I looked through my old Variety clippings and found mostly reviews and ads, but I did find one page of NYC grosses including the Music Hall. Unfortunately it was for one of the Music Hall’s worst bombs ever. The date is March 9, 1977. “Star Wars” was a little more than 2 months away. I’m posting here at the Roxy because the Music Hall page is still not working.
Ron: I have lots of old Variety clippings. I’ll look through them and see if I have any for the Music Hall grosses. I started buying the paper in 1974, when it was only (I think) 60 cents. Now it must be $3 or $4 or even more per issue.
Warren: My dad often talked about the flags flying all over the theater when he saw “Wilson” there. Maybe he was talking about the drapings, changed to red, white and blue?
Is anybody else having trouble seeing the most recent posts on the Radio City Music Hall page? Apparently people are posting, but they’re not showing up on the screen. Maybe 1000 posts is every theater’s limit? It’s supposed to be up to 1005 right now.
Rhett: if you click on the map link up above next to the Central’s address, and zoom all the way in, the Capitol was located on the next block north of the Central with its entrance on Monroe St. The Central’s entrance was on Central Ave. and you had to go around the corner to see what was playing at the Capitol.
I love that ad. It doesn’t even actually refer to those 5 theaters as drive-ins. They were so widespread and commonplace back then, everyone just knew. Now they are the rarest of the rare: only one in the whole state of New Jersey, and that’s way down near Vineland.
In our family we always referred to this theater as “the dollar show”. All seats were $1 well into the 1970’s. I saw “The Omega Man” and “Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice?” here, among others.
8 of the 9 films Warren mentioned are listed in the directory. When I said “summer movie”, I meant it the way they use the term now: big, dumb action movies or adaptations of comic books. That’s a pretty classy bunch of titles moviegoers had to choose from in the summer of 1965. We’ve come a long way since then – a long way backward.
Here is an area directory of theaters from the Aug. 11, 1965 issue of the New York Journal-American. Considering most of the titles on view here, the concept of the “summer movie” had not yet taken hold.
Here is an area directory of theaters from the Aug. 11, 1965 issue of the New York Journal-American. Considering most of the titles on view here, the concept of the “summer movie” had not yet taken hold.
Here is an area directory of theaters from the Aug. 11, 1965 issue of the New York Journal-American. Considering most of the titles on view here, the concept of the “summer movie” had not yet taken hold.
Only 5 more posts, and Radio City Music Hall will be the first theater to break the 1,000 comments barrier. It really is the Showplace of the Nation, and I hope it will be for many years to come.
I should have anticipated that the directory would be well appreciated by the Cinema Treasures regulars! I’ll post it here when I get home from work tonight.
Another great ad from RobertR. Besides the two-in-a-row Cagney classics at the Music Hall, two of my all-time favorite movies were playing in town at the same time: “Marty” and “Summertime”. I loved critic Wanda Hale’s quote at the top of the ad for “The Shrike”: “June Allyson plays an unsympathetic role with such conviction that you’d like to strangle her.”
I could never figure out what Sinatra meant when he said he pulled it from circulation after JFK. The film was shown at least twice on network TV (which is where I saw it) – on CBS in the ‘60’s a few years after Kennedy’s death, and again on NBC in the early '70’s. The '70’s showing included the gory shot of the brains splattering the wall, which somehow got past the NBC censors.
Here’s another double ad from 1965 that I posted on the Capitol page:
RE: what Vincent said. My cousin and I had to struggle to find two seats together for “Love Story” at Loew’s State 1. That was also our first $3.00 movie ticket. We thought it was an outrageously high price.
Thanks, Vinton. That was quite an evocative picture of a very different New York that’s almost gone. Some of the places you mentioned are still the same and are still going strong, but there’s been one small improvement: the Staten Island Ferry is now a free ride both ways.
I can empathize with Theaterat concerning the size of the Music Hall when you’re a little kid. I first went when I was 7. My family always sat in the third mezzanine. We took the elevator up and walked down when the show was over. I can recall thinking the stairs going down were never going to end – whenever we got to the bottom of one huge staircase, there was always another one just around the corner. This was not a complaint, mind you – I thought it was fun.
I looked through my old Variety clippings and found mostly reviews and ads, but I did find one page of NYC grosses including the Music Hall. Unfortunately it was for one of the Music Hall’s worst bombs ever. The date is March 9, 1977. “Star Wars” was a little more than 2 months away. I’m posting here at the Roxy because the Music Hall page is still not working.
View link
View link
View link
View link
Ron: I have lots of old Variety clippings. I’ll look through them and see if I have any for the Music Hall grosses. I started buying the paper in 1974, when it was only (I think) 60 cents. Now it must be $3 or $4 or even more per issue.
Warren: My dad often talked about the flags flying all over the theater when he saw “Wilson” there. Maybe he was talking about the drapings, changed to red, white and blue?
There’s a link to “Next Page” at the bottom of RCMH, but it doesn’t go anywhere (yet).
Maybe the original web designers had no idea Cinema Treasures would ever be THIS popular?
Thanks, Warren. It felt good to see the Central’s marquee once again.
Is anybody else having trouble seeing the most recent posts on the Radio City Music Hall page? Apparently people are posting, but they’re not showing up on the screen. Maybe 1000 posts is every theater’s limit? It’s supposed to be up to 1005 right now.
Rhett: if you click on the map link up above next to the Central’s address, and zoom all the way in, the Capitol was located on the next block north of the Central with its entrance on Monroe St. The Central’s entrance was on Central Ave. and you had to go around the corner to see what was playing at the Capitol.
Here is the flyer for the 1996 WB Classic Film Festival at the Hall:
View link
View link
I love that ad. It doesn’t even actually refer to those 5 theaters as drive-ins. They were so widespread and commonplace back then, everyone just knew. Now they are the rarest of the rare: only one in the whole state of New Jersey, and that’s way down near Vineland.
In our family we always referred to this theater as “the dollar show”. All seats were $1 well into the 1970’s. I saw “The Omega Man” and “Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice?” here, among others.
Thanks anyway TC, but I think that is a RobertR posting!
8 of the 9 films Warren mentioned are listed in the directory. When I said “summer movie”, I meant it the way they use the term now: big, dumb action movies or adaptations of comic books. That’s a pretty classy bunch of titles moviegoers had to choose from in the summer of 1965. We’ve come a long way since then – a long way backward.
Here is an area directory of theaters from the Aug. 11, 1965 issue of the New York Journal-American. Considering most of the titles on view here, the concept of the “summer movie” had not yet taken hold.
View link
Here is an area directory of theaters from the Aug. 11, 1965 issue of the New York Journal-American. Considering most of the titles on view here, the concept of the “summer movie” had not yet taken hold.
View link
Here is an area directory of theaters from the Aug. 11, 1965 issue of the New York Journal-American. Considering most of the titles on view here, the concept of the “summer movie” had not yet taken hold.
View link
Only 5 more posts, and Radio City Music Hall will be the first theater to break the 1,000 comments barrier. It really is the Showplace of the Nation, and I hope it will be for many years to come.
I should have anticipated that the directory would be well appreciated by the Cinema Treasures regulars! I’ll post it here when I get home from work tonight.
Another great ad from RobertR. Besides the two-in-a-row Cagney classics at the Music Hall, two of my all-time favorite movies were playing in town at the same time: “Marty” and “Summertime”. I loved critic Wanda Hale’s quote at the top of the ad for “The Shrike”: “June Allyson plays an unsympathetic role with such conviction that you’d like to strangle her.”
I could never figure out what Sinatra meant when he said he pulled it from circulation after JFK. The film was shown at least twice on network TV (which is where I saw it) – on CBS in the ‘60’s a few years after Kennedy’s death, and again on NBC in the early '70’s. The '70’s showing included the gory shot of the brains splattering the wall, which somehow got past the NBC censors.
Here’s another double ad from 1965 that I posted on the Capitol page:
View link
Apparently the area premiere of “Help!” was held here in August 1965:
View link
This ad is from the defunct newspaper the New York Journal-American.
Here is a double ad from August 1965 for both of Manhattan’s Cinerama theaters:
View link
Not only are both these theaters dead, but so is the newspaper this ad is from, the New York Journal-American.
Here is a double ad from August 1965 for both of Manhattan’s Cinerama theaters:
View link
RE: what Vincent said. My cousin and I had to struggle to find two seats together for “Love Story” at Loew’s State 1. That was also our first $3.00 movie ticket. We thought it was an outrageously high price.
Thanks, Vinton. That was quite an evocative picture of a very different New York that’s almost gone. Some of the places you mentioned are still the same and are still going strong, but there’s been one small improvement: the Staten Island Ferry is now a free ride both ways.
I can empathize with Theaterat concerning the size of the Music Hall when you’re a little kid. I first went when I was 7. My family always sat in the third mezzanine. We took the elevator up and walked down when the show was over. I can recall thinking the stairs going down were never going to end – whenever we got to the bottom of one huge staircase, there was always another one just around the corner. This was not a complaint, mind you – I thought it was fun.