I realize this is confusing but at the end of 2001 in ‘76 the print most definitely said Cinerama at the end(I was very surprised to see this.) In '78 it said 70MM. I know it was not a Cinerama presentation but for some reason the '76 presentation was so much more impressive.
Also I assumed the screen size of the Warner Cinerama after the theater had been split was the same size it had been when it showed single screen Cinerama. It was huge curved and the 70MM/Todd AO festival in ‘78 was astounding which is one of the reasons I could never take the Ziegfeld seriously. Too bad it had become an exploitation house in the 70s.
The Rivoli and Warner were the real thing. Even the Bellevue in Montclair was a better 70MM house. They all blew the Ziegfeld away.
It looks like the photo with Fiddler on the marquee is not a stage production from ‘67 but the original Chicago film engagement in '71 or'72 when the film was running roadshow.
One of the great endings to an MGM musical which I believe even made it into the 1st That’s Entertainment film. The last all star MGM musical of its kind and should have been the Easter show. Wide wide Cinemascope which probably looked great at the Music Hall.
By the way I believe Anthony Mordente is Tony Mordente who was in the original cast of WSS and one of the Jets in the film. Married Chita Rivera.
This movie is 2 hours and 34 minutes giving lie to the claim that the Music Hall had movies cut to fit in with the stage show. Also maybe someone who is very familiar with this film can help with it. I could swear it has two endings.
I took an old DVD of it out of the library, watched it with my mother and was very surprised that Russell and Guinness decide to get married at the end. Even my old conservative mother commented on it. ‘So they do get married!’
I at a much later date started watching it from the middle on TCM. Didn’t mean to but got caught up in it again. It ended where they just decide to be friends.
Anyone know if this film really has two endings and which the Music Hall played?
NYer with all due respect I appreciate many of your photos but do you feel perhaps in the photo section we should concentrate on the Music Hall’s history as a presentation house rather than a concert venue? Personally I feel a bit of a pang when I see these ads. I realize the Hall still exists because of these concerts but I like seeing people celebrate its glory years as a film and stage show house which made it a cinema treasure.
Thank you for that. I thought it odd it was put into a doc on the Roosevelts and the depression. It seems to come out of nowhere as a consequence of the bank holiday.
Supposedly King Kong did very poorly at the Music Hall because that was the week Roosevelt closed the banks. Just saw this recently in a documentary on the Roosevelts. This was news to me. I thought it had been a hit.
Very bad timing indeed. Anybody have access to Variety on microfilm to see what the week’s gross was?
That would be wonderful but is anyone around who would remember those presentations well enough?
But even as echt Cinerama and such magnificent visuals I still am interested in 2001’s presentation at various theaters.
I saw it twice at the Rivoli first in ‘76 which was overwhelming for me as I had first seen it many years before as a boy in the suburbs. A kid’s matinee where nobody got the space adventure they were expecting. Very noisy.
The end of the print at the Rivoli said ‘Cinerama.’
Then saw it at the Rivoli two years later on what seemed a smaller screen and was not nearly as impressive. The end where the Cinerama logo had been the first time it said 70MM.
Somebody once wrote here that the road show presentation of Sweet Charity was on a smaller screen because Universal did not want to pay for the Dimension 150 screen. Make of that what you will.
So could you compare for us the experience of 2001 at the Uptown versus the Capitol? Where did you enjoy it more? Though I never saw the Capitol(torn down before I knew it ever existed) I would imagine it really was the ultimate Cinerama theater.
Which had the larger screen? The better sound system?
If they show it there again is it worth the trip from Jersey?
Getting back to the Times Renata Adler it never had the best critics. At this time it had Clive Barnes who is roundly criticized as one of the worst theater critics ever. Read William Goldman’s The Season. How he continued years after this means only that Barnes knew where the bodies were buried.
You wanted serious theater and film criticism you went to the New Yorker or Village Voice. People still wonder what its reviewers are thinking.
By the way Adler’s put down of Kael in I think The New York Review of Books from years ago is a must read whether you are pro or anti Pauline.
Stephen Sondheim’s favorite movie theater was the Roxy and he went often. He even wrote an entire musical based on the very famous Life photo of Swanson the Roxy’s first movie star standing in the rubble as it was torn down.
Comfortably Cool posted the ad of Hangover Square the attendance of which Sondheim claimed was a seminal moment in his life because of the Herrmann score.
So the Roxy’s history still reverberates in our cultural life today.
And eventually in the 70s after the ballet company was eliminated the number of Rockettes on stage was reduced to 30 and they started selling popcorn which of course ended up all over the place.
The Rockefellers were doing everything they could to run the place into the ground. But then the entire way of marketing films had changed and exclusive city engagements would no longer even be considered. I just wish the inevitable end of the Music Hall as a stage show and movie palace had been a bit more dignified.
May I point out that once when I said the Music Hall opened with 48 Roxyettes was slapped down by a poster who said from the beginning the Music Hall opened with 36 Roxyettes and he said with firm authority it was always 36. I even pointed to a photo with 48 though I must admit I might have said 46.
And there you have it in the opening ad posted by NYer 48 Roxyettes though yes it was soon to be reduced to 36.
Don’t toy with me fellas when it comes to Music Hall history.
Scherzo.
And see General Yen. A wonderful early Capra talkie. The kind of beautiful poetic commercial film beyond any of today’s directors.
Odd film to play at the Music Hall. They must have been desperate. Not that it might not be a good movie, I just don’t see it as a movie the Music Hall audience or tourists would be interested in along with the Rockettes.
For the period more like an Astor or Victoria film.
Also it would be interesting to see the number of seats for 2001 or Dr Zhivago compared to Planet or In the Heat of the Night to see if they made more seats available for a continuous run film.
To see what the Capitol seating was at the time of Planet one would have to look at Variety at the time to see the weekly grosses. They always included # of seats available. And I’m sure the official number of seats were far less than either 4 or 5 thousand .Road show houses were most likely in the 1,400 to 1,600 range. Yes I know Planet was not roadshow but by this point the theater was a roadshow house. The seats in the Capitol curtained off would not have been for sale or included in available seats.
But then Bill Heulbig was there and I was not(alas.)Anybody have access to Variety on microfilm? A major university would have it like NYU.
Camille opened at the Capitol. Attention to detail is everything.
However in Words and Music which indeed opened at the Music Hall Tom Drake as Richard Rodgers gets it right and finds his way to the Capitol to see the Garbo film.
What I’m not sure of did a stage show accompany Camille at the theater where we see Cyd Charisse dance. Or was this the interim period when the Capitol stopped stage shows before the war?
The One and Only Genuine Original Family Band. And as a boy I like Sherman Brothers Disney movies and listened to the soundtrack as a kid. Didn’t see it though until I was an adult and found it dire. Couldn’t even sit through the whole film.
As per the Half a Sixpence ad posted by Comfortably Cool. I remember the Sunday before the premiere watching Ed Sullivan with my family and Ed announcing the premiere and having Steele stand up from his seat in the audience. The premiere was televised on a local NY channel as many of the big road show openings were at the time. Mayor Lindsey hosted the Funny Girl world premiere which seemed kind of odd from the same theater. I assume these were all disposed of as I’ve never seen them again. At least the ones from NY. The local stations might simply gotten rid of them which is too bad.
While Sixpence was a hit at the Astoria in London and the American love affair with English pop culture hadn’t yet run its course(Oliver!) Sixpence for some reason immediately laid an egg at the Criterion. It did so poorly from day one Variety figured out that whoever did these things the manager of the Criterion or the studio was grossly inflating the box office figures. I think it lasted close to 3 months and it must have been doing it for contractual reasons and playing to very small audiences in the large Criterion.
This was though the kind of film had it opened at the Music Hall would have been a big hit there. It’s certainly watchable unlike the Music Hall’s Easter film that year.
Interesting there is absolutely no mention of this being a remake of The Front Page which was one of the most successful plays of the recent past and audiences would have been very familiar with it.
I realize this is confusing but at the end of 2001 in ‘76 the print most definitely said Cinerama at the end(I was very surprised to see this.) In '78 it said 70MM. I know it was not a Cinerama presentation but for some reason the '76 presentation was so much more impressive.
Also I assumed the screen size of the Warner Cinerama after the theater had been split was the same size it had been when it showed single screen Cinerama. It was huge curved and the 70MM/Todd AO festival in ‘78 was astounding which is one of the reasons I could never take the Ziegfeld seriously. Too bad it had become an exploitation house in the 70s.
The Rivoli and Warner were the real thing. Even the Bellevue in Montclair was a better 70MM house. They all blew the Ziegfeld away.
It looks like the photo with Fiddler on the marquee is not a stage production from ‘67 but the original Chicago film engagement in '71 or'72 when the film was running roadshow.
One of the great endings to an MGM musical which I believe even made it into the 1st That’s Entertainment film. The last all star MGM musical of its kind and should have been the Easter show. Wide wide Cinemascope which probably looked great at the Music Hall.
By the way I believe Anthony Mordente is Tony Mordente who was in the original cast of WSS and one of the Jets in the film. Married Chita Rivera.
This movie is 2 hours and 34 minutes giving lie to the claim that the Music Hall had movies cut to fit in with the stage show. Also maybe someone who is very familiar with this film can help with it. I could swear it has two endings.
I took an old DVD of it out of the library, watched it with my mother and was very surprised that Russell and Guinness decide to get married at the end. Even my old conservative mother commented on it. ‘So they do get married!’
I at a much later date started watching it from the middle on TCM. Didn’t mean to but got caught up in it again. It ended where they just decide to be friends.
Anyone know if this film really has two endings and which the Music Hall played?
NYer with all due respect I appreciate many of your photos but do you feel perhaps in the photo section we should concentrate on the Music Hall’s history as a presentation house rather than a concert venue? Personally I feel a bit of a pang when I see these ads. I realize the Hall still exists because of these concerts but I like seeing people celebrate its glory years as a film and stage show house which made it a cinema treasure.
Thank you for that. I thought it odd it was put into a doc on the Roosevelts and the depression. It seems to come out of nowhere as a consequence of the bank holiday.
Supposedly King Kong did very poorly at the Music Hall because that was the week Roosevelt closed the banks. Just saw this recently in a documentary on the Roosevelts. This was news to me. I thought it had been a hit.
Very bad timing indeed. Anybody have access to Variety on microfilm to see what the week’s gross was?
Weren’t these followed by 7 Brides, Brigadoon and Deep in My Heart?
Maybe I’m missing something after Executive Suite and Brigadoon. But ‘54 was pretty much a Music Hall MGM festival.
That would be wonderful but is anyone around who would remember those presentations well enough?
But even as echt Cinerama and such magnificent visuals I still am interested in 2001’s presentation at various theaters.
I saw it twice at the Rivoli first in ‘76 which was overwhelming for me as I had first seen it many years before as a boy in the suburbs. A kid’s matinee where nobody got the space adventure they were expecting. Very noisy.
The end of the print at the Rivoli said ‘Cinerama.’
Then saw it at the Rivoli two years later on what seemed a smaller screen and was not nearly as impressive. The end where the Cinerama logo had been the first time it said 70MM.
Somebody once wrote here that the road show presentation of Sweet Charity was on a smaller screen because Universal did not want to pay for the Dimension 150 screen. Make of that what you will.
So could you compare for us the experience of 2001 at the Uptown versus the Capitol? Where did you enjoy it more? Though I never saw the Capitol(torn down before I knew it ever existed) I would imagine it really was the ultimate Cinerama theater.
Which had the larger screen? The better sound system?
If they show it there again is it worth the trip from Jersey?
Getting back to the Times Renata Adler it never had the best critics. At this time it had Clive Barnes who is roundly criticized as one of the worst theater critics ever. Read William Goldman’s The Season. How he continued years after this means only that Barnes knew where the bodies were buried.
You wanted serious theater and film criticism you went to the New Yorker or Village Voice. People still wonder what its reviewers are thinking.
By the way Adler’s put down of Kael in I think The New York Review of Books from years ago is a must read whether you are pro or anti Pauline.
So the 50th anniversary is coming up.
I always had it in my head the world premiere was here. How disappointed I was to find out after many years it was not.
I’ve probably written this before.
Stephen Sondheim’s favorite movie theater was the Roxy and he went often. He even wrote an entire musical based on the very famous Life photo of Swanson the Roxy’s first movie star standing in the rubble as it was torn down.
Comfortably Cool posted the ad of Hangover Square the attendance of which Sondheim claimed was a seminal moment in his life because of the Herrmann score.
So the Roxy’s history still reverberates in our cultural life today.
And eventually in the 70s after the ballet company was eliminated the number of Rockettes on stage was reduced to 30 and they started selling popcorn which of course ended up all over the place.
The Rockefellers were doing everything they could to run the place into the ground. But then the entire way of marketing films had changed and exclusive city engagements would no longer even be considered. I just wish the inevitable end of the Music Hall as a stage show and movie palace had been a bit more dignified.
May I point out that once when I said the Music Hall opened with 48 Roxyettes was slapped down by a poster who said from the beginning the Music Hall opened with 36 Roxyettes and he said with firm authority it was always 36. I even pointed to a photo with 48 though I must admit I might have said 46.
And there you have it in the opening ad posted by NYer 48 Roxyettes though yes it was soon to be reduced to 36.
Don’t toy with me fellas when it comes to Music Hall history.
Scherzo.
And see General Yen. A wonderful early Capra talkie. The kind of beautiful poetic commercial film beyond any of today’s directors.
Odd film to play at the Music Hall. They must have been desperate. Not that it might not be a good movie, I just don’t see it as a movie the Music Hall audience or tourists would be interested in along with the Rockettes.
For the period more like an Astor or Victoria film.
Frenchman’s Creek photo. Sensational. Imagine that in color. No wonder people were movie crazy. Though to be honest never heard of it.
Also it would be interesting to see the number of seats for 2001 or Dr Zhivago compared to Planet or In the Heat of the Night to see if they made more seats available for a continuous run film.
To see what the Capitol seating was at the time of Planet one would have to look at Variety at the time to see the weekly grosses. They always included # of seats available. And I’m sure the official number of seats were far less than either 4 or 5 thousand .Road show houses were most likely in the 1,400 to 1,600 range. Yes I know Planet was not roadshow but by this point the theater was a roadshow house. The seats in the Capitol curtained off would not have been for sale or included in available seats.
But then Bill Heulbig was there and I was not(alas.)Anybody have access to Variety on microfilm? A major university would have it like NYU.
Annie gets it wrong.
Camille opened at the Capitol. Attention to detail is everything.
However in Words and Music which indeed opened at the Music Hall Tom Drake as Richard Rodgers gets it right and finds his way to the Capitol to see the Garbo film.
What I’m not sure of did a stage show accompany Camille at the theater where we see Cyd Charisse dance. Or was this the interim period when the Capitol stopped stage shows before the war?
Was this the only LA house that would take a roadshow bomb like The Big Fisherman. All the others being ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’
The One and Only Genuine Original Family Band. And as a boy I like Sherman Brothers Disney movies and listened to the soundtrack as a kid. Didn’t see it though until I was an adult and found it dire. Couldn’t even sit through the whole film.
As per the Half a Sixpence ad posted by Comfortably Cool. I remember the Sunday before the premiere watching Ed Sullivan with my family and Ed announcing the premiere and having Steele stand up from his seat in the audience. The premiere was televised on a local NY channel as many of the big road show openings were at the time. Mayor Lindsey hosted the Funny Girl world premiere which seemed kind of odd from the same theater. I assume these were all disposed of as I’ve never seen them again. At least the ones from NY. The local stations might simply gotten rid of them which is too bad.
While Sixpence was a hit at the Astoria in London and the American love affair with English pop culture hadn’t yet run its course(Oliver!) Sixpence for some reason immediately laid an egg at the Criterion. It did so poorly from day one Variety figured out that whoever did these things the manager of the Criterion or the studio was grossly inflating the box office figures. I think it lasted close to 3 months and it must have been doing it for contractual reasons and playing to very small audiences in the large Criterion.
This was though the kind of film had it opened at the Music Hall would have been a big hit there. It’s certainly watchable unlike the Music Hall’s Easter film that year.
Is Frank Rowley still around? I can’t say enough good things about this man. Cinema going in New York was such a pleasure because of him.
Interesting there is absolutely no mention of this being a remake of The Front Page which was one of the most successful plays of the recent past and audiences would have been very familiar with it.