I began a ritual of driving an hour into New York to see 70MM engagements ever since experiencing Star Wars at the Orpheum in ’77. During that period, a lot of the old “palaces†were still around and I was fortunate enough to have visited all of them before they were plexed or demolished. The big house 1 at the Orpheum was always my favorite. Perhaps not as plush as some of its contemporaries (I vaguely recall a red curtain and purple upholstery), but it made up for it in presentation. At that time the “biggest†movies usually were booked at the Orpheum uptown and the Loews Astor Plaza in midtown for their 70MM engagements (unless they went to Walter Read’s Ziegfeld), which seemed to be driven by the studios (for instance, 20th Century Fox product always seemed to end up at Loews). Although the Astor Plaza was considered the more “premier†theater of the two because of its capacity and location, I always thought projection and sound to be superior at the Orpheum. I believe they were still using carbon arcs in the lamp houses yielding a pleasing bright image – as compared the Astor Plaza which always seemed under-lamped to me. The Orpheum’s sound system usually sounded great â€" fuller and less strident in the upper midrange in comparison to the Astor or the Ziegfeld. I also recall them as having way oversized surrounds (mostly Altec A-7s) which always lent an impressive sense of envelopment when called for.
Hi,
New here.
For any interested, I have a few nice hi-rez images of the auditorium interior I shot last year. I’d be happy to share, I’m just not particularly knowledgeable as to how to make these generally available. If anyone has the expertise to facilitate this, please email me directly at and I can forward them.
I began a ritual of driving an hour into New York to see 70MM engagements ever since experiencing Star Wars at the Orpheum in ’77. During that period, a lot of the old “palaces†were still around and I was fortunate enough to have visited all of them before they were plexed or demolished. The big house 1 at the Orpheum was always my favorite. Perhaps not as plush as some of its contemporaries (I vaguely recall a red curtain and purple upholstery), but it made up for it in presentation. At that time the “biggest†movies usually were booked at the Orpheum uptown and the Loews Astor Plaza in midtown for their 70MM engagements (unless they went to Walter Read’s Ziegfeld), which seemed to be driven by the studios (for instance, 20th Century Fox product always seemed to end up at Loews). Although the Astor Plaza was considered the more “premier†theater of the two because of its capacity and location, I always thought projection and sound to be superior at the Orpheum. I believe they were still using carbon arcs in the lamp houses yielding a pleasing bright image – as compared the Astor Plaza which always seemed under-lamped to me. The Orpheum’s sound system usually sounded great â€" fuller and less strident in the upper midrange in comparison to the Astor or the Ziegfeld. I also recall them as having way oversized surrounds (mostly Altec A-7s) which always lent an impressive sense of envelopment when called for.
Hi,
New here.
For any interested, I have a few nice hi-rez images of the auditorium interior I shot last year. I’d be happy to share, I’m just not particularly knowledgeable as to how to make these generally available. If anyone has the expertise to facilitate this, please email me directly at and I can forward them.
PH