I wonder how long this space will remain vacant before it is demolished or gutted for re-use. Aside from the lack of film titles on the marquee and empty display cases, the place looks like it is simply waiting in off hours for the doors to be opened for the next showing. I imagine the boards will go up over those windows before too long.
I had to postpone my “West Side Story” screening until Tuesday night. While it’s dissapointing to read the negative reports on the MFL print, I’m delighted and encouraged to learn that the WSS print is a sparkler. I look forward to Tuesday night’s screening and will keep my fingers crossed for next weekend’s “Ben-Hur” screening. Did they have anyone introduce the print on Saturday night? Glimpsing at the schedule, it appears they had some folks there to introduce the Godfather films and “Chinatown” last weekend.
The mall in the former Saks/Korvettes was Herald Center or something like that. Now that you mention it, I recall Toys ‘R’ Us being there a few years back. Which was the mall that had a glass front cafeteria or food court on the 3rd or 4th floor that faced Herald Square and looked across at the old Hotel Martinique (I think that was the name)?
I stopped by the theater with camera in tow the other morning and snapped these photos of the entrance and display cases. I had to poke my arm through security gates to snap the cases in the outer vestibule, but this is preferable to being chased off the premises by the manager and his security guard (see my post of September 6th). Anyway, looks like business as usual at the Fair:
The last deluxe edition DVD box of “West Side Story” contains a booklet that includes reproductions of the instructions to roadshow projectionists as to how the film’s overture was to be presented. I recall reading detailed specifications as to exactly when during that opening montage of colors the curtains were to be open and how far the house lights should be brought down with each change of color.
I wonder if the Ziegfeld projectionist will be following these instructions this week. I’m planning on attending Sunday’s matinee, so I’m hoping the predicted snow storm doesn’t upset my plans. If not, I’ll take in an evening showing during the week.
I wonder what the original facade and entrance looked like when it was still in theatrical operation. I assume it was always a brick facade and imagine that the original wide entryway below the marquee was bricked over at some point and replaced with the new doorway and small windows seen in the 1st and 2nd photo. It’s also obvious there was never a balcony.
Does anyone know if the building served any other purpose between closing and its current use by the church?
Thanks nova, but no, it wasn’t the Calderone – I’ve been there. And it definitely wasn’t My Father’s Place – which was all on one level without balcony. Maybe it was the Cove. I guess they could have run some concerts around that time as perhaps the whole dinner-theater concept they had going under the Northstage Theater Restaurant name might have been declining in popularity. I’m still in contact with one of the guys I went to the show with… I’ll have to see if his memory is a bit clearer than mine on the subject.
I’m finding that my old ticketmaster and teletron computer printed stubs are fading away really bad! I have one or two that I can just barely make out the concert information. Pretty soon all that will be left is the boilerplate formatting. The old colored stubs that I purchased directly from the venue box offices are holding up quite well. And those terrifc unique-to-each-show “glitter” tickets that came from the Grateful Dead’s ticketing office look as good as they day they arrived in the mail! I remember asking ushers to carefully rip the stubs so as not to ruin the artwork – sometimes vainly, sometimes successfully.
I posted this on the Cove Theater site but figured I’d see if gets a response here:
There was a theater somewhere on the north shore where I saw the Greg Kihn Band and Marshall Crenshaw in 1982 (or thereabouts). It was definitely an old movie theater and obviously had stage facilities. They had removed all the seats from the orchestra level (at least in the front of the orchestra) while seating remained in the balcony. I remember that only people of drinking age (18 at the time) were allowed in the lower level, where alcohol was served. My two friends and I were only 16 or 17 so we were allowed only up in the balcony – but when the Kihn Band came out, we were able to sneak downstairs and get right up to the stage.
I seem to recall the place was up against an embankment and had a parking lot along its side and rear. The emankment might have been for a Long Island Rail Road trestle or perhaps an elevated road way such as the one for Route 25A as it goes through Roslyn. In fact, I thought it may have been a place called the Roslyn Theater, but I can find no such listing here. I was aware of the Northstage Theater Restaurant being in existence at the time – though I had never been there myself.
Can anyone from the area help me identify the theater? I remember a concert venue called My Father’s Place in Roslyn, but I believe that was converted from a bowling alley and I don’t recall ever being there. This place was an actual theater w/ balcony. Help?
There was a theater somewhere on the north shore where I saw the Greg Kihn Band and Marshall Crenshaw in 1982 (or thereabouts). It was definitely an old movie theater and obviously had stage facilities. They had removed all the seats from the orchestra level (at least in the front of the orchestra) while seating remained in the balcony. I remember that only people of drinking age (18 at the time) were allowed in the lower level, where alcohol was served. My two friends and I were only 16 or 17 so we were allowed only up in the balcony – but when the Kihn Band came out, we were able to sneak downstairs and get right up to the stage.
I seem to recall the place was up against an embankment and had a parking lot along its side and rear. The emankment might have been for a Long Island Rail Road trestle or perhaps an elevated road way such as the one for Route 25A as it goes through Roslyn. In fact, I thought it may have been a place called the Roslyn Theater, but I can find no such listing here. I was aware of the Northstage Theater Restaurant being in existence at the time – though I had never been there myself.
Can anyone from the area help me identify the theater? I remember a concert venue called My Father’s Place in Roslyn, but I believe that was converted from a bowling alley and I don’t recall ever being there. This place was an actual theater w/ balcony. Help?
Vincent… I never saw “Half a Sixpence” and I would say that “Sweet Charity” was definitely one of the better musicals of the late ‘60’s – a time when the big budget Hollywood musical started to wane – but I’d much rather see the original “Nights of Cabiria” by Fellini. But, overall, if I were to select a run of lavish musicals for a retrospective at the Ziegfeld, I don’t think I’d start with any of the films on Forrest136’s list! I don’t think “not as bad” is a good enough endorsement to make a case for booking (and then filling) a big 1,131-seat theater. What might be a better idea – although quite hard on the arse – would be to pair one of these underdogs with a more widely accepted classic on a single admission. Pair up “Wagon” behind, say, “Oklahoma!” and you might fill enough seats to make it worthwhile. “Sweet Charity” may be good enough to top a double bill, but the recent revival didn’t fare so well on Broadway. “Oliver!” would be a good choice to represent the late '60’s as would “Funny Girl.”
Clive Barnes has completely gone in the other direction, by the way – his critical teeth having been dulled by years of alcohol abuse. He just seems interested in seeing his name quoted on marquees and in newspaper ads these days, so he more often than not seems daffily delighted by every bit of nonsense they wheel him out to review. One Times critic that I do miss is the very even handed Janet Maslin, who wrote intelligently and thoughtfully about every film she ever reviewed, but never seemed to look down her nose at even the most formulaic of cinematic fodder. She wasn’t above giving a positive review of a Cheech and Chong film, for instance, which I would find shocking were it to appear in the Times today. I didn’t always agree with her opinions, but she always seemed to give a fair an honest appraisal – without affectation – no matter how common or complex the film in question was.
Thanks Al… I thought I saw “The Godfather, Part III” here on Christmas Day, 1990… but I was obviously mistaken. It must have been at the Loew’s Astor Plaza. I definitely saw “City Slickers”, “Interview with the Vampire”, “The Empire Strikes Back” (which was the special edition with re-vamped SFX) and “The Thin Red Line” here. Can’t be positive about anything else, but it is possible that this pretty much wraps it up for me and the Ziegfeld in the ‘90’s. I do believe I saw more films over at the Astor Plaza over the years than I did at the Ziegfeld, though it wasn’t until seeing this list that it occured to me. Al… I’d love to see an Astor Plaza list for the '70’s, '80’s and '90’s if you have it in you one of these days.
Forrest136… are you poking some fun at us here? Those 5 titles don’t exactly represent the cream of the roadshow musical crop! They might have their unique charms, I suppose (Julie Andrews' performance, Bob Fosse’s choreography, Astaire’s graceful presence) and one or two of them might have been unfairly maligned upon their initial release. Are you saying we give them another chance some 37 or 38 years later? Ha ha… Where’s “Paint Your Wagon” or “Hello Dolly” on the list? “Song of Norway” anyone? How about the attempted post-modern take on Cole Porter sophistication “At Long Last Love” that pretty much sank Peter Bogdonavich’s reputation?
Right. Warren… I can’t think of anyone better than yourself to add a listing for the original Rialto. Have you compiled enough information on the original theater to do so? Ross and Patrick will have to move the photo from the top of this page to the new one, should you decide to proceed.
An interesting article appeared in this past Sunday’s NY Times Real Estate section about the Rialto’s architect, Rosario Candela. Several photos accompany the article, including one long shot of the Rialto building. Here’s a passage regarding the theater:
<<In 1935, Anthony Campagna, one of Candela’s regular clients, brought in the $250,000 Rialto building, at the northwest corner of 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue. Candela abandoned the country-house Georgian style he had perfected with his luxury co-ops, adopting instead a flashy Art Moderne of chunky blue glass panels, rounded milky glass forms with strips of metal, and aluminum finlike assemblies that looked like engine cooling blocks.
That the New Yorker critic Lewis Mumford called it “unspeakable” probably hurt very little â€" in a year when the majority of new structures were one or two stories high, this was a plum project. The Reuters building is now on the site.>>
Imagine… $250,000 to construct the entire building! I wonder how that translates to 2006 dollars?
Here’s a link to the full article with photos (don’t know how long it will be active): View link
Curious that they would run such an ad by mistake. It’s not a listing but a small little block ad that lists each movie titles in its own font and style (“Pay or Die”, for instance, with each letter in an alternately angled square – like the old Cinerama logo). I drove past the theater Monday night and didn’t notice any alteration in the advertising on the marquee or display cases. It looks the same as in the photos I posted back on December 12th.
Vincent… Do I take it that no theater currently in NYC is equipped to show 30fps Todd AO? That’s sad, because, “Oklahoma!” would have made my suggestion list. As it stands, when I attend “West Side Story” this weekend, I will be listing the following films: “2001”, “Apocalypse Now”, “The Wild Bunch”, “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” (if they can get a hold of the print MGM struck for its showing in Seattle a couple of years back – with phony police radio calls during intermission), “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, “Spartacus” and the complete “Heaven’s Gate.”
Yes, CConnolly! The intermission for “The Towering Inferno” that I saw came at that point as well… Chamberlin is running down the stairwell and a blast of fire erupts from somewhere? I didn’t see the film at the Fantasy, but interestingly the intermission (clearly not intended by the filmmakers) came at the same point in the film. I wonder if it was just a convenient point in the film where there was a change in reels and the time seemed roughly half-way.
I’m trying to think of the last time I saw an intermission during a film presentation… I know when I saw “2001” in the ‘80’s (I can’t recall the theater) it was exhibited with intermission using a print that had the overture (more like mood music), entr'acte and exit music. I think it may have been the 8th Street Playhouse. There was also a showing of Sergio Leone’s complete “Once Upon a Time in America” at the Metro, which was presented with an intermission. I think these are the last two intermissions I can recall during a movie that I attended… and neither one was first run. As for first run, I’m trying to remember if Warren Beatty’s “Reds” was shown with intermission. I saw “Tess” and “Lion of the Desert” at the Century’s Green Acres Theater on their first runs. Both films were around the 3 hour mark and might have had intermissions. We’re talking about 1981 or '82. My memory is a bit fuzzy.
I wonder if Petrillo held any bitterness towards Eddie Deezen! Not that Deezen’s film career ever really “took off”, but his very Lewis-like persona led him from parts in movies like “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and “1941” to long term voice-over animation gigs such as his run on the very amusing “Dexter’s Laboratory” as Dexter’s nemesis, Mandark.
Those photos are remarkable, Mark W… and heartbreaking. Did you take them? How did they come to be posted on what appears to be the WCBS-FM website? This theater appears to be absolutely salvageable. Too bad the redevelopment of Coney Island that has been promised for decades seems to have stalled with the completion of the wonderful Brooklyn Cyclones' minor league ballpark a few years back. One thing this theater would have going for it should it be restored to use for, say, live performance is that there is ample parking down the road in the ballpark lot.
I think the programmers at the Ziegfeld are trying to balance showing “truly” classic films with booking newer (yet still worthy) films to attract a wider audience. They have 1100 seats to fill and this is, after all, a sort of trial run here. The admissions are seperate so the bean counters should be able to see whether the older fare or newer films drew the largest audiences. If showing the Rings movies and Gladiator brings in crowds and helps subsidize showings of “Ben-Hur” and “West Side Story” then I welcome it wholeheartedly.
All of your suggestions are good, andreco, so I hope you jot them down (or print your post out) and drop them off with theater management – who are evidently looking for ideas for future retrospectives. I for one am ecstatic at the opportunity to see “Raiders of the Lost Ark” on the big screen again.
As for intermissions… thanks for all the info and history from everyone. There wasn’t one at the original Ziegfeld engagement for “Apocalypse Now” in ‘79. I remember one that definitely seemed arbitrarily spliced in for “The Towering Inferno” where the screen literally just went dark prattically in mid-dialogue. I really wish they’d reinstate the practice for all films over 2 and ½ hours.
Anyone remember that truly awful flick “Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla” that featured third-rate M&L impersonators Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo? It’s amazing to me that Paramount didn’t sue… or did they? The movie was made for all of about $15 bucks and $5 of that went to secure Lugosi (in the last film he made before hooking up with Z-movie icon Ed Wood).
Astyanax… I can recall making that very run (for gloves) one cold winter’s evening when I attended a film at the Cinema I & II across Third Ave from Alexanders! And I remember when Saks and Gimbels were on Herald Square. Didn’t Saks become a Korvette’s at some point? I seem to recall they both became malls – but I don’t think the one that was in the former Gimbels building is still in existence.
I was in the neighborhood with my camera the other morning and snapped these photos of the old RKO Twin’s exterior.
Corner view
Head on view
I wonder how long this space will remain vacant before it is demolished or gutted for re-use. Aside from the lack of film titles on the marquee and empty display cases, the place looks like it is simply waiting in off hours for the doors to be opened for the next showing. I imagine the boards will go up over those windows before too long.
I had to postpone my “West Side Story” screening until Tuesday night. While it’s dissapointing to read the negative reports on the MFL print, I’m delighted and encouraged to learn that the WSS print is a sparkler. I look forward to Tuesday night’s screening and will keep my fingers crossed for next weekend’s “Ben-Hur” screening. Did they have anyone introduce the print on Saturday night? Glimpsing at the schedule, it appears they had some folks there to introduce the Godfather films and “Chinatown” last weekend.
The mall in the former Saks/Korvettes was Herald Center or something like that. Now that you mention it, I recall Toys ‘R’ Us being there a few years back. Which was the mall that had a glass front cafeteria or food court on the 3rd or 4th floor that faced Herald Square and looked across at the old Hotel Martinique (I think that was the name)?
I stopped by the theater with camera in tow the other morning and snapped these photos of the entrance and display cases. I had to poke my arm through security gates to snap the cases in the outer vestibule, but this is preferable to being chased off the premises by the manager and his security guard (see my post of September 6th). Anyway, looks like business as usual at the Fair:
Canopy and entrance
Canopy detail
Outer display case
Vestibule display
Coming Soon: 1974!
The last deluxe edition DVD box of “West Side Story” contains a booklet that includes reproductions of the instructions to roadshow projectionists as to how the film’s overture was to be presented. I recall reading detailed specifications as to exactly when during that opening montage of colors the curtains were to be open and how far the house lights should be brought down with each change of color.
I wonder if the Ziegfeld projectionist will be following these instructions this week. I’m planning on attending Sunday’s matinee, so I’m hoping the predicted snow storm doesn’t upset my plans. If not, I’ll take in an evening showing during the week.
Christina Marie beat me to it, but I took these photos of the former Palace just a day or two ago.
Full building profile
Entrance facade
Facade detail 1
Facade detail 2
I wonder what the original facade and entrance looked like when it was still in theatrical operation. I assume it was always a brick facade and imagine that the original wide entryway below the marquee was bricked over at some point and replaced with the new doorway and small windows seen in the 1st and 2nd photo. It’s also obvious there was never a balcony.
Does anyone know if the building served any other purpose between closing and its current use by the church?
Thanks nova, but no, it wasn’t the Calderone – I’ve been there. And it definitely wasn’t My Father’s Place – which was all on one level without balcony. Maybe it was the Cove. I guess they could have run some concerts around that time as perhaps the whole dinner-theater concept they had going under the Northstage Theater Restaurant name might have been declining in popularity. I’m still in contact with one of the guys I went to the show with… I’ll have to see if his memory is a bit clearer than mine on the subject.
I’m finding that my old ticketmaster and teletron computer printed stubs are fading away really bad! I have one or two that I can just barely make out the concert information. Pretty soon all that will be left is the boilerplate formatting. The old colored stubs that I purchased directly from the venue box offices are holding up quite well. And those terrifc unique-to-each-show “glitter” tickets that came from the Grateful Dead’s ticketing office look as good as they day they arrived in the mail! I remember asking ushers to carefully rip the stubs so as not to ruin the artwork – sometimes vainly, sometimes successfully.
I posted this on the Cove Theater site but figured I’d see if gets a response here:
There was a theater somewhere on the north shore where I saw the Greg Kihn Band and Marshall Crenshaw in 1982 (or thereabouts). It was definitely an old movie theater and obviously had stage facilities. They had removed all the seats from the orchestra level (at least in the front of the orchestra) while seating remained in the balcony. I remember that only people of drinking age (18 at the time) were allowed in the lower level, where alcohol was served. My two friends and I were only 16 or 17 so we were allowed only up in the balcony – but when the Kihn Band came out, we were able to sneak downstairs and get right up to the stage.
I seem to recall the place was up against an embankment and had a parking lot along its side and rear. The emankment might have been for a Long Island Rail Road trestle or perhaps an elevated road way such as the one for Route 25A as it goes through Roslyn. In fact, I thought it may have been a place called the Roslyn Theater, but I can find no such listing here. I was aware of the Northstage Theater Restaurant being in existence at the time – though I had never been there myself.
Can anyone from the area help me identify the theater? I remember a concert venue called My Father’s Place in Roslyn, but I believe that was converted from a bowling alley and I don’t recall ever being there. This place was an actual theater w/ balcony. Help?
There was a theater somewhere on the north shore where I saw the Greg Kihn Band and Marshall Crenshaw in 1982 (or thereabouts). It was definitely an old movie theater and obviously had stage facilities. They had removed all the seats from the orchestra level (at least in the front of the orchestra) while seating remained in the balcony. I remember that only people of drinking age (18 at the time) were allowed in the lower level, where alcohol was served. My two friends and I were only 16 or 17 so we were allowed only up in the balcony – but when the Kihn Band came out, we were able to sneak downstairs and get right up to the stage.
I seem to recall the place was up against an embankment and had a parking lot along its side and rear. The emankment might have been for a Long Island Rail Road trestle or perhaps an elevated road way such as the one for Route 25A as it goes through Roslyn. In fact, I thought it may have been a place called the Roslyn Theater, but I can find no such listing here. I was aware of the Northstage Theater Restaurant being in existence at the time – though I had never been there myself.
Can anyone from the area help me identify the theater? I remember a concert venue called My Father’s Place in Roslyn, but I believe that was converted from a bowling alley and I don’t recall ever being there. This place was an actual theater w/ balcony. Help?
Vincent… I never saw “Half a Sixpence” and I would say that “Sweet Charity” was definitely one of the better musicals of the late ‘60’s – a time when the big budget Hollywood musical started to wane – but I’d much rather see the original “Nights of Cabiria” by Fellini. But, overall, if I were to select a run of lavish musicals for a retrospective at the Ziegfeld, I don’t think I’d start with any of the films on Forrest136’s list! I don’t think “not as bad” is a good enough endorsement to make a case for booking (and then filling) a big 1,131-seat theater. What might be a better idea – although quite hard on the arse – would be to pair one of these underdogs with a more widely accepted classic on a single admission. Pair up “Wagon” behind, say, “Oklahoma!” and you might fill enough seats to make it worthwhile. “Sweet Charity” may be good enough to top a double bill, but the recent revival didn’t fare so well on Broadway. “Oliver!” would be a good choice to represent the late '60’s as would “Funny Girl.”
Clive Barnes has completely gone in the other direction, by the way – his critical teeth having been dulled by years of alcohol abuse. He just seems interested in seeing his name quoted on marquees and in newspaper ads these days, so he more often than not seems daffily delighted by every bit of nonsense they wheel him out to review. One Times critic that I do miss is the very even handed Janet Maslin, who wrote intelligently and thoughtfully about every film she ever reviewed, but never seemed to look down her nose at even the most formulaic of cinematic fodder. She wasn’t above giving a positive review of a Cheech and Chong film, for instance, which I would find shocking were it to appear in the Times today. I didn’t always agree with her opinions, but she always seemed to give a fair an honest appraisal – without affectation – no matter how common or complex the film in question was.
The Commodore (Fillmore East) was a Loews theater, not RKO.
Thanks Al… I thought I saw “The Godfather, Part III” here on Christmas Day, 1990… but I was obviously mistaken. It must have been at the Loew’s Astor Plaza. I definitely saw “City Slickers”, “Interview with the Vampire”, “The Empire Strikes Back” (which was the special edition with re-vamped SFX) and “The Thin Red Line” here. Can’t be positive about anything else, but it is possible that this pretty much wraps it up for me and the Ziegfeld in the ‘90’s. I do believe I saw more films over at the Astor Plaza over the years than I did at the Ziegfeld, though it wasn’t until seeing this list that it occured to me. Al… I’d love to see an Astor Plaza list for the '70’s, '80’s and '90’s if you have it in you one of these days.
Forrest136… are you poking some fun at us here? Those 5 titles don’t exactly represent the cream of the roadshow musical crop! They might have their unique charms, I suppose (Julie Andrews' performance, Bob Fosse’s choreography, Astaire’s graceful presence) and one or two of them might have been unfairly maligned upon their initial release. Are you saying we give them another chance some 37 or 38 years later? Ha ha… Where’s “Paint Your Wagon” or “Hello Dolly” on the list? “Song of Norway” anyone? How about the attempted post-modern take on Cole Porter sophistication “At Long Last Love” that pretty much sank Peter Bogdonavich’s reputation?
Right. Warren… I can’t think of anyone better than yourself to add a listing for the original Rialto. Have you compiled enough information on the original theater to do so? Ross and Patrick will have to move the photo from the top of this page to the new one, should you decide to proceed.
An interesting article appeared in this past Sunday’s NY Times Real Estate section about the Rialto’s architect, Rosario Candela. Several photos accompany the article, including one long shot of the Rialto building. Here’s a passage regarding the theater:
<<In 1935, Anthony Campagna, one of Candela’s regular clients, brought in the $250,000 Rialto building, at the northwest corner of 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue. Candela abandoned the country-house Georgian style he had perfected with his luxury co-ops, adopting instead a flashy Art Moderne of chunky blue glass panels, rounded milky glass forms with strips of metal, and aluminum finlike assemblies that looked like engine cooling blocks.
That the New Yorker critic Lewis Mumford called it “unspeakable” probably hurt very little â€" in a year when the majority of new structures were one or two stories high, this was a plum project. The Reuters building is now on the site.>>
Imagine… $250,000 to construct the entire building! I wonder how that translates to 2006 dollars?
Here’s a link to the full article with photos (don’t know how long it will be active): View link
Curious that they would run such an ad by mistake. It’s not a listing but a small little block ad that lists each movie titles in its own font and style (“Pay or Die”, for instance, with each letter in an alternately angled square – like the old Cinerama logo). I drove past the theater Monday night and didn’t notice any alteration in the advertising on the marquee or display cases. It looks the same as in the photos I posted back on December 12th.
Vincent… Do I take it that no theater currently in NYC is equipped to show 30fps Todd AO? That’s sad, because, “Oklahoma!” would have made my suggestion list. As it stands, when I attend “West Side Story” this weekend, I will be listing the following films: “2001”, “Apocalypse Now”, “The Wild Bunch”, “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” (if they can get a hold of the print MGM struck for its showing in Seattle a couple of years back – with phony police radio calls during intermission), “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, “Spartacus” and the complete “Heaven’s Gate.”
Yes, CConnolly! The intermission for “The Towering Inferno” that I saw came at that point as well… Chamberlin is running down the stairwell and a blast of fire erupts from somewhere? I didn’t see the film at the Fantasy, but interestingly the intermission (clearly not intended by the filmmakers) came at the same point in the film. I wonder if it was just a convenient point in the film where there was a change in reels and the time seemed roughly half-way.
I’m trying to think of the last time I saw an intermission during a film presentation… I know when I saw “2001” in the ‘80’s (I can’t recall the theater) it was exhibited with intermission using a print that had the overture (more like mood music), entr'acte and exit music. I think it may have been the 8th Street Playhouse. There was also a showing of Sergio Leone’s complete “Once Upon a Time in America” at the Metro, which was presented with an intermission. I think these are the last two intermissions I can recall during a movie that I attended… and neither one was first run. As for first run, I’m trying to remember if Warren Beatty’s “Reds” was shown with intermission. I saw “Tess” and “Lion of the Desert” at the Century’s Green Acres Theater on their first runs. Both films were around the 3 hour mark and might have had intermissions. We’re talking about 1981 or '82. My memory is a bit fuzzy.
May I ask how you gained entry, Mark? Or is that information classified?
I wonder if Petrillo held any bitterness towards Eddie Deezen! Not that Deezen’s film career ever really “took off”, but his very Lewis-like persona led him from parts in movies like “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and “1941” to long term voice-over animation gigs such as his run on the very amusing “Dexter’s Laboratory” as Dexter’s nemesis, Mandark.
Those photos are remarkable, Mark W… and heartbreaking. Did you take them? How did they come to be posted on what appears to be the WCBS-FM website? This theater appears to be absolutely salvageable. Too bad the redevelopment of Coney Island that has been promised for decades seems to have stalled with the completion of the wonderful Brooklyn Cyclones' minor league ballpark a few years back. One thing this theater would have going for it should it be restored to use for, say, live performance is that there is ample parking down the road in the ballpark lot.
I think the programmers at the Ziegfeld are trying to balance showing “truly” classic films with booking newer (yet still worthy) films to attract a wider audience. They have 1100 seats to fill and this is, after all, a sort of trial run here. The admissions are seperate so the bean counters should be able to see whether the older fare or newer films drew the largest audiences. If showing the Rings movies and Gladiator brings in crowds and helps subsidize showings of “Ben-Hur” and “West Side Story” then I welcome it wholeheartedly.
All of your suggestions are good, andreco, so I hope you jot them down (or print your post out) and drop them off with theater management – who are evidently looking for ideas for future retrospectives. I for one am ecstatic at the opportunity to see “Raiders of the Lost Ark” on the big screen again.
As for intermissions… thanks for all the info and history from everyone. There wasn’t one at the original Ziegfeld engagement for “Apocalypse Now” in ‘79. I remember one that definitely seemed arbitrarily spliced in for “The Towering Inferno” where the screen literally just went dark prattically in mid-dialogue. I really wish they’d reinstate the practice for all films over 2 and ½ hours.
Anyone remember that truly awful flick “Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla” that featured third-rate M&L impersonators Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo? It’s amazing to me that Paramount didn’t sue… or did they? The movie was made for all of about $15 bucks and $5 of that went to secure Lugosi (in the last film he made before hooking up with Z-movie icon Ed Wood).
Astyanax… I can recall making that very run (for gloves) one cold winter’s evening when I attended a film at the Cinema I & II across Third Ave from Alexanders! And I remember when Saks and Gimbels were on Herald Square. Didn’t Saks become a Korvette’s at some point? I seem to recall they both became malls – but I don’t think the one that was in the former Gimbels building is still in existence.