I saw it in 35mm first run and fell in love with it immediately. I could not figure out why everyone was not equally stunned by its realistic premise and settings and preferred fairy tale sci-fi instead.
Favorite quote:
“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.”
As a regular visitor at both the Empire and the Regal E-Walk I can assure you they are no different than any other New York theatre and better than many.
The 42nd Street project did its best. Putting things in perpective I pay $10.00 to see Russian import DAYBREAK at the AMC with comfortable well spaced seats and bored staff at minimum wage going through the motions.
I pay $111.00 (including $2.50 “theatre restoration charge”) and sit on miniature seats with no leg room or air conditioning while handed a program by some nasty bitch who does it for free show but cannot be bothered to learn the theatre’s seating, to see the bored cast of TARZAN sing Phil Collins tunes. THAT is capitalism at its very worse and masquerading as art to boot!
I pay $10.00 at Lincoln Plaza to see German import THE LIVES OF OTHERS in a tiny screen with abstructing columns and tiny seats while senior citizens chat away during the film and NO usher is on duty at all.
Unpopular as it may seem, I’ll take the two remaining 42nd street movie theatres anyday. Unless the movie is at the Ziegfeld, of course.
Although the Olympia appears to have opened at a PUBLIX theatre, the precursor of ABC Florida State Theatres, I have recently purchased a January 1932 Newsletter from SPARKS' Theatres listing it as one of theirs on that date.
January 29, 30, 31 RUDY VALEE in Person!
Stanleigh Malotte at the mighty organ!
Saturday Midnight Show at 11:30pm Eddie cantor in THE KID FROM SPAIN
Other sites included are:
Coral Gables (not the Gables on Ponce de Leon)
Paramount (downtown house looking nothing like the one I remember) Roxy (24 East 1st Avenue)
Rex (205 East Flagler Street)
Rosetta (Little River, later a Wometco site)
Community (Miami Beach)
Does anyone have any info on SPARKS and their Miami history? I had never heard of them and I worked for ABC for over 7 years in the 70’s.
I originally submitted the Ambassador about a year before it was actually posted. I suspect someone at CT felt it did not qualify due to its more significant legit history and wanted to review it further.
Either that or I sent them on a tail-spin looking up THE WHITE LADY and YIDL MITN FIDL.
The movie in question is Lilian Gish’s THE WHITE SISTER, not THE WHITE LADY and it played at the Ambassador for over six months. The introduction I am credited for has been somewhat altered with new information since I first submitted material for this theatre over a year ago.
Cine Roma was a moving cinema company that went from venue to venue booking their product and changing the venue’s name. The Colony/ Broadway (53rd) and the Ambassador were two of them.
It seems the last minute rush jobs on blockbusters are the worse, with wet prints, sloppy lab splices and flaking from day one. These labs are digital’s best friend.
The mylar prints are more durable from breaks but are also easy to scratch and the soundtrack start cracking after a week. I have never personally experienced anything other than mylar. The current mylar prints are sub-quality.
Here in Europe we often get poor quality Italian made prints that are unplayable after a few weeks. When we do get refurbushed US prints, they are in such terrible shape that we often lose the first shows on a Friday.
I am not talking about hand-me-down sloppy work as we used to see caused by subrun drive-ins, these print look ten years old and they have run in the states for about three weeks.
We ran TOP GUN for six months without a problem. We were replacing TITANIC after three weeks. Recent prints of HARRY POTTER after two.
Let’s not forget that print stock today is also of poorer quality than it used to be. Prints break easier(even on platters)and start scratching within days. Luckily most films don’t run very long so the industry can get away with it most of the time.
It is easy to blame the projectionist but prints are worse quality and much cheaper to make than they used to be.
I remember in South Florida when the Union demanded such high hourly rates that many theatres shut down matinees. This caused the elimination of many full time jobs and, of course, the professional projectionists who did them, who instead moved into other professions. A very stupid negotiation that ended up hurting everyone.
The test was never really very difficult, just badly outdated, badly written and controlled by the union. It DID have questions about nitrate film well into the eighties and some of the questions didn’t even make sense.
In my opinion, the union lost it’s footing by backing the continued employment of incompetent projectionists with a history of poor performance and at premium rates. The cinema chains in financial trouble had nothing to lose by playing hardball because the professionals were so few. The notoriously lazy cinema operators would have kept the status quo if more of the projectionists did their jobs, or at least showed up on time, and the union had helped replace the bad ones instead of insisting they kept their jobs in spite of gross negligence.
I think it is a sign of the times. I had the same experience at the Lincoln Art with a foreign film and senior citizens chattering away and playing with their phones.
I am moving into a NYC condo with 550 units and a screening room. It is down the street from two multiplexes with 38 screens between them. Once we record the movie, over 1200 residents will be able to see it for a one time $50.00 communal charge.
When was it not about the money? I seem to have missed that era.
I saw it in 35mm first run and fell in love with it immediately. I could not figure out why everyone was not equally stunned by its realistic premise and settings and preferred fairy tale sci-fi instead.
Favorite quote:
“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.”
Correct. March 27, 1952.
As a regular visitor at both the Empire and the Regal E-Walk I can assure you they are no different than any other New York theatre and better than many.
The 42nd Street project did its best. Putting things in perpective I pay $10.00 to see Russian import DAYBREAK at the AMC with comfortable well spaced seats and bored staff at minimum wage going through the motions.
I pay $111.00 (including $2.50 “theatre restoration charge”) and sit on miniature seats with no leg room or air conditioning while handed a program by some nasty bitch who does it for free show but cannot be bothered to learn the theatre’s seating, to see the bored cast of TARZAN sing Phil Collins tunes. THAT is capitalism at its very worse and masquerading as art to boot!
I pay $10.00 at Lincoln Plaza to see German import THE LIVES OF OTHERS in a tiny screen with abstructing columns and tiny seats while senior citizens chat away during the film and NO usher is on duty at all.
Unpopular as it may seem, I’ll take the two remaining 42nd street movie theatres anyday. Unless the movie is at the Ziegfeld, of course.
Do not try to beat your neighbor to the street.
View link
Although the Olympia appears to have opened at a PUBLIX theatre, the precursor of ABC Florida State Theatres, I have recently purchased a January 1932 Newsletter from SPARKS' Theatres listing it as one of theirs on that date.
January 29, 30, 31 RUDY VALEE in Person!
Stanleigh Malotte at the mighty organ!
Saturday Midnight Show at 11:30pm Eddie cantor in THE KID FROM SPAIN
Other sites included are:
Coral Gables (not the Gables on Ponce de Leon)
Paramount (downtown house looking nothing like the one I remember) Roxy (24 East 1st Avenue)
Rex (205 East Flagler Street)
Rosetta (Little River, later a Wometco site)
Community (Miami Beach)
Does anyone have any info on SPARKS and their Miami history? I had never heard of them and I worked for ABC for over 7 years in the 70’s.
A VISIT EVERY EVENING?
Sounds like you may have been showing some dangerous pornographic films such as THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT, THE BOYS IN THE BAND or FRITZ THE CAT.
I originally submitted the Ambassador about a year before it was actually posted. I suspect someone at CT felt it did not qualify due to its more significant legit history and wanted to review it further.
Either that or I sent them on a tail-spin looking up THE WHITE LADY and YIDL MITN FIDL.
The movie in question is Lilian Gish’s THE WHITE SISTER, not THE WHITE LADY and it played at the Ambassador for over six months. The introduction I am credited for has been somewhat altered with new information since I first submitted material for this theatre over a year ago.
Cine Roma was a moving cinema company that went from venue to venue booking their product and changing the venue’s name. The Colony/ Broadway (53rd) and the Ambassador were two of them.
SOUTH PACIFIC at the CRITERION.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS at the RIVOLI
THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI at the Palace.
You should be getting more favorable terms on a third week or else, on a single screen, pull it. There is too much product out there.
You should be getting more favorable terms on a third week or else, on a single screen, pull it. There is too much product out there.
I am having more trouble than ever navigating the site and my email notices have stopped altogther.
There was a wide release starting September 6, 1968 on a double feature with THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN.
Alive and well and playing CHICAGO live.
http://www.ibdb.com/VenueImages.asp?Id=1036
According to this link posted by Dave-bronx in 2005, it just said “42nd St.”, so it does look like name change if the piece was removed intentionally.
View link
The shed under the “REGAL” sign is partially gone and it looks like something (truck or bus) hit the marquee and damaged the front.
Prime advertising space that gets seen world wide.
It seems the last minute rush jobs on blockbusters are the worse, with wet prints, sloppy lab splices and flaking from day one. These labs are digital’s best friend.
The mylar prints are more durable from breaks but are also easy to scratch and the soundtrack start cracking after a week. I have never personally experienced anything other than mylar. The current mylar prints are sub-quality.
Here in Europe we often get poor quality Italian made prints that are unplayable after a few weeks. When we do get refurbushed US prints, they are in such terrible shape that we often lose the first shows on a Friday.
I am not talking about hand-me-down sloppy work as we used to see caused by subrun drive-ins, these print look ten years old and they have run in the states for about three weeks.
We ran TOP GUN for six months without a problem. We were replacing TITANIC after three weeks. Recent prints of HARRY POTTER after two.
Let’s not forget that print stock today is also of poorer quality than it used to be. Prints break easier(even on platters)and start scratching within days. Luckily most films don’t run very long so the industry can get away with it most of the time.
It is easy to blame the projectionist but prints are worse quality and much cheaper to make than they used to be.
I remember in South Florida when the Union demanded such high hourly rates that many theatres shut down matinees. This caused the elimination of many full time jobs and, of course, the professional projectionists who did them, who instead moved into other professions. A very stupid negotiation that ended up hurting everyone.
The test was never really very difficult, just badly outdated, badly written and controlled by the union. It DID have questions about nitrate film well into the eighties and some of the questions didn’t even make sense.
In my opinion, the union lost it’s footing by backing the continued employment of incompetent projectionists with a history of poor performance and at premium rates. The cinema chains in financial trouble had nothing to lose by playing hardball because the professionals were so few. The notoriously lazy cinema operators would have kept the status quo if more of the projectionists did their jobs, or at least showed up on time, and the union had helped replace the bad ones instead of insisting they kept their jobs in spite of gross negligence.
I think it is a sign of the times. I had the same experience at the Lincoln Art with a foreign film and senior citizens chattering away and playing with their phones.
I am moving into a NYC condo with 550 units and a screening room. It is down the street from two multiplexes with 38 screens between them. Once we record the movie, over 1200 residents will be able to see it for a one time $50.00 communal charge.
Excellent idea!