I never saw the Disney short about Nazi Germany (1944) but somehow I know the words to “Der Feurer’s Face” by heart.
I remember the RKO Fordham and its rival Loew’s Paradise as being solidly successful theatres until street crime engulfed the Bronx. Remember the Guardian Angels was started nearby when Curtis Swela and others couldn’t tolerate unchecked crime in broad daylight. The two theatres weren’t the only things that died in Fordham because of crime and drugs.
My older brother and I saw RKO’S THE THING (from outer space) circa 1951. Sitting in the balcony’s front row my brother jumped 3 feet in the air during the famous shock scene, but did not drop off the balcony. He’s alive and well in Maryland.
I never saw the Disney short about Nazi Germany (1944) but somehow I know the words to “Der Feurer’s Face” by heart.
I remember the RKO Fordham and its rival Loew’s Paradise as being solidly successful theatres until street crime engulfed the Bronx. Remember the Guardian Angels was started nearby when Curtis Swela and others couldn’t tolerate unchecked crime in broad daylight. The two theatres weren’t the only things that died in Fordham because of crime and drugs.
My older brother and I saw RKO’S THE THING (from outer space) circa 1951. Sitting in the balcony’s front row my brother jumped 3 feet in the air during the famous shock scene, but did not drop off the balcony. He’s alive and well in Maryland.
I drove 26 miles roundtrip to see a movie at my restored former neighborhood theatre, the SILVER; but turned around and went home. There is a big, BIG difference between seeing a picture in the real SILVER vs. one of their two broom closet theaters. Going to a matinee, first of all the lobby is closed and you enter through the side door. I would have chosen whichever film was in the big theatre only to be told “neither.”
I did’t need to travel across town to see a movie in their broom closet. Information as to which, if any, film is in the original theatre is ONLY available by showing up and asking. Such information is NOT available in the paper, NOT on the internet, NOT by telepone. This is in keeping with their liberal management. Customers, you see, ought not have a choice. Where they see a movie ought be in the hands of their liberal superiors; persons who know what’s best for us. My advice is to stay away from the SILVER until those in charge there get their heads straight. Do not meanwhile hold your breath.
Instead of wasting time posting comments, go out and see a show at the PARADISE. There are four (4) currently listed through Feb 2007. Their website is listed above.
Much as I love this theatre, it was NOT the grandest or most beautiful in the USA let alone the World. Not even in NYC. Loew’s Capitol on Broadway was grander, as was the ROXY. But contrary to New York thinking, life does not end at the Hudson River. The Detroit FOX and it’s twin the St. Louis FOX are very much grander (and fully operational) to name just two of many. John Eberson designed movie palaces all across America, as did others.
Many people have mentioned New York’s now demolished great movie palaces such as the Rivoli, Loew’s Capitol, Warner, etc. but let’s not forget the grandest of them all, the ROXY THEATRE — the Cathedral of the Motion Picture. Equal in size to Radio City Music Hall but much more beautiful with its atmospheric interior vs. Radio City’s Art-Deco, the theatre had approx. 6000 seats.
Look for the TGI Friday’s at 5oth & 7th Avenue. That used to be the main entrance. The auditorium was where that hideous plain-modern office building now stands, just east of Tad’s steaks. The ROXY was torn down in 1960. There is no historical marker.
Only one movie opened at both the ROXY and RADIO CITY. It was KING KONG (the real one, not Peter Jackson’s silly remake) plus a stage show.
You can still see an honest-to-God movie palace in NYC if you venture with a few tough friends to the Bronx. Loew’s PARADISE (3885 seats) has finally been restored and re-opened; but for stage shows only. Go there, see what it was like.
On a trip to Florida I travelled 65 miles to see a movie at a John Eberson theatre like I used to do many years ago. It was VOLVER with Penelope Cruz, the night before her Oscar nomination for it. (If anybody still cares about the increasingly foolish Oscars). Fine movie, beautiful theatre, great experience. Each show begins with a Wurlitzer concert (15 min) then the movie.
Loew’s Paradise has a listing of comments on this site 100 times the length of Tampa Theater’s comments, but the Paradise no longer has their famous twinkling stars sky (painted over). The TAMPA THEATRE still has theirs.
TAMPA THEATRE’S mission is to show high quality foreign films, but they also have frequent stage shows (Taylor Hicks is next) and I’d gladly return here for either.
On a trip to Florida I travelled 65 miles to see a movie at a John Eberson theatre like I used to do many years ago. It was VOLVER with Penelope Cruz, the night before her Oscar nomination for it. (If anybody still cares about the increasingly foolish Oscars). Fine movie, beautiful theatre, great experience. Each show begins with a Wurlitzer concert (15 min) then the movie.
Loew’s Paradise has a listing of comments on this site 100 times the length of Tampa Theater’s comments, but the Paradise no longer has their famous twinkling stars sky (painted over). The TAMPA THEATRE still has theirs.
TAMPA THEATRE’S mission is to show high quality foreign films, but they also have frequent stage shows (Taylor Hicks is next) and I’d gladly return here for either.
Unlike most theaters listed in Cinema Treasures, Detroit’s FOX THEATRE is fully restored, operating a year-round calendar of shows, is attended by thousands, and is the most magnificent theatre I’ve ever seen. Do a search for olympiaentertainment.com for a full schedule, and the next time you eat a Little Caesar’s pizza, keep in mind that’s where the restoration money came from. They own it now.
One Sunday recently I searched for the Anacostia. The report the theatre was raized is false. There is a smashed-up pile of rubble, still with 4 walls and a roof, that used to be where folks went to enjoy a show at this once-comfortable neighborhood theatre. The infamous high crime of Anacostia (murder, armed robbery, etc) were hourly occurrances and are not compatable with operating a movie theatre. Washington elected and re-elected the cocaine sniffing and crime-supportive Mayor Marion Barry (D), and until he was removed there was no possibility of peaceful human existance in Anacostia.
Theaterowner DON KING did a really smart thing taking over the shabby Avenue Grand double feature house and playing first run exclusives at higher admission prices. Being the only theater showing a particular movie would lure people into the then-crime-ridden Capitol Hill neighborhood. Eventually though, high crime under Washington’s cocaine sniffing mayor Marion Barry (D) got the best of this place. Burning the theatre down was the final straw.
DON’T CRY for the LINCOLN. This theatre is alive and well, offering a limited number of stage shows including some big name Black stars. The neighborhood is seriously on the rebound, as block after block of formerly decaying townhouses have undergone big time renovation.
When the Circle was still a regular neighborhood theatre in 1956, I took Mary Louise here to see Rogers & Hammerstein’s Carrousel. We started a kiss at the 20th Century-Fox drumroll and kept it up till the picture ended. Glad it was a 2 hour movie rather than the usual 90 minutes. Quite possibly the most enjoyable movie I never saw.
PLEASE DON’T believe the auditorium looks awful or gutted. Most cinema palaces have at least a portion of their once-glorious interiors painted over (as was also true 50 years ago). We attended Loew’s Penn (Heinz Hall) on 12-29-06 for “Rat Pack at the Sands” and we found the Penn to be magnificent. Please find a reason to go there. Few of these Cinema Treasures look as fine in 2006 as the Penn.
One indication of AMC’s intentional running of the UPTOWN into the ground was the newsmaking World Premiere of Kevin Costner’s THE GUARDIAN. A big event, financed by Disney, the picture was shown on prime digital projectors —– ONE TIME ONLY. AMC re-installed the older substandard equipment the very next day.
Washingtonians love the UPTOWN and have supported it with huge box office for decades. The ONLY reason for its decline is AMC —– booking substandard movies, using substandard equipment. Employees used to be well dressed and speaking English as a native tongue. Now the staff is 100% foreign, and the manager hangs around with his shirt unbuttoned to the waist, showing off his oversized belly and chest hairs. STANLEY WARNER and later CIRCLE THEATRES, still later CINEPLEX ODEON prided themselves in maintaining the UPTWON as DC’s finest. AMC, in contrast, is working toward failure.
I had my first date with Diane here in 1953. Laurence Olivier in The Beggar’s Opera. And, come to think of it, my last in 1954. Shirley Booth in About Mrs. Leslie.
Sometime around 1950, the Windsor stage came back to life from their usual policy of double feature movies for MAE WEST in DIAMOND LIL. I was about 11 years old and did not have the money for a live show.
Betcha can’t find the TOWN THEATRE since the front is boarded up flat and the marquee is gone. When attending the HIPPODROME, take a minute and look across the street. There’s a restaurant in a historic bank building and a wide alley to the right of it. Look down the alley and you’ll see the bricks of the side wall of the TOWN. Beyond that wall, inside, there’s a real Cinema Treasure.
I returned to Loew’s PARADISE last night for the 9/30/06 Night in Paradise show. It had been 55 years since I’d last been there. Some of the theatre’s wonderful features are gone, but most remain; and the theatre is still magnificent.
We could not believe the Night in Paradise show lasted for 5 ¼ hours, starting just after 8 pm and ending at 1:18 am. A good show except for the excess of amplification (common at most music shows in 2006). Most of these now-elderly Black groups had (and still have) real talent; but truly talented entertainers do not need excessive volume to wow an audience.
A great big thank you to Orlando Lopes of the Theatre Historical Society, and many others, working to save this wonderful landmark; perhaps a small start to making the Bronx a better place.
Based on an average ticket price of $65, and with virtually all of the 3885 seats filled, I’d guess the show grossed $175,000 to $200,000. That compares to a flat zero if the theatre had remained shuttered. Of greater importance was the good time had by all.
I won’t soon return there, however. The 260 mile commute in each direction was a special occasion —– well worth the trouble —– not easily repeated (unless the show’s real good).
The GRAND was playing Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man’s Chest — a current new movie —– open 3 days a week (Sept 2006). Too bad I was in Grand Island only on a Tuesday. The theatre looks alive and well from the exterior. Wish I could have seen the inside.
They ought to try a Henry Fonda Series sometime during the busy summer season. Fonda was born in Grand Island, as everyone there knows; but many young folks there haven’t seen his movies.
We just drove 45 miles to see this year’s best film, The Illusionist, at the Senator Theater rather than the local multiplex. Happy to report the Senator is alive and well, and is a great place for grown-ups or anyone else to enjoy a movie. Happy also to report there were plenty of moviegoers at the normally slow 5:30 show, lots more going in for the 8:00 PM.
We cheat ourselves so much by allowing trash-atmosphere multiplexes, with their video games and awful surroundings to be the place where we see our movies.
The good news is this Cinema Treasure is offering a full schedule of stage shows (Paul Anka, Ricky Scaggs, Man of La Mancha) as well as classic films such as Sunset Boulevard. I mean NOW. I’ve been to Charlottesville to visit Thomas Jefferson’s house, next time it’ll be the Paramount.
For decades The UPTOWN functioned simply as a neighborhood theatre, one of Washington’s best, where admission prices were 10% higher than the norm. They catered to adults and would play serious adult movies on Friday and Saturday when most theaters played action films. In the 1950’s Warner Bros. Theaters got the idea to remodel the Uptown and play first run movies —– a big success —– often the special reserved seat attractions such as “2001, A Space Odyssy” as well as Cinerama (“How the West Was Won”).
Their greatest success was in 1977 with STAR WARS which opened here and played in excess of a year. After the initial 6 months they got a 70 MM print and kept it going for many months more.
This was the only Washington theatre which was spared ill-effect of the Martin Luther King Riots of 1966. Being in a “safe” neighborhood, it thrived, compared for example to the ultra-beautiful TIVOLI just a mile east which was doomed.
The UPTOWN is THE place to see a movie in Washington, DC. There are often World Premier events in the Nation’s Capital, and more than 90% are at the Uptown. Although current ownership seems indifferent, and has changed a few times in recent years I’m hopeful the Uptown will thrive.
Two corrections: The introduction says 300 stadium type seats were added in 1997. Nonsense! Those seats were there in the 1940’s and ever since. Also, the theatre does not “suffer” from lack of parking. Although parking is tough, people come anyway. The long lines you see curving around the block are people who came anyway.
Only a bleeding heart liberal would say that the King riots are not related to the loss of our great movie palaces. In the aftermath of the riots, downtown Washington not only lost every single movie theatre except the Warner, but most of our department stores, retail stores, restaurants and other businesses as well. Prime real estate was torn down and parking lots were numerous. There was no economic redevelopment at all east of 14th Street for almost 20 years. Liberals are fond of calling people racist; but they ought simply look in the mirror when using that word.
I never saw the Disney short about Nazi Germany (1944) but somehow I know the words to “Der Feurer’s Face” by heart.
I remember the RKO Fordham and its rival Loew’s Paradise as being solidly successful theatres until street crime engulfed the Bronx. Remember the Guardian Angels was started nearby when Curtis Swela and others couldn’t tolerate unchecked crime in broad daylight. The two theatres weren’t the only things that died in Fordham because of crime and drugs.
My older brother and I saw RKO’S THE THING (from outer space) circa 1951. Sitting in the balcony’s front row my brother jumped 3 feet in the air during the famous shock scene, but did not drop off the balcony. He’s alive and well in Maryland.
I never saw the Disney short about Nazi Germany (1944) but somehow I know the words to “Der Feurer’s Face” by heart.
I remember the RKO Fordham and its rival Loew’s Paradise as being solidly successful theatres until street crime engulfed the Bronx. Remember the Guardian Angels was started nearby when Curtis Swela and others couldn’t tolerate unchecked crime in broad daylight. The two theatres weren’t the only things that died in Fordham because of crime and drugs.
My older brother and I saw RKO’S THE THING (from outer space) circa 1951. Sitting in the balcony’s front row my brother jumped 3 feet in the air during the famous shock scene, but did not drop off the balcony. He’s alive and well in Maryland.
I drove 26 miles roundtrip to see a movie at my restored former neighborhood theatre, the SILVER; but turned around and went home. There is a big, BIG difference between seeing a picture in the real SILVER vs. one of their two broom closet theaters. Going to a matinee, first of all the lobby is closed and you enter through the side door. I would have chosen whichever film was in the big theatre only to be told “neither.”
I did’t need to travel across town to see a movie in their broom closet. Information as to which, if any, film is in the original theatre is ONLY available by showing up and asking. Such information is NOT available in the paper, NOT on the internet, NOT by telepone. This is in keeping with their liberal management. Customers, you see, ought not have a choice. Where they see a movie ought be in the hands of their liberal superiors; persons who know what’s best for us. My advice is to stay away from the SILVER until those in charge there get their heads straight. Do not meanwhile hold your breath.
Please click into the website at the top. Apperently there has been very much progress since the last entry here on May 6, 2006.
Instead of wasting time posting comments, go out and see a show at the PARADISE. There are four (4) currently listed through Feb 2007. Their website is listed above.
Much as I love this theatre, it was NOT the grandest or most beautiful in the USA let alone the World. Not even in NYC. Loew’s Capitol on Broadway was grander, as was the ROXY. But contrary to New York thinking, life does not end at the Hudson River. The Detroit FOX and it’s twin the St. Louis FOX are very much grander (and fully operational) to name just two of many. John Eberson designed movie palaces all across America, as did others.
Many people have mentioned New York’s now demolished great movie palaces such as the Rivoli, Loew’s Capitol, Warner, etc. but let’s not forget the grandest of them all, the ROXY THEATRE — the Cathedral of the Motion Picture. Equal in size to Radio City Music Hall but much more beautiful with its atmospheric interior vs. Radio City’s Art-Deco, the theatre had approx. 6000 seats.
Look for the TGI Friday’s at 5oth & 7th Avenue. That used to be the main entrance. The auditorium was where that hideous plain-modern office building now stands, just east of Tad’s steaks. The ROXY was torn down in 1960. There is no historical marker.
Only one movie opened at both the ROXY and RADIO CITY. It was KING KONG (the real one, not Peter Jackson’s silly remake) plus a stage show.
You can still see an honest-to-God movie palace in NYC if you venture with a few tough friends to the Bronx. Loew’s PARADISE (3885 seats) has finally been restored and re-opened; but for stage shows only. Go there, see what it was like.
On a trip to Florida I travelled 65 miles to see a movie at a John Eberson theatre like I used to do many years ago. It was VOLVER with Penelope Cruz, the night before her Oscar nomination for it. (If anybody still cares about the increasingly foolish Oscars). Fine movie, beautiful theatre, great experience. Each show begins with a Wurlitzer concert (15 min) then the movie.
Loew’s Paradise has a listing of comments on this site 100 times the length of Tampa Theater’s comments, but the Paradise no longer has their famous twinkling stars sky (painted over). The TAMPA THEATRE still has theirs.
TAMPA THEATRE’S mission is to show high quality foreign films, but they also have frequent stage shows (Taylor Hicks is next) and I’d gladly return here for either.
On a trip to Florida I travelled 65 miles to see a movie at a John Eberson theatre like I used to do many years ago. It was VOLVER with Penelope Cruz, the night before her Oscar nomination for it. (If anybody still cares about the increasingly foolish Oscars). Fine movie, beautiful theatre, great experience. Each show begins with a Wurlitzer concert (15 min) then the movie.
Loew’s Paradise has a listing of comments on this site 100 times the length of Tampa Theater’s comments, but the Paradise no longer has their famous twinkling stars sky (painted over). The TAMPA THEATRE still has theirs.
TAMPA THEATRE’S mission is to show high quality foreign films, but they also have frequent stage shows (Taylor Hicks is next) and I’d gladly return here for either.
Unlike most theaters listed in Cinema Treasures, Detroit’s FOX THEATRE is fully restored, operating a year-round calendar of shows, is attended by thousands, and is the most magnificent theatre I’ve ever seen. Do a search for olympiaentertainment.com for a full schedule, and the next time you eat a Little Caesar’s pizza, keep in mind that’s where the restoration money came from. They own it now.
One Sunday recently I searched for the Anacostia. The report the theatre was raized is false. There is a smashed-up pile of rubble, still with 4 walls and a roof, that used to be where folks went to enjoy a show at this once-comfortable neighborhood theatre. The infamous high crime of Anacostia (murder, armed robbery, etc) were hourly occurrances and are not compatable with operating a movie theatre. Washington elected and re-elected the cocaine sniffing and crime-supportive Mayor Marion Barry (D), and until he was removed there was no possibility of peaceful human existance in Anacostia.
Theaterowner DON KING did a really smart thing taking over the shabby Avenue Grand double feature house and playing first run exclusives at higher admission prices. Being the only theater showing a particular movie would lure people into the then-crime-ridden Capitol Hill neighborhood. Eventually though, high crime under Washington’s cocaine sniffing mayor Marion Barry (D) got the best of this place. Burning the theatre down was the final straw.
DON’T CRY for the LINCOLN. This theatre is alive and well, offering a limited number of stage shows including some big name Black stars. The neighborhood is seriously on the rebound, as block after block of formerly decaying townhouses have undergone big time renovation.
When the Circle was still a regular neighborhood theatre in 1956, I took Mary Louise here to see Rogers & Hammerstein’s Carrousel. We started a kiss at the 20th Century-Fox drumroll and kept it up till the picture ended. Glad it was a 2 hour movie rather than the usual 90 minutes. Quite possibly the most enjoyable movie I never saw.
PLEASE DON’T believe the auditorium looks awful or gutted. Most cinema palaces have at least a portion of their once-glorious interiors painted over (as was also true 50 years ago). We attended Loew’s Penn (Heinz Hall) on 12-29-06 for “Rat Pack at the Sands” and we found the Penn to be magnificent. Please find a reason to go there. Few of these Cinema Treasures look as fine in 2006 as the Penn.
One indication of AMC’s intentional running of the UPTOWN into the ground was the newsmaking World Premiere of Kevin Costner’s THE GUARDIAN. A big event, financed by Disney, the picture was shown on prime digital projectors —– ONE TIME ONLY. AMC re-installed the older substandard equipment the very next day.
Washingtonians love the UPTOWN and have supported it with huge box office for decades. The ONLY reason for its decline is AMC —– booking substandard movies, using substandard equipment. Employees used to be well dressed and speaking English as a native tongue. Now the staff is 100% foreign, and the manager hangs around with his shirt unbuttoned to the waist, showing off his oversized belly and chest hairs. STANLEY WARNER and later CIRCLE THEATRES, still later CINEPLEX ODEON prided themselves in maintaining the UPTWON as DC’s finest. AMC, in contrast, is working toward failure.
I had my first date with Diane here in 1953. Laurence Olivier in The Beggar’s Opera. And, come to think of it, my last in 1954. Shirley Booth in About Mrs. Leslie.
Sometime around 1950, the Windsor stage came back to life from their usual policy of double feature movies for MAE WEST in DIAMOND LIL. I was about 11 years old and did not have the money for a live show.
Betcha can’t find the TOWN THEATRE since the front is boarded up flat and the marquee is gone. When attending the HIPPODROME, take a minute and look across the street. There’s a restaurant in a historic bank building and a wide alley to the right of it. Look down the alley and you’ll see the bricks of the side wall of the TOWN. Beyond that wall, inside, there’s a real Cinema Treasure.
The Paramount is absolutely beautiful. The restoration is perfect. Visit their website and buy your tickets.
I returned to Loew’s PARADISE last night for the 9/30/06 Night in Paradise show. It had been 55 years since I’d last been there. Some of the theatre’s wonderful features are gone, but most remain; and the theatre is still magnificent.
We could not believe the Night in Paradise show lasted for 5 ¼ hours, starting just after 8 pm and ending at 1:18 am. A good show except for the excess of amplification (common at most music shows in 2006). Most of these now-elderly Black groups had (and still have) real talent; but truly talented entertainers do not need excessive volume to wow an audience.
A great big thank you to Orlando Lopes of the Theatre Historical Society, and many others, working to save this wonderful landmark; perhaps a small start to making the Bronx a better place.
Based on an average ticket price of $65, and with virtually all of the 3885 seats filled, I’d guess the show grossed $175,000 to $200,000. That compares to a flat zero if the theatre had remained shuttered. Of greater importance was the good time had by all.
I won’t soon return there, however. The 260 mile commute in each direction was a special occasion —– well worth the trouble —– not easily repeated (unless the show’s real good).
The GRAND was playing Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man’s Chest — a current new movie —– open 3 days a week (Sept 2006). Too bad I was in Grand Island only on a Tuesday. The theatre looks alive and well from the exterior. Wish I could have seen the inside.
They ought to try a Henry Fonda Series sometime during the busy summer season. Fonda was born in Grand Island, as everyone there knows; but many young folks there haven’t seen his movies.
We just drove 45 miles to see this year’s best film, The Illusionist, at the Senator Theater rather than the local multiplex. Happy to report the Senator is alive and well, and is a great place for grown-ups or anyone else to enjoy a movie. Happy also to report there were plenty of moviegoers at the normally slow 5:30 show, lots more going in for the 8:00 PM.
We cheat ourselves so much by allowing trash-atmosphere multiplexes, with their video games and awful surroundings to be the place where we see our movies.
The good news is this Cinema Treasure is offering a full schedule of stage shows (Paul Anka, Ricky Scaggs, Man of La Mancha) as well as classic films such as Sunset Boulevard. I mean NOW. I’ve been to Charlottesville to visit Thomas Jefferson’s house, next time it’ll be the Paramount.
For decades The UPTOWN functioned simply as a neighborhood theatre, one of Washington’s best, where admission prices were 10% higher than the norm. They catered to adults and would play serious adult movies on Friday and Saturday when most theaters played action films. In the 1950’s Warner Bros. Theaters got the idea to remodel the Uptown and play first run movies —– a big success —– often the special reserved seat attractions such as “2001, A Space Odyssy” as well as Cinerama (“How the West Was Won”).
Their greatest success was in 1977 with STAR WARS which opened here and played in excess of a year. After the initial 6 months they got a 70 MM print and kept it going for many months more.
This was the only Washington theatre which was spared ill-effect of the Martin Luther King Riots of 1966. Being in a “safe” neighborhood, it thrived, compared for example to the ultra-beautiful TIVOLI just a mile east which was doomed.
The UPTOWN is THE place to see a movie in Washington, DC. There are often World Premier events in the Nation’s Capital, and more than 90% are at the Uptown. Although current ownership seems indifferent, and has changed a few times in recent years I’m hopeful the Uptown will thrive.
Two corrections: The introduction says 300 stadium type seats were added in 1997. Nonsense! Those seats were there in the 1940’s and ever since. Also, the theatre does not “suffer” from lack of parking. Although parking is tough, people come anyway. The long lines you see curving around the block are people who came anyway.
Only a bleeding heart liberal would say that the King riots are not related to the loss of our great movie palaces. In the aftermath of the riots, downtown Washington not only lost every single movie theatre except the Warner, but most of our department stores, retail stores, restaurants and other businesses as well. Prime real estate was torn down and parking lots were numerous. There was no economic redevelopment at all east of 14th Street for almost 20 years. Liberals are fond of calling people racist; but they ought simply look in the mirror when using that word.