Loew's Capitol Theatre
1645 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
1645 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
47 people
favorited this theater
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Time for my annual comment on the day I saw “2001” at the one-and-only Loew’s Capitol, June 15, 1968. And it was a Saturday, like it is this year.
Saw many films here, the last being ‘Far From the Madding Crowd’ on 11/01/67….my last time being in that great theater.
After the Capitol was turned into a Cinerama house when they played a film in the 1.85:1 ratio like In the Heat of the Night did the borders make the screen fairly small but it still had a curve to it? What about a wide screen Panavision film was the screen made smaller?
The movie features the things that all humans have in common: being born and dying; eating, drinking, sleeping and breathing; going to the bathroom (one character talks about it, another is shown going to the zero gravity toilet); having a birthday. It’s all in there.
In as few words as possible, it’s the story of the evolution of the human race: past, present and future.
There’s an explanation?
Bill, since you’ve seen it 105 times, do you think you’re qualified to explain it to the rest of us?
The theater at the Franklin is officially known as the Tuttleman IMAX Theater. Here’s a link to its Cinema Treasures page.
The Franklin Institute is like the Philadelphia equivalent of the Museum of Natural History and the Hayden Planetarium in New York. They showed “2001” in their Omnimax theater on the occasion of the movie’s 50th anniversary. It was projected on the ceiling, on a huge curved screen. There was lots of distortion, even more than with Cinerama, but the visual impact was overwhelming. I’d say it was the largest screen I’ve seen it on since the Capitol. It’s a safe area, not far from the museum with the Rocky steps. If it ever gets shown there again, I’ll post about it here.
I did meet Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood, three times. Twice at the Chiller Theatre celebrity convention in Parsippany NJ, and once at a screening of the movie at the Lafayette Theater in Suffern, NY. Two very nice guys.
Was that the largest screen you saw it on outside the Capitol. Is it a regular movie theater or revival house? I could get there by car. Is it a safe area? Did you ever get to meet Lockwood or Dullea? They seem to make a lot of appearances.
Nothing can compare to that first time at the Capitol, but I’ve seen “2001” in a theater many more times since then. 105 times, to be exact. I saw it in 70mm in Fort Lee, NJ just last month, and it’s scheduled to play the Village East in Manhattan in 70mm during the week of July 14th.
The closest non-Cinerama experience was an Omnimax screening at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in 2018. I went back to see that 4 times. I hope they bring it back someday.
I haven’t seen the movie since I saw it on the dimension 150 screen at the Rivoli. It seems pointless. However for some reason I have the 4K. it was one of my great Cinema experiences. Unhappily the Capital was torn down before I even knew it existed. Maybe it was just as well. I bet that in back of all the walling for the smaller Cinerama auditorium there was still all the original decoration of the auditorium and the stage and all the stage rigging and equipment and dressing rooms. A time capsule of when the theater was built in the teens. This is when all the great buildings were being torn down in midtown leading to its miserable days in the 70s and 80s and even worse days today.
Today is the 55th anniversary of my one and only trip to the Capitol, for “2001”, not long before it was torn down. June 15, 1968. I think it was demolished in September of that year.
Sorry I can’t scan the photo because I’m away from my home (where it’s kept) until next year.
I probably saw that many years ago which is why the one with the curtains looks so wrong. Unfortunately I haven’t seen that book in decades.
Does anyone have it? Can you scan the photo?
If you can get hold of a copy there’s a great photo of the magnificent original proscenium in Robert A.M. Stern’s book, “New York 1930”.
Does anyone know of a picture of the auditorium facing the proscenium before the drapes were added? I can’t find one online anywhere. On this site the earliest looks like it was from the 30s or 40s. The design of the curtain and the covering of the side columns is definitely not the original look of the theater in 1919 or the 20s. They did the same to the Roxy but we have pictures of that theater with its original proscenium.
These have been around since the American with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990. Maybe there are more showings now with an aging population.
Hello-
to Al A.-
as always thanks for your reply. but why is it happening all of a sudden? I have often gone to 2p.m. or 2:30p.m. screenings at the ANC 19 St. before and they never had subtitles.
I used to go to Times Square regularly . I went to all the picture palaces with 1 glaring exception .I never went to the Roxy.I went to see Around the World. Was in the Capitol the most. HTWWW was great in Cinerama. The Buffalo stampede was classic.The addition of the Japanese garden was nice. A shame every great building in NYC ends up demolished.
bigjoe, you probably attended a showing aimed at the hearing impaired. I recently saw “TOP GUN: MAVERICK” at the Empire and there were no subtitles.
Hello-
to all my fellow avid moviegoers whatever theaters you might
frequent. do all AMC theaters now have English subtitles with
every film? I find it annoying. why was it done? does anyone
know?
I didn’t go to any of the 70mm musicals, but I wish I had. I also wish I’d sat closer to the screen for Krakatoa. With Cinerama, the closer the better. When The Exorcist was blown up to 70mm, I saw it here. The sound was overwhelming. But one big drawback: the warning bell on one of the projectors was broken and it went off continuously. Whoever was in the booth that day obviously didn’t care. Or, it couldn’t be fixed. Good thing the movie was so loud.
Bill Huelbig: Yes it was! Their musical 70MM festival was great. Don’t know if you went to any of them. Lucky you to have seen Krakatoa there but I remember that great billboard in Times Square. And the sound system was incredible. I was in the Penthouse a couple of times and that former balcony was huge. I’m not sure if it was that large during the roadshow era. They might have made it smaller (like they did the Capitol)then opened it up to its Strand size when it became a single theater.
vindanpar: I got to see most of the Warner Cinerama because I saw Krakatoa East of Java at what was then called just the Cinerama, in 1969. As I recall, it really was quite a big theater, even without the balcony.