Loew's Capitol Theatre
1645 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
1645 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
47 people
favorited this theater
Showing 451 - 475 of 1,086 comments
I just wanted to announce that my father managing director for the Capitol during the 60’s and 70 s. just had his 100 birthday were we honored him for being our Dad (Edward Brunner) but also for his 45 years with Loews Corporation including being manager of Valencia, Queens and the Loews New Rochelle, NY. He started as an usher for the Loews 83rd Street and remember leading Babe Ruth to his seat giving my father a tip. Ushers had to wear gloves.
This was the start during the depression for his career. I spend all my weekends as a kid going with my Dad to work and hanging our with the managers along Broadway.
I went on to both Graduate from the American Film Institute and then make documentaries for the U.S. Navy.
Bob Brunner
Hello-
thanks for the info on Cheyenne Autumn. another question. from when i went with my parents to when i started going by myself one thing i always liked about reserved seat engagements was buying the souvenir program in the lobby during intermission. i have approx. 135 in my collection most of which i bought at theaters. others were purchased in memorabilia stores. which is where my question comes in. did Cheyenne Autumn have a souvenir program? i can’t imagine a big epic like CA with a big director and big stars released on a reserved seat engagement not having a souvenir program. yet in all memorabilia stores i have been to and all the online memorabilia sites i have looked at i have never seen one. in fact there are a few others big even award winning reserved seat films i have never come across a souvenir program for. i always thought roadshow engagements and souvenir programs were inseparable like peanut butter and jelly.
to AL A-
you are always quite helpful with my questions. to which could you please go to the Strand/Warner Cinerama page and see if with your font of knowledge you can answer my question about The Greatest Story Ever Told which opened at that theater Feb. of 1965. thank you.:–)
According to the NYT in April 1955, the Paramount VistaVision screen was 64ft x 35ft, the Roxy Cinemascope was 64.5ft x 26.5ft, the Warner Cinerama was 67ft x 24.5ft.
Thanks Robert….Once in awhile I see the ToddAO name in the credits of todays movies. I wonder if it is the same process being used. Even the largest screen in a multiplex, not counting IMAX, is not even close to the Michael Todd’s screen. I can only imagine the thrill of the Capitol’s.
In answer to BobbyS' questions: ToddAO was Mike Todd’s answer to Cinerama. He’d been in volved with Cinerama and wanted a process to emulate it with the picture “coming out of one hole” as opposed to the three projectors required for Cinerama at the time. The process was named after him and the American Optical company which developed the 70mm process for him. “Around The World In 80 Days” was his signature picture in the process. In a sense it combined the wide screen of CinemaScope with the sharpness of VistaVision which used two frames of 35mm moving horizontally through the camera to provide a larger negative.
Coming from Illinois I saw quite a few 70mm presentations at the Michael Todd, and I suspect the Capitol’s screen was much larger. The Michael Todd was converted from a legitimate theatre (either the Selwyn or the Harris I can’t remember which was which since they were both taken over by Todd and were side by side – the other house was the Cinestage after Todd took it over and was also 70mm equipped), therefore it wouldn’t have been as large as the Capitol which was a true “movie palace”. Nonetheless, the screen had great impact because it was proportioned to fit the house just as the Capitol’s was.
Thanks AlAlvarez. Was this screen as large as the Capitols? I remember seeing “Around the World in 80 Days” at the Michael Todd theater in Chicago in a very large cinerama-type screen. I believe it was super 70mm because there were not the usual 3 panels, but the screen was as large as Cinerama. Also what did Todd-AO mean? Was that a form of Cinemascope only larger? Thanks everyone. Glad everyone is back……..
Thanks AlAlvarez. Was this screen as large as the Capitols? I remember seeing “Around the World in 80 Days” at the Michael Todd theater in Chicago in a very large cinerama-type screen. I believe it was super 70mm because there were not the usual 3 panels, but the screen was as large as Cinerama. Also what did Todd-AO mean? Was that a form of Cinemascope only larger? Thanks everyone. Glad everyone is back……..
BobbyS, the Warner Cinerama was the Strand. http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/2975
Remember the “How the West Was Won” was 3-panel Cinerama which had a 6 perfs to the frame and 70MM had only 5 perfs. So the 3-panel presentaions had a larger screen to the 70MM. When the Capitol Theatre became a Super Cinerama house in 1962, the screen was 3000 square feet and was louvred.
I’m giving the edge to the Cinerama screen at the Capitol. Something about the curve, the way it just enveloped you. Really amazing.
I have tried to get Warner Cinerama page and only got Warner theater which of course is gone. How did the screen at the Capitol compare to todays IMAX screens?
Hello-
thanks to William for the tech info. a additional question. I don’t know what the dimensions of the screen was when How The West Was Won played here starting April 1963. to which my question- when Cheyenne Autumn opened here Dec. 1964 how much of the screen that the HTWWW projection covered was covered by CA projection?
also I wanted to ask a question about The Greatest Story Ever Told so anyone who is knowledgeable about the Warner Cinerama please take a look at that page. thank you.
Thanks Jfg718 and William for describing the Capitol screen so vividly, bringing me back to the one and only time I saw it, “2001: A Space Odyssey”, 46 years ago today. I too think it was the largest screen I’ve ever seen, even after all these years.
For the film to use the full Cinerama screen the studio would have to pay a surcharge. And with that surcharge they can present the film in Cinerama on the Full Cinerama screen plus use the Cinerama name in ads. The three lists I have seen show that this was just a standard 70MM presentation. The Full Cinerama screen at the Capitol Theatre was 90' x 33'. All Super-Cinerama houses had an extra stop for their masking console in the booth: Cinerama / 70MM / CinemaScope / Flat or Wide (1:85).
While I can’t recall using “cinerama” in the ads, I can tell you I saw Cheyenne Autumn at the Capitol during Christmas week 1964 and I recall it being projected on as large of a screen as I had ever seen. If memory serves me correctly when the red curtains opened it revealed a screen from floor to ceiling encompassing about the entire length of the theater. I remember the overwhelming size since I sat in the first row! So it’s quite possible the screen had the same dimension as the cinerama screen used for How the West was Won.
Hello-
its nice to know the sending of messages has returned. i guess the disruption will remain a mystery.
now a few weeks back i mentioned i was 99% sure that Cheyenne Autumn which opened here Dec.1964 was a single lens Cinerama film or as the ads would said- “presented in Cinerama”. i had no newspaper ads or mail order forms to back my 99% certainty. now my fellow posters have stated in reply that this was not the case. so trying to figure a reason for my 99% certainty maybe i read an ad that said something like “see it on the giant Cinerama screen” since the Cinerama was still up maybe they figured lets use it as a selling point.
For a film to be presented in Cinerama, the studio had to sign and pay a surcharge to do so. The D-150 system had the same surcharge for presentations. And my messages just started up again like everyone else in the last few days.
Hello-
Opps I forgot to add an interesting note.for about a month now I have not received any messages in my inbox that theaters in Manhattan that I am on the list for have received new comments. these notes on Cheyenne Autumn being an example. I only realized they were posted because I looked this page up.
to Peter A.–
thanks for the info. one’s memory does play tricks on you and I guess this is an instance. I don’t know why I thought this. its just i swear I can
remember seeing an ad in a NYC newspaper at the time of its opening. oh,well.
No mention of Cinerama in either LA or NY engagements:
http://fromscripttodvd.com/70mm_in_new_york_1964.htm
http://fromscripttodvd.com/70mm_in_los_angeles_1964.htm
I don’t think so. It was filmed in SuperPanavision 70 and tech credits around the Internet say that it only had regular 70mm prints. Why do you think it was billed as a Cinerama presentation?
Hello-
i hope my fellow fans of the late but great Loew’s Capitol/Cinerama can answer a question. John Ford’s “Cheyenne Autumn” opened the fall of 1964 on a reserved seat engagement. this is where my question comes in. i wouldn’t bet my next paycheck but i am 99% certain that the film was one of the 10 or so single lens Cinerama films. now i can find no newspaper ads or copies of the mail order form and like stuff online to bolster my claim. so was “Cheyenne Autumn” one of the 10 or so films presented “in Cinerama” or not? again i’m 99% certain it was.
bigjoe59, the film was not the whole show. A fourth week was rare at the Capitol in the early thirties.
Upload 1935 “Escapade” MGM promo ad.