Roadshows that need a bluray release (1 Viewer)

NY2LA · Apr 14, 2012

Interesting little development...
Hello, Dolly! was one of the roadshows given a cheesy cover and menu design by Fox on DVD. Looked like they gave a high school kid a PC with some stock photos and standard fonts...

It's been streaming on Netflix for a while and today, while other TCF movies have dropped off the NF streaming list, Dolly has a new cover image.

Same photo but now using a form of the original logo type. It's not a vast improvement, especially when there is that nifty Amsel artwork around, but an improvement. have to wonder why they bothered. When they threw Dolly on a tandem release last summer they didn't bother with new "art."

This doesn't inspire any particular hope for how these titles will be handled in the future.

Matt Hough · Apr 15, 2012

Does it stream in SD or HD? Just wondering if Fox has done a high def transfer for either Hello, Dolly! or Star!?

ahollis · Apr 15, 2012

As bad as the HELLO DOLLY! dvd covers were, I was never impressed with the two poster campaign's for the title either. The General Release One Sheet looks like something left over from a Realart Universal Re-release in the 50's. The Roadshow One Sheet was just way too much hat. IMHO.

NY2LA · Apr 15, 2012

MattH. said:
Does it stream in SD or HD? Just wondering if Fox has done a high def transfer for either Hello, Dolly! or Star!?

no evidence of that. Both were in SD only Dolly remains in the streaming list.

NY2LA · Apr 15, 2012

ahollis said:
As bad as the HELLO DOLLY! dvd covers were, I was never impressed with the two poster campaign's for the title either. The General Release One Sheet looks like something left over from a Realart Universal Re-release in the 50's. The Roadshow One Sheet was just way too much hat. IMHO.

Popular price versions of Roadshow posters (that I was aware of growing up in the 60s) were I think all cheap and tacky compared to the original. Can anyone remember one that wasn't? (that ought to open up the floodgates!) Realart is rather before my time. However...Fox seems to have made a habit of skimping on color ink in popular price posters of former roadshows. Doctor Dolittle' s 2nd design was also a woefully cheap B&W with two color tints.
I heard a story about Amsel having created a beautiful period perfect design for Dolly (similar to the unused one he did for Little Miss Marker) and Fox, being in their 60s pop-art mode (evidenced by star) rejected it. The story goes that he went home and created the modern design (that they used) overnight. I was a little surprised to see a professional poster that partially employed a device many of us kids had at home, but still I have yet to see a studio's Homevid art department come up with anything better than the original.
PS: have never been able to prove that Amsel story. The legendary unused art has never surfaced.

ahollis · Apr 15, 2012

I think that both the Roadshow and General Release one-sheets of Dr. Dolittle were better than the Hello Dolly ones. The General Release version at least tried to sell the film. However when Dolly hit the General Release theatres, they did use the General Release poster. When Dr. Dolittle hit the General Release theatres they used the Roadshow poster. At least in the New Orleans and Mississippi Theatres. At that time I cannot speak for the rest of the country.

ahollis · Apr 15, 2012

Then there were the three (four if you count Those Were The Happy Times) STAR! one sheets. The main Roadshow One-Sheet was more like the Dr. Dolittle General Release poster and the STAR! General Release one-sheet was actually interesting and tried to sell a film that could not be sold. I think each of the One-Sheets is interesting in their own unique way, but my favorite is the Roadshow Version B.

Matt Hough · Apr 15, 2012

And what ironic wording on that third poster - "ALL OF IT!" when the movie had already been chopped down from the original running time!

NY2LA · Apr 15, 2012

ahollis said:
I think that both the Roadshow and General Release one-sheets of Dr. Dolittle were better than the Hello Dolly ones. The General Release version at least tried to sell the film. However when Dolly hit the General Release theatres, they did use the General Release poster. When Dr. Dolittle hit the General Release theatres they used the Roadshow poster. At least in the New Orleans and Mississippi Theatres. At that time I cannot speak for the rest of the country.
Well in NY state the Dolittle posters after roadshow were the cheap ones. You may have been lucky your local theatres got roadshow handmedowns or leftovers.

NY2LA · Apr 15, 2012

ahollis said:
Then there were the three (four if you count Those Were The Happy Times) STAR! one sheets. The main Roadshow One-Sheet was more like the Dr. Dolittle General Release poster and the STAR! General Release one-sheet was actually interesting and tried to sell a film that could not be sold. I think each of the One-Sheets is interesting in their own unique way, but my favorite is the Roadshow Version B.

if you look at the A roadshow, it's actually full color printing, much more so than Dolittle's circus style tinted B&W of the gen release. Clearly this was 60s pop-art inspired, and I know some like it, but It probably didn't help. before I ever saw that poster my mother had got me the album on a trip to NY, I asked my brother on the phone to describe it. He said it looks like posters slapped or painted on the back of an old building. I thought he was being a smartass but since realized that's exactly the effect that was intended. according to the history on the DVD, the roadshow style B is closest to what should have been used, following the iconic SOM formula, and the retitled thing was done by the same artist as sound of music. Harold Terpining, I think, who also did the best GWTW and has his own unique history... yeah the all of it line on the general release was ironic and I don't like that poster at all. The secondary roadshow print ads were even uglier. I'm also not a fan of monkeying around with the outfits, the one in the B style was actually black, and the one on the retitled thing poster I bet doesn't exist. Anyone remember Peak's Millie art put MTM in one of JA's outfits? speaking of sloppy posters, IIRC, Uni's reissue posters for either Charity or Millie used artwork from the other.

John Skoda · Apr 15, 2012

MattH. said:
And what ironic wording on that third poster - "ALL OF IT!" when the movie had already been chopped down from the original running time!

The ALL OF IT poster is actually from the ad campaign prepared for a full-length STAR! general release which never happened. STAR! ran as a roadshow until just after Christmas 1968, when it was pulled by Fox. When it finally came out as a general release, it was the edited version and it used the THOSE WERE THE HAPPY TIMES title and campaign.

NY2LA · Apr 15, 2012

John Skoda said:
The ALL OF IT poster is actually from the ad campaign prepared for a full-length STAR! general release which never happened. STAR! ran as a roadshow until just after Christmas 1968, when it was pulled by Fox. When it finally came out as a general release, it was the edited version and it used the THOSE WERE THE HAPPY TIMES title and campaign.

Never heard that. History relates it was cut during roadshow run and pulled from release the following spring. I saw it well after christmas in a (cut) roadshow run that began only a couple days before 12/25. Whether a general release happened or not, it was never going to be full length. I imagine someone here can turn up evidence of the ALL OF IT! campaign finding its way into newsprint. The retitled thing was yet another cut altogether.

Matt Hough · Apr 16, 2012

Having seen the original roadshow premiere of Star! here in Charlotte at the Carolina Theater in December 1968 (I think it was December 9th, but I'd have to do some digging), I can certainly attest that Star! had already been cut of two numbers ("Someday I'll Find You" and "My Ship"). I enjoyed the film thoroughly, but I still left disappointed that I had been listening to two songs on the soundtrack LP for weeks before but couldn't see their visual interpretations.

The Roadshow B poster is my favorite and is what I'd love to see as cover art on a potential Blu-ray release (not that I expect any release to be forthcoming). I so dislike the brown tinting on the current DVD transfer that I go back to the laserdisc when I want to watch Star!.

ahollis · Apr 16, 2012

Originally Posted by John Skoda /t/318415/roadshows-that-need-a-bluray-release/30#post_3916890
The ALL OF IT poster is actually from the ad campaign prepared for a full-length STAR! general release which never happened. STAR! ran as a roadshow until just after Christmas 1968, when it was pulled by Fox. When it finally came out as a general release, it was the edited version and it used the THOSE WERE THE HAPPY TIMES title and campaign.

I did see STAR! in General Release Jackson MS in March of 1969 and they used the Roadshow Version A one-sheet at the theatre, but I recall a type of the "see it all" version for the newspaper ads only it did not say "see it all" just the art work and Now at Popular Prices. I call it a General Release in the the theatre was running three shows a day, no reserved seats and the did not up the admission prices. It could still have been considered Roadshow by Fox. I have never see the General Release One-Sheet used, so what you say makes sense. I thought the General Release was such a flop and that was when they pulled it and then released it under the new title, which was in the fall of 1969. I had heard that most of the songs were cut from THOSE WERE THE HAPPY TIMES, but the one-sheet proudly announces "Julie Sings".

On the laserdisc of STAR! there is a written dissertation on the cuts and they went into detail how little by little the film was disappearing from one-week to another. The running time went from 176 minutes to 121 minutes for THOSE WERE THE HAPPY TIMES. I seem to recall from it that around 22 minutes were cut during the Roadshow run. So the there was another 30 minutes cut for Happy Times. The laserdisc was and is the definitive version for me, as is the laser of 1776.

ahollis · Apr 16, 2012

Originally Posted by MattH. /t/318415/roadshows-that-need-a-bluray-release/30#post_3916948
The Roadshow B poster is my favorite and is what I'd love to see as cover art on a potential Blu-ray release (not that I expect any release to be forthcoming). I so dislike the brown tinting on the current DVD transfer that I go back to the laserdisc when I want to watch Star!.

Hopefully Twilight Time will try STAR! as a Blu. I too go back to the laser when it's time to watch it again.

GMpasqua · Apr 16, 2012

Twilight Time has stated one of the following Fox Roadshow releases will be their July release:

Star!
Hello, Dolly!
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines
The Agony and the Ecstasy
Can-Can

"Star!" may not be the July release since they recently stated they were working on getting "Star!" - so it still may happen this year

Ed Lachmann · Apr 16, 2012

Some good news for folks who mention THE LION IN WINTER. A BD will be released soon by the Danish SoulMedia company, with a subtitle free option. Their stuff is usually very good. I also wonder about SOLOMON AND SHEBA, since my English MGM DVD looks marvelous, so I imagine a new scan would easily bring it up to BD snuff. In the same bunch that MGM originally released in DVD was KINGS OF THE SUN, which I would love to see in hi def. Of course, a six BD set of the Rogers and Hammerstein (hopefully roadshow) musicals are coming from the UK soon and will include SOUND OF MUSIC, THE KING AND I, SOUTH PACIFIC, OKLAHOMA, CAROUSEL and STATE FAIR. No announcement for the USA, however.

NY2LA · Apr 16, 2012

MattH. said:
The Roadshow B poster is my favorite and is what I'd love to see as cover art on a potential Blu-ray release (not that I expect any release to be forthcoming). I so dislike the brown tinting on the current DVD transfer that I go back to the laserdisc when I want to watch Star!.

I hear a lot of people feel that way about the DVD transfer and not just the brown tints. Amazon reviews list a bunch of faults in the transfer. Whole different era between the time LD special editions were done and when DVDs came out. In the LD era people who knew and probably liked the movie were involved and/or in charge, while in the DVD era these things are done by committee. I think the laserdisc history section about the ad art explains the choice of art made for the LD cover. A good idea that could have been executed better.

Matt Hough · Apr 16, 2012

You know, the first time I ever saw the complete version of Star! was on AMC (before they went commercial). They first showed it pan and scan, of course, but eventually the widescreen version aired, and I thought I had died and gone to heaven to finally get to see the whole thing. That homemade videotape got a lot of wear and tear before I finally got my hands on the laserdisc.

Charles Smith · Apr 16, 2012

Okay, y'all talked me into it. I just bought the LD -- my first in a long time.

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