I seem to remember the actual theater itself being turned into a flea market at sometime during the 70s. Unfortunately didn’t go to a movie here because at that point it was for the most part playing the kind of exploitation films I had no interest in. Same with the Demille before it became a triplex. I was waiting for it to play another of the kind of films I had just missed; Hawaii, Shoes of the Fisherman, Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines…
By the way if you go through all the photos for the Astor or Victoria I believe the James Bond photo is there. I know I’ve seen it.
Great Rivoli photos with Moonraker marquee and 7th Av billboard. Thank you!
Only thing is I wish they hadn’t replaced the neon frame of the marquee with the plain boring chrome. Anyone know when it was changed?
I believe it was still there in the early 70s. Same thing happened with the very cool modern Criterion marquee. Again I believed it happened there sometime during the 70s.
I believe Thrill of It all was the big ‘63 summer movie. The 3 Bs was the hit Easter show.
Charlie Brown was indeed the ‘69 Christmas movie and while I thought it was pretty bad compared to the TV specials of the 60s it had the best stage saw I saw there.
Quite elaborate and spectacular with the finale showing the blast off and landing on the moon of Apollo 11 which had just occured that summer. Great special effects with no computer graphic cheating thank god.
Wonderful ending with the stage rising with the image of the flag being planted on the moon with a large frame descending to freeze the image in time. The rest of the cast filled in the stage in front of it for the grand finale.
I though all Music Hall stage shows were supposed to be like that. They weren’t.
I had never heard about the Godfather being offered to the Hall. And as an Easter show?
That seems pretty strange especially considering the NY rollout that Evans devised for it in Loew’s One and Two and other NY theaters which was a major profit making innovation at the time.
The Easter show that Year was What’s Up Doc which was a perfect holiday G rated film and a huge popular success both at the Hall and across the country. And they were considering an R rated violent epic? Especially after it presented the camorra cement brick The Brotherhood?
The first non G rated holiday film was Mame in ‘74.
People say that a problem with the Hall was they wouldn’t show any quality R rated films(which they never did during the stageshow era.) That is total bunk. The Music Hall couldn’t get quality PG rated films. THAT was the problem. Exhibitors didn’t want the sky high overhead or the old-fashioned Hall itself. There were plenty of films at the time that should have played at the Hall but the studios didn’t want the Hall to have them. I would look at the ads thinking why isn’t Cabaret, That’s Entertainment, Murder on the Orient Express, The Way We Were…playing at the Hall? Because by then it was turning into an embarrassment. The stageshows were beyond dire. Cheap flimsy sets, hardly anyone on stage, the Rockettes reduced to 30, no ballet company, the great gold curtain opening getting smaller and smaller. And the Hall was playing one astonishing turkey after another. You would sit there in a complete stupor watching things like Hennessy or The Girl from Petrovka. Not only were you shocked the Music Hall was playing them you were shocked that anybody was making them.
And then in 1976 the Music Hall presents what certainly is keen competition for the worst film in cinema history-The Bluebird. Some people actually consider it the worst and I wouldn’t argue with them.
You should have seen the tourists flooding into the foyer during the film. New Yorkers had thrown up their hands by that point and couldn’t be bothered.
And Play it Again Sam flopped at the Hall(I read somewhere Allen never wanted another film of his presented there. Same thing with George Roy Hill after Henry Orient. I wouldn’t count the revival of The Sting-which was a terrific presentation by the way.It probably never looked or sounded so good. It should have opened there. A perfect Music Hall film.) Then turned into a long run east side hit. That helped to seal the Music Hall’s fate.
And since Comfortably Cool posted two ads for the 60th anniversary of the ‘57 Easter show I’d like to say that I saw a beautiful print of Funny Face at the Music Hall in what might have been '79. Better than Napoleon!
Those Richard Avedon(Dick Avery) designed sequences on the large Music Hall screen were stunning to look at.
In the footage that I mentioned above of the Flower Drum Song premiere Youngman is seen entering as an audience member.
In an ad for another film which was probably posted by Comfortably Cool the stage show includes Gary Morton though I can’t imagine he even achieved minor fame until he married Lucille Ball. Could a comedian in the midst of a Music Hall stage spectacular make any kind of impression?
Maybe Martin and Lewis could have but it seems they played everywhere in NY but the Metropolitan Opera(you could have stuck them in the third act of Fledermaus as joint jailors. I saw Dom Deluise do Frosch there and he was hilarious)and the Music Hall.
Had no idea Youngman was in a stage show. He certainly counts.
By the way on you tube there is the ‘61 Music Hall opening evening premiere footage of Flower Drum Song featuring Nancy Kwan, Richard Rodgers, Celeste Holm and others entering the theater. There is a shot of the orchestra and you can see how many musicians there are as opposed to the 70s where there seem to have been much fewer.
Youngman is also seen entering and when he looks at the camera does what was considered funny at the time but would be horribly insulting today.
The wonderful Linda Hopkins has just died at the age of 92. She was the only name performer I ever saw in a Music Hall stage show during its movie era.
As you know the Music Hall rarely included name performers which were a staple of all the other movie and stage show houses. In fact off the top of my head outside of Jan Peerce and Robert Weede who really only became well known later despite being listed in the stage show ads(Vera Ellen was an anonymous Rockette) The only other two that I can think of off the top of my head were Gene Nelson and Annette Funicello.
When King Kong opened at the State in ‘76 the poster artwork illustration of Kong on the twin towers was painted on the north side of the building as was done for most of the attractions there which I’m sure many of us old enough do remember. And the image in the opening advertisement is included here in the photo section.
I was recently at the 9/11 memorial museum where a section is devoted to movie posters where the WTC is an iconic feature. To me the Kong illustration is definitely the most memorable.
It is not included. OK, understandable. Yet photos of people leaping from the building are. Inexplicable.
I saw Regarding Henry here. A very large multi tiered old Italian music hall it seemed to me. Set up very much like a European opera house. The place was sold out and they were even selling standing room to the film.
Very sad to see it is a multiplex now. How I would have loved to have seen Todd AO here.
The stage show with The Cowboys the ad of which was just posted certainly would not fly today.
The Rockettes as squaws?
Certainly wish I had gone to see it because it sounds like fun but especially with Totem Tom Tom from Rose Marie as the finale.
I just didn’t want to see a movie about a bunch of boys being taught profanity, violence and whoring being past off as family entertainment. At least that’s what it came off as in the reviews.
In the early to mid 70s it was $1 for third run movies.
It would be packed and it was one of those small shopping strip cinemas.
Incredible that it would become a quad.
That short bald man was definitely there from the beginning of the 70s at least.
Outside of nostalgia of seeing movies during that era one of the last places you would call a cinema treasure.
The Music Hall descends desperately into showing slasher/horror exploitation 42nd St fare.
Don’t let the pedigree fool you.
And this for a fall show. Though no time was right for it. Saw it in the burbs with Night of the Living Dead. A more suitable companion than It’s In Your Stars on the Great Stage.
The new ad of Odd Couple made me think of when I was a doorman there in ‘76 an usher supervisor who was working at the Roxy before he moved to the Music Hall when it opened told me there were as many patrons on the last day as there had been on the first 14 weeks before.
A ticket seller told me that it was the last film where the work was unrelenting. When I was there it seemed there were only a few hundred people there a performance and this was the Easter show. And a drearier Easter film the Music Hall never had had. And what was really sad was That’s Entertainment Part II was playing a few blocks north at the Ziegfeld when it would have been beautiful in widescreen and Technicolor on the large Music Hall screen and a real colorful holiday film.
Somebody brilliant at the Hall thought a dreary brown, green and gray revisionist telling of the Robin Hood story of Robin and Marian in sad tired middle age would appeal to the Music Hall audience looking for holiday entertainment. At long Last Love was a masterpiece in comparison. At least the photography was splendid. The best looking first run film I saw there in the 70s.
And the spring stage show after the Glory of Easter was in black and white! They were clearly intentionally driving the Hall into the ground.
I’ve always wondered if this were to be revived today keeping its historical setting but using an Asian actor instead if it would fly.
It only worked and was a success on Broadway because the Asian was played by a white. Though it was forward thinking in its day because the relationship is not renounced at the end.
When I saw Nicholas at the Criterion I could swear there was no souvenir book. As soon as I went to a theater back then it was the first I looked for.
However the film does have a souvenir book so I don’t know why it wasn’t being sold. The Criterion had men in tuxes hawking the souvenir books.
Earlier in the year when they had the reissue of MFL they had a soft cover abridged version of the original hard cover which I bought.
When I got to finally meet Jeremy Brett after Aren’t We All(this was right before his sensational portrayal of SH so there was only one other person there. After I’m sure nobody would have been able to get near him)I presented him with the program to sign. Fortunately he did not look for his bio because it had been deleted in the abridgement.
Radio City did not have the souvenir book for Happiest Millionaire though they had a comic book based on the story! Go figure.
Sorry, now I see NYer’s response.
I seem to remember the actual theater itself being turned into a flea market at sometime during the 70s. Unfortunately didn’t go to a movie here because at that point it was for the most part playing the kind of exploitation films I had no interest in. Same with the Demille before it became a triplex. I was waiting for it to play another of the kind of films I had just missed; Hawaii, Shoes of the Fisherman, Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines…
By the way if you go through all the photos for the Astor or Victoria I believe the James Bond photo is there. I know I’ve seen it.
Great Rivoli photos with Moonraker marquee and 7th Av billboard. Thank you!
Only thing is I wish they hadn’t replaced the neon frame of the marquee with the plain boring chrome. Anyone know when it was changed?
I believe it was still there in the early 70s. Same thing happened with the very cool modern Criterion marquee. Again I believed it happened there sometime during the 70s.
I believe it opened at the Chinese. There are pictures somewhere of it on the marquee with enormous crowds outside.
I believe Thrill of It all was the big ‘63 summer movie.
The 3 Bs was the hit Easter show.
Charlie Brown was indeed the ‘69 Christmas movie and while I thought it was pretty bad compared to the TV specials of the 60s it had the best stage saw I saw there. Quite elaborate and spectacular with the finale showing the blast off and landing on the moon of Apollo 11 which had just occured that summer. Great special effects with no computer graphic cheating thank god. Wonderful ending with the stage rising with the image of the flag being planted on the moon with a large frame descending to freeze the image in time. The rest of the cast filled in the stage in front of it for the grand finale. I though all Music Hall stage shows were supposed to be like that. They weren’t.
I had never heard about the Godfather being offered to the Hall. And as an Easter show?
That seems pretty strange especially considering the NY rollout that Evans devised for it in Loew’s One and Two and other NY theaters which was a major profit making innovation at the time.
The Easter show that Year was What’s Up Doc which was a perfect holiday G rated film and a huge popular success both at the Hall and across the country. And they were considering an R rated violent epic? Especially after it presented the camorra cement brick The Brotherhood?
The first non G rated holiday film was Mame in ‘74.
People say that a problem with the Hall was they wouldn’t show any quality R rated films(which they never did during the stageshow era.) That is total bunk. The Music Hall couldn’t get quality PG rated films. THAT was the problem. Exhibitors didn’t want the sky high overhead or the old-fashioned Hall itself. There were plenty of films at the time that should have played at the Hall but the studios didn’t want the Hall to have them. I would look at the ads thinking why isn’t Cabaret, That’s Entertainment, Murder on the Orient Express, The Way We Were…playing at the Hall? Because by then it was turning into an embarrassment. The stageshows were beyond dire. Cheap flimsy sets, hardly anyone on stage, the Rockettes reduced to 30, no ballet company, the great gold curtain opening getting smaller and smaller. And the Hall was playing one astonishing turkey after another. You would sit there in a complete stupor watching things like Hennessy or The Girl from Petrovka. Not only were you shocked the Music Hall was playing them you were shocked that anybody was making them.
And then in 1976 the Music Hall presents what certainly is keen competition for the worst film in cinema history-The Bluebird. Some people actually consider it the worst and I wouldn’t argue with them. You should have seen the tourists flooding into the foyer during the film. New Yorkers had thrown up their hands by that point and couldn’t be bothered.
And Play it Again Sam flopped at the Hall(I read somewhere Allen never wanted another film of his presented there. Same thing with George Roy Hill after Henry Orient. I wouldn’t count the revival of The Sting-which was a terrific presentation by the way.It probably never looked or sounded so good. It should have opened there. A perfect Music Hall film.) Then turned into a long run east side hit. That helped to seal the Music Hall’s fate.
And Robert Endres probably was behind the projector for both Funny Face and Flower Drum Song when I saw them there!
And since Comfortably Cool posted two ads for the 60th anniversary of the ‘57 Easter show I’d like to say that I saw a beautiful print of Funny Face at the Music Hall in what might have been '79. Better than Napoleon!
Those Richard Avedon(Dick Avery) designed sequences on the large Music Hall screen were stunning to look at.
In the footage that I mentioned above of the Flower Drum Song premiere Youngman is seen entering as an audience member.
In an ad for another film which was probably posted by Comfortably Cool the stage show includes Gary Morton though I can’t imagine he even achieved minor fame until he married Lucille Ball. Could a comedian in the midst of a Music Hall stage spectacular make any kind of impression?
Maybe Martin and Lewis could have but it seems they played everywhere in NY but the Metropolitan Opera(you could have stuck them in the third act of Fledermaus as joint jailors. I saw Dom Deluise do Frosch there and he was hilarious)and the Music Hall.
Had no idea Youngman was in a stage show. He certainly counts.
By the way on you tube there is the ‘61 Music Hall opening evening premiere footage of Flower Drum Song featuring Nancy Kwan, Richard Rodgers, Celeste Holm and others entering the theater. There is a shot of the orchestra and you can see how many musicians there are as opposed to the 70s where there seem to have been much fewer.
Youngman is also seen entering and when he looks at the camera does what was considered funny at the time but would be horribly insulting today.
The wonderful Linda Hopkins has just died at the age of 92. She was the only name performer I ever saw in a Music Hall stage show during its movie era.
As you know the Music Hall rarely included name performers which were a staple of all the other movie and stage show houses. In fact off the top of my head outside of Jan Peerce and Robert Weede who really only became well known later despite being listed in the stage show ads(Vera Ellen was an anonymous Rockette) The only other two that I can think of off the top of my head were Gene Nelson and Annette Funicello.
When King Kong opened at the State in ‘76 the poster artwork illustration of Kong on the twin towers was painted on the north side of the building as was done for most of the attractions there which I’m sure many of us old enough do remember. And the image in the opening advertisement is included here in the photo section.
I was recently at the 9/11 memorial museum where a section is devoted to movie posters where the WTC is an iconic feature. To me the Kong illustration is definitely the most memorable.
It is not included. OK, understandable. Yet photos of people leaping from the building are. Inexplicable.
Another very odd choice for a Music Hall holiday film.
I saw Regarding Henry here. A very large multi tiered old Italian music hall it seemed to me. Set up very much like a European opera house. The place was sold out and they were even selling standing room to the film.
Very sad to see it is a multiplex now. How I would have loved to have seen Todd AO here.
The stage show with The Cowboys the ad of which was just posted certainly would not fly today. The Rockettes as squaws?
Certainly wish I had gone to see it because it sounds like fun but especially with Totem Tom Tom from Rose Marie as the finale.
I just didn’t want to see a movie about a bunch of boys being taught profanity, violence and whoring being past off as family entertainment. At least that’s what it came off as in the reviews.
In the early to mid 70s it was $1 for third run movies. It would be packed and it was one of those small shopping strip cinemas. Incredible that it would become a quad. That short bald man was definitely there from the beginning of the 70s at least. Outside of nostalgia of seeing movies during that era one of the last places you would call a cinema treasure.
Oh god to have a theater in NY with a screen 70 ft wide to have occasional 70MM and Cinemascope classic films.
Why isn’t there one lousy billionaire film nut in the city to make this happen?
Though the smell of onion rings and nachos, while I love them, would not be welcome.
NYer posts See No Evil from Sept 1 ‘71.
The Music Hall descends desperately into showing slasher/horror exploitation 42nd St fare.
Don’t let the pedigree fool you.
And this for a fall show. Though no time was right for it. Saw it in the burbs with Night of the Living Dead. A more suitable companion than It’s In Your Stars on the Great Stage.
Two wonderful theaters turned into an airplane hangar in which musicals disappear like doing The Fantasticks at the Music Hall.
The new ad of Odd Couple made me think of when I was a doorman there in ‘76 an usher supervisor who was working at the Roxy before he moved to the Music Hall when it opened told me there were as many patrons on the last day as there had been on the first 14 weeks before.
A ticket seller told me that it was the last film where the work was unrelenting. When I was there it seemed there were only a few hundred people there a performance and this was the Easter show. And a drearier Easter film the Music Hall never had had. And what was really sad was That’s Entertainment Part II was playing a few blocks north at the Ziegfeld when it would have been beautiful in widescreen and Technicolor on the large Music Hall screen and a real colorful holiday film.
Somebody brilliant at the Hall thought a dreary brown, green and gray revisionist telling of the Robin Hood story of Robin and Marian in sad tired middle age would appeal to the Music Hall audience looking for holiday entertainment. At long Last Love was a masterpiece in comparison. At least the photography was splendid. The best looking first run film I saw there in the 70s.
And the spring stage show after the Glory of Easter was in black and white! They were clearly intentionally driving the Hall into the ground.
I’ve always wondered if this were to be revived today keeping its historical setting but using an Asian actor instead if it would fly.
It only worked and was a success on Broadway because the Asian was played by a white. Though it was forward thinking in its day because the relationship is not renounced at the end.
When I saw Nicholas at the Criterion I could swear there was no souvenir book. As soon as I went to a theater back then it was the first I looked for.
However the film does have a souvenir book so I don’t know why it wasn’t being sold. The Criterion had men in tuxes hawking the souvenir books.
Earlier in the year when they had the reissue of MFL they had a soft cover abridged version of the original hard cover which I bought.
When I got to finally meet Jeremy Brett after Aren’t We All(this was right before his sensational portrayal of SH so there was only one other person there. After I’m sure nobody would have been able to get near him)I presented him with the program to sign. Fortunately he did not look for his bio because it had been deleted in the abridgement.
Radio City did not have the souvenir book for Happiest Millionaire though they had a comic book based on the story! Go figure.
Comfortably Cool just posted another amazing Roxy ad with Danny Kaye and Yma Sumac on stage.
Today we have Hamilton. Wicked and Book of Morman as live entertainment costing individuals $300 to $1,000 a ticket.
I cannot believe how pathetic we are as a culture.
And what is this doing at the Music Hall?
This is a Roxy picture if there ever was one.
I’m sure Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney made a big impact on the great stage.