Loew's Capitol Theatre
1645 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
1645 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
47 people
favorited this theater
Showing 676 - 700 of 1,086 comments
Sorry I got to the Capitol only twice – “Kings Go Forth” and, near the end, for “In the Heat of the Night.”
Warren:
Thanks. I have checked so many sites and books over the past 10 years for photos of the Roxy and the Capitol booths but so far no luck. I will shoot an e mail to the archives just in case.
I
Warren:
…the booth at the rear of the balcony.
Warren:
Thanks for the great photos.
Do you have access to any which show the Capitol’s projection booth?
The Capitol is on the right in this 1927 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/58wtly
Thank you, Warren! You have been extremely helpful. Yes, the on line NY Times review doesn’t mention the Dorsey stage show. At my age, the mind plays funny tricks but I do seem to remember June Allyson playing a pregnant cello player in the movie “Music For Millions”.
Thanks for the response. I just found some old family records that positively set the date to January 1945. So now to find more info on the movie and the Tommy Dorsey Stage show. Maybe the NY Times!
Thanks for the response. I’m trying to recall a memory from my childhood:>) I am most interested in the number of times that they were booked during the year. I was 11 and stayed for at least two shows! I don’t recall the movie or the exact time of year. Buddy Rich was still with him and I understand that he left toward the end of 1945. There is a message above that indicates that Tommy and Jimmy both were there after Thanksgiving, Tommy, around Christmas. I don’t think I was there at Christmas time.
I attended a Tommy Dorsey stage show at the Capitol in NYC in 1945. Does anyone have information on the number of times that Dorsey appeared in 1945?
I was eating lunch in Culver City back in the 80s when I noticed a lot of attention being paid to a mortuary across the street. It was Rita Hayworth’s funeral. She was unique.
Sadly, the original three channel (left, center, right) stereo tracks are now lost. SADIE was one of the first location shoots (Hawaii) to record on three distinct 35mm magnetic tracks.
January 1949 Cary Grant starred in “Every Girl Should be Married” on screen and the stage show featured Burt Lancaster, Julie Wilson and the Skitch Henderson Orchestra.
View link
Very ironic. I probably first saw PLANET on April 7, 1968. After that I was a huge Heston fan. I didn’t agree with his politics later on, but I’ve never not been a fan of some of his movies. I think as an actor, if the script and director were good, then Heston could be very good. A lot of people think he was over-the-top in PLANET, but considering what the character had to deal with, I think Heston got the tone just about right.
CNN is reporting that Charlton Heston has passed away at the age of 84.
Thanks for posting the images, Bill.
Yeah, 2001’s prices were probably higher than PLANET’s because of the 70mm presentation on the former, but I’ll bet PLANET’s prices varied too depending on what section you wanted to sit in.
By the way, the color images in the ad are merely cloned and pasted over the B&W ad in photoshop from a scan of the film’s original “Half-sheet” color poster, which is basically the same as that ad in design. Oh, the things you can do digitally these days!
The admission price for “Apes” was less than $3, probably $2 or $2.25. My cousin and I started going to movies on Broadway fairly often starting in 1969, and that was the ticket price range in all the Times Square theaters (except on 42nd St. where it was much cheaper). I remember quite well when it jumped up to $3: “Love Story” at Loew’s State 1 in December 1970. We didn’t have much money on us in those years, and we almost didn’t go in because of that.
The roadshow prices for “2001” at the Capitol ranged from $2.50 to $4.25:
View link
Rory sent another ad, this one from the New York Times. He added the color himself. Notice how the costumes look exactly the way they did in the movie (he is the expert, after all):
View link
Actually I know for a fact, since I looked up the premiere ad in The New York times on microfilm at the library, that at the Capitol Theatre “Planet of the Apes” had seven performances during the day, starting at 10 am, and ending with 10:50 pm performance. I’ll also bet that the ticket price was more than $3. I’ll have to look into that.
Too bad Apes didn’t just play at the Capitol. It would have been much more of an event.
Christmas ‘68 in Times Square. Almost every theater had a big roadshow.
The Hall had a David Niven comedy for the Christmas show.
A nice time for mid town. (except of course for the tragic demolition of the Capitol and the Astor from which Times Square would never recover.)
Saw Star Wars at the Stanley Warner Rte 4 when the orchestra was still intact. Spectacular.
It was the last great theater built in the tri state area.
Rory asked me to post this ad from Billboard Magazine, late February 1968:
View link
Between “Apes” and “2001”, 1968 was one of the glory years of science fiction movies, perhaps THE glory year. Others that come to mind are 1951 (“The Day the Earth Stood Still” and “The Thing”), 1956 (“Forbidden Planet” and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”), 1977 (“Star Wars” and “Close Encounters”) and 1982 (“Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”, “E.T.” and “Blade Runner”).
Bill Huelbig:
Check this out: View link
Also, could you email me at: ? I want to send you an image of something.
Rory
Paul, thanks for that great story. I always wanted to know what that show was really like. The only eyewitness account I’d seen before yours was in one of the Kubrick books. The author described the sad sight of the Star Child’s eyes staring at the backs of the people streaming up the aisles and out of the theater before the picture was over.
With all due respect to Judith Crist and the others, I’d say time has unequivocally proven you right!
Three nights in advance of the NY premiere, I attended the first press screening of 2001 at the Capitol at its full-length. I believe it clocked in at 161 minutes. The place was packed, but after intermission several hundred people were missing. During the closing credits, there were just two of us left, the other being Gene Shalit who was “conducting” “The Blue Danube”. I turned around at the end and waved to Kubrick in the booth and gave him a thumbs up. In the lobby, I joined a heated conversation with Judith Crist, Bruce Bahrenberg and other critics, who were loudly putting the picture down. I told them about “The Sentinel,” the landmark Clarke short story, and what the possible meaning of the picture was. They laughed me out of the lobby! The director cut the film, supposedly on the print, over the next few days, and the shortened version was the one which opened at the premiere. I’m still a great fan of 2001 with its enormous impact on future motion pictures, and the Capitol Cinerama as it was on that night with that gigantic curved screen, even in sharp focus from my third row seat!
Whenever I stand on that Broadway block between 50th and 51st, I always wish I had a time machine to take me back to 1968 so I could see “2001” at the Capitol. I’d also use the machine to visit 1961 (“West Side Story” at the Rivoli), 1963 (“How the West Was Won” at the Capitol, then known as Loew’s Cinerama) and 1959 (“The Nun’s Story” and “North by Northwest” at Radio City Music Hall).
1977 was a good year too (“Star Wars” at Loew’s Astor Plaza).
1968 doesn’t work for me, as I was six years old. Too many rules. How about 1977? Now there was a great year.
Most of the original “paper” on it, pressbooks, stills, etc., etc., but I know other fans with much more. Anyway, when I went to NYC earlier this week, my friend drove into the city from NJ and he parked down on 42nd St. after just getting out of the Lincoln tunnel. We then walked up Broadway to get to the Ziegfeld where “Planet of the Apes” is currently playing. We stopped in front of where the Capitol once stood, and I said how I wish I had Taylor’s time machine. Not Taylor from “Apes,” but Rod Taylor’s time machine from the movie of the same name. Oh, to be able to get in it and turn the lever back to 1968!