Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Happy 50th, "West Side Story"

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Posted by Michael Coate (Member # 757) on 10-18-2011, 02:47 AM:

Premiered 50 years ago today...

And here's a little something to remind you of the original release if you're old enough to have seen it in first-run. Or you can compare and contrast with the manner in which today's big event films are handled. Or marvel at the number of weeks this thing played. Or lament the loss of nearly all of the theaters listed. Or simply reminisce about seeing the film at any point in its life (re-release, home video, etc.).

quote: One of my articles that I'm not quite sure if or where it'll get published
HAPPY 50th, “WEST SIDE STORY” – THE ROADSHOW ENGAGEMENTS

Compiled by Michael Coate

Presented here to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the premiere of WEST SIDE STORY is a list of (most of) the classic, award-winning film’s North American reserved-seat “roadshow” engagements. These were the cities and theaters that exclusively played the film before it was given a general release. The majority of these roadshow engagements were presented in 70-millimeter and six-track stereophonic sound.

10.18.1961 … New York, NY – Rivoli (77 weeks)

11.01.1961 … Boston, MA – Gary (48 weeks)
11.07.1961 … Philadelphia, PA – Midtown (52 weeks)
11.14.1961 … Washington, DC – Uptown (42 weeks)

12.13.1961 … Los Angeles, CA – Chinese (58 weeks)
12.14.1961 … Miami Beach, FL – Sheridan (52 weeks)
12.14.1961 … San Francisco, CA – United Artists (46 weeks)

02.08.1962 … Pittsburgh, PA – Nixon (32 weeks)
02.13.1962 … Cleveland, OH – Ohio (19 weeks)
02.14.1962 … Baltimore, MD – Mayfair (17 weeks)
02.14.1962 … Detroit, MI – Madison (36 weeks)
02.14.1962 … San Diego, CA – Capri (36 weeks)
02.15.1962 … Dallas, TX – Esquire (20 weeks)
02.16.1962 … Minneapolis, MN – Mann (28 weeks)
02.19.1962 … Seattle, WA – Music Box (40 weeks)
02.20.1962 … Chicago, IL – Michael Todd (38 weeks)
02.22.1962 … Montreal, QC – Alouette (31 weeks)

03.01.1962 … St. Louis, MO – Mid-City (17 weeks)
03.14.1962 … Milwaukee, WI – Strand (31 weeks)
03.14.1962 … Portland, OR – Music Box (36 weeks)
03.15.1962 … Buffalo, NY – Teck (15 weeks)
03.21.1962 … Kansas City, MO – Plaza (13 weeks)
03.21.1962 … Salt Lake City, UT – South East (39 weeks)
03.21.1962 … Vancouver, BC – Stanley (29 weeks)
03.22.1962 … Cincinnati, OH – Valley (25 weeks)
03.28.1962 … Scottsdale, AZ – Kachina (15 weeks)
03.29.1962 … Atlanta, GA – Rhodes (23 weeks)

04.04.1962 … Albany, NY – Hellman (10 weeks)
04.04.1962 … New Orleans, LA – Civic (10 weeks)
04.04.1962 … Tampa, FL – Florida (11 weeks)
04.05.1962 … DeWitt, NY – Shoppingtown (16 weeks)
04.05.1962 … Rochester, NY – Riviera (26 weeks)
04.11.1962 … Des Moines, IA – Capri (? weeks)
04.11.1962 … Hartford, CT – Strand (21 weeks)
04.11.1962 … New Haven, CT – Whalley (26 weeks)
04.11.1962 … Omaha, NE – Admiral (15 weeks)
04.11.1962 … Providence, RI – Elmwood (15 weeks)
04.11.1962 … Toledo, OH – Esquire (10 weeks)
04.13.1962 … Asbury Park, NJ – St. James (? weeks)
04.13.1962 … Syosset, NY – Syosset (? weeks)
04.13.1962 … Upper Montclair, NJ – Bellevue (? weeks)
04.13.1962 … Youngstown, OH – State (10 weeks)
04.19.1962 … Oklahoma City, OK – State (13 weeks)

05.02.1962 … Denver, CO – Denham (28 weeks)
05.02.1962 … Tucson, AZ – Catalina (10 weeks)
05.17.1962 … Toronto, ON – Tivoli (31 weeks)

06.21.1962 … Columbus, OH – Cinestage (25 weeks)
06.27.1962 … Indianapolis, IN – Lyric (? weeks)
06.28.1962 … Dayton, OH –McCook (? weeks)
06.28.1962 … Nanuet, NY – Route 59 (? weeks)

UNCONFIRMED
??.??.1962 … Atlantic City, NJ – ?
??.??.1962 … Honolulu, HI – ?
??.??.1962 … Houston, TX – ?
??.??.1962 … Jacksonville, FL – Center
??.??.1962 … Lexington, KY – ?
??.??.1962 … Louisville, KY – ?
??.??.1962 … Memphis, TN – Crosstown
??.??.1962 … Nashville, TN – ?
??.??.1962 … Norfolk, VA – ?
??.??.1962 … Portland, ME – ?
??.??.1962 … Richmond, VA – ?
??.??.1962 … Shreveport, LA – ?
??.??.1962 … Utica, NY – ?

Sources: This article was compiled primarily by referencing archived WEST SIDE STORY coverage in film industry trade publications and regional newspaper promotion.

Special Thanks: Jerry Alexander, Jim Barg, Raymond Caple, Nick DiMaggio, Bill Huelbig, Bill Kretzel, Mark Lensenmayer, Stan Malone, Gabriel Neeb, Vince Young.

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 10-18-2011, 01:54 PM:

I saw it first-run at the Hunt's Cinestage. The Cinestage in Columbus and the McCook in Dayton were both owned by Herman Hunt.

Hope to see the 70mm print locally next April.

I have heard there was a very poor screening of the 70mm print very recently in Seattle, with some very out-of-sync sound. Did anyone experience this or have any details?

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 10-18-2011, 01:56 PM:

The movie poster for Wide Side Story is one of the more memorable graphic design pieces from the great Saul Bass. He also designed the movie's opening and end title sequence.

These days the practice is just Photoshop some heads on the thing and set the type in Trajan or whatever font-du-jour of the day might be. Never mind coming up with any customized lettering or logos. Lately HTF Gotham has been getting used on various posters (The Rum Diary, Bridesmaids, etc.) even though Gotham over-use elsewhere in graphic design circles has been going on for over a decade now.

Back in the day movie poster main titles were often logos or custom lettered instead of set in OPF (other people's fonts).

Posted by Mike Rivest (Member # 5500) on 10-18-2011, 03:43 PM:

Montreal ad: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Fr8DH2VBP9sC&dat=19620222&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

go to Page 8

En Français http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-MMpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=cUMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1315%2C1657562 no ad, listing only

Pittsburgh: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=gL9scSG3K_gC&dat=19620208&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
go to page 13

Miami: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VtUzAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YekFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4593%2C5285448

Toledo: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=iLBOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=KAEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5672%2C4685077

Milwaukee: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=nHJQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1BAEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5190%2C1810569

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 10-30-2011, 11:37 PM:

unfortunately, the bluray has problems:

(from blu-ray.com):

Concern Over Upcoming West Side Story Blu-ray
Posted October 26, 2011 10:35 AM by Josh Katz

Film historian and archivist Robert Harris has detailed a flaw in the upcoming West Side Story Blu-ray. As his October 25th Home Theater Forum posting indicates, Harris obtained the UK Blu-ray release and noted that what was originally a dissolve transition from designer Saul Bass' skyline pattern to the main title now appears as a fade-to-black/fade-in transition. According to Harris, this mistake occurred in the HD master of the film; it went unnoticed and eventually appeared in the Blu-ray.

Following Harris' report, Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeffrey Wells investigated further and confirmed that the transition flaw also exists in the North American Blu-ray version streeting on November 15th. Wells wrote that the fault lies not with disc distributor Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment but with MGM Home Entertainment - MGM owns the rights to West Side Story and handled the remastering duties.

With regards to correcting the error, Wells quotes a Fox source as saying the distributor "will not recall the title. It will instead implement what's being called a 'running fix.' This means that if anyone wants to send their West Side Story Blu-ray back, Fox Home Video will accept it and send them a corrected disc down the road."

Wells' source then adds "[Fox is] looking to fix the issue on future discs."

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 11-28-2011, 09:08 PM:

Has anyone here actually seen this? Is it as horrific as it sounds? The Bass line drawings, instead of desolving into the NYC skyline, they effin fade-to-black....then fade back up to the aerial skyline shot? Are you kidding me?! Question is, how could this possibly have gone "unnoticed" by those remastering this classic? And what were they...on crack?

My guess is that the remastering engineers are so young that they have never even SEEN this classic; ANYONE who is even a passingly familiar with the film would have been knocked over on their asses when confronted by such a horrific mistake. Did they even LOOK at the master before pressing it into tens of thousands of BluRays?

So Fox bastions of dedication to customer service that they are, are still going to sell these bloopers dispite the error? Freakin parasitic slugs; I swear, these people have the ethical intergrity of pond scum.

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 12-01-2011, 08:28 AM:

Maybe this is just another way to tell where their pirated copies are coming from?

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 12-09-2011, 11:05 PM:

not only is the PQ flawed, but the audio is another issue entirely

extract from blu-ray.com review:

Was there another missed opportunity with regard to West Side Story's new lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix? That depends on whom you ask. The film's original six track mag masters were discovered and restored last year, but those were not used for this new mix, evidently due to cost considerations. Instead a repurposing of the four track mag masters was considered more feasible. There's a fascinating article audiophiles may want to read here which details the discovery and history of the six track mix, which was standard in the Todd-AO format. Be that as it may, once again Fox has at least slightly missed the surround boat with this new rendering, and once again the biggest problem comes right off the bat, in terms of the iconic whistles which open the film. While they still are panned more toward the rear in this mix, they're not panned to the extreme side channels (alternating left and right) as they were in the original mix. With both this error and the unforgivable fade out on the Overture it's apparent that Fox either incomprehensibly didn't use a reference print of any kind or simply didn't have anyone working on this film who had any history or knowledge of how it was presented theatrically. The brouhaha raised by these errors will hopefully be a major wake up call to creative staffs who are working on Blu-ray releases of iconic catalog properties, as there are copious quantities of people still around who do have histories with the film, at the very least as audience members, and they remember how these movies looked and sounded.

And so once again, we're over the bad news. The good news is the 7.1 repurposing is for the most part rather artful. While highs seem to be just slightly clipped on this track, for the most part the music sounds absolutely gorgeous, with sterling fidelity and amazing dynamic range. Surround activity, aside from those opening whistles, is very well handled, and such great scenes as the Quintet have singing coming in clearly from the surrounds, helping to separate and define the many participants. Best of all, the last incomprehensible thing that happened on a West Side Story home video release, the bizarre audio synch problem during "Tonight," has been corrected. (What is it with these star- crossed home video releases of West Side Story, anyway?).

~

[Frown]

considering recent 70mm prints (with the restored five front channel mix )- have been shown last year (in LA, San Francisco) and this year (Maryland and Seattle) how hard would it have been for the people involved with the transfer to see/hear how the film should be presented - this isn't rocket science folks (?)