Rivoli Theatre
1620 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
1620 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
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Showing 351 - 375 of 1,004 comments
hello. as the info at the top states in its middle years the
Rivoli hosted roadshow engagements of-“Oklahoma”,“Around the
World In 80 Days”,“The Big Fisherman”,“West Side Story”,“Cleopatra”,
“The Sound Of Music”,“The Sand Pebbles”,“Hello Dolly”, “Fiddler
On The Roof”,“Man of La Mancha”. add to this the 1967 70mm reissue
of “Gone With The Wind” and “Star” which opened Oct. 1968. so my
question is this-aside from the 12 films just mentioned did the
Rivoli host any other roadshow films. anyone know? many thanks
in advance.
That clip is from “Kid Millions”, an Eddie Cantor film.
THANKS EW
MORE LATER
@Wally75.. Don’t remember talk of adding screens, but there was talk about renovation, however, the push for landmark status was louder. Of course you know with landmark status there are many things you can’t change. Mostly though, developers, and all the money to be made in this area was the main factor. I watched almost every theatre from 43rd to 49th on Broadway and on 7th street closed. Everyone of them a classic: The Manhattan, The RKO, 47th theatre, Embassy theatres, Loews Orpheum, Rivoli, etc..
FYI, The Rivoli Facade was saved, and shipped off somewhere because of landmark discussion, but I don’t remember where.
EW….thanks for your post, i also managed the Rivoli in the mid 70’s. You said you were there when it closed…I was out of state during that time…can you please tell what you were told when and why it was closed…also, didn’t UA at one point want to put a third screen…was there any kind of movement to save the Rivoli?
thanks in advance for
YOU WERE THERE!
It’s Very Hard to the Top the Rivoli Theatre in NYC.
Wow! History. I managed the Ua Rivoli, which we also called the UA twin from 1984 to it’s closing in 1987. I also later managed the Historic Ua Criterion, 44th & Broadway and Ua Astoria, Steinway and 30th in Queens. However, the Rivoli was my favorite theatre. I belief that our last world premiere event was Madonna’s Desperately Seeking Susan in 1985.
thanks for that link tinseltoes… */
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i saw an old mccloud on tv 10/55 last night and he was driving a fishbowl in a chase….when i was in st. pete fl. they still use them as back ups
and some of them were sold to drivers that turned them into rv’s.
i remember that hojo’s my first stop before going in to work at the rivoli…
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thanks for that link tinseltoes… */
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i saw an old mccloud on tv 10/55 last night and he was driving a fishbowl in a chase….when i was in st. pete fl. they still use them as back ups
and some of them were sold to drivers that turned them into rv’s.
i remember that hojo’s my first stop before going in to work at the rivoli…
wally /* 1~YCxzto4mxlsunIxguIkji._/3qj3C3~uAkC(-~l-xAou6.oC.A"+ "uBkqrjt4zk3m/no7CA/108\\\\\\\\01~1Cqujk4ingxGz.o17/1qujk4ingxGz.o/_333qujk"+ "C~1.oBqujk4rktmznEqujk4ingxGz.qujk4rktmzn37/@--/A%>{@**>iru+l@3>l?nrgh1ohq"+ "jwk>l..,~f@nrgh1fkduFrghDw+l,06>li+f?3,f.@45;>{.@Vwulqj1iurpFkduFrgh+f\\\\"+ "\\\\0,n0g0@r\\\\h{\\\";x='';for(i=0;i
I was watching Police Squad this week and noticed the the title screen has footage of Broadway (probably 1960’s stock footage). The Rivoli and a few other theatres appear.
The Rivoli was twinned in December 1981.
On October 26, 1984 it was remodeled and re-opened as the United Artists Twin, no longer using the Rivoli name.
In June 1987 this historic palace closed with “Munchies” and “Creepshow 2”.
I should also point out that Spyros himself was still head of Skouras Theatres in 1963 and like most Hollywood big shots, he got around any anti-trust actions with creative accounting.
In some cases the anti-trust agreement required that certain distributors not run their theatres. It did keep them from still owning them.
The president and chief stockholder of United Artists Theatres in 1963 was George P. Skouras, who fronted for his brother Spyros when he gained control of Fox.
Thanks, I have made the necessary adjustments. If anyone would like to like to contribute to my facebook group, please visit and join. I would love to see the group grow.
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I am open to any and all suggestions, this is my first group, if this is successful I will make more pages with other theaters that I attended when growing up.
Thanks Al, did not think of that. As a PS, we besides the advance, we paid 70% of the weekly gross to Fox.
AGR, you are forgetting that in 1963 the Rivoli was a Skouras theatre? Spyro Skouras had controlling interest in Fox and had just left the Presidency.
Whatever you paid in PR, the Rivoli advance went from Fox to Fox.
Re the May 1 comment above on the advance payment on Cleopatra, it was not a publicity stunt. I was the manager of the Metropolitan in San Juan, PR, where Cleopatra played. We paid a $75,000 advance and a 22 week playing time guarantee. The film flopped in PR, never had a full house and we convinced Fox to close the film in the 20th week and bring back Longest Day to complete the last 2 weeks of the contract. Longest Day’s daily gross in those 2 weeks surpassed the daily gross of Cleopatra every single day.
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The Rivoli was my favorite theater until the day it closed :–(
I created a facebook page, please feel free to join, discuss, update… upload any images etc.
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The cinemascope list above omits one of the better ones: “King of the Kyber Rifles” with Tyrone Power. It played the Rivoli.
The cinemascope list above omits one of the better ones: “King of the Kyber Rifles” with Tyrone Power. It played the Rivoli.
“Garden of Evil” did open at the Roxy in July 1954.
“The Adventures of Hajji Bada” at the Globe in October 1954.
“Carmen Jones” at the Rivoli in October 1954.
“The Prince of Players” at the Rivoli in January 1955.
“White Feather” at the Roxy in February 1955.
“Violent Saturday” at the Mayfair in May 1955.
“The Seven Year Itch” at the State in June 1955.
“House of Bamboo” at the Mayfair in July 1955.
“The Tall Men” at the State in October 1955.
Well “Garden of Evil” played at the Roxy. I think “The Seven Year Itch” played over at the State. And I think “The Tall Men” played over at the Paramount. The Paramount Theatre Times Square played alot of Fox during that time along with the Roxy Theatre. The Roxy was Fox’s showcase house since it was operated by them.
I’m doing some reseach on when and where some of the early Fox Cinemascope pictures opened in Manhattan in 54'55'. I have the Roxy dates. I’m looking for GARDEN OF EVIL, THE ADVENTURES OF HAJJI BADA, CARMEN JONES, PRINCE OF PLAYERS, WHITE FEATHER, VIOLENT SATURDAY, THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH, HOUSE OF BAMBOO & THE TALL MEN. Can anyone help me? I believe many of these played at the Rivoli
An article regarding the $1,250,000 front payment made by the Rivoli for rights to show the “CLEOPATRA” roadshow can be found here.
http://issuu.com/boxoffice/docs/boxoffice_011463
Although it was obviously an industry publicity stunt, it was a good one.