Lionel
commented about
Trianonon
Jul 22, 2025 at 12:38 pm
There must be a mistake. It’s not 900 seats. More like 400-500.
Here is a documentary about the Trianon, from the construction to the conversion to digital cinema, also mentioning the TV show “La dernière séance” (The last picture show) presented by Eddy Mitchell in the 1980s. Who remembers this TV show ? I loved it, it was entertaining and full of nostalgy, and served as an introduction to the broadcast of a great oldie.
At the opening in 1991, as stated in the presentation, seating was originally provided for 1,393. In my archives (informations saved from Time Out and What’s On magazines), I found the following seat distribution: 548, 240, 154, 146, 122, 94, 89.
Larger screen projection booth in this short film, showing the Philips DP75 projector and Dolby CP200 processor:
Thanks Joshua. I had a look at the link you mentioned. Great to see that Ira Deutchman is the president. I’ve watched excerpts of his documentary Searching for Mr Rugoff last year, and an outtake featured Tim Blake Nelson precisely advocating for the need of a new art house in the Upper West Side:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4piSYNRg8z8&ab_channel=IraDeutchman
Frida visible on the billboard. That was an excellent film. Alas, not released theatrically in my city, I had to wait for the DVD. Did it attract many viewers in New York?
On Jun 28, 2005 in the comments section, the user named Shade posted a comment with a link to the pictures of the auditorium he took on the last day of operation. This link is now dead. Does anybody know if these pictures are available elsewhere ?
I’ve just uploaded two pictures I took while touring the place in 2005. Stage seen from balcony with curtains open, and back of the upper balcony. I’ve taken many more of various corridors and rooms of the building and will post some progressively.
Petition signed. Let’s hope the PCC will not know the same fate as the Minema and others. Only saw one film there: The Last Emperor in 70mm almost 40 years ago.
I just uploaded an illustration of the Fox Grandeur 70mm film to the photos section. Comparison of standard 35mm and 70mm films in the early 1930s. Both gauges feature an off-axis picture with a variable-density Movitone mono optical sound track to the left of the picture, as well as a four-perforation pulldown profile. The 70mm process portrayed here is Fox Grandeur for which the Roxy was equipped.
I just checked the Rivoli’s page on Cinema Treasures including photos and it’s definitely NOT the theater I have in mind. It must have been the Roxy. There is even a programme picture posted here that shows the projection booth as I remember seeing it on a better picture in “The Best Remaining Seats”.
I think it was the Roxy. I remember reading it about thirty years ago in one of my books about movie theaters and even thought how convenient it was for a widescreen process to have a projection booth inside the front of a balcony to deliver almost horizontal projection and therefore avoiding the deformation induced by keystone projection. It was either “The Remaining Seats” from Ben Hall or “Hollywood’s Master Showman - The Legendary Sid Grauman” from Charles Beardsley. Can’t check now because I don’t have my books right here.
This file has 1220 comments and I don’t have time to read them all, so I don’t know if it was mentioned earlier (and I don’t see the information in the presentation text), but the Roxy was equipped for 70mm films long before it got Cinemascope. It was the Fox Grandeur process, still in black and white and with one mono optical sound track. Only the Roxy in New York and the Grauman’s Chinese theater in Los Angeles were equipped to project it.
Concorde 1 was accessed from its back and was located on ground floor. Carpeting, seats and screen curtains were beige/amber. Before entering Concorde 1, a staircase on the right led to Concorde 2 which was located on top of Concorde 1. In Concorde 2, carpeting and seats were blue while the screen had white curtains. The Concorde wasn’t a bad place but had a cold feeling.
Films played at the Concorde were always diverse but focused on author films most of the time. Films I saw at the Concorde 1: Pete’s Dragon, a re-run of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes back in 1983, The Purple Rose of Cairo, a premiere screening of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Cannonball Run II, a one-off screening of A Clockwork Orange, My Father’s Glory and its sequel My Mother’s Castle, and The Player from Altman. At the Concorde 2: a re-run of Jaws, a re-run of 2001 A Space Odyssey and Mississipi Burning.
Sound was improved in the late 1980s by replacing the walls material with something more absorptive to damp sound reverberation and by installing Dolby Stereo when the Group Claeys renovated the Palace at the same time. From its opening in 1973 to its renovation, each screen only had mono sound and a pair of Cinemeccanica projectors with large spools operating in automatic change-over mode. On each projector, a lens turret was equipped to show the 1.66 and scope formats. During the renovation, one of the projector for each screen was removed and Kinoton ST200 platters were installed.
For the sound, a Dolby CP55 processor was installed along with 3 JBL two-channel amplifiers (model 6260) and JBL loudspeakers: 3 full-range speakers (model 4673) behind the screen and 4 surround speakers (model 8330) on each side wall (8 in total). One JBL subwoofer was also visible under the screen. Due to the lack of depth behind the screen, this model (a model usually not used in cinemas) was protruding on the “stage” and prevented the side masking and curtains from being closed, hence no longer used from then on unfortunately.
The senior projectionist was Claude C., a nice chap and a true film fan though a bit unkept, often seen in the foyer chatting with the usherette, wearing charentaises slippers, unshaven and smoking cigars.
In the 1950s, it was equipped in Vistavision with a new screen in the 1.85 aspect ratio to occupy the largest possible space inside the stage. The previous projection booth was keystoned in the second balcony (when I visited it in 1993, the old projectors were still there in the dust). For Vistavision, they installed a new booth in the first balcony. Yul Brynner attended the premiere of The Ten Commandments.
The Forum also got Perspecta stereophonic sound along with Vistavision but it was kept deactivated most of the time. Perspecta was fake stereo extracted from a mono soundtrack using directional cues. As the Forum had dreadful acoustics, Perspecta produced a lot of reverb in the balconies where dialog intelligibility was poor.
In the 1960s, because of the need to handle more conventional formats, new projectors were installed for Cinemascope and 1.66 widescreen. These two formats were projected on a constant height model with adjustable side masking, on a screen surface less tall than the previous Vistavision frame. Optical mono sound was the norm and a book about the Forum mistakenly reports it as having been equipped for 4-track magnetic sound, which is not true even at the times of Vistavision. Its author must have confused with Perspecta.
The exact seat count was 3004 which included a few seats never sold to the public because the view they offered was blocked. These seats had been installed for marketing reasons so that the Forum could sell itself as a theatre in the “3000 seats category”. This information was given to my dad by Mr Emile Ledent whom he knew very well, who was general manager of the Forum for decades.
At some point in the late 1970s, business ownership changed from the Masereel family to the Defawe family although Ms Masereel (widow of Mr Jean Masereel who was a great showman) remained the landlord of the whole building that also included the Churchill cinema in its basement.
Interesting that this illustration shows a ticket the THE PLAYER, as this is precisely in this theater that I saw the film. A great film, but not many spectators when I saw it on a Saturday afternoon.
Toby Talbot passed away on September 15, 2025.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/movies/toby-talbot-dead.html
For reference, this 80-minute long “Talk with Toby Talbot on Life in Art-House Cinema | The New School for Drama” from 2009 is on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyyowLs2Or0
More pictures of the Ziegfeld (auditorium and projection booth), Astor Plaza (auditorium) and Beekman (auditorium) in this French article:
https://silverscreens.com/nyc3.php
More pictures of the Ziegfeld (auditorium and projection booth), Astor Plaza (auditorium) and Beekman (auditorium) in this French article:
https://silverscreens.com/nyc3.php
More pictures of the Ziegfeld (auditorium and projection booth), Astor Plaza (auditorium) and Beekman (auditorium) in this French article:
https://silverscreens.com/nyc3.php
There must be a mistake. It’s not 900 seats. More like 400-500.
Here is a documentary about the Trianon, from the construction to the conversion to digital cinema, also mentioning the TV show “La dernière séance” (The last picture show) presented by Eddy Mitchell in the 1980s. Who remembers this TV show ? I loved it, it was entertaining and full of nostalgy, and served as an introduction to the broadcast of a great oldie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cmqG_Zqwd4&ab_channel=letrianoncinema
At the opening in 1991, as stated in the presentation, seating was originally provided for 1,393. In my archives (informations saved from Time Out and What’s On magazines), I found the following seat distribution: 548, 240, 154, 146, 122, 94, 89.
Larger screen projection booth in this short film, showing the Philips DP75 projector and Dolby CP200 processor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Aj0FyDI8DE
Foyer and auditoria shown in this film at 2h14'45" :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmggh1yFCRU
Thanks Joshua. I had a look at the link you mentioned. Great to see that Ira Deutchman is the president. I’ve watched excerpts of his documentary Searching for Mr Rugoff last year, and an outtake featured Tim Blake Nelson precisely advocating for the need of a new art house in the Upper West Side: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4piSYNRg8z8&ab_channel=IraDeutchman
There are many pictures of screen #1 and #2 out there but I’ve never seen screen #3. Does somebody here have a picture of screen #3 ? Thank you.
Authentic Rockette costume.
Frida visible on the billboard. That was an excellent film. Alas, not released theatrically in my city, I had to wait for the DVD. Did it attract many viewers in New York?
On Jun 28, 2005 in the comments section, the user named Shade posted a comment with a link to the pictures of the auditorium he took on the last day of operation. This link is now dead. Does anybody know if these pictures are available elsewhere ?
I’ve just uploaded two pictures I took while touring the place in 2005. Stage seen from balcony with curtains open, and back of the upper balcony. I’ve taken many more of various corridors and rooms of the building and will post some progressively.
This is not the Paris, It’s the larger auditorium of the Cinema I-II-III.
Petition signed. Let’s hope the PCC will not know the same fate as the Minema and others. Only saw one film there: The Last Emperor in 70mm almost 40 years ago.
I just uploaded an illustration of the Fox Grandeur 70mm film to the photos section. Comparison of standard 35mm and 70mm films in the early 1930s. Both gauges feature an off-axis picture with a variable-density Movitone mono optical sound track to the left of the picture, as well as a four-perforation pulldown profile. The 70mm process portrayed here is Fox Grandeur for which the Roxy was equipped.
I just checked the Rivoli’s page on Cinema Treasures including photos and it’s definitely NOT the theater I have in mind. It must have been the Roxy. There is even a programme picture posted here that shows the projection booth as I remember seeing it on a better picture in “The Best Remaining Seats”.
I think it was the Roxy. I remember reading it about thirty years ago in one of my books about movie theaters and even thought how convenient it was for a widescreen process to have a projection booth inside the front of a balcony to deliver almost horizontal projection and therefore avoiding the deformation induced by keystone projection. It was either “The Remaining Seats” from Ben Hall or “Hollywood’s Master Showman - The Legendary Sid Grauman” from Charles Beardsley. Can’t check now because I don’t have my books right here.
This file has 1220 comments and I don’t have time to read them all, so I don’t know if it was mentioned earlier (and I don’t see the information in the presentation text), but the Roxy was equipped for 70mm films long before it got Cinemascope. It was the Fox Grandeur process, still in black and white and with one mono optical sound track. Only the Roxy in New York and the Grauman’s Chinese theater in Los Angeles were equipped to project it.
Concorde 1 was accessed from its back and was located on ground floor. Carpeting, seats and screen curtains were beige/amber. Before entering Concorde 1, a staircase on the right led to Concorde 2 which was located on top of Concorde 1. In Concorde 2, carpeting and seats were blue while the screen had white curtains. The Concorde wasn’t a bad place but had a cold feeling.
Films played at the Concorde were always diverse but focused on author films most of the time. Films I saw at the Concorde 1: Pete’s Dragon, a re-run of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes back in 1983, The Purple Rose of Cairo, a premiere screening of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Cannonball Run II, a one-off screening of A Clockwork Orange, My Father’s Glory and its sequel My Mother’s Castle, and The Player from Altman. At the Concorde 2: a re-run of Jaws, a re-run of 2001 A Space Odyssey and Mississipi Burning.
Sound was improved in the late 1980s by replacing the walls material with something more absorptive to damp sound reverberation and by installing Dolby Stereo when the Group Claeys renovated the Palace at the same time. From its opening in 1973 to its renovation, each screen only had mono sound and a pair of Cinemeccanica projectors with large spools operating in automatic change-over mode. On each projector, a lens turret was equipped to show the 1.66 and scope formats. During the renovation, one of the projector for each screen was removed and Kinoton ST200 platters were installed.
For the sound, a Dolby CP55 processor was installed along with 3 JBL two-channel amplifiers (model 6260) and JBL loudspeakers: 3 full-range speakers (model 4673) behind the screen and 4 surround speakers (model 8330) on each side wall (8 in total). One JBL subwoofer was also visible under the screen. Due to the lack of depth behind the screen, this model (a model usually not used in cinemas) was protruding on the “stage” and prevented the side masking and curtains from being closed, hence no longer used from then on unfortunately.
The senior projectionist was Claude C., a nice chap and a true film fan though a bit unkept, often seen in the foyer chatting with the usherette, wearing charentaises slippers, unshaven and smoking cigars.
In the 1950s, it was equipped in Vistavision with a new screen in the 1.85 aspect ratio to occupy the largest possible space inside the stage. The previous projection booth was keystoned in the second balcony (when I visited it in 1993, the old projectors were still there in the dust). For Vistavision, they installed a new booth in the first balcony. Yul Brynner attended the premiere of The Ten Commandments.
The Forum also got Perspecta stereophonic sound along with Vistavision but it was kept deactivated most of the time. Perspecta was fake stereo extracted from a mono soundtrack using directional cues. As the Forum had dreadful acoustics, Perspecta produced a lot of reverb in the balconies where dialog intelligibility was poor.
In the 1960s, because of the need to handle more conventional formats, new projectors were installed for Cinemascope and 1.66 widescreen. These two formats were projected on a constant height model with adjustable side masking, on a screen surface less tall than the previous Vistavision frame. Optical mono sound was the norm and a book about the Forum mistakenly reports it as having been equipped for 4-track magnetic sound, which is not true even at the times of Vistavision. Its author must have confused with Perspecta.
The exact seat count was 3004 which included a few seats never sold to the public because the view they offered was blocked. These seats had been installed for marketing reasons so that the Forum could sell itself as a theatre in the “3000 seats category”. This information was given to my dad by Mr Emile Ledent whom he knew very well, who was general manager of the Forum for decades.
At some point in the late 1970s, business ownership changed from the Masereel family to the Defawe family although Ms Masereel (widow of Mr Jean Masereel who was a great showman) remained the landlord of the whole building that also included the Churchill cinema in its basement.
Screen 2 upstairs.
Screen 2 upstairs.
Interesting that this illustration shows a ticket the THE PLAYER, as this is precisely in this theater that I saw the film. A great film, but not many spectators when I saw it on a Saturday afternoon.
Illustrations for this cinema are available on this page, at the time of 35mm technology.
http://www.film-tech.com/warehouse/pics/pennyan/pennyan.html