Rivoli Theatre
1620 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
1620 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
50 people
favorited this theater
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I find it amazing that these films could play in one theater for so long considering that these days if a film plays in a multiplex for a month, it’s considered an unusually long run. Those days are long, long gone. It will never happen again because the studios make ZILCH now on the theatrical run of a film.
Just curious: did these films still manage to get a decent size audience even, say halfway through their long runs? Were the runs extraordinary length a result of audience demand, a contractual agreement or a combination of both?
Tim you’ve given us a wonderful mini history of roadshows in Toronto.
I guess today as everywhere it is a very different city. Wish I could have known it then.
Sound of Music at the Rivoli might have beat out 80 Days if the management had anything to do with it. Fox pulled it to get the prestige booking for Sand Pebbles when the Riv wanted to hold onto SOM. They wanted to keep it so badly that they ended up suing Fox over the matter. Who knows it might have lasted another 3 months until Easter of ‘67.
The Rivoli Theatre ran “Around the World in 80 Days” for 103 weeks and had “The Sound of Music” for 93 weeks. The two longest running Roadshown engagements on Broadway.
The top 7 engagements were:
“Around the World in 80 Days” at the Rivoli (103 weeks)
“The Sound of Music” at the Rivoli (93 weeks)
“My Fair Lady” at the Criterion (88 weeks)
“West Side Story” at the Rivoli (77 weeks)
“Ben-Hur” at the State (74 weeks)
“Funny Girl” at the Criterion (72 weeks)
“Cleopatra” at the Rivoli (64 weeks)
Seeing that photo of “The Sound of Music” playing brought back wonderful memories for me of when it played at the beautiful Eglinton theatre here in Toronto. It played there for 144 weeks from March 10 ‘65 until Dec 20 '67 when it was replaced by “Doctor Dolittle”. It then moved to the Crest (now Regent) and played another 9 weeks there although not with reserved seats. I used to love when roadshows would play at the University, Eglinton, Odeon Fairlawn and they would used those glass marquees with the film’s stylized writing on since they usually ran for months. The old Tivoli downtown which had several major reserved seat roadshows in the late 50’s, early 60’s would also use those specialized marquees. Toronto had many long runs in those days. “Funny Girl” played 68 weeks at the Odeon Fairlawn and “Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines” ran 50. The Tivoli had long runs of “Oklahoma”, “Around the World in 80 Days”, “South Pacific” and “The King and I”, all of them running 52 weeks or more. “Ben Hur” ran 77 weeks at the University and “2001: A Space Odyssey” ran about 130 some odd weeks at the Glendale Cinerama. I miss those days. Those really were “events”.
The Fox Rosemary Theatre was located on the Pacific Ocean Park pier next to the Fox Dome Theatre. During the 50’s the pier was remodeled and the theatres closed. But the theatre was still equipped on the site. The Dome Theatre was transformed in to some ocean display. If you look at Phillips/Norelco had the Rosemary Theatre listed as a 70MM equipped theatre during the 60’s, but the theatre was not open to the public. On the west coast, the test theatre for Cinerama was the old Warner Forum Theatre and the test theatre for Cinemiracle was the old Fox Melrose Theatre.
Being an east coast boy this is the first I am even hearing of the Fox Rosemary. I would love to know however what happened to the D 150 and Todd AO shorts which were created to show off these systems. What eyepopping time capsules these must be. Perhaps Mike Todd’s son would know? And how I wish he would spearhead a campaign to restore 80 Days to its original splendor and equip perhaps a Broadway theater to play it.(Much in the same way The Broadway theater was used for This is Cinerama and the Royale was used for the roadshow Gigi.)
That would make sense. i have somewhere articles that claim – don’t ask me to find them now – that the inventors began at, I think, UCLA, with motion simulators. sometime in the early-60’s…and it grew into a 70mm projection system. I believe the only remaining D-150 system remaining is outside of Chicago at the River Oaks in Calumet, IL. The main aud is still standing, and surrounded by a host of smaller buildings. Back to the Rosemary, William Gabel, at the head of the thread on this site specifically about the house says it was gutted in the 1950s. Which doesnt necessarily mean that it couldn’t have been used as an experimental house. Whaddya think? Vince
I think it was during early to mid 60’s timeframe. I’m not at home right now so I would have to look at the paperwork. The Fox Rosemary Theatre was not a public theatre during that time.
Do you happen to know during what time period this was…at the Fox Rosemary?
The people used the old Fox Rosemary Theatre in the Ocean Park area of Santa Monica, California for demos of the D-150 process.
actually, when the theatre opened it carried the pompous name of “United Artists All-Purpose D-150 Theatre.” (The “all-purpose” from the fact that the D-150 lens/masking system handled the 4 most common gauges/ratios: flat 35mm, scope 35mm (wider AND taller than flat 35mm), regular 2.2:1 70mm, and then the bigger…full screen D-150. As far as I can find out…D-150 was shown only once there….on an opening night preview of a short subject that followed the regular 35mm feature. The two inventors were there, as were a small group of filmgoers. There were POV shots from a motorcycle in San Francisco, as well as clips from the Todd-AO “South Pacific.” Someone once told me many many years ago there was a 70mm Bollywood film festival. The whole subject of D-150 is full of confusion. The second installation, the UA in Groton, CT, apparently had the curved track, the curtains, the floor-level booth, but only 35mm capability.
Installing D-150 usually involved extensive remodeling of the auditorium, with loss of seating to make room for the screen. The largest screen together with their masking and curtains, took up 40 feet of the depth of the auditorium. The Criterion Theatre would have had to do a major remodel for the screen. And by the time that “Patton” opened mainly UA opened those types of theatres in the US. “Patton” play many of its many engagements in regular 70MM 6-Track Stereo sound. The director was not to happy about that as stories go.
On that list from “The International Cinerama Society” about D-150 installs. I saw that list, they listed that theatre like this the
UA Lefrak City, LI. I had to ask a few people about the LI, since I’m from the west coast.
As I was out of the States when “Patton” opened, I have always wondered if the special D-150 lenticular screen and lenses and masking were actually installed at the Criterion. What is usually a flawless guide to such matters, “The International Cinerama Society” listing of all Cinerama, CineMiracle, Kinopanorama, and D-150 theatres omits the Criterion. On the other hand, it also omits the United Artists Lefrak City (in the Queens section of New York) which was the first public installation of D-150. Can anybody really clarify if D-150 was actually installed in the Criterion?
The October 10th date was the re-premiere at the Rivoli.
“Sand Pebbles” premiered on December 20th of 1966 and would last there for 35 weeks. Then the re-premiere of “Gone with the Wind” in 70MM would open on October 10th and open on October 11th and would run for around 54 weeks. Till October of 1968 when “Star” opened at the Rivoli in Todd-AO. Which was projected using the D-150 screen.
It’s fun that the only D-150 films played at other Times Square theatres “Patton” at the Criterion, and “The Bible” at the State.
The samething happened in Hollywood “Patton” opened at the Pantages in Hollywood and “The Bible” opened at the Beverly in Beverly Hills. The UA Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood was the only D-150 theatre in the area.
Don’t know the exact date, but by the time the 70mm reissue of GWTW opened, it had been installed. this was in the Fall of 1967.
Well “The Sound of Music” premiered on March 2nd 1965 and opened on March 3rd and holds the second longest Roadshow engagement at 93 weeks at the Rivoli Theatre, behind “Around the World in 80 Days” at 103 weeks at the Rivoli. The next major engagement to the Rivoli was “The Sand Pebbles” with the World Premiere on December 20th 1966 and opening on December 21st. Some those 2 weeks between those engagements most have been when the D-150 screen was installed into the theatre.
“Robert do you remember if the Rivoli utilized its curved screen for this engagement?"
It most certainly did. Not the later D-150 screen, mind you, but the original Todd-AO one.
Considering that religious groups and parochial schools were a big market for roadshow films they hit pay dirt with Sound of Music.
Robert do you remember if the Rivoli utilized its curved screen for this engagement?
I was lucky enough to have seen SOM here as a child with my parents and two grandmothers. I still have the program.
Robert thats a great picture and I’d like to see a a color photo of it. The Rivoli also had large vetrines on both sides of the entrance doors and all the big movies had elaborate displays. I’d love to see photos of those as well. As a boy in Nov ‘66 I remember walking behind the Rivoli and seeing the huge sign for SOM on the back of the theater. It was very worn and faded. If only I could have convinced my mother to have walked to the other side so I could have see that marquee! (My mother though would have thought I was out of my mind.)
Nice picture. The Rivoli and other movie palaces had elaborate
custom made displays in that era since major motion pictures were
marketed to the public as ‘events’. This continued to exist on some level through the eighties, at least in the theaters that played 70mm
but died off in the nineties. This type of presentation and display is rare today although there are some theaters that still ‘put on a show’ like the Lafayette in Suffern, New York.
That’s the problem with movie palace afficianados. It doesn't
work without the participation of the distributors and most of them
consider theatrical exhibition as ‘paid advertising’ for the home
video markets.
Check this picture out, it does not get any better then this !!!!
View link
Sounds like what later happened at “Bloody Peekskill” with Paul
Robeson when he got up on stage at the Paramount theater in Peekskill
and swore allegance to Joseph Stalin. A riot ensued. Robeson later wrote the eulogy for the dictator.
The 1930’s is sometimes referred to as “The Red Decade” since the CPSUA was very active politically in the U.S. instigating labor unrest, riots and espionage. The Party increased it’s memership in Hollywood at the time but lost a great deal of it during the Hitler/Stalin pact. Afterwards, a Popular Front was created with CPUSA members and their political opponents (conservative, moderates and many liberals) until the war was over. After World War II, this Popular Front collapsed and the CPUSA commenced labor terrorism in Hollywood with violent strikes at the major film studios and Technicolor. Industry personnel were beaten and intimidated. Cars were blown up outside studio gates. Opposing union leaders had their houses firebombed. The CPUSA threatened to pour acid on then SAG president, Ronald Reagan, if he opposed them. Reagan had to hire body guards to protect his family. The CPUSA also threatened to blow up the nitrate negatives at Technicolor. David Selznick had to delay the release of one of his movies because he couldn’t get his nitrate prints past the strikers. These incidents are what caused HUAC to investigate the film industry in 1948 and 1951. Of course, the blacklist followed against those directly involved (i.e. Herb Sorrell of the CSU) along with ex-party members like Larry Parks who were no longer involved with the CPUSA.
When Red Salute (1935)premiered at the Rivoli Theater in New York in 1935, the leftist, anti-war National Students League stood outside leading a boycott. Inside the theater, there were fist fights between students and angry patriots, resulting in the arrest of 18 people.