By the way I have not seen the bluray of Cleo but I assume it is from the 50th anniversary restoration I saw which I thought magnificent as stated above. However there are those on threads on bluray.com who think it is a botched job with some of the colors poorly judged and a lost opportunity claiming the film will never be seen again in it’s original visual glory. This was very surprising to me.
One quote ‘Yup, totally agree. In the documentary they’re all set to film Cleopatra’s entrance into Rome when director of photography Leon Shamroy called a halt, the light wasn’t quite right, & what did they end up with on the Blu-ray? A scene that could have been shot on Scotland in the winter. The whole film is too cool, & the colours have been mucked about with, all the yellow has been taken out, all the gold bling the Cleopatra wears now looks like silver. I still have the Blu-ray, I don’t know why, I’ll never watch it again.’‘ I agree with what others have said, this needs to be re-color timed, but first it needs an 8K scan. I’ll be very surprised if any of that comes to be.’
As concerns Half a Sixpence the run might have been longer as it played at the Criterion for Easter so probably had at least a two month run as Easter was in mid April and the film opened in NY in mid February. If it closed before Easter that’s quite a disaster. I guess one has to look at Variety and the ads in the NY Times. I also believe Paramount was lying to Variety and inflating boxoffice figures at least 10k a week. Variety was not happy.
The film had a respectable road show run at the Astoria in London and was nowhere near the disaster there as it was here.
The history of the Rivoli as a roadshow house is a very confusing one in terms of screen size and reserved seat runs turning into continuous runs.
Dolly is probably another one that eventually showed a profit. Even Jerry Herman who did not like it when it opened came around to it. Streisand claims a lot of people tell her how much they like it at which she is incredulous. Why is she so surprised? She’s at her vocal best in terms of a movie musical. Cleopatra which I saw twice at its 50th anniversary restoration is wonderful. The flop status it was accorded at the time is totally unjust. If only the 6 hour director cut had survived. Those 4 hours flew by for me.
How the West Was Won ran under 44 weeks? That seems pretty surprising to me. I stand corrected. Where did Funny Thing roadshow? And to be honest I thought Mutiny was considered a major disappointment.
I guess Can Can was some sort of hit though I don’t believe there’s anyone who’s going to claim it among their favorite movie musicals. Outside of HTWWW Lion in Winter is surprising.
So what film did the Glory of Easter premiere with? I believe the Music Hall did a tableau of the Last Supper before Glory of Easter was first produced.
Also see in the ad for the stage show with the film Richelieu the name Aronson as in Boris. He certainly created the most astonishing designs I saw on stage in his Harold Prince productions. Sadly this theatrical genius no longer exists.
What roadshow runs were considered successes that didn’t run at least 44 weeks?
I think the only successful film that I know of was Patton which AAlvarez explained was Fox wanting to get into general release as soon as possible because of its publicity and controversy managing somehow in this socially confusing period to appeal to both the youth market and the aging conservative population.
It seems that all the films that bombed as a roadshow were not successful in general release either.
I don’t remember where I read it(maybe here years ago) but I didn’t realize it until it was pointed out- the general release print of Dolly was the same length as the roadshow release, as far as I can remember nothing was cut. But strangely enough, and why this was done God only knows, two different cuts of Streisand running towards the camera in Before the Parade Passes By are used. In the roadshow release everything is fine. Nothing goes wrong. However in the general release version when she starts running she must have felt the hat coming off because she reaches up with her hand to hold the hat on her head. It is really effective and did some editor say ‘hey this is terrific, let’s replace the original hard ticket choice with this better one’?
Anybody know of other instances of roadshow versus general release where two different shots of the exact same scene were used? In fact I think this is the only instance I know of no matter the exhibition format.
What’s the point of saving a beautiful theater if they are going to turn it into a multiplex? I get no pleasure from seeing this kind of nonsense.
Honestly tearing it down would have been the same thing. You people have got to be kidding praising this in any way.
Nice to see a comic book movie playing in a fraction of its space when I had some of the greatest theatrical experiences of my life here?
You clearly did not experience what I did. Otherwise this stupiddagine would make you angry.
Like a believer seeing St Patrick’s desecrated.
It just infuriates me that people have anything good to say about it.
This was a great stage theater. And showing films is fine as long as the theater is basically kept intact.
Nice to see a blockbuster playing here! I mean come on.
This is terrible. A wonderful theater cut up into a multiplex. I don’t understand how people can extoll such a place. I saw some wonderful Ingmar Bergman stage productions here. I don’t understand you people.
Do you know what Christopher Strong made and did it play just one week?
The bank holiday started on March 6 and lasted until March 13th. 88k was only ok for a week at the Music. Good but not great. Perhaps the film should not have played at the RKO Roxy and would have done blockbuster business at the Music Hall and have been held over a second week. Or the bank holiday really did hurt business and if FDR hadn’t implemented it both theaters would have done tremendous business.
Anybody know if Disney’s Cinderella opened here? I’ve seen ads for the NY openings of all the Disney classic animated films until even Sword in the Stone except for this one. If the ad has been posted I don’t recall seeing it. For some reason like Peter Pan and Lady and the Tramp it seems like a Roxy film. In fact if the Music Hall could show Snow White and Bambi Cinderella would have been a good fit. But after Bambi it seemed it turned to a no animated film policy until they were forced to with Charlie Brown as the Christmas movie because there were no other family friendly G rated films in late ‘69. And Charlie Brown was so famous and so much a part of the Zeitgeist of the time. It certainly wasn’t because of quality. I’m sure if Dolly or Mr. Chips had been available they would have been happy to have either as a holiday film.
Sorry I didn’t respond as I should have. Lawrence and 2001 were tweaked shortly after the films opened and were already reviewed at least by the New York press. David Lean recalls talking with David Selznick in NY after Lawrence had just opened at the Criterion and Selznick told him not to cut it. But I guess Lean got scared and did it anyway.
Not a roadshow but I saw At Long Last Love when it first opened at Radio City. I went a few weeks later and it had been cut. I have no idea why. The film had already been reviewed and word of mouth was already out. It was shorter but not better. I was disappointed as I remember at least one good song being cut.
Parade in Funny Girl is a pretty famous example of an adaption of a stand and sing Broadway song to exciting cinematic tour de force. Never heard anybody before complain about its length. It builds really well climaxing with that amazing helicopter shot.
Were all these seats available for reserved seat movies? Seems like too many. Did they make a smaller theater within it like they did with the Rivoli and Warner and Loew’s State in NY? If not how did they get 3 years out of SOM and 4 out of SP? Huge audiences going again and again?
The biggest hit films in the US were not tweaked and only released wide after their road show run. Perhaps they were still road show in other markets. I believe this happened with SOM. They were just shown in 35mm in continuous performances. So instead of two a day you got 3 or 4 a day. Although occasionally there were roadshow films that at holiday times were practically continuous performances with a morning, afternoon, sometimes late afternoon and an evening performance.
Also at a few theaters some roadshow movies after a while would switch at the same theater to continuous popular price performances, even switching the print to 35mm. Not often but it happened.
Great SOM ad posted by NYer.
I was so disappointed that when SOM was brought back it was shown at the National and not the Rivoli. It would have been so great to see it there. But maybe 20th Century Fox saw that the Rivoli had booked La Mancha figuring it would play through Easter and did not want to miss a major midtown opening.
Only a few months and LaMancha was gone with plenty of time to bring in Music. It was a crazy idea to make the film hard ticket in any case. Even if it had been good(and though I’ve never seen it it’s supposed to be better than its reputation) it was not going to be in any circumstances another FOTR.
This was a magnificent theater a very long time ago as one can easily see from a period photo. But with every modification it becomes a further eyesore. That last photo is embarrassing. Why bother if they were not going to precisely duplicate the original theater. From the recent photos you might as well be at a multi plex in New Jersey. Tear it down and put up another skyscraper that will further destroy London. Thank god I was in London decades ago before they started destroying it with all these monstrosities. I was sickened by seeing it in Match Point(a film I liked.)
I wonder if Funny Girl stayed much longer at the Criterion than it was financially feasible to do so. Columbia already had Oliver set to be its wide release'69 Christmas film for the family trade and they were holding off FG because they didn’t want two big musicals competing against each other. And of course Oliver would do much better at that time. I picture FG playing to empty houses in its last months at the Criterion(my favorite roadshow theater as it was the first one I was ever in and it was a very glamourous event like occasion). One could look at Variety but it was notorious for printing inflated grosses admittedly given to them by theaters.
That’s quite a filled to the brim stage show along with a Ustinov/Smith caper comedy on screen . I can’t even begin to imagine. When New York was New York.
By the way I have not seen the bluray of Cleo but I assume it is from the 50th anniversary restoration I saw which I thought magnificent as stated above. However there are those on threads on bluray.com who think it is a botched job with some of the colors poorly judged and a lost opportunity claiming the film will never be seen again in it’s original visual glory. This was very surprising to me.
One quote ‘Yup, totally agree. In the documentary they’re all set to film Cleopatra’s entrance into Rome when director of photography Leon Shamroy called a halt, the light wasn’t quite right, & what did they end up with on the Blu-ray? A scene that could have been shot on Scotland in the winter. The whole film is too cool, & the colours have been mucked about with, all the yellow has been taken out, all the gold bling the Cleopatra wears now looks like silver. I still have the Blu-ray, I don’t know why, I’ll never watch it again.’‘ I agree with what others have said, this needs to be re-color timed, but first it needs an 8K scan. I’ll be very surprised if any of that comes to be.’
As concerns Half a Sixpence the run might have been longer as it played at the Criterion for Easter so probably had at least a two month run as Easter was in mid April and the film opened in NY in mid February. If it closed before Easter that’s quite a disaster. I guess one has to look at Variety and the ads in the NY Times. I also believe Paramount was lying to Variety and inflating boxoffice figures at least 10k a week. Variety was not happy.
The film had a respectable road show run at the Astoria in London and was nowhere near the disaster there as it was here.
The history of the Rivoli as a roadshow house is a very confusing one in terms of screen size and reserved seat runs turning into continuous runs.
Dolly is probably another one that eventually showed a profit. Even Jerry Herman who did not like it when it opened came around to it. Streisand claims a lot of people tell her how much they like it at which she is incredulous. Why is she so surprised? She’s at her vocal best in terms of a movie musical. Cleopatra which I saw twice at its 50th anniversary restoration is wonderful. The flop status it was accorded at the time is totally unjust. If only the 6 hour director cut had survived. Those 4 hours flew by for me.
How the West Was Won ran under 44 weeks? That seems pretty surprising to me. I stand corrected. Where did Funny Thing roadshow? And to be honest I thought Mutiny was considered a major disappointment.
I guess Can Can was some sort of hit though I don’t believe there’s anyone who’s going to claim it among their favorite movie musicals. Outside of HTWWW Lion in Winter is surprising.
So what film did the Glory of Easter premiere with? I believe the Music Hall did a tableau of the Last Supper before Glory of Easter was first produced.
Also see in the ad for the stage show with the film Richelieu the name Aronson as in Boris. He certainly created the most astonishing designs I saw on stage in his Harold Prince productions. Sadly this theatrical genius no longer exists.
What roadshow runs were considered successes that didn’t run at least 44 weeks?
I think the only successful film that I know of was Patton which AAlvarez explained was Fox wanting to get into general release as soon as possible because of its publicity and controversy managing somehow in this socially confusing period to appeal to both the youth market and the aging conservative population.
It seems that all the films that bombed as a roadshow were not successful in general release either.
I don’t remember where I read it(maybe here years ago) but I didn’t realize it until it was pointed out- the general release print of Dolly was the same length as the roadshow release, as far as I can remember nothing was cut. But strangely enough, and why this was done God only knows, two different cuts of Streisand running towards the camera in Before the Parade Passes By are used. In the roadshow release everything is fine. Nothing goes wrong. However in the general release version when she starts running she must have felt the hat coming off because she reaches up with her hand to hold the hat on her head. It is really effective and did some editor say ‘hey this is terrific, let’s replace the original hard ticket choice with this better one’?
Anybody know of other instances of roadshow versus general release where two different shots of the exact same scene were used? In fact I think this is the only instance I know of no matter the exhibition format.
What’s the point of saving a beautiful theater if they are going to turn it into a multiplex? I get no pleasure from seeing this kind of nonsense. Honestly tearing it down would have been the same thing. You people have got to be kidding praising this in any way. Nice to see a comic book movie playing in a fraction of its space when I had some of the greatest theatrical experiences of my life here? You clearly did not experience what I did. Otherwise this stupiddagine would make you angry. Like a believer seeing St Patrick’s desecrated.
It’s not just coming to my attention.
It just infuriates me that people have anything good to say about it. This was a great stage theater. And showing films is fine as long as the theater is basically kept intact. Nice to see a blockbuster playing here! I mean come on.
This is terrible. A wonderful theater cut up into a multiplex. I don’t understand how people can extoll such a place. I saw some wonderful Ingmar Bergman stage productions here. I don’t understand you people.
I can just imagine multiplex audiences sitting through The Merry Wives of Windsor overture.
Wow 58k. I assume well under nut.
Do you know what Christopher Strong made and did it play just one week?
The bank holiday started on March 6 and lasted until March 13th. 88k was only ok for a week at the Music. Good but not great. Perhaps the film should not have played at the RKO Roxy and would have done blockbuster business at the Music Hall and have been held over a second week. Or the bank holiday really did hurt business and if FDR hadn’t implemented it both theaters would have done tremendous business.
Interesting. Thank you for Cinderella ad.
Thanks. Didn’t know a Disney film ever played there. Not a very prestigious house for such a major release.
Anybody know if Disney’s Cinderella opened here? I’ve seen ads for the NY openings of all the Disney classic animated films until even Sword in the Stone except for this one. If the ad has been posted I don’t recall seeing it. For some reason like Peter Pan and Lady and the Tramp it seems like a Roxy film. In fact if the Music Hall could show Snow White and Bambi Cinderella would have been a good fit. But after Bambi it seemed it turned to a no animated film policy until they were forced to with Charlie Brown as the Christmas movie because there were no other family friendly G rated films in late ‘69. And Charlie Brown was so famous and so much a part of the Zeitgeist of the time. It certainly wasn’t because of quality. I’m sure if Dolly or Mr. Chips had been available they would have been happy to have either as a holiday film.
Another one of the Music Hall’s odd pairing of stage show and film.
Kind of like the earthquake and burning of Nome with The Nun’s Story. Though not quite so bizarre.
Sorry I didn’t respond as I should have. Lawrence and 2001 were tweaked shortly after the films opened and were already reviewed at least by the New York press. David Lean recalls talking with David Selznick in NY after Lawrence had just opened at the Criterion and Selznick told him not to cut it. But I guess Lean got scared and did it anyway.
Not a roadshow but I saw At Long Last Love when it first opened at Radio City. I went a few weeks later and it had been cut. I have no idea why. The film had already been reviewed and word of mouth was already out. It was shorter but not better. I was disappointed as I remember at least one good song being cut.
Parade in Funny Girl is a pretty famous example of an adaption of a stand and sing Broadway song to exciting cinematic tour de force. Never heard anybody before complain about its length. It builds really well climaxing with that amazing helicopter shot.
Nice picture of auditorium posted.
Were all these seats available for reserved seat movies? Seems like too many. Did they make a smaller theater within it like they did with the Rivoli and Warner and Loew’s State in NY? If not how did they get 3 years out of SOM and 4 out of SP? Huge audiences going again and again?
The biggest hit films in the US were not tweaked and only released wide after their road show run. Perhaps they were still road show in other markets. I believe this happened with SOM. They were just shown in 35mm in continuous performances. So instead of two a day you got 3 or 4 a day. Although occasionally there were roadshow films that at holiday times were practically continuous performances with a morning, afternoon, sometimes late afternoon and an evening performance.
Also at a few theaters some roadshow movies after a while would switch at the same theater to continuous popular price performances, even switching the print to 35mm. Not often but it happened.
Great SOM ad posted by NYer. I was so disappointed that when SOM was brought back it was shown at the National and not the Rivoli. It would have been so great to see it there. But maybe 20th Century Fox saw that the Rivoli had booked La Mancha figuring it would play through Easter and did not want to miss a major midtown opening.
Only a few months and LaMancha was gone with plenty of time to bring in Music. It was a crazy idea to make the film hard ticket in any case. Even if it had been good(and though I’ve never seen it it’s supposed to be better than its reputation) it was not going to be in any circumstances another FOTR.
This was a magnificent theater a very long time ago as one can easily see from a period photo. But with every modification it becomes a further eyesore. That last photo is embarrassing. Why bother if they were not going to precisely duplicate the original theater. From the recent photos you might as well be at a multi plex in New Jersey. Tear it down and put up another skyscraper that will further destroy London. Thank god I was in London decades ago before they started destroying it with all these monstrosities. I was sickened by seeing it in Match Point(a film I liked.)
I wonder if Funny Girl stayed much longer at the Criterion than it was financially feasible to do so. Columbia already had Oliver set to be its wide release'69 Christmas film for the family trade and they were holding off FG because they didn’t want two big musicals competing against each other. And of course Oliver would do much better at that time. I picture FG playing to empty houses in its last months at the Criterion(my favorite roadshow theater as it was the first one I was ever in and it was a very glamourous event like occasion). One could look at Variety but it was notorious for printing inflated grosses admittedly given to them by theaters.
Ok so who took that just posted color photo of the Loew’s Jersey because it’s magnificent.
So Poseidon Adventure had its world premiere in LA and the NY premiere opened the National?
That’s quite a filled to the brim stage show along with a Ustinov/Smith caper comedy on screen . I can’t even begin to imagine. When New York was New York.