Roxy Theatre

The TGI Friday’s was preceded by another restaurant. I believe a Child’s was on the corner of 50th and 7th for at least a couple of decades before the Taft was closed and re-modeled into the Michelangelo Suites during early/mid 1980s. The Roxy ticket lobby is the space currently occupied by TGI. The Roxy Rotunda, which was behind the ticket lobby was destroyed along with the auditorium and the rest of the Roxy building in mid-late 1960. The THS Roxy annual, published in 1979 or 80, claims that the Rotunda was to incorporated into the Taft Hotel expansion design William Zeckendorf was supposedly planning at the time. Of course this never happened. In fact I cannot locate any reference to the Hotel Taft expansion after the Roxy building was sold by Rock Center to Zeckendorf. Zeckendorf’s visions were constantly filled with hyperbole, which probably led to his bankruptcy and downfall. Rather than expand the Taft, the partially demolished Roxy was later sold by Zeckendorf to a couple of amateur NJ real estate developers (their first venture into NYC real-estate) in order to raise cash for his crumbling empire.

I know where TGI Friday’s is..but didn’t know that the famous Roxy theater was once in that restaurant. It’s probably one of the bigger ones in the tri-state area owned by the franchise.

At last the grand opening ad has been uploaded by me.

Thanks.The only part left of the Playbill shows Clara’s image above the title “Compliments of the Roxy Theatre” so, at some point, she must have been a headliner there. It is possible that my relative attended the Roxy on a date other than March 26, 1933 because that date is written in ink on the backside. It could help if anyone could verify that Clara was on the bill at the Roxy at some point in the general time frame. The DNA testing might be a bit over the top for my budget, assuming someone, somewhere has a confirmed “piece” of Clara.

In the effects of a recently passed family member, we have found a playbill for the Roxy Theatre in New York City, dated Sunday, March 26,1933, autographed to the deceased by 1920’s silent film star Clara Bow. The signature matches examples of Ms.Bow’s signature that I have located online. In addition the envelope contained a lock of (Ms.Bow’s ?) hair. I am trying to confirm that Ms. Bow was at the Roxy on that date. Any help would be appreciated.

Mike Fleckenstein, Virginia USA

Indeed, sadly the Roxy was dust by the time MFL opened. Still it’s nice to reference the great lines from the movie here and there.

And as Eliza wondered about her late aunt, “what become of her new straw hat that should have come to me?”

How about the answer to where the huge rotunda rug went?

Sigh…

I’m not saying those gates aren’t from the Roxy, but I’d be more convinced if they said “Rambusch” instead of Tiffany. Too bad they don’t have a photo of them in the theatre. Just saying they came from the Roxy isn’t exactly “great provenance” in and of itself.

Look at the original movie Naked City. In the opening minute is a scene of NY while the city sleeps.A quick shot shows a cleaning woman with a bucket moping the rotunda . Talk about thankless jobs

Hello Again-

as i mentioned in previous posts in the late 50s Hollywood was still operating on the A movie and B movie production level. now just because a film is a A level picture doesn’t mean its going to any good or receive critical acclaim or be a hit at the box office. to which what was the last A level picture to play the Roxy that was both critically well received and had a healthy run?

interesting marquee photo here:

http://www.boxoffice.com/the_vault/issue_page?issue_id=1946-4-27&page_no=17#page_start