Loew's State Theatre
1540 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
1540 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10036
39 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 536 comments
Thanks HowardB..I just read your link. I asked Music Box Theater people in Chicago why not a print of “Around” shown at their 70mm festival. They said there is not a good print of the film available. “Cleopatra” was outstanding in 70mm. I loved reading about the Todd-AO special projector…No wonder the film was so impressive shown at the Michael Todd theater in Chicago in 1956
I wrote my experience seeing “Around the World” 70mm here, http://www.in70mm.com/news/2014/afi_festival/index.htm
Just saw that the roadshow Astoria Theater in London played Paint Your Wagon for an amazing 79 weeks opening in Jan of ‘70. Anybody know how many weeks it played at the State 2? I’m not sure it even play till Easter of '70. That’s a great run considering roadshows were bombing in NY. That’s a great run even at the height of the roadshow era. Around the World played at the Astoria for 104 weeks and I think it was 35mm!
I don’t believe World has played in Todd AO in NY since its initial Rivoli run. Does a 70mm print even exist or is it a lost film? Maybe it’s played in CA or Europe? I’ve never seen it listed in any 70mm festivals. Strange for a film that was so enormously popular.
Some of the movies I got to see include KING KONG (1976), SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, AMERICAN HOT WAX, GREASE, STAR TREK (1979), THE WARRIORS, THE FOG, the brief 1980 SUPERMAN rerelease, THE FIRST DEADLY SIN, NEIGHBORS, STAR TREK II, GHOSTBUSTERS, THE COTTON CLUB, FLETCH, BACK TO THE FUTURE ROCKY IV (not my idea), GUNG HO!, STAR TREK IV. Another grand theatre that is still very much missed.
The X was the only rating that could be self imposed without even submitting the film. Studios fought the rating in the late seventies and eighties, but they sought it in the early days when it was box office bait. Once you advertised the film as ‘X’ you could not change it for a year even if you had been awarded an R. Variety says “COWBOY” originally got an R and UA went with an X anyway. They eventually went back to the R when many malls started banning X films. “A CLOCKWORK ORANGE”, for example, was cut and re-submitted a year after the first release.
“MIDNIGHT COWBOY” never got an “X”. It received an “R” rating and decided to go with the “X” instead. It was allowed to revert to the “R” rating a year later, as per the rules.
“MIDNIGHT COWBOY” had a self imposed X rating and became a big hit. Jack Valenti did more for X-rated films by attacking this film than he could have possibly imagined. After this film became a hit, mainstream Hollywood studios (Universal & Fox), self imposed X-ratings on many of their movies and were greatly rewarded for it by the boxoffice.
Ah, the ‘70s….
“WITHOUT A STITCH” opened at the State and the Cine (Orpheum 2) in January 1970. It was rated X at the time.
When and where did Without A Stitch play?
I remember seeing something said by Jack Valenti how disappointing it was seeing a film like this playing on Broadway. Maybe it was X at the time though a poster I saw said R.
Fantastic pic, with amazing detail when you zoom in on the full size and do a little panning and scanning. Thanks for sharing the find, David!
Shorpy link with a 1949 photo. Be sure to click on View Full Size.
http://www.shorpy.com/node/23240
The Christmas 1969 film at the State One was “Gaily, Gaily” with Beau Bridges. A rare film to find today.
Per the posted ad for Dr Dolittle comment:State I was the orchestra and State II was the balcony.
By Christmas ‘69 neither film was at this theater. Chitty Chitty was long gone. I saw it summer of '69 at a drive-in and Oliver went into wide release for Christmas '69 and was no longer a reserved seat attraction at least in NY. Paint Your Wagon was the reserved seat attraction in State II in '69 and the last one ever at Loew’s State. I think the X rated Without a Stitch(somebody correct me if I’m wrong) might have been the State I Christmas film heralding in the Times Square squalor of 70s drugs and exploitation.
I saw Dolittle in the suburbs at Christmas time ‘68 and knew even as a child it was a dog. Tried watching it on DVD and stopped at the intermission with no desire to go back to it. Funny because it has a very good score. Even Bobby Darin put out a good album of the songs. It’s probably the reason Tommy Tune tried to make it into a stage musical which didn’t make it to Broadway.
Once the reviews came out the box office must have just died. But it made a spectacular billboard across the street above the Astor and Victoria. Remember seeing it on my way with my family to The Happiest Millionaire at the Music Hall. Somebody must have a photo of that.
1958 photo added via Al Ponte’s Time Machine-New York Facebook page.
I agree Paint Your Wagon much maligned as a movie…probably miscast in terms of talent for musicals but the story, the songs are great and Lee Marvin Clint Eastwood Jean Seberg can only be faulted for a lack of chemistry
1962 photo added via Raymond Storey.
Paint Your Wagon is another film that should have been shot in 70MM. As in Camelot Truscott’s wonderful work never got the photography it should have. In Cecil Beaton’s diaries he talks about the opening night world premiere at Loew’s State, how dreadful the film is and fleeing at intermission. Actually the complete roadshow film is very entertaining and the stereophonic score is stunning.
Note the mail order ad says 70MM and the opening day ad says Panavision.
How can you not like Lee Marvin singing Wanderin' Star with a great back up male chorus that could never be used on stage? The same with Maria. Some great songs here.
Thank you very much!!
Is this the theatre Elvis Presley worked at(as a usher?) before he was famous?
I wish I knew as much about classic movie houses then as I know now. I would have made it a point to visit every single remaining one a least once. And the ones I really did the visit over the years I would have paid closer attention to, savoring the experience.
That said, I knew enough by 1987 to be at the last show of the upstairs Loews State 2 so that I could get one last look at the proscenium, ceiling, fixtures…which I did indeed savor …
Those sure were the good old days!
I must admit it was better when all the grind houses were there.
Times Square is now nothing more than a Disneyland for adults . It is a shell of what it used to be. It is a tourist trap. By the way,I live in NY and avoid it like the plague.
I just checked out this page for the first time in a while, and there are so many great new photographs in the photo section… Thanks everybody, it really is the users' contributions that make this one of my favorite sites.