Criterion Theatre

I see a lot of moaning about the loss of this great theatre but not a single mention of the Criterion this one replaced. I would appear it was demolished in June 1935 (along with the Loews New York)in order to make this Criterion happen. The new one was open by September 1936. How was such a speedy construction of this mammoth building possible?

The old Criterion ran the first western blockbuster, THE COVERED WAGON and Oscar winner WINGS for over a year each. It also had the New York premiere of HELL’S ANGELS. Does anyone have more info on the OLD Criterion so it can get posted?

Warner Bros. does have footage on many of it’s major premieres from both coasts in it’s vaults and other storage areas. When I was in their publicity department they had many full sets of stills from the front of house deplays of the theatres. I had their still department and lab reprint hundreds of stills from many of their film openings. And I shot for that department from 1984-94 their film openings in the Los Angeles area.

Well would Warner Brothers in their vaults maybe have color newsreels of the Criterion premiere of MFL along with shots of all the exterior displays? You do see some of this on the MFL doc but it is so brief, only a few seconds and in black and white.

It was aired locally on KTLA in Los Angeles live from the Pantages Theater, and somebody at the station made the decision (and spent considerable money) to make a 16mm kinescope. Video tape was not used for recording television programs at that time, it was still in the experimental stage. The kinescope system was a camera filming off a high quality, low contrast monitor.

I’m sorry to say that the filming of this particular premiere broadcast was the exception and not the rule.

Quite right Bob, as I recall, most of the premieres were part of the newsreels in those days. Fox Movietone often included Roxy premieres, movie promotion and premiere coverage all in one.

Good idea Vincent, having attended many of the Fox openings at the Roxy and Paramount, I know there were always cameras there, the film must be somewhere.

I wish that all those 60’s televised premieres would be made available on the DVD’s in their entirety. The only ones I know of are the ‘56 Star is Born and and the abridged newsreel of Grand Hotel.

On the night “My Fair Lady” premiered at the Criterion, Channel 5 presented a half-hour live special at 7:30, with arriving celebrities greeted by Arthur Godfrey. He kept plugging Audrey Hepburn’s upcoming appearance and interview, but her car was delayed in traffic, and she only was seen over closing credits and entered the lobby during the fade to black. This fiasco resulted in the loss of the station’s Program Director and thousands of dollars in make-good commercials for the sole sponsor.

Thank you Warren.
Working in the theatres in those times were something very special, when I was assigned to do a shift at the SI Paramount I could not wait to get there. It was one of Fabian’s favorite theatres, we got all the new toys to play with : )
The Parampount was the first SI theatre to install CinemaScope, I remember working most of Christmas Eve, much to the horror of my family, while the new screen and sound system were installed for the Christmas day opening.

The one film title that I can make out on the picture of the UA Criterion is “Free Willy”.

Here is a link to a late 1980’s or early 1990’s photo of the UA Criterion Theatre

I talked with one of the workers when they were gutting out the theater. Nothing remains, it was cleared right to the brick walls. He did tell me that they found an old abandoned studio in the theater that was used for broadcasting movie premieres over the radio.

I believe it was only there for South Pacific. Anybody out there see it before it moved to the Rivoli? And as for that why did a big hit film like that move to the Rivoli anyway? What film did they move it for?