An astonishing impressive use of the culmination of Roxy’s decades of experience refining his showmanship to create the greatest theater New York has ever seen.
We’ve all seen it a million times and it works very well on TV without seeing it on a large screen.
Half the programming there seems very off. A lot of films that do not benefit from a large screen or look lost in a movie palace. They sure could have used a Frank Rowley or Bruce Goldstein.
NYer posted the opening day ad of the B&B ‘71 Christmas show.
As you can see the secular part had a circus theme.
My memory is that they had made holes in the first arch so that they could suspend the trapezes. Therefore the act took place in the auditorium itself.
I don’t remember exactly but I think the orchestra went down and stagehands put a net over the pit.
This scared the devil out of me as I was very young and had somebody been flung and not taken hold it looked like they could have gone any which way including the stage or choral stairs or audience.
I endured this twice and it was terrific but it made me very nervous.
It’s also unfortunate the film was heavily cut before release to the Hall. I’ve never seen the restored cut.
And the article was written by Vincent Canby who I have no doubt had no interest in fact checking anything about these 2 films mentioned and just copied what was in the handed out press release. Being that this was very recent history didn’t the manager of the Rivoli notice this?
I understand the Rivoli,I believe I read this in an old Variety on microfilm, itself was not happy about letting go of SOM and fought to hold on to it being that it was still so successful.
I can’t understand why the film didn’t have its ‘73 big ballyhooed rerelease there. I was old enough to finally have seen it in one of my favorite movie theaters. You know 'The Sound of Music returns home!’ that kind of thing. Instead it played at the National a theater I didn’t like so I didn’t bother.
The Sand Pebbles is like Zhivago. Why oh why wasn’t it filmed in 70MM? Was it that expensive at that point when other films were still doing it and both Wise and Lean would use it for their next films?
Other films of the era that definitely could have used it were Hawaii, Oliver! and Funny Girl.
It opened there in I believe Oct of ‘61. Cleopatra opened there in summer of '63.
I guess they weren’t teaching math in ‘66.
And Sound of Music would have been Rivoli’s longest run.
Very odd.
Unless I’m the one to have to take remedial math or my reading comprehension is nil.
I spoke to Wise asking him what happened to the plaque in the lobby dedicated to him listing his films that had played at the theater when they tore it down.
He said he hadn’t thought of that plaque since it was put up.
I hope some movie buff stole it and it still exists somewhere.
I believe the next feature was a Betty Grable/Cesar Romero 20th Century Fox musical with Wilhelm Furtwangler and the Berlin Philharmonic on the Roxy stage doing 4 a day with Kirstin Flagstad as soloist singing the immolation scene from Gotterdammerung. And Rudolf Bing as the interlocutor.
I know I’m the last person in the world who should be asking this question bigjoe59 but why in the world in 2016 does this matter?
For what it’s worth when I saw MFL in Jan of 71 at the Criterion though it was a Super Panavision 70 print it was continuous perfs without intermission and the souvenir program was a flimsy flyer compared to the hardcover edition of the original run.
But this IS small. Considering this was one of LAs great movie houses the architect of this screening room should be charged with vandalism of public property.
When I was finally old enough to go on my own to roadshow films(my parents thought people were crazy to pay those prices when you could fill up the station wagon and take the entire family to a drive-in with kids getting in free-think the perfect drive-in double bill: My Fair Lady and For Those Who Think Young) I got stuck with Fiddler at the Rivoli, oy, and Nicholas at the Criterion.
And flame throwers couldn’t get me into Tora Tora Tora or Florence Henderson in Super Panavision 70.
Then they bring back Lawrence and put it in the Rivoli. Perfect right? No. They show the cliff notes version.
Except for Ryan’s Daughter which is a pretty great film. The storm alone is one of the most stupendous sequences ever put of film. Lean hadn’t lost his touch but got put through the meat grinder by those wretched New York film critic hacks who couldn’t review a grocery bill without mucking it up.
One of my favorite movies and astonishingly it opened as the ‘42 Christmas show and with a change of stage show played until March!
Despite the MGM gloss and sudden happy ending a very dark and tragic film and an odd choice for a holiday film in the 40s.
Mervyn Leroy claims he was told by the Music Hall management it could play another 11 weeks but they had to get a new film in.
Astounding when it had 5 showings a day to close to 6,000 people. WW II certainly was the halcyon days of film going in NY with all those midtown movie palaces constantly filling up playing to thousand of people a show.
An astonishing impressive use of the culmination of Roxy’s decades of experience refining his showmanship to create the greatest theater New York has ever seen.
68 seats?
It’s too small even for Brief Encounter in an 8mm print.
And that phony arch is criminal.
The Music Hall always framed the size of the stage needed by its magnificent curtain.
As you can see that arch just about obliterates it.
But from what I understand the curtain cannot even do what it used to do! So much for the publicity saturated gazillion dollar restoration.
And Blazing Saddles was in Panavision. Was the movie properly framed by the Music Hall’s film borders?
Do these even still exist?
What a sad dismal pathetic picture.
Well I guess it’s better than not having the Music Hall at all.
The problem is the Hall was not built as a warehouse for junk and shouldn’t be used as such.
The Loew’s is showing Wonderful Life?
Why?
We’ve all seen it a million times and it works very well on TV without seeing it on a large screen.
Half the programming there seems very off. A lot of films that do not benefit from a large screen or look lost in a movie palace. They sure could have used a Frank Rowley or Bruce Goldstein.
They sure dumped Balalaika fast.
I think they did the same thing with No No Nanette the following year. Pulling it fast for The Philadelphia Story.
I remember when Mr Billion was the Easter show (what were they thinking?)and replaced it with some Disney pony movie(what were they thinking?)
I don’t think it did any better.
Christmas'57 wasn’t exactly for the family trade at either the Roxy or the Music Hall.
What were the parents making of all of this?
NYer posted the opening day ad of the B&B ‘71 Christmas show. As you can see the secular part had a circus theme.
My memory is that they had made holes in the first arch so that they could suspend the trapezes. Therefore the act took place in the auditorium itself.
I don’t remember exactly but I think the orchestra went down and stagehands put a net over the pit.
This scared the devil out of me as I was very young and had somebody been flung and not taken hold it looked like they could have gone any which way including the stage or choral stairs or audience.
I endured this twice and it was terrific but it made me very nervous.
It’s also unfortunate the film was heavily cut before release to the Hall. I’ve never seen the restored cut.
And the article was written by Vincent Canby who I have no doubt had no interest in fact checking anything about these 2 films mentioned and just copied what was in the handed out press release. Being that this was very recent history didn’t the manager of the Rivoli notice this?
I understand the Rivoli,I believe I read this in an old Variety on microfilm, itself was not happy about letting go of SOM and fought to hold on to it being that it was still so successful.
I can’t understand why the film didn’t have its ‘73 big ballyhooed rerelease there. I was old enough to finally have seen it in one of my favorite movie theaters. You know 'The Sound of Music returns home!’ that kind of thing. Instead it played at the National a theater I didn’t like so I didn’t bother.
The Sand Pebbles is like Zhivago. Why oh why wasn’t it filmed in 70MM? Was it that expensive at that point when other films were still doing it and both Wise and Lean would use it for their next films?
Other films of the era that definitely could have used it were Hawaii, Oliver! and Funny Girl.
WSS played 113 weeks at the Rivoli?
It opened there in I believe Oct of ‘61. Cleopatra opened there in summer of '63.
I guess they weren’t teaching math in ‘66.
And Sound of Music would have been Rivoli’s longest run.
Very odd.
Unless I’m the one to have to take remedial math or my reading comprehension is nil.
I spoke to Wise asking him what happened to the plaque in the lobby dedicated to him listing his films that had played at the theater when they tore it down. He said he hadn’t thought of that plaque since it was put up.
I hope some movie buff stole it and it still exists somewhere.
Why is there no information on this spectacular theater?
What a great place to see wide screen films.
Was this a 70mm roadshow house?
This has to be one of the best pictures I’ve seen to give those of us who were never in it some idea of the splendor of the Roxy.
The Music Hall in all its pristine glory.
Wonder what year that was taken in.
I bet it hasn’t looked like that in decades.
I believe the next feature was a Betty Grable/Cesar Romero 20th Century Fox musical with Wilhelm Furtwangler and the Berlin Philharmonic on the Roxy stage doing 4 a day with Kirstin Flagstad as soloist singing the immolation scene from Gotterdammerung. And Rudolf Bing as the interlocutor.
With no advance in prices.
I know I’m the last person in the world who should be asking this question bigjoe59 but why in the world in 2016 does this matter?
For what it’s worth when I saw MFL in Jan of 71 at the Criterion though it was a Super Panavision 70 print it was continuous perfs without intermission and the souvenir program was a flimsy flyer compared to the hardcover edition of the original run.
Is this the ‘he tried to talk Lucy out of it’ Gary Morton?
Capucine on the Music Hall screen in Cinemascope would have had me gobsmacked. It doesn’t get better than that.
But this IS small. Considering this was one of LAs great movie houses the architect of this screening room should be charged with vandalism of public property.
I couldn’t believe my bad luck.
When I was finally old enough to go on my own to roadshow films(my parents thought people were crazy to pay those prices when you could fill up the station wagon and take the entire family to a drive-in with kids getting in free-think the perfect drive-in double bill: My Fair Lady and For Those Who Think Young) I got stuck with Fiddler at the Rivoli, oy, and Nicholas at the Criterion.
And flame throwers couldn’t get me into Tora Tora Tora or Florence Henderson in Super Panavision 70.
Then they bring back Lawrence and put it in the Rivoli. Perfect right? No. They show the cliff notes version.
Life, as they say, is not fair.
Mean!
But I agree with you.
Except for Ryan’s Daughter which is a pretty great film. The storm alone is one of the most stupendous sequences ever put of film. Lean hadn’t lost his touch but got put through the meat grinder by those wretched New York film critic hacks who couldn’t review a grocery bill without mucking it up.
Whoever titled the stage show had a sense of humor.
I love this photo.
It was the end of an era.
One of my favorite movies and astonishingly it opened as the ‘42 Christmas show and with a change of stage show played until March!
Despite the MGM gloss and sudden happy ending a very dark and tragic film and an odd choice for a holiday film in the 40s.
Mervyn Leroy claims he was told by the Music Hall management it could play another 11 weeks but they had to get a new film in.
Astounding when it had 5 showings a day to close to 6,000 people. WW II certainly was the halcyon days of film going in NY with all those midtown movie palaces constantly filling up playing to thousand of people a show.
A very exciting time for movie going.
But of course there was that war…
Bill you only post this to make us jealous.
Well I saw it at the Rivoli in ‘76 and it was pretty fabulous there!
Wish they were showing this in September.
Along with the exotic Danse d'Extase rhumba rhythm ballet which must have been fun.
46 ft seems pretty small for a screen for a major London roadshow house.
Especially for films like SOM, Cleopatra and Lawrence.