I’m pretty sure the projectors are still installed. I’m basing this on a Radio City tour I took around 4 years ago, but I know they still show movies as premieres and special events from time to time (“West Side Story”’s 40th anniversary which was not open to the public, “Harry Potter”).
Just got back from seeing The Moody Blues at Radio City. They put on their usual fine show, but even if the show was lousy it would’ve been enough just to be in the Hall again …
The Rockettes even put in an appearance. Only two of them, but two Rockettes are better than none. They got a great ovation when they did their high kicks with Moody Blues drummer Graeme Edge.
Thanks, Robert. I especially like the picture from 1959. I can’t read the letters on the marquee, but I like to think that either “North by Northwest” or “The Nun’s Story” was playing that day.
Besides, what movie out of the ones they’re making today would be good enough to attract that many people to the Hall? Maybe the new “King Kong” could do it? I’m hoping the premiere of the movie is held at Radio City, and that the public is able to attend. Kong will have come full-circle from 1933 to 2005.
Jeff: Here’s a picture of the Central, but it’s not that good a one. Unfortunately it doesn’t show the marquee, which was on the right side of the building on Central Ave.
Main Ave. is on the left of the parking lot in this picture, so it ran parallel to the theater. The wall we see here with the billboard on it, facing south, is the back wall of the theater, or of the lobby actually. When you walked into the lobby from Central Ave., you turned right to enter the theater. The screen faced Monroe St. (and the Capitol Theater). I remember not liking the location of the front of the theater because when my family drove up Main Ave. on our way to the White Castle in Clifton, I could never see the Central’s marquee. Just like I can’t make out what’s up on the billboard in this picture. Whatever it is, it’s from 1967.
JohnG: According to Michael Coate and William Kallay’s 70mm in New York website, the only other 70mm showing of “Ben-Hur” was in Asbury Park, NJ. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a roadshow at the Metropolitan. A 35mm print was shown in a reserved seat engagement in Newark, NJ prior to opening wide in neighborhood theaters.
November 19:
Ben-Hur
MGM Camera 65 / Six-Track Stereo
Reserved Seat Engagement
MGM
Manhattan: [Loew’s] State
Includes World Premiere on November 18
Expanded release on May 26, 1960:
Asbury Park: [Walter Reade] St. James
TC – I really appreciate that you enjoy looking at the ads. And I should thank either you, BoxOfficeBill or RobertR for steering me to Photobucket. I noticed one of you using it to post pictures. I had earlier tried another way to do it and it was a big failure, but so far Photobucket is working great.
There’s real showmanship on display in these ads. Look how many things are happening on any one of these pages: Free Coffee Served, Free Color TV Lounge, Ladies' Night, Guys' Night Out, Children Under 12 Free, etc.
Compare it to today, when you’re lucky just to be able to see a halfway-decent movie.
What I like best about the ads are the ones that are personalized by the theater owners or managers, with ad copy specific to the movies being shown. Like these for the Century’s Paramus and Pearl River Theaters:
and the first 7 or 8 theaters in the Comments column have new ads posted. I also recently posted some for the Lafayette in Suffern and the Fox and the Oritani in Hackensack that you might not have seen.
CConnolly – I’m having the same problem you are, because I keep searching around for comments and reactions (like yours) to the ads I’ve posted! The only way I’ve been able to do it is to look in the Recent Comments column and if the theater’s in North Jersey, it might be what I’m looking for. But the Recent Comments column fills up so quickly now that the site is very popular, so that method often doesn’t work. I think your idea about a separate section for the ads is an excellent one – that’s probably the best solution.
Thanks TC. When I was a very little kid everybody called the drive-in, and the highway itself, S3. This was back in the late ‘50s-early '60s. I think S stood for State, as in State Highway 3.
“If you thought Buona Sera Mrs. Campbell was funny …” – I love that kind of personal touch in movie ads. That movie was hot stuff in the late sixties, but now I wonder how many people remember or have even heard of “Buona Sera Mrs. Campbell”. I believe the plot of the hit B'way musical “Mamma Mia” was stolen from that movie.
The producer of “Matilda” is also the producer of last year’s Oscar-winning Best Picture, “Million Dollar Baby”. He also produced “The Godfather” in 1972. I guess 1978 was an off year for him.
Here is a very topical ad for the Allwood, from 1969. Ads like this, featuring copy specific to the movie being shown, were a really distinctive hallmark of the neighborhood theater. Even though the Allwood is now a sixplex, I’m glad it has survived all these years.
In this ad, you can see that the Rivoli had its own theater organ, played on Friday and Saturday nights. I never heard the organ myself since I always went on Sunday afternoons. I went to the show in this ad – as described above, it was the first movie I saw by myself, at the age of 8. Times certainly have changed …
“2001: A Space Odyssey” wasn’t nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, and this ad from March 1969 seems to be a response to that. Notice the many theaters playing the movie. Not only do several of them no longer exist, but only one would actually get to play the movie again in the 21st century. You only get one guess :)
I’m pretty sure the projectors are still installed. I’m basing this on a Radio City tour I took around 4 years ago, but I know they still show movies as premieres and special events from time to time (“West Side Story”’s 40th anniversary which was not open to the public, “Harry Potter”).
My mom attended the “My Friend Irma” show at the Paramount. Jerry Lewis took over for the ticket taker and tore her ticket in half.
Just got back from seeing The Moody Blues at Radio City. They put on their usual fine show, but even if the show was lousy it would’ve been enough just to be in the Hall again …
The Rockettes even put in an appearance. Only two of them, but two Rockettes are better than none. They got a great ovation when they did their high kicks with Moody Blues drummer Graeme Edge.
I think the Strand marquee says “Hasty Heart”, a Ronald Reagan/Patricia Neal movie from 1949.
Thanks, Robert. I especially like the picture from 1959. I can’t read the letters on the marquee, but I like to think that either “North by Northwest” or “The Nun’s Story” was playing that day.
Besides, what movie out of the ones they’re making today would be good enough to attract that many people to the Hall? Maybe the new “King Kong” could do it? I’m hoping the premiere of the movie is held at Radio City, and that the public is able to attend. Kong will have come full-circle from 1933 to 2005.
Michael: I for one would love to see them, especially the Los Angeles ones which I’ve never seen. Thanks!
Jeff: Here’s a picture of the Central, but it’s not that good a one. Unfortunately it doesn’t show the marquee, which was on the right side of the building on Central Ave.
View link
Main Ave. is on the left of the parking lot in this picture, so it ran parallel to the theater. The wall we see here with the billboard on it, facing south, is the back wall of the theater, or of the lobby actually. When you walked into the lobby from Central Ave., you turned right to enter the theater. The screen faced Monroe St. (and the Capitol Theater). I remember not liking the location of the front of the theater because when my family drove up Main Ave. on our way to the White Castle in Clifton, I could never see the Central’s marquee. Just like I can’t make out what’s up on the billboard in this picture. Whatever it is, it’s from 1967.
JohnG: According to Michael Coate and William Kallay’s 70mm in New York website, the only other 70mm showing of “Ben-Hur” was in Asbury Park, NJ. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a roadshow at the Metropolitan. A 35mm print was shown in a reserved seat engagement in Newark, NJ prior to opening wide in neighborhood theaters.
November 19:
Ben-Hur
MGM Camera 65 / Six-Track Stereo
Reserved Seat Engagement
MGM
Manhattan: [Loew’s] State
Includes World Premiere on November 18
Expanded release on May 26, 1960:
Asbury Park: [Walter Reade] St. James
Also see 1969 re-issue entry
In RobertR’s post above, look at the ad for “Lili” at the Trans-Lux 52nd St. and Lexington: “2nd Year”. Wow …
And just think – it would play the Egyptian for a total of 68 weeks!
View link
That is a great picture, TC. So is the one of “The Robe” at Grauman’s Chinese. Thanks.
I recall ads for the Carol Lynley version of “Harlow” saying it was in Electronovision. I think that’s a fancy way of saying it was shot on videotape.
TC – I really appreciate that you enjoy looking at the ads. And I should thank either you, BoxOfficeBill or RobertR for steering me to Photobucket. I noticed one of you using it to post pictures. I had earlier tried another way to do it and it was a big failure, but so far Photobucket is working great.
There’s real showmanship on display in these ads. Look how many things are happening on any one of these pages: Free Coffee Served, Free Color TV Lounge, Ladies' Night, Guys' Night Out, Children Under 12 Free, etc.
Compare it to today, when you’re lucky just to be able to see a halfway-decent movie.
What I like best about the ads are the ones that are personalized by the theater owners or managers, with ad copy specific to the movies being shown. Like these for the Century’s Paramus and Pearl River Theaters:
View link
View link
Here’s a shortcut to the ads I recently posted. Go to my profile:
/users/82
and the first 7 or 8 theaters in the Comments column have new ads posted. I also recently posted some for the Lafayette in Suffern and the Fox and the Oritani in Hackensack that you might not have seen.
CConnolly – I’m having the same problem you are, because I keep searching around for comments and reactions (like yours) to the ads I’ve posted! The only way I’ve been able to do it is to look in the Recent Comments column and if the theater’s in North Jersey, it might be what I’m looking for. But the Recent Comments column fills up so quickly now that the site is very popular, so that method often doesn’t work. I think your idea about a separate section for the ads is an excellent one – that’s probably the best solution.
Thanks TC. When I was a very little kid everybody called the drive-in, and the highway itself, S3. This was back in the late ‘50s-early '60s. I think S stood for State, as in State Highway 3.
Here’s an ad from May 1969, when the Clifton was a single-screen house:
View link
“If you thought Buona Sera Mrs. Campbell was funny …” – I love that kind of personal touch in movie ads. That movie was hot stuff in the late sixties, but now I wonder how many people remember or have even heard of “Buona Sera Mrs. Campbell”. I believe the plot of the hit B'way musical “Mamma Mia” was stolen from that movie.
The producer of “Matilda” is also the producer of last year’s Oscar-winning Best Picture, “Million Dollar Baby”. He also produced “The Godfather” in 1972. I guess 1978 was an off year for him.
Here is a very topical ad for the Allwood, from 1969. Ads like this, featuring copy specific to the movie being shown, were a really distinctive hallmark of the neighborhood theater. Even though the Allwood is now a sixplex, I’m glad it has survived all these years.
View link
Here are two Bergen Record ads for the Nyack Drive-In:
From 1968:
View link
From 1969:
View link
In this ad, you can see that the Rivoli had its own theater organ, played on Friday and Saturday nights. I never heard the organ myself since I always went on Sunday afternoons. I went to the show in this ad – as described above, it was the first movie I saw by myself, at the age of 8. Times certainly have changed …
View link
In October 1963, another all-time classic was playing there:
View link
“2001: A Space Odyssey” wasn’t nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, and this ad from March 1969 seems to be a response to that. Notice the many theaters playing the movie. Not only do several of them no longer exist, but only one would actually get to play the movie again in the 21st century. You only get one guess :)
View link