When Funny Girl played at the Criterion in ‘68 a mezz seat(considered the best place for a movie though not by me) for a Saturday night was $6.00. A top Broadway musical for orch would cost you $15.00. This means that a roadshow mezz seat(which of course does not and will not ever exist again)would cost you today about $40.00. Then if in line with contemporary avarice we were to discuss Premium Seating a theater then could charge $100 for a hit roadshow film.
When Funny Girl played at the Criterion in ‘68 a mezz seat(considered the best place for a movie though not by me) for a Saturday night was $6.00. A top Broadway musical for orch would cost you $15.00. This means that a roadshow mezz seat(which of course does not and will not ever exist again)would cost you today about $40.00. Then if in line with contemporary avarice we were to discuss Premium Seating a theater then could charge $100 for a hit roadshow film.
When Funny Girl played at the Criterion in ‘68 a mezz seat(considered the best place for a movie though not by me) for a Saturday night was $6.00. A top Broadway musical for orch would cost you $15.00. This means that a roadshow mezz seat(which of course does not and will not never exit again- the Ziegfeld is really far back orch)would cost you today about $40.00. Then if in line with contemporary avarice we were to discuss Premium Seating a theater then could charge $100 for a hit roadshow film.
And if you saw Love Me or Leave Me in the summer of 55 you could go back to see Mister Roberts which followed. Has a greater heaven on earth ever existed?
Thanks so much for the info. The loss of these two theaters was a tragedy for the city. I saw an ad once for the St James for Sacaramouche. With Ramon Navarro!! So it was damn old! But it had been remodeled in the interior to make it a first class roadshow house. This began the architectural destruction of this once beautiful and classic Jersey shore town. Absolutely sickening.
It was a jewel.
Ken do you know when the St James was demolished. Do you know if there are photos available of the interiors and exteriors of both. The only ones I know of of the Mayfair are on the Asbury site and they are at a distance.
Jim the aesthetic which governs our black box rooms also governs the criminal blighting of our neighborhoods everywhere. The northern immigration from the south in the 70’s which destroyed the lower middle and middle class fabric of so many of our cities has now transformed itself into glass and steel box fungus which is eating away at what was left.
Most of the films made today would be ludicrous if presented in a movie palace or even a single screen 60’s theater. Their stripped down faux intensity(where nothing really happens which is ad nauseum the point) is the critical and audience rage. For goodness sake people just wait for the DVD.
Would you really want to see Sideways or Million Dollar Baby at the Roxy or the Cathay Circle?
By the way these black boxes are not cinemas they are screening rooms.
It’s too bad that Goldwyn did not show Oklahoma at the Cinerama and instead opened it at the Cinema 1. While it looked great this is simply not an upper East Side film(Though try explaining that to someone who works for a film company where total stupidity seems to be a requisite.) Of course the Rivoli would have been ideal but that was probably the problem.
I’d love to know from the above photo what the demolition crew found of the Strand under the interior of the walls installed for roadshow presentation. It would most likely make me weep.
Thanks for your reponses. I was hoping that those audiences in ‘59 always gave that a huge laugh as it’s a great joke and not at all subtle. So I guess Hitchcock was laughing to himself.
Does anybody who saw North by Norwest at the Music Hall(perhaps multiple times?) remember if the final shot got a laugh? Or were the Music Hall patrons of the era too staid and conservative to get the joke(or if they did they kept it to themselves?)
Your right but that kind of thing really bugs me like in Annie where Camille is playing at the Music Hall. It ruins the movies credibility(in fact I believe even Pauline Kael complained about it in her review of the movie.)
So everyone go see the Haunting tomorrow night at the Loews Jersey and/or go see the great Jean Arthur tonight at the Film Forum. Not everyone’s got to have a gimmick.
Does anyone know if Wings played second run at the Roxy?
As every New Yorker knows it opened at the Criterion 1(as in first not as in the United Artist multiplex or the art deco beauty we knew for so many years.) But there is an old Petticot Junction with Arlen and Rodgers where Uncle Joe says it opened at the NY Roxy rather than the theater in Hooterville.
From what I’ve seen of that website there is just a cursory nod to the Music Halls history as a presentation house solely for pr purposes. The current management seems to have done as much as possible to eradicate the Hall’s pre-1978 existence and has absolutely no interest in or sensitivity to its historical place in New York’s cultural life.
If only movies today were as much fun.
There isn’t one director today who has come up with a scene half as good as Colbert in the drink in Sign of the Cross.
When Funny Girl played at the Criterion in ‘68 a mezz seat(considered the best place for a movie though not by me) for a Saturday night was $6.00. A top Broadway musical for orch would cost you $15.00. This means that a roadshow mezz seat(which of course does not and will not ever exist again)would cost you today about $40.00. Then if in line with contemporary avarice we were to discuss Premium Seating a theater then could charge $100 for a hit roadshow film.
When Funny Girl played at the Criterion in ‘68 a mezz seat(considered the best place for a movie though not by me) for a Saturday night was $6.00. A top Broadway musical for orch would cost you $15.00. This means that a roadshow mezz seat(which of course does not and will not ever exist again)would cost you today about $40.00. Then if in line with contemporary avarice we were to discuss Premium Seating a theater then could charge $100 for a hit roadshow film.
When Funny Girl played at the Criterion in ‘68 a mezz seat(considered the best place for a movie though not by me) for a Saturday night was $6.00. A top Broadway musical for orch would cost you $15.00. This means that a roadshow mezz seat(which of course does not and will not never exit again- the Ziegfeld is really far back orch)would cost you today about $40.00. Then if in line with contemporary avarice we were to discuss Premium Seating a theater then could charge $100 for a hit roadshow film.
And if you saw Love Me or Leave Me in the summer of 55 you could go back to see Mister Roberts which followed. Has a greater heaven on earth ever existed?
Thanks so much for the info. The loss of these two theaters was a tragedy for the city. I saw an ad once for the St James for Sacaramouche. With Ramon Navarro!! So it was damn old! But it had been remodeled in the interior to make it a first class roadshow house. This began the architectural destruction of this once beautiful and classic Jersey shore town. Absolutely sickening.
It was a jewel.
Ken do you know when the St James was demolished. Do you know if there are photos available of the interiors and exteriors of both. The only ones I know of of the Mayfair are on the Asbury site and they are at a distance.
Bruce that’s a great list of fims.
I’ve also heard there’s a classic Hudson County old fashioned chinese restaurnant in the area.
The Music Hall’s survival is a Pyrrhic victory at best.
Which I am sure will utilize the Hall’s magnificent facilities with equal skill and flair.
CC I’m personally waiting for Playboy’s topless mud wrestling.
Please The Great Escape or Where Eagles Dare or Von Ryan’s Express.
Talk about selling your soul to the devil.
Jim the aesthetic which governs our black box rooms also governs the criminal blighting of our neighborhoods everywhere. The northern immigration from the south in the 70’s which destroyed the lower middle and middle class fabric of so many of our cities has now transformed itself into glass and steel box fungus which is eating away at what was left.
Most of the films made today would be ludicrous if presented in a movie palace or even a single screen 60’s theater. Their stripped down faux intensity(where nothing really happens which is ad nauseum the point) is the critical and audience rage. For goodness sake people just wait for the DVD.
Would you really want to see Sideways or Million Dollar Baby at the Roxy or the Cathay Circle?
By the way these black boxes are not cinemas they are screening rooms.
With a recitation what exactly would one recite on the stage of a huge movie palace?
Patton a good movie but after over two hours of a bullying George C Scott you kind of know what Ava Gardner went through.
It’s too bad that Goldwyn did not show Oklahoma at the Cinerama and instead opened it at the Cinema 1. While it looked great this is simply not an upper East Side film(Though try explaining that to someone who works for a film company where total stupidity seems to be a requisite.) Of course the Rivoli would have been ideal but that was probably the problem.
I’d love to know from the above photo what the demolition crew found of the Strand under the interior of the walls installed for roadshow presentation. It would most likely make me weep.
They don’t seem to like musicals all that much. Either the MGM kind or the wide screen ‘60s classics. Too bad.
Thanks for your reponses. I was hoping that those audiences in ‘59 always gave that a huge laugh as it’s a great joke and not at all subtle. So I guess Hitchcock was laughing to himself.
Does anybody who saw North by Norwest at the Music Hall(perhaps multiple times?) remember if the final shot got a laugh? Or were the Music Hall patrons of the era too staid and conservative to get the joke(or if they did they kept it to themselves?)
Your’re right. In the final shot of Sound of Music don’t the Von Trapps escape into… GERMANY?!!!
Your right but that kind of thing really bugs me like in Annie where Camille is playing at the Music Hall. It ruins the movies credibility(in fact I believe even Pauline Kael complained about it in her review of the movie.)
So everyone go see the Haunting tomorrow night at the Loews Jersey and/or go see the great Jean Arthur tonight at the Film Forum. Not everyone’s got to have a gimmick.
Does anyone know if Wings played second run at the Roxy?
As every New Yorker knows it opened at the Criterion 1(as in first not as in the United Artist multiplex or the art deco beauty we knew for so many years.) But there is an old Petticot Junction with Arlen and Rodgers where Uncle Joe says it opened at the NY Roxy rather than the theater in Hooterville.
From what I’ve seen of that website there is just a cursory nod to the Music Halls history as a presentation house solely for pr purposes. The current management seems to have done as much as possible to eradicate the Hall’s pre-1978 existence and has absolutely no interest in or sensitivity to its historical place in New York’s cultural life.
If only movies today were as much fun.
There isn’t one director today who has come up with a scene half as good as Colbert in the drink in Sign of the Cross.