RKO Warner Twin Theatre

It’s too bad that Goldwyn did not show Oklahoma at the Cinerama and instead opened it at the Cinema 1. While it looked great this is simply not an upper East Side film(Though try explaining that to someone who works for a film company where total stupidity seems to be a requisite.) Of course the Rivoli would have been ideal but that was probably the problem.
I’d love to know from the above photo what the demolition crew found of the Strand under the interior of the walls installed for roadshow presentation. It would most likely make me weep.

Thanks to a flood in my basement over this past rainy weekend, I just opened a carton of memorabilia sealed since the 1970s. Out fell a handfull of ticket stubs, including ones from row H110-12 in the Balcony @$1.80 for the 2:00 pm Saturday matinee showing, Nov. 26 1955, of “Cinerama Holiday.” At the bottom of the drenched carton was the glossy program for the event, now spread out and drying along with dozens of co-mates across my living-room floor.

Michael,

Thanks for the clarification. I got confused because I believe the print was made in 1982. Todd-AO at 30 frames per second did have a three dimensional quality to it but was not adaptable to standard 35mm print downs at 24 frames per second. The first two
Todd-AO movies were shot twice simulatneously. “Oklahoma!” was filmed in 65mm at 30 frames per second and in 35mm Cinemascope at 24 frames per second. “Around the World in 80 Days” was shot twice in 65mm with the camera(s) at both 30 frames per second (for 70mm prints) and 24 frames per second (for 35mm Technicolor print downs).

It’s really a pity that Goldwyn didn’t utilize more hype and hoopla so people knew how rare the original Todd-AO screening of “Oklahoma!” was. Both screenings I attended were pretty empty which was sad. They had announced they were going to re-issue “South Pacific” in 70mm around the same time but the poor results from the former made them change their mind. I don’t recall
it ever being shown in NYC in a new 70mm print although they did make new 35mm prints of Fuji stock for the repertory houses which looked pretty good. Too bad Goldwyn never restored the movie to the original Roadshow running time. I had a friend who saw some of the missing footage when he visited there. I don’t know if this footage still exists or if it’s too faded to do anything with now. A number of songs were heavily cut, especially “Wash that Man right outta my hair”. You can hear the complete version on the CD of the soundtrack. The current version of the movie is missing a large chunk of the number. “Bloody Mary” was also trimmed.

It would appear that the “Oklahoma!” Todd AO print I saw in 1982 played Cinema I rather than the Baronet or Coronet. They didn't
advertise or promote it properly. I saw it twice and both screenings were nearly empty. The studio scenes looked sensational.
Some of the exterior opening scenes had washed out skies due to fading or improper timing since the new CinemaScope prints struck at
the same time also had de-saturated skies. I had seen original Technicolor prints of the film and know the skies were a deep blue.
It was not a liquid gate 70mm
print so the opticals were quite scratchy including the opening fade into the corn field. Overall though, it was quite a show.

There is a cartoon here that was drawn to promote RKO theatres.

www.cartoonresearch.com/vanbeuren.html

Suuuurrrreee you never went inside LOL!

I have a original 1918 Playbill, for the Silent Charlie Chaplin Movie “Shoulder Arms” that debute at the Strand Theater in 1918.
I’m interested in selling this rare collectable.
Contact:

It’s funny now when you look back but there was that time when X films played in regular theatres. Many of these were the higher budgeted features and many of them were soft core. There were hard core features shown also. RKO booked alot of these films in their theares at the time.

This site has incredible pictures of Cinerama Theatres in Europe and loads of info on Cinemiracle and “Wind Jammer”. I am not sure if the Cinerama played Wind Jammer here on Broadway.

View link

They never put an office building on the site. It is now a Holiday Inn hotel. When RKo closed the Stanley theater in Phila in 1969 they also promised to build twin theaters and it never happened. The theater stayed closed and borded up for years. They finally put the stock market building on the site.

I think they played a film in the 80’s by John Waters called Polyester.

The Cinerama name was used long after there was no more Cinerama. I think the last marquee and the change to Warner Twin was around 1980. The Cinerama had been a Cineplex Theatre, so they were the ones who got the payoff when the landlord changed the plans.