*THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG opens December 11th @ Arclight Hollywood. This is the first time,that i can recall,that a Disney produced animated film has NOT opened at the El Capitan since it opened.*
Thanks, everyone, for the compliments and additional info!
As for the re-release and whether it should be listed as ‘68 or '69, I’d like to point out that while researching the project I found that the film opened in Tokyo, Japan during September '68. Hence the '68 reference.
The earliest U.S. re-release bookings were, as Kirk pointed out, in February ‘69. Interestingly, neither Los Angeles or New York were among the earliest bookings of that re-release. L.A. and N.Y. came along during March and June, respectively. It opened first in Miami and a few other locations.
A couple of comments from above have mentioned the short “Grand Canyon Suite,” which I would like to clarify was actually titled, simply, “Grand Canyon”; it was the music in that film that was called “Grand Canyon Suite.”
It may also be worth pointing out that while “Grand Canyon” was shown with all of the initial “roadshow” bookings of “Sleeping Beauty,” it was not necessarily shown with every general-release presentation. In many situations a different short was shown (such as “Ama Girls”), or instead of including a short the film was double billed.
**Some sources refer to the film as “Grand Canyonscope” because it was intended to serve as a demonstration film for the CinemaScope process.
“Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom” was rated PG. It was, however, the film (along with “Gremlins”) that influenced the creation of the PG-13 rating. “Red Dawn” and “Dreamscape” (released a week apart during August 1984) were the first PG-13 rated films.
Film historian Rick Mitchell, who is not a Cinema Treasures member and therefore does not post here, has given me permission to post this message of his regarding “Sleeping Beauty”:
[quote]Some FYI background on this: according to a 1958 Variety article, Walt Disney, noting the superior quality of the reduction dailies on SLEEPING BEAUTY over the cartoons they’d shot in CinemaScope as well as the grosses of AROUND THE WORLD… and SOUTH PACIFIC in their 70mm roadshow engagements, asked Technicolor if it would be possible to make 70mm prints on the film. According to an SMPTE Journal item also that year, Technicolor had already successfully made test blowups directly from the 8 perf negative of live action subjects, but SLEEPING BEAUTY presented a potential problem. Like all Disney color cartoon subjects and most cartoon features made by others until computers came in, it had been photographed on a “sequential exposure” (SE) negative. That is, each cel setup would be photographed three times through filters of the primary or secondary colors onto a black-and-white negative. Until 1974, on all such films dye transfer printed by Technicolor, the matrice for the proper color would be made by skip frame optical printing. I’ve never heard how daily prints were done after 1955 when the industry essentially went exclusively to color positive stock for this purpose (Jack Theakston may know), but for color positive release prints, it was necessary to make either a black-and-white or color combined master positive and from that a color internegative. Technicolor did tests to determine the image quality loss from this process and Disney deemed the results satisfactory enough to authorize the 70mm release.
Exactly which process was used is not known. When he was archivist at Disney and did the last film restoration of SLEEPING BEAUTY, Scott MacQueen told me he couldn’t find any intermediate elements or paperwork related to it. He guesses that they made an 8 perf color IP from the SE negative, as this could then be used to generate material for trailers and such things as the promo shown on “Disneyland” in which scenes from the film were matted into a theater screen at the 2.2:1 AR. He guessed that would have been 8 perf to maintain image quality, but doesn’t know if they then made an 8 perf internegative and made the 70mm prints from that, or made a 65mm internegative. Either way the prints would have been done on an optical printer as that’s how Technicolor always made 70mm prints in the Fifties, even from 65mm originals. And the optical printer lens used to “correct” the 1.5x squeeze image was specially made by Panavision and later used to make the 70mm prints on SPARTACUS and possibly SOLOMON AND SHEBA.
For the early Eighties reissue of SLEEPING BEAUTY, a 35mm 2x squeeze internegative was made from the 8 perf separation positives and the 70mm prints made off that. Scott’s restoration went back to the SE neg, from which he made a new set of 8 perf separations on Estar stock, a new 35mm anamorphic internegative and a new 65mm internegative.
And of course it’s recently been subjected to digitalis.[/quote]
It’s funny how questions get (mis)interpreted. In my question from yesterday, I was asking about theaters specifically with the name “National,” not any theaters built by National General Corporation. But it’s all good info just the same, guys!
They were built and initially operated by the same company (NGC). The difference was that the Nationals in New York and Los Angeles were built as large, single screeners whereas the National in Corpus Christi was built as a twin.
Anyone know of any other Nationals built circa 1968-1972?
Who the heck edited my intro? If I would’ve known my submission was going to be edited and would end up including questionable punctuation and stylization, I would have reconsidered posting.
Please, Cinema Treasures staff, if you wish to edit my writing, please run it by me first.
Thanks, Nick, for the comprehensive overview of the Hillsboro. If only every theater entry on Cinema Treasures was like that! You offered a nice balance of history (which I like) and personal reminiscences (which most CT readers seem to want).
*"The one big plus was the installation of Dolby Stereo in Hillsboro I. I do not recall any other theatre in Tampa during this time that had a Dolby installation. To my knowledge the Hillsboro I was the only house in town with Dolby in 1978." *
Info contained in Dolby Labs' late 1970s installation records, of which I have a copy, match your recollection. The success of that Hillsboro installation, no doubt, led to additional installations. By 1980, for instance, there were several “Tampa Bay” area Dolby houses, including…
From that point on, it was common for just about every newly-built theater to include Dolby on at least one or two of its screens.
(Nick…please email me if you see this posting. I have a question for you. My email address is listed in my profile. I would contact you but you didn’t post any contact details.)
Is this the St. Louis theater that had the area first-run booking in 1959 of Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty”? Might any St. Louisans (is that a word?!) know its local premiere date? JAlex? Chuck1231? Chris Utley?
Millcreek Mall Cinema I-II-III during 1977 had a 26-week run of the original “Star Wars” concurrent with a booking at Cinema World.
Following its completion, there was a moveover run at Eastway, where “Star Wars” ran another 37 weeks for a total Erie run of 63 weeks. Pretty remarkable for a city the size of Erie.
*A group of us saw Star Wars at the Northpark in it's original run. I remember distinctly that we returned for a 1 year anniversary viewing of our first experience. I would b[e] interested in knowing how many prints the Northpark used during that run because I don't ever remember seeing a flaw.*
At least two. The movie opened in May ‘77 in 35mm and upgraded that December to a 70mm print. I don’t know if either of those prints was ever damaged and required replacement.
*As well as the Northpark I & II there was a Northpark III & IV. At one time Star Wars was running in all four of the theatre's simultaneously to standing room only business.*
While researching the release history of “Star Wars,” I didn’t come across any evidence that “Star Wars” was ever simultaneously playing on all four screens of the two Northpark complexes. It did, however, play for a 12-week week period simultaneously on one screen in each complex.
To clarify, “Star Wars” opened on one of the two screens at Northpark I & II on May 27, 1977 and played for 54 weeks; it opened on one of the two screens at Northpark III & IV on July 22, 1977 and played for 12 weeks.
Is it possible you remember receiving “Star Wars” promotional material because Columbia Square actually opened in 1976 rather than in ‘77? See my post on the Columbia Square page…
MikeRogers… Are you sure Columbia Square opened in 1977? A 1976 grand opening seems more likely given the two films you cited as the debut attractions, not to mention that in your comment on Sep. 30 you claimed “A Star Is Born” during February of ‘77 was in its 8th week (which would backtrack to a Christmas '76 opening).
Yes, the original house was equipped for 70mm, but I don’t believe they played anything in 70 until their 1977-78 booking of “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.”
How could “Star Wars” have been considered for booking at Columbia Square if that theater (at least according to the info you posted on its page) didn’t open until November 1977? (The Weis Cinema Centre booking began July 1, 1977.) Or, did the Columbia Square actually open in ‘76?
“Mulan” (1998) opened at the Chinese.
The “Ben-Hur” re-issue also opened in Australia during 1968…
Thanks, everyone, for the compliments and additional info!
As for the re-release and whether it should be listed as ‘68 or '69, I’d like to point out that while researching the project I found that the film opened in Tokyo, Japan during September '68. Hence the '68 reference.
The earliest U.S. re-release bookings were, as Kirk pointed out, in February ‘69. Interestingly, neither Los Angeles or New York were among the earliest bookings of that re-release. L.A. and N.Y. came along during March and June, respectively. It opened first in Miami and a few other locations.
Thanks, JAlex. I have another St. Louis question, so if you see this message, please contact me (email is in my profile).
A couple of comments from above have mentioned the short “Grand Canyon Suite,” which I would like to clarify was actually titled, simply, “Grand Canyon”; it was the music in that film that was called “Grand Canyon Suite.”
It may also be worth pointing out that while “Grand Canyon” was shown with all of the initial “roadshow” bookings of “Sleeping Beauty,” it was not necessarily shown with every general-release presentation. In many situations a different short was shown (such as “Ama Girls”), or instead of including a short the film was double billed.
**Some sources refer to the film as “Grand Canyonscope” because it was intended to serve as a demonstration film for the CinemaScope process.
“Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom” was rated PG. It was, however, the film (along with “Gremlins”) that influenced the creation of the PG-13 rating. “Red Dawn” and “Dreamscape” (released a week apart during August 1984) were the first PG-13 rated films.
Film historian Rick Mitchell, who is not a Cinema Treasures member and therefore does not post here, has given me permission to post this message of his regarding “Sleeping Beauty”:
[quote]Some FYI background on this: according to a 1958 Variety article, Walt Disney, noting the superior quality of the reduction dailies on SLEEPING BEAUTY over the cartoons they’d shot in CinemaScope as well as the grosses of AROUND THE WORLD… and SOUTH PACIFIC in their 70mm roadshow engagements, asked Technicolor if it would be possible to make 70mm prints on the film. According to an SMPTE Journal item also that year, Technicolor had already successfully made test blowups directly from the 8 perf negative of live action subjects, but SLEEPING BEAUTY presented a potential problem. Like all Disney color cartoon subjects and most cartoon features made by others until computers came in, it had been photographed on a “sequential exposure” (SE) negative. That is, each cel setup would be photographed three times through filters of the primary or secondary colors onto a black-and-white negative. Until 1974, on all such films dye transfer printed by Technicolor, the matrice for the proper color would be made by skip frame optical printing. I’ve never heard how daily prints were done after 1955 when the industry essentially went exclusively to color positive stock for this purpose (Jack Theakston may know), but for color positive release prints, it was necessary to make either a black-and-white or color combined master positive and from that a color internegative. Technicolor did tests to determine the image quality loss from this process and Disney deemed the results satisfactory enough to authorize the 70mm release.
Exactly which process was used is not known. When he was archivist at Disney and did the last film restoration of SLEEPING BEAUTY, Scott MacQueen told me he couldn’t find any intermediate elements or paperwork related to it. He guesses that they made an 8 perf color IP from the SE negative, as this could then be used to generate material for trailers and such things as the promo shown on “Disneyland” in which scenes from the film were matted into a theater screen at the 2.2:1 AR. He guessed that would have been 8 perf to maintain image quality, but doesn’t know if they then made an 8 perf internegative and made the 70mm prints from that, or made a 65mm internegative. Either way the prints would have been done on an optical printer as that’s how Technicolor always made 70mm prints in the Fifties, even from 65mm originals. And the optical printer lens used to “correct” the 1.5x squeeze image was specially made by Panavision and later used to make the 70mm prints on SPARTACUS and possibly SOLOMON AND SHEBA.
For the early Eighties reissue of SLEEPING BEAUTY, a 35mm 2x squeeze internegative was made from the 8 perf separation positives and the 70mm prints made off that. Scott’s restoration went back to the SE neg, from which he made a new set of 8 perf separations on Estar stock, a new 35mm anamorphic internegative and a new 65mm internegative.
And of course it’s recently been subjected to digitalis.[/quote]
It’s funny how questions get (mis)interpreted. In my question from yesterday, I was asking about theaters specifically with the name “National,” not any theaters built by National General Corporation. But it’s all good info just the same, guys!
They were built and initially operated by the same company (NGC). The difference was that the Nationals in New York and Los Angeles were built as large, single screeners whereas the National in Corpus Christi was built as a twin.
Anyone know of any other Nationals built circa 1968-1972?
Who the heck edited my intro? If I would’ve known my submission was going to be edited and would end up including questionable punctuation and stylization, I would have reconsidered posting.
Please, Cinema Treasures staff, if you wish to edit my writing, please run it by me first.
Anyone know if Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty” played here first-run?
jimvin… Might you have the premiere date for the Uptown’s engagement of “Sleeping Beauty”? July what?
Paging Gerald A. DeLuca. Please contact me if you see this message. I have an Elmwood question for you.
Thanks, Nick, for the comprehensive overview of the Hillsboro. If only every theater entry on Cinema Treasures was like that! You offered a nice balance of history (which I like) and personal reminiscences (which most CT readers seem to want).
Info contained in Dolby Labs' late 1970s installation records, of which I have a copy, match your recollection. The success of that Hillsboro installation, no doubt, led to additional installations. By 1980, for instance, there were several “Tampa Bay” area Dolby houses, including…
Bradenton (UA DeSoto Square Mall)
Clearwater (Plitt Sunshine Mall)
Pinellas Park (GCC Pinellas Square)
Sarasota (AMC Sarasota 6)
Sarasota (Plitt Plaza)
St. Petersburg (AMC Tyrone Square)
From that point on, it was common for just about every newly-built theater to include Dolby on at least one or two of its screens.
(Nick…please email me if you see this posting. I have a question for you. My email address is listed in my profile. I would contact you but you didn’t post any contact details.)
BEN-HUR opened its Hartford roadshow run in May 1960.
Is this the St. Louis theater that had the area first-run booking in 1959 of Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty”? Might any St. Louisans (is that a word?!) know its local premiere date? JAlex? Chuck1231? Chris Utley?
Millcreek Mall Cinema I-II-III during 1977 had a 26-week run of the original “Star Wars” concurrent with a booking at Cinema World.
Following its completion, there was a moveover run at Eastway, where “Star Wars” ran another 37 weeks for a total Erie run of 63 weeks. Pretty remarkable for a city the size of Erie.
At least two. The movie opened in May ‘77 in 35mm and upgraded that December to a 70mm print. I don’t know if either of those prints was ever damaged and required replacement.
While researching the release history of “Star Wars,” I didn’t come across any evidence that “Star Wars” was ever simultaneously playing on all four screens of the two Northpark complexes. It did, however, play for a 12-week week period simultaneously on one screen in each complex.
To clarify, “Star Wars” opened on one of the two screens at Northpark I & II on May 27, 1977 and played for 54 weeks; it opened on one of the two screens at Northpark III & IV on July 22, 1977 and played for 12 weeks.
ennis…
During the course of the 1950s-1960s roadshow era, the following Dallas theaters were equipped to show 70mm:
CINE 150
ESQUIRE
INWOOD
MELBA / CAPRI
NORTHPARK CINEMA I & II
PRESTON ROYAL
TOWER
WYNNEWOOD
And in Houston:
ALABAMA
DELMAN
GALLERIA CINEMA I & II
GAYLYNN
MEYERLAND PLAZA
OAK VILLAGE
TOWER
UPTOWN
WINDSOR
The Cine El Dorado opened on June 14, 1967. The debut attraction was, appropriately, “El Dorado.”
The Fox Buena Vista opened on February 10, 1967. The debut attraction was “A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum.”
Is it possible you remember receiving “Star Wars” promotional material because Columbia Square actually opened in 1976 rather than in ‘77? See my post on the Columbia Square page…
Oh, and P-L-E-A-S-E stop typing in ALL CAPS!!!
MikeRogers… Are you sure Columbia Square opened in 1977? A 1976 grand opening seems more likely given the two films you cited as the debut attractions, not to mention that in your comment on Sep. 30 you claimed “A Star Is Born” during February of ‘77 was in its 8th week (which would backtrack to a Christmas '76 opening).
Yes, the original house was equipped for 70mm, but I don’t believe they played anything in 70 until their 1977-78 booking of “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.”
How could “Star Wars” have been considered for booking at Columbia Square if that theater (at least according to the info you posted on its page) didn’t open until November 1977? (The Weis Cinema Centre booking began July 1, 1977.) Or, did the Columbia Square actually open in ‘76?