Ziegfeld Theatre

Vito and Roadshow talked about the “West Side Story” overture image. Thanks to Martin Hart’s Widescreen Museum, here is a shot of that image actually being created:

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Here is Martin Hart’s caption:

Linwood C. Dunn, photographic effects icon for decades, and his associate Cecil Love, photograph the colorful overture/title sequence to Robert Wise-Jerome Robbins' West Side Story in 1960. Dunn’s 65mm work was done with a Mitchell FC, fitted with appropriate lenses for Super Panavision/Todd-AO or Ultra Panavision. Love was Dunn’s optics expert. The film’s main credits, appearing at the end, were created by Saul Bass.
Photo courtesy of William Luca

How might one contact Mr. Endres by email?

I worked at the Ziegfeld when both curtains were in daily use, as well as having a main curtain, and until the “Snow White” stage presentation at Radio City, a title curtain there as well. I also have both a main and a title curtain in the screening room I’m in now. A few years ago the New York Times did an article on projection and interviewed me while I was running the 70mm print of “Pink Floyd: The Wall” at the Ziegfeld, and described the curtian use in some detail.

At the Zieg we would take the house lights and curtain warmers down to a pre-show level and open the main curtain followed by the title curtain as the trailers/shorts hit the screen. At the end of the pre-show material, I’d close the title curtain in and take the lights down to show level, hit the title curtain with the logo of the feature and then open the title curtain. Since the contour curtain at Radio City takes a good 20 sec. to get in and out, after it was going up, we’d start the shorts, etc and the the title curtain (or golds in that case) would open. We would also close it in before starting the feature. The golds control at Radio City gave a choice of four speeds to match the logo length, so the title curtain would be fully open as the company logo ended. I like to see the company logo hit the title curtain and have it opening as the logo fades. Martin Hart has an interesting section on this on the AWSM site. If we were running an overture at Radio City it is absolutely necessary to get the contour out of the way before it starts as the contour effectively muffles the high frequency horns as it comes in. It was interesting to listen to the sound at the end of the credits on a feature as it came in and hear the effect.

By the way, your idea of projecting a slide with a logo was used at the Michael Todd Theatre in Chicago for “Becket” when they projected a sword on the closed curtains before the start of the 70mm roadshow edition. The Chicago Theatre did something similar with their Hall & Connelly FR10 Spot/Effect Projectors. At one point in the late 60’s or early 70’s they had a couple of really interested stagehands who kept adding lights and effects for the intermissions. The FR10’s are pattern projectors (we had two in the booth at Radio City), and for a Frank Sinatra movie they projected a silhouhtte of Sinatra’s profile over the end credit crawl, and then as the curtains closed left it on the curtain. They did the same thing with a Japanese umbrella for a James Bond movie set in Japan. I had a Plitt Theatre pass and would stop by the Chicago every time I was in the Loop just to see what they had added. Now of course, with video projection it would be easier to scan in feature art work as a Powerpoint and project it. That would add a little showmanship even if the house didn’t have a curtain. The problem of course,is that it would conflict with the pre-show ads.

Bob: I’ve known (and admired) Bob Eberenz for years. He would have worked with Warren Jenkins on a number of projects including Cine Mix a film re-recording studio located in one of the Radio City screening rooms which utilized the some of the first 35mm Magna-Tech recorders and dubbers and on the Mercury “Living Presence” recordings. He probably has some stories about working with Warren and Bill Nafash on Otto’s room.

By the way, another Otto story that Warren told was also a gem. Otto had a JAN 16mm projector in his booth that could be rolled into position and which was equipped with special torque motor driven reel arms that could hold an entire 16mm feature on one big reel (he had a 16mm print of “Porgy” stored in the booth). One night Warren got home from a show change at the Hall and was told by his wife that Otto had called and was having problems. Warren hopped in a cab and went uptown. When he walked into the booth, Otto was standing there in his jumpsuit, ankle deep in 16mm film shaking his hand at Warren. Warren walked over and flipped the torque motor switch to “on”, and the take-up reel started turning. Otto had threaded the projector and started it remotely from his coffe table controls without the take-up reel turning, thus dumping a whole feature on the floor. It took the two of them a fair amount of time to get the film off the floor and back onto the reel, at which point Otto invited Warren into the room itself and opened a bottle of Courvosier, which they proceeded to finish off while Otto entertained Warren with stories about his career. Warren said it was a memorable evening, but it took him the rest of the next day to recover.

Please say, “Hi!” to Bob Eberenz for me tonight.

All in all, an exciting experience. Not a perfect print, but pretty good. very moving to see the film again. The audience was with it all the way. Going out, I yelled at that peppy usher in the lobby: “Next year, "Gypsy” !!!"

Robert: The gentleman that I am referring to is Mr. Bob Eberenz. He has worked in the film industry since the mid-1940’s, and his resume in the business is quite extensive. He will be at the Ziegfeld tonight.

Jeff: From now on, whenever I see your panic button, I’ll be reminded of the great Otto Preminger. Thanks for that wonderful story, Robert.

Bob Furmanek: I’d be interested to know who your person involved in Otto Preminger’s screening room is. When I came to Radio City Music Hall in ‘74 a number of our techs also worked for National Theatre Supply which supplied the projection equipment. Those included Warren Jenkins and Bill Nafash. I had heard a number of stories about the room, and then was called by the union to work there. I called the Preminger home to see if I could get in early before the screening to break in and familarize myself with the booth, and found myself talking to Otto himself. He said to come over anytime and I did. It was quite an evening as at one point while examining the print I heard, “How’s it going?” and turned to find Mr. P. himself standing there. We chatted a moment and then he left. A while later the butler showed up with a tray containing the same meal they were serving for their guests downstars. Just before the screening Hope Preminger came in as asked if I wanted coffee. I had just come to New York from Illinois and had grown up watching Preminger films (including “Porgy & Bess” in Todd-AO during it’s roadshow engagement at the McVickers Theatre in Chicago) so I was very much impressed by the Premingers. In fact, I never cashed the check I received as payment that first night because it was signed by Otto Preminger and was made out to “Robert Endres Projectionist”. I still have it as a bookmark in my edition of Richardson’s Bluebook of Projection.

I worked for them fairly frequently for a couple of years after that and was always blown away by their residence which was almost like an extension of the Museum of Modern Art with their Picasso hanging right outside the booth, Eames chairs (personally modified by the Eames for the den/screening room)and a Dubuffet sculpture just outside the powder room. It was also the only home screening room I’ve worked in which had a “balcony” on top of the projection booth outside the gym one level up where the Preminger twins could watch the movie away from the guests downstairs.

Ask your person who designed the room if he remembers the marble topped coffee table in the room which sat by the sofa in front of the booth ports (which were concealed by another huge painting which slid up the wall to reveal the ports when the booth was in use.) The marble top on the table rolled back to reveal projector and room controls — including a red button marked “Panic!”.

While I was cowed by Otto’s reputation as a rather fierce dictator, the Premingers and their children were always gracious and charming to me, and this whole discussion of “Porgy & Bess” has brought back a lot of fond memories.

If any Star Trek fans are going tonight, look for Nichelle Nichols. She’s part of the large chorus and I believe I saw her in the background center screen during “It Ain’t Necessarily So”.

For the benefit of tonight’s audience, I hope the Ziegfeld crew takes William’s advice and obtains a copy of that Dolby card!

At the end of the show, someone called out that it was also George Gershwin’s birthday. September 26th sure was an important day in the history of the American musical.

The tone system for surrounds was used with Ampex theatre sound systems. Many older theatres that were equipped for 70MM and 35mm mag sound had Ampex sound systems till the earlier to middle 1970’s.

The problem is they did not have a Dolby cat.93 card in the MPU unit in the booth. This card was make by Dolby for use in the MPU-1 for running older 4-Track mag films. With that card in place the it will filter out that tone and trigger the surrounds.