WILD was rushed in to cover (it was supposed to open at the National). It sold the place out.
Ken, the Madonna is the Roxy and is listed here, somewhere.
Sorry to read about the Lincoln being closed. Anything announced as coming up there?
Here is a NY Times review for a 1984 film by director Wiktor Grodecki called HIM.
View link