Today Crowthers reviews are pretty uninteresting but he did write a Sunday essay in the Arts and Leisure section of the NYT’s after the opening of The Happiest Millionaire as the Christmas attraction in December of ‘67. He found the film so bad and the product at the Hall so poor that he wondered what was going on with the selection committee. Well things were only going to get considerably worse.
I wish I could get close up color photos of the the ‘60s corner signs. I remember seeing as an insert on the Family Affair(Brian Keith)show a brief shot of the Hawaii sign.
I doubt that the Music Hall would have played Guitar but Quiet Man would have been a great choice. John Ford had a couple of good movies at the Hall in the 30’s. They should have continued to show his films like they did with LeRoy, Wyler, Donen and Hitchcock. Does Mr. Roberts count as LeRoy or Ford?
Wasn’t the octopus in Reap the Wild Wind?
I think the boom years ended at the Music Hall in ‘55 which I’ve read was the last year it was in the black. It seems as well at that point that the quality of product became inconsistent though not as bad as it became in the latter 60’s after the success of Barefoot in the Park in '67.
Also the Hall started holding films a lot longer than they should have to avoid the costs of new stage shows. I’ll never forget how often the house was empty for Robin and Marion even before Easter.
I still can’t figure why anyone there saw this as a holiday film.
What a depressing, grainy, washed out, mediocre film( I won’t even go into the stage show.) Well that was the thinking that was going on in the exec offices of Rockefeller Center at the time.
Guys,
Before Cavalcade for Easter there was DeMilles Sign of the Cross(which presented on stage a march of the gladiators and a chariot race!) which like Cavalcade was hard ticket on Broadway first. Obviously the Music Hall was more flexible back then(King Kong was shared with a theater a block away) which I wish it had become during the 60’s considering the dreck they started playing later in the decade and the musicals they could have played like Thoroughly Modern Millie, Half a Sixpence and Chitty Chitty Banb Bang. Though if not great product(I happen to think the first two are wonderful) would have been better and bigger draws on second run than stuff like The Bobo, Sweet November, Hail Hero and the Brotherhood, and The Christmas Tree on first.)Also Oliver for Christmas ‘69 would have been 10x’s better than A Boy Named Charlie Brown.
The first film revival was Mary Poppins in '73 and when I read that earlier in that year I thought well now the Music Hall is getting a watchable movie.
But looking at the photos on the French site of the interior today it seems in very bad shape. Is it possible to save? Is enough left to restore it? It looks as though it would have to be almost rebuilt. I hope the photos make the situation look worse than it actually is. The only photo of the interior that I know of as it was originally is from The best Remaining Seats and it was magnificent. One of the architectural glories of Brooklyn.
I would give anything to have the Times Square of the 70’s back. Yes it was filthy with sex shops, drug dealers and prostitutes all over the place. But so much of what made it a great New York neighborhood still existed. I loved walking around it and now I try to avoid it at every opportunity. Perhaps the highway Robert Moses wanted for Soho can now be put through midtown. Absolutely nothing would be lost. It’s already all gone. Are there any of you out there who would regret the loss of the Marriott Marquis, the Virgin Megastore or Toys R Us? And then there’s the car dealership also known as the Minskoff.
CConnolly is right. Pretty soon a major developer will want it for a condo building. Gustave, do we know if she got the message? With so little she can do so much.
Would Streisand like to spearhead a campaign to save this important piece of Brooklyn history? First some money from other Hollywood Brooklynites to make it usable and then a couple of concerts to support a full scale restoration. I understand she has not retired from charitable concerts. Maybe a parade down Flatbush as well for the hometown girl made good.
From the vintage picture of part of the auditorium of this theater in the Daily New last Friday if you lived on the upper east side you had a great movie palace right there and didn’t need to go to Times Square.
It looked pretty spectacular.
Has anybody else noticed that Broadway has turned into Branson for the middle aged and that Andy Williams has become ABBA?
New York lost Times Square and it now has lost its culture.
Goodbye greatest city in the history of the world.
Marty,
The Criterion was a very elegant Art Deco theater with excellent sightlines. A spacious but not too large theater where the large screen was perfectly placed head on in front of the theater. It showed of its product as if they were jewels. Unless you were there during it’s heyday it’s hard to see in pictures what is more obvious in the old black and white photos of the Roccoco spectaculars built in the 20’s.
It was one of New York’s great movie theaters.
I always thought the Music Hall would have been perfect for Disney. I don’t know what happened after the Lion King but they certainly went their separate ways. Imagine Disney stage shows with great special effects and new Disney films along with revivals of Pinocchio, Bambi, Lady and the Tramp(in cinemascope on that glorious block length screen and Sleeping Beauty in 70mm.)
I once had a color photo of the finale of the Disney Easter show that played with Moon Pilot in ‘62. It looked great.
But this all makes too much sense so why would anybody even consider it?
Well considering that the Music Hall is now being used for singing midgets, Barney and the Rugrats it might as well be the world’s largest Cosco for all it contributes to New York’s culteral life. And when you think of the Roxy, Paramount and the Capitol the Beacon is practically a boobie prize.
These theaters could not have paid their own way but does Carnegie Hall or any of the theaters in Lincoln Center? Why couldnt the Rivoli have been used for the Jazz theater that just went up in columbus circle or the Strand been used for a new home for the New York City Opera which they now want to build. What about the stuff that goes on at the Theater at Madison Square Garden couldn’t they have done that at Loew’s State?
I’m sure the old Penn Station was pretty impractical too. All that open space. What a waste!
Guys we now have the Virgin Megastore in Times Square and the Time Warner building in Columbus Circle not to mention the Toys Are Us skyscraper being built on the Hearst building over on 8th Av. What a glorious period in New York’s architectural history we are living in!
Checking out the site 70mm in NY it looks like My Fair Lady was at the St James and not the Lyric like I thought(they were only a block apart.) So what was playing at the Lyric in this summer of ‘65?
The Rivoli stood between 49th and 50th on Broadway with the marquee facing out just like the Winter Garden a block above. The black glass skyscraper which stands on its site is so ugly I can’t even walk by it. The destruction of the Rivoli was legalized architectural and cultural vandalism which should have had the architect and developer thrown in jail for the destruction of a New York treasure.
The Music Hall seems to giving out so many free and steeply discounted tickets for the Christmas show that the people who run the place should seriously think about revamping the thing.(Like throwing out the junk with the midgets, the worst Nutcracker on the planet and the Las Vegas inspired Nativity.)
Does anyone know the exact years in the sixties the Rivoli utilized a flat screen for their 70mm/Todd AO presentations and does anyone have a photo of the interior with this screen? It’s hard to imagine West Side Story, Cleopatra and SOM “flat” in this theater.
I think the site is terrific and so I am going to ask for more. Would it be possible to put a photo of the exterior of the theater and marquee for each entry? As in a photo of the marquee of the Rivoli with West Side Story up or the Criterion with Lawrence. Of course lobby photos with displays would be great as well as you have with The Hallelujah Trail. I know this would be too much but I can dream. Anyway the current PBS special had a couple of film views of both South Pacific and Thouroughly Modern Millie on the marquee at the Criterion. Problem was they were too short, you barely got a glimpse. Films are nice because you can see what type of light display was used or in the case of something like Funny Girl the revolving logos on the top of the marquee which I remember as a child. I would love to see films of the wrap-around Demille billboard for both Hawaii and Those Magnificent Men(photos would do very nicely as well.)
So Friends please contact this guy. I love Manchurian Candidate but you don’t need to see it at the Loew’s. It just ain’t a movie palace picture. How about knock-out color 4 track stereo prints of The Music Man and Bye Bye Birdie? Then how about some more Jerry Lewis features? The Artists and Models program was great.
Make us happy. The October programming is as dreary as the weather. People should leave the Loew’s smiling!
Friends please contact Bob and try to get that Technicolor print for Christmas.
People will be blind for days after seeing it but it will be worth it!
And then try to get an archival print of another Vistavision masterpiece Funny Face(maybe you can get it when Donen comes to NY who can then introduce it.) Moviegoing doesn’t get better than that. Saw it at the Music Hall in the late 70’s. Movie heaven.
Robert, a beautiful color print of White Christmas is dazzling. I saw it years ago at the Regency in Manhattan and someone I was with said that it was as if she was seeing it for the first time. Those Vistsvision ratios are perfect for the Jersey’s proscenium.
Divinity, a roaring 20’s night at the theater is a great idea. A very early talkie or silent comedy classic, some hot twenties jazz on stage with the women decked out in flapper dresses, and the men in suits(bring a hat!) or tuxes.
A gala night and a way for the Friends to make some nice dough.
Today Crowthers reviews are pretty uninteresting but he did write a Sunday essay in the Arts and Leisure section of the NYT’s after the opening of The Happiest Millionaire as the Christmas attraction in December of ‘67. He found the film so bad and the product at the Hall so poor that he wondered what was going on with the selection committee. Well things were only going to get considerably worse.
So which is correct? What did the corporation call it in LB Mayers time and what does it call it today?
I wish I could get close up color photos of the the ‘60s corner signs. I remember seeing as an insert on the Family Affair(Brian Keith)show a brief shot of the Hawaii sign.
I doubt that the Music Hall would have played Guitar but Quiet Man would have been a great choice. John Ford had a couple of good movies at the Hall in the 30’s. They should have continued to show his films like they did with LeRoy, Wyler, Donen and Hitchcock. Does Mr. Roberts count as LeRoy or Ford?
Wasn’t the octopus in Reap the Wild Wind?
I think the boom years ended at the Music Hall in ‘55 which I’ve read was the last year it was in the black. It seems as well at that point that the quality of product became inconsistent though not as bad as it became in the latter 60’s after the success of Barefoot in the Park in '67.
Also the Hall started holding films a lot longer than they should have to avoid the costs of new stage shows. I’ll never forget how often the house was empty for Robin and Marion even before Easter.
I still can’t figure why anyone there saw this as a holiday film.
What a depressing, grainy, washed out, mediocre film( I won’t even go into the stage show.) Well that was the thinking that was going on in the exec offices of Rockefeller Center at the time.
Guys,
Before Cavalcade for Easter there was DeMilles Sign of the Cross(which presented on stage a march of the gladiators and a chariot race!) which like Cavalcade was hard ticket on Broadway first. Obviously the Music Hall was more flexible back then(King Kong was shared with a theater a block away) which I wish it had become during the 60’s considering the dreck they started playing later in the decade and the musicals they could have played like Thoroughly Modern Millie, Half a Sixpence and Chitty Chitty Banb Bang. Though if not great product(I happen to think the first two are wonderful) would have been better and bigger draws on second run than stuff like The Bobo, Sweet November, Hail Hero and the Brotherhood, and The Christmas Tree on first.)Also Oliver for Christmas ‘69 would have been 10x’s better than A Boy Named Charlie Brown.
The first film revival was Mary Poppins in '73 and when I read that earlier in that year I thought well now the Music Hall is getting a watchable movie.
But looking at the photos on the French site of the interior today it seems in very bad shape. Is it possible to save? Is enough left to restore it? It looks as though it would have to be almost rebuilt. I hope the photos make the situation look worse than it actually is. The only photo of the interior that I know of as it was originally is from The best Remaining Seats and it was magnificent. One of the architectural glories of Brooklyn.
Regentrification is a mixed blessing.
I would give anything to have the Times Square of the 70’s back. Yes it was filthy with sex shops, drug dealers and prostitutes all over the place. But so much of what made it a great New York neighborhood still existed. I loved walking around it and now I try to avoid it at every opportunity. Perhaps the highway Robert Moses wanted for Soho can now be put through midtown. Absolutely nothing would be lost. It’s already all gone. Are there any of you out there who would regret the loss of the Marriott Marquis, the Virgin Megastore or Toys R Us? And then there’s the car dealership also known as the Minskoff.
Yes and like with midtown Manhattan everything that made it distinctly New York and worthwhile will be destroyed.
CConnolly is right. Pretty soon a major developer will want it for a condo building. Gustave, do we know if she got the message? With so little she can do so much.
Would Streisand like to spearhead a campaign to save this important piece of Brooklyn history? First some money from other Hollywood Brooklynites to make it usable and then a couple of concerts to support a full scale restoration. I understand she has not retired from charitable concerts. Maybe a parade down Flatbush as well for the hometown girl made good.
From the vintage picture of part of the auditorium of this theater in the Daily New last Friday if you lived on the upper east side you had a great movie palace right there and didn’t need to go to Times Square.
It looked pretty spectacular.
Has anybody else noticed that Broadway has turned into Branson for the middle aged and that Andy Williams has become ABBA?
New York lost Times Square and it now has lost its culture.
Goodbye greatest city in the history of the world.
Marty,
The Criterion was a very elegant Art Deco theater with excellent sightlines. A spacious but not too large theater where the large screen was perfectly placed head on in front of the theater. It showed of its product as if they were jewels. Unless you were there during it’s heyday it’s hard to see in pictures what is more obvious in the old black and white photos of the Roccoco spectaculars built in the 20’s.
It was one of New York’s great movie theaters.
I always thought the Music Hall would have been perfect for Disney. I don’t know what happened after the Lion King but they certainly went their separate ways. Imagine Disney stage shows with great special effects and new Disney films along with revivals of Pinocchio, Bambi, Lady and the Tramp(in cinemascope on that glorious block length screen and Sleeping Beauty in 70mm.)
I once had a color photo of the finale of the Disney Easter show that played with Moon Pilot in ‘62. It looked great.
But this all makes too much sense so why would anybody even consider it?
Well considering that the Music Hall is now being used for singing midgets, Barney and the Rugrats it might as well be the world’s largest Cosco for all it contributes to New York’s culteral life. And when you think of the Roxy, Paramount and the Capitol the Beacon is practically a boobie prize.
These theaters could not have paid their own way but does Carnegie Hall or any of the theaters in Lincoln Center? Why couldnt the Rivoli have been used for the Jazz theater that just went up in columbus circle or the Strand been used for a new home for the New York City Opera which they now want to build. What about the stuff that goes on at the Theater at Madison Square Garden couldn’t they have done that at Loew’s State?
I’m sure the old Penn Station was pretty impractical too. All that open space. What a waste!
Guys we now have the Virgin Megastore in Times Square and the Time Warner building in Columbus Circle not to mention the Toys Are Us skyscraper being built on the Hearst building over on 8th Av. What a glorious period in New York’s architectural history we are living in!
Checking out the site 70mm in NY it looks like My Fair Lady was at the St James and not the Lyric like I thought(they were only a block apart.) So what was playing at the Lyric in this summer of ‘65?
The Rivoli stood between 49th and 50th on Broadway with the marquee facing out just like the Winter Garden a block above. The black glass skyscraper which stands on its site is so ugly I can’t even walk by it. The destruction of the Rivoli was legalized architectural and cultural vandalism which should have had the architect and developer thrown in jail for the destruction of a New York treasure.
The Music Hall seems to giving out so many free and steeply discounted tickets for the Christmas show that the people who run the place should seriously think about revamping the thing.(Like throwing out the junk with the midgets, the worst Nutcracker on the planet and the Las Vegas inspired Nativity.)
Does anyone know the exact years in the sixties the Rivoli utilized a flat screen for their 70mm/Todd AO presentations and does anyone have a photo of the interior with this screen? It’s hard to imagine West Side Story, Cleopatra and SOM “flat” in this theater.
I think the site is terrific and so I am going to ask for more. Would it be possible to put a photo of the exterior of the theater and marquee for each entry? As in a photo of the marquee of the Rivoli with West Side Story up or the Criterion with Lawrence. Of course lobby photos with displays would be great as well as you have with The Hallelujah Trail. I know this would be too much but I can dream. Anyway the current PBS special had a couple of film views of both South Pacific and Thouroughly Modern Millie on the marquee at the Criterion. Problem was they were too short, you barely got a glimpse. Films are nice because you can see what type of light display was used or in the case of something like Funny Girl the revolving logos on the top of the marquee which I remember as a child. I would love to see films of the wrap-around Demille billboard for both Hawaii and Those Magnificent Men(photos would do very nicely as well.)
So Friends please contact this guy. I love Manchurian Candidate but you don’t need to see it at the Loew’s. It just ain’t a movie palace picture. How about knock-out color 4 track stereo prints of The Music Man and Bye Bye Birdie? Then how about some more Jerry Lewis features? The Artists and Models program was great.
Make us happy. The October programming is as dreary as the weather. People should leave the Loew’s smiling!
Friends please contact Bob and try to get that Technicolor print for Christmas.
People will be blind for days after seeing it but it will be worth it!
And then try to get an archival print of another Vistavision masterpiece Funny Face(maybe you can get it when Donen comes to NY who can then introduce it.) Moviegoing doesn’t get better than that. Saw it at the Music Hall in the late 70’s. Movie heaven.
Robert, a beautiful color print of White Christmas is dazzling. I saw it years ago at the Regency in Manhattan and someone I was with said that it was as if she was seeing it for the first time. Those Vistsvision ratios are perfect for the Jersey’s proscenium.
Divinity, a roaring 20’s night at the theater is a great idea. A very early talkie or silent comedy classic, some hot twenties jazz on stage with the women decked out in flapper dresses, and the men in suits(bring a hat!) or tuxes.
A gala night and a way for the Friends to make some nice dough.