Reading all these things about 35mm as a roadshow and 70mm blow ups is there really any difference between the two? I remember seeing seeing Sweet Charity in Panavision and the print was great. Why would they even transfer to 70mm of they didn’t film it that way.
As I have mentioned on the Music Hall page I saw Airport there which was filmed in Todd AO. It looked great. Blow ups like Scrooge and Tom Sawyer looked washed out and bland. They look 10 times better on TV and I believe they should have looked spectacular on the Music Hall screen. 1776 the same thing.
I hope the people at the Loew’s read this.
When I have mentioned these things in the past they look at me like I am out of my mind. They are very protective of the place and who can blame them.
I just wish as an audience member you could mention things to them and they did not start to bristle.
I have given up on complaining about the focus. And I am sure if I spoke to them about the problems with Flesh and the Devil I would have been banned from the theater for life. Thank God for anonymity on these sites! As well if I were on the staff and noted these issues I would be considered a troublemaker and I am not joking.
What Collin has done is truly amazing in fact it is downright astonishing. But he does remind me of that line in Funny Girl where Walter Pidgeon says to Streisand “this is my theater,” and she responds, “so nobody argues with the landlord?”
Hugh Hardy hmmm…
I thought the late 70’s renovation was great. The entire lobby was cleared out and all that was there was was the giant trophy the Rockettes won in Paris in the 30's
And they managed to clean up the place while keeping it’s patina intact. They didn’t scrub away it’s history.
Those tracks of lights hanging from the arches…yeah that’s a great touch. And those junky Christmas decorations from Target they put on the proscenium?
Absolutely nothing like that in the old holiday shows.
Just white Christmas trees on each side of the stage and white wreaths hung below each landing of the choral stairs.
Simple, elegant and Christmasy
The same movies always why?
How about the Sand Pebbles or Khartoum or Those Magificent Men in their Flying Machines?
El Cid, The Fall of the Roman Empire, Around the World in 80 Days…
Unfortunately 70 mm musicals are a lost cause at this point.
I can’t sit through the Gone With the Wind of mafia movies.
I’ve known too many Italians in my life(being one.)
If they showed a realistic movie about them it would be unwatchable.
What a gorgeous theater.
The borough of Brooklyn tore this down?!
Well why am surprised?
Was this near BAM?
This should have been saved as a dance and opera theater not the Academy of Music which is nice and all but nothing like this.
And as I have mentioned before maybe the Brooklyn Paramount is the most beautiful theater interior I have ever seen according to the old photos. That is near BAM as well isn’t it?
And they turned that into a gym. Well that exists in some form.
Is that now coming down as well?
I admit my comment was unfunny and in bad taste for I guess everyone but me.
What can I do but laugh at how it happened what happened after, what our goverment did to facilitate it and their criminal response to the consequences.
All those terible deaths and miseries ultimately have meant nothing.
Again in my original post I said it was a personal opinion. And the place to me is no longer Radio City Music Hall. Therefore I hold on to my special memories and personally have no reason to go there ever again. So honestly for me if an office building were built there I would just shrug my shoulders and think how sad. But nothing more.
And I could have never in a million years imagined that I would ever say this.
It was a joke.
God how people are sensitive these days.
But as a matter of fact I personally have no interest any more in the place considering what has been done to it.
It hurts to see those lights hanging from everywhere ruining that magnificent architecture.
I used to love both Radio City and Rockefeller Center. To me they were the center of New York. But once Cablevision came in and Rockefeller Center was turned into a Jersey shopping mall forget it.
Oh god and did you see what they did to the lower level?
Anyway I don’t see a bit of the NY class and style they used to have and I avoid them like the plague.
I remember talking to one New Yorker about showing the place to her son.
He said ‘What’s so special about this place?“ She told me the way it is today she couldn’t tell him.
But it won’t be a great movie palace like the Hellinger with stage facilities!
Just look at the Marquee, Minskoff and Gershwin.
Ugh! And architects were paid money for these things.
Can you imagine?
Too bad Disney won’t buy the Mark Hellinger back from the church and turn it into the El Capitan of New York.
One of the most beautiful theaters in NY.
It’s sale was criminal.
I have always found the film projection pretty iffy.
They spend so much time and effort to set up these presentations and about 50% of the time there are always problems.
Last week for Destry one of the projectors was out of focus and obviously no one on the staff saw it. It wasn’t much but the one projector was perfectly focused so I always wonder why nobody sees this.
I remember one time where they left out an entire reel and then played it after the movie.
With Flesh the film was started with the countdown. Not good.
But the thing that I really thought was amateurish is that they put in an intermission and there wasn’t even one.
Just because this was a roadshow doesn’t mean it had an intermission.
And even if they did there would have been a title card saying so.
So what did they do?
They turned off the projectors in the middle of a crucial scene!
It just went dead!
I doubt if even it had an intermission when it was first shown they
would have pulled the plug at this point in the movie.
As I said they have gone to so much work, an enormous amount of time, an incredible effort and I’m sure a lot of anguish as well to
make this great theater alive again.
It would be nice if after all this work the presentation of the movie was also top notch.
By the way the film was in very good condition and the accompianist was one of the best if not the best I have ever heard with a silent film. And I have heard a few.
Interesting his thoughts about Mr Irwin. Here is a case where the student boldy outshines his mentor.
Funny when I started coming to the city in the early 70’s just a few years after the time you are speaking about the big roadshow houses were already dead and Hollywood avoided them like the plague much to my sadness. The east side was exploding with films that people were getting excited about and causing long lines down the streets and I still think those films of the American new wave are lousy, pretentious and artsy fartsy. And what was wrong with vivid technicolor? Give me Hollywood and Todd AO or Super Panavision any day.
Now those east side theaters have also disappeared from the earth.
I can’t believe I am saying this but now I miss them as well!
Oh and I should say something about the Music Hall. I know people for some arcane reason get excited about the Christmas show but to me if there ain’t no movie playing there with the Rockettes it might as well be ground zero.
Sorry for this OT but something like the Blue Max opening at the Sutton on hard ticket sounds like somebody in booking the film for it’s first run engagement made a goof.
The Sutton screen was great for art films but in no way suitable for moveovers of big Hollywood films. This seems to have happened a few times. I remember a small wide screen.
What seems odd is that the greatest and most beautiful of the movie palaces was built in what seems like a borough rather than downtown.
Like building the Roxy in Queens.
At the time was this neighborhood populated enough to support it on a regular basis?
Does anybody know if in it’s heyday it ever managed to sell out or was it a white elephant from practically the beginning?
Totally agree.
For those of us who never saw these theaters before they were roadshow houses we still could appreciate their greatness and enjoy their large wonderful screens and 8 track analogue sound.
Though I started going at the very, very end of the roadshow era.
At that point it was almost dead and who wanted to see Tora Tora Tora? I remember the Criterion marquee but wild horses couldn’t drag me in to see it.
Now if I had seen them in their great heyday then it might have been another story.
But really how long did the Roxy last with it’s great proscenium. It seems it did not last through the 30’s before it was being draped over. Same with the Capitol and Loew’s State and possibly the Strand. Didn’t seem any of them lasted too long with their original interiors.
Possibly only the Paramount stayed the same until Vistavision changed it’s interior in the mid 50’s.
And I thought the Criterion stayed the same until it was split in the early 80’s.
Warren maybe you could shed some light on this on the pages of each theater?
It would be great info.
I miss them all but I was too young to have ever seen the Roxy, Capitol or Paramount.
I do remember however walking in front of the doors of the Paramount with my parents when I was a little boy and them pointing it out to me telling me that Frank sinatra used to sing there.
The doors had been whitewashed(remember when they used to do that?) and I guess they were preparing it for demolition.
Now that I remember the few times we went into the city then I probably walked in front of the Astor and Capitol as well but they made no impression as they were just buildings to me.
Why are the Rockettes in front of it?
I seriously doubt the Music Hall would have shown the Cinemescope screen naked.
Probably a processed photo for publicity purposes.
Saw it used once in the 70’s and I thought it was much more impressive than their Panavision or 70mm screen.
Oh, to see a movie on it again!
But I guess they are not going to have a film revival of a true Cinemascope film again for one person.
Where were you in the 70’s and 7 years ago.
You would have seen both there.
Though I didn’t go. The Music Hall is not right for these films imho.
Of course a standard road show house with about 1,500 seats and a large 70mm screen would be perfect…
Yes but that probably was not first run. It probably had been running for a little while at that point. You were sure to get excellent showmanship when it opened. Now it opens everywhere immediately and it’s nothing more than a commercial for the DVD.
Why would the Criterion pull South Pacific for something like The Old Man and the Sea?
It had it for 8 months and probably could have played the film there for another year.
How long did Old Man and the Sea last?
It seems that Todd could have fit the screen initially at the Criterion for Oklahoma which would have caused little damage instead of at the Rivoli. Then Around The World. And after that SP.
And the Rivoli could have roadshowed Ten Commandments quite comfortably.
From what I have read there was no special presentation of it at the Criterion except hard ticket and I believe it wasn’t even shown in real Vistavision!
Warren was the original proscenium there behind the Todd Ao screen?
If they removed it would the Rivoli have looked the way it was before?
What do you remember seeing before ‘55?
Did you see the original showing of Oklahoma and what was your reaction? Or were you angry because of what they did.
I saw part of it on TV and liked it so much I want to see the whole thing at the Ziegfeld. I don’t like watching a movie like that for the first time on TV.
no more films this season?
By the way Mitchell and Charisse are so hot in their number parents should have had it banned from the hall.
It’s pretty wonderful.
But Jose Farar?
Where in Deep does it say cinemascope.
Reading all these things about 35mm as a roadshow and 70mm blow ups is there really any difference between the two? I remember seeing seeing Sweet Charity in Panavision and the print was great. Why would they even transfer to 70mm of they didn’t film it that way.
As I have mentioned on the Music Hall page I saw Airport there which was filmed in Todd AO. It looked great. Blow ups like Scrooge and Tom Sawyer looked washed out and bland. They look 10 times better on TV and I believe they should have looked spectacular on the Music Hall screen. 1776 the same thing.
I hope the people at the Loew’s read this.
When I have mentioned these things in the past they look at me like I am out of my mind. They are very protective of the place and who can blame them.
I just wish as an audience member you could mention things to them and they did not start to bristle.
I have given up on complaining about the focus. And I am sure if I spoke to them about the problems with Flesh and the Devil I would have been banned from the theater for life. Thank God for anonymity on these sites! As well if I were on the staff and noted these issues I would be considered a troublemaker and I am not joking.
What Collin has done is truly amazing in fact it is downright astonishing. But he does remind me of that line in Funny Girl where Walter Pidgeon says to Streisand “this is my theater,” and she responds, “so nobody argues with the landlord?”
Hugh Hardy hmmm…
I thought the late 70’s renovation was great. The entire lobby was cleared out and all that was there was was the giant trophy the Rockettes won in Paris in the 30's
And they managed to clean up the place while keeping it’s patina intact. They didn’t scrub away it’s history.
Those tracks of lights hanging from the arches…yeah that’s a great touch. And those junky Christmas decorations from Target they put on the proscenium?
Absolutely nothing like that in the old holiday shows.
Just white Christmas trees on each side of the stage and white wreaths hung below each landing of the choral stairs.
Simple, elegant and Christmasy
The same movies always why?
How about the Sand Pebbles or Khartoum or Those Magificent Men in their Flying Machines?
El Cid, The Fall of the Roman Empire, Around the World in 80 Days…
Unfortunately 70 mm musicals are a lost cause at this point.
I can’t sit through the Gone With the Wind of mafia movies.
I’ve known too many Italians in my life(being one.)
If they showed a realistic movie about them it would be unwatchable.
What a gorgeous theater.
The borough of Brooklyn tore this down?!
Well why am surprised?
Was this near BAM?
This should have been saved as a dance and opera theater not the Academy of Music which is nice and all but nothing like this.
And as I have mentioned before maybe the Brooklyn Paramount is the most beautiful theater interior I have ever seen according to the old photos. That is near BAM as well isn’t it?
And they turned that into a gym. Well that exists in some form.
Is that now coming down as well?
Look at the women and girls in the Snow White photo.
They are all in dresses and skirts. I don’t see one in slacks.
And it looks like a matinee.
I admit my comment was unfunny and in bad taste for I guess everyone but me.
What can I do but laugh at how it happened what happened after, what our goverment did to facilitate it and their criminal response to the consequences.
All those terible deaths and miseries ultimately have meant nothing.
Again in my original post I said it was a personal opinion. And the place to me is no longer Radio City Music Hall. Therefore I hold on to my special memories and personally have no reason to go there ever again. So honestly for me if an office building were built there I would just shrug my shoulders and think how sad. But nothing more.
And I could have never in a million years imagined that I would ever say this.
It was a joke.
God how people are sensitive these days.
But as a matter of fact I personally have no interest any more in the place considering what has been done to it.
It hurts to see those lights hanging from everywhere ruining that magnificent architecture.
I used to love both Radio City and Rockefeller Center. To me they were the center of New York. But once Cablevision came in and Rockefeller Center was turned into a Jersey shopping mall forget it.
Oh god and did you see what they did to the lower level?
Anyway I don’t see a bit of the NY class and style they used to have and I avoid them like the plague.
I remember talking to one New Yorker about showing the place to her son.
He said ‘What’s so special about this place?“ She told me the way it is today she couldn’t tell him.
But it won’t be a great movie palace like the Hellinger with stage facilities!
Just look at the Marquee, Minskoff and Gershwin.
Ugh! And architects were paid money for these things.
Can you imagine?
Too bad Disney won’t buy the Mark Hellinger back from the church and turn it into the El Capitan of New York.
One of the most beautiful theaters in NY.
It’s sale was criminal.
I have always found the film projection pretty iffy.
They spend so much time and effort to set up these presentations and about 50% of the time there are always problems.
Last week for Destry one of the projectors was out of focus and obviously no one on the staff saw it. It wasn’t much but the one projector was perfectly focused so I always wonder why nobody sees this.
I remember one time where they left out an entire reel and then played it after the movie.
With Flesh the film was started with the countdown. Not good.
But the thing that I really thought was amateurish is that they put in an intermission and there wasn’t even one.
Just because this was a roadshow doesn’t mean it had an intermission.
And even if they did there would have been a title card saying so.
So what did they do?
They turned off the projectors in the middle of a crucial scene!
It just went dead!
I doubt if even it had an intermission when it was first shown they
would have pulled the plug at this point in the movie.
As I said they have gone to so much work, an enormous amount of time, an incredible effort and I’m sure a lot of anguish as well to
make this great theater alive again.
It would be nice if after all this work the presentation of the movie was also top notch.
By the way the film was in very good condition and the accompianist was one of the best if not the best I have ever heard with a silent film. And I have heard a few.
Interesting his thoughts about Mr Irwin. Here is a case where the student boldy outshines his mentor.
Funny when I started coming to the city in the early 70’s just a few years after the time you are speaking about the big roadshow houses were already dead and Hollywood avoided them like the plague much to my sadness. The east side was exploding with films that people were getting excited about and causing long lines down the streets and I still think those films of the American new wave are lousy, pretentious and artsy fartsy. And what was wrong with vivid technicolor? Give me Hollywood and Todd AO or Super Panavision any day.
Now those east side theaters have also disappeared from the earth.
I can’t believe I am saying this but now I miss them as well!
Oh and I should say something about the Music Hall. I know people for some arcane reason get excited about the Christmas show but to me if there ain’t no movie playing there with the Rockettes it might as well be ground zero.
Sorry for this OT but something like the Blue Max opening at the Sutton on hard ticket sounds like somebody in booking the film for it’s first run engagement made a goof.
The Sutton screen was great for art films but in no way suitable for moveovers of big Hollywood films. This seems to have happened a few times. I remember a small wide screen.
Did Blue Max ever play a Times Sq house first run on hard ticket or cont perfs.?
Hondo 59, how could you have a Music Hall program for Solution?
What seems odd is that the greatest and most beautiful of the movie palaces was built in what seems like a borough rather than downtown.
Like building the Roxy in Queens.
At the time was this neighborhood populated enough to support it on a regular basis?
Does anybody know if in it’s heyday it ever managed to sell out or was it a white elephant from practically the beginning?
Totally agree.
For those of us who never saw these theaters before they were roadshow houses we still could appreciate their greatness and enjoy their large wonderful screens and 8 track analogue sound.
Though I started going at the very, very end of the roadshow era.
At that point it was almost dead and who wanted to see Tora Tora Tora? I remember the Criterion marquee but wild horses couldn’t drag me in to see it.
Now if I had seen them in their great heyday then it might have been another story.
But really how long did the Roxy last with it’s great proscenium. It seems it did not last through the 30’s before it was being draped over. Same with the Capitol and Loew’s State and possibly the Strand. Didn’t seem any of them lasted too long with their original interiors.
Possibly only the Paramount stayed the same until Vistavision changed it’s interior in the mid 50’s.
And I thought the Criterion stayed the same until it was split in the early 80’s.
Warren maybe you could shed some light on this on the pages of each theater?
It would be great info.
I miss them all but I was too young to have ever seen the Roxy, Capitol or Paramount.
I do remember however walking in front of the doors of the Paramount with my parents when I was a little boy and them pointing it out to me telling me that Frank sinatra used to sing there.
The doors had been whitewashed(remember when they used to do that?) and I guess they were preparing it for demolition.
Now that I remember the few times we went into the city then I probably walked in front of the Astor and Capitol as well but they made no impression as they were just buildings to me.
Why are the Rockettes in front of it?
I seriously doubt the Music Hall would have shown the Cinemescope screen naked.
Probably a processed photo for publicity purposes.
Saw it used once in the 70’s and I thought it was much more impressive than their Panavision or 70mm screen.
Oh, to see a movie on it again!
But I guess they are not going to have a film revival of a true Cinemascope film again for one person.
Where were you in the 70’s and 7 years ago.
You would have seen both there.
Though I didn’t go. The Music Hall is not right for these films imho.
Of course a standard road show house with about 1,500 seats and a large 70mm screen would be perfect…
Yes but that probably was not first run. It probably had been running for a little while at that point. You were sure to get excellent showmanship when it opened. Now it opens everywhere immediately and it’s nothing more than a commercial for the DVD.
Why would the Criterion pull South Pacific for something like The Old Man and the Sea?
It had it for 8 months and probably could have played the film there for another year.
How long did Old Man and the Sea last?
It seems that Todd could have fit the screen initially at the Criterion for Oklahoma which would have caused little damage instead of at the Rivoli. Then Around The World. And after that SP.
And the Rivoli could have roadshowed Ten Commandments quite comfortably.
From what I have read there was no special presentation of it at the Criterion except hard ticket and I believe it wasn’t even shown in real Vistavision!
Warren was the original proscenium there behind the Todd Ao screen?
If they removed it would the Rivoli have looked the way it was before?
What do you remember seeing before ‘55?
Did you see the original showing of Oklahoma and what was your reaction? Or were you angry because of what they did.
I saw part of it on TV and liked it so much I want to see the whole thing at the Ziegfeld. I don’t like watching a movie like that for the first time on TV.