Maybe not a cinema treasure? It most definitely was during its brief period as a single screen theater. Very elegant with a large screen and spacious auditorium nicely designed. As soon as it was spit in half it felt like a dump. Small screens that you had to look at at an angle. Too sad. 70MM here would have been a joke. Totally pointless. Even as a single screen it never showed a genuine 70mm film at all as far as I know. Had it been built sooner it would have been a great hard ticket house. Even in the second half of the 60s it could have shown reserved seat films. NJ suburbanites wouldn’t have had to drive up to NY State to see films like Zhivago, Lion in Winter, Oliver and Funny Girl. Strangely they didn’t play in Bellevue, North Jersey’s big reserved seat center.
Yes 100k in ‘70 was pretty disastrous for such a large operation as the Hall’s. 145k was a very poor opening week. And as the Christmas show was already in rehearsal at the end of Oct and it used sets from previous shows especially The Nativity(what a loss that is! The Leonidoff pageant was a beauty) it would not have been difficult to get it in place in three weeks of rehearsal. Just from the first week’s poor showing the Music Hall audience had no interest in the film. If only the Music Hall had chosen one of Mel Brooks’ very best films The Twelve Chairs. A family friendly film perfect for the Music Hall audiences. Scrooge was a big success opening week and as previously the Christmas season didn’t start until early December it was shortly after
that I noticed the season started earlier and earlier. Now it was acceptable to start making money off of Christmas mid Nov when before it would have been considered absurdly early. Manhattan merchants would have noticed this. And from there…
TNYT OCT 30 ‘70 Vincent Canby The real subject of the film, however, is one much closer to Mr. Wilder’s other movie fantasies (“Some Like It Hot,” “Kiss Me Stupid”). That is, sex. To put it bluntly, and profanely, were Holmes and Dr. Watson—Holmes’s biographer, his most earnest admirer and the sharer of his secrets and of his flat— lovers? I suspect that only Billy Wilder would have the nerve to raise such a question, and then to dispatch it in a movie that is gentle enough to become the Thanksgiving holiday attraction at the Music Hall.
TNYT NOV 20 ‘70 Vincent Canby “Scrooge” opened yesterday at the Radio City Music Hall as the Christmas attraction, approximately five weeks early. The last “A Christmas Carol” to play the Hall, a version produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz in 1938, was unveiled three days before Christmas. When the next version opens—I estimate in 2001—it may be on the Fourth of July.
One of the Music Hall’s stranger choices for a Christmas film. Up there with Sayonara. I guess the star power of the leads made them major film events worthy of a holiday booking.
bigjoe as I have no interest in most of the box I bought the Oliver 4k on ebay. I’ve read no complaints from others about the tuba sound(I’ll have to watch it. Was saving it for Christmas. It opened at Christmas in ‘68 and I saw it a year later at Christmas when it came to the suburbs. So it’s a Christmas movie to me.) and I wonder why they couldn’t have used music from the overture or entr'acte as all films do for their menu.
I was not in this theater when it was a single screen however I was not impressed by the size of the wide screen in Loew’s State 1. Canby in his review of Oliver! remarks that the screen size is the same as in the old theater. For such a large roadshow theater it was a disappointment. And going through the photo section I see a trade paper saying in ‘59 that the 70mm screen was 50’. Small to my way of thinking.
How great is this Lawrence of Arabia and Mutiny on the Bounty right next to each other in great movie theaters in 70MM? I only wish I had been around then. I would have gone multiple times to both movies. You can keep your 70s new wave films. Unfortunately that’s what I got. But there was great theater on the side streets that’s for sure.
There had to have been curtains in front of the screen as that was an important part not only of a Cinerama screening but movie going in general. Yet there is no hint of one in the illustration.
A good thing they put the screen in front of the proscenium instead of destroying it.
Wow. This survived the devastating bombing of Hamburg in WW II but such a beautiful house as this never survived the greed of NY politicians and developers.
Giant has just come out on 4k. From reviews some of it looks great and some of it not so great. The movie is 3 hours and 20 minutes. And it played the Roxy with a stage show which is amazing. A very long running time for a show that had continuous performances.
To be honest I’ve never seen it but Burton was supposed to have been embarrassed by it. Like The Silver Chalice for Paul Newman. Now I love sword and sandal epics and if it comes out on bluray I’ll get it. That is quite a cast.
Eddie Dowling produced the original production of The Glass Menagerie in Chicago and created the character of Tom. Laurette Taylor who created Amanda gave one of the most famous performances of the American stage in the 20th century in this play. As she was only 6 years older than he she told him repeatedly “You’re too old to be my son.” At 55 he was pretty old to be playing Tom.
It’s not Loew’s State or the Palace.
Interesting considering The Blue Max wasn’t even roadshowed in New York.
Maybe not a cinema treasure? It most definitely was during its brief period as a single screen theater. Very elegant with a large screen and spacious auditorium nicely designed. As soon as it was spit in half it felt like a dump. Small screens that you had to look at at an angle. Too sad. 70MM here would have been a joke. Totally pointless. Even as a single screen it never showed a genuine 70mm film at all as far as I know. Had it been built sooner it would have been a great hard ticket house. Even in the second half of the 60s it could have shown reserved seat films. NJ suburbanites wouldn’t have had to drive up to NY State to see films like Zhivago, Lion in Winter, Oliver and Funny Girl. Strangely they didn’t play in Bellevue, North Jersey’s big reserved seat center.
Yes 100k in ‘70 was pretty disastrous for such a large operation as the Hall’s. 145k was a very poor opening week. And as the Christmas show was already in rehearsal at the end of Oct and it used sets from previous shows especially The Nativity(what a loss that is! The Leonidoff pageant was a beauty) it would not have been difficult to get it in place in three weeks of rehearsal. Just from the first week’s poor showing the Music Hall audience had no interest in the film. If only the Music Hall had chosen one of Mel Brooks’ very best films The Twelve Chairs. A family friendly film perfect for the Music Hall audiences. Scrooge was a big success opening week and as previously the Christmas season didn’t start until early December it was shortly after that I noticed the season started earlier and earlier. Now it was acceptable to start making money off of Christmas mid Nov when before it would have been considered absurdly early. Manhattan merchants would have noticed this. And from there…
TNYT OCT 30 ‘70 Vincent Canby The real subject of the film, however, is one much closer to Mr. Wilder’s other movie fantasies (“Some Like It Hot,” “Kiss Me Stupid”). That is, sex. To put it bluntly, and profanely, were Holmes and Dr. Watson—Holmes’s biographer, his most earnest admirer and the sharer of his secrets and of his flat— lovers? I suspect that only Billy Wilder would have the nerve to raise such a question, and then to dispatch it in a movie that is gentle enough to become the Thanksgiving holiday attraction at the Music Hall.
TNYT NOV 20 ‘70 Vincent Canby “Scrooge” opened yesterday at the Radio City Music Hall as the Christmas attraction, approximately five weeks early. The last “A Christmas Carol” to play the Hall, a version produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz in 1938, was unveiled three days before Christmas. When the next version opens—I estimate in 2001—it may be on the Fourth of July.
Two very popular Music Hall stars in one movie.
OK here’s the question. What did they cut in The Owl to make it PG?
What happened to Radio City?
Boy look at all that junk.
One of the Music Hall’s stranger choices for a Christmas film. Up there with Sayonara. I guess the star power of the leads made them major film events worthy of a holiday booking.
bigjoe as I have no interest in most of the box I bought the Oliver 4k on ebay. I’ve read no complaints from others about the tuba sound(I’ll have to watch it. Was saving it for Christmas. It opened at Christmas in ‘68 and I saw it a year later at Christmas when it came to the suburbs. So it’s a Christmas movie to me.) and I wonder why they couldn’t have used music from the overture or entr'acte as all films do for their menu.
I was not in this theater when it was a single screen however I was not impressed by the size of the wide screen in Loew’s State 1. Canby in his review of Oliver! remarks that the screen size is the same as in the old theater. For such a large roadshow theater it was a disappointment. And going through the photo section I see a trade paper saying in ‘59 that the 70mm screen was 50’. Small to my way of thinking.
How great is this Lawrence of Arabia and Mutiny on the Bounty right next to each other in great movie theaters in 70MM? I only wish I had been around then. I would have gone multiple times to both movies. You can keep your 70s new wave films. Unfortunately that’s what I got. But there was great theater on the side streets that’s for sure.
As I’ve said before what’s the point? They’re now nothing but shoe box multi-plexes. Now if you were going to restore them to what they once were…
There had to have been curtains in front of the screen as that was an important part not only of a Cinerama screening but movie going in general. Yet there is no hint of one in the illustration.
A good thing they put the screen in front of the proscenium instead of destroying it.
Wow. This survived the devastating bombing of Hamburg in WW II but such a beautiful house as this never survived the greed of NY politicians and developers.
Giant has just come out on 4k. From reviews some of it looks great and some of it not so great. The movie is 3 hours and 20 minutes. And it played the Roxy with a stage show which is amazing. A very long running time for a show that had continuous performances.
To be honest I’ve never seen it but Burton was supposed to have been embarrassed by it. Like The Silver Chalice for Paul Newman. Now I love sword and sandal epics and if it comes out on bluray I’ll get it. That is quite a cast.
I’m not sure if it is forgotten. It’s kind of notorious.
No photos of interior as a roadshow house?
Did Once is Not Enough play at this theater? I remember walking by the theater where it was playing as a boy.
Eddie Dowling produced the original production of The Glass Menagerie in Chicago and created the character of Tom. Laurette Taylor who created Amanda gave one of the most famous performances of the American stage in the 20th century in this play. As she was only 6 years older than he she told him repeatedly “You’re too old to be my son.” At 55 he was pretty old to be playing Tom.
The theater looks so narrow it looks like the screen is curved from being squeezed.
55 cents to see Noro Morales and his orchestra. Hmmm. Ok.
The Warner Archive bluray looks great and gives new life to the film.
This was a terrific show. A lot of fun. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.