How many Roadshows have you seen first run? (1 Viewer)

[Rob_Ray]

I keep seeing references to the 1967 70mm GWTW re-release. What happened to those elements? Would have made for an interesting extra although that version was much reviled as I recall.

I remember seeing a bit of up and down panning, especially with the titles and the replacement of the sweeping title with a bland static one. I also remember rather jaundiced color throughout and the stereo sound noticeably kicking in after long stretches of monaural. The cropping wasn't too noticeable to me, as I had never seen the film before. Of course, now I would probably be aghast at the framing.

 

[Douglas R]

From what I remember the 70mm version cut off the top and bottom of the frame. Remember the sound as being good for a 1939 film through the sound system at the Rivoli in NYC.

Yes it played havoc with the framing. It's really not worth seeing again.

 

[Douglas R]

My list based on UK roadshows in London, apart from "Apocalypse Now" which I saw in New York at the Ziegfield Theatre. "C" indicates presentations in Cinerama:

The Ten Commandments 1956
Around the World in 80 Days 1956
Ben-Hur 1959
The Nun’s Story 1959
Barabbas 1961
How the West Was Won (C) 1962
Mutiny on the Bounty 1962
Cleopatra 1963
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World (C) 1963
My Fair Lady 1964
Becket 1964
The Magnificent Showman (Circus World) (C) 1964
Cheyenne Autumn 1964
The Fall of the Roman Empire 1964
Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines 1964
The Hallelujah Trail (C) 1965
The Greatest Story Ever Told (C) 1965
The Great Race (C) 1965
Doctor Zhivago 1965
Battle of the Bulge (C) 1965
Sound of Music 1965
The Agony and the Ecstasy 1965
Othello 1965
Lord Jim 1965
Khartoum (C) 1966
Grand Prix (C) 1966
The Bible .. In the Beginning C) 1966
War and Peace 1966
The Sand Pebbles 1966
Ryan’s Daughter 1966
Far From the Madding Crowd 1967
Custer of the West (C) 1967
Camelot 1967
Half a Sixpence 1967
Doctor Doolittle 1967
Ice Station Zebra (C) 1968
Star 1968
2001 : A Space Odyssey C) 1968
Where Eagles Dare 1968
The Lion in Winter 1968
Krakatoa East of Java (C) 1969
Paint Your Wagon 1969
Hello Dolly 1969
Patton: Lust for Glory 1970
Tora, Tora, Tora 1970
Nicholas and Alexandra 1971
Mary, Queen of Scots 1971
The Great Waltz (C) 1972
Run, Run, Joe (C) 1974
Apocalypse Now 1979

 

[DP 70]

I have seen two 70mm roadshows in London this week 2001 and The Sound of Music, that great for 2018

 

[roxy1927]

I know I'm bumping a very old thread but I wish I could have seen these films in their roadshow engagements.
Interestingly nobody wanted to spend roadshow ticket prices on Can-Can!

 

[Waldo Lydecker]

Great times…!!! However, I believe that some of the posts are confused about the term “Roadshow” vs “Exclusive Engagement”(The Hateful Eight?) Just because a souvenir program is available for purchase doesn’t make it so…In the early 70’s “first run” films would play at one theater exclusively, but individual reserve seating largely disappeared. The last film I attended with reserve seats was “Cabaret” at Houston’s Windsor Cinerama (since razed) in 1972…It played there exclusively for five months!

 

[roxy1927]

That's interesting because Cabaret opened at the Ziegfeld in NY continuous run general admission.

 

[Waldo Lydecker]

Not in Houston…Also, “The Poseidon Adventure” ran exclusively for 6 months at the “Village Theatre”…”The Exorcist” for 8 months at the “Alabama Theatre”…

 

[roxy1927]

I just checked the Windsor Cinerama on Cinema Treasures which I had never heard of. That is one spectacular screen.

 

[Noel Aguirre]

I saw My Fair Lady, Camelot, Doctor Dolittle, 2001 & Hello Dolly. All in Baltimore.
Also Apocalypse Now at the Ziegfeld had a program when first released but not sure if that is considered a Roadshow. If so then I would add Heavens Gate l which I saw during its notorious one weekend opening before getting yanked.

 

[roxy1927]

Neither Apocolypse Now nor Heaven's Gate would be considered roadshow. No reserved seats. You waited on line. Though Cabaret at the Ziegfeld had limited performances during the day and had a souvenir program that was not considered a roadshow. I hope Baltimore had nice roadshow houses. I assume it would as it was a major stop for touring companies with I imagine many legitimate houses which are probably all gone now.

 

[RolandL]

I just checked the Windsor Cinerama on Cinema Treasures which I had never heard of. That is one spectacular screen.

Houston Cinerama theatres:

Windsor Cinerama Theatre

Gaylynn Cinerama theatre

Rivoli Cinerama theatre

 

[Matt Hough]

Neither Apocolypse Now nor Heaven's Gate would be considered roadshow. No reserved seats. You waited on line. Though Cabaret at the Ziegfeld had limited performances during the day and had a souvenir program that was not considered a roadshow. I hope Baltimore had nice roadshow houses. I assume it would as it was a major stop for touring companies with I imagine many legitimate houses which are probably all gone now.

Yeah, the last roadshow I remember attending was Paint Your Wagon. I saw That's Entertainment at the Ziegfeld in NYC, but I don't believe it had reserved seats.

 

[roxy1927]

Actually I remember Little Dorrit which was on 57th Stret had a roadshow policy but I guess the very last big roadshow was Man of La Mancha and I don't know why anyone thought it should be presented as such. There was no great anticipation for it. I was ticked off that it took up the Rivoli so that the '73 70mm release of TSOM had to open at depressing National. And then La Mancha didn't even last until Music opened. I would so loved to have seen it at the Rivoli.

 

[KPmusmag]

I only saw a few roadshows at the tail end of the era. Sound of Music, Dr Doolittle, Camelot, and I also remember Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but I can't confirm that was a true roadshow presentation. Sound of Music was so exciting - standing in a long line outside The Wilshire Theater in Beverly Hills with my Grandmother. The huge curtains opening over the 20th-C-Fox logo and that giant screen. And my stomach dropping at the end of Act 1 when Maria left and the curtains closing. It was very impactful. And I remember being fascinated by the directional dialog, it sounded like it was coming exactly from the where the character was positioned on the screen. They had large displays in the lobby, I distinctly remember one of the marionettes and some kind of mock-up of the bedroom and the curtains, plus large cardboard standees of various scenes and characters.

 

[garyrc]

My list would be substantially similar to Ken Koc's. I believe I saw almost all of them, some several times, always in 70mm, starting with Oklahoma! and The Miracle of Todd-AO in 1955. In 1956, Around the World in 80 Days was the most immersive I ever saw, with the possible exception of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

My favorite 70mm Todd-AO theater actually used a curved screen for Oklahoma! and 80 Days. The advertising mentioned the screen was composed of “thousands of tiny lenses” (lenticular ?). Later on, they cut down the curved screen and replaced it with a smaller, flat one, but left the curtains.

After a showing, I snuck a look behind the trim curtain to the side, and there was some of the old screen, in shreds. It looked like aluminum powder on vinyl, just like my Day-lite Silver King at home. Ampex had been commissioned to develop the sound for Todd-AO. They had the James B. Lansing (then “Jim” Lansing) company design the speakers and make several sets, but JBL was a small company then, and couldn’t make enough, so Ampex tooled up and made many themselves. Still others were made by Altec Lansing (to their own specs). They were the big kid on the block. I always preferred the JBL sound, though.

 

[garyrc]

I saw Gone With The Wind in 70mm. Not only was the aspect ratio changed from 1.37:1 to about 2.2:1, cutting off the top or bottom (usually bottom, in my memory) of the image, but the COLOR was horrible. How bad was it? A few years later I was watching some independent film in the little art house just north of the U.C. Berkeley campus, The Northside Cinema, which had two projection rooms but only one bathroom (at least in the late '60s). I had to leave one projection room and walk through the other to use the facilities in the rear. Gone With The Wind was playing in that other projection room, either in 35mm or 16mm. It was gorgeous! Wonderfully sharp and detailed, with the clothing and the interior of the Tara house fairly glowing with their own light. I'd guess it was Dye Transfer.

I did finally see a good 35mm print of GWTW, all the way through. It was aesthetically and technically much better, but, to me, it remains a sow's ear. It had some nice art direction, music, and cinematography, but I'm at a loss as to why it was the biggest money maker of all time. Looking across the generations may suggest an answer. As a child, teen, and 20 something person (long, long ago) I knew several white people in my parents' generation, and decades older, who were movie buffs back in 1939. They were in California, not the southern USA. They seemed to love this (inaccurate) historical romance. They knew only a few Black people, and did not seem observant of the Black stereotypes in the film, including the egg laying attempt at comedy with Prissy's exclamations about being asked to help deliver a baby that annoyed Malcolm X, Alice Randall, and who knows how many others.

Many found the scene in which Rhett Butler is likely to be about to rape Scarlet, to repeat a word I often heard in reaction to it back then, "thrilling," in a good way, believe it or not.

As a uncomprehending northerner, I agree with Mark Twain in (satirically) putting the blame [for the Civil War] on Sir Walter Scott; much of what is wrong with Gone With The Wind is covered by Twain's diatribe against Scott.

Mark Twain quotations - Sir Walter Scott

 

[garyrc]

Here is a typical screen from 70mm's first years in modern times,1955 (Oklahoma!) to about 1982 (Raiders of the Lost Ark). I consider Raiders a roadshow, even though there were no reserved seats, but it was available in 70mm only at first (at least in the San Francisco Bay Area), and only at few theaters. The later, 35mm, release was widespread.

 

[roxy1927]

But it was not only not reserved seats but it was continuous performances and it was not even genuine 70 mm but a blow up. I would say the grand era of 70 mm ended with Airport in 1970.

 

[garyrc]

But it was not only not reserved seats but it was continuous performances and it was not even genuine 70 mm but a blow up. I would say the grand era of 70 mm ended with Airport in 1970.

Good Point. Too bad!