Roxy Theatre
153 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
153 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
83 people
favorited this theater
Showing 576 - 600 of 1,225 comments
My pleasure Bill, At my age it’s rather therapeutic.
By the way, I have to say I share your sadness at the sight of what was the Great White Way. Early in my career I worked for Fox on,
I believe was 52nd and 10th. Weather and time permitting, I would take the subway to Times Square, and then walk the 8-10 blocks either North on B'way/7th or West down 42nd st to 8th ave to admire all the marquees and theatre fronts, which sadly are all gone now.
As I am sure you remember, going to Times Square in the evening was quite a sight, the marquee lights were spectacular!
Few of you will remember (very few) that most of the first run Broadway deluxers showed their feature until 4 AM, especially during the war years. Also remember that many factories employed round-the-clock shifts with many patrons looking for entertainment at odd hours. You can be sure if the customers were not there, they wouldn’t stay open. The grind houses on 42nd, in particular, never seemed to close. I don’t know the policy at the Roxy regarding this, but the Music Hall reduced its regular price of $1.50 to .90 for the midnight feature (no stage show)only.
Thanks, Vito. Your memories and your sharing them with us are definite examples of non-architectural Cinema Treasures.
Bill, that’s a tough question, the attendance in theatres for the late shows varied from theatre to theatre and movie to movie. I ran shows for as little as handful of patrons to almost a full house.
Location played a big part as well, the downtown theatres (remember them?) did very well indeed, where as the neighborhood house’s were not as busy. During the summer months business was up for the late shows, and we often ran them every night, generally starting around 11PM. During the slower winter months we ran the so-called midnight shows on Friday and Saturday, Many locations also ran midnight’s on any Sunday that preceded a holiday.
I had some rather long days in the booth back then, often pulling two shifts and a midnight, which meant going to work around noon and going home at three in the morning. I would get really spoiled whenever I bid on and won a Roadshow engagement because it meant running only one or two shows a day (3 on Sunday) It was nice to get top pay to go to work at 7, run one show at 8, and go home at 10:30 â€"11:00 Even when we had matinees the total hours we worked were a piece of cake.
Truth be told, I never really hated the long hours, except when I did an opening shift at a theatre thinking I had the night off only to get a call from the business agent telling me he was short handed that night and begging me to go to another theatre after my shift ended.
Bottom line, would I do it all again….. you bet, in a heartbeat.
Mountaingent… Do you happen to have a photo of the stained glass window in your loft? Perhaps if you can post it here, one of the resident Roxy experts might be able to identify if it might have (or did, in fact) come from the late great Roxy Theatre.
Vito: On average, how big were the audiences at those after-midnight shows?
I still find it hard to believe that Times Square, once such a vital all-night moviegoing mecca, is now practically devoid of movie theaters.
Those late night show often put a little extra on the dinner table for us. We would get paid by the shift, with the evening shift time ending at midnight, any thing after that was overtime or time and a half. A midnight show running till 3AM was gravy in the ole pay check.
Just met the architect who built my home in woodstock, ny. He says that the beautiful large (3'x5') stained glass window in the loft was from the roxy. It is gold, lavender, with many off-white circles
bordering and crossing the design. Is anyone knowledgeable and possibly have photos of the “old girl”.
When “Forbidden Planet” played the Globe (now the Lunt-Fontanne) in Times Square, the first show went on at 9 AM and the last show started at 1:20 AM, getting out at around 3! And this was just a regular non-holiday week in May 1956. If you look at the Movie Time Table, you’ll see several theaters had shows starting at midnight or later:
View link
Answer to mjc: That was indeed,only for New Years Eve. Generally the last stage show began at 10 PM with the last feature at 11 PM, except for Saturday night when the last stage show began at 11 PM and feature at midnight. The Roxy made it a policy to have their last show a bit later than the Music Hall in order to get the overflow and others who missed the last show at the Hall. During the war years, the Hall ran an additional midnight showing of the film without a late stage show.
The Roxy opened at 9 am and the last feature ran at 2.30am? Thats quite a day. Were these hours just for New Years?
Here are some playtimes:
ROXY
STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER (4 weeks)
GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (6 weeks)
THE ROBE(13 weeks)
THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS (7 weeks)
PEYTON PLACE (6 weeks)
RCMH
THE BAND WAGON (7 weeks)
It should also be noted that
Yes, I heard about the opening with Ms. Merman. Would have loved to have been there and to have seen the film with that great finale as you say. Must have been quite something to see. I saw it at the Fox in San Francisco, at I remember being quite impressed. I was in my teens. I remember my parents saying something like WOW and there was applause at the conculsion. PEYTON PLACE is another film I’d like to know how long and how many weeks it played. I went to school with the girl who played Allison…Diane Varsi. When she got the role she was non too excited. However, at the premier in Hollywood, she past out from being overwhelmed with seeing herself and hearing her voice at Graumans. Wonder how she would have felt seeing herself at the Roxy!!!!
I know Warren is the expert with the exact grosses retrieved from Variety. But I’d like to take a stab at it just from memory. I believe that “…Show Business” was a huge disappointment to Fox despite the big campaign. I remember that Ethel Merman was on hand opening day at the Roxy to sell tickets…that’s right…they put at the box office with a regular cashier as a gimmick at the opening show. The opening week was around $90,000 (pre-Christmas) with the following holiday week jumbing to about $142,000 (not a record by any means). “Forever Amber” did $!80,000 as did “Stars and Stripes Forever.” It fell considerably below $90,000 in subsequent weeks , but Warren can tell you whether it played four or five weeks or more. What I can tell you is that seeing “…Show Business” on that great screen, especially that grand finale, was something else.
Yes ron I seem to recall a “Show Buiness” reel as well. In those days we often had special promotional/test reels. I had a collection of them stored away at the Paramount in Staten Island, but when I visited the theatre in 1982 the only one I found was “South Pacific” Darn, I wish I had some of those prints today.
Some of the older projectionist and exibitors will remember the test reels we would get for many engagements.
Warren, if you get the time, I too would love to learn the “Show Business” grosses at the Roxy.
Interesting about the test reel for CinemaScope and Stereo. In San Francisco there was a special reel of THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS for scope and sound purposes as well. This might have been for the smaller theatres..not sure..even though scope had been out a while, they still had a test reel of SHOW BUSINESS. By the way, wonder what SHOW BUSINESS did gross wise at the Roxy and how many weeks it played.
Here’s one consideration that many people who watch the grosses between the Roxy and Music Hall srarely consider. The Music Hall always attracted a heavy morning and matinee crowd, mainly comprised of tourists. The Roxy business did not have the pull of tourists and business was heaviest at night and ran their shows much later, often until 1 Am, except for the rare family film. As a former usher at both theaters, I can tell you that the Roxy also had a policy of special children’s prices at all times which kept the grosses down. The Music Hall never had that policy.
Gosh warren, makes me wonder what “Blondes” would have grossed had it played at RCMH. Of course as we know, the fox product was generally presented at the Roxy and Paramount with an occassional roadshow going to the Rivoli. I had always wished “Blondes” had been made a bit later allowing it to be filmed in CinemaScope with four track sound. I may be wrong, but I believe the test reel Fox made up to introduce CinemaScope and Stereophonic sound to exibitors had some bits of “Blondes” included in it. We played that test reel at the Paramount in Staten Island on Christmas eve, the night before “The Robe” opened there.
I’m trying to reach Ed Solero. Thanks very much. TJ McDowell.
That last postcard image of the Grand Lounge off the rotunda is very interesting. It’s dated 1946 and the description states the room is “newly refurbished” – I imagine the floor-to-ceiling mirror treatment on the walls was entirely new. Were any other parts of the theater refurbished in this manner in the ‘40’s? I know that drapery was installed in the auditorium at some point (I’m guessing with the Cinemascope installation in the '50’s), which obscured some of the proscenium detail work.
BLONDES doubled BAND WAGON’S total take in national distributor rentals according to Variety estimates at the time. Of course, the Roxy seating capacity may have changed the NY numbers.
I don’t have the Roxy grosses for “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” but I’m reasonably sure, if memory serves, they hovered around the $120,000, 110,000, 100,000 or so for the run. The “Band Wagon” grosses were, as follows: 171,000, 157,000, 159,000, 156,000, 147,000, 133,000, and 117,000 for its 7 week run.
Warren, Thanks you for that wonderful post. It sure brought back great memories of those “Selected Short Subjects” which was a short snipe we ran at the end of the coming attractions.
Even if your local theatre did not have a stage show, a day at the movies included “Two Big Hits”, a serial, cartoon, Travelogue and newsreel. All that, and popcorn and sodas for under a buck.
Ah Warren, we must get together and build a time machine.
Glad to have helped. I agree, there are some fine sounding instruments on this webpage. It’s a pity the Roxy’s two smaller organs were destroyed. At least the console and a few of the ranks of the 5 manual Kimball were saved.
Thank you Mike…I’m in heaven. Now I can play and hear the grand organ medleys before after the movies on my big screen TV. All I need is an usher to say “immediate seating in all parts of the theater,” or “exits and lounges are on the left.”