Ziegfeld Theatre
141 W. 54th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
141 W. 54th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
131 people
favorited this theater
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The fact that the Ziegfeld is closed this week is not an ominous sign. The Ziegfeld has a long history of temporary closures, dating from at least the early 1980s.
Given that some major “tentpole” releases are soon to open, the Ziegfeld might be hosting invitational screenings of “MI3,” “Poseidon,” etc. Clearview would, in most cases, likely earn substantially more revenue from renting out the Ziegfeld for such private screenings than from showing new releases on a non-exclusive basis (non-exclusive runs of the “Star Wars” films did well there, but a film such as “Scary Movie 4” must have been a disaster—-DLP or no DLP). BTW, when I was in the UK last week, the Odeon Leicester Square—-arguably, London’s equivalent to the Ziegfeld—-was closed for two days for private screenings of “MI3.”
According to the Ziefeld’s web-site M:I:3 is opening on Thursday at 12:01 AM.
Isn’t this theater equipped with the newest Digital Projection equipment I know both Ice Age:The Meltdown & Scary Movie 4 were presented in DLP.
Boy, I wonder how long the Ziegfeld is for this world. I walked by a dark Ziegfeld on Saturday night and it was sad to see. It won’t reopen for films until May 19. Sad.
One way to use this theatre is to use it for premieres. Open the biggest film each week here and move a new blockbuster in each week. I’m surprised MI3 isn’t opening here.
Hi,
New here.
For any interested, I have a few nice hi-rez images of the auditorium interior I shot last year. I’d be happy to share, I’m just not particularly knowledgeable as to how to make these generally available. If anyone has the expertise to facilitate this, please email me directly at and I can forward them.
PH
It was “opening day†at NYC’s Tribeca Film Festival, where many movies vying for box office success are débuting (with the hope that the hype, prestige and exposure the event provides will launch them into popularity with national audiences at “mainstream†venues). The Ziegfeld has done its part as a participating theater, with a gala showing of only one movie â€" the one considered to be the most controversial of all: “United 93â€.
Press reports indicated that during the showing, there was “not a dry eye in the houseâ€.
Many in the audience were relatives of Flight 93 victims, for whom the show was an emotional experience. It was received positively by those who attended.
Congratulations to the Ziegfeld for contributing to the film festival, and for coming through on the first day by taking risks and demonstrating a leadership role in cinematic presentation, with bold and intriguing programming â€" again.
Note: the Tribeca Film Festival was created largely as a response to the economic impact of the events of 9-11. It was intended to regenerate business activity and public interest in Lower Manhattan. It has succeeded and this year expands its coverage to other parts of Manhattan.
When it comes to classics such as “Ben-Hur†and “Around the World…†my experience is that people who dislike them fall into two main categories. The first category consists of those who have seen them on a small screen, thus missing essential dramatic impact elements and production values. The second group includes people that have not seen the movies at all, and rely on the judgment of people who happen to fall into the first category. There are variations on these themes, which include “political correctnessâ€, the “it’s too long†factor, and so on. Still, there are some who watch these films in their full glory only to come out disappointed. My grandmother saw “Ben-Hur†way back when, and she hated it. It was too long and perhaps too violent for her sensibilities.
I had the privilege of seeing “Ben-Hur†at the Dome in the early 90’s. William Wyler’s masterpiece is simply spectacular, deserving every single one of its 11 Academy Awards. Since then, I have refused to watch it on TV, no matter what format.
JSA
The Ben-Hur presentation wasn’t 70MM – it was 35MM…but the widest 35MM I’ve ever seen. I didn’t start going to the Dome till 1991 and I’ve only seen 2 70MM shows there.
Chris, If you saw regular engagements during the 80’s & 90’s till they remodeled in 2000 in 70MM at the Dome. The Dome did not use the full width of the screen at that time. There was five pre-set masking stops on the front booth panel. There was Flat, Scope, 70MM (1.85), 70MM (Full) and Cinerama (Full Screen width). The Cinerama botton was disconnected when they got rid of the carbon arc lamps. Another Utterly breathtaking presentation was over at the Egyptian Theatre during their D-150 days. It was fun to just push the masking button on the front panel in the booth and see all pre-set modes.
If they saw Ben-Hur at the Cinerama Dome during their “closing weekend” back in 2000, it wouldn’t have made the list at all! To this day, it’s the only time I’ve ever seen a theatre adjust its left-right masking to accomodate for the tremendous width of the film. Utterly breathtaking!
But I digress…kudos to Clearview for dumping the January-March craptaculars for this Classics series. Flawed prints or not, they deserve tremendous props for their efforts. If they continue this in the fall, they should somehow find a team of “print archeologists” who can track down the most pristine prints of the films they wish to show. I’ve seen a bunch of folks in this forum making comments who I’d definitely recommend to make the team!
JSA said:
Shortly after this year’s Oscars, an article in the LA Times Calendar section declared it (and Ben-Hur) as some of the worst winners ever for Best Picture.
I’ll bet the person who wrote that article would’ve changed their mind if they’d seen Ben-Hur at the Ziegfeld in February.
Chris,
I share your enthusiasm for the Cinerama Dome 100 %. And I understand your position regarding the Egyptian, since there are some who feel the same way as you do. However, in the case of the upcoming presentation of “Around the World…â€, I am willing to give them and America Cinematheque some slack. In my opinion, this is a rare opportunity to see this classic in Todd-AO. Unfortunately, in all likelihood we will see another installment of “Scary Movie†before “Around the World†is properly restored and presented at the Dome or the Ziegfeld.
Bill Huelbig,
I’m glad to see that someone is taking a stand on behalf of “Around the World”. Event though time has not been kind to some of its aspects, I think it is a wonderful picture. Shortly after this year’s Oscars, an article in the LA Times Calendar section declared it (and Ben-Hur) as some of the worst winners ever for Best Picture.
Gary,
To follow up on Chris’s response on Cinerama, see my Apr. 6 comment on this page.
Regards to all,
JSA
Yes. Since they reopened the Dome in 2002, they’ve run both “This Is Cinerama” and “How The West Was Won”. I attended the latter in 2003 – my first true Cinerama experience. I had a blast.
The only other 70MM event I’ve been to since their reopening is the 40th Anniversary run of “It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World” – which quite a few of the folks in here didn’t like presentation wise. I enjoyed it, though.
Chris:
Does the Cinerama Dome ever show Cinerama?
Thanks,
Gary
For all those who envy the upcoming 70MM runs of “Around The World…” and others at the Egyptian in Hollywood, rest assured, there ain’t that much to envy. The screen at the Egyptian is just about the same size as the one at the Ziegfeld. I’ve already made up my mind not to attend another 70MM fest in Hollywood until they hold one at the only theatre worthy of 70MM: The Cinerama Dome. Heck, it’s the Dome that needs to take a page from the Ziegfeld and show a classics festival there. Arclight shows a classic or two every week, but those showings are at the multiplex…not the Dome!
I think as EdSolero posted it was “The Odd Couple” with 14 weeks from May to Aug of 1968.
I think “The Odd Couple” is the all time record holder at Radio City.
I think “The Odd Couple” is the all time record holder at Radio City.
William
What is the record holder at Radio City?
Thanks,
Gary
For the in Los Angeles post above: “The Sound of Music” opened at the Fox Wilshire Theatre and moved over to the nearby Carthay Circle Theatre to finish it’s run for 117 weeks.
The record holder at the Rivoli is “Around the World in 80 Days” with 103 weeks. Then comes “The Sound of Music” at 93 weeks then 77 weeks for “West Side Story”.
In Los Angeles, “Around the World in 80 Days” ran 128 weeks at the Fox’s Carthay Circle Theatre. “The Sound of Music” opened and moved over to the Carthay Circle and ran for 117 weeks.
What’s the record holder at the Rivoli?
Just got my Turner Classic on-line newsletter-interesting page on “What is a Classic” with feedback invited see:
View link
Thanks,
Gary
It sure would, Gary. I’m glad they printed my letter but they cut out what I thought was my best argument on behalf of “80 Days”: that it played 103 consecutive weeks at the Rivoli on Broadway. Quite an achievement for a so-called bad movie!
Bill:
Saw your letter re:“Around The World…” in Premiere. That would be nice at the Ziegfeld,too.
Gary
If I had to pick only one out of the 101, one that hadn’t played the Ziegfeld yet and would benefit the most from their big sound and screen, it would be “Patton”.
C'mon Gals and Guys:
Way too quiet here-we need something to keep the juices flowing until the Classics come back to the Ziegfeld. So what is a “Classic?”
Steven Spielberg said something interesting about this when he received his first Oscar in 1987, which is a producer’s award, the Thalberg:
Steven Spielberg on
Accepting
The Irving Thalberg Memorial Award
March, 1987
“Thank you very much.
Following in the footsteps of some of my heroes: Cecil B. DeMille, and George Stevens, Alfred Hitchcock, William Wyler, Ingmar Bergman, and Robert Wise, this award is truly a great honor for me. The Thalberg award was first given 50 years ago in 1937 which was the year of In Old Chicago, Captains Courageous, Dead End, The Life of Emile Zola, Lost Horizon, Stage Door, and A Star is Bornâ€"all having been nominated for best picture that year.
I’m told that Irving Thalberg worshipped writers and that’s where it all beginsâ€"that we are first and foremost storytellers and without, as he called it, the photoplay, everybody is simply improvising. He also knew that a script is more than just a blueprint. The whole idea of Movie Magic is that interweave of powerful image and dialogue and performance and music that can never be separated, and when it’s working right can never be duplicated or ever forgotten.
I’ve grown up; most of my life has been spent in the dark watching movies. Movies have been the literature of my life. The literature of Irving Thalberg’s generation was books and plays. They read the great words of great minds. And I think in our romance with technology and our excitement at exploring all the possibilities of film and video, we’ve partially lost something that we now have to reclaim. I think it’s time to renew our romance with the word. I’m as culpable as anyone in having exalted the image at the expense of the word. But only a generation of readers will spawn a generation of writers.
The five films nominated for best picture this year are as much the writer’s film as the director’s and it’s good news that each of these films has found it’s audience because this audience, who we all work for, deserves everything we have to give them. They deserve that fifth draft, that tenth take, that one extra cut and those several dollars over budgetâ€"and Irving Thalberg knew that. He would have been proud to have been associated with any of these films as I am proud to have my name on this award in his honor because it reminds me of really how much growth as an artist I have ahead of me in order to be worthy of standing in the company of those who received this before me.
So, my deepest thanks to the Board of Governors of the Academy and the audience out there in the dark.
Thank you very much."
Now, The Writers Guild of America has just come out with its list ot the 101 best screenplays ever written (the new “Premiere” Summer issue has narrowed it down to 25)
From The WGA:
“The Godfather, Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Chinatown, Schindler’s List – the greatest films of all time have one thing in common: each began as the vision of writer. Long before the parts were cast and the cameras rolled, a writer gazed upon a blank page and set in motion a classic story. For the first time ever, the Writers Guild of America, west (WGAw) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) are celebrating the best screenwriters and their timeless works with the release of the 101 Greatest Screenplays list.
101 Greatest Screenplays compiles the finest achievements in film writing, as voted upon by professional film and television writers. In the summer of 2005, ballots were sent out asking WGA members to list up to ten of their favorite produced screenplays. Any film, past or present, English-language or otherwise, was eligible. The resulting list is like a travelogue of the greatest films of the century, with all decades from the 1930s on represented among the rankings.
Like a composer of a classic symphony or an author of a beloved novel, the most memorable and moving pictures would not exist without their principal architect: the screenwriter. Too often classic films are linked only to their stars or directors, overlooking the original artists who first put pen to paper – or more recently keyboard to laptop – to create the kind of enduring works that have entertained and inspired generations of movie-going audiences around globe. 101 Greatest Screenplays will finally set the record straight by celebrating the best in film writing and bringing recognition to the wizards behind the curtain: the men and women who wrote the greatest films of all time.
And now, on with the list…"
Screenplay by Julius J. & Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch. Based on the play “Everybody Comes to Rick’s” by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison
Screenplay by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola. Based on the novel by Mario Puzo
Written by Robert Towne
Written by Herman Mankiewicz and Orson Welles
Screenplay by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Based on “The Wisdom of Eve,” a short story and radio play by Mary Orr
Written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman
Written by Charles Brackett & Billy Wilder and D.M. Marshman, Jr.
Written by Paddy Chayefsky
Screenplay by Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond. Based on “Fanfare of Love,” a German film written by Robert Thoeren and M. Logan
Screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo. Based on Mario Puzo’s novel “The Godfather”
Written by William Goldman
Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Peter George and Terry Southern. Based on novel “Red Alert” by Peter George
Screenplay by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry. Based on the novel by Charles Webb
Screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson. Based on the life and writings of Col. T.E. Lawrence
Written by Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond
Written by Quentin Tarantino. Stories by Quentin Tarantino & Roger Avary
Screenplay by Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal. Story by Don McGuire and Larry Gelbart
Screen Story and Screenplay by Budd Schulberg. Based on “Crime on the Waterfront” articles by Malcolm Johnson
Screenplay by Horton Foote. Based on the novel by Harper Lee
Screenplay by Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett & Frank Capra. Based on short story “The Greatest Gift” by Philip Van Doren Stern. Contributions to screenplay Michael Wilson and Jo Swerling
Written by Ernest Lehman
Screenplay by Frank Darabont. Based on the short story “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” by Stephen King
Screenplay by Sidney Howard. Based on the novel by Margaret Mitchell
Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman. Story by Charlie Kaufman & Michel Gondry & Pierre Bismuth
Screenplay by Noel Langley and Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf Adaptation by Noel Langley. Based on the novel by L. Frank Baum
Screenplay by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler. Based on the novel by James M. Cain
Screenplay by Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis. Story by Danny Rubin
Written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard
Written by Preston Sturges
Written by David Webb Peoples
Screenplay by Charles Lederer. Based on the play “The Front Page” by Ben Hecht & Charles MacArthur
Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Screenplay by Graham Greene. Story by Graham Greene. Based on the short story by Graham Greene
Screenplay by Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman. From a novelette by Ernest Lehman
Written by Christopher McQuarrie
Screenplay by Waldo Salt. Based on the novel by James Leo Herlihy
Screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart. Based on the play by Philip Barry
Written by Alan Ball
Written by David S. Ward
Written by Nora Ephron
Screenplay by Nicholas Pileggi & Martin Scorsese. Based on book “Wise Guy” by Nicholas Pileggi
Screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan. Story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman
Written by Paul Schrader
Screenplay by Robert E. Sherwood. Based on novel “Glory For Me” by MacKinley Kantor
Screenplay by Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman. Based on the novel by Ken Kesey
Screenplay by John Huston. Based on the novel by B. Traven
Screenplay by John Huston. Based on the novel by Dashiell Hammett
Screenplay by Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson. Based on the novel by Pierre Boulle
Screenplay by Steven Zaillian. Based on the novel by Thomas Keneally
Written by M. Night Shyamalan
Written by James L. Brooks
Screenplay by Preston Sturges. Story by Monckton Hoffe
Screenplay by William Goldman. Based on the book by Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward
Written by Woody Allen & Marshall Brickman
Written by John Milius and Francis Coppola. Narration by Michael Herr
Written by Robert Zemeckis & Bob Gale
Written by Woody Allen
Screenplay by Alvin Sargent. Based on the novel by Judith Guest
Screenplay by Robert Riskin. Based on the story “Night Bus” by Samuel Hopkins Adams
Screenplay by Brian Helgeland & Curtis Hanson. Based on the novel by James Ellroy
Screenplay by Ted Tally. Based on the novel by Thomas Harris
Written by John Patrick Shanley
Screenplay by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb. Based on the novel by Peter Benchley
Screenplay by James L. Brooks. Based on the novel by Larry McMurtry
Screen Story and Screenplay by Betty Comden & Adolph Green. Based on the song by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown
Written by Cameron Crowe
Written by Melissa Mathison
Written by George Lucas
Screenplay by Frank Pierson. Based on a magazine article by P.F. Kluge and Thomas Moore
Screenplay by James Agee and John Huston. Based on the novel by C.S. Forester
Screenplay by James Goldman. Based on the play by James Goldman
Written by Callie Khouri
Screenplay by Peter Shaffer. Based on his play
Written by Charlie Kaufman
Screenplay by Carl Foreman. Based on short story “The Tin Star” by John W. Cunningham
Screenplay by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin. Based on the book by Jake La Motta with Joseph Carter and Peter Savage
Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman. Based on the book “The Orchid Thief” by Susan Orlean
Written by Sylvester Stallone
Written by Mel Brooks
Screenplay by Earl W. Wallace & William Kelley. Story by William Kelley and Pamela Wallace & Earl W. Wallace
Screenplay by Jerzy Kosinski. Inspired by the novel by Jerzy Kosinski
Screenplay by Donn Pearce and Frank Pierson. Based on the novel by Donn Pearce
Screenplay by John Michael Hayes. Based on the short story by Cornell Woolrich
Screenplay by William Goldman. Based on his novel
Written by Jean Renoir and Charles Spaak
Written by Colin Higgins
Screenplay by Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, Brunello Rond. Story by Fellini, Flaiano
Screenplay by Phil Alden Robinson. Based on the book by W.P. Kinsella
Screenplay by Eric Roth. Based on the novel by Winston Groom
Screenplay by Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor. Based on the novel by Rex Pickett
Screenplay by David Mamet. Based on the novel by Barry Reed
Screenplay by Joseph Stefano. Based on the novel by Robert Bloch
Written by Spike Lee
Screen Story and Screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola and Edmund H. North. Based on “A Soldier’s Story” by Omar H. Bradley and “Patton: Ordeal and Triumph” by Ladislas Farago
Written by Woody Allen
Screenplay by Sidney Carroll & Robert Rossen. Based on the novel by Walter Tevis
Screenplay by Frank S. Nugent. Based on the novel by Alan Le May
Screenplay by Nunnally Johnson. Based on the novel by John Steinbeck
Screenplay by Walon Green and Sam Peckinpah. Story by Walon Green and Roy Sickner
Screenplay by Christopher Nolan. Based on the short story “Memento Mori” by Jonathan Nolan
Written by Ben Hecht
So-All “Classics”?—What do you think? Which for the Ziegfeld?
Thanks,
Gary