Roxy Theatre
153 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
153 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
83 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 1,225 comments
I just uploaded an illustration of the Fox Grandeur 70mm film to the photos section. Comparison of standard 35mm and 70mm films in the early 1930s. Both gauges feature an off-axis picture with a variable-density Movitone mono optical sound track to the left of the picture, as well as a four-perforation pulldown profile. The 70mm process portrayed here is Fox Grandeur for which the Roxy was equipped.
I have pics of the stooges. Olsen and Johnson. Edgar Bergens first routine with Charlie Mcarthy ( Dr routine )
DavidMShapass-Surely they must be of interest to The Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center or The Museum of the City of NY.
I’ve often wondered what happened to the films Leonidoff took of the stage shows at Radio City and the beautiful Impact photos that used to be on display outside the theater. I would give anything to see films of the big production numbers like Bolero, Serenade to the Stars, Court of Jewels, Rhapsody in Blue, The Great March, The Undersea Ballet, Milady’s Fan,…I did see a few of them on stage but most I did not.
My understanding is that although they were well received, theatres across the country could not afford the retrofit during the depression and the technology got abandoned. After all, sound was still a challenge for many small town theatres in 1930.
‘“THE BIG TRAIL” premiered in 70mm GRANDEUR in October 1930 at the Roxy. “KISMET” opened the following week in 65mm at the Hollywood.’
And they made no splash? All I’ve heard about was The Bat Whispers which I saw years ago at MOMA in its 70MM version and now it’s been released on bluray along with its 1.33(or is it 1.37?) version. I don’t remember them being discussed in Martin Hart’s Widescreen Museum. I’ll have to read that more closely. I somehow missed them. Do they still exist in 70?
I posted loooong ago. But o do have a very large collection of stage shows at the Roxy during the early to mid 30’s. Thousands of negatives. Still, no one thinks they are worth anything. Amazing theatre. Wonderful time in NYC theatre history.
“THE BIG TRAIL” premiered in 70mm GRANDEUR in October 1930 at the Roxy. “KISMET” opened the following week in 65mm at the Hollywood.
Interesting. I’ve never heard that about the Roxy. In terms of widescreen all I’ve ever heard about was The Robe.
I just checked the Rivoli’s page on Cinema Treasures including photos and it’s definitely NOT the theater I have in mind. It must have been the Roxy. There is even a programme picture posted here that shows the projection booth as I remember seeing it on a better picture in “The Best Remaining Seats”.
I think it was the Roxy. I remember reading it about thirty years ago in one of my books about movie theaters and even thought how convenient it was for a widescreen process to have a projection booth inside the front of a balcony to deliver almost horizontal projection and therefore avoiding the deformation induced by keystone projection. It was either “The Remaining Seats” from Ben Hall or “Hollywood’s Master Showman - The Legendary Sid Grauman” from Charles Beardsley. Can’t check now because I don’t have my books right here.
Are you confusing the Rivoli with the Roxy? The Bat Whispers in 70MM played at the Rivoli. Was Fox planning an early 70MM film at the Roxy?
This file has 1220 comments and I don’t have time to read them all, so I don’t know if it was mentioned earlier (and I don’t see the information in the presentation text), but the Roxy was equipped for 70mm films long before it got Cinemascope. It was the Fox Grandeur process, still in black and white and with one mono optical sound track. Only the Roxy in New York and the Grauman’s Chinese theater in Los Angeles were equipped to project it.
Oh yes! That was the Manhattan my parents knew going to movies and plays. I think I’ve written this before but my mother said if the line was too long at Radio City you would go to the Roxy. I guess you didn’t care all that much what movie was playing, you just went to see the show.
Coincidentally just yesterday I was talking with friends and we were musing if we could go back for a day, what era would we pick, and I said post-WW2 Times Square so I could visit all the Broadway movie theaters that I missed.
And this morning, here’s a thread on that very topic.
(Sad face.)
I was as well a small child. If my parents cared about such things as we lived close to Manhattan, I could have seen the Roxy, The Paramount, the Capitol, the old Met and Pennsylvania station. Nobody but me seems to know that the destruction of all these magnificent NY building precipitated the fall of midtown by 1970 which was to get considerably worse during the 70s and 80s. And then Koch, Giuliani and Disney came along to make it 100 times worse.
I wish the Roxy could have held out just a little bit longer. I was only six when they called it quits, and at that point, nobody had thought to bring me downtown to check it out.
For the record, The Roxy Theatre’s main auditorium W.W. Kimball Co. organ had a total of 34 ranks of pipes. Thirty-one were installed in chambers under the stage (which, because of the orchestra pit’s lift, hampered tonal egress); the remaining three (Trumpet Fanfare, Military Bugle and Fife) were indeed installed in the Fanfare Division, centered above the proscenium. A link at the bottom of these comments provide a definitive and well-written story about all Kimball three organs in the Roxy and their sad fate. With the exception of some choice ranks of Kimball pipes from the main organ and its five-manual console, the rest of the organs went down with the building when it was demolished in 1960. The destruction of these fine instruments was common in the 1950’s and 1960’s, resulting in very few theatre pipes organ to be found in their original installation.
https://journals.shareok.org/theatreorgan/issue/download/55/Theatre%20Organ%2C%20October%201970%2C%20Volume%2012%2C%20Number%205
Was that because of the box office or were they contractually required to hold it that long by the distributor no matter how empty the reduced Cinemiracle seating?
Added ads, articles and pictures to https://incinerama.com/roxyny.htm. Windjammer played for 24 weeks at the Roxy. Longer than the Robe 13 weeks, and Giant 9 weeks.
Part of the ground site of the Roxy’s 6,000-seat auditorium is now occupied by Urban Hawker, an authentic Singapore street food center with main entrance at 135 West 50th Street. Official website with photographs can be viewed here
Hello-
while it is sad I never got to enjoy the Roxy people have to realize that HUGE theaters like the Roxy were living on borrowed time the split micro nano second t.v. became commonplace in the American home.
Giant has just come out on 4k. From reviews some of it looks great and some of it not so great. The movie is 3 hours and 20 minutes. And it played the Roxy with a stage show which is amazing. A very long running time for a show that had continuous performances.
Reminder from The James Dean Museum via Facebook: October 10, 1956 On this day, “Giant” premiered at the Roxy Theatre in New York City with the local DuMont station, WABD, televising the arrival of the cast and crew. Image from the gallery posted in 2011.
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/556
There was no grace of any kind in how the Rockefellers dealt with the future of RCMH. They wanted it torn down…all the way to a court battle/decision. For all the facts, you must read “Saving Radio City Music Hall” by Rosemary Novellino-Mearns. You will see how powerful and inspirational a small group of people can be to save something beautiful and cherished.
And when the Roxy was torn down the Music Hall was still successful getting first run films that people wanted to see and a popular NY destination must. By the end of the 60s that was over because of the cultural shift in filmmaking and film distribution and urban decay. It only held on well into the 70s by the grace of the Rockefellers.