Roxy Theatre
153 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
153 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
83 people
favorited this theater
Showing 776 - 800 of 1,225 comments
Wanted to comment again on Warrens terrific Roxy bookings. Keep up the good work, if you can, till the Roxy met it’s demise. Will be waiting for more if at all possible. Incredible information for the dozens, hundreds or more with real interest.
A christmas movie in June, sometimes it’s true, as Angela as Mame sang: “we need a little Christmas”
So then we can assume that the opening shots of the parade were filmed in Nov of ‘46? I always wondered about that.
Strange how one of the all-time great Christmas movies opened on June 4th. Maybe it was so popular it played right through the rest of the year after leaving the Roxy?
Hey, great stufff Warren. Living in San Francisco I think I remember these films playing at our Fox which I believe also featured stage shows with some of the above mentioned talent. My parents would take me to the Fox on occasion and see the stage show and movie. I don’t think, however, that the Fox had a stage show with every attraction. Down the street at the Golden Gate they had a stage show with most attractions. Lots of big bands if I remember correctly. Would like to know about more of the Roxys bookings, especially after they started doing stage shows again after RAINS OF RANCHIPUR, which I had asked about in an earlier comment. Keep up the GREAT work.
Warren— thanks for ‘46. Yes, Connee Boswell was a great repeater at the Roxy. I wonder whether Senor Wences had anything to do with the success of “Razor” and its ss?
Wow! “Mr. Billion”! That sticks in my mind because that was the movie that was playing when I toured the Music Hall. We were literally backstage while it was playing and it was amazing to be standing there right behind the screen. You could hear the entire film booming backstage. That was the tour where we were shown that weird little room in the auditorium that the audience could not see.
And yeah, what’s up with the Hall’s page here?
In those above grosses for the Columbia 2, they are showing “Mohammad Messenger of God”. It says something about some reserved seats there and at the Rivoli. Anyone know anything about that?
Mr. Billion was pulled after a couple of weeks as the Music Hall Easter show(who in the world chose it in the first place? Perhaps some future Cablevision execs?)and replaced with some Disney film about mining mules I think. I saw part of this with a very empty house and then there was a stage show which seemed to be produced with the production budget of The Fantasticks.
I looked through my old Variety clippings and found mostly reviews and ads, but I did find one page of NYC grosses including the Music Hall. Unfortunately it was for one of the Music Hall’s worst bombs ever. The date is March 9, 1977. “Star Wars” was a little more than 2 months away. I’m posting here at the Roxy because the Music Hall page is still not working.
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Great information on those good ole days. Wish I had a time machine to go back just for a few hours. Wasn’t the Lowe’s State considered another big movie house in Times Square as well as the Astor? That would make seven first run movie houses in the area? Just curious.
I used to give walking tours of the theater district and one of the things I used to like to do was to stand on the northwest corner of 50th St. and Broadway and point out all the various theaters, etc. that once were (mostly before my time) on 50th St., or just to the north or south of it.
These days, 50th St. is still somewhat lively, but imagine being on this corner in, let’s say, 1933 just after Radio City Music Hall opened up:
Going from east to west, first on Sixth Ave. you have RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL (approx. 5,950 seats); then before you get to Seventh Ave. you have the ROXY (approx. 5,900 seats); then on the south side of 50th St. you have the former EARL CARROLL Theater (about 3,000? seats) which was transformed into a spectacular nightclub in 1933; on the very shallow block between Seventh and Broadway you have the the stage house and dressing rooms of the WINTER GARDEN theater (approx. 1,500 seats); and just to the south of 50th St. you have the the RIVOLI Theater (approx. 2,100 seats); then between Broadway and Eighth Ave. you have the back of the CAPITOL Theater (approx. 5,200 seats); and all the way over on Eighth Ave. on the north side of 50th you have the back of the TIVOLI Theater (approx. 1,400 seats), and across the street from that you have the third MADISON SQ. GARDEN (approx. 18,000[?] seats).
And that’s not even to mention the restaurants (the original “little” Lindy’s was just to the north of the Rivoli and, somewhere along the line, Jack Demsey’s which was across the street from “little” Lindy’s), hotels, etc. PLUS, before the Port Authority bus terminal was built, Greyhound had it’s main bus terminal, I believe, on 50th St. just east of Eighth Ave.
Boy, on a Friday night in the 1930s, 50th St. must have really been jumping!!!
The big five combo/film palaces in New York City were Radio City Music Hall,Roxy,Capitol,Paramount and Strand. This truly was the golden era. The glory days from the late 1920'a to the mid 1950’s.I thank all the veterans in describing what the theatres were like, you bring them back to life for me. Based on the photos I have seen the Roxy,Paramount and Capitol would have been my favorites.brucec
I started collecting Variety in 70 and loved looking at the Times Square and Music Hall grosses. As well as looking at the seating capacities of all the downtown movie palaces in the great American cities other than New York and imagining what they looked like.
My parents having no idea what treasures lay within eventually threw them out.
I’ll never forget the horror I experienced one day finding my father painting a room with an issue being used to cover the floor. What in the world was he thinking?
I started collecting Variety in 70 and loved looking at the Times Square and Music Hall grosses. As well as looking at the seating capacities of all the downtown movie palaces in the great American cities other than New York and imagining what they looked like.
My parents having no idea what treasures lay within eventually threw them out.
I’ll never forget the horror I experienced one day finding my father painting a room with an issue being used to cover the floor. What in the world was he thinking?
Ron: I have lots of old Variety clippings. I’ll look through them and see if I have any for the Music Hall grosses. I started buying the paper in 1974, when it was only (I think) 60 cents. Now it must be $3 or $4 or even more per issue.
Sure would like to get Varietys grosses on the Music Hall in years past. To think I subscribed in the 50-60’s when the grosses were actually publised, and threw the issues out as soon as I read them. What a treasure they would be now. As well as all the Time Square grosses. Who knew that would become Nostalgia of another era. SAY GOODBYE TO YESTERDAY.
Warren: My dad often talked about the flags flying all over the theater when he saw “Wilson” there. Maybe he was talking about the drapings, changed to red, white and blue?
There’s a link to “Next Page” at the bottom of RCMH, but it doesn’t go anywhere (yet).
Maybe the original web designers had no idea Cinema Treasures would ever be THIS popular?
I remember the film festival, sure would be nice if they did as the ad said and have it annually. I hope the owners fix the RCMH page soon, maybe some of the older posts will have to be eliminated. Meanwhile I am sure the Roxy lovers will let us post here for a while.
Bill,
Yes, the Radio City page appears to have blown a fuse. I did like your 1996 film festival post. I was also there. I wish they would do it again! I keep emailing them for one, but never get a response.
Is anybody else having trouble seeing the most recent posts on the Radio City Music Hall page? Apparently people are posting, but they’re not showing up on the screen. Maybe 1000 posts is every theater’s limit? It’s supposed to be up to 1005 right now.
So does this mean that for most of its existence the great boxes and proscenium were covered and that the auditorium as presented in The Best Remaining Seats was only visible from ‘27 to the mid 30’s?
Robert:
The dominant colors were deep red and ivory white and were replicated in the draperies hung in lounge of mirrors. The latter appears among the tinted postcards that Lostmemory posted on this page last 9 March ‘05.
Did anyone see it in person or see a color photo? I’m curious of the color