Loew's Capitol Theatre

“Planet of the Apes” opened here (and simultaneously at 72nd Street Playhouse) fifty years ago today.

As per The Parent Trap ad:

In her autobio O'Hara’s story about the billing is pretty funny.

It was in her contract to have star billing which she does have. But as you can see Uncle Walt pulled a fast one on her. She was not happy. Her lawyer told her not to go near it. Walt would nail her to the wall.

Well of course the Capitol was for the middle class. The whole idea of the movie palace was to recreate an ambience of aristocratic refinement for working and middle class audiences. Some theatres may have been nicer than others but every movie theatre on Broadway (and elsewhere) was for the hoi polloi. The only real upper class moviegoing experience was that at a screening room in a private home or estate! The superior feeling that a loge seat at the Roxy or Criterion provided was just one more piece of the marketing genius of the movie moguls.

Divans-how good could they be at $4.25 for a weekend evening? The far classier Criterion loge seats were $5.50 back in ‘64 and were $6 for tickets they were selling in advance for Funny Girl. Clearly the middle class Capitol even on hardticket was for the hoi polloi.

I don’t recall the curtain, although there must have been one up there. I just remember that the seats seemed to go on forever, up and up. That theater made a huge impression on me. It’s still the most awesome screen I’ve ever seen, after almost 50 years.

The balcony was in use when I saw 2001 at the Capitol on 6/15/1968. I was 13 years old. My dad and I were in the front row of the loge (what they called the divans) and I remember looking up at the balcony, filled with people. Although it was probably just the lower part compared to what it was in the 30’s and ‘40s, it seemed huge to me.

My dad missed seeing the stage. He used to go there all the time for stage show/movie combinations.

Found it in Michael Coates article: 37 weeks total.

Notice that the photo of the entrance at the bottom of the page includes a banner promoting the Capitol’s closing night live gala show on 9/16/1968. It was hosted by Johnny Carson and featured Bob Hope and many other personalities from the Capitol’s heyday!

I found a conflicting 1962 Variety story that says seating went from 5400 to 3662 in 1959 and down to 1552 in 1962. Half the balcony and a third of the loge were eliminated.

I think in the early 1960s when the theatre was renovated and redecorated (and the escalator installed in the lobby) the rear sections of the balcony were walled off, probably bringing the seating capacity into the 3000s. When the theatre was renovated again a few years later for Cinerama, the seats were removed from the rear orchestra under the balcony and actually replaced with a decorative Japanese-style garden and the front rows were also removed to accommodate the giant screen (never saw this but I remember reading about it and saw photos!). From this time until it closed the Capitol probably had about 1500 seats that were in use. I don’t know if the balcony was used at all at that time, maybe one of the CT members that post here would remember?

They could have sold it out and not have replenished the Millionaire souvenir book yet so you could have gotten it there. It was definitely not there when I saw the film at the Hall. Only the comic book which as I noted seems kind of strange.

In fact I was impressed when I was able to purchase it a few years later at how large it was. I assumed it was only available for roadshow engagements.

After Cinerama installation the Capacity would be a heckuva lot less than 4,000. You could probably find it was somewhere near 1,500 from old Varietys.

Hello-

to vindanpar-

I could swear I bought my The Happiest Millionaire souvenir program during its 1st run engagement at Radio City Music Hall. another thought- has anyone ever come across a souvenir program for Cheyenne Autumn which played this theater?