Roxy Theatre

The closest single-term description of the ROXY’s style is: “Spanish Baroque” though in the late Ben Hall’s 1961 book “The Best Remaining Seats: The Story of the Golden Age of the Movie Palace” (still found in several editions at larger libraries, via Inter-Library Loan, and at www.Amazon.com ) there are chapters devoted to this, obviously the author’s opinion of it as the high water mark of palace construction, and on page 121 begins his description of it as “plateresque”: “an exuberant Spanish grafting of Renaissance details on Gothic forms with Moorish overtones.”

Sad to say, the ROXY disappeared in 1960 before the trend to architectural preservation began, and as brought out in the book, the land under its lobby was owned by the adjacent Taft Hotel, and when new owners of the hotel decided to expand their hotel, they declined to renew the lease on the land, so the ROXY was no doubt doomed from that legal perspective alone, not to mention that attendance was falling off rapidly as it was across the country. Not only had the venerable monument been defaced and altered inside, but it was built as were all palaces with the need of thousands of patrons paying several times daily in order to have enough to warrant it a good investment for its owners, as well as have the funds for upkeep and staff. Yes, perhaps if it had been elsewhere where the land values were less, but still an audience of many thousands to fill its seats, it might have been around to this day, but the few huge palaces still standing are either cut up as is The PARADISE in the Bronx; abandoned: the UPTOWN in Chicago; or barely hanging in there with much different formats: RADIO CITY M.H.) I don’t know of any community that can maintain a 6,000-seat palace outside of NYC, and they are having a rough time of it.

The Roxy was (I think) the first great movie palace to be torn down in New York City. Was there any kind of effort to save it at that time?

It’s hard to believe that it fell to the wreckers ball when it wasn’t even 40 years old!

The ice shows at the Roxy in the 50’s sealed the fate of the Kimball organ. The organ had 34 sets (ranks) of pipes, 31 of them were installed under the stage (Roxy’s idea) and 3 of them over the proscenium arch. After Roxy’s departure for Radio City Music Hall, the organ fell silents and the three consoles (main/brass/woodwind) were put into storage. There was a proposal made before this by the W.W. Kimball Company of Chicago to move the pipes under the stage, but nothing came of it. The pit was extended, so the openings to the organ chamber were sealed. Years later, the organ was resurrected with the main console (5 keyboards) being hoisted up to a small performer’s balcony on the left side of the theater. The pipes were amplified into the house sound system. Although it probably sounded pretty bad, there was at least organ music at the Roxy. The Roxy Kimball, as installed, was never something special, except for the three consoles in the orchestra pit. It suffered from being partially blocked by the pit. The organs at THE N.Y. Paramount and Radio City Music Hall were far better. It wasn’t Kimball’s fault … it was Roxy’s. Kimball built a quality product.

The purchase of the Kimball instrument was influenced by Roxy himself. He liked their product over other builders, such as WurliTzer. The Roxy had two other organs in the building, one in the Rotunda (Lobby) and one in the broadcasting studio. Sadly, these two instruments, along with the massive Deagan tower chimes, went down with the building. Only the 5-manual console from the main auditorium and some choice Kimball pipework were saved. The surviving Roxy console is privately owned and is in Las Vegas.

While on the subject of the venerable W.W. Kimball Company, when Roxy moved to RCMH, he asked the Kimball Company to bid on the Rockefeller Center project and its FOUR organs. The Music Hall, RKO Roxy (Center), the Rainbow Room and the Music Hall’s broadcast studio. Kimball was not able to build the instruments in the end due to the depression and the Rudolph WurliTzer Manufacturing Company of North Tonawanda, NY, completed the contract. The Music Hall organ, very much influenced by the Atlantic City Convention Hall’s Ballroom Kimball organ), retained the Kimball specification (so it’s really a Kimball organ with two identical WurliTzer consoles). The Center’s organ was a scaled-down version with the same sized console, done in a nature cherry finish. (It lives on in California beautifully restored.) The Rainbow Room organ was a WurliTzer stock residence model organ and the RCMH Broadcasting organ was a custom specification.

I guess we are fortunate as listeners that the Music Hall organ (and both consoles) received an expert restoration when the Hall was restored in 1999. Yes … I am a theatre organ afficinado. I will try to find a picture of the Center console in its present glory.

I think the Roxy Concert Hall was once the Forum 47th St. theater. At least that’s what it was called in the 1960’s and 1970’s. I think it had another name earlier than that. I saw “The Ten Commandments” and “E.T.” there.

Memories Roxy theater circa 1932-45. As you entered the grand lobby a uniformed usher called out in a stentorian voice “there is immediate seating in all parts of the house,take the grand stairway to your left”. Of course this would lead you to the balcony, not the best seats in the house. However if you took the small stairway to the right you would wind up on the loge. When the show began the orchestra slid in from the left.(not rising like at the Music Hall) As I recall the Rocketts were not the whole show.It was more like vaudiville. I remember seeing lots of dog acts,Carman Cavelero, Jimmy Salvo, The Harmonacats, acrobats,and the incredable Nicholas Brothers doing their running splits right there on stage,live.Well it’s time for me to go to 6th Av. and catch the el train home. H.

Mr. Lundy is quite right that the ROXY probably looked “tired” in the late ‘50s, since by then the palaces had been divested by the chains that once owned them, and local or regional owners were in it only for the money and virtually all serious upkeep was discontinued. The corps of ushers disappeared, as soon did the stagehands, and so gradually did the audience as most of those who could afford to, moved to the suburbs in most cities and the big theatres were no longer very profitable. It cost a lot more to keep such huge palaces as the ROXY clean, and lit, and few owners/operators were willing to make an investment in them as they perceived the scene changing to the suburban single screen, soon to be replaced itself with the multiplex and later the automated projection of the megaplex. I tell myself that had the owners/operators tried by investing more for rigorous cleaning (lush drapery was beautiful, but laden with thick dust, it was not so beautiful) and keeping the hundreds or thousands of lights lit, along with usual repairs, that the young audience would have found the palaces a new delight, and continued coming, but now I doubt it. It was the post war generation that was jaded with entertainment, had a plethora of cars (and other entertainments available because of cars), and a social discipline that existed in earlier years was gone, such as buildings representing private property that was to be respected. The forward writer to the late Ben Hall’s book THE BEST REMAINING SEATS… turned out to be right in calling it an “appropriate epitaph” in that the era was even then in 1961 seen to be over, and only a few palaces as 'dinosaurs’ would remain as tokens of those early days. Usually, in those cases where they remained standing it was only because the property value under them had not increased enough in some locations to justify knocking them down, and businessmen are in it for profit, not nostalgia. We must treasure what remains today all the more.

We can compare the advertising of CinemaScope 55 with VistaVision.
Very few theatres (Radio City, Paramount) actually presented movies in VistaVision projection. However, both formats, when shown with reduction prints, looked magnificent. I think Mr Zanuck recogonised that and did not really feel he was fooling the public, but giving the movies a better presentaion even in the reduction prints.

I care too, so make it six! I have an old (1972) xerox copy from microfilm of the original 1933 opening day ad for “King Kong” which gives the address of the New Roxy as 6th Ave. and 49th St. This confused me at first because I’d thought the Roxy was near 7th Ave. – this was before I learned they were two different theaters. I believe the ad lists “King Kong”’s two theaters as Radio City Music Hall and Radio City New Roxy.

Better link: www.historictheatres.org
(Link above has an extra comma!)

Vincent I also care so now there are four people on the planet.I enjoy the postings from Warren,Vito and yourself. I wish there was a time machine and we could go back to this era of movie palace we all love.I think in our postings we are helping keep this part of our history alive. I at least attended the San Francisco Fox as a child but I wish I could have attended the Roxy I probably wouldn’t want to leave. I love Radio City but the Roxy was the Cathedral of motion pictures.brucec

Correction on Market St. The City of San Francisco is to blame for letting the theatre district portion of Market Street decline so badly and its still a mess today. The Golden Gate has to post security in front of the theatre on show nights because the area is so bad. Both Oakland and San Jose have worked on improving there main street where San Francisco has done nothing to improve Market between the old JC Penney Dept store and the Orpheum. Its a disgrace for a city that is ranked one of the worlds top tourist destinations.The Warfield never deteriorated its the best preserved downtown movie palace the city has. The Warfield was completely renovated/restored in 1969 by National General with the intention of making the Warfield a reseved seat roadshow house. By 1971 the era of the roadshow was over. I remember when Mike Thomas took over the Warfield and it was in beautiful condition. I saw live in person films tributes to Mae West,Lana Turner,Sophia Loren and Joan Fontaine in the late 1970’s at the Warfield. The Warfield was in great condition when it became a concert venue.Who would brave this part of Market Street to see a movie today its scary enough to attend a broadway show at the Golden Gate.brucec

Scott very nicely put about San Francisco’s Market street movie district.
I’ve only been in the Orpheum, Golden Gate, Warfield, St. Francis and the Strand Theatres along Market Street. Boy, that street had some very incredible theatres at one time.