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.
Concerning EdBlanks comment it was why I said I found it on Wikipedia because I know of their unreliability. But just because it is on there it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s wrong either.
I also know that somebody like AlAlvarez knows how to find fairly arcane information concerning film distribution and can put the record straight.
I just hope the guy who booked a condemned rated film for a Christmas show wasn’t sacked. But then he was probably the same guy who booked the equally licentious and morally corrupting The Odd Couple 35 years later.
According to Wikipedia the Music Hall’s first Christmas movie which was just posted by Comfortably Cool received a Condemned rating from the Catholic Legion of Decency.
I hope this was posted outside the Music Hall to warn parents who thought they were bringing their children to a holiday show for the entire family.
The Music Hall’s longest running film The Odd Couple also was condemned.
I have no idea what the people who chose films for the Hall were thinking.
Comfortably Cool placing the Bells of St Mary program in the photo section made me think of Pacino and Keaton outside the Hall in The Godfather.
The displays in the vitrines outside the Music Hall which show the Rockette and ballet company figures behind the actors are the same ones that were used for the stage show with Scrooge. And I only saw this decades after The Godfather came out not having seen it originally.
I know, I know, who cares. Well it did bring back memories.
No SITR was not surround but it had a clarity that was remarkable. Watch the scene when Kelly brings Reynolds into the empty studio. As he turns on each effect there is an instrumental cue. This came through beautifully at the Hall. Have never heard that again. Every time I’ve heard it since the sound is flat mono. Sad because those arrangers were brilliant and those charts(I think that’s what musicians call them) are now I believe buried under some highway in CA.
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.
Concerning EdBlanks comment it was why I said I found it on Wikipedia because I know of their unreliability. But just because it is on there it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s wrong either.
I also know that somebody like AlAlvarez knows how to find fairly arcane information concerning film distribution and can put the record straight.
I just hope the guy who booked a condemned rated film for a Christmas show wasn’t sacked. But then he was probably the same guy who booked the equally licentious and morally corrupting The Odd Couple 35 years later.
According to Wikipedia the Music Hall’s first Christmas movie which was just posted by Comfortably Cool received a Condemned rating from the Catholic Legion of Decency.
I hope this was posted outside the Music Hall to warn parents who thought they were bringing their children to a holiday show for the entire family.
The Music Hall’s longest running film The Odd Couple also was condemned.
I have no idea what the people who chose films for the Hall were thinking.
Comfortably Cool placing the Bells of St Mary program in the photo section made me think of Pacino and Keaton outside the Hall in The Godfather.
The displays in the vitrines outside the Music Hall which show the Rockette and ballet company figures behind the actors are the same ones that were used for the stage show with Scrooge. And I only saw this decades after The Godfather came out not having seen it originally.
I know, I know, who cares. Well it did bring back memories.
There don’t seem to be any photos of the theater in the ad. All of them seem to be of the Loew’s destroyed in ‘31.
And Russell Markert’s Rockets are still performing in 2016.
If only Oliver! had been filmed in 70MM like Funny Girl, Sand Pebbles, Dr Z…
If only.
No SITR was not surround but it had a clarity that was remarkable. Watch the scene when Kelly brings Reynolds into the empty studio. As he turns on each effect there is an instrumental cue. This came through beautifully at the Hall. Have never heard that again. Every time I’ve heard it since the sound is flat mono. Sad because those arrangers were brilliant and those charts(I think that’s what musicians call them) are now I believe buried under some highway in CA.