Embassy 1,2,3 Theatre
707 7th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10036
707 7th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10036
39 people
favorited this theater
Showing 126 - 150 of 1,094 comments
Ed Solero…To clarify for you the roadshow database that I created, the number for each month is only for the first opening in each state, province and capital city which 99% of the time is the largest city. The roll out was intentional, the whole point of a roadshow right up to the end. The 13 months for Tango was about average,some are longer (80 Days took 23 months). It had nothing to do with its x rating. It was UA’s last roadshow with La Mancha just ahead of it and Fiddler a year before that rolling out the same way. Reserved seats are what made it a roadshow
Next version of CT website software must include a “like” button! Thanks AlAlvarez, as usual.
“Hard” ticket (if you’ll forgive the expression), was definitely the case in Miami.
I got in under-age by having my older brother buy my ticket in advance. Although the usherette did ask me for ID, she walked away when I asked her for hers. I think she was younger than I was.
As for the slow release, (if you’ll forgive…)I think it was Oscar driven.
Just my curiosity here… Was the roll out of Tango intentional? Or was its slow penetration (if you’ll forgive the expression) into smaller markets a matter of the controversial explicitness off the film? And was the New York engagement (and any others that followed) on a hard ticket basis?
Thank you for that, patryan6019. The elimination of X-rated films from historical context is one of my pet peeves. As is the elimination of THE BIRTH OF A NATION and DEEP THROAT from all-time top grossing films. It all seems like cleansing of things that the new researchers find distasteful.
bigjoe59…I’m going to disturb your comfort zone. I have most souvenir programs from the 50s thru the 70s. On 9/2 you wrote"I don’t wish to sound vain in my knowledge of roadshow souvenir programs but I am confident that Hawaii was the last such film to have a hardcover one". Sitting nearby as I type this is my hardcover program of The Lion in Winter. More importantly, on 9/1 you wrote “Hey I’m not 19 anymore either but I pride myself on being say 98% correct in my recollections” followed by the often repeated “the big roadshow films of the 1955-1972 period”. That is incorrect and no one has pointed that out to you (how can they all not know) until now. The final roadshow release is Last Tango in Paris, New York opening Feb 1,1973 (Didn’t you see it on the Michael Coate DC list on 8/6?). But this was just the beginning of the end of the era. From my own research on roadshows Tango took 13 months to open in all 50 states and DC plus the 5 largest provinces and Ottawa in Canada (A total of 56 of 57 first openings; I haven’t as yet found Alabama, which may push the true end further into 1974). The openings are as follows (in descending amount per month)— 23 in May, 9 Apr, 5 Aug, 4 both June and July, 3 Sept, 2 both Oct and Nov and 1 in Feb, Mar, Dec and the final (until I find Alabama) Feb 1974 in Alberta. bigjoe59, I hope you accept my information as helpful as I have much more that you and others may want. Just ask.
This was “VERY STICKY” the night it happened. An operator at the Lynbrook stripped a gear on the intermittent of one of their Norelco AAII Todd/AO projectors (greatest projectors ever made) during the run of “Doctor Zhivago” and as a favor I ran into Manhattan to Norelco on 42nd Street to get the part. Although I got back in time, that evening’s show had to be cancelled. It wasn’t installed by Joe Kelly (the projection star of United Artists Theatres projection department), but by one of the Altec “service Engineers” they also contracted with. If you ever saw the size and strength of those gears, you would wonder how it could get stripped. According to the operator, they were using those Mylar tear-proof type leaders that aren’t supposed to break on startup….and it didn’t, it nearly pulled the projector over. Whether then or now, you would be BETTER OFF with a film break than what the alternative is. Of course with nothing more than a hard drive to store a movie, there’s no such thing as a “film break”. There’s also NO SUCH THING AS 70mm with digital projection. It makes me sad to think of what today’s generation is missing. Not only the spectacular theatres of the day, but, 70mm Roadshow type presentation. Witness how they’re now going to disgrace the memory of “Gone With The Wind” with digital showings. They that digital hard drive copy on the screen at Radio City Music Hall and let me know how it compares with film?
The Lynbrook is chock full of historic sticky spots! One or two I may have contributed myself around 30 or 35 year ago.
Mike (saps)“….the sticky spot is still there…!”
-LOL
Well then you knew that they had Roadshows.
I spilled a soda during the run of Dr. Zhivago at the Lynbrook and the sticky spot is still there…!
On occasion. I recall that when Loew’s Capitol was running “Doctor Zhivago”, the Lynbrook Theatre ran Roadshow with them. The same thing was true for “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” that ran at the Syosset Theatre.
I’m sure there are many others, but I just can’t recall at the moment.
Techman707… Here’s an image of the ad posted last week by NYer.
My question is, how often did Times Square roadshow engagements day and date with other regional engagements?
Al, Do you have links to any of these ads? I was there and I STILL don’t remember it being during an intermission (maybe I’m more senile than I think) I recall him talking about living in RVC at one time.
If you look at the ad NYer posted for “GIANT SHADOW”, it actually states that Kirk Douglas will appear at the Fantasy ‘at intermission’. So there you go.
bigjoe59,
That same issue came up with the original Roadshow of “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World”. According to Robert Harris (who restored “Lawrence Of Arabia” and “My Fair Lady”, the more popular the picture was, the worse condition of the (70mm)negatives. When they would cut a film for general release, they would simply throw out the pieces or trims. Many of the Roadshows you might think are “original”, might have had pieces from Technicolor IB matrices or prints duped for that replacement footage, but ONLY if they had (or could find)an originally made 35mm backup prints of the Roadshow Version. At the DeMille, there was ALWAYS at least a 35mm backup version in the booth.
42ndStreetMemories,
I remember Kirk Douglas appeared in person at Century’s Fantasy Theatre in Rockville Center at the opening of “Cast A Giant Shadow”. If you say the ad said 2:30 and 8:30, I believe it. I was going by the fact that I just never remembered an Intermission….and as BigJoe said, he doesn’t recall ever seeing a Roadshow without an Intermission….and neither do I.
Hello to All-
I have an interesting question pertaining to roadshow films. some studios seemed more adept at keeping complete roadshow prints in good condition than others. for instance all of MGM’s roadshow epics released by Warner Home Video first on dvd and now blu-ray are the original roadshow prints. yet on the available dvd and blu-ray of South Pacific and The Sand Pebbles only the general release prints are in good condition. the accompanying roadshow prints are quite uneven. any thoughts?
techman, don’t know if you access New York Times' Time Machine link below without an account but here is the ad from Saturday April 2, 1966. It lists showings at 2:30 and 8:30 with three Sunday showings at the DeMille, Fantasy on Long Island and Cinema 46 in Totowa NJ http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/04/02/issue.html
“Elmer wrote the score for “Cast a Giant Shadow” too. His music was being heard at the DeMille for years!”
Yes, I’m well aware of that, I happen to be a BIG FAN of Elmer Bernstein’s work and was saddened when he passed away.
If anyone should come across a newspaper ad that shows “Cast A Giant Shadow” advertised as reserved seat “2 A Day”, I’d be interested in seeing it.
Elmer wrote the score for “Cast a Giant Shadow” too. His music was being heard at the DeMille for years!
The 2-tape VHS version of “Hawaii” was also the complete roadshow version, more than 3 hours long. Someone dropped the ball when they released the DVD.
Techman and I have completely opposite opinions. I thought “The Hallelujah Trail” was boring and felt like it was never going to end, but I loved “Hawaii” back then and still do. At least they both had great music by Elmer Bernstein.
Hello to All-
thanks Al for validating my inquiry as to whether CAGS opened at this theater on a traditional roadshow engagement. its possible the recently released blu-ray disc is the general release print since of all the roadshow films i went to I never remember one without an intermission.
also to techman707. I don’t wish to sound vain in my knowledge of roadshow souvenir programs but I am confident that Hawaii was the last such film to have a hardcover one.
also to answer your question. I do not have a souvenir program for The Jazz Singer. my oldest souvenir program is for the silent version of Ben-Hur which opened Dec. 1925.
while we’re on the subject. I am one of the few people I know of who collects souvenir programs that has a complete one for 1926’s Don Juan with John Barrymore. I say complete because in the center of the program they placed a large sized color post card of Barrymore in costume. I should think programs which still have the card are more valuable then those that don’t.
Al, I’ll have to take your word for it. However, as hard as I try I just can’t recall “2 A Day”.
Bigjoe, There’s no doubt about Hawaii being a Roadshow. They also used the full corner sign for it.
“KODAK….MAKE FILM!” -LOL
Big Joe 59: It’s interesting that the laserdisc of Hawaii was the roadshow version but the DVD was the general release version.
All I can tell you about “CAST A GIANT SHADOW” is that it did open as a two-a-day Roadshow in New York. It was reviewed at 141 minutes by the NY Times and the vinyl soundtrack includes a prologue but no intermission track.