Comments from VincentParisi

Showing 76 - 100 of 941 comments

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Palace Theatre on Jul 13, 2006 at 7:25 am

It was supposed to get Mame but a production of that size seems no longer a propect on Broadway. Something big is coming in in the fall.
While we’re at it I hate that they got rid of the great facade and put up a slick plastic looking front. I can’t believe people are paid a ton of money to come up with these horrible new designs. Contemporary architecture not global warming will be the end of the human race.

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Palace Theatre on Jul 13, 2006 at 7:08 am

Bway you must be very very young. Lucky you!

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Kings Theatre on Jul 13, 2006 at 6:38 am

The Disneyfication was the worst thing to ever happen to midtown. If you actually think it was a good thing then may you live in a shopping mall for the rest of your life.

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Kings Theatre on Jul 11, 2006 at 1:14 pm

The first half of my list belongs to Koch and Giuliani.And I left out the Criterion and Bijou and the destruction of 42nd St as a neighborhood. Everything left after the slaughter of the 60’s. There was still a great theatrical neighborhood left. Now it is just a corporate cesspool. Sorry if this offends you. But if it does I am genuinely surprised.
Look at the constant political harrassment the Friends of the Loews is going through out in Jersey. There are many who would have said that building was in a ‘shambles and steep decline.'
Thank god for those volunteers out there showing what a great legacy was left to us and how much of it was destroyed.

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Kings Theatre on Jul 11, 2006 at 11:50 am

If you want to refer to my anger at the destructions of our downtowns and the neglect of our national security a hissy fit so be it.
A great deal of architectural beauty has been destroyed out of sheer greed. And it doesn’t take a lefty to figure out that our national security was purposely ignored.
The Rivoli, Strand, Morosco Helen Hayes and Loew’s State, the old Met, the Capitol, the Paramount, Astor Hotel and Penn Station did not need to be torn down.
These were fully functional great NY buildings.
And I still stand by my statement on that loathsome triumvirate.

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Kings Theatre on Jul 11, 2006 at 6:42 am

Koch and Giuliani destroyed mid town and had demolished all the remaining Times Square movie palaces. They are despicable in their stupidity and greed.
And as for leading the city after 9/11 what did Giuliani have to do? Everyone was stunned! For him and Bush it was nothing but a photo op testament to their incompetence and ingnorance of a terrorist threat. All three men may they rot.

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Embassy 1,2,3 Theatre on Jul 10, 2006 at 7:59 am

Does anybody have a color photo of the Hawaii billboard? That was also pretty spectacular.
The Magnificent Men had moving parts.The planes looking as if they were bobbing in the air and legs spinning.
Thank you RobertR!

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Brooklyn Paramount on Jul 6, 2006 at 9:36 am

Just looking at the photo Warren posted in Feb of this year. Looks like the Brooklyn Paramount along with the Chi Paradise were the two most beautiful movie palaces ever built in the US. From the black and white photos I’ve seen of them to have actually been in them in their glory days almost seems like too much.

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Sutton Theater on Jul 6, 2006 at 7:46 am

ErikH made me think of the time I was lost in my own thoughts walking up 5th Av when Rizzoli was still there when I suddenly look up in front of the store and right in front of me are DeNiro and Streep holding shopping bags of Christmas presents. This was nowhere near Christmas and if there is a movie out there with this scene of the two of them standing in front of Rizzoli’s I’m probably somehwere in the vicinity off camera.

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Radio City Music Hall on Jul 5, 2006 at 10:17 am

I vaguely remember it but the truly great production of Porgy in the second half of the 20th Century was the Houston Grand Opera Company version which played at the Uris and then tranferred to the Mark Hellinger where I saw it with Clamma Dale and Donnie Ray Albert. One of the great musical performances of all time.
This is meant to be seen in a Broadway house. Not at the Music Hall and not at the Met.

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Saban Theatre on Jun 22, 2006 at 9:13 am

Can anybody tell me who visited this theater during its roadshow 70mm heyday if there was a flat screen in the proscenium or if there was a curved screen in front of it.

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Little Carnegie Theatre on Jun 20, 2006 at 12:27 pm

Why would watching Susan Sarandon bathe her breasts with lemons be melancholy? I think it would be kind of sensational and inspiring.

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about RKO Warner Twin Theatre on Jun 19, 2006 at 12:35 pm

Does anyone know how much of the original decor as pictured in Warren’s photos from January made it to the 50’s before the house was redesigned for Cinerama?

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Paramount Theatre on Jun 15, 2006 at 2:29 pm

But now you can see Streisand at the Garden for $1,800.
These are the good old days!

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Radio City Music Hall on Jun 15, 2006 at 10:03 am

That automat had a very elegant facade which was covered over when they turned it into a Burger King. It is on the cover of a Carole King album and above the facade is a billboard for Sunflower which played at the Hall in the fall of ‘70 which was obviously when the album cover was designed.
Does anybody know the name of the King album?

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Radio City Music Hall on Jun 15, 2006 at 8:27 am

But I don’t think it was either of these. It was directly by the Hall(I think.)Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me-this was in ‘66.

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Radio City Music Hall on Jun 15, 2006 at 7:36 am

You want me to get started Vito?
By the way Ed and klass discuss H and H but wasn’t there a Howard Johnson’s right by the Hall. Does anyone know where it was exactly?My mother took my sister and me there after my first visit to the Hall.

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Radio City Music Hall on Jun 14, 2006 at 1:03 pm

klass
Molly Brown was a summer movie. The Easter film was Henry Orient-another of those bizarre mid 60’s choices of what the Hall considered a holiday film for the entire family. The Christmas film that year was Father Goose and I know of no one alive who was ever able to sit through the entire thing.

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Loew's Paradise Theatre on Jun 2, 2006 at 6:55 am

Isn’t it interesting that people of Christ take such care of and love these buildings so much. Having been built in the interest of commerce and pop culture at their gaudiest and most baroque they are now welcoming homes for people of deep religious spirituality.
Go figure!

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Roxy Theatre on Jun 1, 2006 at 7:45 am

To BOBill.
I’d go to see Lassie Come Home with Autumn Album today if it were playing at the Music Hall.

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Criterion Theatre on May 30, 2006 at 7:15 am

What in the world could anybody see in the fourth and the fifth tiers of boxes of the Lyric from Warren’s picture of May 1 except the ceiling?
Though the theater itself seems to have been one of the loveliest to have ever existed in New York.

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Radio City Music Hall on May 30, 2006 at 6:26 am

They did attempt to have an Easter show a couple of times but it was pretty pathetic. They included the Glory of Easter because I assume they still had the sets and costumes however they seemed to have lost the original lighting designs as the lighting was flat. When it was originally done the set seemed to glow with rich color.(I know because when I worked there for Robin and Marian I used to watch it again and again and I thought the lighting was amazing. Of course it was originally designed in the 30’s when they knew how to do these things.)

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Virginia Theatre on May 22, 2006 at 1:55 pm

Millie couldn’t have played there until the spring of ‘67. Does that mean that SOM played from May '65 until '67 at the Virginia and then moved to the Shore? Was this all on reserved seats?
As I’ve written above on my first visit to AC GWTW was playing at the Virginia in the summer of '68. There was a billboard above for Mille which they hadn’t bothered to change.
When I was on the boardwalk in the summer of '76 the Virginia was still there but boarded up.
Does anybody have any interior and exterior photos of the Virginia?
Amazing that SOM was selling out everywhere in that summer of '65.

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Loew's Jersey Theatre on May 17, 2006 at 8:54 am

Also the fact that this current program is so aggressively unfamily friendly really makes me wonder what is going on in the minds of the people running the place.
You’d think at times they were programming midnight shows at the Angelika or the Cinema Village and not at one of the Loew’s Wonder Theaters.

VincentParisi
VincentParisi commented about Loew's Jersey Theatre on May 15, 2006 at 7:29 am

After the Ford tribute things were looking up but now we’ve got more inscrutable programming for the Jersey. The theater really needs somebody else to come up with programs. The only one that makes sense is the Kramer and that’s at 3 in the afternoon!
I mean Brazil as a movie palace feature on a Sat night?!!!