That AMC purchased GCC had at least one interesting consequence in South Jersey. At the Deptford Mall, up until the purchase there was the AMC multiplex and a short distance away the GCC. Now, they are listed as the AMC Deptford 8 and the AMC Deptford Mall 6
Film note: in 1959, the distributor of the 3-projector CineMiracle film “Windjammer” booked it into the Opera House, concurrent with a run at the Keswick in Glenside, PA, and the Warner in Atlantic City, NJ.
The final film to show at the Fox was not “Star Trek,” but one of those “Sun” 4-wall deals, “The Life of Jesus” or something like that. As for the note above, that the house didnt run 70mm films initially….it reopened in 1959 with a 70mm print of “Solomon and Sheba,” many years later ran a reissue of “Sound of Music,” a moveover run of “Star Wars,” and “Capricorn One”, all in glorious 70mm and 6-track sound.
I dimly remember the auditorium had something like the “sunrise” effect proscenium similar to Radio City. In 1960, it was one of the few theatres locally to show a 35mm print of “80 Days” after its downtown roadshow run.
As the Locust, it was operated by Henry Sley, a parking lot magnate who had also acquired the downtown Aldine and renamed it the Viking. In 1961 the Locust got embroiled in an interesting legal tangle with United Artists. This was back when double-features were still around, and Mr. Sley managed to book, you won’t believe this, both “Gone With The Wind” and “By Love Possessed” (115 minutes) on the same bill. United Artists balked. Can you blame them? One could have spent an entire afternoon there!
Now closed as a regular film house, it is being renovated as something of a “film center,” with facilities for exhibition, and, from what I’ve heard, some production for video and narrow-gauge.
The Esquire, formerly a William Goldman house, was located in the Olney section of town, not the Northeast. Last time I was up there, it was a shoestore.
Turner Movie Classics from time to time runs a documentary on Hitchcock. In it is a great shot of considerable length of the Arcadia marquee during the “Psycho” run.
Widescreen and stereo note for the Arcadia: it was Philadelphia’s first theatre with optical Dolby stereo, having installed it for “Tommy” in “Quintaphonic Sound.” Also, it featured a process about which Paramount had released minimal information. Unnamed, it tried to replicate the shape and “feeling” of VistaVision by using curved top and bottom screen masking (and probably curved aperture plates) to give the impression, on a flat screen, that the screen was curved. I remember when “Psycho” ran in the Summer and Fall of 1960 that along with the feature was one of those Paramount shorts “VistaVision Visits…..”, and, it was projected with the above-described curved masking/plates and at a 1.85:1 ratio, as opposed to the “normal” flat image of the feature in a 1.66:1 aspect ratio. As I said, Paramount did release some information about it to the trades, and I always called it myself “Baby Vistavision.”
A little footnote to the Warner’s Cinerama history. As part of the arrangement between S-Warner and the Dept. of Justice, SW did not have to ask permission to show non-Cinerama films in its Cinerama houses if the theatre had not been specifically acquired by SW to show Cinerama. This meant, in most cases, if the theatre originally was owned by SW. When the 4th Cinerama travelogue “Search For Paradise” quickly ran out of steam, and the 5th, “South Seas Adventure” wasn’t anywhere near ready, a non-SW house like the Melba in Dallas simply closed down. On the other hand, the Pittsburgh Warner was able to switch to non-Cinerama fare with no legal hassles. In this case, Paramount’s “The Ten Commandments” took over until there was Cinerama product to show again.
In the great theatre renovation craze of 1959, SWarner spent a bundle on remodeling the Stanley. I dont have the dimensions of the stage curtain but it stretched in front of the proscenium the entire width of the auditorium, a considerable distance, the screen being set back towards the rear of the stage house. Opening attraction in November of 1959 was “Pillow Talk.” Among its 70mm runs were “My Fair Lady,” “Cleopatra,” and “Fall of the Roman Empire,” during which engagement the 70mm print was swapped out for a 35mm run when business no longer supported a reserved seat policy, and switched to “grind.”
It is, of course, widely known that this theatre, in its incarnation as the Warner Aldine, was one of the dozen or so houses that showed Disney’s Fantasia in Fantasound. Though a Warner house, in a city that had a ton of them, RKO product was funneled here, and at that time Disney films were released by RKO. This means, of course, that this is also the CITIZEN KANE house. Later on, the first feature-length 3-D film BWANA DEVIL ran here and was fabulously successful. The Warner chain subsequently took out the 3-D synching equipment and moved it 3 blocks away to the cavernous Mastbaum for the HOUSE OF WAX run. Warners had tried to close the Aldine, but the city prohibited the closure, and it was sold to parking lot magnate Henry Sley who renamed it the Viking. When 4 decades later as the Sams Place Twin it closed, the DTS equipment was moved across the street to the Sameric a/k/a Boyd.
In light of all the above pro and con about the Ziegfeld, I find the following paragraph from a NYT 12/22/67 article “A Ziegfeld Cinema to Rise on 54th St.” interesting (and funny). It states, “For those who like a touch of elegance with their moviegoing, the theater will require formal attire on Saturday nights.”
I am trying to locate the negative of a photograph I took in the Sameric/Boyd auditorium sometime in the 1980’s. I want to give it to Howard Haas at the upcoming Boyd tour next week. I took the shot specifically to show the teaser in the “up” position which was used when the house showed 1:85.1 70mm prints (as opposed to anamorphically derived 2.2:1). Through the 1970’s, they ran ALL 70mm prints incorrectly in the ratio of somewhere between 1.9 and 2.0. I remember one sequence of “CE3K” in the electrical substation where Dreyfus and another employee are speaking to each other, each one standing at the corner of the frame. As projected here, neither actor could be seen, as the ratio was so far off the mark. At any rate, does anybody remember which 70mm 1.85:1 films (like THE ROSE, THATS ENTERTAINMENT) ran at the SamEric. As I said, the photo was taken sometime in the 1980s, but I can’t remember what the feature might have been at that time. Thanks for your help.
I vividly remember the State from my days at Penn State 1961-65. It was by that time a mess! Torn curtains, broken seats, wretched projection, dismal mono sound. It was managed by a Laura Angel (sp?) who later moved to Findlay, Ohio. The house was in direct competition with the Stanley Warner Cathaum and smaller Nittany. A story from the early sixties, unverified, was at some point the State was allowed to bid on product, and passed on two films in 1962 because mgmt thought they wouldn’t be popular. The films: “Goldfinger” and “Mary Poppins”. As said, this story was heard around campus but was not verified.
I stand corrected…it was not “Rocco and His Brothers” which followed “La Dolce Vita” at the Henry Miller. It may well have been “Les Liaisons Dangereuses”. Thanks, Gerry
Just as a side note, during the late 1950s/early 1960s, there was a mini trend in NYC to showcase so-called “films of class” in legit houses. I especially vividly remember the (at the time) notorious “La Dolce Vita” from Fellini having a long extended roadshow run at the Henry Miller Theatre (how appropriate!). This was I believe in the Spring of 1960, and the run extended several months. Astor Films was the distributor. It had less luck later that year with Visconti’s “Rocco and His Brothers” also roadshowed at the Henry Miller. I just remembered: I think Brando’s “Julius Caesar” a few years earlier playing roadshow at the Booth.
“Oklahoma” fared well in some places. As the first Todd-AO production, it ran for nearly a year on roadshow in Los Angeles in 2 theatres simultaneously. In other first runs it ran for shorter lengths of time because of the impending “80 Days” release which opened in most of the same houses. A 30 frames-per-second 70mm re-released played the Cinema I in Manhattan some years ago. I attended the first Sunday matinee and the house was jam packed.
I used to love watching the Rivoli projectionist sitting in a lawn chair on the platform outside of the booth enjoying himself watching the film. 52+ week runs were not uncommon in the 1950 even in cities smaller than New York.
“Can anybody remember which Manhattan theater showed the 3-projector Cinerama?
1 the Broadway beginning 9/30/52. Then the Warner in June 53. Then the Capitol which was temporarily renamed Loews Cinerama in Aug of 1962. The 2 MGM films, Bros Grimm and HTWWW played there. Single projector “Cinerama” 70mm opened at the Warner 11/63. 3-projector CineMiracle ran at the Roxy from April through the Summer of 1958. The Russian Kinopanorama played – however briefly – at the Mayfair (before it became the DeMille). 3-projector Cinerama also ran at the Syosset (Long Island) and the Claridge (Upper Montclair NJ).
Hey, Warren. Can you verify the following? In the 10/16/55 issue of “Variety” in the “grosses” section there was a mention that re Rivoli “the first three rows downstairs removed starting with last Saturday matinee since management figured these too close to screen"
Also, in the 11/2/55 issue re Rivoli "House has installed 31 extra seats in balcony to make capacity 1,545.”
In spite of my preference for Cinerama-type theatres, I still must say the RCMH is my favorite of theatre of all. Can you just imagine that huge curtain coming down on the Gloria Swanson’s final closup in “Sunset Boulevard”?
And, Warren, I wish i could locate this photograph. But at some time during the 40’s or 50’s I saw a theatre marquee – during hot weather – and the signage read “Who Cares? It’s Cool Inside”
CConnolly, yep it was there and it was grand. I wish I could help you more, but there were a series of photos taken of the todd-ao installation in ‘55 in “boxoffice” or “motion picture exhibitor” magazines. There are (is) photo(s) of the Rivoli interior online. You may have to go to that 70mm Scandavian site. Sorry, i dont remember the exact url, but, search for something like “in 70mm” and there is (was) a photo of the Riv’s interior with a gigantic curtain that apparently was used only during “Oklahoma.”
That AMC purchased GCC had at least one interesting consequence in South Jersey. At the Deptford Mall, up until the purchase there was the AMC multiplex and a short distance away the GCC. Now, they are listed as the AMC Deptford 8 and the AMC Deptford Mall 6
Film note: in 1959, the distributor of the 3-projector CineMiracle film “Windjammer” booked it into the Opera House, concurrent with a run at the Keswick in Glenside, PA, and the Warner in Atlantic City, NJ.
The final film to show at the Fox was not “Star Trek,” but one of those “Sun” 4-wall deals, “The Life of Jesus” or something like that. As for the note above, that the house didnt run 70mm films initially….it reopened in 1959 with a 70mm print of “Solomon and Sheba,” many years later ran a reissue of “Sound of Music,” a moveover run of “Star Wars,” and “Capricorn One”, all in glorious 70mm and 6-track sound.
In the 1950s a new circular marquee replaced the one shown in the above-mentioned photographs.
I dimly remember the auditorium had something like the “sunrise” effect proscenium similar to Radio City. In 1960, it was one of the few theatres locally to show a 35mm print of “80 Days” after its downtown roadshow run.
As the Locust, it was operated by Henry Sley, a parking lot magnate who had also acquired the downtown Aldine and renamed it the Viking. In 1961 the Locust got embroiled in an interesting legal tangle with United Artists. This was back when double-features were still around, and Mr. Sley managed to book, you won’t believe this, both “Gone With The Wind” and “By Love Possessed” (115 minutes) on the same bill. United Artists balked. Can you blame them? One could have spent an entire afternoon there!
Now closed as a regular film house, it is being renovated as something of a “film center,” with facilities for exhibition, and, from what I’ve heard, some production for video and narrow-gauge.
The Esquire, formerly a William Goldman house, was located in the Olney section of town, not the Northeast. Last time I was up there, it was a shoestore.
Turner Movie Classics from time to time runs a documentary on Hitchcock. In it is a great shot of considerable length of the Arcadia marquee during the “Psycho” run.
Widescreen and stereo note for the Arcadia: it was Philadelphia’s first theatre with optical Dolby stereo, having installed it for “Tommy” in “Quintaphonic Sound.” Also, it featured a process about which Paramount had released minimal information. Unnamed, it tried to replicate the shape and “feeling” of VistaVision by using curved top and bottom screen masking (and probably curved aperture plates) to give the impression, on a flat screen, that the screen was curved. I remember when “Psycho” ran in the Summer and Fall of 1960 that along with the feature was one of those Paramount shorts “VistaVision Visits…..”, and, it was projected with the above-described curved masking/plates and at a 1.85:1 ratio, as opposed to the “normal” flat image of the feature in a 1.66:1 aspect ratio. As I said, Paramount did release some information about it to the trades, and I always called it myself “Baby Vistavision.”
A little footnote to the Warner’s Cinerama history. As part of the arrangement between S-Warner and the Dept. of Justice, SW did not have to ask permission to show non-Cinerama films in its Cinerama houses if the theatre had not been specifically acquired by SW to show Cinerama. This meant, in most cases, if the theatre originally was owned by SW. When the 4th Cinerama travelogue “Search For Paradise” quickly ran out of steam, and the 5th, “South Seas Adventure” wasn’t anywhere near ready, a non-SW house like the Melba in Dallas simply closed down. On the other hand, the Pittsburgh Warner was able to switch to non-Cinerama fare with no legal hassles. In this case, Paramount’s “The Ten Commandments” took over until there was Cinerama product to show again.
In the great theatre renovation craze of 1959, SWarner spent a bundle on remodeling the Stanley. I dont have the dimensions of the stage curtain but it stretched in front of the proscenium the entire width of the auditorium, a considerable distance, the screen being set back towards the rear of the stage house. Opening attraction in November of 1959 was “Pillow Talk.” Among its 70mm runs were “My Fair Lady,” “Cleopatra,” and “Fall of the Roman Empire,” during which engagement the 70mm print was swapped out for a 35mm run when business no longer supported a reserved seat policy, and switched to “grind.”
It is, of course, widely known that this theatre, in its incarnation as the Warner Aldine, was one of the dozen or so houses that showed Disney’s Fantasia in Fantasound. Though a Warner house, in a city that had a ton of them, RKO product was funneled here, and at that time Disney films were released by RKO. This means, of course, that this is also the CITIZEN KANE house. Later on, the first feature-length 3-D film BWANA DEVIL ran here and was fabulously successful. The Warner chain subsequently took out the 3-D synching equipment and moved it 3 blocks away to the cavernous Mastbaum for the HOUSE OF WAX run. Warners had tried to close the Aldine, but the city prohibited the closure, and it was sold to parking lot magnate Henry Sley who renamed it the Viking. When 4 decades later as the Sams Place Twin it closed, the DTS equipment was moved across the street to the Sameric a/k/a Boyd.
In light of all the above pro and con about the Ziegfeld, I find the following paragraph from a NYT 12/22/67 article “A Ziegfeld Cinema to Rise on 54th St.” interesting (and funny). It states, “For those who like a touch of elegance with their moviegoing, the theater will require formal attire on Saturday nights.”
I am trying to locate the negative of a photograph I took in the Sameric/Boyd auditorium sometime in the 1980’s. I want to give it to Howard Haas at the upcoming Boyd tour next week. I took the shot specifically to show the teaser in the “up” position which was used when the house showed 1:85.1 70mm prints (as opposed to anamorphically derived 2.2:1). Through the 1970’s, they ran ALL 70mm prints incorrectly in the ratio of somewhere between 1.9 and 2.0. I remember one sequence of “CE3K” in the electrical substation where Dreyfus and another employee are speaking to each other, each one standing at the corner of the frame. As projected here, neither actor could be seen, as the ratio was so far off the mark. At any rate, does anybody remember which 70mm 1.85:1 films (like THE ROSE, THATS ENTERTAINMENT) ran at the SamEric. As I said, the photo was taken sometime in the 1980s, but I can’t remember what the feature might have been at that time. Thanks for your help.
I vividly remember the State from my days at Penn State 1961-65. It was by that time a mess! Torn curtains, broken seats, wretched projection, dismal mono sound. It was managed by a Laura Angel (sp?) who later moved to Findlay, Ohio. The house was in direct competition with the Stanley Warner Cathaum and smaller Nittany. A story from the early sixties, unverified, was at some point the State was allowed to bid on product, and passed on two films in 1962 because mgmt thought they wouldn’t be popular. The films: “Goldfinger” and “Mary Poppins”. As said, this story was heard around campus but was not verified.
I stand corrected…it was not “Rocco and His Brothers” which followed “La Dolce Vita” at the Henry Miller. It may well have been “Les Liaisons Dangereuses”. Thanks, Gerry
As i recall, the longest US roadshow run of “Gigi” was in San Francisco
Just as a side note, during the late 1950s/early 1960s, there was a mini trend in NYC to showcase so-called “films of class” in legit houses. I especially vividly remember the (at the time) notorious “La Dolce Vita” from Fellini having a long extended roadshow run at the Henry Miller Theatre (how appropriate!). This was I believe in the Spring of 1960, and the run extended several months. Astor Films was the distributor. It had less luck later that year with Visconti’s “Rocco and His Brothers” also roadshowed at the Henry Miller. I just remembered: I think Brando’s “Julius Caesar” a few years earlier playing roadshow at the Booth.
“Oklahoma” fared well in some places. As the first Todd-AO production, it ran for nearly a year on roadshow in Los Angeles in 2 theatres simultaneously. In other first runs it ran for shorter lengths of time because of the impending “80 Days” release which opened in most of the same houses. A 30 frames-per-second 70mm re-released played the Cinema I in Manhattan some years ago. I attended the first Sunday matinee and the house was jam packed.
I used to love watching the Rivoli projectionist sitting in a lawn chair on the platform outside of the booth enjoying himself watching the film. 52+ week runs were not uncommon in the 1950 even in cities smaller than New York.
“Can anybody remember which Manhattan theater showed the 3-projector Cinerama?
1 the Broadway beginning 9/30/52. Then the Warner in June 53. Then the Capitol which was temporarily renamed Loews Cinerama in Aug of 1962. The 2 MGM films, Bros Grimm and HTWWW played there. Single projector “Cinerama” 70mm opened at the Warner 11/63. 3-projector CineMiracle ran at the Roxy from April through the Summer of 1958. The Russian Kinopanorama played – however briefly – at the Mayfair (before it became the DeMille). 3-projector Cinerama also ran at the Syosset (Long Island) and the Claridge (Upper Montclair NJ).
Hey, Warren. Can you verify the following? In the 10/16/55 issue of “Variety” in the “grosses” section there was a mention that re Rivoli “the first three rows downstairs removed starting with last Saturday matinee since management figured these too close to screen"
Also, in the 11/2/55 issue re Rivoli "House has installed 31 extra seats in balcony to make capacity 1,545.”
In spite of my preference for Cinerama-type theatres, I still must say the RCMH is my favorite of theatre of all. Can you just imagine that huge curtain coming down on the Gloria Swanson’s final closup in “Sunset Boulevard”?
And, Warren, I wish i could locate this photograph. But at some time during the 40’s or 50’s I saw a theatre marquee – during hot weather – and the signage read “Who Cares? It’s Cool Inside”
CConnolly, yep it was there and it was grand. I wish I could help you more, but there were a series of photos taken of the todd-ao installation in ‘55 in “boxoffice” or “motion picture exhibitor” magazines. There are (is) photo(s) of the Rivoli interior online. You may have to go to that 70mm Scandavian site. Sorry, i dont remember the exact url, but, search for something like “in 70mm” and there is (was) a photo of the Riv’s interior with a gigantic curtain that apparently was used only during “Oklahoma.”