Roxy Theatre
153 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
153 W. 50th Street,
New York,
NY
10020
83 people
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P.S. — My post was not meant as a criticism of the virginia.edu website, as it does properly credit the photos and, by putting them on the web, it does make the photos of an out-of-print(?) book available for wider discussion on the internet.
Also, the pages I mentioned were from the edition that I have. The virginia.edu website may be referring to pages of a different edition of the book.
From a brief glance, it seems to me that about 80% of the photos (and possibly the info, too) on the virginia.edu websites are but a brief sampling from the wonderful Ben Hall book, the “Best Remaining Seats.”
For example, (and I’m not sure of this, since I don’t have my copy handy), I believe that the “floor plan” (really a “section”) that is shown on the website is a scan of page 82 from the Ben Hall book, and that the rest of the drawing, the missing “floor plan” of the auditorium itself (properly speaking, more of an “elevation”), can be found on page 83. PLUS on page 128, the Hall book has a genuine floorplan of the (first floor) of the Roxy theater. (These were the diagrams discussed in my January 7, 2005 post, above.)
For those of you who live in or around New York City: a few weeks ago I was at the Strand Bookstore (Broadway and 12th St.) and saw that they had about two or three used copies of “Best Remaining Seats” for sale. I didn’t check out the price, but the Strand is famous for its great prices. (They also had a seemingly brand new copy of the “Cinema Treasures” book for ½ price.)
I think anyone interested in movie palaces would really be floored by the Ben Hall book — there is so much unbelievable stuff in it (like reproductions of newspaper ads and pages from opening night commemorative booklets, etc.)
Go back one “level” on the site I gave above and you’ll get quite a very, very nice website on movie palaces. They have an extremely nice photograph of the interior of the Roxy. For the first time, I really get a sense of how MASSIVE that sucker was.
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/PALACE/
Check out this nice website:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/PALACE/credit.html
I hope you can see some of this stuff. There’s a particularly fascinating floor plan of the Roxy. They show everything but they down show the full auditorium. Still, it’s fascinating.
It seems like for most of its history the Roxy audience was looking at drapes. When were its magnificent proscenium and decorative boxes covered up never to be seen again?
And here’s a photo of the ‘40’s drapery treatment:
View link
The photo comes from the magazine “Marquee,” vol. 2, no. 3 (1979), p. 16.
My memory is that, instead of using the projection room at the front of the balcony, the Roxy used one at the top rear, perhaps for the very reasons of ghosting that you cite.
I recall rear projection for Disney’s “Peter Pan” in Feb. ‘53, “Call Me Madam” in April '53, and “Bus Stop” in Sept. '56, when I sat in that vast balcony. But I also recollect claims that CinemaScope55 was projected from the front booth for “Carousel” in Feb. '56 and “The King and I” in June '56. I saw the latter there then and I remember an elongated flood of light issuing from the front booth.
The contour arrangement produced an impressive effect, especially when accompanied by traveler curtains behind it. As I strain to recall the pre-‘52 old days, I believe that the great red curttain parted in opera-style fashion, with tewo giant swags. But I might be confusing it with the drapery treatment that framed the stage throughout the forties..
Box Office Bill wrote: “but the angle of projection from the upper balcony was so sharp that the moving fabric were cast deep shadows over the screen."
Bill: The projection room at the Roxy was set in the front of the balcony because Roxy himself thought a "head-on” throw with no angle gave a better picture quality. Could you clarify? Was there another projection booth?
I chatted a while ago with a former New York projection equipment installer who said this “head-on” throw in the Roxy caused shadows. He also said it caused ghosting inside the lens which sometimes affected what was seen on the screen.
Was this contour arrangement better than the original huge curtains? I always thought there was nothing like seeing a big curtain the width of the stage, opening and closing a movie.
I know this is going to stir up an uproar among the Roxy-ites here, and I apologize for that up front, but in the interest of wide-screen historia, which is my field, i feel compelled to ask this question: does anybody have photographs of the Roxy CineMiracle installation in 1958. I know that most Roxy fans hated it, but i really would like to see photos. At least one person on this thread has acknowledged that he saw the presentation. BGW, photos of the Hollywood Chinese also appreciated. Thanks loads, Vince
BoxOfficeBill is to be commended on providing such illuminating information that is all to often lost to history; we are the richer for it. The photo he links to does show the contour curtain I asked him about, since in many theatres such was only mounted as a decorative border since it is much cheaper to rig that way. I should have know that there would be only the best at the preeminent ROXY. Thanks, Bill.
And here’s a photo from Theatre Catalog magazine, 11th ed., 1952-53, p. 212:
View link
The photo was taken between the Roxy’s remodelling in Dec. ‘52 and the advent of CinemaScope in Sept. '53. The screen is shaped in the conventional old 1.33 ratio. You can see the ruber mat on the ice stage beneath it.
And you can see that the Roxy did not use standard screen masking at this time. The picture sheet, framed in the thinnest of black borders, descended in front of softly lit blue curtains, and was advertised as reducing harsh contrasts and being soothing for the eyes. Upon introducing CinemaScope, the Roxy adopted conventional black adjustable masking for the new medium.
Jim Rankin has asked whether the contour curtain at the Roxy from Dec. ‘52 to its closing was fully functional. Well, yes, if by “functional” you mean that it rose and fell with a waterfall effect before and after each segment of the performance.
I remember that it moved at a slow, even rate but, unlike the one at RCMH, did not appear capable of being opened by only some of its cables to create different patterns. It draped in eighteen swags (four more than the fourteen at RCMH), some of unequal width as three narrow ones framed each of the sides and two extra-wide ones dominated the center.
The top valance, which shamefully covered the original Spanish retablo (you could still see some of the latter from the upper balcony), supported the curtain in an undulating design that curved in, then out, then in again, flaring outwards at each side, so that the curtain hit the stage in a wavy line.
I also temember that the curtain, lightly fringed on bottom, did not exactly touch the stage, likely because a puddling ice surface might have soaked any portions that did. As a result, during entre-acts you could see the movement of stagehands' feet behind the scant inch of exposure. The same was true of the black masking at the bottom of the screen: about ten minutes before the end of the film, you could see that stagelights had been turned on and that stagehands' feet were scurrying in preparation for the show.
Contributors to this site have rightly remarked that the Roxy was famous for allowing portions of the screen to remain dark at the beginning and ends of screenings. That’s true. The contour curtain rose and fell majestically, but the angle of projection from the upper balcony was so sharp that the moving fabric were cast deep shadows over the screen. Lavender-lit traveller curtains operated simultaneously behind the contour, but the shadows still remained.
Another problem was glare from the ice stage reflecting upon the screen; to remedy it, a sixty-foot-long rubber mat lay beneath the screen during the feature film. It disappeared before the Fox Movietone News and coming attractions which preceded the stage show. For all that, the projection and sound were flawless, with the latter better to my ears than its echoic equivalent at RCMH.
Your’re right. In the final shot of Sound of Music don’t the Von Trapps escape into… GERMANY?!!!
In the “Aviator” it showed Howard Hughes watching some of the “Jazz Singer” at the Chinese Theatre. You can see that its the same theatre they used for the premiere of “Hells Angels”.
But That’s Hollywood for you.
Your right but that kind of thing really bugs me like in Annie where Camille is playing at the Music Hall. It ruins the movies credibility(in fact I believe even Pauline Kael complained about it in her review of the movie.)
They might have just taken liberty in the show and said the Roxy. Because the Criterion in Times Square was not as well known as the Roxy, Rivoli or the Music Hall.
Does anyone know if Wings played second run at the Roxy?
As every New Yorker knows it opened at the Criterion 1(as in first not as in the United Artist multiplex or the art deco beauty we knew for so many years.) But there is an old Petticot Junction with Arlen and Rodgers where Uncle Joe says it opened at the NY Roxy rather than the theater in Hooterville.
Smart Woman (1931) was the first film played at the famous Roxy Theater in New York City. per the imdb I find this hard to believe if the theater opened in 1927. Perhaps this was the first talkie to play there.
Most movie palaces had the holes in the ceiling for “lines” as Warren describes them (except Atmospherics) and these were capped with small discs of metal which were wired to the plaster struts that held up the ceiling. They were painted right along with the ceiling, of course, but if one looks closely, he can often see them still in place, sometimes dangling a bit as the wire loosened over the years. Their intent was really to lower at least 4 such “lines” at a time in order to hoist a scaffold with temporary winches in the attic to effect cleaning or repainting. It is true that a single line could be used to hoist a single man in a ‘Bosun’s chair’, but the main intent was for a two or three man scaffold since that would require less positioning as they moved across a ceiling. There is a photo of one being used in the St. Louis FOX in a David Naylor book.
It might have already been mentioned in one of the very many comments that have been made here about this theater, but I thought it worth repeating that there is a wonderfully detailed cut-away scale model of the Roxy (outer and inner lobbies as well as the auditorium and mezzanine foyers) on display at the American Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria Queens (located in the old Kaufman-Astoria Studios complex off Steinway Street on 35th Ave). Aside from the fact that the lighting around the exhibit produces an annoying reflection on the glass partition behind which it sits, if you lean in close, the level of detail in the model is quite breathtaking and well worth the visit to the museum. Not to mention that the museum itself, though rather small, is a very informative and enjoyable place to learn about the history of the moving picture.
Movie question: “Stagecoach” is one of my favorite films and it’s heralded as a total classic, which it is. But since Warren notes that it didn’t do well at RCMH, was it considered a box office failure in 1939? That would be a surprise because it’s the movie that effectively launched John Wayne’s career.
Didn’t the remake also play the Hall? I guess that maybe the only successful western at Radio City was Shane? Perhaps the midtown NY audiences didn’t go for westerns especially at the Roxy and the Music Hall.
Heartbreaking post paulb. Excellent but heartbreaking.
Heartbreaking post paulb. Excellent but heartbreaking.
I spoke too soon regarding sending photos to CinemaTOUR since CinemaTREASURES is not now accepting photos. It turns out that CinemaTOUR is in the same boat now: Adam Martin, the honcho there, says in the current FORUMS (www.CinemaTour.com) that he cannot accept any more photos for the foreseeable future. It seems that he is 20,000 (!) photos behind, so no more for now. I will ask Theatre Historical Society if their limited server space can accomodate BoxOfficeBill’s ROXY photo, but we can’t count on that. I guess that lots of photos just take up too much expensive space, more’s the pity!