Never got here, but I do remember that the City Line was definitely in the “1st tier” slot for films coming off of roadshow downtown and going into limited release (“Now..For the First Time at Popular Prices, Continuous Performances!”). Most certainly was equipped for 4-track mag.
The original Cheltenham was one of a series of theatres that Stanley Warner opened that were to be capable of 70mm Cinerama projection. This was not done here. There was one interesting booking in the 60’s. Paramount booked a reserved-seat roadshow engagement of “Becket” there with a 70mm print, the 1st time I know of that a film played roadshow that far away from the center-city area. At the conclusion of that run, the 70mm print was moved to the Boyd downtown presenting the same size image as the “Cinerama 70” presentations without saying as much. The Cheltenham also distinguised itself by having its multitude of surround speakers not on the side walls but in the ceiling. Many interesting “fly-over” effects during the 4-track run of “Longest Day”.
Additional comments for downtown Philadelphia theatres:
In the above description for the Regency, it is written “under Budco, was twinned and converted for 70MM.” The Regency had 70mm capabilities long before Budco. “Under Budco,” a great many theatres were completely devastated. Someone wonders what the Midtown looked like twinned…beyond your wildest nightmare. And, to boot, the surround speakers on the side walls remained after the splitting. But each half-theatre did not install surrounds on the new center wall. This meant, that each theatre had surrounds on ONE wall only!
Pablo mentioned that “this was once a Todd-AO house.” This was, in fact, the 5th Todd-AO installation on the planet. A very costly conversion….some time later after Mr. Todd had been ousted from the Todd-AO corporation, he began to tout his 35mm anamorphic system called “Cinestage.” Shortly before his death, Todd held a demonstration of it at an Asbury Park NJ theatre for exhibitors including William Goldman, owner of the Midtown. Goldman and Todd got into a shouting match, the former being incensed that he had to shell out so much $ not only for the 70mm installation but also for the remodeling of the theatre, when he could have gotten much the same results from using 35mm Cinestage. The Goldman was worse, a sheer catastrophe under Budco. It also became something of a legal “celebrity” because in 1979 several Philadelphia film reviewers loudly and publicly and justifiably bemoaned the fact that UA had idiotically and without any regard for the audience had allowed its “Apocalypse Now” to premiere at the twinned Goldman. Budco claimed that these newspaper articles prejudiced the potential audience from coming to the Goldman. This was probably true as the boxoffice grosses reported by “Variety” were considerably lower than those in other metropolitan areas of similar size. In addition to all the faults of long, narrow hallway theatres, the theatre rows had been curved to match the curve of the humongous 70mm screen installed for “Sleeping Beauty” in 1959. So now you had two “theatres” in which the seats faced the tiny screens at a distinct angle. I don’t know in whose favor the lawsuit ended. But, through the help of every Angel in Heaven, Budco no longer operates theatres in the area. Amen.
BTW, anyone got any photos of the Stanley auditorium after its 1959 super-swank remodeling?
BTW again, is there anybody on earth who will say a kind word about the Samson Street “Roxy.”? Warners seems to delight in letting its films play there. If I had the money I would fly Robert Zemeckis there to see his “Polar Express” in that hell hole. I bet he wouldn’t make another film again as long as he lives if he saw it there.
Answer to RobertR’s post this past September concerning films that played normally at the MH but were roadshown elsewhere. Add MGM’s 1960 “Cimarron” to the list. Played, to indifferent results, at the Hollywood Paramount (now El Capitan again) and Philadelphia’s Stanton, a Warner house not previously known for roadshows.
Contact Howard Haas at savethesameric.org. They have occasional events, like a tour of the theatre this upcoming December 1, to raise funds for its preservation.
This really stretches the memory cells, but here goes: I used to have a set of Encyclopedia Brittanica’s with the yearbook of 1948 or 1949. There was a photograph of the Esquire’s auditorium. The proscenium consisted of a series of rectangular “concentric” arches that “enclosed” a smallish 1.33:1 screen. When I saw this photo in the 1950’s I said to myself that that house could never show ‘scope. As I recall through reading the “theatre grosses” section of “Variety,” no scope films at all were shown in the 1950’s. Later research turned up the fact that during that period the theatre was managed, or at least booked, by Paramount Distribution Corporation. Paramount at that time, as I’m sure you realize, had only a handful of 2.35:1 releases (if any at all) at that time. Obviously, major changes had to be made there by the time the 70mm “Star Wars” opened in 1977.
When was this? Are you sure you are not speaking of the brief period in 1958 when 3 CineMiracle projectors were installed for “Windjammer.” Neither my (fading) memory nor the offical International Cinerama Society list of Cinerama installations has any mention of a 3-projector setup in Glenside. You may be referring to a partial installation at what became the GCC Cinema at the Cherry Hill Mall in N.J. Platforms for the A,B, and C booth were constructed in front of the conventional booth. Closer to Glenside, the then Stanley-Warner King of Prussia house was designed for D-150 projection. The booth was placed at the front edge of the balcony, but the curved screen was never installed. If you have any factual info about a 3-projector run at the Keswick (other than “Windjammer”’s), please inform us.
More Cinerama information about the Boyd. To make a tortuous story
short, when the Dept. of Justice granted Stanley-Warner
Theatres the right to produce and distribute films, in particular
Cinerama films, part of the arrangement was that theatres
that SW acquired specifically for the presentation of
Cinerama had to received court assent to show non-Cinerama
productions; on the other hand, theatres which SW already
owned could present non-Cinerama features without any court
intervention. The Boyd fell into the latter category, and
this explains the non-Cinerama portion of the Boyd’s history
in the 1950’s. The 4th Cinerama travelogue, “Search For
Paradise,” proved to be less than successful at the box-office.
Non SW-owned theatres that suddenly had no Cinerama product
simply closed. Example: the Melba in Dallas. On the other hand,
SW-owned houses retooled for “normal” 35mm activity, and
booked non-Cinerama product. The Pittsburgh Warner, for example,
dropped Cinerama in favor of DeMille’s “10 Commandments"
in 1957. The following year, with crowds dwindling at the Boyd,
the house closed for about a month, installed 4-track mag penthouses
for its 2 35mm projectors, hung new vertically-rising
masking that could, in conjunction with the screen curtains,
mask out a "flat” or “scope” 35mm ratio. I would bet that
at that time the controls for the curtain motor(s) were
moved from behind the screen to the upstairs booth. At any
rate, in March of 1958, Cinerama temporarily ended; the
house reopened and showed, continuous-performance, popular-prices,
a series of (mainly) 20th Century Fox films in 35mm scope, and that
summer had a reasonably successful roadshow run of MGM’s “Gigi."
After that film’s end, some enhancements were made to the
3 Cinerama projectors to enable them to show the CineMiracle
production "Windjammer” in Cinerama. This film ran until the
late Winter of 1959, and was replaced by the final Cinerama
travelogue “South Seas Adventure.” After this engagement, all three downstairs booths were dismantled, dual 35/70mm projectors placed in the upstairs booth. The curved curtain track was removed, but
the giant red curtain was hung on a straight track that stretched from wall-to-wall across the entire width of the theatre forward of
the proscenium and in front of a flat one-piece screen, with “Ben-Hur” beginning a period of 35mm and 70mm attractions, most of them
roadshown, over the next 21 month period. Some of the films
shown there were “Exodus,” “King of Kings,” “Judgment at
Nuremburg,” and even Fellini’s esoteric “La Dolce Vita,"
these 3 being roadshown, along with some "mass” attractions
like “Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation” on a strictly “grind” policy.
The house then closed in mid-Summer of 1962 to re-install
Cinerama for the MGM productions. The Boyd, being somewhat
of a “widebody” auditorium was able to position all 3 projectors
in a single large “Baker” booth, and presented a Cinerama
image much larger than the original 76-foot installation.
December of 1963 saw the removal of 3-projector Cinerama and
the switch to 70mm Cinerama projection, the image at the center
being as tall as the 3x35 Cinerama but covering only about
128 degrees of the 146-degree screen. So confident that Cinerama
would last forever there, side masking was never installed.
There is some anecdotal evidence that special wide-angle
D-150 lenses were used for the presentation of “The Bible” in 1966 as I have been told that the screen image of that 70mm release was the same size as that of the 3-panel projection of 1962.
The Philadelphia “Inquirer” in 1953 published photographs of the
original Cinerama installation. I haven’t yet checked the archives
of the “Evening Bulletin.” I know that Channel 6 covered the 1953
premiere…whether cameras were inside the auditorium, or if any
of the footage is still around for viewing I cannot say.
In September this year, J. F. Lundy mentioned that he saw
“Windjammer” in the CineMiracle process at the Roxy. Lundy
may then be the only person on earth who can answer the following
question. It’s a simple one: were screen curtains and masking
used during this particular ultra-large-screen presentation, or was the screen “bare”?
I ask this because there is evidence that National Theatres,
the distributor and exhibitor, spared themselves the expense
of curtains during subsequent CineMiracle engagements at the
huge Chicago Opera House as well as in both small and large venues
using “portable” CineMiracle equipment in locations such as Lancaster, PA and Atlantic City, NJ.
And one final (hopefully) word on CinemaScope 55 at the Roxy
and elsewhere. It is true that in the States only 35mm
reduction anamorphic prints were used in theatres where
“CS 55” was advertised as such. However, all of these engage-
ments used interlocked 6-track magnetic sound (as opposed to 4-track sound-on-film), and, most importantly, were projected in the original CinemaScope aspect ratio of 2.55:1 (as opposed to the post 1954 ratio of 2.35:1). Take note that the first 4 theatres in the US that premiered CinemaScope 55 were also the first 4 theatres in
the US that premiered CinemaScope (35), and presumably still
had the requisite screen material and masking to present
a 2.55:1 image. These houses other than the Roxy are the
Grauman’s Chinese, the Chicago State-Lake, and the Philadelphia
Fox.
Never got here, but I do remember that the City Line was definitely in the “1st tier” slot for films coming off of roadshow downtown and going into limited release (“Now..For the First Time at Popular Prices, Continuous Performances!”). Most certainly was equipped for 4-track mag.
The original Cheltenham was one of a series of theatres that Stanley Warner opened that were to be capable of 70mm Cinerama projection. This was not done here. There was one interesting booking in the 60’s. Paramount booked a reserved-seat roadshow engagement of “Becket” there with a 70mm print, the 1st time I know of that a film played roadshow that far away from the center-city area. At the conclusion of that run, the 70mm print was moved to the Boyd downtown presenting the same size image as the “Cinerama 70” presentations without saying as much. The Cheltenham also distinguised itself by having its multitude of surround speakers not on the side walls but in the ceiling. Many interesting “fly-over” effects during the 4-track run of “Longest Day”.
Additional comments for downtown Philadelphia theatres:
In the above description for the Regency, it is written “under Budco, was twinned and converted for 70MM.” The Regency had 70mm capabilities long before Budco. “Under Budco,” a great many theatres were completely devastated. Someone wonders what the Midtown looked like twinned…beyond your wildest nightmare. And, to boot, the surround speakers on the side walls remained after the splitting. But each half-theatre did not install surrounds on the new center wall. This meant, that each theatre had surrounds on ONE wall only!
Pablo mentioned that “this was once a Todd-AO house.” This was, in fact, the 5th Todd-AO installation on the planet. A very costly conversion….some time later after Mr. Todd had been ousted from the Todd-AO corporation, he began to tout his 35mm anamorphic system called “Cinestage.” Shortly before his death, Todd held a demonstration of it at an Asbury Park NJ theatre for exhibitors including William Goldman, owner of the Midtown. Goldman and Todd got into a shouting match, the former being incensed that he had to shell out so much $ not only for the 70mm installation but also for the remodeling of the theatre, when he could have gotten much the same results from using 35mm Cinestage. The Goldman was worse, a sheer catastrophe under Budco. It also became something of a legal “celebrity” because in 1979 several Philadelphia film reviewers loudly and publicly and justifiably bemoaned the fact that UA had idiotically and without any regard for the audience had allowed its “Apocalypse Now” to premiere at the twinned Goldman. Budco claimed that these newspaper articles prejudiced the potential audience from coming to the Goldman. This was probably true as the boxoffice grosses reported by “Variety” were considerably lower than those in other metropolitan areas of similar size. In addition to all the faults of long, narrow hallway theatres, the theatre rows had been curved to match the curve of the humongous 70mm screen installed for “Sleeping Beauty” in 1959. So now you had two “theatres” in which the seats faced the tiny screens at a distinct angle. I don’t know in whose favor the lawsuit ended. But, through the help of every Angel in Heaven, Budco no longer operates theatres in the area. Amen.
BTW, anyone got any photos of the Stanley auditorium after its 1959 super-swank remodeling?
BTW again, is there anybody on earth who will say a kind word about the Samson Street “Roxy.”? Warners seems to delight in letting its films play there. If I had the money I would fly Robert Zemeckis there to see his “Polar Express” in that hell hole. I bet he wouldn’t make another film again as long as he lives if he saw it there.
Answer to RobertR’s post this past September concerning films that played normally at the MH but were roadshown elsewhere. Add MGM’s 1960 “Cimarron” to the list. Played, to indifferent results, at the Hollywood Paramount (now El Capitan again) and Philadelphia’s Stanton, a Warner house not previously known for roadshows.
Contact Howard Haas at savethesameric.org. They have occasional events, like a tour of the theatre this upcoming December 1, to raise funds for its preservation.
This really stretches the memory cells, but here goes: I used to have a set of Encyclopedia Brittanica’s with the yearbook of 1948 or 1949. There was a photograph of the Esquire’s auditorium. The proscenium consisted of a series of rectangular “concentric” arches that “enclosed” a smallish 1.33:1 screen. When I saw this photo in the 1950’s I said to myself that that house could never show ‘scope. As I recall through reading the “theatre grosses” section of “Variety,” no scope films at all were shown in the 1950’s. Later research turned up the fact that during that period the theatre was managed, or at least booked, by Paramount Distribution Corporation. Paramount at that time, as I’m sure you realize, had only a handful of 2.35:1 releases (if any at all) at that time. Obviously, major changes had to be made there by the time the 70mm “Star Wars” opened in 1977.
When was this? Are you sure you are not speaking of the brief period in 1958 when 3 CineMiracle projectors were installed for “Windjammer.” Neither my (fading) memory nor the offical International Cinerama Society list of Cinerama installations has any mention of a 3-projector setup in Glenside. You may be referring to a partial installation at what became the GCC Cinema at the Cherry Hill Mall in N.J. Platforms for the A,B, and C booth were constructed in front of the conventional booth. Closer to Glenside, the then Stanley-Warner King of Prussia house was designed for D-150 projection. The booth was placed at the front edge of the balcony, but the curved screen was never installed. If you have any factual info about a 3-projector run at the Keswick (other than “Windjammer”’s), please inform us.
More Cinerama information about the Boyd. To make a tortuous story
short, when the Dept. of Justice granted Stanley-Warner
Theatres the right to produce and distribute films, in particular
Cinerama films, part of the arrangement was that theatres
that SW acquired specifically for the presentation of
Cinerama had to received court assent to show non-Cinerama
productions; on the other hand, theatres which SW already
owned could present non-Cinerama features without any court
intervention. The Boyd fell into the latter category, and
this explains the non-Cinerama portion of the Boyd’s history
in the 1950’s. The 4th Cinerama travelogue, “Search For
Paradise,” proved to be less than successful at the box-office.
Non SW-owned theatres that suddenly had no Cinerama product
simply closed. Example: the Melba in Dallas. On the other hand,
SW-owned houses retooled for “normal” 35mm activity, and
booked non-Cinerama product. The Pittsburgh Warner, for example,
dropped Cinerama in favor of DeMille’s “10 Commandments"
in 1957. The following year, with crowds dwindling at the Boyd,
the house closed for about a month, installed 4-track mag penthouses
for its 2 35mm projectors, hung new vertically-rising
masking that could, in conjunction with the screen curtains,
mask out a "flat” or “scope” 35mm ratio. I would bet that
at that time the controls for the curtain motor(s) were
moved from behind the screen to the upstairs booth. At any
rate, in March of 1958, Cinerama temporarily ended; the
house reopened and showed, continuous-performance, popular-prices,
a series of (mainly) 20th Century Fox films in 35mm scope, and that
summer had a reasonably successful roadshow run of MGM’s “Gigi."
After that film’s end, some enhancements were made to the
3 Cinerama projectors to enable them to show the CineMiracle
production "Windjammer” in Cinerama. This film ran until the
late Winter of 1959, and was replaced by the final Cinerama
travelogue “South Seas Adventure.” After this engagement, all three downstairs booths were dismantled, dual 35/70mm projectors placed in the upstairs booth. The curved curtain track was removed, but
the giant red curtain was hung on a straight track that stretched from wall-to-wall across the entire width of the theatre forward of
the proscenium and in front of a flat one-piece screen, with “Ben-Hur” beginning a period of 35mm and 70mm attractions, most of them
roadshown, over the next 21 month period. Some of the films
shown there were “Exodus,” “King of Kings,” “Judgment at
Nuremburg,” and even Fellini’s esoteric “La Dolce Vita,"
these 3 being roadshown, along with some "mass” attractions
like “Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation” on a strictly “grind” policy.
The house then closed in mid-Summer of 1962 to re-install
Cinerama for the MGM productions. The Boyd, being somewhat
of a “widebody” auditorium was able to position all 3 projectors
in a single large “Baker” booth, and presented a Cinerama
image much larger than the original 76-foot installation.
December of 1963 saw the removal of 3-projector Cinerama and
the switch to 70mm Cinerama projection, the image at the center
being as tall as the 3x35 Cinerama but covering only about
128 degrees of the 146-degree screen. So confident that Cinerama
would last forever there, side masking was never installed.
There is some anecdotal evidence that special wide-angle
D-150 lenses were used for the presentation of “The Bible” in 1966 as I have been told that the screen image of that 70mm release was the same size as that of the 3-panel projection of 1962.
The Philadelphia “Inquirer” in 1953 published photographs of the
original Cinerama installation. I haven’t yet checked the archives
of the “Evening Bulletin.” I know that Channel 6 covered the 1953
premiere…whether cameras were inside the auditorium, or if any
of the footage is still around for viewing I cannot say.
In September this year, J. F. Lundy mentioned that he saw
“Windjammer” in the CineMiracle process at the Roxy. Lundy
may then be the only person on earth who can answer the following
question. It’s a simple one: were screen curtains and masking
used during this particular ultra-large-screen presentation, or was the screen “bare”?
I ask this because there is evidence that National Theatres,
the distributor and exhibitor, spared themselves the expense
of curtains during subsequent CineMiracle engagements at the
huge Chicago Opera House as well as in both small and large venues
using “portable” CineMiracle equipment in locations such as Lancaster, PA and Atlantic City, NJ.
And one final (hopefully) word on CinemaScope 55 at the Roxy
and elsewhere. It is true that in the States only 35mm
reduction anamorphic prints were used in theatres where
“CS 55” was advertised as such. However, all of these engage-
ments used interlocked 6-track magnetic sound (as opposed to 4-track sound-on-film), and, most importantly, were projected in the original CinemaScope aspect ratio of 2.55:1 (as opposed to the post 1954 ratio of 2.35:1). Take note that the first 4 theatres in the US that premiered CinemaScope 55 were also the first 4 theatres in
the US that premiered CinemaScope (35), and presumably still
had the requisite screen material and masking to present
a 2.55:1 image. These houses other than the Roxy are the
Grauman’s Chinese, the Chicago State-Lake, and the Philadelphia
Fox.