Roxy Theatre
153 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
153 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
83 people
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Mr. Furmanek?
Please answer.
regards Ralph Heid
Hello Bob Furmanek
My first question: do you know me? How do you know about “The Hurricane on the Xylophone”?
Yes, I am still “going strong” and I still use this Logo.
-What can you tell us about appearing in a stage show at the celebrated Roxy?
I guess it was one of my greatest times in showbusiness. As much as I remember (I was 10), I got pulled out on ice by some Roxyettes, standing with my xylophon on a big platform which looked like a heart. I did'n only want to make my act as an xylophonist, but I also wanted to be on stage on other occations, because I wanted to iceskate. One of the dancers EMANUEL DEL TORO went to town with me to buy some skates and we went to the rockefeller plaza to learn. It only needed 2 or 3 days and I was very secure on he skates. So finally the director Mr. Rothaffel permitted me to be a few minutes in a gypsy-scene, where the were some “gypsys” dancing and I had the pleasure to be on ice with them. I also got a specia permission from New Yorks mayor, because I was actually to young to appeare on stage for such a long time in the US.
-What were the backstage areas like, and were they still well maintained at this late stage in the theaters history?
As a child you see things different and you also remember them different. But for me it was one of the most impressing backstage “life” I had in all my time as an entertainer. I will never forget our dressingroom! It was huge and resembled a smaller Hotel-Suite. Yes, it was old! even the elektricity was old, I think you called it AC! I remember, because once we brought our portable TV set but it just broke down because of that. But it still was very nice for those days. There was even a bed in the dressingroom and a personal shower and toilet.
-How many shows did you do a day, and what occupied your time while the feature was playing?
There were 4 shows a day and sundays (maybe also saturdays, I can’t remember), there were 5 shows.
I know, everyone would say: “what poor child”, but that’s not true. I loved what I was doing and my act only about 10 minutes. he other minutes I was on skates with the gypsys, I really wanted that. Nobody could stop me. I allways was a stage person and I still am.
Between the show, when the feature-film was running, I either went out with my parents to eat, or I had a little nap in the dressingroom, or I played with the Roxyettes in the rehearsal-room, or I went adventures thru the whole theatre from up to down and side to side. sometimes I went on stage in front of the screen (the audience did'nt see me….. I think) to watch the film wich was very big so close. And if I wanted to go in the theatre to watch the film, there were allway two bodygards taking care, that nothing bad would happen to me.
We stayed at the BELVEDERE HOTEL on 48th street.
There’s much more to tell you, but hopefully I answered your questions with this.
I like to hear from you again and I like to know, if you know me?
Best regards from Switzerland
Ralph Heid
http://www.heid.net
Mr. Heid; are you still known as the “Hurricane on the Xylophone?”
What can you tell us about appearing in a stage show at the celebrated Roxy? What were the backstage areas like, and were they still well maintained at this late stage in the theaters history? How many shows did you do a day, and what occupied your time while the feature was playing?
Just a quick question of screen sizes. What theater (worldwide) has the record for the largest screen ever? Anyone know?
Hi
I know, you are in middle of a discussion, but still I would like to find someone who can remember the little guy MISTER RALPH (that’s me) who playes the xylophone and appeared in the ROXY 1956/57 in a show called SPOTLIGHT 1957 and the film was either “THE GIRL CAN’T HELP IT” or “HEAVEN KNOWS, MR. ALLISON”.
It would be so nice to talk about old times.
Regards
Ralph Heid (Mister Ralph)
http://www.heid.net
The pressbook for HELL’S ISLAND mentions the New York Paramount doing that for their VistaVision presentations. Over the weekend, I’ll copy and post the exact description. It was quite interesting, and points to the level of showmanship which existed in theaters at that time.
Yes Bill, We actually copied the idea in the burbs by showing news, trailers etc in a 1.33 format, then doing a “delux”, which was to close the curtain, raise the stage lights, and then open the curtain to expose the scope screen, this was especially effective when we played the volume a DB or two low for the optical (mono) stuff
and then raised the volume when the scope feature hit in 4 track mag sound. It was especially impressive when it was the Fox fanfare. Of course Leo the lion was good too.
Here are pages from the special souvenir program for “The Robe: In CinemaScope†at the Roxy in September, 1953:
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View link (instructions about simulating CinemaScope in your hand)
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View link (the marketplace orgy: my favorite scene in the movie)
View link (the program’s back cover)
In my post above on 5 March 2005, I’ve described how the cashier bilked my dad out of a few extra nickels by switching to evening prices just as we approached the gilded box office. Still, it was a great show. And the carpets and seats were the plushest in town. But no matter what the program instructs you to do by holding the page ten inches from your nose, the effect of CinemaScope at the Roxy did not correspond to it. The screen seemed exceptionally wide, all the more so because in my eleven-year-old’s fantasies I had imagined that the proportions would have been taller than wide. On previous visits to the Roxy, the theater’s incomparable height awed me, leading me to think that the screen might have stretched from floor to ceiling in a vertiginous arc. It came as a surprise, then, to find to the contrary that the screen spanned uninhibitedly from side to side covering the theater’s incomparable width. The Fox Movietone News on the conventional screen seemed deliberately small and squared-off to exaggerate the breadth of the new process by comparison, as Vito commented last 28 February.
Here’s a program from July 1956:
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And I know it was July 1956, because that year I had to go to summer school, and the trip into Gotham to see “The King and I†amounted to a great act of playing hooky. The film opened on 28 June and received an unprecedented “five stars†from Kate Cameron in the NY Daily News. One of my summer-school pals plotted an unofficial but well-earned day-off to see this cinematic marvel. During the oh-so-sad final scene, we could hear patrons around us sobbing aloud, and as the lights rose and the Roxy’s billowing contour curtain fell, we turned around to see almost all the audience daubing their eyes. The breezy, even chilly ice show lifted our spirits. (You can see a tiny photo of the “Manhattan Moods†stage-set from my Roxy post from last 23 December)Twenty years later, I took my kids to see a revival of this film and slept through it.
A souvenir program was ours for the purchase:
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Here we learned great things about this “filmization†of the B’way musical. But its chief feature was doubtless 20C Fox’s opportunity to beat the drums for CinemaScope55, its latest technological milestone. The program’s cover suggests Yul King-Kong Brynner’s miscegentic captivity of Deborah Fay-Naomi Kerr. That Rita Moreno and Carlos Rivas could play Siamese lovers reminds us of a H’wood where any ethnic other could substitute for any other ethnic.
Vincent and Ed— That was one of the biggest screens in those days, and it was indeed the one on which the Roxy projected its features from Dec. ‘52 until Sept. '53 (think of Disney’s “Peter Pan,” Merman’s “Call Me Madam,” and MM’s “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” the first two of which I saw on it). As I explained in my post of 28 Oct. in response to Warren’s superb photo (and offering a lesser image of my own from that era), the theater prided itself on its unmasked presentation, arguing that soft blue light on the rear curtains reduced eye-strain. My hunch is that the photo might have captured an early-morning gathering of exhibitors in April '53 for a preview of the then-new CinemaScope process.
Well there do seem to be a lot of single middle aged men in the sparse audience and who is that guy in a box in the upper right hand corner with his hand on his hip cruising the crowd?
Makes sense, Warren… Looks like there was an alley under the balcony fire escape that led to 50th Street as shown in your 2nd photo posted in October. In that same photo, you can see where the stage area sort of notches out towards 6th Ave away from the side auditorium wall. That notch is undoubtedly where the loading bay doors were. With that one story building in the way, I couldn’t make out the alley.
Vincent… judging from the photo, I wonder if the theater was rented out for some kind of business meeting. There seems to be a lecturn (a rather ornate one) on stage to the right of that screen, and the screen itself might have been matted (or even a drop down) for a slide show or 16mm industrial-film presentation. There might be an overhead or small slide projector on a platform behind the small audience we see seated in the photo. I agree, its a shame they hid the proscenium behind that drapery.
Thanks to Ed I took a look at Warren’s photos from Oct 27th which I somehow had missed. Boy that screen in the first photo looks small. It’s hard to see how anybody in the rear orchestra or the balc saw anything more than a postage stamp. I mean how does a film like All About Eve or those Betty Grable movies make any kind of impact on a screen that small. And boy do I hate those drapes. The Roxy proscenium was so magnificent. Why would they have covered it up?
Yes SimonL… but was it truly your “wish” to have a no-tipping policy? If so, you put my cynicism to shame and I tip my cap to your exemplary work ethic – something, I might cynically add, that is woefully lacking these days.
Actually, if you scroll up to the 2nd image posted by Warren on October 27th, all is revealed. It’s an overhead shot presumably taken from high up on the Radio City building that shows the fully exposed rear wall of the Roxy, thanks to the adjacent parking lot on the 6th Ave side of the block. That’s W. 50th on the left side of the photo and W. 51st on the right. You can clearly see the balcony fire escape on the 50th Street side and the orientation of the auditorium towards 51st. The loading dock is not evident, but it must be on 51st. This makes sense since the entry foyer was on the opposite corner of the building at 50th and 7th Ave.
As an usher we wore body hugging pants and a jacket with no pockets and tight white gloves. we never considered taking a tip, whether we assisted someone in a wheelchair or escorted a pregnant woman to her seat. The management was strict and we respectfully obeyed the rules and never questioned them. We remained poor but stood tall. End of story.
If the auditorium of the Roxy was built at an angle to accommodate a greater width was the audience facing towards 50th or 51st St and on which street were the stage doors and loading docks?
I saw the worst a receptionist at a Dr’s office with a tip cup !!!!!
So if people did tip especially in first Mezz were they refused? If an usher was found to have accepted a tip by a set up would he be fired?
Wow,say what,omigosh,baldergash,who are you kidding?At a time when the pay was barely a dollar a hour.The nerve of management to suggest such a thing. Surely a anti labor anti worker sign .
Yeah, I’ll bet that the uniformed staff wanted that policy instituted! They even petitioned management to make the public aware that tipping was not desired! In a pig’s eye.
Nowadays, you can’t get a cup of coffee at the Dunkin Donuts drive-thru – or even over the 7-11 counter – without seeing a tip cup on prominent display!
I was in the neighborhood with camera in tow this past Saturday night and snapped this sad photo of the spot where this “Cathedral” once stood. Please forgive as this is a night shot and the illumination is not as bright as I might have liked. As has been posted before, a TGIF (along with Dunkin Donuts and Tad’s Steakhouse) now occupies the former entrance vestibule and lobby that ran in a corridor through the existing Taft Hotel (now the Michelangelo) on the corner of 7th Ave and W. 50th Street. Looking down W. 50th you can see where the Hotel ends and the modern (and rather ugly) office building which replaced the demolished Roxy now stands. Further down, you can also make out the vertical red Radio City sign on 6th Avenue and some of the purple and red neon from the marquee:
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You can’t really make it out that well, but the lower portion of the facade (below the 4th floor cornice) has been re-clad in a marble facing.
The Times Square area is truly a place of excess. There is another Friday’s not 4 or 5 blocks south of this location on Broadway and there are two Applebee’s restaurants (one on B'way and another on 42nd Street). Each Applebee’s is adjacent to a redundant pair of McDonald’s; And every chain/theme Stepford-wife restaurant you might imagine – Hard Rock Cafe, ESPN Zone, Planet Hollywood – has a loud storefront located somewhere along the Square. And to imagine that folks fly in from all over the country and the world to visit New York City – home of Frankie and Johnny’s Steakhouse, Puleo’s Italian Restaurant, Victor’s Cafe and other examples of fine World-class cuisine – just to wind up with a basket of warmed-up frozen chicken fingers and french fries at Applebee’s. I’m not saying that Ho Jo’s, Nathan’s and Horn and Hardart’s were the epitome of fine dining, but at least they each had their own unique character and charms. The modern chains take the Disney World mentality and scale it down to the dining experience. Fitting, I suppose, since Times Square has become the new Disney World.
SimonL—Thanks for all the hard work you did that weekend! If I remember correctly, I saw it with a friend the day after it opened. The NY Daily News (Kate Cameron) awarded it four stars, and that intrigued the two of us, who thought MM would be forever consigned to junk. It was a hot weekend, but I wore a jacket and tie to appear older than my fourteen-years, fearing the cashiers might reject me for being under-age. And, yes, I recall that the house was packed. Many posts back, you mentioned that you can be seen in the TCM newsreel clips ushering for the opening of “Anastasia.” Next time it’s on TV, we’ll look for you. I recall seeing that show a few days before Christmas, hoping to beat the holiday rush.
Warren—Life imitated art when you saw “Bus Stop” on a bus stop. But give the film another chance (Joshua Logan, perhaps a godsend to B'way, brought nothing but disaster to the screen, except for this film; after that, it got progressively worse, no?). After a nine-hour trip from The Big Easy, who could see straight? On my first visit to Atlanta (1967), I headed for the Fox, too, with no interest in seeing the movie. It was “Hombre” with Paul Newman, but I paid more attention to the dreamscape of Ali Baba cradling the proscenium. If I practiced what I’ve preached, I’ll have to give that film another chance, huh?
“Bus Stop” opened on Labor Day weekend 1956. The memory of that first weekend is still fresh in my mind as I was working there as an usher. Attendance was so stupendous beginning on Friday and continuing through the holiday on Monday that the house managers ordered the multiple main entrance doors on 7th Avenue closed because the outer lobby was so jammed with ticket buyers from the time the house opened at 10:30 am. Only the door on the 50th Street side was opened to allow a more orderly entrance to the theater. The crush was intense at peak times for the next four days. About 30 minutes before a break, the length of the rotunda was often packed with people standing ten-abreast (possibly 1,000 or more). The street line stretched from 7th Avenue and 50th Street towards 6th Avenue, and on Sunday actually turning the corner on to 6th Avenue. Two box offices with four cashiers were kept busy as was the staff. Although other films played longer (Bus Stop played six weeks) and grossed more, that opening weekend was almost scary. Nothing could stop Marilyn’s fans from showing up. The inside ushers and sturdy doormen worked plenty of overtime (the pay scale was $.80 cents an hour, $1.10 for doormen).
Here’s a program from September, 1956:
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Of all the celebrated stage performances that I regret having missed in my lifetime, Kim Stanley’s Cherie in “Bus Stop†ranks high on the list. Barring that, Marilyn Monroe’s star-turn in the film version offered a swell substitute, with wonderful touches all its own. Who could ever forget MM stretched teary eyed across the diner’s countertop horizontally covering the full CinemaScope frame in the film’s climactic marriage proposal scene? On the Roxy’s gigantic screen, it looked magnificent. My memory of its final frames remains indelible, as the billowing contour curtain descended on the image of MM waving gaily from behind the window of the departing bus. The film presented my favorite MM performance of all, confirmed by a retrospective of all her major work that I had seen over a scant weekend just after her death. The tiny art-house screen couldn’t compete with the Roxy’s sweeping curveâ€"what could?â€"but the audience lapped the comedy up and applauded at the end, which it didn’t do for any other film in the series.
And of all the Roxy’s stage shows that I had seen, “Magic of the Stage†presented my favorite, too. It amounted to a spectacular display of scenery and stage effects that dwarfed the skate-bladed performers. Its “Story in verse by Robert C. Rothafel†excerpted in the program’s italics will unintentionally split your sides: Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour! But the centerpiece with its “Scenery Ballet†and “Dancing Spotlights†pulled out all the scenic stops and taught me a lot about stage machinery. It began with a bare stage, onto which scenery kept descending from and ascending to the vast fly space, demonstrating how rapidly sets could be set up and struck. At one point, the CinemaScope screen dropped down, replete with shape-shifting masks, and illuminated from behind so as to show off the sound amplifiers. At another point, the full-stage cyclorama rose to expose the brick wall at the rear of the stage, co-incidently revealing the stage’s triangular floor-plan and the situation of the auditorium obliquely between W. 50 and W. 51 Streets so as to enable the orchestra’s width at its greatest point to exceed a city block. This width had always caused me to marvel, and now I knew the reason why. I could have watched that display for hours and been happy if the Blades and Roxyettes had all glided off to Norway.