Criterion Theatre
1514 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
1514 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
28 people
favorited this theater
Showing 451 - 475 of 615 comments
Vincent—-
The theater looked exactly the same as a 70MM roadshow house as depected in Warren’s photo. Imagine opening those drapes completely and inscribe a flat 2.2 to 1 screen in the lower area of the procenium and what you see is what you got.
Warren that’s a wonderful photo(boy do I miss this theater, it sould have been treated like the Ziegfeld.) Do you have one just as good from when it was a 70mm roadshow house?
Warren—
Thanks for the photo of the proscenium. It supplements the wonderful photos from ‘36 that you posted over a year ago, on your entry for July 20 2004 above. In my memory, the '56 renovation spruced up the lighting and bright red color design, but made no substantial changes upon the Criterion I knew in the '40s. And so it remained until the last film I saw there, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolff,” a decade later in '66.
SECOND CHANCE-1954-
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PEPE-1960
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YOUR NEVER TO YOUNG-1956
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LIVING IT UP-1954
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THE COUNTRY GIRL-1954
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THE 5000 FINGERS OF DR T-1953
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CEASE FIRE IN 3-D-1953
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i the jury in 3-d 1953
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robin hood-1952
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one minute to zero-1952
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the white twor-1950
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Here is a 1934 image of the original Criterion Theatre, showing the Premier screening the Gaumont British release “Man of Aran” (a documentary directed by Rober Flaherty):
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I believe this is the theater that became a Paramount house for its more prestigious product(Wings, Applause, Design For Living)rather than for the hoi poloi movie palace crowds across the street at the Paramount.
Does anyone have an interior photo of this one? Also what was the capacity?
Here is the Criterion during the roadshow of “My Fair Lady"
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The 1971 re-issue of “My Fair Lady” was a national re-release. Select cities got 70MM prints of the film, the Southern California location was the Fox Wilshire Theatre in Beverly Hills.
What a great color photo of Times Square in all its 50’s glory! I’d like to see more like this.
The Criterion during “Robin Hood"
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It did. I believe that Warners was about to lose the rights which were to revert to CBS and this was their last hurrah with MFL(how did Jack Warner get this film so right and 1776 so wrong?)
I saw it as well in the burbs and while not packed it was much better attended.
It played at the smallest of our local theaters which has since been turned into a quad.
Vincent says: “The mass audience tastes had completely changed and it was painful to see.”
Yes, unfortunately, that’s what I figured. I think it depended upon the film and the venue. I saw “The Sound of Music” at our local theater on LI (Century’s Baldwin) and the place was packed. It played there for a week and there was almost always a line. The timing was crucial as well. The re-releases “Music” during the summer of 1973, kids are off, parents are desperate for something to amuse them, etc. Perfect combo.
Did “My Fair Lady” go into a wide re-release nationally or just in Times Square?
Bob, I had not realised that, it has been a long time since seeing the film in 3-D. I thought the recent showings on TCM was he same as the 3-D version. We are just going to have to get TCM to dig up the 3-D version to show. Interesting fact you shared, thanks.
RE: what Vincent said. My cousin and I had to struggle to find two seats together for “Love Story” at Loew’s State 1. That was also our first $3.00 movie ticket. We thought it was an outrageously high price.
I saw a late Saturday matinee and it was pretty empty(though in 70mm it had continuous perfs without an intermission. The mezz was priced higher-$3.50 than the orch or balc-$3.00.) I believe it ran for 3 weeks with Variety saying its weekly gross was 30K which seems improbable to me. It seems at that point the family movie going audience had completely turned its back on Times Square. My Fair Lady and the Criterion were the perfect movie-theater fit. The mass audience tastes had completely changed and it was painful to see.
By the way at the same time the unwatchable Love Story had long lines a block north at Loews State.