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Author
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Topic: Where did the Super marquee displays come from?
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Frank Angel
Film God
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Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 05-02-2006 01:24 AM
When I was a kid, I used to walk down 42nd Street (NYC) that was lined on both sides with theatres from Broadway and 8th Ave. They played day-and-date with the first run Broadway houses right around the corner, only the 42nd Street Brandt theatres played great double features AND they charged half the ticket price of the Broadway houses. I never knew how that could be, but it was.
Anyway, each theatre had huge displays that covered the top of the entrances as well as the sides of the entrance with what would be the equivilant of 3, maybe 6-sheets. Some covered the entire marquee. But the thing that was so awesome about these displays was that they had all kinds of elements within them -- title lettering, images of the stars/actors, etc., cut out and in relief standing out in front of the background. They had very much the same look as today's standees, but HUGE and even more intricate becaues evidently they didn't have to be shipped in boxes. And what's more, they looked like they had to have been custom designed specifically for each individual theatre because they fit the physical structure of the buildings perfectly. Some were even up on the marquee. Plus, these theatres changed pictures quite often -- it was not like the Roadshow houses around the corner where pictures played for months.
Question is, where did these come from? Did the theatres' do this on their own? Did the studios supply these elements? Anyone know of what I speak? Seems like a lot of work for a run that lasted only for maybe a week. I wonder if this was done anyplace else in the country. Surely LA would have it if New York had this great stuff.
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Gerard S. Cohen
Jedi Master Film Handler
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Posts: 975
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: Sep 2001
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posted 05-02-2006 08:22 PM
You remind me of another lost advertising device--the gold embroidery lettered, fringe and tassels on blue cloth background that hung from marquees, sometimes draped completely around three sides. I found one crumpled in a dust covered pile in the attic of the (old) Victory Theatre on 42nd Street. [I think the Victory, built as a stage theater around 1903 or 1906, was for a time Minsky's Burlesque, then became a movie theatre with live vaudville acts, then a two-feature house, then was drastically renovated into the New Victory music, stage and ballet theater.]
After vacuuming and laundering, and sewing a rip or two, I installed it in my classroom. To maximize projector throw and screen visibility, I furnished the room the long way, covering one entire wall of wardrobe doors with mirrors. Above them I built a canopy frame of laths, and covered it with the blue and gold cloth reading "Entirely New Show Every Day" and "Live Acts."
That was of course the Film Arts Classroom, with sound-proofed doors, four 16" speakers, a Gray Labs turntable the size of a refrigerator,tube amplifier, Murano glass chandelier and strings of Japanese garden lanterns on a dimmer circuit, pull-down roller screen, movie posters, and an assortment of projectors in three film sizes.
The cloth canopy lasted many years, but succombed to a BoE rule requiring the removal of dust-catching decor.
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