RKO Warner Twin Theatre
1579 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
1579 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
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That was 1978 when the RKO CINERAMA had a 70mm film festival of Broadway musicals. You can see the ad for it at the bottom of this page - https://incinerama.com/warnerny.htm
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to vindanpar- a few weeks back we were discussion why the Todd-AO roadshow cut of Oklahoma survives yet the original Todd-AO roadshow cut of South Pacific doesn’t. the interesting thing is if the original Todd-AO roadshow cut of South Pacific was used in the 70MM festival why when the home video market started a few years later did it suddenly disappear. the “roadshow cut” on the blu-ray disc is a reconstruction using clips from a B&W work print to replace the scenes that were cut to make the general release print. here’s an interesting bit of info.
My Fair Lady was especially glorious and will never be seen that way again.
It was an original TODD AO 6 track stereo print and even despite the hallucinatory colors it was a knockout.
In the New Broadway Triplex Theatres.
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/2975/photos/320050
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/2975/photos/319987
RKO Century Warner.
I believe that a triplex apartment building or theater would have a common entrance.
However, on that website I do see that the theater’s Re-opening was advertised as the RKO Stanley Warner Triplex, but I don’t believe that it ever functioned under that name, especially since Stanley Warner only operated the Orleans and not the Cinerama or Penthouse.
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I believe it was the late 70s? when this theater held a festival of great films that were shot in 70MM. one of which was South Pacific. for those who might have attended was the print shown of SP the original Todd-AO roadshow print pr the general release print?
By the way, the link posted by Cinerama – https://incinerama.com/warnerny.htm – is a treasure trove of rare photos, advertisements, newspaper and trade magazine articles, and more. Well worth a look.
While the Strand was eventually divided into three screens, with the Orleans built on the stage using a separate entrance on 47th Street, I wouldn’t exactly call this a triplex.
Total length of The Greatest Story Ever Told was 221 minutes with a 15 minute intermission - https://incinerama.com/gset.htm
On June 30, 1968 the Warner Theatre became the RKO-Stanley Warner Triplex - https://incinerama.com/warnerny.htm
About 20 minutes was cut from Scent of Mystery and retitled Holiday in Spain. It played it some Cinerama theatres in 70mm Cinerama and others in 3 panel Cinerama. The Blu-ray came from the 70mm print. https://incinerama.com/holidayinspain.htm
The Golden Head played at the Royalty Cinerama theatre in London from April 8 to June 2 1965. The film was never released in the United States. On March 11, 2006 a 70mm print was shown at the Bradford Cinerama Theatre. On September 9, 2009 a 70mm print of was shown at the Cinerama Dome. https://incinerama.com/goldenhead.htm
Here is the AFI version of the edits: https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/22336
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to CCMPI- thanks for your reply. I’m sure every film ever made has had cuts of various lengths made during the editing/post production process. but to be referred to as the “original cut” I would say it would have to have been shown theatrically regardless for how short a period of time. for instance the original roadshow cut of 2001 played the Capitol for a week before Kubrick ordered cuts. so why would both IMDB and Wikipedia refer to The Greatest Story Ever Told’s “original cut” for its Cinerama roadshow engagements as being 4hrs. 20mins. when as you state such a cut never existed?
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when The Greatest Story Ever Told premiered here Feb.15,1965 what was the running tome at the premiere? the IMDB page for the film says the original Cinerama print was 260mins. or 4hrs. 20mins.. the 4hr. 20min. running time is also noted on the Wikipedia page for the film. was the twice noted original run time of 4hrs. 20mins. ever used during the film’s roadshow run at this theater?
Please update, on June 30, 1968 it was the Cinerama Theatre (Orchestra), Penthouse Theatre (Balcony)On June 16, 1976 RKO rename the theatre Cinerama 1 and 2. The upstairs theatre Penthouse Theatre became Cineram 2 and finally on June 3, 1983 it was refurbished and rename RKO Warner Twin.
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on pg.1 of the photo section is an ad with highly acclaimed critics' quotes for the New York premiere of Isadora with Vanessa Redgrave. interesting note. I believe the Paramount Theater(now the El Capitan) in L.A. was the only theater in the entire U.S.to have played the original uncut version.
Yes Jack Valenti lamented at the time of Without a Stitch about porn coming to a first run Broadway house. Especially one that recently had a year long run of a family roadshow.
One of the last hits it played before it closed was “Aliens” on two screens in the summer of 1986.
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to vindanpar. the Loews State stayed almost but not quite exploitation film free, it did show “Without A Stitch” a Swedish soft-core film.
also the Capitol escaped becoming an exploitation house by Closing June? of 1968.
I did see Superman II here. But it did in the very early 70s start showing a lot of exploitation fare unlike the Ziegfeld which for the most part played Hollywood A films. The Ziegfeld was never an exploitation house which all the great Times Square houses were at some point if not all the time. The one that remained for the most part a class act until the end was Loew’s State. I don’t know why exactly.
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being a lifelong film buff I am still a tad confused as to what the term “grindhouse” means. if I am not mistaken this theater played several studio releases after TSON ran here. for instance Apocalypse Now played here after its run at the Ziegfeld.
yeah Mike(saps) I miss them too. And I never thought I’d say that.
“Hey vindanpar, we resent that remark…!”
—-the late, lamented 42nd Street grindhouses
I bought a DVD of “NORWAY” back in London that was probably a bootleg. The DVD had no ending but the film was dreadful anyway.
Kino Lorber is releasing Song of Norway on bluray. No information except that it is a new 2K master. From a 70mm negative? No specifics. Normally I would have run to a roadshow film like this but after the reviews I stayed clear. Still haven’t seen it except for a bit where Florence Henderson is rolling around in the grass. I thought no wonder the great Strand/Cinerama theater did a 180 from a prestigious first run roadshow theater straight to 42nd street grind house.