Comments from Bill Huelbig

Showing 201 - 225 of 2,126 comments

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Cinerama Hollywood on May 4, 2018 at 5:19 pm

My ploy worked. The Barry Lyndon Dome photo is once again on display.

Roger: I was talking about the Hollywood location. I was in one of the other 14 auditoriums outside the Dome. Sorry I didn’t make that clear.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Cinerama Hollywood on May 3, 2018 at 4:06 pm

The photo that has the highest number of views is the one that gets displayed at the top of the page. I found the Barry Lyndon one and gave it a few more views, but I guess it wasn’t enough.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Cinerama Hollywood on May 3, 2018 at 3:35 pm

I’ve only been to one of the other Arclights besides the Cinerama Dome, but that photo does look like the theater I attended. I believe there are several different sized auditoriums. This must be the biggest one. It’s valid that the picture is there because the page is for Cinerama Dome AND Arclight, but I do miss the photo of Barry Lyndon playing at the Dome.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Loew's Capitol Theatre on Apr 14, 2018 at 6:12 am

I’ve seen five other Cinerama screens (Montclair NJ, Washington DC, Dayton OH, Los Angeles, Seattle) but the one at the Capitol is the only one that felt close to being 93 feet wide. I know memories are often faulty, especially 50-year-old ones, but that screen was truly an unforgettable sight.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Loew's Capitol Theatre on Apr 13, 2018 at 3:19 pm

It’s sad to think how the really big screen at the Capitol was torn down 50 years ago, and nothing was ever really built since to replace it. I’m grateful I got to experience “2001” on that screen.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Village East by Angelika on Apr 5, 2018 at 11:21 am

“2001: A Space Odyssey” in 70mm is going to play here starting May 18th, according to the trailer I saw last week preceding “Ready Player One”. It is quite a beautiful theater and one of the closest things Manhattan has to a real movie palace, like it says in the intro.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Loew's Capitol Theatre on Apr 3, 2018 at 4:09 pm

Joe, I was very surprised at the $20 cost of a 70mm show. I do qualify for senior discount but I had already seen on their website that they don’t apply to 70mm, so I just handed over my $20. But I’ll gladly pay it to see 2001.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Loew's Capitol Theatre on Apr 3, 2018 at 3:45 pm

Howard mentioned the Village East. I saw Ready Player One there last Friday, and they showed a 70mm trailer for 2001. Just before it was over, it said that 2001 would be playing “at this theater”.

It was no Capitol, but it was a very nice theater with a big screen. It had the look of an old movie palace, or half of one anyway. It looks like the balcony of what was once a much bigger theater.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Loew's Capitol Theatre on Apr 3, 2018 at 11:59 am

Fantastic article, Michael, just like all your others, but this one is extra special to me.

Reposting Paul Noble’s reminiscences from the 40th anniversary. He attended the first-ever screening at the Capitol:

Paul Noble on April 3, 2008 at 4:54 pm

Three nights in advance of the NY premiere, I attended the first press screening of 2001 at the Capitol at its full-length. I believe it clocked in at 161 minutes. The place was packed, but after intermission several hundred people were missing. During the closing credits, there were just two of us left, the other being Gene Shalit who was “conducting” “The Blue Danube”. I turned around at the end and waved to Kubrick in the booth and gave him a thumbs up. In the lobby, I joined a heated conversation with Judith Crist, Bruce Bahrenberg and other critics, who were loudly putting the picture down. I told them about “The Sentinel,” the landmark Clarke short story, and what the possible meaning of the picture was. They laughed me out of the lobby! The director cut the film, supposedly on the print, over the next few days, and the shortened version was the one which opened at the premiere. I’m still a great fan of 2001 with its enormous impact on future motion pictures, and the Capitol Cinerama as it was on that night with that gigantic curved screen, even in sharp focus from my third row seat!

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Loew's Capitol Theatre on Apr 3, 2018 at 3:25 am

Happy actual 50th anniversary today to 2001: A Space Odyssey at the Capitol. Big article about it in last Sunday’s NY Times, big 70mm re-release coming in May. It’s the movie of the year!

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Loew's Capitol Theatre on Apr 3, 2018 at 3:23 am

But the Kings in Brooklyn did show a movie about a year ago, and it sold out the place: Barry Lyndon, accompanied by a live orchestra. That’s why I thought it would be cool if they showed 2001 this year. They’d get that same huge audience back.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Loew's Capitol Theatre on Mar 30, 2018 at 9:26 am

Thanks, Mark. I hope you get to run “2001” on May 18th.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Loew's Capitol Theatre on Mar 29, 2018 at 3:56 pm

Thanks for the good news, markp. Is the Kings the theater with the wide curved screen and the elephant decorations? I’m basing this on that long- ago viewing of The Wild Bunch, but I’m sure there were elephants there somewhere.

The Village East on 12th St. and 2nd Ave. is showing Ready Player One in 70mm. I’ve never been there, but I am going to check it out. I heard that all 70mm engagements of Ready Player One are preceded by a 70mm trailer for 2001.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Loew's Capitol Theatre on Mar 29, 2018 at 11:32 am

Waiting for Warner Bros. to post the list of 70mm screening venues. The story is all over the movie industry websites, and I even heard about it on the radio this morning. I’m a happy man.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Loew's Capitol Theatre on Mar 29, 2018 at 10:12 am

The biggest non-IMAX theater in the AMC Lincoln Square complex on Broadway and 66th St. would be a good place to show it, if they haven’t gotten rid of their 70mm projectors. I saw The Wild Bunch there in 70mm some years ago, and if I remember right the screen even has a slight curve.

If the Uptown in DC is showing it, and they still have their Cinerama screen, I’ll be making a train trip to Washington.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Loew's Capitol Theatre on Mar 28, 2018 at 1:26 pm

Just found out that “2001” will be getting a nationwide 70mm release starting May 18th, 2018. Exactly what I was hoping for.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Ziegfeld Theatre on Mar 25, 2018 at 2:36 pm

At least they left the marquee up. Small consolation, I know.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Loew's Capitol Theatre on Mar 25, 2018 at 11:49 am

Correction: some of the reviews are from Washington DC critics. But they did manage to fill the page. Seeing that ad back then was a great relief to me after the bad reviews it got in the NY Daily News and the NY Times. I was so afraid it was going to be a bomb.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Loew's Capitol Theatre on Mar 25, 2018 at 11:21 am

I just posted in Photos a full page ad of good reviews of “2001” from New York critics, taken from the NY Times, 4/5/1968. The 50th anniversary is only a few days away.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Proof that not all the New York reviews were lousy. on Mar 25, 2018 at 11:19 am

From the New York Times, April 5th, 1968, which was also the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Cinerama Hollywood on Mar 19, 2018 at 3:33 pm

I really don’t know the details, but can a blu-ray be created from a print of a movie? I thought you needed a good copy of the movie’s negative, which bigjoe59 said had been damaged in the case of Brothers Grimm.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Cinerama Hollywood on Mar 18, 2018 at 3:31 pm

This Australian print played at the Dome in 2012. It was really something to see. It did break down once, in the first 10 minutes, but played perfectly after that. I would love to eventually see a Blu-ray in Smilebox. Probably the most underrated Cinerama production. The showmanship, imagination and kindness of George Pal are on constant display.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Radio City Music Hall on Mar 13, 2018 at 7:59 pm

I just posted a NY Times ad for King Kong in the photo section. It says “50,000 Seats Were Not Enough”. The date was March 3, 1933.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Uptown Theatre on Mar 2, 2018 at 7:09 am

Thanks, JodarMovieFan. I should have realized the 70mm projectors would be gone. It would be so great to see it again on a real Cinerama screen – unless they got rid of that too?

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig commented about Uptown Theatre on Mar 1, 2018 at 5:29 pm

Does anyone know if the Uptown is planning to show “2001: A Space Odyssey” during its 50th anniversary year? In 1993, the 25th anniversary, they showed it for a week. The movie had its world premiere at the Uptown on April 2nd, 1968.