Roxy Theatre
153 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
153 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
83 people
favorited this theater
Showing 226 - 250 of 1,209 comments
Actually, it shows up on the Fox Movie Channel fairly frequently. We shouldn’t ban the art of yesterday because it doesn’t conform to the political correctness of today.
The caption on the photo states the year is 1953, during the engagement of “The Robe.” If you click on the “Photo” tab just above the image, you can page through all the images posted here for this theater. Click on the thumbnail image to open any photo full size and you will be able to read any accompanying captions or comments.
Dear Housechecker, If you were at the Roxy the summer of ‘56 then you may have been there for “The King and I” which is when I began and stayed for one year. If this is true then perhaps we may have met or at least stood together for inspection. More importantly, one of the contributors to this site is gathering information about the theater for a book on its operations. Are you a New York or vicinity resident? A reunion of “those still standing” would be wonderful but no one except you has yet responded. By the way, “The King and I” was the beginning of the Roxy’s short but great golden year of hits with crowds like the one in the lobby shown in the photo above for “But Stop,” “Giant,” and “Anastasia.” Does anyone know the date of the photo above????
Saltzman—-re: 7-26-11 I was an usher from summer 1953 (Peter Pan) to summer 1955 (can’t remember the film, I wasn’t inside much). The idea of a reunion sounds great, but as Cloris Leachman said in an episode of Two & A Half Men, “Hurry up. I’m not getting any younger.”
Copy that Tinseltoes please keep em coming
I love your “on this day” comments, Tinseltoes.
The Roxy was purchased by Rockefeller Center in 1955 with an eye towards future development. Rock Center needed the ROXY site for its air rights in order to build the new Time-Life building, completed in 1959. The Roxy was leased back to its operators. Rock Center had no direct involvement in its operation until 1959, shortly before it closed. Rock Center made a deal with William Zecandorf to sell the ROXY so the TAft hotel could be expanded. However, the TAFT was never expanded, but Zeckendorf proceeded to tear down the ROXY. He had no interest in keeping the ROXY open. Closed, the ROXY was costing thousands of dollars in real esate taxes to NYC. Zeckend orf probaly did not have much choice. The whole closing process appeaerd to be very quick. Perhaps Rock Center insisted the ROXY be closed. However, I have not seen any printed proof of Rock Center’s direct involement in the closing. Variety reported in 1959 that the NY Philharmonic was interested in leasing the ROXY for its home after the philharmonic was ousted from Carniege hall, which was also on the demolition block at the time. However nothing ever came of the ROXY/ Philharmonic deal as Linclon Center was in the early construction stages at the time.
Hello To My Fellow Posters. the Roxy was torn down the summer of 1960 and i doubt everything was going along swimmingly and a month before someone said-“oh lets tear down the Roxy”. so i’m hedging the bet the decision to do so was decided upon years before. so when exactly was the decision to tear it down decided on? in 1956 the Roxy had 3 big Cinemascope hits from 20th Fox-CAROUSEL, ANASTASIA and THE KING AND I. so could the decision have been made as early as 1956?
If this was “Jeopardy,” lonixcap would have the correct answer.
Yes, the film “Wilson” did have it’s World Premiere in Wahoo, Nebraska. But the word Premiere in the movie business can have multi meanings. World Premiere being held on both coasts or different regions like Northern California (San Francisco) while the main premiere would be held in Hollywood. The Roxy Theatre engagement of “Wilson” did hold a house record for the most tickets sold for the theatre at that time.
I thought the Wilson premier was in Zanuck’s hometown of Wahoo, Nebraska.
As a former Roxy usher 1956/1957, I was wondering if there is any interest in a reunion of ushers and/or staff who still might be around.
What an extraordinary shame that here in the United States, we don’t preserve our history. That the Roxy, “the Cathedral of the Motion Picture,” should have been demolished is beyond criminal.
Thanks guys! This is just one of those buildings I can’t get enough of. Love that shot from the stage with the orchestra
Thanks!
Here’s Mark’s link to the photo from Life.
Cinema Treasures doesn’t currently support bare links. If you don’t know HTML, you can use simple Markdown code to embed inline links. Put the text for the link between square brackets, followed by the url between parentheses, with no space between closing bracket and opening parenthesis. Presto, an inline link just like the ones in this comment, with only four extra keystrokes.
(How do you add a live link to a message?) Thanks.
I think this is what you were looking for:
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/f?q=roxy+source:life&imgurl=8e0a8046e1427293
There are more shots of this as well. Search Google images for “roxy+source:life” to find all of the Roxy photos in the online LIFE archive.
Somewhere in the internet universe I came across a photo, shot from the stage during an orchestral performance, that showed a great shot of the tiered balconies. I meant to save the photo so I could share it, but have since lost my browser bookmark. If anyone knows where to find it online, it’d be a great addition to the photo page for the Roxy.
Joseph: Thanks so much for sharing this treasure trove of Roxy photo materials with us.
I don’t think Warner gutted the Beacon interior. I suspect they redesigned it for sound.
I don’t have any proof regarding the architect of the Beacon except my eyes. It sure looks a lot more like Ahlschlager than it does Rapp and Rapp. If the Rapps created that design then it was amazingly atypical for them. My guess is that the design is Ahlschlager’s and the Rapp Bros. supervised whatever additional work that was needed to open the theatre. Why would Warners waste money completely gutting and rebuilding the interior of a new theatre, especially in late 1929? But we may never know for sure.
Ziggy: I think it is possible. My whole point is that it isn’t a certainty.
Re: The comment by Life’s Too Short, I think that architect’s are capable, and likely, too develop emotional attachment to their creations, especially if you read how poetical Eberson could get about his theatres.
When the Hotel “La Posada” was being dismantled in the 1960’s the architect (whose name escapes me) was present at the auction of all the furnishings and art works she had chosen for the structure she designed. When asked for a reaction to what was going on her reply was “I now know that it’s possible to live too long”.
Another ROXY view, 1954:
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