The Rivoli Theatre can be seen in the opening crane shot of the film “My Favorite Year” (MGM/UA, 1982) starring Peter O'Toole. The movie is set in 1954 and the marquee to the Rivoli is emblazened with a display for the classic Vincent Price horror film “House of Wax” (Warner Brothers, 1953) presented in “3 Dimension.” The slogan reads: “Every thrill of its astounding story comes off the screen right at you!” The key art on the marquee shows a line of chorus girls and a shadowy figure kidnapping one of them. I actually worked on “My Favorite Year” as a production assistant for the New York location shooting (under New York unit producer A. Kitman Ho — who went on to produce such films as “Wall Street,” “JFK,” “Platoon,” and “Born on the Fourth of July”). I remember well the day of the crane shot outside the Rivoli Theatre (at Broadway and 50th Street) because I was such a huge Vincent Price fan and a fan of “House of Wax.” I remember discussing our love of the film with the movie’s director Richard Benjamin and the production designer Charles Rosen (a fellow North Carolina native who had production designed the 1978 remake of “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers”). There was also a sidewalk newsstand on that block that was decorated with period 1954 magazines and newspapers. During the lunch break, it was my job to guard the newsstand — and, let me tell you, it wasn’t easy. Many tough New York pedestrians were rushing by, blindly plopping down coins to purchase the daily newspaper, not realizing that these newspapers were mockups of 1954 newspapers. I kept having to stop them from just grabbing them. I literally got into tugs of war with more than one annoyed passerby. Lots of other pedestrians were trying to buy tickets for “House of Wax” at the Rivoli boxoffice and got extremely miffed when they were told that “House of Wax” was not really playing there and that the marquee had been mocked up for a new movie being shot that day. Instead of laughing it off as if they’d just been punk’d on “Candid Camera,” most of these jaded New Yorkers were simply pissed by the inconvenience. So much for the glamor of filmmaking. And, luckily, no one was hurt during the melee.
The Rivoli Theatre can be seen in the opening crane shot of the film “My Favorite Year” (MGM/UA, 1982) starring Peter O'Toole. The movie is set in 1954 and the marquee to the Rivoli is emblazened with a display for the classic Vincent Price horror film “House of Wax” (Warner Brothers, 1953) presented in “3 Dimension.” The slogan reads: “Every thrill of its astounding story comes off the screen right at you!” The key art on the marquee shows a line of chorus girls and a shadowy figure kidnapping one of them. I actually worked on “My Favorite Year” as a production assistant for the New York location shooting (under New York unit producer A. Kitman Ho — who went on to produce such films as “Wall Street,” “JFK,” “Platoon,” and “Born on the Fourth of July”). I remember well the day of the crane shot outside the Rivoli Theatre (at Broadway and 50th Street) because I was such a huge Vincent Price fan and a fan of “House of Wax.” I remember discussing our love of the film with the movie’s director Richard Benjamin and the production designer Charles Rosen (a fellow North Carolina native who had production designed the 1978 remake of “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers”). There was also a sidewalk newsstand on that block that was decorated with period 1954 magazines and newspapers. During the lunch break, it was my job to guard the newsstand — and, let me tell you, it wasn’t easy. Many tough New York pedestrians were rushing by, blindly plopping down coins to purchase the daily newspaper, not realizing that these newspapers were mockups of 1954 newspapers. I kept having to stop them from just grabbing them. I literally got into tugs of war with more than one annoyed passerby. Lots of other pedestrians were trying to buy tickets for “House of Wax” at the Rivoli boxoffice and got extremely miffed when they were told that “House of Wax” was not really playing there and that the marquee had been mocked up for a new movie being shot that day. Instead of laughing it off as if they’d just been punk’d on “Candid Camera,” most of these jaded New Yorkers were simply pissed by the inconvenience. So much for the glamor of filmmaking. And, luckily, no one was hurt during the melee.