Robert, you’re killing me. I’m getting bent all out of shape by what I missed. Why couldn’t anybody save it? It was so recent. There is nothing left in NY!
There is a beautiful vintage postcard of the Mayfair at night. It would be great if somebody could find it and post it. The Mayfair was located near though not on the boardwalk. It was situated next to the Saint James and a block away from the Lyric. These were all elegant first run theaters.I saw Cinderella at the Mayfair and later I saw Hello Dolly at the St. James. I returned to Asbury Park in the late ‘70s and it was a ghost town by then(what was it with the '70’s?) and the Mayfair and the St. James had become parking lots. I was amazed to read that the Lyric is still standing(it was playing My Fair Lady when I was a boy in '65 at $4.00 a seat!!I know that because my aunt went to see it there as it was the only thing they could get tickets to that evening. No wonder.) It is called the Park and is now a porno house. What about it Asbury Park? Does anyone want to save one of the few splinters left of its devastated history?
You’re lucky you missed it it was lousy. One strip Cinerama and no curtain. Maybe some day NY will present a restored 3 strip Cinerama print. I mean NY has not see this in 40 years what are we waiting for? Must we fly to Seattle? Where are all the influential film lovers who can make this work? Maybe all they want to do is go to the Angelica. By the way I wish I could have seen SOM at the Rivoli.
Well it was pretty heart breaking when the restored Lawrence of Arabia and My Fair Lady were playing at the Ziegfeld and the Criterion was sitting there in Times Square all chopped and falling apart. And this was at one time the top booking for the biggest films. I kept thinking why don’t they turn the Ziegfeld into a Toys R Us and restore one of New Yorks great buildings. This was also one of New Yorks greatest blocks with the stupendous advertisements that floated and blinked above the Criterion day and night. Now these ads are straight from Tokyo and don’t have a thing to do with NY.
When I saw Funny Girl at the Ziegfeld there seemed to be 20 minutes of ads before the film. I wonder if this happened when it first played the Criterion…
What is the current screen size?
At 733 seats it’s about the size of the auditorium at my high school.
This is a restored LA movie palace and one of the most famous? The American Cinemateque obviously doesn’t know squat about film showmanship or 70mm film presentation. Does anybody? I always wanted to go there but now it seems as though it would be major disappointment.
Marty clearly states that they were advertised in the process(you can also see it in pictures of the Roxy marquee) but that the actual presentaton was anamorphic 35mm. So you can film it in the process and say so but not present it as such(would most people really know?) I guess at this point all we can do is go back in time and go into the Roxy projection booth and see just what type of film those reels contain.
Gentlmen Prefer Blonds at the Roxy. That must have been something.
Let’s face it, all movie palaces are dinosaurs. They were made to cater to the needs of now what seems like another civilization. In our society today not one of them should exist. Yet a few still do because they are great buildings and it doesn’t matter where they are. And hey, you don’t have to see a movie you could just sit there and look up at the stars.
From the photo of this theater in the Time Life series This Fabulous Century this has to be one of the greatest theaters left in the country. Does it have any kind of historic protection? I’m amazed that there is not any mobilization of theaters lovers and historic New York lovers doing everything possible to save this glorious building. It’s as if they wanted to tear down the NY Roxy or Paramount or San Francisco Fox all over again. And again nobody gives a damn. So much for the overated renewed appreciaton of our past.
I had heard that the interior is beyond being saved due to neglect and exposure to the elements(rain leaking in, etc.) Does anybody know if this is true or not?
A beautiful art-deco theater. When I saw Hello Dolly there in ‘70 it was still intact with great lighting setting off its stunning interior. When I returned years later to see Deer Hunter it had turned into a dark, depressing hulk. During so many years the powers that be talked about reviving downtown Hackensack so they do it by putting in red bricks at crosswalks(will someone banish to hell the man or woman who came up with that idea?)and they tore down one of their proudest buildings.
I am not sure when this theater opened(it must have been some time during the ‘60’s.)It was a luxurious single screen theater when I started going to it. Shortly therafter it became a antiseptic triplex which was unfortunate because it awas quite a pleasure to go to. May that vanishing world quickly vanish along with all the cineplexes.
Boy was it depressing during the 70’s to seen all those wonderful theaters cut up to show the various teen slaughter and gross out fests.
The Zieglfeld and the Astor Plaza were always a pale copy of the great NY cinemas. It’s a great shame that they survived and the Rivoli, the Criterion, and the Warner Cinerama(Strand) were torn down. And this well after there was supposed to have been a renewed interest in historic theaters.
I thought 2001 had its world premiere in the Loew’s Cinerama in NY.
And why does Washington still have a great classic theater like this and NY nothing? And now they’re destroying the Henry Miller. If Penn Station were around today I’m sure they’d be chomping at the bit to tear it down as well. Does anybody have the money to convert Toys R Us back into the great Criterion?
According to Marty Hart on his amazing web site he claims that though both King and I and Carousel were filmed in Cinemascope 55 they were never shown that way not even in their first run engagements and no known prints are said to survive in that original process.
What a great site! I remember the Rivoli, the Strand and the Criterion from the 70’s very well.Unfortunately at that time they were showing exploition flics for the most part and only very occasionally would there be something you wanted to see there. When the Ziegfeld opened in ‘69 it was considered a mid-size house and it is still a pale shadow of those other theaters.
Are there others in the NY metro area who would be interested in seeing the ressurection of the type of wide screen theater like those above for classic films which could show wide screen classics for everything from Cinemascope to Super Panavision 70 to 3 screen
Cinerama. For NYC not to have the facilties for something like this is criminal to anyone who loves film. We have plenty of theaters suitable for art house classics(which I love) but nothing for the widescreen musicals, comedies and epics which were and could still be one of the great joys of moviegoing.
I saw Fiddler on the Roof here and though filmed in panavision it was shown on the large curved screen that looks similar to the screen that was installed for Oklahoma in ‘55 in the photo on Martin Hart’s wide screen web site. I also saw Gone With The Wind and 2001 on this screen in the 70’s so I assumed it was there all through the 60’s as well with The Sound of Music’s run shown on a curved rather than flat screen.
Robert, you’re killing me. I’m getting bent all out of shape by what I missed. Why couldn’t anybody save it? It was so recent. There is nothing left in NY!
There is a beautiful vintage postcard of the Mayfair at night. It would be great if somebody could find it and post it. The Mayfair was located near though not on the boardwalk. It was situated next to the Saint James and a block away from the Lyric. These were all elegant first run theaters.I saw Cinderella at the Mayfair and later I saw Hello Dolly at the St. James. I returned to Asbury Park in the late ‘70s and it was a ghost town by then(what was it with the '70’s?) and the Mayfair and the St. James had become parking lots. I was amazed to read that the Lyric is still standing(it was playing My Fair Lady when I was a boy in '65 at $4.00 a seat!!I know that because my aunt went to see it there as it was the only thing they could get tickets to that evening. No wonder.) It is called the Park and is now a porno house. What about it Asbury Park? Does anyone want to save one of the few splinters left of its devastated history?
You’re lucky you missed it it was lousy. One strip Cinerama and no curtain. Maybe some day NY will present a restored 3 strip Cinerama print. I mean NY has not see this in 40 years what are we waiting for? Must we fly to Seattle? Where are all the influential film lovers who can make this work? Maybe all they want to do is go to the Angelica. By the way I wish I could have seen SOM at the Rivoli.
Well it was pretty heart breaking when the restored Lawrence of Arabia and My Fair Lady were playing at the Ziegfeld and the Criterion was sitting there in Times Square all chopped and falling apart. And this was at one time the top booking for the biggest films. I kept thinking why don’t they turn the Ziegfeld into a Toys R Us and restore one of New Yorks great buildings. This was also one of New Yorks greatest blocks with the stupendous advertisements that floated and blinked above the Criterion day and night. Now these ads are straight from Tokyo and don’t have a thing to do with NY.
When I saw Funny Girl at the Ziegfeld there seemed to be 20 minutes of ads before the film. I wonder if this happened when it first played the Criterion…
What is the current screen size?
At 733 seats it’s about the size of the auditorium at my high school.
This is a restored LA movie palace and one of the most famous? The American Cinemateque obviously doesn’t know squat about film showmanship or 70mm film presentation. Does anybody? I always wanted to go there but now it seems as though it would be major disappointment.
Marty clearly states that they were advertised in the process(you can also see it in pictures of the Roxy marquee) but that the actual presentaton was anamorphic 35mm. So you can film it in the process and say so but not present it as such(would most people really know?) I guess at this point all we can do is go back in time and go into the Roxy projection booth and see just what type of film those reels contain.
Gentlmen Prefer Blonds at the Roxy. That must have been something.
Let’s face it, all movie palaces are dinosaurs. They were made to cater to the needs of now what seems like another civilization. In our society today not one of them should exist. Yet a few still do because they are great buildings and it doesn’t matter where they are. And hey, you don’t have to see a movie you could just sit there and look up at the stars.
From the photo of this theater in the Time Life series This Fabulous Century this has to be one of the greatest theaters left in the country. Does it have any kind of historic protection? I’m amazed that there is not any mobilization of theaters lovers and historic New York lovers doing everything possible to save this glorious building. It’s as if they wanted to tear down the NY Roxy or Paramount or San Francisco Fox all over again. And again nobody gives a damn. So much for the overated renewed appreciaton of our past.
I had heard that the interior is beyond being saved due to neglect and exposure to the elements(rain leaking in, etc.) Does anybody know if this is true or not?
A beautiful art-deco theater. When I saw Hello Dolly there in ‘70 it was still intact with great lighting setting off its stunning interior. When I returned years later to see Deer Hunter it had turned into a dark, depressing hulk. During so many years the powers that be talked about reviving downtown Hackensack so they do it by putting in red bricks at crosswalks(will someone banish to hell the man or woman who came up with that idea?)and they tore down one of their proudest buildings.
I am not sure when this theater opened(it must have been some time during the ‘60’s.)It was a luxurious single screen theater when I started going to it. Shortly therafter it became a antiseptic triplex which was unfortunate because it awas quite a pleasure to go to. May that vanishing world quickly vanish along with all the cineplexes.
Boy was it depressing during the 70’s to seen all those wonderful theaters cut up to show the various teen slaughter and gross out fests.
The Zieglfeld and the Astor Plaza were always a pale copy of the great NY cinemas. It’s a great shame that they survived and the Rivoli, the Criterion, and the Warner Cinerama(Strand) were torn down. And this well after there was supposed to have been a renewed interest in historic theaters.
I thought 2001 had its world premiere in the Loew’s Cinerama in NY.
And why does Washington still have a great classic theater like this and NY nothing? And now they’re destroying the Henry Miller. If Penn Station were around today I’m sure they’d be chomping at the bit to tear it down as well. Does anybody have the money to convert Toys R Us back into the great Criterion?
According to Marty Hart on his amazing web site he claims that though both King and I and Carousel were filmed in Cinemascope 55 they were never shown that way not even in their first run engagements and no known prints are said to survive in that original process.
What a great site! I remember the Rivoli, the Strand and the Criterion from the 70’s very well.Unfortunately at that time they were showing exploition flics for the most part and only very occasionally would there be something you wanted to see there. When the Ziegfeld opened in ‘69 it was considered a mid-size house and it is still a pale shadow of those other theaters.
Are there others in the NY metro area who would be interested in seeing the ressurection of the type of wide screen theater like those above for classic films which could show wide screen classics for everything from Cinemascope to Super Panavision 70 to 3 screen
Cinerama. For NYC not to have the facilties for something like this is criminal to anyone who loves film. We have plenty of theaters suitable for art house classics(which I love) but nothing for the widescreen musicals, comedies and epics which were and could still be one of the great joys of moviegoing.
I saw Fiddler on the Roof here and though filmed in panavision it was shown on the large curved screen that looks similar to the screen that was installed for Oklahoma in ‘55 in the photo on Martin Hart’s wide screen web site. I also saw Gone With The Wind and 2001 on this screen in the 70’s so I assumed it was there all through the 60’s as well with The Sound of Music’s run shown on a curved rather than flat screen.