Years ago, I acquired a bunch of vintage photos from New York City. 1949, in fact - 76 years old! Among those photos were some very neat (and scarce) night photos from Times Square, showing off some of the amazing and huge signs for various movies. I'll share a few of them today, and maybe more in a future post.
With all of the lights constantly flashing in various patterns, a long exposure would have been required to get everything lit up at once. That didn't happen here, but there are still some pretty amazing examples of the sign maker's art. At the Loew's State, "Command Decision" is playing. Released in 1948, it starred Clark Gable, Walter Pidgeon, Van Johnson, and Brian Donlevy. The film's major theme is the emotional toll on commanders from ordering missions that result in high casualties, the effects of sustained combat on all concerned, and the nature of accountability for its consequences.
The Philco sign to the left was notable for showing simple animated scenes, it must have been a real technological marvel for the time - you'll see another photo of this in a future post.
In this view, we can see some of the familiar old neon signs for products like Kinsey whiskey and Ruppert beer, Chevrolet, and the famous Camel cigarettes sign that changed over the years, but always had a character blowing smoke rings (I think I can see a puff of smoke?), I wish we could see that one more clearly! To the right, the New York Theatre is showing "Two Thrill-Packed First Run Hits", including "The Feathered Serpent" and "Blazing Across the Pecos", both featuring cowboy Charles Starrett.
You can't help noticing the big sign for "Joan of Arc" starring Ingrid Bergman; I tried to figure out which theatre this was, but am not sure; the red LONDON might be the name of the theatre?
IMDB trivia had this tidbit: To promote the film Joan of Arc (1948), the studio placed an eight-story-high figure of her in white plastic armor in New York City's Times Square, at a cost of $75,000. That makes it sound as if they built a giant statue of Joan, but it's clear that they were referring to this sign. It's pretty spectacular! FYI, $75,000 is the equivalent of almost one million dollars in today's Moonbucks.
According to Wikipedia, the film is a straightforward recounting of the life of the French heroine. It was Victor Fleming's ("Gone With the Wind", "The Wizard of Oz") last directorial effort, and was, unfortunately, a box-office disappointment.
If you have liked seeing these, let me know and I'll share more!
6 comments:
Major-
When movie theatre marquees really meant something-!!
The 'London' refers to the London Shoe store. Joan of Arc played at the Victoria Theatre, in Times Square. It premiered there on Thursday, November 11, 1948.
Thanks, Major.
Wow, I'm stunned that they would go to all the time, materials, and expense to make these temporary signs! All that metal construction! All those light bulbs (and wiring)! For a movie that would play for a couple of months(?).
I wonder how the Philco 'light animation' was achieved? I guess you'll tell us more about that in "a future post", but, dammit Janet, I wanna know now! ;-)
That could be a smoke ring above the Camel sign. Let's just say it is so we can all feel happy about ourselves! I Googled "The Feathered Serpent". It's a Charlie Chan movie (1948).
Joan of Arc may not have done well at the box-office, but they sure got their money's worth with that sign!... Or maybe not. A million dollars ($75,000) for a temporary sign? The movie itself cost around 4.6 million to make (I Googled that too). Sounds like MGM was tossing money around like there was no tomorrow. No wonder it was a box-office disappointment; they couldn't possibly recoup all their expenditures, with ticket prices being what they were in the late 1940s.
Yes please. More marquees. Thanks, Major.
Oops, I goofed. It wasn't an MGM film. It was made by Sierra Pictures; which I never heard of before.
I’m thinking that bit of IMDB “trivia” is just a bit suspect. I have not been able to find a single picture of an eight-story statue of anything in Times Square. That would be somewhere between 64 and 80 feet tall, depending on how you define a “story,” for comparison, the tallest turret on Sleeping Beauty Castle rises only 77 feet above its swan-infested moat. The closest thing I could find was a 50-foot temporary plaster statue called variously “Purity” or “Defeat of Slander” erected by the Tammany Hall political machine in during the ekection season of 1909.
While there is no mention of a plastic-clad St Joan, I did find a short snippet of a newsreel of the Times Square premiere that shows the lighted sign in action.
This is fun to see, and a nice change of pace. I’m going to see if “Feathered Serpent” is streaming on Amazon. They have a lot of the CC films.
Thanks Major!
JG
@ JB-
"It wasn't an MGM film. It was made by Sierra Pictures."
Yeah, that's just another production company. It was [really] a Walter Wanger Production, but shot-at and released-by RKO... that's where the money came from. (And who bought controlling interest in RKO in early 1948-? - that would be none other than Howard Hughes).
Those outrageously ostentatious marquees seen at first run houses all over the US were very common place in the 1930's and 40's - and to some degree, hung on for certain films right up through the early 1960's - in spite of the antitrust regulation known as the 1948 Paramount Consent Decree, resulting in the jettisoning of theatre ownership by the major studios. It's [frankly] been all downhill for indoor movie theatres (known colloquially in 'the business' as hardtoppers). OH. .. you're wondering what the name for drive-ins was - that would be ozoners. Mr. Exhibitor would have a much easier time these days had the big studios still owned their theatres...
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