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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Hi people:
I still consider myself the new guy, and am deeply indebted to your kind words re: the Friday intro to CE3K but also I am in absolute awe of the knowledge and enthusiasm that you people display. I always believed in what Marcus Loew said, “We sell tickets to theaters not movies.” I think I got that right. In other words, how the movie is shown and where it is shown is just as important as the movie. I see that pride all over these postings. I think that the Ziegfeld mostly gets it right, and if not they’re really working to. After the last screening I saw which was “Raiders,” I was looking for Monique just in case I never made it back before CE3K. I was told that she was in the auditorium—-I found her sweeping up popcorn with the rest of the staff—and she’s the manager.
Regarding Craig-I sent him a head’s up e-mail over the weekend just to make sure that he was cognizant of the audio issues that have been raised especially on Zhivago.
His reply:
“I have been reading the comments on Cinema Treasures and I know that we have a very loyal and vocal fan base out there!”
In all of my dealings with him, both phone and e-mail I have to say that he really wants this Classics Program to work and is very open to feedback, both good and bad. We all know the place has to make money to do this, and Craig really wants it to work. He welcomes our physical presence and financial support, our constructive criticism, and all the nice things that we can possibly say on WWW.Clearview.com, which will all go to his boss.
Overall, yeah with some relatively minor reservations. I think we are all having a great time. I could have probably asked Monique for a free ticket for CE3K given I’m introducing, instead I bought a ticket on line. I would even send a donation if they asked for one, I was a member of MOMA all of last year and only went to one screening. Not to knock MOMA-but Barry Lyndon at MOMA is not Barry Lyndon at the Ziegfeld.
FINALLY- VERY IMPORTANT VERY IMPORTANT VERY IMPORTANT
PLEASE IGNORE THE BLURB IN THE NEW ISSUE OF TIME OUT. WE ARE NOT SEEING THE “1980 SPECIAL EDITION” I WOULD NEVER INTRODUCE THAT OR EVEN SHOW UP—WE ARE SEEING THE “DEFINITIVE DIRECTOR’S CUT” (ON DVD IT’S THE COLLECTOR’S EDITION") I LOVE TONY AND AM A CHARTER SUBSCRIBER- I GOT INTO A BIG FIGHT WITH THEM TODAY ON THE PHONE ABOUT THIS. THEY DROPPED THE BALL- SINCE I HAD TO EDUCATE THEM THAT THERE REALLY IS A THIRD, BETTER EDITION. I THINK, AFTER TALKING WITH ME, THEY’LL NEVER SCREW THIS UP AGAIN.
THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR YOUR KIND WORDS AND SUPPORT-SEE YOU AT DEVIL’S TOWER.
GARY
Saps: On Saturday night the entr'acte ran on a blank screen with the lights off, but since the Clearview people have been reading these comments, who knows what tomorrow night will bring? I’ll be there to see for myself.
I am seeing Dr. Zhivago Thursday 3/16/06; I understand that the “intermission” music is actually the entr'acte music, but my question is…Do they close the white traveller curtain and raise the house lights to half for the intermission? Or do they show a blank screen during the intermission time.
Stan… I have to believe that Clearview and the staff at the Ziegfeld want to do better than that and have a keen interest in providing a good moviegoing experience for its patrons. They seem to have particular interest in monitoring this board and taking into consideration our suggestions and criticisms – because I think they understand that we (and others like us) are the target audience for this series and that our word of mouth is the most powerful advertising tool they have for the program.
We can be happy to have these films screened, but I think we should still keep our voices loud and the message clear that we would really like to see these movies presented as close to as originally intended as possible – meaning 70mm wherever possible and with complete overture/entr'acte and full intermission break (including appropriate curtain and house light cues). I pose it as a challenge to bring back a level of showmanship to an industry that has been sorely lacking in professionalism for far too long.
Gary… Sorry I won’t be able to make your introduction to “Close Encounters” on Friday night due to conflicting plans from which I cannot wiggle free. Good luck. I hope you find a receptive audience there (I understand they were a bit impatient towards the Time Out Magazine critic who attempted a few words prior to the “Godfather” films that kicked off the series. I plan on getting down to the Ziegfeld on Sunday and catch both “2001” and “Close Encounters” – with a possibility of making it a triple feature if I can find the strenght to stick around for “Alien”.
Gee Stan, what a depressing post!
It is painfull to read about some of the butchers we have had in our projection rooms as well as the cookie cutter managers. Sadly, there are more and more of them around today. I come from a different breed of theatre managers and projectionists who took pride in putting on a good show and enjoyed going the extra mile to thrill audiences with all the whisels and bells we could muster up.
Well…they can’t take away our memories, and that’s what Cinema Treasures is all about. We all need to share the stories of the good
ole days and try and educate the current flock of theatre people, like the folks at the Ziegfeld, how to “put on a show”
Bill, What you have described explains why the intermissions are so short, assuming they are running platters, they are simply splicing the beginning of part two, with the entr’acte music, onto the end of part one after the intermission tag, which means the intermission is only as long as the entr’acte music, so technically there is no real intermission. Clearview, please instruct your projection staff to stop the show at the end of part one, raise the lights, close the curtain and take a proper 10-15 minute intermission. Then, for heavens sake, start part two properly with lights dimmed half and the curtain closed until the end of the entr’acte music. If an automation system is in use, most of them can be programmed to stop and re-start the show. If the Ziegfeld automation cannot, then please just run that part of the show manually. Come on guys, these films are supposedly being shown “as they were meant to be seen†well…. almost, but no cigar.
As for the complaining woman banging on the managers door, that’s what most theatres have security for, she should have been given refund and shown out the door.
On Saturday, it played on a blank screen with the projector turned off. The intermission card went right into the entr'acte music, which also played on the blank screen. It lasted only around 3 minutes. The ending was done right, though – the curtains closed during the very long final shot of the rainbow over the river.
Did the overture play on a blank screen or did it play over the white traveler curtain?
Movieguy718: The same employee I talked to about the sound assured me that it would not happen again on Thursday night. She said she’d tell the manager and the projectionist that I complimented them on the loud volume in the first half, and that it really made the show special. I’m going back on Thursday – there’s a really good train scene in the second half (when Zhivago is nearly run over) that was spoiled by the low volume on Saturday.
I too thought the lower volume was a problem with that first reel in the second half, but I never could bring myself to get up and ask the manager to turn it up. I did consider it, but I didn’t want to miss any of the movie. Looking back on it now, maybe I should have.
I asked one of the friendly Ziegfeld employees about the sound situation when the show was over. She told me that the woman who complained did it right at the beginning of the film, and it was turned down slightly, but not enough to spoil the presentation. She then complained at least two more times because it was still too loud for her. She even banged on the manager’s door. I guess she was too much of a troublemaker for them, and the result was the lowest volume I’d ever heard for a movie at the Ziegfeld in 36 years. I truly hope this woman stays away from the theater until “Ice Age 2” opens. All the rest of the upcoming films in the Classics series need to be, in the words of Vito, real denture-rattlers.
Great idea for a T-shirt, It has to be loud, starting with the overture. In my roadshow days I used to hate those whimpy overtures,
I wanted something to make em sit up and notice, like “Sweet Charity"
which started with a big brassy "Hey big spender” I used to rattle a few old folks dentures with that one I can tell you.
Hi Everyone,
Although I’ve been sick all weekend and couldn’t get to any screenings, it’s great just reading your comments.As far as I’m concerned, Ziegfeld=Big Picture + Big Sound (Wouldn’t that be great on a T-shirt) I just e-mailed Craig at Clearview to take a look at these comments, so he can be apprised of them, especially the audio issues, bright and early Monday AM. With “Out Of This World Week” and “Lawrence” coming up, the sound has to be big.
I’m looking forward to meeting you all, at Devil’s Tower, for the landing, this coming Friday evening. John Williams score will SOAR!!!
HAPPY PURIM AND ST PATRICK’S DAY
GARY
Richreel, the Zhivago intermisson is as I remember it in the original release. REndres, Radio City chief projectionist, tells a great story of how when Zhivago played at RCMH, he tried to get the travelor curtain to open at the same speed as the light at the end of the tunnel grow closer, hopefully he will see this and re-tell the story. It is a tough nut to crack trying to keep everyone happy with respect to sound volume, but as I mentioned, we must educate those who want to have the sound turned down to the advantages of hearing it louder for a more powerfull experience. I would never allow my staff to ruin the presentation just to satisfy a few, never have, never would.
movieguy,I feel your pain, managers have got to be more involved in the sight and sound on the screen, it cannot be left to the projectionist, although when I ran a show I would always go into the theatre to check the sound at least once or twice during a performance, and let me tell you it was ALWAYS loud. In fact for the musicals I would run the fader up a notch or two for the musical numbers.There was never a doubt, when I was in the booth, that you were listining to 4 or 6 track sound.
Adding to Bill’s comments, I was also at last night’s “Zhivago” screening. The audio levels for the movie’s first half were cranked up a bit, but this was a case where “louder is better.” Listening to that wonderful overture (yes, there were people turning around and looking back at the projectionst’s booth with that “where’s the picture?” look on their faces), the sounds of trains roaring down the tracks (you could almost feel them whoosh by), even something as simple as the crack of a streetcar’s guidewire spark — the effect really hit you. When the audio became notably lower right after the intermission I thought there was a problem with just that reel, but then it continued through the end the end of the movie, hurting it —it sounded “less big.” Picture quality was excellent, except for maybe three spots where, for a couple of seconds, a bunch of crisscrossing black lines — like a spiderweb — popped up. The Intermission was very short — 3 minutes? — with music played over black and then the sound of a train as the black turned into a POV shot of the refugees' train coming out of a tunnel into the light. The Intermission seemed to be in the wrong place — I vaguely recalled it came right after Zhivago and Lara part at the hospital and there’s an interior shot of Zhivago going up the stairs in the background with the dying sunflowers on a table in the left foreground, instead of where the Intermission was last night, which was a few minutes later in the movie, right after the rescued peasant woman says “That’s Strelniknov!” and there’s a cut to a close-up of Tom Courtenay on his train. The movie ended with the 1999 restoration credits — “Presented By Turner Entertainment” — instead of the original 1965 release’s “An MGM Presentation.” Seeing “Zhivago” on the big screen you can again appreciate the Oscar-winning cinematography (Freddie Young), set design/art direction (John Box & Terrence Marsh) and score (Maurice Jarre), and the acting of Courtenay, Rod Steiger and the luminous Julie Christie. Looking forward to seeing it again Thursday night…and hope they leave the audio levels where they belong for the whole movie. Also saw “North By Northwest” Saturday afternoon, and while the picture quality wasn’t perfect (too many scratches on the far right-hand side of the screen), the Herrmann score and Ernest Lehman’s dialogue sounded great.
Hey BILL and VITO,
I’m really sorry you experienced a “too loud” complainer, Bill. It happens to me quite often at first run movies: the volume will be at a perfectly acceptable level and someone (who is usually sitting on top of the screen) will go out and complain “it’s too loud” and invariably, the volume goes down not by a little, but a lot – usually to a level where you can no longer make out much of the dialog. I’m kind of surprised that it happened at Zhivago – why didn’t you march right out and ask them to turn it back up? I’ve now seen 5 of the revivals, only West Side Story was a little low, but it was still this side of acceptable. I was going to see Zhivago on Thursday, but now I’m afraid to…
And, VITO – I bet I would be happy if you were running the show. If you recall from one of our past conversations, I have to practically DRAG someone into the auditorium with me to observe the problem first hand.
Bill, I was distrurbed by the sound level change you described during Zhivago, managenent should have monitored the situation to determine if in fact the sound was too loud, if a change is made, it is then the managers responsibility to monitor the change to be sure it was proper one. Perhaps Clearview might instuct the managers to make a determination of what level the sound should be and then instruct managers to politly explain to complaining patrons that the movie is being shown in such a way as to optimise the full impact of the story. During my management years I would never change the level of the sound or the comfort of the heat/air conditioning for one or two patrons, but rather make a determination what was best for the majority of the audience. I would rather give a refund or pass to one patron than ruin the experiece for everyone.
During management classes, which I gave in the last few years of my career, I taught the importance of paying attention to sight and sound in the theatre, I would insist on managers sitting in the theatre a few minutes every show to monitor the picture on the screen as well as the comfort of the room temperature. A theatre like the Ziegfeld needs that sort of policy.
Total 5-star situation this afternoon with the screening of ‘Singing In the Rain’. Another film that I had never seen before. I thought it would be wide-screen, but nevertheless I wasn’t dissapointed. There was some focusing issues over the opening titles, but…so what, no biggie. Print quality overall was excellent. Amazingly colorful and sharp. Great musical numbers. Sort of reminded me of ‘The Gang’s All Here’ in some respects. I was suprised, and definitely pleased at the cynical take on Hollywood in the story. So much of it reminded me of today’s celebrity infatuated culture. And how ‘bout Debbie Reynolds at all of 20 years old! How damn cute was she?
Great film. The Ziegfeld has been out doing themselves with every film in this series. Don’t Let it end! I don’t give a rat’s ass about 'Ice Age 2’ and I don’t think the rest of the world should or will care once that’s in the house when this series ends.
Here’s a few suggestions for the next classics fest:
‘The Hustler'
'Oklahoma'
“Fist Full of Dollars'
'Good, Bad, & the Ugly'
'Vertigo'
and yeah how about The Beatles "Help!"
and for you real off-the-wall cult film folks Otto Preminger’s "Skidoo”, a wide-screen film about LSD starring Jackie Gleason, with appearances by Groucho Marx and many others! Yes, you heard it right..it’s a film about acid with Jackie Gleason and he trips in the film. Amazing!
Fever Dog: The projector light is definitely bright enough. I think that’s the way those scenes are supposed to be. It’s the way they appeared in their original theatrical release, I’m sure. “The Godfather Part II” at the Ziegfeld was noticeably darker than any video version I’d ever seen, but it’s also the way I remember it looking back in 1975 at the Clifton (NJ) Theater.
“North by Northwest” this afternoon – great. The sound was amazing. The crop duster scene was never more intense, all due to the size of the image and the sound.
“Doctor Zhivago” tonight would have been a home run but unfortunately, during the intermission, someone complained about the soundtrack. The first half was at a volume level that brought out the full power of the sound and the score, as beautifully described by Irv a few posts above. When the trains went by, it did almost feel like Sensurround. After the complaint, the volume went way down and the movie sounded like it was playing at any old multiplex anywhere. I’m hoping the same projectionist is on duty for “Zhivago” on Thursday night and keeps the volume at its original level through the whole movie, letting the Ziegfeld do what it does best. I also hope the complaining person stays out of the Ziegfeld until the Classics series is over.
I reposted my comments of 2/23/06 about Ben-Hur directly on Clearview’s “Contact Us” page.
I attended the Indiana Jones week and noticed that the darker scenes (The “Well of Souls” scene in Raiders) were a bit too dark. Does this have to do with the quality of print or the projector light being too low…or both?
Irv: Thanks for the glowing report on “Zhivago”. I’m really looking forward to seeing it tonight (and again on Thursday night).
Irv:
You just took me back to 1966, when I saw Dr. Zhivago at the Crossbay in Ozone Park (another lost theater?) An incredibly romantic and powerful movie, and that music!! My teenage fantasies were with Julie in the snow. By the way, anybody like “Demon Seed,” which finally came out on DVD last year. A really novel Sci-Fi with Julie doing incredible acting.
Monique told me that after “Lawrence,” the theater was coming back with “Ice Age 2”
But as far as “I hope this series never ends”—this is why Craig keeps emphasizing that people visit the Clearview web site and lay on as much positive feedback as possible. The top brass, i.e., his bosses, really listen. I will be emphasizing this in my intro at CE3K. I’m not kidding, after I sent my first feedback (you have to fill out a brief survey and leave comments), I got a nice thank you e-mail from Craig’s boss which was cc’d to his the whole office.
If our whole group inundates Clearview ( and wow am I happy I discovered this group) it will really make a difference. If everyone else who comes to these screenings also does it, then I really believe this can continue on some regular basis, at worst, during the slow season, which, I presume is now.
One great theater and thousands of classics- I would love to have a T shirt with that on it!!
Gary
Another great film screening today at The Ziegfeld. I was at the 4:30 ‘Dr. Zhivago’ and it was yet another amazing film-going experience. I had never seen this film before and was impressed by the acting, cinematography and overall emotitonal tone that, as I can see now, has made it a timeless masterpiece. I was also impressed again, like I was at ‘Ben Hur’ that a film clocking in at 3 hours and change was able to hold my attention from beginning to end. When you see a film that’s this great and this long, it really gives you a different sense of the story and it’s characters. It’s almost like you’re living with them for a while. That I think is one of the great things about going to the movies; something that can completely sweep you up and into a whole other ‘reality’‘. Top notch acting from Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, and the late-great Rod Stieger. I could go on about all of the great things David Lean does with the narrative construction of this film, but I’ll let all of you find that out when you see it.
As far as print quality, I would say that this print ranks about the same as the ‘Ben-Hur’ print that was shown a few weeks ago. Some minor problems here and there, big patches of scratches, but at other times the film was as sharp and colorful as it could be, particularly the scene when Stieger, meets Julie Christie’s fiance ‘Pasha’ played by Tom Courtenay who was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role. The projectionist really did decide to crank the audio on this film. At times it was overpowering, but in a good way. Loud but never overmodulated. When trains were coming down railroad tracks for example it really sounded and felt like a train. What did they call that in the 70s? ‘Sensoround’? Remember that?
Two little notes: there was an Intermission which was a good thing but it was really short, like 5 or 6 minutes. I went to the bathroom quickly but by the time I got back, the second part had already started and I missed the first two or three minutes.
The other somewhat funny note is when I was at the consession stand during the overture (I made it into the theater right before the titles) a women came out of the theater and said to one of the ushers “there’s music playing, but I don’t see any picture”. I turned to her and told her that was they way it’s supposed to be and she just laughed and went back in.
Once again great film. If I can I might go see this one again. This is what living in New York is all about. I hope this series never ends, which brings me to one final point. I was thinking today whenever it is that The Ziegfeld goes back to a first-run schedule, I’m proposing that maybe they do something like the Lafayette in Suffern and have a classics screening once a week on maybe a Saturday or Sunday or whenever it’s convinient inthe schedule. Maybe out of this festival a Classics at Ziegfeld Film Society can be created?
And now on to the 12:30 Saturday Screening of “Singin' In the Rain”.
Please post reports on the condition and presentation of Singin' in the Rain, North by Northwest, and Dr. Zhivago.
Wow, Ed, I remember the Center as a tiny place, somehow the exterior looks the same, but not the marquee—it’s been a long time. Let me try this one. Sometime, either 1955 or 1956, my family spent the summer in the Rockaways in the days of bungalows and rooming houses. Maybe around B.30th street. On the Boardwalk was something called an “open-air” theater, where the roof would close during daytime showings and open up at night. I think I saw “Carousel” there. What do you think?