New Yorkers call it The Wintergarden. I would imagine all HELL would break loose if they dared to permanently change this theater’s name to just The Cadillac Theater. No one I know calls it that or even The Cadillac Wintergarden. Ugh.
The Abba musical “Mama Mia” has been playing to packed houses at The Wintergarden since around October 2002.
My Mother commented once that the most expensive movie she saw in her younger days was “The Best Years of Our Lives” which was a whopping $4.00 in it’s first release. She said the price was unheard of.
I know this isn’t the RCMH site, but after realizing that the Music Hall wasn’t really intended for films, isn’t it somewhat ironic that it’s now being used mostly for live performances?
From Frank S. Nugent’s 1939 NY Times review of “The Wizard of Oz”, it establishes that it opened at The Capitol:
“By courtesy of the wizards of Hollywood, The Wizard of Oz reached the Capitol’s screen yesterday as a delightful piece of wonder-working which had the youngsters' eyes shining and brought a quietly amused gleam to the wiser ones of the oldsters.”
Warren: You mention “Follies” and yes, it’s still one of the greatest musicals ever produced. It was somewhat dismissed by critics during it’s initial run (John Simon, critic of New York Magazine now admits this…) but it’s now considered a classic.
Not sure if anyone else has mentioned this but the concept of “Follies” was begun with the famous photograph of Gloria Swanson in the ruins of the Roxy.
The Millenium’s lobby is public space and it’s weird to walk right through there (it’s great on rainy days). Knowing this, I thought it might be easy to get access to the theater and was right. The day I was there, it looked like they were either setting up or dismantling some kind of conference. I got some “looks” but no one seemed to care (I was in a suit) and really, all I was doing was having a look/see. It was so accessible that I could’ve walked up and around the whole theater but I didn’t.
What you mention about how this theater has been re-adapted for use is exactly why I like it.
With regards to whether The Roxy or RCMH was “better”, let’s just leave it that one (The Roxy) is sadly gone and will be missed and the other (RCMH) is still with us and we should be grateful.
BUT….I will always go with what my Mother, born and raised in Manhattan in 1925, felt. The Roxy was better. She loved RCMH but had a soft spot for this great place. The Roxy and her vivid memories and descriptions of the place is what brought me to this great site in the first place.
Vincent wrote:
“The restored [Mary Poppings] film should have been shown with an abreviated Christmas show in November to launch the DVD. That way people would have been able to see the film as it was mean’t to be seen(they would have been stunned.) and there would have been enormous publicity for the Hall and the DVD.”
THAT is a great, grand idea. But the folks who run Disney and the Music Hall aren’t creative types interested in booking unique things. They want their $$$ and run with it.
We bought the Mary Poppins DVD for our children and they could not sit through the entire thing at home. I anticipated this because people don’t remember that the movie is a surprising two-hours and fifteen minutes long. When I saw this in the theaters (at Green Acres in Valley Stream) at the age of 8, I was in a captive audience meaning that I couldn’t just get up and walk out. So you’re kind of forced to sit through it and either get into it or not. And yep, I got into it BIG TIME. That’s the problem with DVD viewing at home, especially with young children. If and when they bored, they can simply get up and walk out and move onto something else.
Having seen this years Christmas show (read my comments above concerning this dismal thing..) it would’ve been truly awesome for my daughter to have seen “Mary Poppins” there. She, like I, would’ve been captive and would’ve LOVED it.
And if they had re-issued it at RCMH, I would’ve made it a point to take her to see it there. It’s one of the best musical films ever made.
Just reading some of the older posts about how friggin' long some of these movies played The Rivoli, movies must’ve played in theaters for years! I mean, you had “Oklahoma” there for 51 weeks and then it was released out to the smaller theaters. This was followed by “Around the World In 80 Days” which also played for a year! Amazing! Think of how these movies over lapped one another.
These days, a “hit” movie plays out in a month or so?
As Myron cites above, the Taft hotel is still there. Where the entrance was to the Roxy is now where the TGIFridays is.
My question to all of you Roxy people, was the ticket area to the Roxy very low and narrow? I seem to recall that my Mother told me that it was almost claustrophobic but it then opened up into a huge space. You have to wonder if it was intentionally done this way to create a sense of drama.
Also, if the Roxy used part of the Taft Hotel’s lobby for their box office/entrance, did they have to pay rent? Just curious…
Could be me but judging from where this theater is located, it’s the next Sunrise Multiplex. That theater was nice too for a few years and then it went all to Hell.
This sucker is still OPEN?!! This was a class act all the way. Yep, it was small but it was very, very well maintained and they always had great art house stuff. I saw “A Room with a View” and “Babette’s Feast” here in the 80’s. Great place and I’m glad to hear that it’s still open.
PeterApruzzese: thanks for the info. I wish I could remember the source of the Kubrick story.
As for cleaning of the screens, some multiplexes ought to do it more often especially the Loews Palisades Center. I’m getting sick and tired of a movie’s image being marred by some of the giant smears that I see on some of their screens.
The video (VHS and DVD) is available in Japan as well.
I had heard a rumor years ago that the “Little Rascals” series was also shelved because it was deemed racist. Ok…yeah…there were scenes that were…questionable such as Buckwheats wiping his sweaty brow and showing the wall getting splattered with brown/black coloring. Or when they all pretended they had the measles and they pained Buckwheat’s face with white dots.
But then it started showing up on American Movie Classics on Saturday mornings. And what I found interesting is how EQUAL the black kids were treated on the show to the point that they often got the better of the white folks.
Question for the theater professionals on this site (and forgive me for asking if it seems like a stupid question) but what, in general, were or are movie theater screens made of? Additionally, how do theaters clean them (or should I say, should clean them…some theaters these days don’t look like they ever do!).
I either read about this (maybe on this site) or heard about it in a documentary that Stanley Kubrick wanted a theaters wall (where the movie was projected) painted black for “A Clockwork Orange” but that the theater made a mistake and painted it a different color. Anyone know that story and what color they actually painted it? And how many theaters simply projected onto a wall?
Nice, decent sized single screener that was converted into a double sometime in the late 70’s, early 80’s. I saw “Foul Play” and “Oh, God” when it was a single as well as “Annie Hall”. As a double, I saw “A Christmas Story” and “The Dead Zone”. It was in a nice area and the theater was well maintained.
I’ve E-Mailed the NY Times to see if they can/will write an article about the theater. I don’t know if it will happen. They wrote an article AFTER The Guild closed (WOW! THAT HELPED! THANKS!) but let’s see if they can write something now that can get people moving. If people, especially New Yorkers, are not made aware of it’s closing, they cannot do anything about it.
Allen’s a passionate New Yorker…or so he makes it seem. It might be time for him to actually demonstrate it. He can (hopefully) can other, more influential New Yorkers involved.
Jackie Onsassis (Kennedy) REALLY knew how to get people moving on a subject like this. It’s too bad there’s no one around with her passion.
Outstanding for Mr. Lumenick for at least writing an article about this. There definately is a way for the hospital to incorporate this theater into it’s design.
What are we to do now? We can’t just sit at our PC’s and simply type our laments.
And as Mr. Lumenick points out, what about Woody Allen? Time for him to get involved.
Anyone have any borderline militant ideas about how to save this? Form a human chain? A sit in?
Well….I was there in 1999 to see “Unbreakable” and it was one of the worst experiences I ever had at any theater. The theater I saw it in (not one of the four main ones…it was in the newer area) was in horrible condition…broken seats, wet, sticky floors, you name it.
But one bad experience doesn’t mean the place has gone all to hell. The last two times I’ve been there, it was a lot better than I remebered it. Yes, rough around the edges (especially the concession stand) but still decent enough.
Ron Newman:
New Yorkers call it The Wintergarden. I would imagine all HELL would break loose if they dared to permanently change this theater’s name to just The Cadillac Theater. No one I know calls it that or even The Cadillac Wintergarden. Ugh.
The Abba musical “Mama Mia” has been playing to packed houses at The Wintergarden since around October 2002.
My Mother commented once that the most expensive movie she saw in her younger days was “The Best Years of Our Lives” which was a whopping $4.00 in it’s first release. She said the price was unheard of.
I know this isn’t the RCMH site, but after realizing that the Music Hall wasn’t really intended for films, isn’t it somewhat ironic that it’s now being used mostly for live performances?
From Frank S. Nugent’s 1939 NY Times review of “The Wizard of Oz”, it establishes that it opened at The Capitol:
“By courtesy of the wizards of Hollywood, The Wizard of Oz reached the Capitol’s screen yesterday as a delightful piece of wonder-working which had the youngsters' eyes shining and brought a quietly amused gleam to the wiser ones of the oldsters.”
Warren: You mention “Follies” and yes, it’s still one of the greatest musicals ever produced. It was somewhat dismissed by critics during it’s initial run (John Simon, critic of New York Magazine now admits this…) but it’s now considered a classic.
Not sure if anyone else has mentioned this but the concept of “Follies” was begun with the famous photograph of Gloria Swanson in the ruins of the Roxy.
Benjamin: Glad I inspired you to take a tour.
The Millenium’s lobby is public space and it’s weird to walk right through there (it’s great on rainy days). Knowing this, I thought it might be easy to get access to the theater and was right. The day I was there, it looked like they were either setting up or dismantling some kind of conference. I got some “looks” but no one seemed to care (I was in a suit) and really, all I was doing was having a look/see. It was so accessible that I could’ve walked up and around the whole theater but I didn’t.
What you mention about how this theater has been re-adapted for use is exactly why I like it.
You went to see “Dressed to Kill” WITH YOUR PARENTS! Oh My God…that is one of the last movies I’d EVER want to see with my folks.
Sorry…I know this has nothing to do with Cinematreasures. But still!
Fascinating discussion above. Loved reading it.
With regards to whether The Roxy or RCMH was “better”, let’s just leave it that one (The Roxy) is sadly gone and will be missed and the other (RCMH) is still with us and we should be grateful.
BUT….I will always go with what my Mother, born and raised in Manhattan in 1925, felt. The Roxy was better. She loved RCMH but had a soft spot for this great place. The Roxy and her vivid memories and descriptions of the place is what brought me to this great site in the first place.
I get the funny feeling that this one is already listed. There’s at least two other theaters for Plainview on this site.
Vincent wrote:
“The restored [Mary Poppings] film should have been shown with an abreviated Christmas show in November to launch the DVD. That way people would have been able to see the film as it was mean’t to be seen(they would have been stunned.) and there would have been enormous publicity for the Hall and the DVD.”
THAT is a great, grand idea. But the folks who run Disney and the Music Hall aren’t creative types interested in booking unique things. They want their $$$ and run with it.
We bought the Mary Poppins DVD for our children and they could not sit through the entire thing at home. I anticipated this because people don’t remember that the movie is a surprising two-hours and fifteen minutes long. When I saw this in the theaters (at Green Acres in Valley Stream) at the age of 8, I was in a captive audience meaning that I couldn’t just get up and walk out. So you’re kind of forced to sit through it and either get into it or not. And yep, I got into it BIG TIME. That’s the problem with DVD viewing at home, especially with young children. If and when they bored, they can simply get up and walk out and move onto something else.
Having seen this years Christmas show (read my comments above concerning this dismal thing..) it would’ve been truly awesome for my daughter to have seen “Mary Poppins” there. She, like I, would’ve been captive and would’ve LOVED it.
And if they had re-issued it at RCMH, I would’ve made it a point to take her to see it there. It’s one of the best musical films ever made.
When did this close and when was it demolished?
Anyone know anything about the Paramus drive in? It’s not listed on this site as far as I know…
Just reading some of the older posts about how friggin' long some of these movies played The Rivoli, movies must’ve played in theaters for years! I mean, you had “Oklahoma” there for 51 weeks and then it was released out to the smaller theaters. This was followed by “Around the World In 80 Days” which also played for a year! Amazing! Think of how these movies over lapped one another.
These days, a “hit” movie plays out in a month or so?
As Myron cites above, the Taft hotel is still there. Where the entrance was to the Roxy is now where the TGIFridays is.
My question to all of you Roxy people, was the ticket area to the Roxy very low and narrow? I seem to recall that my Mother told me that it was almost claustrophobic but it then opened up into a huge space. You have to wonder if it was intentionally done this way to create a sense of drama.
Also, if the Roxy used part of the Taft Hotel’s lobby for their box office/entrance, did they have to pay rent? Just curious…
Could be me but judging from where this theater is located, it’s the next Sunrise Multiplex. That theater was nice too for a few years and then it went all to Hell.
This sucker is still OPEN?!! This was a class act all the way. Yep, it was small but it was very, very well maintained and they always had great art house stuff. I saw “A Room with a View” and “Babette’s Feast” here in the 80’s. Great place and I’m glad to hear that it’s still open.
PeterApruzzese: thanks for the info. I wish I could remember the source of the Kubrick story.
As for cleaning of the screens, some multiplexes ought to do it more often especially the Loews Palisades Center. I’m getting sick and tired of a movie’s image being marred by some of the giant smears that I see on some of their screens.
The video (VHS and DVD) is available in Japan as well.
I had heard a rumor years ago that the “Little Rascals” series was also shelved because it was deemed racist. Ok…yeah…there were scenes that were…questionable such as Buckwheats wiping his sweaty brow and showing the wall getting splattered with brown/black coloring. Or when they all pretended they had the measles and they pained Buckwheat’s face with white dots.
But then it started showing up on American Movie Classics on Saturday mornings. And what I found interesting is how EQUAL the black kids were treated on the show to the point that they often got the better of the white folks.
And the show was pretty funny too.
Question for the theater professionals on this site (and forgive me for asking if it seems like a stupid question) but what, in general, were or are movie theater screens made of? Additionally, how do theaters clean them (or should I say, should clean them…some theaters these days don’t look like they ever do!).
I either read about this (maybe on this site) or heard about it in a documentary that Stanley Kubrick wanted a theaters wall (where the movie was projected) painted black for “A Clockwork Orange” but that the theater made a mistake and painted it a different color. Anyone know that story and what color they actually painted it? And how many theaters simply projected onto a wall?
Thanks!
Nice, decent sized single screener that was converted into a double sometime in the late 70’s, early 80’s. I saw “Foul Play” and “Oh, God” when it was a single as well as “Annie Hall”. As a double, I saw “A Christmas Story” and “The Dead Zone”. It was in a nice area and the theater was well maintained.
And what about the Tower East? Can anyone find out if that one’s set to close when it’s lease is up?
True, true…but maybe, just maybe the tone of the article can be more about stopping it’s demise. We’ll see. It’s worth a shot.
I’ve E-Mailed the NY Times to see if they can/will write an article about the theater. I don’t know if it will happen. They wrote an article AFTER The Guild closed (WOW! THAT HELPED! THANKS!) but let’s see if they can write something now that can get people moving. If people, especially New Yorkers, are not made aware of it’s closing, they cannot do anything about it.
Allen’s a passionate New Yorker…or so he makes it seem. It might be time for him to actually demonstrate it. He can (hopefully) can other, more influential New Yorkers involved.
Jackie Onsassis (Kennedy) REALLY knew how to get people moving on a subject like this. It’s too bad there’s no one around with her passion.
Outstanding for Mr. Lumenick for at least writing an article about this. There definately is a way for the hospital to incorporate this theater into it’s design.
What are we to do now? We can’t just sit at our PC’s and simply type our laments.
And as Mr. Lumenick points out, what about Woody Allen? Time for him to get involved.
Anyone have any borderline militant ideas about how to save this? Form a human chain? A sit in?
Well….I was there in 1999 to see “Unbreakable” and it was one of the worst experiences I ever had at any theater. The theater I saw it in (not one of the four main ones…it was in the newer area) was in horrible condition…broken seats, wet, sticky floors, you name it.
But one bad experience doesn’t mean the place has gone all to hell. The last two times I’ve been there, it was a lot better than I remebered it. Yes, rough around the edges (especially the concession stand) but still decent enough.