Then Jim does the Music Hall qualify as a movie palace as it was not built FOR movies but transformed itself into a presentation house out of depression desperation?
I’m sure that the Music Hall had already viewed Streetcar when they booked it and knew that it would have been a perfect film for them with Brando and Leigh. I’m also sure that the Hall staff was familiar with it during its Broadway run. According to Kazan it was pulled after the catholic chrch threatened to give it a C rating. Too bad. It would have been a great Music Hall film and a nice break after all those months of MGM technicolor musicals.
Now that Barbra has another concert tour planned for the summer maybe she should kick it off at the Kings. And if it’s with Neil Daimond isn’t he from NY as well? Now I know this can only happen in our dreams(these people insist that the logistics of these things be overwhelming and arcane) but it sure is a hell of an idea.
Yes I am aware of the Embassy and it has been discussed on the Embassy page. Of course that would be ideal but I am assuming that will one day be another Times Sqare retailing emporium. If not another skycraper.
As for Larry’s comments “if they showed wide screen epics it would be like any other theater."
Larry please tell me where these large expansive single screen theaters like the old Claridge are!! I want to go to one tonight!
Considering then how much still remains it would be wonderful if someone would restore it back to its roadshow glory days and use it as a widescreen showcase showing everything from 3 strip Cinerama to 2:55 cinemascope to contemporary widescreen film epics like they do in Seattle LA and Bradford England. And if Bradford England can do it why not a place close to NYC?
There’s nowhere to do it anymore in NY.
Does anyone know the sizes of the screen when it played Cinerama and 70MM?
I wonder in the managers from the 50"s and 60"s are still alive who could help us with information.
Pandora I believe was supposed to open at Radio City as the Thanksgiving film. For some reason it was cancelled and for two weeks they presented Too Young to Kiss which did pretty poorly in what was all around a great year there. They should have just kept American for another two weeks. (So why didn’t Pandora go into a major Times Square house like the Loew’s or the Capitol?)
Saw a bit of the original Pink Panther on TCM last night. It hurt to see in letterboxed on a TV screen. It is one of my favorite films with Sellers giving his best Clouseau(not the caricature it became)and doing his slapstick with the incredibly beautiful and funny Capucine. Then there’s Niven, Cardinale, Cortina D'Ampezzo, Mancini sambas, and the gorgeous 60’s color in Technirama.
What this must have looked like on the Music Hall’s screen in ‘64 must have been sensational.
Thank you Blake Edwards. Just wish I could have been there.
Speaking of Rome the last time I was there the great music hall the Adriano was being multiplexed. This was a european opera house style theater with many tiers where I saw A Proposito di Henry(Regarding Henry) many years ago to a packed house where they sold standing room! The first time I ever heard such a thing for a movie.
I will never go to Piazza Cavour again. Too heartbreaking. The Italians have a lot of problems with us matti Americani but they ape our worse characteristics at every turn(just like the french.) Go figure.
When I first went to italy in the early 90’s all the single screens were still single screens. Sheer heaven! I think it’s all changed.
Dave this did not save the Tivoli on 8th Av at 50th street. This was a real gem of a mid size vaudeville house which throughout the 70’s and 80’s became the Adonis.
This might have become a musical house after the loss of the Mark Hellinger. I believe it is now a condo building. I’d really like to know a lot more about it.
Is the DW Griffith gone? It was a small theater that I liked a lot though it seemed much bigger after its neighboring theaters were torn down. When Lillian Gish visited it she expressed her dismay at its size and said something to the effect “In my day movie theaters were like stadiums!” And how!
Well how about setting up some kind of NY borough movie palace mini tour allowing a group of us some weekend day a visit to the Paramount the Kings and the Paradise? This would obviously involve a lot of planning and a fee but with a bus and the proper permits and insurance I think those of us New Yorkers who regularly visit this site would greatly appreciate a visit to some of the most beautiful buildings that still exist in the tri-state area. And who knows how much longer we will have this chance before they join the rubble of the Roxy?
Simon talks about Kirby’s flying ballet. I’ve read that they were also part of a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea spectacle included in the ‘62 Easter show along with the film Moon Pilot. The entire secular portion of the stage show was produced by Disney and I once had a beautiful color photo of the finale. Did anyone see this?
I once saw the Undersea Ballet with the film Butterflies are Free which certainly fufilled expections though an usher told me it had been scaled down probably from its last appearance with Where Were You when the Lights Went 0ut.
CC now you’ve really got me started. The narration in the current Nativity has to be proof positive of the non existence of God. I thought I was reading a poster in a Christian Right church basement. Whoever came up with that should have been buried in the foundation of the Times Square Mariott. And then they follow this with a Walgreen inspired creche! Fortunately when I saw it the midgets in the toy house popping out singing Fa la la la la la put me into such a state of shock that the effect was somewhat mitigated.
I consider it a real loss that they don’t do Leonidoff’s Nativity any more. When the stage show started and the house darkened turning to a deep blue the orchestra rose with only the sound of chimes playing the opening of Silent Night. It would repeat going up an octave and the chorus dressed as Renaissance shepards and such would appear on the side flanks lit up as tableaux and sing the entire carol. Then the curtain would go up to reveal the night sky over Bethlehem and they would only descend when the angel would appear and start singing o Holy Night which they would all join in at the end. After the Nativity the orchestra would rise to its normal height and always play Sleigh Rise introducing the more secular part of the spectacle.
No CConnolly, $7 would have been considerd an outrageous admission price. Top general admission,including all of the orchestra from 70 to 76 would have been from $3 to $4. The Music Hall while still in its movie phase prided itself on popular prices(when was the last time you saw that term used?)
Robert I hate to tell you this but when I saw Scrooge with an elaborate Christmas show if you got there in the morning before 12 I believe it was $2 on a Saturday. A first run movie at the time was $3. Movies are now $10.50. That’s less than a 400 percent increase. Today to see the Christmas show it’s $100. That’s a 5,000 percent increase. And back then you could stay and watch it all over again! So the price of a Music hall ticket today is 10x’s more than it should be at current price standards.
They could do this for the Easter show and during the summer. Cut the stage show back to 45 to 50 minutes cutting out a lot of the annoying filler and utilize the old set designs and the old staging(if anybody around still remembers it.)At this point I assume all the old sets have been destroyed and all the old lighting charts as well. At Christmas of ‘69 the Colorama magazine in the Sunday Daily News had a two page color spread of the Nativity. It was one of the best photos I’ve seen of it. The powers that currently be should get a hold of it and see how it’s supposed to look. Their own poverty of imagination would stun them.
So were West Side Story, Cleopatra, and The Sound of Music presented on the larger curved screen and not on a flat screen which previous postings seem to imply?
Yep the ‘73 presentation of Cinerma was pretty bad(and never having seen a Cinerama movie I was looking forward to it. 63 feet for Cinerama and no curtain?!) Check out Vincent Canby Sunday Arts and Leisure piece in the Times when it came out. Will someone in New York please do it right?
I saw about a half hour of the self congradulatory special last night. It was all I could take. The head of the Rockettes goes on and on about what wonderful troup they are. And so they are. But you can only see them once out of the year and only in the lousy Christmas show. Maybe she needs to think about when else they can be presented in New York. Once a year at the holidays just isn’t professional performing and an insult as well to a great NY institution. Also they need to find a stage producer who knows the capabilities of the stage. Having speakers throughout the auditorium is such a symptom of the stupidity that the current managers get away with.
The book is especially bittersweet as when it was written so many theaters were still standing in good condition including one of the 3 greatest the SF Fox. The epilogue of the book if I remember correctly is titled “An End to the Slaughter.” Well there was no end it just continued leaving us very few and some of those in perhaps non salvageable condition.
I read it years ago on microfilm. If your library has the Times on microfilm I believe you’ll find it in the Sunday edition after Millionaire opened. Maybe these old articles are available now on line? Also try to find Canby’s article on the Hall presentation of Singing in the Rain in ‘75. One of the best cinema experiences of my life as it was the first time I saw the film. I was seeing it exactly as people saw it in '52 and after seeing some truly bad early '70’s musicals at the Hall(it was as if they were made that bad on purpose. It couldn’t have been by accident) it was like being shot out of a canon.
Then Jim does the Music Hall qualify as a movie palace as it was not built FOR movies but transformed itself into a presentation house out of depression desperation?
I’m sure that the Music Hall had already viewed Streetcar when they booked it and knew that it would have been a perfect film for them with Brando and Leigh. I’m also sure that the Hall staff was familiar with it during its Broadway run. According to Kazan it was pulled after the catholic chrch threatened to give it a C rating. Too bad. It would have been a great Music Hall film and a nice break after all those months of MGM technicolor musicals.
Now that Barbra has another concert tour planned for the summer maybe she should kick it off at the Kings. And if it’s with Neil Daimond isn’t he from NY as well? Now I know this can only happen in our dreams(these people insist that the logistics of these things be overwhelming and arcane) but it sure is a hell of an idea.
Yes I am aware of the Embassy and it has been discussed on the Embassy page. Of course that would be ideal but I am assuming that will one day be another Times Sqare retailing emporium. If not another skycraper.
As for Larry’s comments “if they showed wide screen epics it would be like any other theater."
Larry please tell me where these large expansive single screen theaters like the old Claridge are!! I want to go to one tonight!
Considering then how much still remains it would be wonderful if someone would restore it back to its roadshow glory days and use it as a widescreen showcase showing everything from 3 strip Cinerama to 2:55 cinemascope to contemporary widescreen film epics like they do in Seattle LA and Bradford England. And if Bradford England can do it why not a place close to NYC?
There’s nowhere to do it anymore in NY.
Does anyone know the sizes of the screen when it played Cinerama and 70MM?
I wonder in the managers from the 50"s and 60"s are still alive who could help us with information.
Pandora I believe was supposed to open at Radio City as the Thanksgiving film. For some reason it was cancelled and for two weeks they presented Too Young to Kiss which did pretty poorly in what was all around a great year there. They should have just kept American for another two weeks. (So why didn’t Pandora go into a major Times Square house like the Loew’s or the Capitol?)
Saw a bit of the original Pink Panther on TCM last night. It hurt to see in letterboxed on a TV screen. It is one of my favorite films with Sellers giving his best Clouseau(not the caricature it became)and doing his slapstick with the incredibly beautiful and funny Capucine. Then there’s Niven, Cardinale, Cortina D'Ampezzo, Mancini sambas, and the gorgeous 60’s color in Technirama.
What this must have looked like on the Music Hall’s screen in ‘64 must have been sensational.
Thank you Blake Edwards. Just wish I could have been there.
Yes but when you said saved I thought you meant saved for eventual use as a non porn theater.
Speaking of Rome the last time I was there the great music hall the Adriano was being multiplexed. This was a european opera house style theater with many tiers where I saw A Proposito di Henry(Regarding Henry) many years ago to a packed house where they sold standing room! The first time I ever heard such a thing for a movie.
I will never go to Piazza Cavour again. Too heartbreaking. The Italians have a lot of problems with us matti Americani but they ape our worse characteristics at every turn(just like the french.) Go figure.
When I first went to italy in the early 90’s all the single screens were still single screens. Sheer heaven! I think it’s all changed.
Dave this did not save the Tivoli on 8th Av at 50th street. This was a real gem of a mid size vaudeville house which throughout the 70’s and 80’s became the Adonis.
This might have become a musical house after the loss of the Mark Hellinger. I believe it is now a condo building. I’d really like to know a lot more about it.
Is the DW Griffith gone? It was a small theater that I liked a lot though it seemed much bigger after its neighboring theaters were torn down. When Lillian Gish visited it she expressed her dismay at its size and said something to the effect “In my day movie theaters were like stadiums!” And how!
Well how about setting up some kind of NY borough movie palace mini tour allowing a group of us some weekend day a visit to the Paramount the Kings and the Paradise? This would obviously involve a lot of planning and a fee but with a bus and the proper permits and insurance I think those of us New Yorkers who regularly visit this site would greatly appreciate a visit to some of the most beautiful buildings that still exist in the tri-state area. And who knows how much longer we will have this chance before they join the rubble of the Roxy?
How does one get to the Kings from Manhattan and can one go inside at any point during the weekend?
Simon talks about Kirby’s flying ballet. I’ve read that they were also part of a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea spectacle included in the ‘62 Easter show along with the film Moon Pilot. The entire secular portion of the stage show was produced by Disney and I once had a beautiful color photo of the finale. Did anyone see this?
I once saw the Undersea Ballet with the film Butterflies are Free which certainly fufilled expections though an usher told me it had been scaled down probably from its last appearance with Where Were You when the Lights Went 0ut.
CC now you’ve really got me started. The narration in the current Nativity has to be proof positive of the non existence of God. I thought I was reading a poster in a Christian Right church basement. Whoever came up with that should have been buried in the foundation of the Times Square Mariott. And then they follow this with a Walgreen inspired creche! Fortunately when I saw it the midgets in the toy house popping out singing Fa la la la la la put me into such a state of shock that the effect was somewhat mitigated.
I consider it a real loss that they don’t do Leonidoff’s Nativity any more. When the stage show started and the house darkened turning to a deep blue the orchestra rose with only the sound of chimes playing the opening of Silent Night. It would repeat going up an octave and the chorus dressed as Renaissance shepards and such would appear on the side flanks lit up as tableaux and sing the entire carol. Then the curtain would go up to reveal the night sky over Bethlehem and they would only descend when the angel would appear and start singing o Holy Night which they would all join in at the end. After the Nativity the orchestra would rise to its normal height and always play Sleigh Rise introducing the more secular part of the spectacle.
No CConnolly, $7 would have been considerd an outrageous admission price. Top general admission,including all of the orchestra from 70 to 76 would have been from $3 to $4. The Music Hall while still in its movie phase prided itself on popular prices(when was the last time you saw that term used?)
Robert I hate to tell you this but when I saw Scrooge with an elaborate Christmas show if you got there in the morning before 12 I believe it was $2 on a Saturday. A first run movie at the time was $3. Movies are now $10.50. That’s less than a 400 percent increase. Today to see the Christmas show it’s $100. That’s a 5,000 percent increase. And back then you could stay and watch it all over again! So the price of a Music hall ticket today is 10x’s more than it should be at current price standards.
If a screen were 80 feet I’d take it as well in a heartbeat!
They could do this for the Easter show and during the summer. Cut the stage show back to 45 to 50 minutes cutting out a lot of the annoying filler and utilize the old set designs and the old staging(if anybody around still remembers it.)At this point I assume all the old sets have been destroyed and all the old lighting charts as well. At Christmas of ‘69 the Colorama magazine in the Sunday Daily News had a two page color spread of the Nativity. It was one of the best photos I’ve seen of it. The powers that currently be should get a hold of it and see how it’s supposed to look. Their own poverty of imagination would stun them.
So were West Side Story, Cleopatra, and The Sound of Music presented on the larger curved screen and not on a flat screen which previous postings seem to imply?
Yep the ‘73 presentation of Cinerma was pretty bad(and never having seen a Cinerama movie I was looking forward to it. 63 feet for Cinerama and no curtain?!) Check out Vincent Canby Sunday Arts and Leisure piece in the Times when it came out. Will someone in New York please do it right?
I saw about a half hour of the self congradulatory special last night. It was all I could take. The head of the Rockettes goes on and on about what wonderful troup they are. And so they are. But you can only see them once out of the year and only in the lousy Christmas show. Maybe she needs to think about when else they can be presented in New York. Once a year at the holidays just isn’t professional performing and an insult as well to a great NY institution. Also they need to find a stage producer who knows the capabilities of the stage. Having speakers throughout the auditorium is such a symptom of the stupidity that the current managers get away with.
The book is especially bittersweet as when it was written so many theaters were still standing in good condition including one of the 3 greatest the SF Fox. The epilogue of the book if I remember correctly is titled “An End to the Slaughter.” Well there was no end it just continued leaving us very few and some of those in perhaps non salvageable condition.
I read it years ago on microfilm. If your library has the Times on microfilm I believe you’ll find it in the Sunday edition after Millionaire opened. Maybe these old articles are available now on line? Also try to find Canby’s article on the Hall presentation of Singing in the Rain in ‘75. One of the best cinema experiences of my life as it was the first time I saw the film. I was seeing it exactly as people saw it in '52 and after seeing some truly bad early '70’s musicals at the Hall(it was as if they were made that bad on purpose. It couldn’t have been by accident) it was like being shot out of a canon.