Jones Beach Theater
Videos
Jones Beach Theater is an outdoor amphitheatre at Jones Beach State Park in Wantagh, New York. It is one of two major outdoor arenas in the New York metropolitan area, along with PNC Bank Arts Center near the Jersey Shore. Both venues are managed by Live Nation. The theater was designed to specifications provided by Robert Moses, who created Jones Beach State Park.
The exterior of Jones Beach Theater, c. 2007
Original Jones Beach Marine Stadium 1930s
Jones Beach Theater Construction 1951
Mike Todd
Videos
Michael Todd was an American theater and film producer, celebrated for his 1956 Around the World in 80 Days, which won an Academy Award for Best Picture. Actress Elizabeth Taylor was his third wife. Todd was the third of Taylor's seven husbands, and the only one whom Taylor did not divorce. Todd died in a private plane accident a year after their marriage. He was the driving force behind the development of the eponymous Todd-AO widescreen film format.
Todd owned a Theatre Cafe in Chicago's Lake View neighborhood in the 1940s that provided dinner with live presentations and music.
First act finale from A Night in Venice The production was replete with a cast of 500 and fireworks.
CBS paid Mike Todd for the rights to cover the first anniversary celebration at Madison Square Garden for Around the World in 80 Days as a television special in 1957. Todd and his wife Elizabeth Taylor are seen here at home in a film clip which was used for the special.