i am totally confused now. i was under the
impression that the reason Jackson shot the
film at the 48 frame per second was so that
even if you didn’t see it in 3-D it would
look far sharper than regular 24f frames per
second.
as in L.A.in Manhattan “The Hobbit” will be
playing in a number of theaters which prompts
a question- will the much hyped 48 frames per
second technology only be seen in the 3-D
showings or will it be seen in the 2-D showings
as well? the reason i ask this is i have seen
very few 3-D films in which the 3-D actually
amounted to much to justify the surcharge.
i have been under the impression for years that
“Goodbye Mr. Chips” was the Palace’s last film.
and that after the film’s roadshow run the Palace
reverted to a legit theater and has stayed that
way since the spring of 1970.
during the many times the Palace operated as
as movie theater the only times i remember going
there to see a film was the June 1969 roadshow
re-release of “Ben-Hur” and the Nov. 1969 roadshow
engagement of “Goodbye Mr. Chips”. while its not
considered one of the great musicals i enjoyed
GMC. i don’t know how long the film’s roadshow
engagement lasted at the Palace but it was the
last film to ever play the Palace. i wonder how
soon after GMC’s run ended that they dismantled
the film projecting equipment etc……
thanks for the info. said info prompts
another question. i always assumed when
a film had a decent run in its original
exclusive reserved seat engagement that
said decent run was prompted by box
office returns rather than any contractual
obligation to run the film for x number
of months regardless of the box office.
therefore i’m hoping that the film’s
6 month run in its original reserved seat
engagement was prompted by the box office.
the reason i asked the question is simple.
assuming i correctly understood what i read
online it appears the film’s sole exclusive
first run engagement in San Francisco wasn’t
even an reserved seat engagement but a two
week run at the S.F.Fox.
its interesting reading the various comments
about the Cinerama Dome’s reserving seats policy.
my question is exactly how does it work? one of comments makes it seem as if you can reserve a
particular seat you like forever and ever. but
i don’t suppose you can actually do that. so
if you find a particular seat just right for
you how can you make sure you get it for every
film you want to see at the Dome? that’s the
part i’m a bit fuzzy about.
also since i;m sure the being able to reserve
a seat costs more how do people feel about that?
regular movies in Manhattan cost $13.50-$14
which is already way to high so who would want
to pay extra?
also do people who use the Dome’s reserved
seating policy do so for every film or only
for films they know will have a line around the
block?
in regards to AL A.’s comment of 11/15/10.
the info in the intro at top is no mistake. the film
“Pandora’s Box” which opened the Regent starred
John Bunny and co-starred Lillian Walker as the
person the title refers to.
you certainly make a good point in your
last e-mail. i’m sure for sometime after it
opened at the Loew’s Capitol many screenings
of the original 1968 “Plane of the Apes”
especially showings on Fri.,Sat. and Sun.
were close to sold out if not sold out.
this relates to the point in your last
e-mail~ i always wondered how the staff of
the Capitol got the old audience out,
cleaned the theater then got the new audience
in before the next screening all in 18mins.
thanks for your reply to my post. interesting
way of looking at the scheduling of showings.
now the lack of a concession stand in smaller
art houses could certainly have accommodated
faster turnover hence more showings a day. but
the policy was also used in the larger movie
theaters in the Times Square area. for instance
on the photos page for the Loew’s Capitol there
is a newspaper ad for premiere engagement of
the original “Planet of the Apes” from 1968.
the film is say 1hr.42mins? and the ad states
the showings were scheduled every two hours
starting at 10a.m.
also when “The Godfather” opened March of 1972
at the Loew’s State I and II is was scheduled
every three hours and the film had a running
time of 2hrs.50mins.
in the photos section i was looking at the
newspaper ads for “Marty” when it first opened
in 1955. i noticed something quite interesting.
nowadays theater owners or exhibitors to use
the correct trade term seem to schedule an
inordinately large amount of times between the
showings of a film. thereby getting fewer
shows a day. whereas in the “Marty” ads from
1955 it appears the manager of the Sutton
scheduled showings of the film with as little
time between showings as he figured the staff
could get he old audience out and the new
audience in.
thanks for the info. after posting the note a
thought occurred to me. from its Nov.‘63 opening
to the release of the last “in Cinerama” film
“Krakatoa East of Java” the only theater in the
Hollywood area other than the Dome capable of
showing films “in Cinerama” would have been the
Warner/Pacific up on Hollywood Blvd. so with the
9? single lens Cinerama films released from '63
thru '69 plus re-issues of the original 3-strip
films i figured the Dome didn’t have the time
to host any other reserved seat engagements. this
is especially true since when first built the
Dome could only show single lens “Cinerama” films.
but apparently it did find the time. interesting.
also do you know of a website that lists all the
reserved seat engagements in the L.A. area from
the Oct. 1955 opening of “Oklahoma” to the Dec.
1972 opening of “Man of La Mancha” after which
the studios dropped the policy regardless of what
the film was in(Cinerama,70MM,Panavision,35mm etc.)?
thanks in advance.
i thank my fellow posters in L.A. for
replying to my posts. i have a new question
for you.
the studios dropped the use of the two a day
reserved seat engagement policy after the
Dec. 1972 release of “Man of La Mancha”. now
the Dome opened Nov. of 1963 with “Its A Mad
Mad Mad Mad World”. so in the 9 years the Dome
existed while the studios were still using
the policy did the theater host any reserved
seat engagements of films other than those
presented “in Cinerama”?
i just watched the blu-ray disc of the restored
remastered “This Is Cinerama”. i quite enjoyed it
and i have two questions-
1.one thing i liked about the restored remastered
blu-ray disc released Sept. of ‘08 of “How The
West Was Won"was that the lines between the panels
were virtually eliminated. yet with TIC that was
not done. might i ask why?
2.after watching the film first without the
commentary i wondered why the Long Island church
choir segment was in sepia rather than Technicolor
as was the rest of the film. when i watched the
film again with the commentary my question was
answered by the fact this scene was not shot
for TIC but was a test scene shot by Waller to
get backing for TIC. of course the sepia isn’t
changeable but couldn’t that scene have been
restored/remastered a bit more so it had the
sharp crisp crystal clear image of the rest of
the film?
Hello-
the and i mean “the problem” is that the Ziegfeld
was built when they still held exclusive runs of new
“big” films either or a reserved seat or continuous
performance basis in one theater. i can remember
many “big” films opening exclusive at the Ziegfeld
with resulting lines around the blocks for weeks.
but once the ear of the multiplex came about the
Ziegfeld has been in a rather dicey situation. i
have everything works out well in the end.
i certainly agree with the sentiment of Paul L.’s
post but and there always a but. as much as NYC’s
long gone movie palaces are beloved by film buffs
the majority of said film buffs don’t seem to
want to acknowledge one very simple fact. that
fact being that by the late 50s said movie palaces the Roxy especially
because of its huge size had become just plain economically un-viable as a single screen movie
theater. in fact i bet the Roxy because of its
size had become economically un-viable as a single screen movie theater yearssssss before it was
decided to demolish it.
i love books about NYC theaters stage or film.
one of my favorite’s is Mary C. Henderson’s “42 St.”
the book contains 12 chapters or bios one might say for each of the theaters built on 42 st. between
7th and 8th Avenues. the 1st theater built on the
block was the American which was on the southside
closer to 8th in i believe 1895?
the chapter on the American begins with this
statement-“the American has the dubious distinction
of being the 1st theater built on the block and
the first torn down”. to which i reacted ???????
the 2nd theater built on the block Hammerstein’s
Victoria opened in 1899 and was torn down the end
of 1915 to built the Rialto the 1st “movie palace”
in Times Square which opened in 1916. now the
American which was boarded up after a fire in 1930
wasn’t torn down until the spring of 1931 i believe.
this being the case how can Henderson say the
American was the 1st of the 12 theaters on the
block torn down if the Victoria was torn at the
end of 1915 a good 16 years before the American.
this is where my question comes in.
there seems to be a wide range of opinions as to
whether Hammerstein’s Victoria was a)completely
torn down/demolished as we would use the term
today or if it was b)simply gutted to the bare
skeletal structure and the Rialto built within
said skeletal frame. so which is it? if its b)
that would certainly give some credence to
Henderson’s statement about the American.
i have been going to the Ziegfeld since it
opened Dec. 1969 with the reserved seat
engagement of “Marooned”. which brings me
to my question. recently the theater has had
special quick exclusive engagements like the 2
week run of “The Princess and The Frog” before
it opened wide. to which does anyone
remember what the theater’s last exclusive
regular open ended 1st run engagement was?
the last one i can think of is Oct. 1996 release of the Katz/Harris restoration of “Vertigo”.
thanks for your reply. eventhough i live in
NYC i am quite aware of Grauman’s Chinese and
the El Capitan(Paramount)theaters. i last
visited L.A. the spring of 2004. to which
i know these two theaters held many exclusive
first run engagements in their heyday so if
you lived in L.A. you had to go to these theaters.
but in the 1955 – 1972 period i mentioned in
my original post i wasn’t aware these two
theaters held reserved seat engagements as did
the other 4 theaters mentioned in said post.
i last visited L.A. the spring of 2004 and its
nice to see that this theater is still alive and
well. a question- as i understand it its still
a 1st run theater so how does it host the classic
films showings if its hosting a new film? or
are the classic films showings at the 6-plex next
door?
i have only been to the Uptown once. it was April
of 1963 and i was on a family vacation during which
we took in a showing of “How The West Was Won”.
now i discovered Cinema Treasures the last week
of January 2011. so i decided to create a project
for myself. said project was simple. using CT
i was wondering how many of the grand old movie
theaters/palaces built in the 1913-1941 heyday of
such building were still single screen and still
operating as 1st run theaters since the day they
opened. after much browsing of CT of all the
grand old movie theaters/palaces built in the
U.S. in the 1913-1941 period i could find only 2
count ‘em 2 still single screen and were still
operating as 1st run theaters since the day they
opened. one is the Uptown and the other is Grauman’s
Chinese in Hollywood. certainly an accomplishment.
i first traveled out to L.A. in the spring
of 1980 and did so for the next several years.
to which my question- the first several years
i went to the Pacific on a handful of occasions.
by the luck of the draw the film i chose was
always playing in the main auditorium. when
i first went came out to L.A. in 1980 i could
swear in fact i’m 99% certain they still had the curved Cinerama screen up in the main auditorium.
so did they keep it up from the early 80s to
when the theater closed in August of ‘94 or was
it replaced with a regular flat screen at some
point?
i read above that the theater closed up as a
movie house in Jan. of ‘77. to which a question-
the last reserved seat engagement was “Tora Tora
Tora” which opened the fall of '70. so i was
wondering what was the decor of the theater’s
interior at that point as opposed to today?
corny and hokey as it might be the film has
always been a favorite of mine. i wondered how
long it ran at the Ziegfeld so its nice to
know it still holds the long run title. i’m
guessing the main reason for the long run was
that the film was released when studios still
did exclusive engagements at one theater for
“big” films. so if you wanted to see “Ryan’s
Daughter” you had to go to the Ziegfeld. this
was some years before studios started opening
their “big” films in 2,000 to 3,000 theaters
across the country on the same day.
i thank my fellow posters from L.A.for info about
the Dome’s single lens “Cinerama” engagements. i
have a new question for you.
as i see it the heyday so to speak of reserved seat
or to use the proper term roadshow engagements was
the Oct. 1955 opening of “Oklahoma” thru the Dec.
1972 opening of “Man of La Mancha” after which the
studios dropped the use of said policy. now in the
immediate Hollywood area there was the Cinerama
Dome and up on Hollywood Blvd. the Pantages, the
Warmer Hollywood known on this site as the Pacific
1,2,3 and the Egyptian for a total of four
theaters. but during the aforementioned approx.
17 year period the studios released a number of
their “big” films on roadshow engagements so i
should think more than four theaters were needed.
so this is my question- during the 17 year period mentioned above what other theaters in the
L.A. area were regularly used by the studios for
exclusive roadshow engagements other than the four
in the immediate Hollywood area?
Hello Again-
i am totally confused now. i was under the impression that the reason Jackson shot the film at the 48 frame per second was so that even if you didn’t see it in 3-D it would look far sharper than regular 24f frames per second.
Hello From NYC-
as in L.A.in Manhattan “The Hobbit” will be playing in a number of theaters which prompts a question- will the much hyped 48 frames per second technology only be seen in the 3-D showings or will it be seen in the 2-D showings as well? the reason i ask this is i have seen very few 3-D films in which the 3-D actually amounted to much to justify the surcharge.
Hello Again-
i have been under the impression for years that “Goodbye Mr. Chips” was the Palace’s last film. and that after the film’s roadshow run the Palace reverted to a legit theater and has stayed that way since the spring of 1970.
Hello-
during the many times the Palace operated as as movie theater the only times i remember going there to see a film was the June 1969 roadshow re-release of “Ben-Hur” and the Nov. 1969 roadshow engagement of “Goodbye Mr. Chips”. while its not considered one of the great musicals i enjoyed GMC. i don’t know how long the film’s roadshow engagement lasted at the Palace but it was the last film to ever play the Palace. i wonder how soon after GMC’s run ended that they dismantled the film projecting equipment etc……
Hello Again-
thanks for the info. said info prompts another question. i always assumed when a film had a decent run in its original exclusive reserved seat engagement that said decent run was prompted by box office returns rather than any contractual obligation to run the film for x number of months regardless of the box office. therefore i’m hoping that the film’s 6 month run in its original reserved seat engagement was prompted by the box office.
the reason i asked the question is simple. assuming i correctly understood what i read online it appears the film’s sole exclusive first run engagement in San Francisco wasn’t even an reserved seat engagement but a two week run at the S.F.Fox.
Hello From New York City-
its interesting reading the various comments about the Cinerama Dome’s reserving seats policy. my question is exactly how does it work? one of comments makes it seem as if you can reserve a particular seat you like forever and ever. but i don’t suppose you can actually do that. so if you find a particular seat just right for you how can you make sure you get it for every film you want to see at the Dome? that’s the part i’m a bit fuzzy about.
also since i;m sure the being able to reserve a seat costs more how do people feel about that? regular movies in Manhattan cost $13.50-$14 which is already way to high so who would want to pay extra?
also do people who use the Dome’s reserved seating policy do so for every film or only for films they know will have a line around the block?
in regards to AL A.’s comment of 11/15/10. the info in the intro at top is no mistake. the film “Pandora’s Box” which opened the Regent starred John Bunny and co-starred Lillian Walker as the person the title refers to.
Hello to AL A.–
you certainly make a good point in your last e-mail. i’m sure for sometime after it opened at the Loew’s Capitol many screenings of the original 1968 “Plane of the Apes” especially showings on Fri.,Sat. and Sun. were close to sold out if not sold out. this relates to the point in your last e-mail~ i always wondered how the staff of the Capitol got the old audience out, cleaned the theater then got the new audience in before the next screening all in 18mins.
to AL A.–
thanks for your reply to my post. interesting way of looking at the scheduling of showings.
now the lack of a concession stand in smaller art houses could certainly have accommodated faster turnover hence more showings a day. but the policy was also used in the larger movie theaters in the Times Square area. for instance on the photos page for the Loew’s Capitol there is a newspaper ad for premiere engagement of the original “Planet of the Apes” from 1968. the film is say 1hr.42mins? and the ad states the showings were scheduled every two hours starting at 10a.m.
also when “The Godfather” opened March of 1972 at the Loew’s State I and II is was scheduled every three hours and the film had a running time of 2hrs.50mins.
Hello-
in the photos section i was looking at the newspaper ads for “Marty” when it first opened in 1955. i noticed something quite interesting. nowadays theater owners or exhibitors to use the correct trade term seem to schedule an inordinately large amount of times between the showings of a film. thereby getting fewer shows a day. whereas in the “Marty” ads from 1955 it appears the manager of the Sutton scheduled showings of the film with as little time between showings as he figured the staff could get he old audience out and the new audience in.
Hello To C.S.Walczak-
thanks for the info. after posting the note a thought occurred to me. from its Nov.‘63 opening to the release of the last “in Cinerama” film “Krakatoa East of Java” the only theater in the
Hollywood area other than the Dome capable of showing films “in Cinerama” would have been the Warner/Pacific up on Hollywood Blvd. so with the 9? single lens Cinerama films released from '63 thru '69 plus re-issues of the original 3-strip films i figured the Dome didn’t have the time to host any other reserved seat engagements. this is especially true since when first built the Dome could only show single lens “Cinerama” films. but apparently it did find the time. interesting.
also do you know of a website that lists all the reserved seat engagements in the L.A. area from the Oct. 1955 opening of “Oklahoma” to the Dec. 1972 opening of “Man of La Mancha” after which the studios dropped the policy regardless of what the film was in(Cinerama,70MM,Panavision,35mm etc.)? thanks in advance.
Hello Again From NYC-
i thank my fellow posters in L.A. for replying to my posts. i have a new question for you.
the studios dropped the use of the two a day reserved seat engagement policy after the Dec. 1972 release of “Man of La Mancha”. now the Dome opened Nov. of 1963 with “Its A Mad Mad Mad Mad World”. so in the 9 years the Dome existed while the studios were still using the policy did the theater host any reserved seat engagements of films other than those presented “in Cinerama”?
Hello to J. Sittig-
i just watched the blu-ray disc of the restored remastered “This Is Cinerama”. i quite enjoyed it
and i have two questions-
1.one thing i liked about the restored remastered blu-ray disc released Sept. of ‘08 of “How The West Was Won"was that the lines between the panels were virtually eliminated. yet with TIC that was not done. might i ask why?
2.after watching the film first without the commentary i wondered why the Long Island church choir segment was in sepia rather than Technicolor as was the rest of the film. when i watched the film again with the commentary my question was answered by the fact this scene was not shot for TIC but was a test scene shot by Waller to get backing for TIC. of course the sepia isn’t changeable but couldn’t that scene have been restored/remastered a bit more so it had the sharp crisp crystal clear image of the rest of the film?
Hello- the and i mean “the problem” is that the Ziegfeld was built when they still held exclusive runs of new “big” films either or a reserved seat or continuous performance basis in one theater. i can remember many “big” films opening exclusive at the Ziegfeld with resulting lines around the blocks for weeks. but once the ear of the multiplex came about the Ziegfeld has been in a rather dicey situation. i have everything works out well in the end.
Hello-
i certainly agree with the sentiment of Paul L.’s post but and there always a but. as much as NYC’s long gone movie palaces are beloved by film buffs the majority of said film buffs don’t seem to want to acknowledge one very simple fact. that fact being that by the late 50s said movie palaces the Roxy especially because of its huge size had become just plain economically un-viable as a single screen movie theater. in fact i bet the Roxy because of its size had become economically un-viable as a single screen movie theater yearssssss before it was decided to demolish it.
not to sound uncaring but why not just reopen it? i don’t understand why it should be abandoned as a movie theater?
Hello-
i love books about NYC theaters stage or film. one of my favorite’s is Mary C. Henderson’s “42 St.” the book contains 12 chapters or bios one might say for each of the theaters built on 42 st. between 7th and 8th Avenues. the 1st theater built on the block was the American which was on the southside closer to 8th in i believe 1895?
the chapter on the American begins with this statement-“the American has the dubious distinction of being the 1st theater built on the block and the first torn down”. to which i reacted ??????? the 2nd theater built on the block Hammerstein’s Victoria opened in 1899 and was torn down the end of 1915 to built the Rialto the 1st “movie palace” in Times Square which opened in 1916. now the American which was boarded up after a fire in 1930 wasn’t torn down until the spring of 1931 i believe. this being the case how can Henderson say the American was the 1st of the 12 theaters on the block torn down if the Victoria was torn at the end of 1915 a good 16 years before the American. this is where my question comes in.
there seems to be a wide range of opinions as to whether Hammerstein’s Victoria was a)completely torn down/demolished as we would use the term today or if it was b)simply gutted to the bare skeletal structure and the Rialto built within said skeletal frame. so which is it? if its b) that would certainly give some credence to Henderson’s statement about the American.
Hello-
i have been going to the Ziegfeld since it opened Dec. 1969 with the reserved seat engagement of “Marooned”. which brings me to my question. recently the theater has had special quick exclusive engagements like the 2 week run of “The Princess and The Frog” before it opened wide. to which does anyone remember what the theater’s last exclusive regular open ended 1st run engagement was?
the last one i can think of is Oct. 1996
release of the Katz/Harris restoration of
“Vertigo”.
to Howard B.–
thanks for your reply. eventhough i live in NYC i am quite aware of Grauman’s Chinese and the El Capitan(Paramount)theaters. i last visited L.A. the spring of 2004. to which i know these two theaters held many exclusive first run engagements in their heyday so if you lived in L.A. you had to go to these theaters. but in the 1955 – 1972 period i mentioned in my original post i wasn’t aware these two theaters held reserved seat engagements as did the other 4 theaters mentioned in said post.
Hello From NYC-
i last visited L.A. the spring of 2004 and its nice to see that this theater is still alive and well. a question- as i understand it its still a 1st run theater so how does it host the classic films showings if its hosting a new film? or are the classic films showings at the 6-plex next door?
Hello From NYC-
i have only been to the Uptown once. it was April of 1963 and i was on a family vacation during which we took in a showing of “How The West Was Won”.
now i discovered Cinema Treasures the last week of January 2011. so i decided to create a project for myself. said project was simple. using CT i was wondering how many of the grand old movie theaters/palaces built in the 1913-1941 heyday of such building were still single screen and still operating as 1st run theaters since the day they opened. after much browsing of CT of all the grand old movie theaters/palaces built in the U.S. in the 1913-1941 period i could find only 2 count ‘em 2 still single screen and were still operating as 1st run theaters since the day they opened. one is the Uptown and the other is Grauman’s Chinese in Hollywood. certainly an accomplishment.
Hello From-
i first traveled out to L.A. in the spring of 1980 and did so for the next several years. to which my question- the first several years i went to the Pacific on a handful of occasions. by the luck of the draw the film i chose was always playing in the main auditorium. when i first went came out to L.A. in 1980 i could
swear in fact i’m 99% certain they still had the curved Cinerama screen up in the main auditorium. so did they keep it up from the early 80s to when the theater closed in August of ‘94 or was it replaced with a regular flat screen at some point?
Hello From NYC-
i read above that the theater closed up as a movie house in Jan. of ‘77. to which a question- the last reserved seat engagement was “Tora Tora Tora” which opened the fall of '70. so i was wondering what was the decor of the theater’s interior at that point as opposed to today?
corny and hokey as it might be the film has always been a favorite of mine. i wondered how long it ran at the Ziegfeld so its nice to know it still holds the long run title. i’m guessing the main reason for the long run was that the film was released when studios still did exclusive engagements at one theater for “big” films. so if you wanted to see “Ryan’s Daughter” you had to go to the Ziegfeld. this was some years before studios started opening their “big” films in 2,000 to 3,000 theaters across the country on the same day.
Hello from NYC-
i thank my fellow posters from L.A.for info about the Dome’s single lens “Cinerama” engagements. i have a new question for you.
as i see it the heyday so to speak of reserved seat or to use the proper term roadshow engagements was the Oct. 1955 opening of “Oklahoma” thru the Dec. 1972 opening of “Man of La Mancha” after which the studios dropped the use of said policy. now in the immediate Hollywood area there was the Cinerama Dome and up on Hollywood Blvd. the Pantages, the Warmer Hollywood known on this site as the Pacific 1,2,3 and the Egyptian for a total of four theaters. but during the aforementioned approx. 17 year period the studios released a number of their “big” films on roadshow engagements so i should think more than four theaters were needed.
so this is my question- during the 17 year period mentioned above what other theaters in the L.A. area were regularly used by the studios for exclusive roadshow engagements other than the four in the immediate Hollywood area?