The Winter Garden has one of the most valuable air rights in the theatre district. The Winter Garden is one of the most desirable theatres on Broadway for musicals.I was most happy when “Cats” left so the theatre could be restored.The theatre is one of the few that is actually on Broadway. The Winter Garden is a good example in the use on naming rights. The Cadillac Winter Garden is better than the Ford Center or American Airlines in naming rights on historic structures. I give the Shubert’s credit for taking care of the historic name of this theatre.brucec
Warren there is a huge demand for muscial theatres sitting between 1500-1800 seats. The Palace has been booked with a show ever since Disney announced the closing of “Aida”. Many times a producer will book and reserve a desired theatre way in advance to assure there production the proper theatre. The in coming musical “Spamalot” reserved the Shubert months ago. The in coming musical Lennon reserved the Broadhurst almost a year in advance. Vincent you are correct, the Strand(Warner) and Loew’s State could have been altered to house broadway musicals such as the Orpheum in San Francisco where they brought the stage into the Orchestra and reducing the capacity to make the theatre more intimate for broadway musicals.The cost of doing this would have been less than building a new musical theatre from the ground up. Then they could of built over these theatres like they did with the Palace. Broadway doesn’t want theatres larger than 2000 seats, where the road requires musical theatres larger than 2000 seats. A hit show on Broadway will usually run 2-17 years like Phantom,Chicago,The Producers,Rent,Beauty and the Beast,Mama Mia,Hairspray,Movin Out,42nd Street and Avenue Q. Even a flop on Broadway can run anywhere from 6 months to a year.Broadway on the road plays most theatres only for a few weeks and require a larger theatre to recoup there costs. A few markets such as Toronto,Boston,Chicago,San Francisco,and Los Angeles may have a long run with a Phantom or a Lion King but this is rare.brucec
If the Bronx gets the Loew’s Paradise up and running then Brooklyn needs to restore either the Paramount or Loew’s Kings(hopefuly both) as a theatre. Im amazed at the progress of the Paradise and I agree it has been very secretive. I wish all above a lot of luck.Divinity I love all your updates on this theatre. The Paradise is the only one of the Loew’s Wonder Theatres I didn’t visit on my trip to NYC 2 years ago. brucec
The Lion King is still doing sell out business at the New Amsterdam which is the 3rd largest legit theatre on Broadway and it will be a few years before Disney will move it to a smaller theatre. The largest theatre on Broadway is the Gershwin and the Ford Center, soon to be renamed the Hilton Theatre, is the second largest. The Rivoli and the Criterion would have made great legit musical theatres if a stage house could have been built.Its a shame because the demand for a musical theatre seating between 1500-1800 is huge. Many musical shows are lined up waiting for a theatre of this size and many times have to postpone until the next season. The average hit musical is running longer and longer.Every theatre on Broadway is either running a show or is booked with a show coming in.brucec
William I know Fox West Coast also operated the Fox Warfield for many years after taking over from Loew’s.I saw many films at the Fox Warfield when it was operated by Fox West Coast/National General.brucec
Most towns and cities that have destroyed there last movie theatre has lived to regret it. Its a black eye on the historical downtown core. I have never been to any small town where the citizens of that town weren’t proud of the restoration of there theatre. Most small towns are trying desperately to return to the main street of the early and mid 20th Century. These movie palaces is where are countries greatest generartion and there children gathered and have many fond memories.Hundreds of cities and towns accross this country have restored there movie palaces for a variety of functions so I guess there time has not passed.Some of our large restored movie palaces such as the Wang in Boston, Fox in Atlanta,Fox in Detroit,Fox in St Louis,Paramount in Seattle,Pantages in Hollywood,and others are more successful now than in Hollywoods Golden Era.brucec
This theatre is not closed and is being used on a regular basis for digital movie industry screenings. The Pacific is being used a movie theatre by people who love movies.Daily Variety lists the Pacific as one of the major screenings venues for the industry.brucec
How does the Radio City Christmas show at the Fox compare to the one at Radio City. The show in New York uses 36 Rockettes on its stage where many of the out of town shows only use 20-24 Rockettes.Is the show at the Fox a smaller show than the one in New York.brucec
Maybe if someone from Brooklyn could get Barbra Streisand to at least send a letter of support for restoring the Kings in New York it might generate a lot of publicity for the theatre. Try and contact Neil Diamond who also went to school with Barbra. When I toured the historic theatres of New York a few years ago I was most impressed with Loew’s Kings even with the water damage. I regard the Kings as my favorite NYC theatre still standing. There is a rumor that Barbra and Neil may tour together in the near future so the time maybe ripe for Back To Brooklyn reunion.Im sure Miss Streisand is bothered by people all the time to support this or that but I get the feeling she has a special place in her heart for the theatre she watched many of M-G-M films in her youth. I think if she was approached in the right way and by the right person she would lend her support to the theatre she spent many enjoyable hours in the dark.brucec
Correction: The Century Plaza was never much competition to the AMC Century 14. When AMC was able to day and date with Westwood it became the most successful multiplex in LA until Pacific’s Grove was built years later with stadium seating.brucec
This complex was built on the former backlot of 20Th Century-Fox. The Fox studio was second in size only to Universal before the backlot was redeveloped. The Fox studio sat on very expensive real estate sitting between Beverly Hills and the Westwood area of West LA.The former backlot was sold due to the cost overruns on “Cleopatra” which eventually showed a profit and nearly put Fox out of business. The backlot was developed into Century City which became one of the most sought after office space in LA. The ABC Entertainment Center which comprised the Shubert and Century Plaza along with a mall was never very successful. The Shuberts had to spend money a few times remodelling the Shubert to get it right. The Shubert at least had a few successful long runs. The Century Plaza only was successful during the exclusive run era and even then they had to play second fiddle to Westwood and also the AMC Century 14.brucec
The most logical theatre for the Disney organization is the old Mark Hellinger which is now the Times Square Church. The church doesn’t want to give it up at this time. Disney has two productions coming to Broadway in the next couple years “Mary Poppins” and “The Little Mermaid”. The New Amsterdam will likely run “The Lion King” for several years unless they move it to another theatre.I doubt Disney would run a theatre in New York like the El Capitan as the cost would be so expensive.brucec
I was very pleased to see the vertical sign restored to the Shea’s Buffalo Theatre. All the great restored movie palaces should have great vertical’s signs like Shea’s Buffalo. My parents were married in the Buffalo area during WW11 and attended the big bands at this wonderful theatre which is one of my personal favorites.brucec
I was at the opening of the Galaxy and not very impressed. It was the first new theatre to be built in Hollywood since the opening of the Cinerama Dome.It was an average mall 6-plex that GCC was building at the time, no wonder they are no longer around.Im not counting the Chinese twin addition built in the 1970’s and torn down a few years ago for the Hollywood/Highland entertainment mall.brucec
I can’t wait to see a classic film in the California.I wish more restored movie palaces would show film during there down time as a live stage theatre. I can’t wait to see the new vertical marquee spelling out California. Im sure glad Mr Packard is a fan of film and the wonderful theatres that showed them. Everyone should experience seeing a classic film at Mr Packard’s Stanford theatre.brucec
Its to bad Warner Bros didn’t include one large screen in the complex.I guess the Odeon is the last screen in the West End with first class showmanship.London at least has the Odeon and a few other major screens where New York has not one major screen left on Broadway.brucec
The Empire’s main auditorium was much grander in 1975 than what I saw in the 1990’s. I liked the Empire in the 1970’s better than I did the big Odeon. My favorite theatre, where I saw “The Wind and the Lion” was the Dominion.brucec
Its to bad that some of the historic movie palaces of Times Sqaure weren’t given air rights the way most of the historic Broadway Legit theatres were given. This encouraged the Legit theatre owners to restore/renovate many of there theatres.The Palace and the Broadway were encorporated in a build over of a new building,this may have saved the Rivoli and a few others.The Criterion and the Rivoli were the perfect houses for the big musicals,but they didn’t have stage houses.I think the master plan in NYC was to revive 42nd St and many of its theatres and rebuild Times Square with new buildings. The revival of the Times Square moved much faster than people imagined and I think it caught the City by surprise. The revival of Times Square was good for the Legit community which had been pushing for a cleaner Times Square for many years,but caused us to loose the last of our big movie palaces in Times Square. Los Angeles is now the only big city to retain most of its big time movie palaces both Downtown and in Hollywood.Downtown Hollywood has restored/renovated all of its movie palaces with the exception of the Hollywood Pacific(Warner).The restored movie palaces of Hollywood would include the Chinese,El Capitan,Pantages and ongoing work on the Music Box(Henry Fonda).The Egyptian had been renovated but not restored and the Cinerama Dome though not a movie palace has also been renovated.The Vogue,Fox,New View,Holly,Hollywood and Vine are not movie palaces and have either closed or are used for other purposes. The Holly has been gutted and only the Vine still show movies.brucec
The block the Criterion sits on is waiting for a major high rise development.The Moss family still owns the building and is waiting for the right project.The Toys R Us was only temprorary,so the Criterion would have been lost anyway.The Criterion was a modern showcase for the roadshow attraction but the Rivoli was more of a movie palace.When the Criterion was plexed it would have been smarter of UA to have left the orchestra section alone along with the big screen. Then again UA was not very smart and was one of the worst operators of the large circuits.brucec
Doreen, if you and your family are the owners of this venue you may want to take a trip to another city and see how classic film from all decades can be used in your format as a Performing Arts Center. Radio City is not the example you are looking for. Radio City is unique and very different. The huge Atlanta Fox have a summer film series every year.The Detroit Fox shows classic films evey now and then. The Detroit Fox has beaten Radio City in attendance becuase Radio City is under used and is used for production of TV shows as well as live performance. The Paramount in Oakland has Friday Night classic film series along with Ballet,Concerts,and Symphony.Programming is very important to the success of showing classic fims. Here are a few films that draw a large crowd “Singing in the Rain”,“Gone With The Wind”,“Ben Hur”,“North By Northwest”,“Mildrid Pierce”,“All About Eve”,“Funny Face”,“Its A Mad Mad Mad World”,“Lawrence of Arabia”,“Casablanca”,“Pillow Talk”,“Cat On A Hot Tin Roof”,“Mary Poppins”,“The Ten Commandments”,“The Sound of Music”,“Some Like It Hot”,“Star Wars”,“Funny Girl”,“How The West Was Won”,“Dr Zhivago”,“Charade”,“White Christmas”,“Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”,“Double Indemnity”,“Jason and the Arganauts"and many more.If you present these films properly this could be a big asset to your theatre during the dark times when the stage is not used.PS The reason Radio City stopped showing first run films plus stage show was that Radio City was no longer able to get the big movies after 1967 and the studios started opening there films wide and Radio City needed the exclusive run to help pay for the stage show.Vito thanks for your remarks about movies and your passion for the old movie palaces anyone would be lucky to have you.brucec
Except for the two screens they added at the top of the complex this is a terrible complex to see a movie. Im surprised people still go here after the Grove opened. I heard that Loew’s isn’t going to renovate so maybe they will close when the lease ends. The Beverly Connection across the street is slated to close down in the near furture.brucec
Michael Todd Jr’s step Mom Elizabeth Taylor had a non-speaking walk on in the movie “Scent of Mystery”. Elizabeth Talylor owned the Micheal Todd theatre for many years following his death.brucec
Richard I just found a small 24 page book titled San Francisco’s Fabulous and Foolish Fox which was published in 1961 when the theatre was still open and your father was the managing director.The book was written by Jeff Hershel and under acknowledgments he especially thanked your father Robert M. Apple,Camille Barnes,Ken King,The Fox Theatre Management And Fox West Coast.This book was given to me by Nate Grossman who was a longtime theatre manager who was also from the old school as he would always tell me.The book states that in the first four and a half years,a record breaking attendance of over 22,000,000 persons came from the world over to visit the new Fox.In these years the weekly payroll was $36,000.Fanchon and Marco’s gigantic stage spectacles kept the crowds coming.Due to the crash of 1929 William Fox,bankrupt in 1932,was forced to close the theatre. The Fox remained closed for almost a year.In late 1933 ,it reopened under the direction of Fox West Coast and a new policy in prices:The one,two and three dollar seats had vanished and seats could be obtained for 15cents,20cents and 30cents(the latter was for seats in the Diamond Horshoe).brucec
The Winter Garden has one of the most valuable air rights in the theatre district. The Winter Garden is one of the most desirable theatres on Broadway for musicals.I was most happy when “Cats” left so the theatre could be restored.The theatre is one of the few that is actually on Broadway. The Winter Garden is a good example in the use on naming rights. The Cadillac Winter Garden is better than the Ford Center or American Airlines in naming rights on historic structures. I give the Shubert’s credit for taking care of the historic name of this theatre.brucec
Warren there is a huge demand for muscial theatres sitting between 1500-1800 seats. The Palace has been booked with a show ever since Disney announced the closing of “Aida”. Many times a producer will book and reserve a desired theatre way in advance to assure there production the proper theatre. The in coming musical “Spamalot” reserved the Shubert months ago. The in coming musical Lennon reserved the Broadhurst almost a year in advance. Vincent you are correct, the Strand(Warner) and Loew’s State could have been altered to house broadway musicals such as the Orpheum in San Francisco where they brought the stage into the Orchestra and reducing the capacity to make the theatre more intimate for broadway musicals.The cost of doing this would have been less than building a new musical theatre from the ground up. Then they could of built over these theatres like they did with the Palace. Broadway doesn’t want theatres larger than 2000 seats, where the road requires musical theatres larger than 2000 seats. A hit show on Broadway will usually run 2-17 years like Phantom,Chicago,The Producers,Rent,Beauty and the Beast,Mama Mia,Hairspray,Movin Out,42nd Street and Avenue Q. Even a flop on Broadway can run anywhere from 6 months to a year.Broadway on the road plays most theatres only for a few weeks and require a larger theatre to recoup there costs. A few markets such as Toronto,Boston,Chicago,San Francisco,and Los Angeles may have a long run with a Phantom or a Lion King but this is rare.brucec
If the Bronx gets the Loew’s Paradise up and running then Brooklyn needs to restore either the Paramount or Loew’s Kings(hopefuly both) as a theatre. Im amazed at the progress of the Paradise and I agree it has been very secretive. I wish all above a lot of luck.Divinity I love all your updates on this theatre. The Paradise is the only one of the Loew’s Wonder Theatres I didn’t visit on my trip to NYC 2 years ago. brucec
The Lion King is still doing sell out business at the New Amsterdam which is the 3rd largest legit theatre on Broadway and it will be a few years before Disney will move it to a smaller theatre. The largest theatre on Broadway is the Gershwin and the Ford Center, soon to be renamed the Hilton Theatre, is the second largest. The Rivoli and the Criterion would have made great legit musical theatres if a stage house could have been built.Its a shame because the demand for a musical theatre seating between 1500-1800 is huge. Many musical shows are lined up waiting for a theatre of this size and many times have to postpone until the next season. The average hit musical is running longer and longer.Every theatre on Broadway is either running a show or is booked with a show coming in.brucec
William I know Fox West Coast also operated the Fox Warfield for many years after taking over from Loew’s.I saw many films at the Fox Warfield when it was operated by Fox West Coast/National General.brucec
Most towns and cities that have destroyed there last movie theatre has lived to regret it. Its a black eye on the historical downtown core. I have never been to any small town where the citizens of that town weren’t proud of the restoration of there theatre. Most small towns are trying desperately to return to the main street of the early and mid 20th Century. These movie palaces is where are countries greatest generartion and there children gathered and have many fond memories.Hundreds of cities and towns accross this country have restored there movie palaces for a variety of functions so I guess there time has not passed.Some of our large restored movie palaces such as the Wang in Boston, Fox in Atlanta,Fox in Detroit,Fox in St Louis,Paramount in Seattle,Pantages in Hollywood,and others are more successful now than in Hollywoods Golden Era.brucec
This theatre is not closed and is being used on a regular basis for digital movie industry screenings. The Pacific is being used a movie theatre by people who love movies.Daily Variety lists the Pacific as one of the major screenings venues for the industry.brucec
How does the Radio City Christmas show at the Fox compare to the one at Radio City. The show in New York uses 36 Rockettes on its stage where many of the out of town shows only use 20-24 Rockettes.Is the show at the Fox a smaller show than the one in New York.brucec
Maybe if someone from Brooklyn could get Barbra Streisand to at least send a letter of support for restoring the Kings in New York it might generate a lot of publicity for the theatre. Try and contact Neil Diamond who also went to school with Barbra. When I toured the historic theatres of New York a few years ago I was most impressed with Loew’s Kings even with the water damage. I regard the Kings as my favorite NYC theatre still standing. There is a rumor that Barbra and Neil may tour together in the near future so the time maybe ripe for Back To Brooklyn reunion.Im sure Miss Streisand is bothered by people all the time to support this or that but I get the feeling she has a special place in her heart for the theatre she watched many of M-G-M films in her youth. I think if she was approached in the right way and by the right person she would lend her support to the theatre she spent many enjoyable hours in the dark.brucec
Correction: The Century Plaza was never much competition to the AMC Century 14. When AMC was able to day and date with Westwood it became the most successful multiplex in LA until Pacific’s Grove was built years later with stadium seating.brucec
This complex was built on the former backlot of 20Th Century-Fox. The Fox studio was second in size only to Universal before the backlot was redeveloped. The Fox studio sat on very expensive real estate sitting between Beverly Hills and the Westwood area of West LA.The former backlot was sold due to the cost overruns on “Cleopatra” which eventually showed a profit and nearly put Fox out of business. The backlot was developed into Century City which became one of the most sought after office space in LA. The ABC Entertainment Center which comprised the Shubert and Century Plaza along with a mall was never very successful. The Shuberts had to spend money a few times remodelling the Shubert to get it right. The Shubert at least had a few successful long runs. The Century Plaza only was successful during the exclusive run era and even then they had to play second fiddle to Westwood and also the AMC Century 14.brucec
The most logical theatre for the Disney organization is the old Mark Hellinger which is now the Times Square Church. The church doesn’t want to give it up at this time. Disney has two productions coming to Broadway in the next couple years “Mary Poppins” and “The Little Mermaid”. The New Amsterdam will likely run “The Lion King” for several years unless they move it to another theatre.I doubt Disney would run a theatre in New York like the El Capitan as the cost would be so expensive.brucec
I was very pleased to see the vertical sign restored to the Shea’s Buffalo Theatre. All the great restored movie palaces should have great vertical’s signs like Shea’s Buffalo. My parents were married in the Buffalo area during WW11 and attended the big bands at this wonderful theatre which is one of my personal favorites.brucec
Could have picked a better film to host this event. The Happiest Millionaire was a flop back in 1967.brucec
I was at the opening of the Galaxy and not very impressed. It was the first new theatre to be built in Hollywood since the opening of the Cinerama Dome.It was an average mall 6-plex that GCC was building at the time, no wonder they are no longer around.Im not counting the Chinese twin addition built in the 1970’s and torn down a few years ago for the Hollywood/Highland entertainment mall.brucec
I can’t wait to see a classic film in the California.I wish more restored movie palaces would show film during there down time as a live stage theatre. I can’t wait to see the new vertical marquee spelling out California. Im sure glad Mr Packard is a fan of film and the wonderful theatres that showed them. Everyone should experience seeing a classic film at Mr Packard’s Stanford theatre.brucec
Its to bad Warner Bros didn’t include one large screen in the complex.I guess the Odeon is the last screen in the West End with first class showmanship.London at least has the Odeon and a few other major screens where New York has not one major screen left on Broadway.brucec
The Empire’s main auditorium was much grander in 1975 than what I saw in the 1990’s. I liked the Empire in the 1970’s better than I did the big Odeon. My favorite theatre, where I saw “The Wind and the Lion” was the Dominion.brucec
What about the Empire on Leicester Square which was the flagship of M-G-M for decades and from what I here was a more impressive theatre?brucec
Its to bad that some of the historic movie palaces of Times Sqaure weren’t given air rights the way most of the historic Broadway Legit theatres were given. This encouraged the Legit theatre owners to restore/renovate many of there theatres.The Palace and the Broadway were encorporated in a build over of a new building,this may have saved the Rivoli and a few others.The Criterion and the Rivoli were the perfect houses for the big musicals,but they didn’t have stage houses.I think the master plan in NYC was to revive 42nd St and many of its theatres and rebuild Times Square with new buildings. The revival of the Times Square moved much faster than people imagined and I think it caught the City by surprise. The revival of Times Square was good for the Legit community which had been pushing for a cleaner Times Square for many years,but caused us to loose the last of our big movie palaces in Times Square. Los Angeles is now the only big city to retain most of its big time movie palaces both Downtown and in Hollywood.Downtown Hollywood has restored/renovated all of its movie palaces with the exception of the Hollywood Pacific(Warner).The restored movie palaces of Hollywood would include the Chinese,El Capitan,Pantages and ongoing work on the Music Box(Henry Fonda).The Egyptian had been renovated but not restored and the Cinerama Dome though not a movie palace has also been renovated.The Vogue,Fox,New View,Holly,Hollywood and Vine are not movie palaces and have either closed or are used for other purposes. The Holly has been gutted and only the Vine still show movies.brucec
The block the Criterion sits on is waiting for a major high rise development.The Moss family still owns the building and is waiting for the right project.The Toys R Us was only temprorary,so the Criterion would have been lost anyway.The Criterion was a modern showcase for the roadshow attraction but the Rivoli was more of a movie palace.When the Criterion was plexed it would have been smarter of UA to have left the orchestra section alone along with the big screen. Then again UA was not very smart and was one of the worst operators of the large circuits.brucec
Doreen, if you and your family are the owners of this venue you may want to take a trip to another city and see how classic film from all decades can be used in your format as a Performing Arts Center. Radio City is not the example you are looking for. Radio City is unique and very different. The huge Atlanta Fox have a summer film series every year.The Detroit Fox shows classic films evey now and then. The Detroit Fox has beaten Radio City in attendance becuase Radio City is under used and is used for production of TV shows as well as live performance. The Paramount in Oakland has Friday Night classic film series along with Ballet,Concerts,and Symphony.Programming is very important to the success of showing classic fims. Here are a few films that draw a large crowd “Singing in the Rain”,“Gone With The Wind”,“Ben Hur”,“North By Northwest”,“Mildrid Pierce”,“All About Eve”,“Funny Face”,“Its A Mad Mad Mad World”,“Lawrence of Arabia”,“Casablanca”,“Pillow Talk”,“Cat On A Hot Tin Roof”,“Mary Poppins”,“The Ten Commandments”,“The Sound of Music”,“Some Like It Hot”,“Star Wars”,“Funny Girl”,“How The West Was Won”,“Dr Zhivago”,“Charade”,“White Christmas”,“Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”,“Double Indemnity”,“Jason and the Arganauts"and many more.If you present these films properly this could be a big asset to your theatre during the dark times when the stage is not used.PS The reason Radio City stopped showing first run films plus stage show was that Radio City was no longer able to get the big movies after 1967 and the studios started opening there films wide and Radio City needed the exclusive run to help pay for the stage show.Vito thanks for your remarks about movies and your passion for the old movie palaces anyone would be lucky to have you.brucec
Except for the two screens they added at the top of the complex this is a terrible complex to see a movie. Im surprised people still go here after the Grove opened. I heard that Loew’s isn’t going to renovate so maybe they will close when the lease ends. The Beverly Connection across the street is slated to close down in the near furture.brucec
Michael Todd Jr’s step Mom Elizabeth Taylor had a non-speaking walk on in the movie “Scent of Mystery”. Elizabeth Talylor owned the Micheal Todd theatre for many years following his death.brucec
Richard I just found a small 24 page book titled San Francisco’s Fabulous and Foolish Fox which was published in 1961 when the theatre was still open and your father was the managing director.The book was written by Jeff Hershel and under acknowledgments he especially thanked your father Robert M. Apple,Camille Barnes,Ken King,The Fox Theatre Management And Fox West Coast.This book was given to me by Nate Grossman who was a longtime theatre manager who was also from the old school as he would always tell me.The book states that in the first four and a half years,a record breaking attendance of over 22,000,000 persons came from the world over to visit the new Fox.In these years the weekly payroll was $36,000.Fanchon and Marco’s gigantic stage spectacles kept the crowds coming.Due to the crash of 1929 William Fox,bankrupt in 1932,was forced to close the theatre. The Fox remained closed for almost a year.In late 1933 ,it reopened under the direction of Fox West Coast and a new policy in prices:The one,two and three dollar seats had vanished and seats could be obtained for 15cents,20cents and 30cents(the latter was for seats in the Diamond Horshoe).brucec