Ziegfeld Theatre

That why theatres ate reserved seating. I never had a problem, saw about 30 pictures there, only sell only Born on the Fourth of July

Speaking of concession sales, if I recall correctly, the candy counter at the Ziegfeld was the slowest one in town. Better get to the theater early, save your seat, and then wait on the line and hope to make it back to your seat in time for the coming attractions…

No dividers. It was a different time.

As great as the Ziegfeld was, they never had enough urinals. I remember really long men’s room lines at Lawrence of Arabia intermission. Also long lines for the water fountain – very fitting for that particular movie.

My dad took us to see Fantasia here in the late 1960’s. In 1977, I went with a few friends to see Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Beautiful theater.

Hello-

I know Ryan’s Daughter is this theater’s longest running
film. so how long was the roadshow run of Marooned?

Mark, I’m not sure when the Zeiss projectors were taken out. I think they were there when I left the Hall to work for Dolby in 1999. Our engineers were there to align the Dolby equipment for premieres until the end so perhaps they’ll know. I’ll see if I can find out. The last things I ran there were a screening of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” in 70mm reel to reel and then a couple of 35mm prints in a series of classic films – one of them “The Professionals”. At that point they had platters, but the Zeiss projectors were still there.

Just a few comments on the above: RCMH used three projectors for ALL presentations of the “Napoleon” triptych. (I was Head Projectionist for all of the screenings at the Hall.) Yes the contour was used. The first time we did it, we used the house picture sheet which was 70' wide and closed the masking to the center until the changeover to the triptych. Subsequent presentations were done on thee 30' fast fold screens butted together with a strip to mask the joins. That screen was upstage of the first blacks which were closed to the center and opened on cue by a stagehand at the start of the triptych. Bob Harris did bring a 70mm test roll in, but they had not printed the three images together so we never even tried it.

The Ziegfeld did have Zeiss Favorit 35/70mm machines for most of it’s career. I attended a presentation of “Soldier Blue” there on a visit to New York before I came to work at the Hall. At that time the console in the rear center of the auditorium was in use. The idea was that there was a man on the console to run the show and then thread up the three machines in the both for the next show. There was automation to do the changeovers and control the lights and curtain. The union still insisted on two men on a shift so the console was eventually scrapped.

At one point after a critical review by Rex Reed of the projection, the Zeiss projectors were removed and replaced with 35mm machines which were in use when I came to New York to work at the Hall in 1974. They were taken out and the Zeiss Favorit machines were put back for the 70mm run of “That’s Entertainment”. They were in use for the years I worked vacation relief there when the Ziegfeld had a long run of 70mm presentations. They were removed and replaced with Century JJ’s which were there when the house closed.

Can anyone say with confidence what kind of film projectors the Ziegfeld had? I know that they opened with Zeiss Favorit 35/70 machines which I saw in place around 1982 or so, but I seem to recall that they were taken out in the late eighties for … Century JJs? Does anyone know for sure?

The “live” event featuring full orchestra conducted by Francis Coppola’s father used three projectors focused on a large screen in front of the curtain. The subsequent engagement(s) with a 70mm print were projected onto the Hall’s screen behind the curtain. This was discussed on this site at some length at the time.

A rising curtain doesn’t seem to make much sense to me in the case of Cinerama. But he was there I wasn’t. And I’m quite surprised they would show it at that time with curtains not working. It would remove all element of surprise as to the screen size.

Also I saw Napoleon at the Music Hall during its first run not the second. I distinctly remember the curtain being used. If it wasn’t I would have been appalled and remember it. But then maybe I’m having a senior moment(ugh, I can’t believe I’ve reached an age where I can say that.)

“In fact the use of them at the beginning of This is Cinerama was so effective it knocked audiences for a loop” What actually knocked audiences for a loop was the abrupt change in screen dimensions, not the presence or absence of screen curtains. Somewhere on this site, possibly the New York Broadway or Warner Theatre sections, is a post from a gentleman who claims to have attended This Is Cinerama in its very first week at the Broadway and states that the vertically-rising curtain was not operating. Some other local runs of the 70mm This Is Cinerama in your area were also presented sans curtains…I’m thinking of the Bellevue in Montclair NJ…not sure about the presentations in Nanuet and Hicksville. And, just for the record, the three-panel presentation of Abel Gance’s Napoleon at the Music Hall some years back featured its colossal screen in front of the Hall’s curtains.

re “…bare screen with no curtains…” Not quite entirely true. An image of curtains was projected upon the entire screen. At the end of the overture, this image dimmed but the center section upon which the prologue was projected remained totally unlit to give the impression that there was soft lighting on curtains concealing the entire screen that had partially opened to project the prologue. Canby didn’t mention this in his initial review or in his Sunday follow-up piece. I’ve been told that a similar light curtain had been used years earlier at the Times Square Paramount when the VistaVision installation entailed the removal of the screen curtain.