William, the aspect ratio from 1931 until film’s went wide-screen was 1.37:1? Are you telling me that all these pre-widescreen movies they’re putting on DVD should be letterboxed?!!! In the words of Claude Rains, “I’m shocked this is going on!” And if true, then in the words of Charlton Heston, “God damn them all to hell!!!!!”
As far as the screens being as small as you think, well…. no wonder the kids threw candy at them!
I’ve read, right here, that when the Capitol became the Loew’s Capitol and they installed a Cinerama screen, it was something like 33' high x 90' across. In the thirties the screen would have had the Academy aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and I would assume it would have been somewhere around 30' high and 33' across. Anybody post here that’s old enough to remember the original screen?
I have the 1934 “Treasure Island” on DVD from Warner Home Video. Pretty good print. It’s interesting to look at it now and imagine what it must have been like to view the movie on a huge screen in the large movie palace that the Capitol was.
Gabe, I’m very cynical about “Hollywood,” old or new. In the words of Vincent Price, “It was an evil place.” Yes, I agree with you it would be nice if the “Studios” would maintain the surviving Movie Palaces as something like museums and show fully restored, pristine prints of their old movies all the time. It would be wonderful, FABULOUS!!! But it ain’t gonna happen. And as for “Money is not God”… Oh, just call me Mr. Cynical.
The movie studios, to my knowledge, didn’t create whatever surviving movie palaces there are. The vast majority of what where called “Movie Palaces” were old Vaudeville houses that were merely converted to movie theatres. Another thing that has to be remember is that the modern “studios” aren’t the same companies they were in the past. Mostly they’re now just logos that larger multi-national corporations now use to distribute motion pictures. 20th Century-Fox, for instance, has been sold and resold so many times that not only isn’t it the same corporation it was in the thirties and forties, it isn’t even the same company it was in the sixties and seventies! The modern incarnations of the film studios don’t feel they owe a thing to the past, believe me — they’d laugh you off whatever “lots” they got left, and in fact are only interested in preserving and restoring their old library titles because they, thankfully, still think there’s a buck in it. Get real! ; )
Hollywood has a duty?!!! I guess you mean the modern corporate subsidiaries euphemistically know as “the studios.” Hell, it’s taken decades for them to wake up to caring about the film and sound elements in their vaults. Now you think they should also care about some old buildings scattered across the country? Sir, these are souless, bottom-line, don’t-do-nothin'-unless-they-smell-a-huge-profit creatures who probably won’t give you the correct time!
That’s very interesting about BRIDE, considering that the Roxy had over 5000 seats. Another one of my favorite films from the thirties, CHINA SEAS, I’ve read, ran at the Capitol in NYC for three weeks. For those days that’s something.
I don’t see the Mayfair listed here. Could it have gone by a different name? Would you know what theatre “Bride of Frankenstein” premiered at? Boy, the Roxy sure was one huge theatre.
One of my favorite movies, “Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man,” opened at the Rialto on March 5, 1943. Way before my time, but it’s interesting to me. Now it’s even more interesting to find this site and discover what the Rialto ended up showing.
Sonnyboy, does your local library have The New York Times on microfilm? If so, I’d just go look through the dates you think it was, go to the entertainment section and look for an ad.
Well, all you need is 1200 people to donate one dollar each! That can’t be too hard. Somebody needs to get out into the community and go door to door. Do people in Jersey City care at all? (By the way, I live in North Carolina, which is why I care about good prints of old movies playing at the Jersey. If I travel there to just see a movie, which I hope to do sometime, it better be a damn good print!)
I think one thing that could be done to help insure the long-term survival of the Jersey Theatre, apart from it being declared a National Historic Landmark, is if the City of Jersey City would organize a yearly “Jersey City Film Festival” with the Loew’s Jersey as its centerpiece. I would imagine it could easily rival anything done in Manhattan and would appeal to those who either can’t afford a trip into the city or don’t want to be bothered. Hasn’t anyone thought of that before?
I wouldn’t think the studios would go to all the trouble to restore the sound of 70mm or even 35mm stereophonic films, then strike new prints with magnetic tracks! That would be truly retro. Those megnetic tracks weren’t that great even in the day, with lots of tape hiss. I wonder how many theatres back then even regularly cleaned the projector’s audio heads after every showing? No, for better or worse, it’s all converted to digital now.
I know that a restored 70mm print was shown of “Doctor Dolittle” in CA a year or two ago, but I don’t know if Fox has restored it to the roadshow version. They should. They cut out one of the best songs. I think this month is the movie’s 40th anniversary, but I doubt there are many at Fox that want to celebrate one of the biggest bombs the studio ever had, so who knows what’s going on with it.
If the 70mm equipment ever gets installed I’d like to suggest “Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines” and “Ice Station Zebra,” even “Doctor Dolittle.” This would be a break from the usual “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Spartacus.”
“Why bother?” Well, I guess I’ve become spoiled, but bad prints really bother me. Any print that’s faded to pink is a very old print indeed (though it can happen pretty fast if the thing isn’t stored right), but really… no one should have the balls to be renting out prints that are old and faded. There’s an expression for that, it’s ‘Bullshit!’ I’ve read of newly struck prints of both “Planet of the Apes” and “Journey to the Center of the Earth” being shown in LA’s Egyptian Theatre and other places. I guess it really all depends on how much those in charge want to spend on a good print. By the way, what size is the screen at the Jersey? Is it showing Cinemascope and Panavision films properly? And by the same turn is it showing old Academy ratio films properly? 2001 (since I know who I’m talking to here) has its 40th Anniversery next year. Would the Jersey be able to show a 70mm print of it — properly?
I just watched “Miracle on 34th Street” on cable and the print was fine. It looks even better on DVD. I think theatres such as this should shame the studios into providing the best prints possible. Of course, striking a decent print costs money and I guess it’s not practical in most cases. I’m hoping that Loew’s Jersey will have a 40th Anniversary “Planet of the Apes” showing (another 20th Century-Fox film), but I also hope with a very good print! Otherwise, why bother? You’re better off just watching a DVD on a big plasma display. Another 20th Century-Fox movie the Jersey should think about booking is “Journey to the Center of the Earth.” 2009 is that movie’s 50th Anniversary!
I went to this theatre several times when I was a kid in the sixties on Long Island. The ones I can recall are “Planet of the Apes,” “Ice Station Zebra,” “Romeo and Juliet,” a re-issue of “The Sound of Music” and one that my father took me to, even though it was kind of too adult for a nine-year-old, “Last Summer.” I saw “Apes” there on June 29, 1968. I know that because I saved the ad from the time. It was “Apes” second run after playing the first run theatres in April. The ad said, “Welcome back, Dr. Zaius. We missed you.” Anyway, the Levittown was one screen back then. I don’t recall it as any kind of special theatre, but it wasn’t bad. It was one of the smaller, second-run theatres on the Island. I’m surprised it operated as long as it did.
On the Fox Home Video DVD of “The Best of Everything” is a brief Fox Movietone Newsreel segment on the premiere of this movie at the Paramount Theatre on October 9, 1959. I’ve heard that Fox is preparing a special edition of “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” which premiered at the Paramount on December 16, 1959. I hope they have a newsreel of that event.
Thanks for the photo, Bryan. Times Square may not have been a very save place to visit back in those days, but it sure was an exciting place to see a major new movie. I miss the Loew’s State 1 & 2.
There’s a new Fox DVD collection of original “Fly” films, and one of the extras is a Fox Movietone Newsreel segment showing the premiere of the original “The Fly” at the Fox Theatre on July 16, 1958. Sadly, the segment is all too brief.
Well, Bill, let me see… “2001” shares the top spot with “Planet of the Apes” as my favorite movie. I bought the original VHS release of “2001” in the early eighties, then I seem to remember buying another VHS version, then I discovered letterboxing on Laserdiscs and bought the Criterion edition of “2001,” then later bought the MGM/UA CLV transfer on laserdisc, I almost got the remastered CAV MGM/UA laserdisc, but somehow decided to skip it. Good thing, because the original “non-anamorphic” DVD transfer of “2001” looked better than them all. Then I bought the 16x9 anamorphic “re-mastered” DVD of “2001.” Now I’m going to get this 2-disc special edition, BUT THAT’S STILL NOT THE END! In a year or two I’ll be getting into Blu-ray DVDs (when the catalogs of titles start to include more classic films) and I’ll have to buy “2001” yet again! This is how the home video companies make their money off the devoted fans of certain films, as long as they slightly improve the picture and sound, throw in a few extras, they know they have us!
Thanks William (and Bill). I seem to recall reading on this site someplace that “2001” opened at the Hicksville Twin on June 26, 1968, but then I was reading about the Guild 50th ad Bill Huelbig wrote there that “2001” opened wide in the NY/NJ area in March 1969! Bill, maybe you could give greater detail. This kind of confused me because I have a vivid memory of the first time I saw “2001.” My father took me (I was only 9 years old), it was a rainy spring or summer afternoon matinee at the Hicksville Twin and I remember the curved Cinerama screen. It had to be the first film I ever saw in Cinerama, and in fact may have been the ONLY film I ever saw in Cinerama (Single lens, of course). Anyway…. I now believe that must have been in the summer of 1968, because “2001” was released again in NYC and Long Island area in late May 1969, and I recall that I’d already seen it at that time (and saw it again then). BTW, Bill, are you looking forward to the 2-disc Special Edition DVD of “2001” that’s coming out soon?
Well, the Capitol was a 5000 seat auditorium for most of its motion picture exhibiting life, so what does that figure to?
William, the aspect ratio from 1931 until film’s went wide-screen was 1.37:1? Are you telling me that all these pre-widescreen movies they’re putting on DVD should be letterboxed?!!! In the words of Claude Rains, “I’m shocked this is going on!” And if true, then in the words of Charlton Heston, “God damn them all to hell!!!!!”
As far as the screens being as small as you think, well…. no wonder the kids threw candy at them!
I’ve read, right here, that when the Capitol became the Loew’s Capitol and they installed a Cinerama screen, it was something like 33' high x 90' across. In the thirties the screen would have had the Academy aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and I would assume it would have been somewhere around 30' high and 33' across. Anybody post here that’s old enough to remember the original screen?
I have the 1934 “Treasure Island” on DVD from Warner Home Video. Pretty good print. It’s interesting to look at it now and imagine what it must have been like to view the movie on a huge screen in the large movie palace that the Capitol was.
Gabe, I’m very cynical about “Hollywood,” old or new. In the words of Vincent Price, “It was an evil place.” Yes, I agree with you it would be nice if the “Studios” would maintain the surviving Movie Palaces as something like museums and show fully restored, pristine prints of their old movies all the time. It would be wonderful, FABULOUS!!! But it ain’t gonna happen. And as for “Money is not God”… Oh, just call me Mr. Cynical.
The movie studios, to my knowledge, didn’t create whatever surviving movie palaces there are. The vast majority of what where called “Movie Palaces” were old Vaudeville houses that were merely converted to movie theatres. Another thing that has to be remember is that the modern “studios” aren’t the same companies they were in the past. Mostly they’re now just logos that larger multi-national corporations now use to distribute motion pictures. 20th Century-Fox, for instance, has been sold and resold so many times that not only isn’t it the same corporation it was in the thirties and forties, it isn’t even the same company it was in the sixties and seventies! The modern incarnations of the film studios don’t feel they owe a thing to the past, believe me — they’d laugh you off whatever “lots” they got left, and in fact are only interested in preserving and restoring their old library titles because they, thankfully, still think there’s a buck in it. Get real! ; )
Hollywood has a duty?!!! I guess you mean the modern corporate subsidiaries euphemistically know as “the studios.” Hell, it’s taken decades for them to wake up to caring about the film and sound elements in their vaults. Now you think they should also care about some old buildings scattered across the country? Sir, these are souless, bottom-line, don’t-do-nothin'-unless-they-smell-a-huge-profit creatures who probably won’t give you the correct time!
That’s very interesting about BRIDE, considering that the Roxy had over 5000 seats. Another one of my favorite films from the thirties, CHINA SEAS, I’ve read, ran at the Capitol in NYC for three weeks. For those days that’s something.
I don’t see the Mayfair listed here. Could it have gone by a different name? Would you know what theatre “Bride of Frankenstein” premiered at? Boy, the Roxy sure was one huge theatre.
One of my favorite movies, “Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man,” opened at the Rialto on March 5, 1943. Way before my time, but it’s interesting to me. Now it’s even more interesting to find this site and discover what the Rialto ended up showing.
Sonnyboy, does your local library have The New York Times on microfilm? If so, I’d just go look through the dates you think it was, go to the entertainment section and look for an ad.
Well, all you need is 1200 people to donate one dollar each! That can’t be too hard. Somebody needs to get out into the community and go door to door. Do people in Jersey City care at all? (By the way, I live in North Carolina, which is why I care about good prints of old movies playing at the Jersey. If I travel there to just see a movie, which I hope to do sometime, it better be a damn good print!)
I think one thing that could be done to help insure the long-term survival of the Jersey Theatre, apart from it being declared a National Historic Landmark, is if the City of Jersey City would organize a yearly “Jersey City Film Festival” with the Loew’s Jersey as its centerpiece. I would imagine it could easily rival anything done in Manhattan and would appeal to those who either can’t afford a trip into the city or don’t want to be bothered. Hasn’t anyone thought of that before?
I wouldn’t think the studios would go to all the trouble to restore the sound of 70mm or even 35mm stereophonic films, then strike new prints with magnetic tracks! That would be truly retro. Those megnetic tracks weren’t that great even in the day, with lots of tape hiss. I wonder how many theatres back then even regularly cleaned the projector’s audio heads after every showing? No, for better or worse, it’s all converted to digital now.
I know that a restored 70mm print was shown of “Doctor Dolittle” in CA a year or two ago, but I don’t know if Fox has restored it to the roadshow version. They should. They cut out one of the best songs. I think this month is the movie’s 40th anniversary, but I doubt there are many at Fox that want to celebrate one of the biggest bombs the studio ever had, so who knows what’s going on with it.
If the 70mm equipment ever gets installed I’d like to suggest “Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines” and “Ice Station Zebra,” even “Doctor Dolittle.” This would be a break from the usual “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Spartacus.”
“Why bother?” Well, I guess I’ve become spoiled, but bad prints really bother me. Any print that’s faded to pink is a very old print indeed (though it can happen pretty fast if the thing isn’t stored right), but really… no one should have the balls to be renting out prints that are old and faded. There’s an expression for that, it’s ‘Bullshit!’ I’ve read of newly struck prints of both “Planet of the Apes” and “Journey to the Center of the Earth” being shown in LA’s Egyptian Theatre and other places. I guess it really all depends on how much those in charge want to spend on a good print. By the way, what size is the screen at the Jersey? Is it showing Cinemascope and Panavision films properly? And by the same turn is it showing old Academy ratio films properly? 2001 (since I know who I’m talking to here) has its 40th Anniversery next year. Would the Jersey be able to show a 70mm print of it — properly?
I just watched “Miracle on 34th Street” on cable and the print was fine. It looks even better on DVD. I think theatres such as this should shame the studios into providing the best prints possible. Of course, striking a decent print costs money and I guess it’s not practical in most cases. I’m hoping that Loew’s Jersey will have a 40th Anniversary “Planet of the Apes” showing (another 20th Century-Fox film), but I also hope with a very good print! Otherwise, why bother? You’re better off just watching a DVD on a big plasma display. Another 20th Century-Fox movie the Jersey should think about booking is “Journey to the Center of the Earth.” 2009 is that movie’s 50th Anniversary!
Any chance of 40th anniversary showings of “2001” and “Planet of the Apes” at the Jersey in 2008?
I went to this theatre several times when I was a kid in the sixties on Long Island. The ones I can recall are “Planet of the Apes,” “Ice Station Zebra,” “Romeo and Juliet,” a re-issue of “The Sound of Music” and one that my father took me to, even though it was kind of too adult for a nine-year-old, “Last Summer.” I saw “Apes” there on June 29, 1968. I know that because I saved the ad from the time. It was “Apes” second run after playing the first run theatres in April. The ad said, “Welcome back, Dr. Zaius. We missed you.” Anyway, the Levittown was one screen back then. I don’t recall it as any kind of special theatre, but it wasn’t bad. It was one of the smaller, second-run theatres on the Island. I’m surprised it operated as long as it did.
On the Fox Home Video DVD of “The Best of Everything” is a brief Fox Movietone Newsreel segment on the premiere of this movie at the Paramount Theatre on October 9, 1959. I’ve heard that Fox is preparing a special edition of “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” which premiered at the Paramount on December 16, 1959. I hope they have a newsreel of that event.
Thanks for the photo, Bryan. Times Square may not have been a very save place to visit back in those days, but it sure was an exciting place to see a major new movie. I miss the Loew’s State 1 & 2.
There’s a new Fox DVD collection of original “Fly” films, and one of the extras is a Fox Movietone Newsreel segment showing the premiere of the original “The Fly” at the Fox Theatre on July 16, 1958. Sadly, the segment is all too brief.
Well, Bill, let me see… “2001” shares the top spot with “Planet of the Apes” as my favorite movie. I bought the original VHS release of “2001” in the early eighties, then I seem to remember buying another VHS version, then I discovered letterboxing on Laserdiscs and bought the Criterion edition of “2001,” then later bought the MGM/UA CLV transfer on laserdisc, I almost got the remastered CAV MGM/UA laserdisc, but somehow decided to skip it. Good thing, because the original “non-anamorphic” DVD transfer of “2001” looked better than them all. Then I bought the 16x9 anamorphic “re-mastered” DVD of “2001.” Now I’m going to get this 2-disc special edition, BUT THAT’S STILL NOT THE END! In a year or two I’ll be getting into Blu-ray DVDs (when the catalogs of titles start to include more classic films) and I’ll have to buy “2001” yet again! This is how the home video companies make their money off the devoted fans of certain films, as long as they slightly improve the picture and sound, throw in a few extras, they know they have us!
Thanks William (and Bill). I seem to recall reading on this site someplace that “2001” opened at the Hicksville Twin on June 26, 1968, but then I was reading about the Guild 50th ad Bill Huelbig wrote there that “2001” opened wide in the NY/NJ area in March 1969! Bill, maybe you could give greater detail. This kind of confused me because I have a vivid memory of the first time I saw “2001.” My father took me (I was only 9 years old), it was a rainy spring or summer afternoon matinee at the Hicksville Twin and I remember the curved Cinerama screen. It had to be the first film I ever saw in Cinerama, and in fact may have been the ONLY film I ever saw in Cinerama (Single lens, of course). Anyway…. I now believe that must have been in the summer of 1968, because “2001” was released again in NYC and Long Island area in late May 1969, and I recall that I’d already seen it at that time (and saw it again then). BTW, Bill, are you looking forward to the 2-disc Special Edition DVD of “2001” that’s coming out soon?