Loew's Capitol Theatre
1645 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
1645 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
47 people
favorited this theater
Showing 726 - 750 of 1,086 comments
I’m still not sure we ever got it firmly stated what the size of the screen was in the thirties and forties. When a wider screen was installed in the early fifties what would have been its size and aspect ratio? I assume we’re talking about something that could properly display “CinemaScope.” Then, I understand, even a larger screen was installed in the early sixties. I don’t have the time right now to review the large number of posts here, so is the anyone who can summarize the Capitol’s screen history in a future post? Thanks.
I found out the screen was on a curve and measured 25x60, the full widith of the Capitol’s proscenium opening.
I’ll check out the LOC site. Thanks!
I’m doing an article on FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, and its original widescreen release in 1953. I believe you mentioned that you worked at the Valencia when it opened on 12/30. I’m pretty sure the Valencia had stereophonic sound installed. Do you have any specific recollections of the stereo on this film?
I know that’s a tough question to answer over 54 years later, but those tracks are now lost and we’re trying to get some idea of how they sounded.
Thank you!
Bob
I’m trying to find a photo of the Capitol’s proscenium and screen after the widescreen installation in June, 1953.
Can anyone help? Thank you!
Bob
Here is an August 1953 ad from the NYT:
http://tinyurl.com/yrlzcw
Is that a great supporting cast or what? Edward Arnold is a favorite of mine from the Frank Capra films.
Here is a 1947 ad from the New York Times:
http://tinyurl.com/yuhhwe
Here is an October 1940 ad from the NYT:
http://tinyurl.com/yu5tgu
Warren, it seemed very important to you, so I passed along your request….and someone with authority made the change. I’m going to add that you, too, are a great help for everybody doing Internet research on this website.
My book says “Boston Baked Paper Towels” as well. Very appetizing.
It is odd that in my copy of BEST REMAINING SEATS, which I bought over 30 years ago, the caption says he is making “Boston Baked Paper towels”. For years I have wondered if that was a typo or what. Anyone have the same printing?
Looks like the Major is into some moonshine.
Here is a photo of Major Bowes in his apartment, from the Ben Hall book mentioned above:
http://tinyurl.com/yrb5w3
To find the width of a screen of given height you multiply the aspect ratio by the height. Thus, 30'(1.33)=39.9'. A proper Academy ratio screen would have been 30'(1.37)=41.1'.
I was still eight years old when the first CinemaScope movie (The Robe) was released in the U.S. in September, 1953, so I saw many movies on Academy ratio theatre screens. A few of these were in big theatres in Downtown Los Angeles, but my memories of those theatres in their pre-CinemaScope days are dim. I do recall seeing High Barbaree at the 2890 seat RKO Hillstreet Theatre (most probably in a re-release, as I was not yet three years old when it first came out), and I had no trouble seeing the screen from one of the rows about midway back under the soffit (the underside of the balcony).
By 1950, I think, most theatre operators were routinely installing the largest screens they could fit into the space available. In older theatres, I would imagine that the size of the screen was constrained as much by the height at which the fixed draperies of the proscenium began as it was by the width of the proscenium. The largest movie palace in Los Angeles, the Paramount Downtown (aka Grauman’s Metropolitan) had a fairly wide proscenium, but its screen was probably no wider than that of many theatres with narrower prosceniums, due to the limited height available.
The suburban neighborhood houses I most frequently attended usually had screens not too much narrower than their proscenium (in the older theatres with stages), or, at widest, about half the width of the auditorium (in theatres without stages.) That means screens of about 20-30 feet wide in theatres of from 400-1200 seats. My memory of the Hillstreet is that the screen was about the size of those in the largest of the suburban theatres I attended.
Here is the movie ad for “Ziegfeld Girl” at the Capitol Theater in 1941.
View link
Joe B.
The book mentioned above didn’t give specs for theaters with more than 3500 seats, but there was not much difference between 2000 seat screen and 3500 seat screen.
30' x 39.9' is a 1.33:1 aspect ratio? Mmmmm… I know I’m bad at figuring these things, but that don’t seem right. Anyway, I’ve checked and the correct aspect ratio for early films of the sound era is 1.37:1. The 1.33:1 was adapted as the TV standard based on the original Academy ratio for silent films going back to whenever.
But listen, this is the thing I want to know…. It’s 1935, you arrive late on the opening night of CHINA SEAS at the Capitol Theatre, it’s packed and you have to sit in the back row — of a 5000 plus seat auditorium — now, are you seriously telling me that at that distance one was paying to view a screen that was only something like 15x20 feet! Talk about the Depression!
According to Picture Show Man, it was 1932 when the Academy established the ratio of 1.37:1 as the standard for movies.
1.33:1 (just about 4:3) is the aspect ratio that was adopted by the early television industry.
Rory: If a 1.33:1 ratio screen were 30 feet high, it would be 39.9 feet wide, not 33 feet wide.
Well, the Capitol was a 5000 seat auditorium for most of its motion picture exhibiting life, so what does that figure to?
17 feet wide. (typo).
The book “American Theatres of Today” (1927 so Volume One) reported that 12 feet wide means the picture is life sized. A 2000 seat auditorium was then supposed to get a screen 17 feet wall x 12.8 feet tall. A 3500 seat auditorium was supposed to get a screen 20 feet wide and 15 feet tall.
William, the aspect ratio from 1931 until film’s went wide-screen was 1.37:1? Are you telling me that all these pre-widescreen movies they’re putting on DVD should be letterboxed?!!! In the words of Claude Rains, “I’m shocked this is going on!” And if true, then in the words of Charlton Heston, “God damn them all to hell!!!!!”
As far as the screens being as small as you think, well…. no wonder the kids threw candy at them!
Warren, I desperately want to know about this stage show that took place in conjunction with the run of the Wizard of Oz! What else do you know about it?
And does anyone know what the actual duties of an usher would have been around that time… 1939?
doing some research for a project… and also so curious about this period!
The aspect ratio from 1931 was 1.37:1 . But for the size of the house a screen that you mentioned is not that huge. The Rivoli’s regular screen around 1926 was just 15 x 20. When they showed :Old Ironsides" in Magnascope they used a 30 x 40 size screen.
I’ve read, right here, that when the Capitol became the Loew’s Capitol and they installed a Cinerama screen, it was something like 33' high x 90' across. In the thirties the screen would have had the Academy aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and I would assume it would have been somewhere around 30' high and 33' across. Anybody post here that’s old enough to remember the original screen?
Well movie screens from that era were not that Huge, even a theatre like the Capital.