|
|
 
|
|
Author
|
Topic: Road Trip—Any Theatres Worth Visiting?
|
|
|
John Pytlak
Film God
Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000
|
posted 07-15-2004 07:10 PM
In Rochester, the George Eastman House, and its Dryden theatre:
http://www.geh.org
http://www.eastmanhouse.org/
http://www.eastmanhouse.org/inc/programs_events/film.asp
quote:
All films listed begin at 8 p.m. in the Dryden Theatre, except Sunday matinées and those otherwise noted. Admission is $6 for the general public, $5 for students, and $4 for museum members, unless otherwise noted.“Take-10” discount tickets (10 admissions for $40/$35 members and students) are available at the box office and the Museum Shop. The film program is partially funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts.
Jeff Bridges in Person!
One of the most respected and highly recognized performers of his generation, actor Jeff Bridges will be with us in person on July 24 to discuss his career and present photographs from his recently published and highly acclaimed collection, Jeff Bridges—Pictures. Bridges earned his reputation by alternating working in offbeat, smaller-scale films and movies with enormous commercial potential. Son of actor Lloyd Bridges, he slipped with ease into leading roles, earning an Oscar nomination for his coming-of-age performance in The Last Picture Show (July 1). He continued to establish himself as a versatile and skillful actor in films like Fat City (July 8) and Cutter's Way (July 15). He served as a producer on the movie that is one of his personal favorites, American Heart (July 29) and played "The Dude," the ultimate slacker, in The Big Lebowski (July 22). Selections from Jeff Bridges' Pictures will be on view in the Entrance Gallery July 17 September 19.
The Smith Opera House in Geneva NY:
http://www.thesmith.org/NewFiles/history.html
quote:
The lights dim and the audience’s voices soften. Frescoes on either side of the house walls slowly transform into the setting sun. As darkness descends, twinkling stars appear overhead creating an "evening sky" and the illusion of being in a garden. The spotlight appears, the performers take center stage, and the magic begins.
Welcome to the historic Smith Opera House, located in Geneva, New York.
For over 100 years, people of all ages have enjoyed performing arts productions at The Smith and have been enriched by their magical power. Built in 1894 by philanthropist William Smith, the theatre has through the years played a variety of roles: opera house, playhouse, vaudeville venue, movie palace, performing arts center, and community cultural center.
Theodore Case Lab, Auburn NY:
http://cayuganet.org/cayugamuseum/researchlab.htm
quote:
The Birthplace of Sound Film-
Theodore Willard Case, an Auburn native, founded the Case Research Lab with his father, Willard Case, in 1916. It is on this this site where the first commercially successfully system of sound film was invented.
The Case Research Lab Museum exhibits the working spaces of the darkroom, chemistry lab, and recording studio; the first sound camera; experimental recording equipment; and a history of the commercialization of sound film including such ventures as Phonofilms, Fox-Case Company Movietone, and Fox Films (now 20th Century Fox).
Antique Wireless Museum, Bloomfield NY (South of Rochester):
http://www.antiquewireless.org/museum/museum.htm
quote:
Our Museum is one of the few devoted to research, preservation and documentation of the history of wireless communications. There is a complete range of historical communications equipment on exhibit. Some of which, can be associated with famous people like Guglielmo Marconi, Lee De Forest, Edwin Armstrong, Thomas Edison and other famous pioneers. Members of the Antique Wireless AssociationTM, a world-wide group, have collected these exhibits from around the world - much of which are still in working order.
Rochester and Buffalo are homes to companies like Kodak, Bausch and Lomb, and American Optical, who were very involved in the history of motion pictures:
http://www.dp70.com/history/todd_ao_process/aopeople.htm
quote:
Dr. Brian O'Brien
(20.12.1898-01.07.1992) Dean of Rochester school of optics. Director of the Institute of Optics of the University of Rochester (built in 1930 by Dr O'Brien). Had agreed to join American Optical company as Vice President of Research and development in November 1952. In charge of development of Todd-AO process
Professor Robert E (Hoppy) Hopkins
Brian O’Brien from the Institute of Optics recruited him and 150 research specialists and engineer associates at University of Rochester. Robert E Hopkins developed the basic wide-angle camera lens. Consultant to American Optical Company. Generally in charge of development of lens design.
Dr. Walter (Walt) P Siegmund
Ph.D. Graduate student of Brian O'Brien. He came along as a witness the night Brian O'Brien and Michael Todd first met in a bar across Rochester airport. Special printer, screen, lenses etc.
Additional links added July 16.
[ 07-16-2004, 08:53 AM: Message edited by: John Pytlak ]
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
William Hooper
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1879
From: Mobile, AL USA
Registered: Jun 99
|
posted 07-16-2004 03:35 AM
Shea's Buffalo is the first that comes to mind.
But I'm sure it's just a given that you will visit Frank Angel's Brooklyn Center Cinema & experience the awesome power of SuperMegaDestructoSound!
One reference which might be useful in planning is the ATOS list of theatre organs by location at:
http://www.atos.org/atos5/OrganLocator.html
These are only locations with organs, so theatres which had no or no longer have organs are not listed. Some of the locations are not theatres, like auditoriums, etc.; but some which do not say they're theatres formerly were: LIU in Brooklyn is actually the old Brooklyn Paramount, with the stage & auditorium floor floored to become a basketball court, but otherwise sort of weirdly intact. Newark Symphony Hall is formerly the Mosque Theatre, & the booth is still working.
Down the street from the Loew's Jersey is the Jehovah's Witness meeting hall, formerly the Stanley.
In NYC, around or on 42nd Street: you should make a pilgrimage to the Palace, now all live productions, but they ran movies, (had a small Robert Morton organ), & was the pinnacle of the vaudeville world.
The Liberty Theatre's auditorium is still in existence; it was the place where Birth of A Nation premiered in NYC. I don't know if you can see it; there were plans to make it into a sort of cabaret venue & I don't know how far that's gone or if it happened.
Disney's New Amsterdam was restored for use as a live venue, but it was a grind house in the last old days. It's a beautiful theatre & worth a trip. On of the things that's cool to point out is the coffered wood ceiling in the entry - pre-acoustical materials noise reduction that is more effective than most modern construction designs trying to do the same thing with dropped ceilings & acoustic tile, etc. Decorative & functional, one just as important as the other.
The Loews & AMC Empire on 42nd Street are running movies; the AMC's lobby is the disemboweled former Empire theatre, the Loew's has an excellent retro vertical sign (fiber optic, but based on the old incandescent designs).
Across the street is what remains of the Embassy. Last I saw it, it was Times Square Information, a sort of visitor center. The floor of the auditorium is levelled, the prosc filled in & painted with a mural. Free, walk in, look at it, go what the hell.
You should walk by the Paramount building. The theatre is long gone, but they've restored the facade at the main entrance to resemble the original one as best as possible given issues like available depth, construction behind, etc. Next door is the entrance where Adolph Zukor walked in to work every day.
The Times Square Church on 51st Street is formerly the Hollywood, a landmarked & pretty much unaltered Thomas Lamb in his 'this must be what rich people's living rooms look like' mode.
Speaking of Cabaret, there's Studio 54 (woo, the flashbacks). Formerly the Gallo; when I last saw it, it was in the 'bombed-out Berlin' look for the revival of Cabaret.
And there's the Apollo & whatever's left of the Loew's Victoria in Harlem, & the (sadly now closed after an insanely long career!) Bunny theatre up in Spanish Harlem. (Flashing back again to the February Friday at 5:15 p.m. when I got out on the street, found I had no wallet, subway tokens, or sufficient change for the payphone, & had to walk from 34th street to my apartment on St. Nicholas Ave. near the 145th Street D train station. Don't Let This Happen To You!)
OOoo, Reverend Ike's, formerly the Loew's 175th. Kept in EXCELLENT condition, booth still intact as I remember, with HUGE Leslie speakers for the Hammond attached to the prosc & decorated to match. If you go to church on Sundays, THIS is the place. The others of the 5 Loew's 'Wonder' theatres are closed & deteriorated, except for the Valencia which is now a church.
I heard the Waverly down in Greeenwich Village is closed now, but in my mind it will be running 'Basket Case' at midnight through eternity.
Enjoy Greenwich Village after the orderly grid of most of the rest of Manhattan. There is an excellent spot to get your bearings there which is the intersection of Waverly Place & Waverly Place. It's a nice splat of disorder after a setup. DC & Greeenwich Village may be baffling at first, but if you keep turning corners you eventually wind up on a street that you've been on before. On the other hand, everyone finds grand prize winner New Orleans to be a maze of twisty passages, all alike, with a streetcar trying to run over you.
Speaking of the Village, & since you're not interested in small art houses, there's still a gay burlesque theatre in the Village that's been operating forever. I can't remember the name; maybe Bill Gabel or somebody up there can look in the back pages of the Village Voice or remember the name.
And on that note, it's worth noting how the city around Times Square has radically changed from when there were porno theatres everywhere. Someone told me that when they closed them down in the cleanup campaign, all the outside electrical signs for all these businesses were put into storage in a warehouse somewhere. Now, Times Square doesn't really have as much character, just looks like the same people that you see at any mall anywhere (which seems to be the design intent). They're all tourists, & you need to walk to the garment district to see real people & hear real native profanity while people are doing what they do every day.
Some of the live theatres have tours, the churches (if they're not having services) usually let you in free & have a little basket or plate somewhere for donations. You must buy a Reverend Ike Prayer Cloth!
| IP: Logged
|
|
John Pytlak
Film God
Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000
|
posted 07-30-2004 02:29 PM
Just linked up with Michael as he traveled to Rochester, on his way from Boston to Toronto to Niagara Falls to Syracuse to NYC. He visited Gordon McLeod in Toronto yesterday, and got a tour of the IMAX booth in Cinesphere at Ontario Place (IMAX #1).
Today, I met Michael for lunch at the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography. We got a "behind the scenes" tour of the film archive cold storage vault from Dan Wagner (courtesy of curator Ed Stratmann), where the Martin Scorsese film collection is stored. Then technology curator Todd Gustavson gave a great tour of the equipment collection, highlighting cameras from Lumiere and projectors dating back to the late 1800's. A Technicolor 3-strip camera (#14) is on display, along with the Kodak-built Lunar Orbiter, which mapped the surface of the moon four decades ago, in preparation for man landing on the moon.
From here, Michael planned to visit Bob Throop in the Syracuse area, and on to NYC and a visit with Bill Gabel.
BTW Steve Guttag: Michael is a baseball fan like you. One reason for his cross-country trek is visiting baseball stadiums across the country. He liked Rochester's Frontier Field.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Michael Coate
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1904
From: Los Angeles, California
Registered: Feb 2001
|
posted 10-01-2004 10:12 PM
quote:
Michael is a baseball fan. One reason for his cross-country trek is visiting baseball stadiums across the country.
Yes, mission accomplished! This latest trip resulted in the completion of my goal of attending a game in every city that has a Major League team. All 30 contemporary parks.... Took four years, a region at a time (including four repeats thanks to the new stadium construction craze). Over 40,000 collective car miles! Been to a few Minor League games, too. (And, somehow, managed to sneak in some theatre visits; hence my original post.)
I'd been meaning to make this post a few weeks ago, but have been dealing with a move and some new work projects, so I've posted only a couple of times since my return. (BTW, I've updated my email address in the profile should anyone ever wish to contact me.)
Steve Kraus wrote:
quote: Steve Kraus
Let's see. I know Mark G. from way back. I've met Steve G. and Paul & Josh and Robert Harris. Who am I forgetting?
We met at this year's EbertFest.
On this last vacation, I met up with a number of film-tech members (as John mentioned earlier) including Gordon McLeod, John Pytlak, Bob Throop, Bill Gabel, and Jonathan Crist. Thanks to everyone for the time and hospitality.
Speaking of film-tech members met, when I was on this recent vacation I thought when I returned home I would start a thread asking who has met whom out of curiosity, but upon my return I see Steve asked the same question and Daryl beat me to it by initiating a similar thing in game form. I'd like to play the game, however, most of the f-t member meetings of mine have not occured in a booth or even at a theatre. That doesn't count, does it?
So...I think I'll just try to list all of the film-tech members I've had the good fortune to meet over the last few years. If anyone wishes to turn this into a thread, please do (and I'll transfer my data over to the new thread). Considering this thread's title, I'd suggest not adding any f-t members met info here.
Mike has met:
Bill Carter
Jonathan Crist
Bill Gabel
Rich Greenhalgh
Robert A. Harris
Jeffry Johnson
Steve Kraus
Will Kutler (just kidding ![[Smile]](smile.gif) )
Mark Lensenmayer
Jeff Joseph
Gordon McLeod
Floyd Newton
Ian Price
John Pytlak
Paul Rayton
Michael Schaffer
Mike Schindler
Bob Throop
and who am I forgetting?
| IP: Logged
|
|
Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
|
posted 10-02-2004 05:05 AM
quote:
Theodore Willard Case, an Auburn native, founded the Case Research Lab with his father, Willard Case, in 1916. It is on this this site where the first commercially successfully system of sound film was invented.
That's a very contentious claim indeed. I'd need several thousand words to fully interrogate it, but just as two examples plucked out of the air, Cecil Hepworth was making money out of his 'Vivaphone' method as early as 1909. Petersen and Poulsen in Denmark were commercially exploiting synchronised sound even earlier.
Case's real achievement, IMHO, is as the producer and director of the masterpiece Gus Visser and his Singing Duck. Every time the animal is required to 'sing', Gus pokes it up the bum with his left index finger in order to elicit a quack! It's been restored by George Eastman House and is available on this DVD.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
All times are Central (GMT -6:00)
|
|
Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM
6.3.1.2
The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion
and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.
|
Home
Printer-friendly view of this topic