The Music Hall’s first opening of the year followed a hold-over of the Christmas holiday presentation that included MGM’s Technicolor musical, “Good News,” on screen.
This is the Embassy on Broadway in same block as the Palace Theatre. Overhead, you can see a portion of the famous “Mr. Peanuts” billboard sponsored by Planters.
In block below, the Strand Theatre was still offering a screen/stage policy, with “Night Unto Night” (Ronald Reagan, Viveca Lindfors), and an “Hour of Charm” revue with Phil Spitalny and His All-Girl Orchestra.
The Music Hall would offer spectacular variety shows, performed twice daily…Two days later (December 29th), the smaller New Roxy opened with a policy of first-run movie and stage revue.
In top photo, the screen is shown open to its fullest size. During performances, it was masked down to the 1:33 to 1:00 ratio used at that time. Also, the screen was always covered by curtains between showings.
Audiences were never confronted by a blank screen, which is often the practice now.
By that time, “Debbie & Eddie” had become parents of Carrie Frances Fisher, born on October 21st of that year. In adult life, Carrie often cited “Bundle of Joy” as her screen debut, though still in mama’s womb.
“That Hamilton Woman” was the opening attraction at the Manos in August, 1941. The American premiere of the historical epic took place in New York at Radio City Music Hall on April 3rd of that year, as part of the Easter holiday presentation.
The true story of “Nurse Edith Cavell” depicted the horrors of combat in World War One, which promised to be repeated in conflicts currently raging in Europe and the Far East.
A “Special Scheduled Performance Presentation,” with three screenings Sunday through Thursday, and four on Friday and Saturday…Anyone attending this engagement who was 16 or older at the time would be at least 66 now, if they’re still breathing.
The listing for this theatre gives an address of 1601 South Broadway,
but the caption to your newspaper photo claims to show ruins at 1038 North Grand. How do you explain the difference? Also, some of your other photos seem to show a much larger Odeon that was a concert hall and never had a history of movies. The Auditorium Odeon was a small neighborhood movie house only.
The latest “Avatar” has been bursting bladders on 34th Street and around the world, according to a New York Times article linked here
I believe the photo was taken in 1929, just prior to the Fox’s opening in late January of that year.
For this engagement, known as Warner Theatre, with no reference to Cinerama, since the Technicolor musical was produced in Todd-AO.
The Music Hall’s first opening of the year followed a hold-over of the Christmas holiday presentation that included MGM’s Technicolor musical, “Good News,” on screen.
RKO’s “Second Chance” was being promoted as the first 3-D feature with “Big Stars” heading the cast.
This was the Mastbaum’s Thanksgiving holiday presentation for that year.
Link to Embassy listing here
This is the Embassy on Broadway in same block as the Palace Theatre. Overhead, you can see a portion of the famous “Mr. Peanuts” billboard sponsored by Planters.
In block below, the Strand Theatre was still offering a screen/stage policy, with “Night Unto Night” (Ronald Reagan, Viveca Lindfors), and an “Hour of Charm” revue with Phil Spitalny and His All-Girl Orchestra.
The Music Hall would offer spectacular variety shows, performed twice daily…Two days later (December 29th), the smaller New Roxy opened with a policy of first-run movie and stage revue.
Courtesy of Forgotten New York website, which has a larger photo and short article with details of the conversion.
Note Christmas tree atop the Capitol’s marquee and a portion of the Hollywood Theatre’s vertical sign beyond that.
Opened on December 21st, 1933, and ran through January 4th of the coming year. Replaced on January 5th, 1934 by “If I Were Free” and new stage revue.
In top photo, the screen is shown open to its fullest size. During performances, it was masked down to the 1:33 to 1:00 ratio used at that time. Also, the screen was always covered by curtains between showings. Audiences were never confronted by a blank screen, which is often the practice now.
Sadly, photos of the cinema interior have yet to be found, if they even exist. Conversion work described in this previously uploaded report
By that time, “Debbie & Eddie” had become parents of Carrie Frances Fisher, born on October 21st of that year. In adult life, Carrie often cited “Bundle of Joy” as her screen debut, though still in mama’s womb.
“I’ll See You in My Dreams” had provided the screen portion of Radio City Music Hall’s Christmas holiday presentation of 1951.
“That Hamilton Woman” was the opening attraction at the Manos in August, 1941. The American premiere of the historical epic took place in New York at Radio City Music Hall on April 3rd of that year, as part of the Easter holiday presentation.
The true story of “Nurse Edith Cavell” depicted the horrors of combat in World War One, which promised to be repeated in conflicts currently raging in Europe and the Far East.
A “Special Scheduled Performance Presentation,” with three screenings Sunday through Thursday, and four on Friday and Saturday…Anyone attending this engagement who was 16 or older at the time would be at least 66 now, if they’re still breathing.
This was the same day that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, which caused the USA to finally enter WWII.
Due to the B&W drama’s running time of 124 minutes, the stage show was performed in just over half an hour.
The listing for this theatre gives an address of 1601 South Broadway, but the caption to your newspaper photo claims to show ruins at 1038 North Grand. How do you explain the difference? Also, some of your other photos seem to show a much larger Odeon that was a concert hall and never had a history of movies. The Auditorium Odeon was a small neighborhood movie house only.
Patrons seated in the back rows of the orchestra could not see the auditorium’s atmospheric ceiling, with its floating clouds and twinkling stars.
Both paintings feature a uniformed usherette. In the 1937, the usherette is standing at the top of the aisle on the left side of the painting.