Funny but the proscenium in this theater was larger than what it appears in that photo. I saw Lady and the Tramp here. The other film was some Disney glacial or artic adventure of which I can’t remember the title nor did I want to see it
Anyway it was in 1.85 aspect ratio and when Lady started the borders of course had not been changed and the image was playing on the borders on the sides. Surprise.
There wasn’t a peep out of the audience and of course I went to an usher to complain. He looked at me in astonishment and said nobody had said anything before. They changed it and it was a nice sized Cinemascope screen.
Anybody know what happened to the beautiful 2 ton Cherry Blossom Doncho curtain that was given to the city of New York as a gift and was kept by the Music Hall to occasionally feature in their stage shows? I believe I saw it once in a stage show during the 70s.
If I google Demille Theater NY I first get Psycho at the Demille on a Hitchcock site and my second listing is Embassy 1,2,3 on the CT page.
If I put Demille Theater into the CT search engine I get ‘no matches found.’ If I put in Embassy 1, 2, 3 same thing.
Maybe the CT search engine can be refined?
I’ve been simply Googling Astor Theater NY and the CT page pops up as an option. I thought there was an easy way from the home page which there was a few(maybe more?) years ago. I’m not sure why now you can only easily get current movie theaters first time out.
Thanks.
I don’t know where to ask for general info but I know this theater gets a lot of traffic so I thought I’d ask it here:
How does one look up a closed theater on this site? It used to be easy. I’m sure it still is but I haven’t figured it out.
I just get active theaters.
Just came across a nice one by Joel Meyerowitz of a couple kissing underneath the marquee of Kiss Me Stupid. A terrific movie by the way which I caught up with at FF.
Love the way the couples in Times Square are so nicely dressed. Boy that had changed in 5 years.
I seem to remember the actual theater itself being turned into a flea market at sometime during the 70s. Unfortunately didn’t go to a movie here because at that point it was for the most part playing the kind of exploitation films I had no interest in. Same with the Demille before it became a triplex. I was waiting for it to play another of the kind of films I had just missed; Hawaii, Shoes of the Fisherman, Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines…
By the way if you go through all the photos for the Astor or Victoria I believe the James Bond photo is there. I know I’ve seen it.
Great Rivoli photos with Moonraker marquee and 7th Av billboard. Thank you!
Only thing is I wish they hadn’t replaced the neon frame of the marquee with the plain boring chrome. Anyone know when it was changed?
I believe it was still there in the early 70s. Same thing happened with the very cool modern Criterion marquee. Again I believed it happened there sometime during the 70s.
I believe Thrill of It all was the big ‘63 summer movie. The 3 Bs was the hit Easter show.
Charlie Brown was indeed the ‘69 Christmas movie and while I thought it was pretty bad compared to the TV specials of the 60s it had the best stage saw I saw there.
Quite elaborate and spectacular with the finale showing the blast off and landing on the moon of Apollo 11 which had just occured that summer. Great special effects with no computer graphic cheating thank god.
Wonderful ending with the stage rising with the image of the flag being planted on the moon with a large frame descending to freeze the image in time. The rest of the cast filled in the stage in front of it for the grand finale.
I though all Music Hall stage shows were supposed to be like that. They weren’t.
I had never heard about the Godfather being offered to the Hall. And as an Easter show?
That seems pretty strange especially considering the NY rollout that Evans devised for it in Loew’s One and Two and other NY theaters which was a major profit making innovation at the time.
The Easter show that Year was What’s Up Doc which was a perfect holiday G rated film and a huge popular success both at the Hall and across the country. And they were considering an R rated violent epic? Especially after it presented the camorra cement brick The Brotherhood?
The first non G rated holiday film was Mame in ‘74.
People say that a problem with the Hall was they wouldn’t show any quality R rated films(which they never did during the stageshow era.) That is total bunk. The Music Hall couldn’t get quality PG rated films. THAT was the problem. Exhibitors didn’t want the sky high overhead or the old-fashioned Hall itself. There were plenty of films at the time that should have played at the Hall but the studios didn’t want the Hall to have them. I would look at the ads thinking why isn’t Cabaret, That’s Entertainment, Murder on the Orient Express, The Way We Were…playing at the Hall? Because by then it was turning into an embarrassment. The stageshows were beyond dire. Cheap flimsy sets, hardly anyone on stage, the Rockettes reduced to 30, no ballet company, the great gold curtain opening getting smaller and smaller. And the Hall was playing one astonishing turkey after another. You would sit there in a complete stupor watching things like Hennessy or The Girl from Petrovka. Not only were you shocked the Music Hall was playing them you were shocked that anybody was making them.
And then in 1976 the Music Hall presents what certainly is keen competition for the worst film in cinema history-The Bluebird. Some people actually consider it the worst and I wouldn’t argue with them.
You should have seen the tourists flooding into the foyer during the film. New Yorkers had thrown up their hands by that point and couldn’t be bothered.
And Play it Again Sam flopped at the Hall(I read somewhere Allen never wanted another film of his presented there. Same thing with George Roy Hill after Henry Orient. I wouldn’t count the revival of The Sting-which was a terrific presentation by the way.It probably never looked or sounded so good. It should have opened there. A perfect Music Hall film.) Then turned into a long run east side hit. That helped to seal the Music Hall’s fate.
And since Comfortably Cool posted two ads for the 60th anniversary of the ‘57 Easter show I’d like to say that I saw a beautiful print of Funny Face at the Music Hall in what might have been '79. Better than Napoleon!
Those Richard Avedon(Dick Avery) designed sequences on the large Music Hall screen were stunning to look at.
In the footage that I mentioned above of the Flower Drum Song premiere Youngman is seen entering as an audience member.
In an ad for another film which was probably posted by Comfortably Cool the stage show includes Gary Morton though I can’t imagine he even achieved minor fame until he married Lucille Ball. Could a comedian in the midst of a Music Hall stage spectacular make any kind of impression?
Maybe Martin and Lewis could have but it seems they played everywhere in NY but the Metropolitan Opera(you could have stuck them in the third act of Fledermaus as joint jailors. I saw Dom Deluise do Frosch there and he was hilarious)and the Music Hall.
Had no idea Youngman was in a stage show. He certainly counts.
By the way on you tube there is the ‘61 Music Hall opening evening premiere footage of Flower Drum Song featuring Nancy Kwan, Richard Rodgers, Celeste Holm and others entering the theater. There is a shot of the orchestra and you can see how many musicians there are as opposed to the 70s where there seem to have been much fewer.
Youngman is also seen entering and when he looks at the camera does what was considered funny at the time but would be horribly insulting today.
The wonderful Linda Hopkins has just died at the age of 92. She was the only name performer I ever saw in a Music Hall stage show during its movie era.
As you know the Music Hall rarely included name performers which were a staple of all the other movie and stage show houses. In fact off the top of my head outside of Jan Peerce and Robert Weede who really only became well known later despite being listed in the stage show ads(Vera Ellen was an anonymous Rockette) The only other two that I can think of off the top of my head were Gene Nelson and Annette Funicello.
When King Kong opened at the State in ‘76 the poster artwork illustration of Kong on the twin towers was painted on the north side of the building as was done for most of the attractions there which I’m sure many of us old enough do remember. And the image in the opening advertisement is included here in the photo section.
I was recently at the 9/11 memorial museum where a section is devoted to movie posters where the WTC is an iconic feature. To me the Kong illustration is definitely the most memorable.
It is not included. OK, understandable. Yet photos of people leaping from the building are. Inexplicable.
I saw Regarding Henry here. A very large multi tiered old Italian music hall it seemed to me. Set up very much like a European opera house. The place was sold out and they were even selling standing room to the film.
Very sad to see it is a multiplex now. How I would have loved to have seen Todd AO here.
The stage show with The Cowboys the ad of which was just posted certainly would not fly today.
The Rockettes as squaws?
Certainly wish I had gone to see it because it sounds like fun but especially with Totem Tom Tom from Rose Marie as the finale.
I just didn’t want to see a movie about a bunch of boys being taught profanity, violence and whoring being past off as family entertainment. At least that’s what it came off as in the reviews.
In the early to mid 70s it was $1 for third run movies.
It would be packed and it was one of those small shopping strip cinemas.
Incredible that it would become a quad.
That short bald man was definitely there from the beginning of the 70s at least.
Outside of nostalgia of seeing movies during that era one of the last places you would call a cinema treasure.
You left out the important part. What did you see at the Casino?
I believe West was at the Loew’s Cinerama a few blocks up in three screen Cinerama.
All three theaters are gone and it is a great photo. I wish this was the Times Square I had known. I can’t even imagine.
Funny but the proscenium in this theater was larger than what it appears in that photo. I saw Lady and the Tramp here. The other film was some Disney glacial or artic adventure of which I can’t remember the title nor did I want to see it
Anyway it was in 1.85 aspect ratio and when Lady started the borders of course had not been changed and the image was playing on the borders on the sides. Surprise.
There wasn’t a peep out of the audience and of course I went to an usher to complain. He looked at me in astonishment and said nobody had said anything before. They changed it and it was a nice sized Cinemascope screen.
Anybody know what happened to the beautiful 2 ton Cherry Blossom Doncho curtain that was given to the city of New York as a gift and was kept by the Music Hall to occasionally feature in their stage shows? I believe I saw it once in a stage show during the 70s.
If I google Demille Theater NY I first get Psycho at the Demille on a Hitchcock site and my second listing is Embassy 1,2,3 on the CT page. If I put Demille Theater into the CT search engine I get ‘no matches found.’ If I put in Embassy 1, 2, 3 same thing. Maybe the CT search engine can be refined?
I’ve been simply Googling Astor Theater NY and the CT page pops up as an option. I thought there was an easy way from the home page which there was a few(maybe more?) years ago. I’m not sure why now you can only easily get current movie theaters first time out. Thanks.
Thank you! Things were so much easier in the old days.
I don’t know where to ask for general info but I know this theater gets a lot of traffic so I thought I’d ask it here: How does one look up a closed theater on this site? It used to be easy. I’m sure it still is but I haven’t figured it out. I just get active theaters.
Also how do I post a photo?
Thanks for your help.
I only wish I knew how to post photos.
Just came across a nice one by Joel Meyerowitz of a couple kissing underneath the marquee of Kiss Me Stupid. A terrific movie by the way which I caught up with at FF.
Love the way the couples in Times Square are so nicely dressed. Boy that had changed in 5 years.
Sorry, now I see NYer’s response.
I seem to remember the actual theater itself being turned into a flea market at sometime during the 70s. Unfortunately didn’t go to a movie here because at that point it was for the most part playing the kind of exploitation films I had no interest in. Same with the Demille before it became a triplex. I was waiting for it to play another of the kind of films I had just missed; Hawaii, Shoes of the Fisherman, Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines…
By the way if you go through all the photos for the Astor or Victoria I believe the James Bond photo is there. I know I’ve seen it.
Great Rivoli photos with Moonraker marquee and 7th Av billboard. Thank you!
Only thing is I wish they hadn’t replaced the neon frame of the marquee with the plain boring chrome. Anyone know when it was changed?
I believe it was still there in the early 70s. Same thing happened with the very cool modern Criterion marquee. Again I believed it happened there sometime during the 70s.
I believe it opened at the Chinese. There are pictures somewhere of it on the marquee with enormous crowds outside.
I believe Thrill of It all was the big ‘63 summer movie.
The 3 Bs was the hit Easter show.
Charlie Brown was indeed the ‘69 Christmas movie and while I thought it was pretty bad compared to the TV specials of the 60s it had the best stage saw I saw there. Quite elaborate and spectacular with the finale showing the blast off and landing on the moon of Apollo 11 which had just occured that summer. Great special effects with no computer graphic cheating thank god. Wonderful ending with the stage rising with the image of the flag being planted on the moon with a large frame descending to freeze the image in time. The rest of the cast filled in the stage in front of it for the grand finale. I though all Music Hall stage shows were supposed to be like that. They weren’t.
I had never heard about the Godfather being offered to the Hall. And as an Easter show?
That seems pretty strange especially considering the NY rollout that Evans devised for it in Loew’s One and Two and other NY theaters which was a major profit making innovation at the time.
The Easter show that Year was What’s Up Doc which was a perfect holiday G rated film and a huge popular success both at the Hall and across the country. And they were considering an R rated violent epic? Especially after it presented the camorra cement brick The Brotherhood?
The first non G rated holiday film was Mame in ‘74.
People say that a problem with the Hall was they wouldn’t show any quality R rated films(which they never did during the stageshow era.) That is total bunk. The Music Hall couldn’t get quality PG rated films. THAT was the problem. Exhibitors didn’t want the sky high overhead or the old-fashioned Hall itself. There were plenty of films at the time that should have played at the Hall but the studios didn’t want the Hall to have them. I would look at the ads thinking why isn’t Cabaret, That’s Entertainment, Murder on the Orient Express, The Way We Were…playing at the Hall? Because by then it was turning into an embarrassment. The stageshows were beyond dire. Cheap flimsy sets, hardly anyone on stage, the Rockettes reduced to 30, no ballet company, the great gold curtain opening getting smaller and smaller. And the Hall was playing one astonishing turkey after another. You would sit there in a complete stupor watching things like Hennessy or The Girl from Petrovka. Not only were you shocked the Music Hall was playing them you were shocked that anybody was making them.
And then in 1976 the Music Hall presents what certainly is keen competition for the worst film in cinema history-The Bluebird. Some people actually consider it the worst and I wouldn’t argue with them. You should have seen the tourists flooding into the foyer during the film. New Yorkers had thrown up their hands by that point and couldn’t be bothered.
And Play it Again Sam flopped at the Hall(I read somewhere Allen never wanted another film of his presented there. Same thing with George Roy Hill after Henry Orient. I wouldn’t count the revival of The Sting-which was a terrific presentation by the way.It probably never looked or sounded so good. It should have opened there. A perfect Music Hall film.) Then turned into a long run east side hit. That helped to seal the Music Hall’s fate.
And Robert Endres probably was behind the projector for both Funny Face and Flower Drum Song when I saw them there!
And since Comfortably Cool posted two ads for the 60th anniversary of the ‘57 Easter show I’d like to say that I saw a beautiful print of Funny Face at the Music Hall in what might have been '79. Better than Napoleon!
Those Richard Avedon(Dick Avery) designed sequences on the large Music Hall screen were stunning to look at.
In the footage that I mentioned above of the Flower Drum Song premiere Youngman is seen entering as an audience member.
In an ad for another film which was probably posted by Comfortably Cool the stage show includes Gary Morton though I can’t imagine he even achieved minor fame until he married Lucille Ball. Could a comedian in the midst of a Music Hall stage spectacular make any kind of impression?
Maybe Martin and Lewis could have but it seems they played everywhere in NY but the Metropolitan Opera(you could have stuck them in the third act of Fledermaus as joint jailors. I saw Dom Deluise do Frosch there and he was hilarious)and the Music Hall.
Had no idea Youngman was in a stage show. He certainly counts.
By the way on you tube there is the ‘61 Music Hall opening evening premiere footage of Flower Drum Song featuring Nancy Kwan, Richard Rodgers, Celeste Holm and others entering the theater. There is a shot of the orchestra and you can see how many musicians there are as opposed to the 70s where there seem to have been much fewer.
Youngman is also seen entering and when he looks at the camera does what was considered funny at the time but would be horribly insulting today.
The wonderful Linda Hopkins has just died at the age of 92. She was the only name performer I ever saw in a Music Hall stage show during its movie era.
As you know the Music Hall rarely included name performers which were a staple of all the other movie and stage show houses. In fact off the top of my head outside of Jan Peerce and Robert Weede who really only became well known later despite being listed in the stage show ads(Vera Ellen was an anonymous Rockette) The only other two that I can think of off the top of my head were Gene Nelson and Annette Funicello.
When King Kong opened at the State in ‘76 the poster artwork illustration of Kong on the twin towers was painted on the north side of the building as was done for most of the attractions there which I’m sure many of us old enough do remember. And the image in the opening advertisement is included here in the photo section.
I was recently at the 9/11 memorial museum where a section is devoted to movie posters where the WTC is an iconic feature. To me the Kong illustration is definitely the most memorable.
It is not included. OK, understandable. Yet photos of people leaping from the building are. Inexplicable.
Another very odd choice for a Music Hall holiday film.
I saw Regarding Henry here. A very large multi tiered old Italian music hall it seemed to me. Set up very much like a European opera house. The place was sold out and they were even selling standing room to the film.
Very sad to see it is a multiplex now. How I would have loved to have seen Todd AO here.
The stage show with The Cowboys the ad of which was just posted certainly would not fly today. The Rockettes as squaws?
Certainly wish I had gone to see it because it sounds like fun but especially with Totem Tom Tom from Rose Marie as the finale.
I just didn’t want to see a movie about a bunch of boys being taught profanity, violence and whoring being past off as family entertainment. At least that’s what it came off as in the reviews.
In the early to mid 70s it was $1 for third run movies. It would be packed and it was one of those small shopping strip cinemas. Incredible that it would become a quad. That short bald man was definitely there from the beginning of the 70s at least. Outside of nostalgia of seeing movies during that era one of the last places you would call a cinema treasure.