Roxy Theatre
153 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
153 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
83 people
favorited this theater
Showing 701 - 725 of 1,213 comments
Yes, sorry, I misquoted Scorcese. He did say Capitol, not Paramount.
But why wouldn’t someone who may have been vastly interested in wide-
screen, regardless of his/her youth, not be able to recognize the
difference between horizontal VV and normal 4-perf 35mm. I’m older than
Scorcese and I sure as heck could tell the difference at the Philadelphia Stanley. The difference wasn’t minor. It was awesome! Of course it would help – and this was my case and maybe Scorcese’s – being familiar with the size and shape of the pre-VV images.
In 1959 “Rio Bravo” opened here with a stage show called “Spring Fever"
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Warrenâ€"
That’s a swell picture of the Roxy’s early-50’s interior. If I might venture a date, I’d fix it between late April-late August 1953. A few months ago I posted a shot of the Roxy’s interior after its renovation in Dec. ’52.
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In it, you’ll note an angled horizontal-teaser curtain with ghastly scalloped side-tormentors framing the screen. In Spring, 20C-Fox announced its development of CinemaScope and in late April at the theater (“Call Me Madam†was its film attraction, a hold-over Easter show) the studio offered a press demonstration of the new process (one demo-scene compared “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend†from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes†shot in conventional 1x1.33 with the same number reshot in CinemaScopeâ€"I’d love to see that one!). Clearly, the teaser and tormentors had to be removed to accommodate the enlarged screen, and your picture shows that they no longer hung in place. The following September, the CinemaScope screen permanently dislodged the conventional one and changed the proscenium yet again.
Your picture shows nicely how the Roxy projected its pre-CinemaScope films on a picture sheet suspended in front of a pale blue curtain, the latter dimly lit throughout the presentation, without the usual frames of black masking. The management claimed that this presentation was easier on the eyes. When Ice Colorama converted the entire stage to a skating ring in Dec. ’52, the glare from the ice shot up to the screen’s surface, and to remedy it, a rubber runner was placed over the permafrost in front of the screen: you can see that in the picture, too. It’s a wonderfully crisp shot, and greatly superior to the one I posted. Thanks.
Besides, in NYC “Vertigo” opened at the Capitol, not the Paramount. If Sorcese had shown up at the correct theater, I might have rubbed elbows with him when I saw that film on 51st and B'way in May ‘58. We were the same age, and though I probably couldn’t pass a blindfold test (an unusually cruel test to take for movies, in any event), I read the papers, knew the technology (or thought I did), and would look for clues to judge the presentation.
In my memory, the Capitol took the unusual turn of reducing the size of its screen from the nearly full-proscenium curved screen of Summer ‘53 (“From Here to Eternity”) to a flatter, more modestly sized one by Summer '56 (“War and Peace”). On the page for the Capitol, Warren has noted Bosley Crowther’s criticism of the screen’s dizzying dimensions when it debuted with “Never Let Me Go” in Spring '53; perhaps that’s why the theater eventually settled for diminished proportions.
In the late ‘50s, even though the Capitol never offered horizontal VistaVision, its projection was flawless—better, I’d argue, than the Roxy’s whose page I’m using. 'Scuse me, Roxy.
Oops! How’s this?
I seriously doubt that Scorsese (all of 16 years old in 1958) would have been able to tell the difference between horizontal and standard 35mm presentation of VistaVision on the huge Paramount screen.
Martin Scorsese.
I seriously doubt that Scorcese (all of 16 years old in 1958) would have been able to tell the difference between horizontal and standard 35mm presentation of VistaVision on the huge Paramount screen.
Re Vito’s comment October 7: “…was very surprised that the Criterion,which was renovated for the movie, did not install VistaVision projectors, but again it was all about the photography, not the projection.”
I also find it curious that VV possibly may not have been installed there in 1956. The majority opinion is that VV horizontal projection had pretty much died out by that time. However, on the restored “Vertigo” DVD, there’s an interview with M. Scorcese, who knows a thing or two about widescreen, and he says (this is very nearly an exact quote)..“I saw ‘Vertigo’ at the Paramount in its original horizontal glory.” And this, of course, would have been in 1958. Whaddya think?
The last booking :(
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John Ford’s The Quiet Man opened at the Capitol Theatre on August 21, 1952 and was reviewed the following day in the New York Times. I just found the review and it indicates the Capitol Theatre.
The pic of Swanson IS famously in the rubble of the foyer, or the Grand Rotunda, not the stage.
Also, can anyone tell me where THE QUIET MAN played. I have a Republic book that has an anecdote about it being the only Rep film to play Radio City because Yates went every day just to watch the logo come up on the screen there. Can that be true? In Sydney, Republic Films usually played the Plaza, our single level Roxy lookalike (see previous comments), but other Rep films like WAKE OF THE RED WITCH and JOHNNY GUITAR, SANDS OF IWO JIMA also played out best biggest cinemas. Monogram’s million dollar SUSPENSE (1946) also made the grade. Did any of these titles play either the Roxy RCMH or Capitol or Strand? I understand the prestige of those NY houses and am keen to know where hit pics from Rep, Monogram and Allied Artists played: IT HAPPENED ON 5TH AVENUE, THE GANGSTER, FRIENDLY PERSUASION etc. Thankyou to all who can help. All those films where prestige releases here in Australia.
1938 “Suez” and a stage show (of which they give no details)
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Wow Warren, that’s a great photo:
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/Gloria.jpg
That is such an incredibly reality shaking photo for her to be on the stage, amid the rubble of the theater.
There is an ad here from March of 1955, the Roxy had “Untamed” with Tyrone Power and Susan Hayward
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1954 saw the serious Gregory Peck film “Night People” playing along with Cinemascope shorts.
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If I recall correctly (I don’t have my copy of the book on hand for reference at the moment), a story related in Ben M Hall’s ‘Best Remaining Seats’ mentions that during construction of the Roxy, Gloria Swanson visited the theatre and climbed the scaffolding to where Roxy was supervising some work on the dome. On a whim she etched something like ‘I love you Roxy’ into the wet plaster. Rather than being annoyed Roxy ordered it preserved and had it gilded along with the rest of the dome.
Dear Warren, after scrolling the entire site looking for mention of a ss featuring Milton Berel, I finally found it at the end. Your mention is for the movie Stella in 1950, however, the memory that I have is of Milton Berle and Dagmar. Do you have any further information on this for me. I have very veague memories of attending the Roxy with my mother in the early to mid-fifties. I would love to have more info.
Thanks,
You guys are amazing.
Warren, a shameless plug to be sure, but a welcome bit of information nevertheless.
Warren—
Thanks for another splendid list. I saw none of those shows there then, but as a compulsive newspaper reader at the time, I recall ads for most of them. Your list retrospectively explains why some particular come-ons remain in memory. The “China Doll” stage show with “Under My Skin” evidently prompted the Roxy mgt to push for extra publicity at the time. Likewise the Easter competition for “Cheaper By the Dozen” encouraged lavish advertising.
The contemporary fame of Faye Emerson, now a largely unknown minor movie star and major TV variety show hostess celebrated for her marriages (Eliot Roosevelt, Skitch Henderson) no doubt boosted “Love That Brute,” but the then-dim star of Lucy and Desi (just before exploding to superior magnitude) did little to brighten the run of “Night and the City” (now a cult favorite). What irony.
I remember that “The Gunfighter” and “Broken Arrow” got strong publicity at the time, when current competition with RCMH had already fallen by default to the Roxy’s favor: “The Next Voice You Hear” was one of the worst films ever to play at RCMH, while “The Men” featured a Marlon Brando who was practically unknown outside of B'way live theater: Marlon who?
And Martha Stewart! I had to research this one. You can Google “Martha Stewart singer 1950” to find data about her tragic early widowhood and a brief film career that included playing the murdered hat-check girl in Nicholas Ray’s “In a Lonely Place.” She was an add-on for the fabulous stage show with “Wabash Avenue,” one of the few shows to run beyond two weeks, and carried the stage show with “All About Eve” which ran a record six weeks, even with the bizarre opening policy of not seating patrons after the start of the film. What was Roxy thinking of?
It was a Gloria Swanson movie that opened the Roxy during her heyday. I think it was sad day for her as well as the theatre.brucec
Thanks for posting ‘that’ photograph Warren. I didn’t know that it was a colour photo, as I have only seen it previously reproduced in b&w.
I wonder who thought up the idea behind the photo, was it a local newspaper to support an article on the demolition of the Roxy, or a publicty shot for Gloria Swanson?
Thanks Warren, that was my feeling as well, good point about the half empty house. The same applied to the Roxy, although many 20th Century Fox pictures played there, the roadshows went into smaller houses like the Rivoli.
Veyoung, I believe because the “Ten Commandments was a hard ticket roadshow event it went to the criterion which was a roadshow house, I don’t ever recall the Paramount being used for roadshow
engagements(Warren?) I was very surprised that the Criterion,which was renovated for the movie, did not install VistaVision projectors, but again it was all about the photography, not the projection.
As for CinemaScope 55 at the Roxy, what you are talking about does ring a bell, thanks for pointing that out.
Hi, Vito and other NY projectionists and wide-screen fans: In the case of VV, there seems to be a lot of discussion about when/where/and how long it was actually used. In the “restored” ‘Vertigo’ DVD, there is a special segment with M. Scorcese, who would know a lot about widescreen, who says he saw “Vertigo” in (almost word-for-word quote) “its full horizontal projection system at the Times Square Paramount”. This would have been in 1958. I still can’t imagine that Paramount ran the world premiere engagement of “Ten Commandments” in 1956 at the Criterion not in full VV. All things are possible, but this would have been hard to believe.
In the case of CS55, the first few engagements were somewhat special in that, though 35mm projection prints were used, sound was provided by 6-track mag interlock. The full projection frame, w/o sound track, provided an anamorphic ratio of 2.55:1, the same as the original 35mm CS. Notice that the first theatres to run “CS55” were the same first houses to run “CS35”, to wit: New York, Roxy; Hollywood, Chinese; Philadelphia, Fox; and (I believe), Chicago, State-Lake.
I believe the feeling was that the movie was photographed in CinemaScope 55 which made the reduction prints look better than had it been shot in 35mm, so the advertising of CinemaScope 55 refered to the photography rather than the projection. It was Zanack’s little joke. The same thing happened with VistaVision which was in all the movie ads and even on some marquees, but again except for the Paramount and one film at Radio City, reduction prints were used.