Loew's Capitol Theatre
1645 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
1645 Broadway,
New York,
NY
10019
47 people
favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 100 of 1,085 comments
Was the seating the largest for a loews theater in their history?
Hello-
to Al A. as always thanks for your reply. I forget about the lesser sitting capacity due to the installation of the Cinerama screen. but even if they lost say half the original 5,230 seats you’d still have a large crowd. so if the 2pm. showing was not even solid out but almost sold out I still don’t see how they could have had gotten the 2pm. audience out and the 5:15 audience in. this is especially true since I’m sure many of the audience for the 2pm. showing had to use the restroom once the screening was over.
also you said they might have been sitting people during the Overture. but wouldn’t the Overture been played in a darkened theater? that would have been a tricky situation seating patrons.
Don’t forget that seating was significantly reduced for Cinerama and people were probably still being seated during the Overture.
Hello-
here’s an interesting question. in the photo section is an ad for the roadshow engagement of How The West Was Won. this particular ad was for Thanksgiving Day 1963. it was advertising 3 shows for the day- 2pm./5:15pm./8:40pm.. now the running time of the film including overture,entr'acte and exit music is 2hrs. 45mins. so with a 15min. break the running time of a performance would be 3hrs.. lets say the 2pm. was almost sold out. the Capitol was a huge theater so how in God’s name did they get the 2pm. audience out and the 5:15 audience in in only 15mins.?
I hope you reported it to the ushers. Unless they were dealing it along with the souvenir programs.
Hello-
I think the only roadshow engagement at this theater that
I missed was The Hallelujah Trail. I saw it at my neighborhood
theater but would have loved to have seen it on the large
curved Cinerama screen here.
also I saw 2001 twice here during its roadshow engagement. it was the first time I ever smelled pot smoke in a movie theater.
52 years ago today was my only trip to the Capitol to see what would become my favorite movie, 2001.
Pete is a true expert in this field. He once gave me a tour of a projection booth he was running at the Lafayette Theater in Suffern, NY, one of the finest theaters in the US.
Big Joe – it could be, but it’s not the kind of thing Warner does. They would want to perform a full restoration based on surviving negative, etc., elements.
I have most of them but I haven’t had a chance to sit and watch them. Also somebody said they aren’t worth watching unless you have a 10 ft screen. Well that’s not happening.
There was a screening of SP a number of years ago where I saw a photo of Gaynor, Kerr and Nuyen posing in front of the theater. Kerr looked very old which is always surprising when you only know how a person looked in their youth. Nuyen and Gaynor looked really good.
Was that the SP screening that was also attended by Kerr and Nuyen? Interesting that the cast of WSS was there.
Anybody see Planet of the Apes here? Did it use only a portion of the Cinerama screen? As well when Heat of the Night played was it shown on the curved screen but masked for the proper screen ratio?
Hello-
I thank everyone for their replies about Grimm. an additional question which I should have asked to begin with. would someone who knows the technical side of remastering for a Blu-ray disc explain why a HD transfer can’t be made from the 3 panel print shown at the Dome. if it was in damn good enough condition to show why not? thanks in advance.
I did forget that. Thanks!
A projectionist running Cinerama must have felt like a football player going to the Super Bowl.
And not to forget there is also a fourth giant reel synched up for each half which contains just the soundtrack!
I was standing outside the Ziegfeld on that opening night, and I saw Lean, O'Toole and Sharif leaving the theater to great applause. I also saw Geoffrey Holder (“Live and Let Die”, the 7 Up Uncola nut commercials in the ‘70s) as he was leaving, and I asked him how it was. His great answer: “FAAAAAbulous.”
I didn’t realize that. Thanks. The projectionist invited me into the booth at the Ziegfeld when the Robert Harris restoration of Lawrence was shown. He was very proud. And rightfully so. He told me on opening night Lean, O'Toole and Sharif came to see him in it. I would have been floored.
An entire 3-strip Cinerama film was on 6 giant-sized reels: the first half played on 3 reels synched together. Then, after the intermission, the rest of the film played on the next 3 reels. At a showing of How the West Was Won that I attended at the Dome, they invited people into the booth at intermission, and I got to see the reels.
I hear ya. Just think … for most of the 1960’s – from 1962 to 1968 anyway – there were two Cinerama theaters in Manhattan just three blocks apart, and one in Montclair, NJ just a few miles away. The good old days, indeed.
To have something like this in the NY area!
He wasn’t at the screening I attended, but a couple of days before at a weekend show, Russ Tamblyn was in attendance. There was a breakdown at that show as well, so Russ told stories about the filming to keep the audience entertained during the break. I think I also heard about Bryan Russell being at one of the shows. Russell and Tamblyn appeared in both MGM Cinerama productions.
Before the LA engagement, the owner of the print had arranged for the film to be shown at the Pictureville Cinerama theater in Bradford, England.
Were any of the stars of the film who are still living as of 2020 in attendance; Eden, Bloom, Tamblyn, Mimieux?
Also how many reels of film would this involve because I’ve never really thought about it before. Exactly how did the film break down as actually 3 films were being shown simultaneously. How did this print survive and how did this collector get his hands on it? Was this risky in that Warners or whomever could claim it as their property? Are all these cans of film just languishing in somebody’s garage in Australia? Shouldn’t efforts be made to preserve them considering they are nearly 60 years old? Sounds like a story in and of itself.
Hello-
I thank everyone for the info about the 3 panel Grimm print shown at the Dome in Hollywood. I’m guessing a number of older films released on dvd or Blu-ray were mastered from the best quality print of the film that’s available. so if the 3 panel print shown at the Dome is in damn good condition I don’t see why a Blu-ray can’t be mastered from it.
You can use a release print, but it’s certainly not ideal; especially a Technicolor print as the contrast will build up too quickly. A studio like Warner would most likely not take that route. I don’t know how much the restoration of How the West Was Won cost – I think it was in the mid to high 6 figures – but Grimm would probably cost more.
The print was excellent, but I don’t think you can copy anything from a release print without the original negative. I hope people who know more about that than I do can weigh in on this.
Hello-
if the Dome showed a 3 panel print in 2012 can’t they remaster a Blu-ray disc of it? I’m assuming if the print was in good enough condition to be shown commercially its in good enough condition to use for an HD transfer.