I did not choose the movies for the Hall. If I had I can assure you there were a number of films I would not have shown that were chosen and a number that played at other theaters that I would have grabbed in an instant including Ambersons.
You have no idea how many arguments I had with the clowns in the screening room. Russell could tell you all about it.
I read on the Capitol page it had Magnificent Ambersons for 2 weeks.
I was surprised to see it play more than a week in a 5,000 seat theater when it was such a box office disappointment.
I’d like to know if it was offered to the Music Hall and they decided to pass on it. This would have been unfortunate as it would have been a perfect fit for the theater.
Even in its truncated form I consider it the greatest American sound film.
I thought Hale lasted into the 70’s. I seem to remember her lamenting the state of the Music Hall movies when See No Evil opened there(truly a bottom bill of a drive-in blood fest) and happy that a Christmas movie like 1776 was playing there.
In fact I am truly surprised that they went back to the 30’s.
Wow, what a change they saw in movies and theaters.
After reading about the Boyd decided to check out the other Phil theater like the Fox, Stanley and Mastbaum.
Big mistake.
It was wrenching reading about these great Phil monuments.
Couldn’t really see interiors of the Fox or Stanley but the exteriors sure were wonderful and reading about the Stanley as a roadshow house made me think that it was one of the best in the States.
Would be wonderful to see both interiors before and after 70mm came in. Can somebody who has them put them on their repective pages?Anybody know where Sound of Music had its' original run?
So Bob what happened?
I remember some of those programs and they were great and that Technicolor weekend looks like it would have been a knockout.
It’s frustrating when they only do one weekend a month and every other one seems a disappointment.
Bill I guess we are about the same age. Did you see the early ‘71 reissue of My Fair Lady? Though in super Panavision it was continuous perfs with no intermission.
They still had the female usherettes with their black dresses and white collars and the guy in a black tux selling programs.
It was the very end of that era. I got a very brief taste of it.
I also saw Nicholas but skipped Tora as the reviews were so terrible.
After that it the theater immediately went into exploitation with no reprieve. Same with the great Rivoli.
I wonder if it was a change of management and they had no idea what they were doing.
Too bad roadshows were dying at that time if not there would have still been some holdovers in the fall of 70 when I started going into the city but the fall of '69 films just ended after of few months with no hits taking them a full year. The last great roadshow hit was Funny Girl which ended its Criterion run in Jan of '70. Would have loved to have seen it there though seems as though I just missed it.
Loews State continued to thrive with excellent bookings and also the Astor Plaza. Why did they get these films and not the other two when the Criterion and the Rivoli were the great movie theaters and treated as such just a year before?
I heard that only one Techinicolor print is available for showing of Gang’s all Here. A friend went to see it at Film Forum and said it was not in good shape.
But alas I don’t think it’s the kind of film the Friends of the Loews is interested in.
Except for a few biggies they don’t seem to go in for musicals or maybe they found they don’t draw in an audience?
The Paradise has a beautiful proscenium for movies and I would love to see cinemascope on that screen.
I thought they once were going to show WWS(though god knows that film needs a rest) with some of the cast members present.
Why would those involved not want to show movies there occasionally?
And the Jersey could use some help with their programming which at times can be strange though they have a good one coming up.
I’m also curious and wonder if you could go back in time and see only 3 shows at the Hall what would they be?
Mine;
Singing in the Rain Easter show
Till the Clouds Roll By in burn your eyes Technicolor and Christmas show which in ‘46 I’m sure it was pretty lavish. And with everybody decending on New York at holiday time in the first year euphoria after the war it was probably where everyone was trying to get in during Hollywood’s most suuccessful year.
Swing Time the best of the Music Hall’s most popular couple.
The Time’s in it’s review said it looked like a riot outside the theater on the opening morning. Back then when people got excited about a new movie and they were first run exclusives at the Hall it was a major event.
Now on opening day you can buy it on DVD in a subway station. No excitement there.
Al Alvarez seems to say Calvacade ran at the Hall for 2 weeks but it was the first Easter Show.
Instead of GOE they presented for the holiday The Last Supper. I’d like to think that in the following year they presented The Crucifiction with the Rockettes as Roman soldiers. A kick line in front of the 3 crosses would have been fun getting some heavy mitting.
God I wish I could go back in time. Some of these stage shows seems so bizarre.
Especially the one for Sign of the Cross. It had a chariot race! And I think the Rockettes were dressed as Gladiators for that one.
And then there’s the one where Santa goes to the bottom of the sea. And then he went to Mars.
I am not making this up.
Nice to have seen a watchable film like Fantasia at the Hall back then in the 70’s. Especially since ‘69 the halfway decent movies that played there were as rare as natural pearls.
Only been back twice since then. A Christmas show(ugh!) and Ella.
Ella was great I was in the third row towards the center(bought the ticket at the box office right before) so it was easy to tune the place out and pretend I was in an intimate club.
Other than that not worth going to. Too heartbreaking. No more movies, no more stage shows taking place at the bottom of the sea and no more Easter Show.
The place has been scrubbed too clean. It’s historical patina has been washed away along with so many memories.
It now has as much resonance as the Gap store by the Channel Gardens.
Now when you bring people to Rockefeller Center they look at it and say “so what?” And you have to answer honestly “I don’t know. It seemed so special once.”
What movies today would fill the Music Hall bill if there were still a stage show and old distribution patterns?
I do think back to the early 70’s and wonder why they didn’t get films like Orient Express or Way we Were.
Yeah for me that will always be the golden age of movie going in my lifetime. Dazzling Hollywood films in elegant single screen theaters where movies still had something of an event status even if they weren’t on roadshow. And adults could bring their kids even if it was an adult movie.
Right after this came the American new wave(films which today I still am constitutionally incapable of watching) and the beginning of the chopping up of those wonderful theaters.
Narrow long coffin like theaters and pretentious grainy inert movies.
And many consider that the American movie golden age!
I guess it’s the drugs.
So where is the Nativity in the Temple ad? Wasn’t it there for Flying down to Rio?
I’ve never seen Bright Eyes but it is really full of romance and adventure?
I mean are Gardner and Gable in it?
To Warren
I will change it but in a way I felt I was keeping the name alive. I mean who in the world knows who this guy was except for you and me and about 4 other people.
He WAS famous and revered I’ll give you that but the people who knew of him are fast dying off.
And his name was known for the Glory of Easter and Nativity towards the end but we will never see those pageants again.
I thought it was great having Odd Couple on the screen. Problem is it is on a Wednesday during the day!
How does that happen? How about an evening of a double feature of OC and After the Fox or Come Blow your horn on a Sat night?
Live performances of Grease are nice(though not for me)but movies are the s—t.
Was there as I said.
Beautiful print and biggest crowd I ever saw there.
I got there late and I couldn’t believe my eyes. What is this the Christmas show at Radio City in ‘59?
Anyway good seeing the crowd enjoy the film and laughing in the right places.
And no booing when they start talking about a woman needs to be married and it is more important than a career. Yes!
Still can’t figure out why they program stuff like Beauty and the Beast. Makes no sense to program a french art film in a movie palace no matter how great(and the Cocteau is a great one.)
I can’t figure out why they don’t play more movie palace movies.
The stuff that used to draw in the crowds to these places.
The comedy and Ape stuff is terrific.
But do we need the umpteenth revival of Blade Runner and Clockwork Orange which don’t even belong in such a venue?
And what in the world is this place doing showing R rated films?!
This is inexcusable!
Every program should be one where parents don’t mind bringing their kids even if they’re adult in subject matter. People did it all the time until the mid 60’s.
Where are the MGM musicals, the Doris Day stuff, Elvis, Ann Margaret and Beach Party movies?
And when are we getting the great silents to be accompianied by the organ.
Also how about Disney films? There are a lot of wonderful live action films as well as the animated films that should be seen in a theater and not on video.
Tributes to the great stars and directors of the Hollywood period.
Cukor, Wilder, Wyler, Vidor, Ford,Capra, Hawks and Minnelli. And just not the most famous titles.
More cinemascope, more Vistavision.
Elizabeth Taylor, Steve Mcqueen, Charlton Heston, Lee Marvin, Monroe, Julie Andrews and Cary Grant.
These are the kinds of film that these places were built for.
The first couple of years this place had consistently great programming but no more.
On a more gratful note I am looking forward to Eve this coming weekend.
A Roxy movie always rates high in my book.
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.
Beautiful theater. Anybody have interior views? If it were still intact as a single screen I would quickly be down there.
What were the roadshow houses in Miami and do any of them survive?
Anybody know why South Pacific moved from the Criterion to the Rivoli midway through it’s hardticket run? Especially because it was probably a very successful one.
As far as I know only a couple of Cinerama films switched theaters.
I did not choose the movies for the Hall. If I had I can assure you there were a number of films I would not have shown that were chosen and a number that played at other theaters that I would have grabbed in an instant including Ambersons.
You have no idea how many arguments I had with the clowns in the screening room. Russell could tell you all about it.
I read on the Capitol page it had Magnificent Ambersons for 2 weeks.
I was surprised to see it play more than a week in a 5,000 seat theater when it was such a box office disappointment.
I’d like to know if it was offered to the Music Hall and they decided to pass on it. This would have been unfortunate as it would have been a perfect fit for the theater.
Even in its truncated form I consider it the greatest American sound film.
I thought Hale lasted into the 70’s. I seem to remember her lamenting the state of the Music Hall movies when See No Evil opened there(truly a bottom bill of a drive-in blood fest) and happy that a Christmas movie like 1776 was playing there.
In fact I am truly surprised that they went back to the 30’s.
Wow, what a change they saw in movies and theaters.
After reading about the Boyd decided to check out the other Phil theater like the Fox, Stanley and Mastbaum.
Big mistake.
It was wrenching reading about these great Phil monuments.
Couldn’t really see interiors of the Fox or Stanley but the exteriors sure were wonderful and reading about the Stanley as a roadshow house made me think that it was one of the best in the States.
Would be wonderful to see both interiors before and after 70mm came in. Can somebody who has them put them on their repective pages?Anybody know where Sound of Music had its' original run?
Pre opening ad of WOO has Four Feather on it’s final day. What a great time to be going to the movies.
Are you working on programming anywhere else now?
So Bob what happened?
I remember some of those programs and they were great and that Technicolor weekend looks like it would have been a knockout.
It’s frustrating when they only do one weekend a month and every other one seems a disappointment.
Bill I guess we are about the same age. Did you see the early ‘71 reissue of My Fair Lady? Though in super Panavision it was continuous perfs with no intermission.
They still had the female usherettes with their black dresses and white collars and the guy in a black tux selling programs.
It was the very end of that era. I got a very brief taste of it.
I also saw Nicholas but skipped Tora as the reviews were so terrible.
After that it the theater immediately went into exploitation with no reprieve. Same with the great Rivoli.
I wonder if it was a change of management and they had no idea what they were doing.
Too bad roadshows were dying at that time if not there would have still been some holdovers in the fall of 70 when I started going into the city but the fall of '69 films just ended after of few months with no hits taking them a full year. The last great roadshow hit was Funny Girl which ended its Criterion run in Jan of '70. Would have loved to have seen it there though seems as though I just missed it.
Loews State continued to thrive with excellent bookings and also the Astor Plaza. Why did they get these films and not the other two when the Criterion and the Rivoli were the great movie theaters and treated as such just a year before?
I heard that only one Techinicolor print is available for showing of Gang’s all Here. A friend went to see it at Film Forum and said it was not in good shape.
But alas I don’t think it’s the kind of film the Friends of the Loews is interested in.
Except for a few biggies they don’t seem to go in for musicals or maybe they found they don’t draw in an audience?
The Paradise has a beautiful proscenium for movies and I would love to see cinemascope on that screen.
I thought they once were going to show WWS(though god knows that film needs a rest) with some of the cast members present.
Why would those involved not want to show movies there occasionally?
And the Jersey could use some help with their programming which at times can be strange though they have a good one coming up.
Fiction should by fixion.
I’m also curious and wonder if you could go back in time and see only 3 shows at the Hall what would they be?
Mine;
Singing in the Rain Easter show
Till the Clouds Roll By in burn your eyes Technicolor and Christmas show which in ‘46 I’m sure it was pretty lavish. And with everybody decending on New York at holiday time in the first year euphoria after the war it was probably where everyone was trying to get in during Hollywood’s most suuccessful year.
Swing Time the best of the Music Hall’s most popular couple.
The Time’s in it’s review said it looked like a riot outside the theater on the opening morning. Back then when people got excited about a new movie and they were first run exclusives at the Hall it was a major event.
Now on opening day you can buy it on DVD in a subway station. No excitement there.
Al Alvarez seems to say Calvacade ran at the Hall for 2 weeks but it was the first Easter Show.
Instead of GOE they presented for the holiday The Last Supper. I’d like to think that in the following year they presented The Crucifiction with the Rockettes as Roman soldiers. A kick line in front of the 3 crosses would have been fun getting some heavy mitting.
God I wish I could go back in time. Some of these stage shows seems so bizarre.
Especially the one for Sign of the Cross. It had a chariot race! And I think the Rockettes were dressed as Gladiators for that one.
And then there’s the one where Santa goes to the bottom of the sea. And then he went to Mars.
I am not making this up.
Nice to have seen a watchable film like Fantasia at the Hall back then in the 70’s. Especially since ‘69 the halfway decent movies that played there were as rare as natural pearls.
Only been back twice since then. A Christmas show(ugh!) and Ella.
Ella was great I was in the third row towards the center(bought the ticket at the box office right before) so it was easy to tune the place out and pretend I was in an intimate club.
Other than that not worth going to. Too heartbreaking. No more movies, no more stage shows taking place at the bottom of the sea and no more Easter Show.
The place has been scrubbed too clean. It’s historical patina has been washed away along with so many memories.
It now has as much resonance as the Gap store by the Channel Gardens.
Now when you bring people to Rockefeller Center they look at it and say “so what?” And you have to answer honestly “I don’t know. It seemed so special once.”
What movies today would fill the Music Hall bill if there were still a stage show and old distribution patterns?
I do think back to the early 70’s and wonder why they didn’t get films like Orient Express or Way we Were.
Yeah for me that will always be the golden age of movie going in my lifetime. Dazzling Hollywood films in elegant single screen theaters where movies still had something of an event status even if they weren’t on roadshow. And adults could bring their kids even if it was an adult movie.
Right after this came the American new wave(films which today I still am constitutionally incapable of watching) and the beginning of the chopping up of those wonderful theaters.
Narrow long coffin like theaters and pretentious grainy inert movies.
And many consider that the American movie golden age!
I guess it’s the drugs.
Any of you saw SP at the Criterion? Any memories?
So where is the Nativity in the Temple ad? Wasn’t it there for Flying down to Rio?
I’ve never seen Bright Eyes but it is really full of romance and adventure?
I mean are Gardner and Gable in it?
To Warren
I will change it but in a way I felt I was keeping the name alive. I mean who in the world knows who this guy was except for you and me and about 4 other people.
He WAS famous and revered I’ll give you that but the people who knew of him are fast dying off.
And his name was known for the Glory of Easter and Nativity towards the end but we will never see those pageants again.
I thought it was great having Odd Couple on the screen. Problem is it is on a Wednesday during the day!
How does that happen? How about an evening of a double feature of OC and After the Fox or Come Blow your horn on a Sat night?
Live performances of Grease are nice(though not for me)but movies are the s—t.
Was there as I said.
Beautiful print and biggest crowd I ever saw there.
I got there late and I couldn’t believe my eyes. What is this the Christmas show at Radio City in ‘59?
Anyway good seeing the crowd enjoy the film and laughing in the right places.
And no booing when they start talking about a woman needs to be married and it is more important than a career. Yes!
Still can’t figure out why they program stuff like Beauty and the Beast. Makes no sense to program a french art film in a movie palace no matter how great(and the Cocteau is a great one.)
I can’t figure out why they don’t play more movie palace movies.
The stuff that used to draw in the crowds to these places.
The comedy and Ape stuff is terrific.
But do we need the umpteenth revival of Blade Runner and Clockwork Orange which don’t even belong in such a venue?
And what in the world is this place doing showing R rated films?!
This is inexcusable!
Every program should be one where parents don’t mind bringing their kids even if they’re adult in subject matter. People did it all the time until the mid 60’s.
Where are the MGM musicals, the Doris Day stuff, Elvis, Ann Margaret and Beach Party movies?
And when are we getting the great silents to be accompianied by the organ.
Also how about Disney films? There are a lot of wonderful live action films as well as the animated films that should be seen in a theater and not on video.
Tributes to the great stars and directors of the Hollywood period.
Cukor, Wilder, Wyler, Vidor, Ford,Capra, Hawks and Minnelli. And just not the most famous titles.
More cinemascope, more Vistavision.
Elizabeth Taylor, Steve Mcqueen, Charlton Heston, Lee Marvin, Monroe, Julie Andrews and Cary Grant.
These are the kinds of film that these places were built for.
The first couple of years this place had consistently great programming but no more.
On a more gratful note I am looking forward to Eve this coming weekend.
A Roxy movie always rates high in my book.
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.
Gorgeous lobby.
The film looks like either Unfaithfully Yours or the Ghost and Mrs Muir.
Can anyone tell for sure?
Beautiful theater. Anybody have interior views? If it were still intact as a single screen I would quickly be down there.
What were the roadshow houses in Miami and do any of them survive?
Anybody know why South Pacific moved from the Criterion to the Rivoli midway through it’s hardticket run? Especially because it was probably a very successful one.
As far as I know only a couple of Cinerama films switched theaters.