Roxy Theatre
153 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
153 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
83 people
favorited this theater
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The Route 17 Triplex in Paramus NJ only posts one word from each movie title on their marquee. It’s usually a pretty funny sight. Last week it said TENSION PANTS LAW YARD. I had to look up LAW in the paper – I couldn’t figure out that it was “Monster-in-Law”.
I’ve changed the huge marquee at the Loew’s Jersey on a number of occasions, utilizing the same ancient lift that was used in the old days. I can tell you – it’s most certainly NOT an easy task. You can only do a few letters at a time, then have to climb down this rickety lift, move it a few feet, and repeat the process. The front marquee on that theater is a good 20+ feet long.
And I’m afraid of heights!
I credit the marquee changers of days gone by with some very creative work in providing the gist of the attractions, especially on the limited space of some of the end panels. I always thought it would be great to be able to do it until one night in the midst of a howling snow storm when it was almost impossible to stand upright at ground level, seeing some poor soul trying to replace letters some 12 or more feet in the air. At that point I decided there might be better occupations.
Warren, as a marquee changer in my teens I can tell you it was an art to fit movie titles on some marquees. A lot of thought and creativity went into the great marquees of yor. In addition, they had to be changed on time. Just like the mail, come rain, snow,
wind, earthquakes or floods. That marquee had to be changed.
Yes Bill, I can remember all those great Variety mispellings. it got a bit strange, but fun, when people would use them in their everyday language. Ahh show folk, just a bunch of wild and crazy people.
Thanks Sam. Vodvil does sound like one of those Variety terms, like Stix Nix Hix Pix. I just saw Cagney in “Yankee Doodle Dandy” recently, in which he translates that phrase.
I too loved that ad. Any more Robert?
Possibly the spelling of ‘Vodvil’ as opposed to vaudeville was a way of being ‘with it’ or somehow current. I think that Variety started the trend with mispellings in the trade paper headlines. It goes along with ‘Burlesk’ rather than burlesque. There are numerous other examples.
RobertR: That’s a great Peter Pan ad. I especially like “VODVIL Tonight at Orpheum”. Was Vodvil supposed to be a modern, futuristic way to say vaudeville, to show that vaudeville wasn’t dead and could change with the times?
Warren, who knows more than anyone on the subject, posted this info here last January, in answer to Myrtle’s question above… the last movie was “The Wind Cannot Read” which opened on March 9th…..and the Roxy finally closed forever on March 29, 1960.
dose anyone know the last movie
that played at the roxy
and what day and year
I never knew that Peter Pan opened at the Roxy.
View link
I checked out “Windjammer” on the IMDB site and there’s link to a site dedicated to Cinemamiracle.
http://www1.tripnet.se/~adler/wide2.html
Bob Furmanek: scroll above to Warren’s comments dated February 13, 2004 as he and others touch upon the subject of the damage done to the theater (seems both physical and economical) by the “Windjammer” film.
Bob, like most nighmares most of us would rather not remember anything about it. Just be happy you did not see it.
Kindly elaborate. What was done?
Do I ever.
Does anyone remember how badly the theater was altered for this engagement?
Here is an ad for the Cinemiracle engagement of “Windjammer”. This is actually the second ad they used. The first one was disgusting very dark and grey.
View link
Ahhh — except for “The Cockeyed World” (August ‘29) and “Alexander’s RTB” (August '38), the others played between September '41 and August '44, largely the War Years and, consequently, until the mid-'50s the Roxy’s glory years.
And is it true that Alice Faye : Roxy :: Greer Garson :: RCMH + Tyrone Power : Roxy :: Cary Grant : RCMH, so that “Alexander’s RTB” and “Yank in the RAF” emerge as the Roxy’s archetypal films?
Thanks, Warren, for your wonderful listings of the Roxy’s shows. If I’ve got them straight, you’ve offered the following:
1941, posted on 18 April ‘05
1942, posted on 16 May '05, with comparative cross-reference to RCMH on 9 May '05
1943, posted on 29 May '05
1947 in part, posted on 24 April and 6 May '05
What were the six pre-‘44 films that hit six-week runs? I take it that the standard three-week run might have had somethng to do with signing up big-name performers for a contracted period of time. After '52, “Call Me Madam,” “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” “The Robe,” “Carousel,” “The Kink and I,” “Bus Stop,” “Giant,” and “Anastasia” reached or surpassed that limit, no?
May 20,1938 the Music Hall was playing the all time classic “Robin Hood”, but the Roxy was playing the Ritz Brothers in “Kentucky Moonshine” which co-starred Tony Martin. On stage were the voice stars of Snow White, Adriana Casalotti who voiced Snow White and Harry Stockwell who voiced Prince Charming.
There are also shots of the Roxy’s interior at the Smithsonian in DC, The Museum of the City of New York, The New-York Historical Society and that movie theater archive in Chicago.
If my memory serves me, there are lots of interior shots of the Roxy at the Library at Lincoln Center in the Billy Rose Collection as well as in the Library of Congress. Also, I some some nice ones in my archives…but I don’t have a website so I have no way of posting them, alas.
SimonL:
I’ve also been looking for a few years….there seems to be a real shortage of good interior shots of the Roxy. The Theatre Historical Society has a painting of it on its website. They also put out a booklet on the Roxy several years ago which may have more. If not, they may have stuff in their archives.
I hope someone comes up with something. Thanks for asking the question.