Ziegfeld Theatre
141 W. 54th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
141 W. 54th Street,
New York,
NY
10019
131 people
favorited this theater
Showing 751 - 775 of 4,511 comments
Hello-
i am certain that when the Demille was one of the premiere roadshow houses in the Times Square ares they also had “divans” listed as a section on the ticket order forms.
if i am not mistaken after the roadshow run of “Fiddle on the Roof” at the Rivoli the fall of 1971 the remaining such engagements to open in the big Times Square houses were “Nicholas and Alexandra” at the Criterion Dec. 1971 and “Man of La Mancha” Dec. 1972 at the Rivoli. also to be included is the roadshow run of “The Trojan Women” at the Fines Arts the fall of 1971.
i guess the lackluster receipts for the roadshow engagements of “Man…..” was the proverbial final nail in the coffin. the studios subsequently discontinued the policy.
No box seats, at least not after the remodeling for Cinerama. Cinerama would’ve looked terrible from a box seat anyway.
Ha! I initially thought it was a different term for a box seat but I don’t think the Capitol had them, did they? I never had a chance to see a film here. Just a bit before my time.
I’d never heard of it either. In fact, back in 1968 I had no idea what kind of seats we were going to be in. I always thought a divan was a couch or something.
Was that peculiar to The Capitol or did other theaters have Divan sections. I’m just amazed that I haven’t heard of it before. I love it though!
Saps: It was the greatest moviegoing experience of my life, before or since. I don’t think anything will ever come along to top it.
Luis: My dad and I sat in the Divans. As far as I could figure out, it was the front row of the upstairs section, with the front mezzanine right behind. At intermission we both wanted to move down to the front row downstairs, but with all the assigned seating, ushers, etc., we figured we wouldn’t be able to. Maybe we should’ve tried anyway, but it was still an overwhelming show from the Divans.
What’s a Divan???? I’ve never seen that in a theater ad!
It must have been magical to see 2001 on that big Capitol screen.
Here’s proof that I remembered those showtimes correctly!
Al As a matter of fact it was the roadshow engagement of “Fiddler On The Roof” in the early 70s which was shown in 35mm that ended the pratice. Theatre owners balked at having 2 men for a 35mm prersenation which resulted in ending roadshow premiums altogether. Interestingly “Fiddler” marked the beginning of the end of Roadshows as we knew them. And Yes Bill sometimes the running time would dictate an 830 show instead of 8 following a mid afternoon matinee
Now that I think of it, my only New York roadshow was most likely a three-a-day: “2001” at the Capitol, 6/15/1968. We went to the 1:30 PM show. There were probably two more, at 5 and 8:30.
Vito, you forget the extra men in the booth contracted for any movie labeled a “Roadshow”. These extra costs helped expedite the demise of the practice as the box office revenue could not justifying the costs and exhibitors found ways around the union contracts.
Bill, that was common practice in the roadshow days. There were many variations but often M-F we would have two a day at 2 and 8 then depending on the run time of the picture on Sat and Sun 3 shows at approximately 2-5-8 Those roadshow engagements were a kick to do not only because they were a heck of a lot of fun but the hours wee magnificent. Weekdays we would go to work at 7 and be done by 11, on top of that we got a premium pay rate. So yup, good times.
November 11, 1970 ad for Ryan’s Daughter at the Ziegfeld. Three shows a day on Fri-Sat-Sun.
I believe “two-a-day” is vaudeville term, representing the performance policies of the top vaude houses. I meant to say (on Feb. 4) reserved seat, reserved performance, or roadshow presentation.
Anyway, Les Miz is leaving and Silver Linings Playbook is coming in on a regular schedule. (Nice family drama will fit cozily in the intimate Ziegfeld!)
Hello Again-
the exclusive 1st run engagements of “Ryan’s Daughter” and “Apocalypse Now” were reserved performance engagements. for people not familiar with said runs they were similar to reserved seat engagements in that you could by tickets ahead of time but what seat you got was up in the air. for instance if such a film was quite popular and you got to the theater five minutes before the film began you were guaranteed a seat but in might be all the way in the back in the corner. i’m guessing the studios thought this type engagement up since it had way less overhead then a traditional reserved seat run. for instance you didn’t need ushers.
the first such run in Manhattan i can remember was “Fellini’s Satryricon” which opened March of 1970 at the late but great Little Carnegie.
also to put my two cents in i don’t consider the special two week engagements of “Dreamgirls” or “The Princess and the Frog” before they opened wide true reserved seat runs. so i do believe as i said in my original post that the theater’s opening film “Marooned” was the first and only traditional studio roadshow engagement it has hosted.
You might call it a “gouging”, but I would gladly be gouged many times over to have experiences like this at the movies. It was really special and they should have more events like these. I think Les Miserables would have done extremely well here in a similar two week exclusive run, though I personally hated it. :–) Though I DID see it at the Ziegfeld, my only complaint theater wise was the lack of a marquee (they just plastered up a generic Les Miseables sign) and the lack of curtain use, but otherwise, as usual, a great place to see a film.
I wouldn’t consider the two week price gouging run of “DREAMGIRLS” a reserved seat run but there were several weeks of European style reserved seat runs for mainstream films at the Ziegfeld and the Beekman run as a test during the final days of Cineplex Odeon. They were disastrous as New Yorkers refused to sit in their assigned seats for non-event films.
Luis is right about Dreamgirls being a great moviegoing experience, but at my show the audience was a little too over-the-top. They were screaming “Sing it, girl! Sing it!” so loudly during Jennifer Hudson’s big number that it was hard to hear Jennifer Hudson.
Does Dreamgirls not count because it was more than two showings a day? That continues to be my all time most fun movie screening of any film EVER! It was all reserved seating for about 2 weeks. The tickets were $25! No Commericals/Ads! The Curtains worked and everyone screamed. During the film there were three standing ovations DURING the screening, the biggest of which was for “And I’m telling you I’m not going” which brought the house down. It was an incredibly memorable experience.
After “MAROONED” they were all ‘reserved performance’ runs except for the occasional special events like the weekend run of the TV series “CIVILISATION” in 1970 and some of the World Premieres. Most World Premiers are open seating with reserved VIP sections.
The Apocalypse Now tickets were $5 too – a new high price at the time. I may still have that ticket. If I find it, I’ll scan it and post it here.
I remember having to buy advance tickets for Apocalypse Now, which opened at the Ziegfeld in August 1979. Don’t know if that qualifies as a real roadshow, though. There were probably more than two shows a day, too. Ryan’s Daughter played two-a-day there about a year after Marooned, starting in November 1970, but I’m pretty sure that was not a reserved seat engagement. I have an ad for it at home – I’ll check on it tonight.
Hello-
i likewise enjoyed seeing Les Miz at the Ziegfeld. speaking of two a day reserved seat or to use the trade term roadshow engagements.
am i correct that the only old style roadshow run the theater has had was its opening film- “Marooned”?
I hear ya, Vito! There are so many of those 2 PM/8 PM shows on Broadway I wish I was old enough at the time to have attended. The only one I did get to see was “2001” at the Capitol in 1968, near the end of the roadshow era.