The comedy that Day’s audience wanted to see(Doris Day in the New York City blackout!)but a major disappointment to that audience which is why it bombed when it left Radio City. Like Darling Lili a Music Hall hit which nobody wanted to see outside of the Music Hall. It pretty much sunk her Hollywood career.
The first show I saw here was The Rothschilds. It was a big disappointment in that I had no idea they had stripped it of all its interior decoration. Of course bigger disappointments were to come with The Uris and The Minskoff but up until then it was the worst interior of a musical house I ever saw. I haven’t seen the restoration but I’m happy Disney did not rename the theater The Michael Eisner. Though it still could be The Bob Iger.
An elegant theater where I saw El Cid and The Sound of Music in beautiful prints. And though it did not have a huge screen they were satisfying experiences.
$5.00 though was not unheard of. Roadshow movies were charging more than that for the best seats since ‘64.
Sorry about the 245 minutes. I meant 2hours and 45 minutes but as noted it is exactly 2 hours and 52 minutes.
Still the article raises more questions than it answers and the most recent bluray is highly deceptive. I haven’t opened it yet but from the outside it is unclear as to what you are getting. They say ‘Theatrical Version.’ What’s that exactly? Oh it’s the second run general release cut version (which was cut probably for commercial reasons as in getting in more performances per day than sensitive subject matter.) But they don’t say that. Second disc is Extended Road Show version. Well isn’t that a Theatrical Version as well? And did they extend the road show version? You mean it’s more than 172 minutes?
Sorry this release is sloppy and that In 70mm article is a mess. “We created a new interpositive from the original negative,” Original negative? Does that mean the complete Todd AO version? Samples from the Danish road show version that ran 4 years? Where’s the rest of it? But they found a print in an archive in England? What happened to those Todd AO reels I saw delivered in the lobby of the Warner Cinerama? Did they end up in England? Fox treated its legacy very badly.
South Pacific deserved a complete restoration of the entire roadshow film which Fox makes you think you are getting. If I had looked closer I would have realized they were pulling a fast one and not have purchased it.
And did Fox get the Magna production film elements? Because if they did that would be a disaster. And considering their tragic handling of their film legacy it explains why there hasn’t been a stateside Todd AO restoration. The original elements are probably under some southern California freeway. Did Oklahoma survive because Goldwyn productions got their hands on it?
I haven’t seen the recent SP bluray but is the general release print a restoration and from what? It would have been in 35mm. So would it have been restored from a 35mm print? And what about the second disc? What exactly is it? The general release print inserting poor dupes of the missing 15 minutes? Wow is this confusing.
I wish I could find the article about the restoration of a complete 245 minute Todd AO print in Denmark. I fell down a 70mm article rabbit hole and came across it. Now of course I can’t find it. The article was about somewhere from 2010-2012. There was no discussion of any dvd that I can recall. It was just on film. Does this mean that the original elements were tossed so that in the US no restoration was attempted of the Todd AO production? This is amazing considering what was done with Oklahoma and South Pacific was a much bigger international hit with maybe the roadshow long run record of all time.
I’d give anything to see Fall of the Roman Empire in a theater.
I managed to see Barabbas in one which I never thought would happen. A wonderful but very bleak film. I imagine it did not do well on roadshow and very few people seem to remember it.
Have you seen 80 Days and South Pacific in Todd AO? I’ve tried watching the former on TV and found it unwatchable. I imagine on a large Todd AO screen it might be a different animal. Interesting that no restoration of this film has ever been attempted but there doesn’t seem to be much interest. Maybe none of the original elements exist. It seems nobody ever even asked Liz Taylor about it.
South Pacific on the screen in Todd AO at the Warner Cinerama had me enjoying it a lot more than I ever had and the 6 track sound was great. The opening notes of Bali Hai had me pinned to the back of the theater. As I’ve noted the new blu rau DVD restoration is 15 minutes short. The second disc is complete but not restored. But the restoration in Denmark years ago was complete. I guess the people who did the new DVD don’t know there’s a thing called Google.
I certainly did not mean to offend any individual by referring to a film as a bomb. I will refrain from terming any film as such except a couple of personal favorites which I sadly have to admit were indeed roadshow bombs. Does Paint Your Wagon count?
Good book and documentary though I don’t remember him talking about those films. But there’s a lot of info and I remember mostly about Steve, Ali and what an ungrateful wretch Ryan was(is.) Who did he blame Great Gatsby on?
Paramount in ‘70 and '71 stayed true to the Music Hall.
But isn’t it interesting that at the very same time Paramount was investing heavily in roadshow movies? Paint Your Wagon, On a Clear Day and Darling Lili. Though the last two because of the tanking of roadshow presentations were severely cut and released on a continuous perf basis. Beaton finally getting to see Clear Day when it opened in London in ‘71 records in his diary his dismay and anger at the waste. His work in the film that one sees is amazing(I don’t think Streisand has looked more beautiful and her singing is at its best) and yet he laments that his best work was cut out!
I’ve already written about him fleeing Paint Your Wagon during intermission at the world premiere at Loew’s State 2. Well I liked it.
I didn’t care about the Ziegfeld but I care about the Paris. A wonderful intimate and yet not too small theater where the screen is beautifully placed head on. If only FF had a theater like this.
Interesting that R and J was originally supposed to be a roadshow. I wondered why it wasn’t after all it was released at the peak of the craze. TOTS was roadshow albeit an eastside roadshow(which in my mind is kind of like well if it’s not in a downtown theater it’s not a real roadshow presentation!) I had read FZ wanted it released continuous perfs because he was going after a younger market. And here I am reading all these years later in reality it was simply because of a poor advance sale. They probably made a lot more money anyway. Anybody know how many months it played exclusively here? I remember my parents going to see it at a suburban art house in the summer of ‘69.
As long as Chinese, Russian and Arab billionaires are buying them up and keeping them empty and thereby destroying the city while enriching politicians and brokers I guess yes we indeed do need another deluxe condo tower.
As admittedly I never saw it from what I’ve read I believe they were used to supplement the ballet company so as the music built to it’s overwhelming crescendo the stage would be filled with more and more dancers so from a company of 28 then with added men(that I’ve seen from pictures) and the additional 36 Rockettes the stage would be a mass of swirling dancers. I’ve also read that men would be beating drums on the choral stairs. Which is why as you noted it was repeated again only months after its initial success. That set is really something and Minnelli might have had a hand in developing it as he was working at the Hall at the time before he moved to Broadway. The use of the reds, oranges and blacks certainly demonstrate his eye for color.
What was the panoramic screen at Radio City? Was it the Magnascope size screen? Was it the size of the screen that would be the Music Hall’s 1.85 ratio screen?
The comedy that Day’s audience wanted to see(Doris Day in the New York City blackout!)but a major disappointment to that audience which is why it bombed when it left Radio City. Like Darling Lili a Music Hall hit which nobody wanted to see outside of the Music Hall. It pretty much sunk her Hollywood career.
The first show I saw here was The Rothschilds. It was a big disappointment in that I had no idea they had stripped it of all its interior decoration. Of course bigger disappointments were to come with The Uris and The Minskoff but up until then it was the worst interior of a musical house I ever saw. I haven’t seen the restoration but I’m happy Disney did not rename the theater The Michael Eisner. Though it still could be The Bob Iger.
An elegant theater where I saw El Cid and The Sound of Music in beautiful prints. And though it did not have a huge screen they were satisfying experiences.
$5.00 though was not unheard of. Roadshow movies were charging more than that for the best seats since ‘64.
If they’d present this with Serenade To The Stars I’d go.
Sorry about the 245 minutes. I meant 2hours and 45 minutes but as noted it is exactly 2 hours and 52 minutes.
Still the article raises more questions than it answers and the most recent bluray is highly deceptive. I haven’t opened it yet but from the outside it is unclear as to what you are getting. They say ‘Theatrical Version.’ What’s that exactly? Oh it’s the second run general release cut version (which was cut probably for commercial reasons as in getting in more performances per day than sensitive subject matter.) But they don’t say that. Second disc is Extended Road Show version. Well isn’t that a Theatrical Version as well? And did they extend the road show version? You mean it’s more than 172 minutes?
Sorry this release is sloppy and that In 70mm article is a mess. “We created a new interpositive from the original negative,” Original negative? Does that mean the complete Todd AO version? Samples from the Danish road show version that ran 4 years? Where’s the rest of it? But they found a print in an archive in England? What happened to those Todd AO reels I saw delivered in the lobby of the Warner Cinerama? Did they end up in England? Fox treated its legacy very badly.
South Pacific deserved a complete restoration of the entire roadshow film which Fox makes you think you are getting. If I had looked closer I would have realized they were pulling a fast one and not have purchased it.
OK talk about confusing. So what happened to this?
https://www.in70mm.com/news/2006/south_pacific/index.htm
And did Fox get the Magna production film elements? Because if they did that would be a disaster. And considering their tragic handling of their film legacy it explains why there hasn’t been a stateside Todd AO restoration. The original elements are probably under some southern California freeway. Did Oklahoma survive because Goldwyn productions got their hands on it?
I haven’t seen the recent SP bluray but is the general release print a restoration and from what? It would have been in 35mm. So would it have been restored from a 35mm print? And what about the second disc? What exactly is it? The general release print inserting poor dupes of the missing 15 minutes? Wow is this confusing.
I wish I could find the article about the restoration of a complete 245 minute Todd AO print in Denmark. I fell down a 70mm article rabbit hole and came across it. Now of course I can’t find it. The article was about somewhere from 2010-2012. There was no discussion of any dvd that I can recall. It was just on film. Does this mean that the original elements were tossed so that in the US no restoration was attempted of the Todd AO production? This is amazing considering what was done with Oklahoma and South Pacific was a much bigger international hit with maybe the roadshow long run record of all time.
I’d give anything to see Fall of the Roman Empire in a theater. I managed to see Barabbas in one which I never thought would happen. A wonderful but very bleak film. I imagine it did not do well on roadshow and very few people seem to remember it.
I wonder if ISZ could be restored to its Cinerama dimensions. I saw it in the suburbs as a boy.
Have you seen 80 Days and South Pacific in Todd AO? I’ve tried watching the former on TV and found it unwatchable. I imagine on a large Todd AO screen it might be a different animal. Interesting that no restoration of this film has ever been attempted but there doesn’t seem to be much interest. Maybe none of the original elements exist. It seems nobody ever even asked Liz Taylor about it.
South Pacific on the screen in Todd AO at the Warner Cinerama had me enjoying it a lot more than I ever had and the 6 track sound was great. The opening notes of Bali Hai had me pinned to the back of the theater. As I’ve noted the new blu rau DVD restoration is 15 minutes short. The second disc is complete but not restored. But the restoration in Denmark years ago was complete. I guess the people who did the new DVD don’t know there’s a thing called Google.
NYer If Lerner and Loewe, Andre Previn, Nelson Riddle and Joshua Logan considered it singing who are you or I to say it wasn’t?
Yes that’s the film. I used the English translation. Do you know what cinema that was? It was pretty large.
Mr DeLuca do you know which cinema was used when Sandrelli worked as an usher in I knew Her Well?
Any film containing Lee Marvin singing Wanderin Star is a success in my heart.
I certainly did not mean to offend any individual by referring to a film as a bomb. I will refrain from terming any film as such except a couple of personal favorites which I sadly have to admit were indeed roadshow bombs. Does Paint Your Wagon count?
Many of the acts are meh. The best thing about this movie is Jack Benny as the interlocutor. He is wonderful.
Yes! I liked them. I thought they were pretty funny. They might be also in the souvenir program which is somewhere…
Good book and documentary though I don’t remember him talking about those films. But there’s a lot of info and I remember mostly about Steve, Ali and what an ungrateful wretch Ryan was(is.) Who did he blame Great Gatsby on?
Paramount in ‘70 and '71 stayed true to the Music Hall.
But isn’t it interesting that at the very same time Paramount was investing heavily in roadshow movies? Paint Your Wagon, On a Clear Day and Darling Lili. Though the last two because of the tanking of roadshow presentations were severely cut and released on a continuous perf basis. Beaton finally getting to see Clear Day when it opened in London in ‘71 records in his diary his dismay and anger at the waste. His work in the film that one sees is amazing(I don’t think Streisand has looked more beautiful and her singing is at its best) and yet he laments that his best work was cut out!
I’ve already written about him fleeing Paint Your Wagon during intermission at the world premiere at Loew’s State 2. Well I liked it.
Sorry, I get lazy. Film Forum. Taming of the Shrew.
In Cactus Flower Hawn and Matthau come here to see Romeo and Juliet.
I didn’t care about the Ziegfeld but I care about the Paris. A wonderful intimate and yet not too small theater where the screen is beautifully placed head on. If only FF had a theater like this.
Interesting that R and J was originally supposed to be a roadshow. I wondered why it wasn’t after all it was released at the peak of the craze. TOTS was roadshow albeit an eastside roadshow(which in my mind is kind of like well if it’s not in a downtown theater it’s not a real roadshow presentation!) I had read FZ wanted it released continuous perfs because he was going after a younger market. And here I am reading all these years later in reality it was simply because of a poor advance sale. They probably made a lot more money anyway. Anybody know how many months it played exclusively here? I remember my parents going to see it at a suburban art house in the summer of ‘69.
As long as Chinese, Russian and Arab billionaires are buying them up and keeping them empty and thereby destroying the city while enriching politicians and brokers I guess yes we indeed do need another deluxe condo tower.
As admittedly I never saw it from what I’ve read I believe they were used to supplement the ballet company so as the music built to it’s overwhelming crescendo the stage would be filled with more and more dancers so from a company of 28 then with added men(that I’ve seen from pictures) and the additional 36 Rockettes the stage would be a mass of swirling dancers. I’ve also read that men would be beating drums on the choral stairs. Which is why as you noted it was repeated again only months after its initial success. That set is really something and Minnelli might have had a hand in developing it as he was working at the Hall at the time before he moved to Broadway. The use of the reds, oranges and blacks certainly demonstrate his eye for color.
What was the panoramic screen at Radio City? Was it the Magnascope size screen? Was it the size of the screen that would be the Music Hall’s 1.85 ratio screen?
When Bolero was on the program the Rockettes did double duty.