Interesting booking this week. DEAR FRANKIE has popped back after. This one closed a month ago or so and I thought it was dead and gone. In fact, this fill is like Freddie Krueger. It keeps closing and then popping back up in a first run house. Now, I’ll get another chance to see it.
Another thing I noticed is that the listings in ads in the Times for the theatres where the advertised movie is playing often exclude this cinema. I don’t think, for example, the Times ad lists LOOK AT ME, which is playing here.
Boy is this area changing. I was there yesterday for KINGDOM OF HEAVEN and then I snuck into THE HITCH-HIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY and restaurants and other food & drink establishments are popping up. You know the area has “arrived” when a Starbuck’s comes and there is a Starbuck’s coming on 37th Avenue right across from the theatre.
There is a new director running the Public complex and I wonder if film will make a comeback. I believe it was George Wolfe who pulled the plug on the cinema and he’s now history so…
I wonder if the 25-‘plex is having trouble finding material for all those screens? Last week — when the new films opened on 5/6 — AMC was screening, exclusively, FIGHTING TOMMY RILEY; UP FOR GRABS, a documentary about the contretemps involving the Barry Bonds home run, which also played at Cinema Village (already gone); and A HOLE IN ONE, which also played at City Cinema’s East Village 'plex.
I have a question, but not about the Embassy, but was there a theatre diagonally across the street from the Embassy 2,3,4 on the southwest corner of 47th Street & Broadway? It would have been directly across the street from the TKTS booth. At one time there was a Carnegie style deli there and I believe part of the building was used as a nightclub. The building looked like a theatre. It may be gone now.
I seem to remember going to this theatre in ‘83 when STAR WARS was revived, though I could be confusing it with the Embassy. I remember it as being a real steep theatre, that is why it may have been the Embassy.
Wasn’t there another Drive In with a title that began with a “B” that was also located in Massachusetts near the Rhode Island line? I can’t remember the name of it.
When did the Rhode Island/Massachusetts Drive Ins start to close?
Was it the late 1970s? It is amazing how many of them were in urban areas (Lonsdale, Loews, Shipyard) or what would now be congested suburbs (Cranston, Hilltop, Quonset, Seekonk Twin, Bay State).
I remember the Quonset Drive In well. I also remember the Hilltop Drive In just down/up Route 1. Which one closed first, the Quonset or the Hilltop? I remember one of the two of them was still standing long after it was abandoned. It was only fairly recently that the Quonset/Hilltop was leveled.
One other comment about the Shipyard and that general area is that I remember there used to be a nice restaurant down there called “Johnson’s Hummocks” or something like that. I remember going there once when I was a kid, but it closed long ago.
I think I remember this theatre. In the mid 1960s we lived on Sumpter (sic) Street between Broad Street & Elmwood Avenue in Providence and I think the cinema was near where I lived. I went to St. Michael’s in the first and second grade (1965/66) before we moved to the ‘burbs. The area in those days was bustling. I remember pastry shops and there was a Woolworth’s and a Supermarket on Broad Street. It went down hill quickly and became a slum. Too bad.
I remember going here as well. That was a weird neighborhood. I can’t remember exactly where the drive-in was. I know the general area as well. You can see it on your right if you are driving into Providence from Cranston and Warwick.
I remember going here and they would have DJ’s from local radio stations doing giveaways before the show and at intermission. I love those graphics they would show to entice people into the snackbar to eat all that awful food. Those promos would have kitsch value now.
I remember this drive-in well. Can’t remember any specific titles I saw here, but I know we went many times.
There was another drive-in in Massachusetts we went to. I think we went there once. It was in Somerset, Mass. I remember that because Somerset was former BoSox second baseman Jerry Remy’s home time.
Yup. I remember these well. I remember seeing “The Godfather II” at the Seekonk Twin. I think they also showed adult films in the 1970s and you could park along the side of the road and try to peek.
In addition to the Seekonk Twin and Baystate Drive Ins, I associate Seekonk with the racetrack (cars). Is that still open?
I remember this drive-in well and it was open well into the 1970s. My family would go to the drive-in every Friday night in the early 1970s and I went with them in ‘71, '72 & '73. I know we went to the Loew’s many times. It was parallel to Route 95 on the Providence/Pawtucket line. I remember there was a Benny’s near the drive-in/highway. It was an old brick building and the back of Benny’s, which faced the highway, was painted white with Benny’s in bright red letters. I think the drive-in was between Benny’s and Route 95.
My memory is foggy, but I think some night there were actually triple-features. I also may have the drive-in wrong, but I think I saw a film here called “The Burglars,” which for some reason was one of those films that always stayed with me and a film I’ve always wanted to see again, but it never shows on TV and never came out on video/DVD. It stars Jean Paul Belmondo, Omar Shariff and Dyan Cannon. I don’t know how it will hold up, but I remember liking it. There is one scene where either Belmondo or Shariff punches one of those plastic clowns that is weighted on the bottom. You blow it up. I have no idea why I remember that one scene.
One more thing, what is the theatre that is diagonally across the street from Loews Jersey City? It is on the same side of the street as the PATH station. That building, which still has a marquee, seems to be open, though I’m not sure what is in there. I doubt it is a theatre and I didn’t have a chance to walk by Saturday.
Oh, by the way, I did patronize the VIP diner, but didn’t have a chance to sample the Lime Rickey. Maybe next time.
Damn. I know that feeling. I thought all the obnoxious people sit next to me! I usually find that the loud ones are when two-middle aged women sit next to each other. They usually gab their way through the films. I got into it with this idiot — a man — at a recent screening of “The King & I” at an AMPAS screening in Manhattan. I don’t mind the popcorn eating when they sell it at the theatre, but this jerk brought his popcorn with him in Tupperware into the AMPAS theatre where eating is forbidden. He was right behind me too.
I also was at the Loews J.C. on Saturday for both THE GREAT ESCAPE and PATTON and it was nice to see both (for the first time) on the big screen. Maltin gives both films “4-star” ratings, though I don’t think the clunky GREAT ESCAPE deserves that high a rating. PATTON was flat out terrific and George C. Scott gave the performance of his life. The GREAT ESCAPE PRINT, despite the faux pas with the sound, was the better of the two prints. PATTON, IMHO, was the better of the two films. I actually found Elmer Bernstein’s score in TGE to be cloying, annoying and it called attention to itself.
More on sci fi, the guy who gives the spiels before the flicks mentioned that two potential titles are the original INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS and THE WRATH OF KHAN.
I walked run under the IFC/Waverly’s marquee yesterday and they are getting close to opening. They removed all the scaffolding and you can see the new front of the theatre. It is pretty impressive. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the IFC folks will do a great job, but given that Cablevision owns IFC they’ll find a way to alienate everyone somehow or some way.
That’s it! “Perfect Crime!” I think it has been playing for longer than 10 years if it is still playing. I remember one of the actors in the play I saw was Daniel Van (or Von) Bargan.
While I down here for the Tribeca Film Fest I thought I saw the Regal folks manning a table hyping their “buyer’s program” where you get a credit card you can use each time you see a movie and receive points that can be redeemed for a free screening. I know the Regal ‘plex at 14th Street isn’t involved in this program as far as I know. I do use the program at the Regal 'plex in Astoria.
Those incentives theatres give are rare in Manhattan. The only other one besides Regal’s BPC ‘plex is the similar program AMC has for its sole Manhattan theatre, the 25-cinema mega-plex on the deuce.
I was at the Quad yesterday and I always get a kick out of the graphics/promos they run before the movies. They look like they haven’t been updated since the 1970s. It is kind of quaint and very retro.
Kind of a weird booking at the State this weekened. They are the only Manhattan Theatre screening “Death of a Dynasty,” which opened today. It is playing in the boroughs and outside of NYC, but the State is the only the place where you can “DOAD” in Manhattan.
Hell, now that I look at it all the bookings this weekend are weird. The other two films are “Kaal” and “Waqt,” which I assume are Bollywood fare. They are still plugging away at the State booking those Indian films. I wonder how they are faring?
To the management of the Loews 34th Street ‘plexes credit, they have a Thursday night series where they show a classic film. Each month there is a different theme. In May they are doing disaster films. I hoped they would screen those Irwin Allen produced schlocky films that haven’t been seen in the big screen in years. Films like “Towering Inferno,” “Earthquake,” “Poseiden Adventure,” et al.
Real banal progamming. The two films in the “disaster” series are “The Perfect Storm” and “Deep Impact.”
I can add some info on The Lenox Lounge since I’ve been there many times, both before its fairly recent renovation and after. It has recently been renovated — it is part of a redevelopment/empowerment district/zone (thanks to powerful Congressmen Charles Rangel) — and businesses in this zone are eligible for tax breaks/federal money. The Lenox Lounge owners took advantage of this and renovated three or four years ago. The front of the room is a bar and the back a restaurant/jazz club. The room is an art deco gem.
Prior to the renovation the back room where the jazz is played had a zebra motif. Spike Lee used the LL for some scenes in “Malcolm X” and it is not uncommon for movies to use the LL as a backdrop, but off hand I can’t recall any of the other films. The bar has been there for decades; Billie Holiday gigged there.
Getting back to Times Square, I think I attended a play at the Duffy Theatre in the late eighties/early nineties. It was some sort of play that ran for years and years and years. It was, if memory recalls, a clever murder mystery.
Is the AMC ‘plex a 25-'plex (which I thought it was) or a 24-'plex. I just finished the book “Box Office: How Hollywood Box Office Became a National Obsession” and the authors mentioned that the AMC 'plex was a 24-'plex.
And if you think the 38 screens between AMC & the 13-screen Sony E-Walk on the north side of the deuce is big, there is a pair of mega-plexes in California. One has 30 screens, Regal I believe, and an Edwards ‘plex with 22 screens. Ouch.
Interesting booking this week. DEAR FRANKIE has popped back after. This one closed a month ago or so and I thought it was dead and gone. In fact, this fill is like Freddie Krueger. It keeps closing and then popping back up in a first run house. Now, I’ll get another chance to see it.
Another thing I noticed is that the listings in ads in the Times for the theatres where the advertised movie is playing often exclude this cinema. I don’t think, for example, the Times ad lists LOOK AT ME, which is playing here.
Boy is this area changing. I was there yesterday for KINGDOM OF HEAVEN and then I snuck into THE HITCH-HIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY and restaurants and other food & drink establishments are popping up. You know the area has “arrived” when a Starbuck’s comes and there is a Starbuck’s coming on 37th Avenue right across from the theatre.
There is a new director running the Public complex and I wonder if film will make a comeback. I believe it was George Wolfe who pulled the plug on the cinema and he’s now history so…
I wonder if the 25-‘plex is having trouble finding material for all those screens? Last week — when the new films opened on 5/6 — AMC was screening, exclusively, FIGHTING TOMMY RILEY; UP FOR GRABS, a documentary about the contretemps involving the Barry Bonds home run, which also played at Cinema Village (already gone); and A HOLE IN ONE, which also played at City Cinema’s East Village 'plex.
Kind of obscure fare for a Times Square megaplex.
I have a question, but not about the Embassy, but was there a theatre diagonally across the street from the Embassy 2,3,4 on the southwest corner of 47th Street & Broadway? It would have been directly across the street from the TKTS booth. At one time there was a Carnegie style deli there and I believe part of the building was used as a nightclub. The building looked like a theatre. It may be gone now.
I seem to remember going to this theatre in ‘83 when STAR WARS was revived, though I could be confusing it with the Embassy. I remember it as being a real steep theatre, that is why it may have been the Embassy.
Wasn’t there another Drive In with a title that began with a “B” that was also located in Massachusetts near the Rhode Island line? I can’t remember the name of it.
When did the Rhode Island/Massachusetts Drive Ins start to close?
Was it the late 1970s? It is amazing how many of them were in urban areas (Lonsdale, Loews, Shipyard) or what would now be congested suburbs (Cranston, Hilltop, Quonset, Seekonk Twin, Bay State).
I could be wrong about this, but I think the Lonsdale in the early 1970s closed and then reopened.
I remember the Quonset Drive In well. I also remember the Hilltop Drive In just down/up Route 1. Which one closed first, the Quonset or the Hilltop? I remember one of the two of them was still standing long after it was abandoned. It was only fairly recently that the Quonset/Hilltop was leveled.
One other comment about the Shipyard and that general area is that I remember there used to be a nice restaurant down there called “Johnson’s Hummocks” or something like that. I remember going there once when I was a kid, but it closed long ago.
I think I remember this theatre. In the mid 1960s we lived on Sumpter (sic) Street between Broad Street & Elmwood Avenue in Providence and I think the cinema was near where I lived. I went to St. Michael’s in the first and second grade (1965/66) before we moved to the ‘burbs. The area in those days was bustling. I remember pastry shops and there was a Woolworth’s and a Supermarket on Broad Street. It went down hill quickly and became a slum. Too bad.
I remember going here as well. That was a weird neighborhood. I can’t remember exactly where the drive-in was. I know the general area as well. You can see it on your right if you are driving into Providence from Cranston and Warwick.
I remember going here and they would have DJ’s from local radio stations doing giveaways before the show and at intermission. I love those graphics they would show to entice people into the snackbar to eat all that awful food. Those promos would have kitsch value now.
I don’t know if the Loew’s was in Pawtucket or Providence, but one other drive in — a twin I believe — was the Lonsdale Twin in Pawtucket.
I remember this drive-in well. Can’t remember any specific titles I saw here, but I know we went many times.
There was another drive-in in Massachusetts we went to. I think we went there once. It was in Somerset, Mass. I remember that because Somerset was former BoSox second baseman Jerry Remy’s home time.
Yup. I remember these well. I remember seeing “The Godfather II” at the Seekonk Twin. I think they also showed adult films in the 1970s and you could park along the side of the road and try to peek.
In addition to the Seekonk Twin and Baystate Drive Ins, I associate Seekonk with the racetrack (cars). Is that still open?
I remember this drive-in well and it was open well into the 1970s. My family would go to the drive-in every Friday night in the early 1970s and I went with them in ‘71, '72 & '73. I know we went to the Loew’s many times. It was parallel to Route 95 on the Providence/Pawtucket line. I remember there was a Benny’s near the drive-in/highway. It was an old brick building and the back of Benny’s, which faced the highway, was painted white with Benny’s in bright red letters. I think the drive-in was between Benny’s and Route 95.
My memory is foggy, but I think some night there were actually triple-features. I also may have the drive-in wrong, but I think I saw a film here called “The Burglars,” which for some reason was one of those films that always stayed with me and a film I’ve always wanted to see again, but it never shows on TV and never came out on video/DVD. It stars Jean Paul Belmondo, Omar Shariff and Dyan Cannon. I don’t know how it will hold up, but I remember liking it. There is one scene where either Belmondo or Shariff punches one of those plastic clowns that is weighted on the bottom. You blow it up. I have no idea why I remember that one scene.
One more thing, what is the theatre that is diagonally across the street from Loews Jersey City? It is on the same side of the street as the PATH station. That building, which still has a marquee, seems to be open, though I’m not sure what is in there. I doubt it is a theatre and I didn’t have a chance to walk by Saturday.
Oh, by the way, I did patronize the VIP diner, but didn’t have a chance to sample the Lime Rickey. Maybe next time.
Damn. I know that feeling. I thought all the obnoxious people sit next to me! I usually find that the loud ones are when two-middle aged women sit next to each other. They usually gab their way through the films. I got into it with this idiot — a man — at a recent screening of “The King & I” at an AMPAS screening in Manhattan. I don’t mind the popcorn eating when they sell it at the theatre, but this jerk brought his popcorn with him in Tupperware into the AMPAS theatre where eating is forbidden. He was right behind me too.
I also was at the Loews J.C. on Saturday for both THE GREAT ESCAPE and PATTON and it was nice to see both (for the first time) on the big screen. Maltin gives both films “4-star” ratings, though I don’t think the clunky GREAT ESCAPE deserves that high a rating. PATTON was flat out terrific and George C. Scott gave the performance of his life. The GREAT ESCAPE PRINT, despite the faux pas with the sound, was the better of the two prints. PATTON, IMHO, was the better of the two films. I actually found Elmer Bernstein’s score in TGE to be cloying, annoying and it called attention to itself.
More on sci fi, the guy who gives the spiels before the flicks mentioned that two potential titles are the original INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS and THE WRATH OF KHAN.
I walked run under the IFC/Waverly’s marquee yesterday and they are getting close to opening. They removed all the scaffolding and you can see the new front of the theatre. It is pretty impressive. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the IFC folks will do a great job, but given that Cablevision owns IFC they’ll find a way to alienate everyone somehow or some way.
That’s it! “Perfect Crime!” I think it has been playing for longer than 10 years if it is still playing. I remember one of the actors in the play I saw was Daniel Van (or Von) Bargan.
While I down here for the Tribeca Film Fest I thought I saw the Regal folks manning a table hyping their “buyer’s program” where you get a credit card you can use each time you see a movie and receive points that can be redeemed for a free screening. I know the Regal ‘plex at 14th Street isn’t involved in this program as far as I know. I do use the program at the Regal 'plex in Astoria.
Those incentives theatres give are rare in Manhattan. The only other one besides Regal’s BPC ‘plex is the similar program AMC has for its sole Manhattan theatre, the 25-cinema mega-plex on the deuce.
I was at the Quad yesterday and I always get a kick out of the graphics/promos they run before the movies. They look like they haven’t been updated since the 1970s. It is kind of quaint and very retro.
Kind of a weird booking at the State this weekened. They are the only Manhattan Theatre screening “Death of a Dynasty,” which opened today. It is playing in the boroughs and outside of NYC, but the State is the only the place where you can “DOAD” in Manhattan.
Hell, now that I look at it all the bookings this weekend are weird. The other two films are “Kaal” and “Waqt,” which I assume are Bollywood fare. They are still plugging away at the State booking those Indian films. I wonder how they are faring?
To the management of the Loews 34th Street ‘plexes credit, they have a Thursday night series where they show a classic film. Each month there is a different theme. In May they are doing disaster films. I hoped they would screen those Irwin Allen produced schlocky films that haven’t been seen in the big screen in years. Films like “Towering Inferno,” “Earthquake,” “Poseiden Adventure,” et al.
Real banal progamming. The two films in the “disaster” series are “The Perfect Storm” and “Deep Impact.”
C'mon Loews show some more imagination.
I can add some info on The Lenox Lounge since I’ve been there many times, both before its fairly recent renovation and after. It has recently been renovated — it is part of a redevelopment/empowerment district/zone (thanks to powerful Congressmen Charles Rangel) — and businesses in this zone are eligible for tax breaks/federal money. The Lenox Lounge owners took advantage of this and renovated three or four years ago. The front of the room is a bar and the back a restaurant/jazz club. The room is an art deco gem.
Prior to the renovation the back room where the jazz is played had a zebra motif. Spike Lee used the LL for some scenes in “Malcolm X” and it is not uncommon for movies to use the LL as a backdrop, but off hand I can’t recall any of the other films. The bar has been there for decades; Billie Holiday gigged there.
Getting back to Times Square, I think I attended a play at the Duffy Theatre in the late eighties/early nineties. It was some sort of play that ran for years and years and years. It was, if memory recalls, a clever murder mystery.
Is the AMC ‘plex a 25-'plex (which I thought it was) or a 24-'plex. I just finished the book “Box Office: How Hollywood Box Office Became a National Obsession” and the authors mentioned that the AMC 'plex was a 24-'plex.
And if you think the 38 screens between AMC & the 13-screen Sony E-Walk on the north side of the deuce is big, there is a pair of mega-plexes in California. One has 30 screens, Regal I believe, and an Edwards ‘plex with 22 screens. Ouch.