As I recall, Fox felt (correctly) that they had a hit on their hands, and just wanted to have a commitment that a theatre would stick with it if it started slowly.
One of the reasons they didn’t want the Biograph (also if I recall correctly) is that the film had bombed there as a first run theatre.
Sound of Music in the theatres it played for a year or more was shown as a road show – that is with one or two shows a day at most, so that would severely cut down on the total exposure one projectionist would have.
Bob Taylor had been a manager for Oscar Brotman, then leased this and the Harvey Theatres in the layte 1970s. Bob kept the account with me when I went to M&R Theatres.
For all the fun/successful work we did, one bad decision stands out. We were playing midnight movies regularly. Fox offered us The Rocky Horror Picture Show at slightly higher than average film rental, but with a deal-breaking caveat: we had to commit to four weeks. Bob wasn’t comfortable with it, I didn’t push it, and it went instead to the Biograph for the next decade or so….
As someone who attended the McClurg regularly from its opening (bought my family road show tickets for Fiddler on the Roof) and later even booked the theatre for Loews Theatres, let me offer a little different response about the screen in the big theatre.
The curvature was an interesting gimmick, but I never once saw an anamorphic films there in anything other than soft-focus to the poiht that it detracted from the presentation.
On the other hand, I saw Days of Heaven (which was 1.85x1) in 70mm twice in one night when they brought the film back for a week in 1979 (the only time it played 70mm in Chicago for the public). That looked amazing.
The Monroe was by the 1970s the ultimate grind house – because of union rules, they needed to open at 9 am like other downtown theatres. They usually ran double features (New World, Crown, other indie exploitation distributors). They worked their schedule backward from the evening, and it usually meant that when they opened their doors at 9, they began in the middle of the first movie!
I booked the Loop from 1976-1978 working for the legendary (and difficult) Oscar Brotman. What a bunch of grade Z movies were included – it clearly was at the end of an era.
On the list of movies before that – I could have sworn I saw a post-road show engagement of The Sound of Music there sometime in 1966, but don’t see it listed among the films.
The Kent was my hometown theatre in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Single screen, musty until it was closed down for remodeling circa 1961, it even had a bit of a stadium feel to it.
My movie viewing was split between Disney and family films and big epics (Shaggy Dog, 10 Commandments.)
This was the theatre that shaped my movie-going experience. At the time, it was the only game in town – the Drive In a few miles east and the Ravenna were the other nearby ones.
This was my first movie-theatre at the relatively late age of 5 (1958, Merry Andrew with Danny Kaye). Packed on a Sunday afternoon – was fascinated most by it being in color (since TV was black and white at that time).
I lived in Evanston from the mid60s to mid70s – the Howard was the theatre I went to when films a little less prestigious than the ones B&K played in my city played there. It was just across the border from Evanston, and you felt immediately that you were in the big city.
This was a real working class theatre – no pretense, by this time moldy and a bit smelly, but it had a nice large screen and provided a real movie experience.
Bill Horberg does a terrific job of reviewing the history of the Sandburg as well as conveying the flavor of the theatre during his and Albert’s tenure (both are now very successful producers).
One major error though – the theatre’s lease, when they went back to college, was taken over by the company I worked for, M&R Theatres, so I was able to continue booking the theatre, albeit now as a first run specialized one.
During that period, we competed with two other single screen specialized theatres – the Cinema (Oscar Brotman, which I had previously booked) and the Biograph. Building on the good will that Bill & Albert had created in reviving the theatre, we had a successful fun of a couple of years, with as stated above the remarkable success of My Dinner With Andre as a standout (although I recall that Diva was our biggest hit).
The site had been vulnerable to redevelopment for years; at M&R, knowing this, we in late 1983 opened the two-screen Fine Arts on South Michigan. The site indeed did become a Walgreens, and in a cruel twist of irony, its opening included an appearance by Cary Grant, who doubtless did not realize that just recently some of his old films had been playing there.
The Coronet in the period I frequented it (late 1960s on) often played foreign language films (its competition in the area was the Wilmette and sometimes the Evanston II). I saw a lot of great films there – Belle de jour, Shame, Day for Night – before I started seeing them first run on the near north side of Chicago.
As I recall, Fox felt (correctly) that they had a hit on their hands, and just wanted to have a commitment that a theatre would stick with it if it started slowly.
One of the reasons they didn’t want the Biograph (also if I recall correctly) is that the film had bombed there as a first run theatre.
Sound of Music in the theatres it played for a year or more was shown as a road show – that is with one or two shows a day at most, so that would severely cut down on the total exposure one projectionist would have.
Wow BW – what a nice comment about me.
Bob Taylor had been a manager for Oscar Brotman, then leased this and the Harvey Theatres in the layte 1970s. Bob kept the account with me when I went to M&R Theatres.
For all the fun/successful work we did, one bad decision stands out. We were playing midnight movies regularly. Fox offered us The Rocky Horror Picture Show at slightly higher than average film rental, but with a deal-breaking caveat: we had to commit to four weeks. Bob wasn’t comfortable with it, I didn’t push it, and it went instead to the Biograph for the next decade or so….
As someone who attended the McClurg regularly from its opening (bought my family road show tickets for Fiddler on the Roof) and later even booked the theatre for Loews Theatres, let me offer a little different response about the screen in the big theatre.
The curvature was an interesting gimmick, but I never once saw an anamorphic films there in anything other than soft-focus to the poiht that it detracted from the presentation.
On the other hand, I saw Days of Heaven (which was 1.85x1) in 70mm twice in one night when they brought the film back for a week in 1979 (the only time it played 70mm in Chicago for the public). That looked amazing.
The Monroe was by the 1970s the ultimate grind house – because of union rules, they needed to open at 9 am like other downtown theatres. They usually ran double features (New World, Crown, other indie exploitation distributors). They worked their schedule backward from the evening, and it usually meant that when they opened their doors at 9, they began in the middle of the first movie!
I booked the Loop from 1976-1978 working for the legendary (and difficult) Oscar Brotman. What a bunch of grade Z movies were included – it clearly was at the end of an era.
On the list of movies before that – I could have sworn I saw a post-road show engagement of The Sound of Music there sometime in 1966, but don’t see it listed among the films.
The Kent was my hometown theatre in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Single screen, musty until it was closed down for remodeling circa 1961, it even had a bit of a stadium feel to it.
My movie viewing was split between Disney and family films and big epics (Shaggy Dog, 10 Commandments.)
This was the theatre that shaped my movie-going experience. At the time, it was the only game in town – the Drive In a few miles east and the Ravenna were the other nearby ones.
This was my first movie-theatre at the relatively late age of 5 (1958, Merry Andrew with Danny Kaye). Packed on a Sunday afternoon – was fascinated most by it being in color (since TV was black and white at that time).
I lived in Evanston from the mid60s to mid70s – the Howard was the theatre I went to when films a little less prestigious than the ones B&K played in my city played there. It was just across the border from Evanston, and you felt immediately that you were in the big city.
This was a real working class theatre – no pretense, by this time moldy and a bit smelly, but it had a nice large screen and provided a real movie experience.
Bill Horberg does a terrific job of reviewing the history of the Sandburg as well as conveying the flavor of the theatre during his and Albert’s tenure (both are now very successful producers).
One major error though – the theatre’s lease, when they went back to college, was taken over by the company I worked for, M&R Theatres, so I was able to continue booking the theatre, albeit now as a first run specialized one.
During that period, we competed with two other single screen specialized theatres – the Cinema (Oscar Brotman, which I had previously booked) and the Biograph. Building on the good will that Bill & Albert had created in reviving the theatre, we had a successful fun of a couple of years, with as stated above the remarkable success of My Dinner With Andre as a standout (although I recall that Diva was our biggest hit).
The site had been vulnerable to redevelopment for years; at M&R, knowing this, we in late 1983 opened the two-screen Fine Arts on South Michigan. The site indeed did become a Walgreens, and in a cruel twist of irony, its opening included an appearance by Cary Grant, who doubtless did not realize that just recently some of his old films had been playing there.
The Coronet in the period I frequented it (late 1960s on) often played foreign language films (its competition in the area was the Wilmette and sometimes the Evanston II). I saw a lot of great films there – Belle de jour, Shame, Day for Night – before I started seeing them first run on the near north side of Chicago.
This drive-in is featured briefly in the AIP 1958 film Attack of the Puppet People.