RCDTJ, has always we will look forward to your posts regarding the Christmas show. Anything new this year? I suppose the only thing the booth will be used for is the 70mm 3-D opening.
PLease don’t be shy, keep us up to date Thank you.
Thanks Bill, I have been spending a lot of time in Hawaii, where I spent so many years. It was sad to see all of the theatres I worked at and loved in Hawaii are all gone.
1937 huh, well I was a bit too young to have gone to the State back then.Pictures like that show what we missed.
Well goddbye ole friend, The end is inevetable.
Folks just don’t care about preserving treasures like this one anymore. I suppose California folks can feel lucky the theatre lasted this long. If it had been in NY it wold hawve been torn down years ago. We have lost almost all of great theatres here.
I still recall the day when Fred Astare came in and sat two rows in front of me. :)
dangel, It would be very kind of you to take the time to post those links. I am sutre it will be of great interest and enjoyment to read the articles. I spent a great deal of time in the Pramount and the articles are sure to conjure up wonderful old memories.
When I worked the lane in the 50s and 60s we had a lot next door and street parking was free. For some I guess the SIRT would be an option, but New Dorp lane parking is not so easy anymore. But then of course whst is.
garth, As I mentioned in another post, it would be a good idea to introduce the new owner to Cinema Treasures. Fill him in on what we are about. Perhaps he would log on, read this thread, and perhaps contribute. We would love to hear what his plans are for the theatre.
As to the pit, we tried in vain to get it up and running it was in desperate state of disrepair. The stage is in much beter shape, other than the main curtain which was removed in the 80s, much of the rigging was still operational. Only the floor concerns me, due to the rain faling down on the wood surface it will need to be replaced.
My other concern would be, as you mentioned, the parking. That will be a problem. An upscale club would be nice, but if the club were better run than the last two were it has a shot. In fact the club that operated in the early 80s was very successful, one of the best dance clubs on the island. unfortunatly the folks running it began allowing bad things to occur, drug sales etc and then as I understand began having problems with paying their taxes. The tax thing is what I am told I have no positive evidence of that. but the drugs were definatly an issue. I even went so far as to scold Steckman, who owned the building at the time, for not keeping closer tabs on his tennant.
Please try and convince the new owners that we wont bite and he should stop by and tell us a bt of his plans.
They tried the dance club idea befoe and with not much success.
I hope it will be more of an upscale venue this time.
In addition to the new floor in the main auditorium they will need to replace the entire floor of the stage. When last I stood on it I felt an errie creaking sound and felt like it was going to give way. Lots of water damage to the stage floor befoe the roof was repaired.
I wonder if they will make use of the orchestra pit.
My thoughts and prayers to the family of Mrs. Rosemary
I had the pleasure of meeting her when she first took over the St George; I had been working on projection and stage portion of the restoration with the previous owners. I was struck by her warm personality and absolute love of the dance. She was excited about the possibilities the theatre had to offer, and I new immediately she was going to do right by the theatre and would be successful in resorting it and not fail as others had. All who knew of her commitment to save the St George would agree that it could never have been done without her total dedication and love for this wonderful old theatre. She fought and won so many battles in getting the theater restored. Her patience was tested many times but she fought all the pitfalls that were thrown at her and persevered to restore this great theatre.
Staten Islanders and movie palaces lovers from all over should rejoice in her life and the wonderful job she and her daughters did to save the St George.
Sorry garth I can not figure out what door is being used to deliver concrete. I wish I were on SI so I might go there and look into that. Perhaps you might ask to speak to a supervisor at the site and explain that you are doing research for a report you are doing for Cinema Treasures and would appreciate any information you might acquire. Ask nicely and perhaps you might get lucky and speak with someone who likes to talk. I world imagine the folks behind this project are very proud of what they are doing and world be anxious to share information.
I would encourage all that post here to get to the theater and see what you can find out as Cinema treasures “reporters"
I understand this project is being called a restoration, however, during the time I spent volunteering at the St George during the restoration there, we often visited the Paramount, and as I have reported here before what we found was there was nothing really left of what was the Paramount. It will be a difficult task to restore with so little left to actually restore. Perhaps we could call it a recreation of the theatre. And that ain’t bad.
The landmarking will of course be a giant step; for one thing the Art Deco Facade which is the cornerstone for the argument for the land marking must be preserved. Does anyone know if the theatre façade has been given exterior landmark designation? My understanding is that the auditorium is not being considered for landmarking. Most of the space was altered or removed by previous, let’s call them tenants, you can still see the original design on the ceiling and I imagine can be restored. In addition there was still some plaster made designs around the stage, I wonder if those still remain.
I am of course thrilled by the prospect of the return of this once grand theatre, but having seen first hand what it looks like now I can only say it will b an enormous undertaking
A new floor would make sense and would also be needed. The original floor had a slope that the new owners may not want. In addition, the old floor was ruined by previous tenanats when all the remaing seats were crudly removed by sledge hammers. The floor sufferd a lot of damage.
We did not have to add the intermission into Reds, Paramount had built one in to the movie. Until recently Reds was one of, if not the last one to carry an Intermission. In cases where an intermission was not built in to the movie, care was taken not to interrupt the action or interfere with the story line. Any time there was a fade out fade in, (remember those?) and it was somewhere near the middle of the movie. that of course was gold and that was where the break was inserted.
taco you mentioned thr intermission in Towering Inferno.
As most of you know that picture did not have a built in intermission. It was a regular practice of Consolidated to add an intermission to pictures playing at the Cinerama. it ws a throw back to the hard ticket days.
Generally when a picture had a lengthy running time
(Inferno was 165 mins) the print would be run in the home office screening room and a proper spot was choosen to add an intermission It was a simple intermission snipe which was cut into the print. we did that with many movies during the 70s and 80s. As the projectionist during the time you attended many of those great pictures I must have been in the booth during may of your visits. I left the Cinerama to go into Consolidated’s sight and sound department in 1980
Just a comment abut NA
It was written somewhere that when NA began the restructuring of the theatre division that all the DMs were fired. This was not the case.
Although the District Offices were all closed, the DMs and their Secretaries were offered two options.
Most of the DMs, who are friends of mine, chose to take the new position of City Manager that was offered to them, while a couple of them took a very generous severange package. VERY GENEROUS!
The secretaries were all offered alternative positions or they could also take a severence package. It was true to NAs style of loyality to their employees.
My information is that Current plans are to sell 54 US theatres and 20 cinemas in the UK. Not for sale is a group of 17 theatres in the northeast of the US, which Shari Redstone intends to keep.
Sad story abou the mirrors. Steckman told man the madmen who had leased the theatre in the 80s as a nightclub had removed and destroyed them and painted the area with black paint.
Another sad story involves the original blue travelor curtain.
When I asked what happened to it I was told that during one of those live rock shows the “artists” got irrated whern no one opened the curtain as they were about to “perform” and they simply tore it down and threw it into the howling savages attending the show. It was later descarded with the garbage.
It is great to hear someone has shown interest in restoring this wonderful theatre. So little of the theatre is still intact, it will nbe a long process to be sure. I thought the stage and balcony had been completly demolished,and was glad to hear they were not. Last time I went into the theater which was a few yers back, when I was assisting in the St George resuration, the stage wqs badly damaged by water but the balcony was intact including all the original seats.
Much good luck and please keep us updated.
I believe they tried that once.
The Lane never had a stage but I think a few years back someone built a small one in front of the original screen area.
Since movies are dead there I would like to see the theatre used as a comedy club.
My goodness where to begin.
Going back to my early days, the theatre I started in would change shows three times a week and they were double features, with a matinee every day followed by two evening shows. I watched an average of 6 pictures a week. Standing at the port with the monitor turned up is how I saw most of the movies in those days. But only once for each movie, I rarely watched anything twice. The bigger hit pictures would usually play as single features (with shorts) and run a week to 10 days.
With the longer pictures running over three hours, instead of matinee evening split we ran continuous (grind) every day. I recall that happening with “Giantâ€,â€Ten Commandments†and “war and Peace†to name a few.
I rarely sat in the theatre to watch a picture; it was always from the booth. The only time I watched a picture from a theatre seat was with 3-D or a musical with Stereo sound picture cause that you had to experience those from a theatre seat.
Later when we started running Road Shows, two men were assigned to the booth, so when my projector was not running I could sneak off to a balcony seat to enjoy for 10 minutes or so at a time. Of course when we opened a new picture there was always one or two a technical rehearsals (dry runs) and we could always take turns watching bits of the film from a theatre seat. With the big 70mm pictures I would attend a show on an off day to enjoy it.
Now since I retired I see a lot of pictures at screenings. I almost never o to a theatre anymore.
Those exhibitor screenings are always full of retired folks.
It has to be difficult to watch movies theses days with so many screens to attend to. I doubt there is much time to enjoy a movie while working. You do a lot of running around theses days with many theatres having multable booths. I recall when I needed a projectionist for the City Center 15 cinema in White Plains I contacted the union Local 306 and they stent me a wonderful projectionist who goes here by the name of movie 534. After I interviewed him I said “ listen,let me have one of my people take you in a tour of the building, see the many booths (4) you will have to operate, and if after that you still want the job, it’s yoursâ€
I liked the guy, he had worked previously for me at Amboy, and thought after he saw what he was getting himself into and still wanted the job he was my guy.
PS, he took the job.
As a projectionist you were the magic maker, but your domain was not always that magical. We were often all alone in your little room with only an occasional mouse to keep you company. We did not eat healthy stuck in the booth for hours and hours, ate a lot of sandwiches and fast foods. We also drank a lot of coffee; every booth had a coffee pot and a hot plate. The lucky ones had a small fridge.
But, it was the most rewarding job I could have had, when you heard the people laughing and applauding it gave you a sense of great joy having contributed to that. A great thrill was when you knew a scene was coming up that would bring down the house with laughs it was fun to lift up the port glass and almost orchestrate those laughs.
Another thrill came from sneaking out to the top of the balcony to watch “Officer Krupke†or “cool†from “West Side Story†and “There is Nothin' Like a Dame” or “Bali Ha'i” from “South Pacific†over and over again. I get goose bumps just thinking about it.
Thanks Jeff, striper is what it is called. it’s that little bugger on the intermittent sprocket that causes those rain scratchs in the middle of the frame when the loop is too big. If the boys at the Ziegfeld (and I doubt they are) have that phantom scratch problem they might try making the lower loop exactly the right size. The loop should not go beyond the round oil site on the movement when it is in the rest position. This will keep the film from slapping up against that stripper. Once I learned that my scratch problem disapeared.
Sorry to hear about your sprocket stripper experience, that must have been messy. Anyone who has tried to remove film wrapped around a sprocket knows the horror of that.
Bill, yes indead I saw both films at the Roxy. I was working for Fox at the time and often attended the Roxy as guests of management.
Jeff, the scratch was a result of the lower loop being made to big causing the print to bounce up against the intermittent sprocket protector (not what it as called) which was a small piece of metal mounted parallel to the center of the intermittent sprocket to prevent the film from wraping around the sprocket in a film break.
Because of the pull movement of the intermittent the scratch always appeared in the same spot. Hope that’s clear.
Thanks oldjoe, Even that troublesome bus huh
RCDTJ, has always we will look forward to your posts regarding the Christmas show. Anything new this year? I suppose the only thing the booth will be used for is the 70mm 3-D opening.
PLease don’t be shy, keep us up to date Thank you.
Thanks Bill, I have been spending a lot of time in Hawaii, where I spent so many years. It was sad to see all of the theatres I worked at and loved in Hawaii are all gone.
1937 huh, well I was a bit too young to have gone to the State back then.Pictures like that show what we missed.
I do not know the year perhaps some else does, Warren?
On stage Vaudevile and Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra
On screen Jack Benny “Artists and Models”
View link
The Paramount was the first theatre on Staten island theatre to install Cinemascope.
View link
Well goddbye ole friend, The end is inevetable.
Folks just don’t care about preserving treasures like this one anymore. I suppose California folks can feel lucky the theatre lasted this long. If it had been in NY it wold hawve been torn down years ago. We have lost almost all of great theatres here.
I still recall the day when Fred Astare came in and sat two rows in front of me. :)
dangel, It would be very kind of you to take the time to post those links. I am sutre it will be of great interest and enjoyment to read the articles. I spent a great deal of time in the Pramount and the articles are sure to conjure up wonderful old memories.
Danger I am sure we all would all love to see those SI advance articles. Any thoughts on how we might see them?
When I worked the lane in the 50s and 60s we had a lot next door and street parking was free. For some I guess the SIRT would be an option, but New Dorp lane parking is not so easy anymore. But then of course whst is.
garth, As I mentioned in another post, it would be a good idea to introduce the new owner to Cinema Treasures. Fill him in on what we are about. Perhaps he would log on, read this thread, and perhaps contribute. We would love to hear what his plans are for the theatre.
As to the pit, we tried in vain to get it up and running it was in desperate state of disrepair. The stage is in much beter shape, other than the main curtain which was removed in the 80s, much of the rigging was still operational. Only the floor concerns me, due to the rain faling down on the wood surface it will need to be replaced.
My other concern would be, as you mentioned, the parking. That will be a problem. An upscale club would be nice, but if the club were better run than the last two were it has a shot. In fact the club that operated in the early 80s was very successful, one of the best dance clubs on the island. unfortunatly the folks running it began allowing bad things to occur, drug sales etc and then as I understand began having problems with paying their taxes. The tax thing is what I am told I have no positive evidence of that. but the drugs were definatly an issue. I even went so far as to scold Steckman, who owned the building at the time, for not keeping closer tabs on his tennant.
Please try and convince the new owners that we wont bite and he should stop by and tell us a bt of his plans.
They tried the dance club idea befoe and with not much success.
I hope it will be more of an upscale venue this time.
In addition to the new floor in the main auditorium they will need to replace the entire floor of the stage. When last I stood on it I felt an errie creaking sound and felt like it was going to give way. Lots of water damage to the stage floor befoe the roof was repaired.
I wonder if they will make use of the orchestra pit.
My thoughts and prayers to the family of Mrs. Rosemary
I had the pleasure of meeting her when she first took over the St George; I had been working on projection and stage portion of the restoration with the previous owners. I was struck by her warm personality and absolute love of the dance. She was excited about the possibilities the theatre had to offer, and I new immediately she was going to do right by the theatre and would be successful in resorting it and not fail as others had. All who knew of her commitment to save the St George would agree that it could never have been done without her total dedication and love for this wonderful old theatre. She fought and won so many battles in getting the theater restored. Her patience was tested many times but she fought all the pitfalls that were thrown at her and persevered to restore this great theatre.
Staten Islanders and movie palaces lovers from all over should rejoice in her life and the wonderful job she and her daughters did to save the St George.
Rest in peace Mrs. Rosemary
Sorry garth I can not figure out what door is being used to deliver concrete. I wish I were on SI so I might go there and look into that. Perhaps you might ask to speak to a supervisor at the site and explain that you are doing research for a report you are doing for Cinema Treasures and would appreciate any information you might acquire. Ask nicely and perhaps you might get lucky and speak with someone who likes to talk. I world imagine the folks behind this project are very proud of what they are doing and world be anxious to share information.
I would encourage all that post here to get to the theater and see what you can find out as Cinema treasures “reporters"
I understand this project is being called a restoration, however, during the time I spent volunteering at the St George during the restoration there, we often visited the Paramount, and as I have reported here before what we found was there was nothing really left of what was the Paramount. It will be a difficult task to restore with so little left to actually restore. Perhaps we could call it a recreation of the theatre. And that ain’t bad.
The landmarking will of course be a giant step; for one thing the Art Deco Facade which is the cornerstone for the argument for the land marking must be preserved. Does anyone know if the theatre façade has been given exterior landmark designation? My understanding is that the auditorium is not being considered for landmarking. Most of the space was altered or removed by previous, let’s call them tenants, you can still see the original design on the ceiling and I imagine can be restored. In addition there was still some plaster made designs around the stage, I wonder if those still remain.
I am of course thrilled by the prospect of the return of this once grand theatre, but having seen first hand what it looks like now I can only say it will b an enormous undertaking
A new floor would make sense and would also be needed. The original floor had a slope that the new owners may not want. In addition, the old floor was ruined by previous tenanats when all the remaing seats were crudly removed by sledge hammers. The floor sufferd a lot of damage.
We did not have to add the intermission into Reds, Paramount had built one in to the movie. Until recently Reds was one of, if not the last one to carry an Intermission. In cases where an intermission was not built in to the movie, care was taken not to interrupt the action or interfere with the story line. Any time there was a fade out fade in, (remember those?) and it was somewhere near the middle of the movie. that of course was gold and that was where the break was inserted.
Great to hear the buliding is going to be put to good use. Please let us know what is involved in the renovation.How will the space be modified etc.
taco you mentioned thr intermission in Towering Inferno.
As most of you know that picture did not have a built in intermission. It was a regular practice of Consolidated to add an intermission to pictures playing at the Cinerama. it ws a throw back to the hard ticket days.
Generally when a picture had a lengthy running time
(Inferno was 165 mins) the print would be run in the home office screening room and a proper spot was choosen to add an intermission It was a simple intermission snipe which was cut into the print. we did that with many movies during the 70s and 80s. As the projectionist during the time you attended many of those great pictures I must have been in the booth during may of your visits. I left the Cinerama to go into Consolidated’s sight and sound department in 1980
Just a comment abut NA
It was written somewhere that when NA began the restructuring of the theatre division that all the DMs were fired. This was not the case.
Although the District Offices were all closed, the DMs and their Secretaries were offered two options.
Most of the DMs, who are friends of mine, chose to take the new position of City Manager that was offered to them, while a couple of them took a very generous severange package. VERY GENEROUS!
The secretaries were all offered alternative positions or they could also take a severence package. It was true to NAs style of loyality to their employees.
My information is that Current plans are to sell 54 US theatres and 20 cinemas in the UK. Not for sale is a group of 17 theatres in the northeast of the US, which Shari Redstone intends to keep.
Sad story abou the mirrors. Steckman told man the madmen who had leased the theatre in the 80s as a nightclub had removed and destroyed them and painted the area with black paint.
Another sad story involves the original blue travelor curtain.
When I asked what happened to it I was told that during one of those live rock shows the “artists” got irrated whern no one opened the curtain as they were about to “perform” and they simply tore it down and threw it into the howling savages attending the show. It was later descarded with the garbage.
It is great to hear someone has shown interest in restoring this wonderful theatre. So little of the theatre is still intact, it will nbe a long process to be sure. I thought the stage and balcony had been completly demolished,and was glad to hear they were not. Last time I went into the theater which was a few yers back, when I was assisting in the St George resuration, the stage wqs badly damaged by water but the balcony was intact including all the original seats.
Much good luck and please keep us updated.
I believe they tried that once.
The Lane never had a stage but I think a few years back someone built a small one in front of the original screen area.
Since movies are dead there I would like to see the theatre used as a comedy club.
Bob, Thanks for that. It was an intresting and fun time.
It’s fun to relive some of my war stories :)
My goodness where to begin.
Going back to my early days, the theatre I started in would change shows three times a week and they were double features, with a matinee every day followed by two evening shows. I watched an average of 6 pictures a week. Standing at the port with the monitor turned up is how I saw most of the movies in those days. But only once for each movie, I rarely watched anything twice. The bigger hit pictures would usually play as single features (with shorts) and run a week to 10 days.
With the longer pictures running over three hours, instead of matinee evening split we ran continuous (grind) every day. I recall that happening with “Giantâ€,â€Ten Commandments†and “war and Peace†to name a few.
I rarely sat in the theatre to watch a picture; it was always from the booth. The only time I watched a picture from a theatre seat was with 3-D or a musical with Stereo sound picture cause that you had to experience those from a theatre seat.
Later when we started running Road Shows, two men were assigned to the booth, so when my projector was not running I could sneak off to a balcony seat to enjoy for 10 minutes or so at a time. Of course when we opened a new picture there was always one or two a technical rehearsals (dry runs) and we could always take turns watching bits of the film from a theatre seat. With the big 70mm pictures I would attend a show on an off day to enjoy it.
Now since I retired I see a lot of pictures at screenings. I almost never o to a theatre anymore.
Those exhibitor screenings are always full of retired folks.
It has to be difficult to watch movies theses days with so many screens to attend to. I doubt there is much time to enjoy a movie while working. You do a lot of running around theses days with many theatres having multable booths. I recall when I needed a projectionist for the City Center 15 cinema in White Plains I contacted the union Local 306 and they stent me a wonderful projectionist who goes here by the name of movie 534. After I interviewed him I said “ listen,let me have one of my people take you in a tour of the building, see the many booths (4) you will have to operate, and if after that you still want the job, it’s yoursâ€
I liked the guy, he had worked previously for me at Amboy, and thought after he saw what he was getting himself into and still wanted the job he was my guy.
PS, he took the job.
As a projectionist you were the magic maker, but your domain was not always that magical. We were often all alone in your little room with only an occasional mouse to keep you company. We did not eat healthy stuck in the booth for hours and hours, ate a lot of sandwiches and fast foods. We also drank a lot of coffee; every booth had a coffee pot and a hot plate. The lucky ones had a small fridge.
But, it was the most rewarding job I could have had, when you heard the people laughing and applauding it gave you a sense of great joy having contributed to that. A great thrill was when you knew a scene was coming up that would bring down the house with laughs it was fun to lift up the port glass and almost orchestrate those laughs.
Another thrill came from sneaking out to the top of the balcony to watch “Officer Krupke†or “cool†from “West Side Story†and “There is Nothin' Like a Dame” or “Bali Ha'i” from “South Pacific†over and over again. I get goose bumps just thinking about it.
Thanks Jeff, striper is what it is called. it’s that little bugger on the intermittent sprocket that causes those rain scratchs in the middle of the frame when the loop is too big. If the boys at the Ziegfeld (and I doubt they are) have that phantom scratch problem they might try making the lower loop exactly the right size. The loop should not go beyond the round oil site on the movement when it is in the rest position. This will keep the film from slapping up against that stripper. Once I learned that my scratch problem disapeared.
Sorry to hear about your sprocket stripper experience, that must have been messy. Anyone who has tried to remove film wrapped around a sprocket knows the horror of that.
Bill, yes indead I saw both films at the Roxy. I was working for Fox at the time and often attended the Roxy as guests of management.
Jeff, the scratch was a result of the lower loop being made to big causing the print to bounce up against the intermittent sprocket protector (not what it as called) which was a small piece of metal mounted parallel to the center of the intermittent sprocket to prevent the film from wraping around the sprocket in a film break.
Because of the pull movement of the intermittent the scratch always appeared in the same spot. Hope that’s clear.