Roxy Theatre (New York City)
Address | 153 West 50th Street New York City United States |
---|---|
Coordinates | 40°45′39″N 73°58′54″W / 40.760844°N 73.981783°W |
Owner | Fox Theatres National Theaters Rockefeller Center |
Operator | Roxy Theatre Corp. |
Type | Movie palace |
Capacity | 5,920 (in 1927) |
Construction | |
Opened | March 11, 1927 |
Closed | March 29, 1960 |
Demolished | 1960 |
Years active | 1927–1960 |
Architect | Walter W. Ahlschlager |
The Roxy Theatre was a 5,920[a]-seat movie palace at 153 West 50th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, just off Times Square in New York City. It was the largest movie theater ever built at the time of its construction in 1927.[1] It opened on March 11, 1927 with the silent film The Love of Sunya starring Gloria Swanson. It was a leading Broadway film showcase through the 1950s and also noted for its lavish stage shows. It closed and was demolished in 1960.
Early history
The theater was conceived by film producer Herbert Lubin in mid-1925 as the world's largest and finest movie palace. To realize his dream, Lubin brought in the successful and innovative theater operator Samuel L. Rothafel, aka "Roxy",[2] enticing him with a large salary, a percentage of the profits and stock options, and even offering to name the theatre after him.[3] It was intended as the first of six Roxy Theatres in the New York area.
Roxy was determined to make the theater the summit of his career, realizing all of his theatrical design and production ideas. He worked with Chicago architect Walter W. Ahlschlager and decorator Harold Rambusch of Rambusch Decorating Company on every aspect of its design and furnishing.
Roxy's lavish ideas and many changes ran up costs dramatically. A week before the theater opened, Lubin, $2.5 million over budget and near bankruptcy, sold his controlling interest to movie mogul and theater owner William Fox for $5 million. The theater's final cost was $12 million.[4]
With Lubin's exit, Roxy's dreams of his own theater circuit also ended. Only one other of the projected Roxy chain was built: the Roxy Midway Theatre on Broadway, on Manhattan's Upper West Side, also designed by Ahlschlager. It was nearly completed when it was sold to Warner Bros., who opened it as Warner's Beacon in 1929.[4]
Design and innovation
Known as the "Cathedral of the Motion Picture", the Roxy's design by Ahlschlager featured a soaring golden, Spanish-inspired auditorium. Its main lobby was a large columned rotunda called the Grand Foyer, which featured "the world's largest oval rug",[5] manufactured by Mohawk Carpets in Amsterdam, New York, and its own separate pipe organ on the mezzanine. Off the rotunda was a long entrance lobby that led through the adjacent Manger Hotel to the theater's main entrance at the corner of Seventh Avenue and W. 50th Street. The hotel (later called the Taft Hotel) was built at the same time as the theater.
Ahlschlager succeeded in creating an efficient plan for the Roxy's irregular plot of land, utilizing every bit of space by designing a diagonal auditorium with the stage in one corner of the lot. It maximized the auditorium's size and seating capacity but compromised the function of its triangular stage. The Roxy's stage, while very wide, was not very deep and had limited off-stage space.
Despite this limitation, the theater boasted lavish support facilities including two stories of private dressing rooms, three floors of chorus dressing rooms, huge rehearsal rooms, a costume department, staff dry-cleaning and laundry rooms, a barber shop and hairdresser, a dining room, a completely equipped infirmary, and a menagerie for show animals. There were also myriad offices, a private 100-seat screening room, and massive machine rooms for the electrical, ventilation and heating machinery. The theater's large staff also enjoyed a cafeteria, gymnasium, billiard room, nap room, library and showers.[6]
The theater's stage innovations included a rising orchestra pit which could accommodate 110 musicians, and a three-console Kimball
Courteous service to patrons was a key part of the Roxy formula. The theater's uniformed corps of male ushers were known for their courtesy, efficiency, and military bearing. They underwent rigorous training and daily inspections and drills, overseen by a retired Marine officer. Their crisp attire was favorably mentioned by Cole Porter in a stanza of the song "You're the Top" in 1932.[8][9]
The Roxy presented major
The theater's orchestra and performers were also featured in an
The Roxy after Roxy
In spite of the theater's fame and success, the stock market crash of 1929 created financial problems for its majority owner, the
After Rothafel's departure, the Roxy Theatre never quite regained its former glory, but remained a leading New York showcase for film and stage variety shows. In 1942,
The Roxy's stage was rebuilt twice, in 1948 and 1952, to add the ice surface for skating shows. During the latter refurbishing, the stage was extended into the house over the orchestra pit, and colored neon was embedded in the ice.[17] Ice shows were presented, along with the feature film, on and off through the 1950s. In January 1956, skating star Sonja Henie brought her revue to the Roxy in her final New York appearance.[18][19]
Widescreen
From 1955 on, the theater's managing director was Roxy Rothafel's son, Robert C. Rothafel. By this time the theater's appearance had been altered considerably from its original lavish 1920s design. The big orchestra pit was mostly covered by the stage extension, and the organ consoles were removed. The elegant lobby areas, however, remained largely intact.[21]
In 1956, the theater was acquired by the Rockefeller family for $6.1 million and leased back to National Theatres.[22]
In 1958, Rothafel and an independent syndicate took over management of the theater from National Theatres. Following the end of Windjammer's run, the theater's capacity was increased.[23]
One of the Roxy's last big combined shows was in 1959, with the feature film This Earth Is Mine starring Rock Hudson and Jean Simmons, followed by The Big Circus starring Victor Mature. On the stage were Gretchen Wyler, The Blackburn Twins, Jerry Collins, and The Roxy Orchestra.
Closing
The Roxy closed on March 29, 1960. The final movie was The Wind Cannot Read,[24] a British film with Dirk Bogarde, which opened March 9.
The Roxy was acquired by
Legacy
The spectacular stage and screen programming ideas of the Roxy's founder continued at Radio City Music Hall into the 1970s. Its lavish Christmas stage show, created in 1933 by the Roxy's former producer and choreographer, Leon Leonidoff and Russell Markert, continues to this day as the
References
Notes
- ^ The original advertised capacity of 6,214 was never actually true. The theater's blue prints, as published in American Theatres of Today (1927), reveal the true seating capacity as 5,920.
Citations
- ^ Dirks, Tim. "The History of Film The 1920s". filmsite.org. Retrieved January 7, 2023.
- ^ Melnick, pp. 62–95.
- ^ Bloom, p. 462.
- ^ a b Hall, p. 77.
- ^ Hall, p. 123.
- ^ Bloom, p. 464.
- ^ Hall, p. 87.
- ^ Hall, p. 169; "You're the pants on a Roxy usher".
- ^ You're The Top - Cole Porter - Google Play Music
- ^ Hall, p. 129.
- ^ Shepard, The New York Times, August 1, 1989.
- ^ Kourlas, The New York Times, December 24, 2005.
- ^ Motion Picture Daily, July 19, 1951.
- ^ Billboard, July 18, 1942
- ^ Bloom, p. 465.
- ^ Taubman, The New York Times, September 2, 1950.
- ^ The New York Times, December 23, 1952.
- ^ Crowther, The New York Times, January 12, 1956.
- ^ Strait and Henie[page needed]
- ^ Coles, 70 mm, March 2001.
- ^ Hall[page needed]
- ^ "Money Details of Roxy Transfer". Variety. September 3, 1958. p. 14. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
- ^ "Stageshow-'Damn Yankees' to Bow Rothafel's Regime at Roxy; Some Stock To Leon Brandt (V.P.), Others". Variety. September 3, 1958. p. 14. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
- ^ Motion Picture Daily, March 30, 1960.
- ^ Time, February 29, 1960.
- ^ "Swan Song for a Famous Theater," LIFE (magazine), November 7, 1960. Retrieved August 31, 2020
Sources
- "Roxy Show Change Still Uncertain". Billboard. Vol. 54, no. 29. July 18, 1942. p. 15.
- Bloom, Ken (2012). Broadway: Its History, People, and Places an Encyclopedia (Second ed.). New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415937047.
- Coles, David (March 2001). "Magnified Grandeur". 70mm (63). Retrieved December 22, 2014.
- Crowther, Bosley (January 12, 1956). "Screen: 'The Lieutenant Wore Skirts'". The New York Times.
- Hall, Ben M. (1961). The Best Remaining Seats; The Story of the Golden Age of the Movie Palace. New York: Clarkson N. Potter. ISBN 978-0517524503.
- Kourlas, Gia (December 24, 2005). "A Little Respect Please, for a High-Kicking New York Institution". The New York Times. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
- "Swan Song for a Famous Theater". Life. Vol. 49, no. 19. November 7, 1960. p. 46.
- Melnick, Ross (Fall 2003). "Rethinking Rothafel: Roxy's Forgotten Legacy". The Moving Image. 3 (2): 62–95.
- "Balaban to Leave Roxy for Video". Motion Picture Daily. 70 (13): 5. July 19, 1951. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
- "Roxy Theatre Closed; Demolition in 60 Days". Motion Picture Daily. 87 (61): 1. March 30, 1960. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
- "Ice Show and Sousa Mark Roxy Reopening". The New York Times. December 23, 1952.
- Shepard, Richard F. (August 1, 1989). "Leon Leonidoff, 95, the Producer Of Radio City Shows for 42 Years". The New York Times. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
- Strait, Raymond; Henie, Leif (1990). Queen of Ice, Queen of Shadows: The Unsuspected Life of Sonja Henie. Scarborough House. ISBN 978-0812885187.
- Taubman, Howard (September 2, 1950). "Symphony Opens Run at the Roxy". The New York Times.
- "Curtains for the Roxy". Time. February 29, 1960.
External links
History and commentary
- Roxy Theatre Cinema Treasures.com
- Commentary and photos of Roxy auditorium in 1927. Pictureshowman.com.
- Requiem for the Roxy American Theatre Organ Society website, via Internet Archives
- List of Roxy Theatre reference resources, held by the New York Public Library
- "Foster, Gae". Encyclopedia.com. August 31, 2020.
Painting and photos
- Artist's rendering of the interior of the Roxy Theatre Historical Society of America. Elmhurst, Illinois.
- Roxy entrance 1927 Vitaphone Varieties.
- Roxy Rotunda Rug, Photo 1, Photo 2
- Roxy Lobby. LIFE Magazine 1943.