42 years , 61 movies A Hall of Shame (2 Viewers)

[Louis Letizia]

From the Christmas Spectacular of 1969 (actually 2) to the Easter show of 1979 - a glimpse of The Radio City Music Hall programming. Nearly all of the movies that played there have reached DVD and some have hit Blue. But by and large none of them, except for 2 went on to nationwide blockbuster status. There was quite nothing lime seeing a movie and a show there, but judging from this list, I'm greatly disappointed at their choices. ADDED 1965-1969 The latter half of the 60s decade had 40 premieres. Of those 40 films there were 11 Oscar nominations and only one win. That winner was John Wayne Best Actor. The only other 2 major nominations were 2 Supporting Actress nomineess: Ruth Gordon for INSIDE DAISY CLOVER and Mildred Natwick' BAREFOOT IN THE PARK. Out of 40 films, 1/10 were hits: THE LOVE BUG, TRUE GRIT , THE ODD COUPLE and BAREFOOT IN THE PARK. 4 were listed as Worst in Medveds book: THE CHRISTMAS TREE, THE SANDPIPER, SWEET NOVEMBER and THE IMPOSSIBLE YEARS. Only 7 have not made it to DVD yet and of those only 2 hadnt reached video in any form (although JUDITH is on Netflix streaming). This list is much more adult skewing. With promiscuous teenagers, clergyman having affairs ,Robert Redford as a homosexual , Sophia Loren in a shower scene that used to get me all lathered up watching on the Million Dollar Movie, a single girl having an affair with an older gent ANY WEDNESDAY ,an exisential road movie/love story , HOTEL snenanigans , a terrorized blind woman ,a dying woman with monthly lovers ,a warmup to THE GODFATHER, trapeze artists in nude clenches ,a bareassed Michael Douglas before he was a star ,a dying kid at Christmas ...he stuff of TRUE family entertainment! And while there were no catastrophes like MATILDA and THE BLUE BIRD , there were some doozies 1965: 1/28: 36 HOURS *MGM) 3/7 : DEAR HEART (WB) 4/1: OPERATION CROSSBOW (UA) 5/13: THE YELLOW ROLLS ROYCE (MGM) 7/5: THE SANDPIPER (MGM) 11/4: NEVER TOO LATE (WB) 12/2 : THAT DARN CAT (Disney) 1966: 1/20 : JUDITH (Par) 2/17: INSIDE DAISY CLOVER (WB) 3/17: THE SINGING NUN (MGM) 5/5: ARABESQUE (U) 6/9: THE GLASS BOTTOM BOAT (MGM) 7/20: repremiere MARY POPPINS 9/22: KALEIDESCOPE (WB) 10/13: ANY WEDNESDAY (WB0 12/1: FOLLOW ME BOYS (Disney) 1967: 1/19: HOTEL (WB) 2/16: THE 25TH HOUR (MGM) 3/9: HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING (UA) 4/27: TWO FOR THE ROAD (Fox) 5/25: BAREFOOT IN THJE PARK (Par) 9/28: THE BOBO (WB) 10/26: WAIT UNTIL DARK (WB) 11/30: THE HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE (Disney) 1968: 1/18: HOW TO SAVE A MARRIAGE (Columbia) 2/8: SWEET NOVEMBER (WB) 3/21: THE ONE AND ONLY GENUINE FAMILY BAND (Disney) 5/11: THE ODD COUPLE (Par) 8/8: WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT? (MGM) 9/19: HOT MILLIONS (MGM) 12/4 : THE IMPOSSIBLE YEARS (MGM) 1969: 1/16:THE BROTHERHOOD (Par) 2/13 MAYERLING (MGM) 3/14: THE LOVE BUG (Disney) 4/24: IF ITS TUESDAY WE MUST BE IN BELGIUM (UA) 5/22: WINNING (U) 7/3: TRUE GRIT (Par) 8/28: THE GYPSY MOTHS (MGM) 9/25: THE CHRISTMAS TREE (U) 10/23: HAIL HERO! (Nat General) 11/3: THE BRAIN (Paramount) a disaster 12/1: A BOY NAMED CHARLIE BROWN (National General) 1970: 2/7: TICK...TICK...TICK (MGM) 3/6: AIRPORT (Universal) 5/28:THE OUT OF TOWNERS(Paramount) 6/23: VIVA MAX! 7/22: DARLING LILI (Paramount) 9/28: SUNFLOWER (Accord/Embassy) 10/29RIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (United Artists) 11/14: SCROOGE (National General) 1971: 2/18: WUTHERING HEIGHTS (AIP) 3/11: A NEW LEAF (Paramount) 7/2: MURPHYS WAR (Paramount) 9/2: SEE NO EVIL (Columbia) 9/30: KOTCH (Cinerama) 10/28: THE RAILWAY CHILDREN (Universal) 11/11: BEDKNOBS AND BRROMSTICKS (Disney) 1972: 2/4: MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS (Universal) 3/10: WHATS UP DOC? (WB) 6/1: WAR BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN(National General) 6/13: THE COWBOYS (WB) 7/6: BUTTERFLIES ARE FREE (Columbia) 8/12: LAST OFTHE RED HOT LOVERS (Paramount) 9/22: CANCEL MY RESERVATION(Columbia) 10/19: WHEN THE LEGENDS DIE (Cinerama) 11/9: 1776(Columbia) 1973: 2/4: WORLDS GREATEST ATHLETE (Disney) 2/22: CHARLOTTES WEB (Paramount) 3/14: TOM SAWYER(UA) 6/28: 40 CARATS (Columbia) 8/9:NIGHT WATCH (Accord Embassy) 9/27: FROM.THE MIXED UP FILES OF MRS BASIL E. FRANKWEILLER (Cinema V) 10/18: THE OPTIMISTS(Paramount) 11/8:ROBIN HOOD (Disney) 1974: 2/2: SUPEDDAD(Disney) 3/7: MAME (WB) 5/18: THE BLACK WINDMILL (Universal) 6/6: HERBIE RIDES AGAIN (Disney) 7/11: THE TAMARIND SEED (Avco Embassy) 8/22: THE GIRL FROM PETROVKA (Universal) 11/8:THE LITTLE PRINCE (Paramount) 1975: 3/4: AT LONG LAST LOVE(Fox) 6/26: BITE THE BULLET (Columbia) 7/31: HENNESSY (AIP) 11/6: THE SUNSHINE BOYS (MGM) 1976: 3/11:ROBIN AND MARIAN (CColumbia,) 5/13:THE BLUE BIRD )(Fox) 6/17: HARRY AND WLTER GO TO NEW YORK (Columbia) 7/29: SWASHBUCKLER (U) 10/17: A MATTER OF TIME (AIP) 11/4: THE SLIPPER AND THE ROSE (U) 1977: 3/31: THE LITTLEST HORSE THIEVES (Disney) 4/29: MR BILLION(Fox) 5/20: SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT (U) 6/30: MACARTHUR (U) 11/3: PETES DRAGON (Disney) 1978: 3/1: CROSSED SWORDS (WB) 4/26: THE SEA GYPSIES (WB) 6/21: MATILDA (AIP) 8/2: MAGIC OF LASSIE (Int Picture Show) 11/5: CARAVANS (U) 1979: 3/9: THE PROMISE (U) ) Not the most impressive list. Of 61 movies only AIRPORT, SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT and WHATS UP DOC? did well and became blockbuster's. There were 57 Oscar nominations between them, with only 3 wins (George Burns and Helen Hayes Best Supporting Oscars the only major wins.).Out of all the nominees only AIRPORT received a Best Picture nomination. Six of them were listed in the infamous 50 Worst Movies of All Time, nearly 1/10 landed in the Medved Brothers barometer for worst! With 11 movies in 10 years, Universal had the most, with Paramount 2nd with 9. But, as for who now owns the video rights, Paramount would be first as SCROOGE, A BOY NAMED CHARLIE BROWN.and THE WAR BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN are theirs now. 14 of the 61 are not on DVD and of those only TICK...TICK...TICK, AT LONG LAST LOVE and THE BLUE BIRD were never on video in any form. MAME broke the house record andhad an incredible run browsing nearly a third of its gross here. SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT bombed here and was probably the only film that played the rest of country first. MR. BILLION was probably its worst along with abysmal crosses for THE BLUE BIRD ANDTHE GIRL FROM PETROVKA. 1776 was the only repeat here in these years- with a rereleasein. The bicentennial year.Many times the house stayed dark rather than run a bomb. Personally I saw A BOY NAMED CHARLIE BROWN, WHATS UP DOC?, , MAME, MACSRTHUR and probably a few others here. (

 

I saw five of 'em at Radio City on that list, plus a few earlier ones, starting with FATHER GOOSE in 1963, I believe. Mostly the great Christmas shows. Never forgot that all powerful Wurlitzer organ, and the Rockettes!

 

[Matt Hough]

I saw many, many films at Radio City during the summers and Christmas vacations we'd go there. I believe my first was Operation Petticoat, but there may have been one before that which I'm forgetting.

 

[Garysb]

By the mid 60's through the '70s Radio City Music was pretty restricted as to what movies they were going to get. They weren't going to get movies that were meant to be road show and to play for a year like, "The Sound of Music" , "Dr Zhivago", "Laurence of Arabia", or "Funny Girl". They weren't going to get more adult films like "Bonnie and Clyde" or "The Graduate". The Dirty Harry pictures weren't going to play there. No R rated films at the music hall. They were mostly limited to G rated family films . Many Disney films played there. I think it was less about what they choose to book and what was available to them. You got a movie and a stage show but if you weren't interested in the movie, not many people were paying just to see a 20 minute stage show.

 

[tsodcollector]

i've seen pete's dragon,it's a complete genius,with it's musical settings and computer special effects.it was completly genius,but i've seen a couple of those smokey and the bandit,macarthur,robin and marian,tom sawyer and this one tops them all 1776,there completly classics.

 

[tsodcollector]

i've seen pete's dragon,it's a complete genius,with it's musical settings and computer special effects.it was completly genius,but i've seen a couple of those smokey and the bandit,macarthur,robin and marian,tom sawyer and this one tops them all 1776,there completely classics.