Radio City Music Hall

But if you think about it it does. A woman working to give dignity to young mothers without husbands would never say “Good girls don’t have babies."
Speaking about Garson(who was also radiant in black and white-Random Harvest, Pride and Prejudice you name it) I obtained a Music Hall program for Blossoms and there is an article included which discusses her Titian Hair in technicolor.
She was actually crowned at the Music Hall in a ceremony celebrating the success of her films there. I suppose the tiara is gathering dust in Texas somewhere.

I think “bad” is correct(not sure because I read the article 35 years ago and as I’ve said I’ve never seen the film.)Think about it in the context of a woman trying to eliminate the stigma of illegitimate children and unwed mothers. Then it makes perfect sense and would cause a strong reaction from people. It would today as well, though not all of it positive unlike those 6000 people(well the adults anyway) sitting in the Hall in ‘41.

It is sad if today’s remodeling of the soffit of the marquee is not being done to the standards with which it was built, but one can understand the replacement of the incandescents with fluorescent lamps, even though they are ‘colder’ in appearance than the “fire-like' bulbs. Fluorescents are much cheaper in the long run, and that is how the accountants of the management are responsible to look at it. The Hall is not owned by a charity, but by businessmen who intend to make a profit, else they will abandon the whole thing, and then once again, the Hall will be in danger of demolition! The odd light bulb sockets Benjamin does see now, may well be the remains of the 1950s trend of adding Goose Neck lamp holders to project on occasional banners under the marquee or even one sheets or standees. These did the spotlight job cheaply, but they also rusted out over the years and now many a marquee bears scars of where they once were, often with eye screws poking out of the metal with remnants of the hanging wire that once went down to the PAR-type bulb that was in the gooseneck lamp holder to keep it in the curved position. Just a little speculation on my part, but I have a hunch that it is true.

Just came across some old wooden hangers with names:

Radio City Music Hall Taylor Shop
Roxy Clothes Stores in Principal Clothes

can anyone shed some light on these?

(father-in-law was violinist in orchestra pit during opening followed by many years at RCMH)

Vincent wrote:
“The restored [Mary Poppings] film should have been shown with an abreviated Christmas show in November to launch the DVD. That way people would have been able to see the film as it was mean’t to be seen(they would have been stunned.) and there would have been enormous publicity for the Hall and the DVD.”

THAT is a great, grand idea. But the folks who run Disney and the Music Hall aren’t creative types interested in booking unique things. They want their $$$ and run with it.

We bought the Mary Poppins DVD for our children and they could not sit through the entire thing at home. I anticipated this because people don’t remember that the movie is a surprising two-hours and fifteen minutes long. When I saw this in the theaters (at Green Acres in Valley Stream) at the age of 8, I was in a captive audience meaning that I couldn’t just get up and walk out. So you’re kind of forced to sit through it and either get into it or not. And yep, I got into it BIG TIME. That’s the problem with DVD viewing at home, especially with young children. If and when they bored, they can simply get up and walk out and move onto something else.

Having seen this years Christmas show (read my comments above concerning this dismal thing..) it would’ve been truly awesome for my daughter to have seen “Mary Poppins” there. She, like I, would’ve been captive and would’ve LOVED it.

And if they had re-issued it at RCMH, I would’ve made it a point to take her to see it there. It’s one of the best musical films ever made.

The restored film should have been shown with an abreviated Christmas show in November to launch the DVD. That way people would have been able to see the film as it was mean’t to be seen(they would have been stunned.) and there would have been enormous publicity for the Hall and the DVD.
Why are the powers that be so obtuse? Can somebody please tell me?

I think by the 70’s the Music hall had no choice but to run regular coming attractions. One of the main reasons was that some of the family films they booked were so obscure people would have no idea what they were.

bad movie, poor stage show, just days before strike.

That’s right too—Even though I was a thirty-year-old presumptive adult at the time, I marvelled that Hollywood could advertise a yet unfinished and certainly unedited movie six months in advance of its scheduled opening—a marketing marvel. That, by the way, was the first time I’d seen coming attractions at RCMH. In the ‘40s and '50s, as Simon L has so eloquently described, the announcement of the next attraction unreeled as a b&w film strip, home-movie-style, in minuscules running bottom to top against a cross-hatched mesh background, while the grand organ played a pertinent melody (minor key for drama, major for comedy), always at the end of the newsreel and before the orchestral overture. In '72, I was shocked that RCMH was showing coming attractions, just as the local dives did. Before “Butterflies,” the previous picture I had seen there was “Up the Down Staircase” in '67, and even on that dark day there were no coming attractions. Sometime in-between, something had happened.

Right—the setting was Hawaiian, and the routine concluded on the runway. I should’ve stayed through repeat performances ‘till I caught a shoe.

Warren—As a kid in the ‘50s, I heard people refer to this theater as “the RCMH,” much as one would refer to its rival as “the Roxy.” On his “Toast of the Town” TV review, for example, the stolid Ed Sullivan would introduce celebrity guests as “starrrs of a fffine fffilm nnnow playing at the RCMH.” The particle nonetheless struck me as funny, since none of my family used it in that way—we always omitted it in deference, perhaps, to the theater’s exceptionality: “We went to RCMH” (often just “Radio City,” without “Music Hall,” but sometimes “the Music Hall” [particled!] without “Radio City”—gotta assign a linguist to this case). I remember a neighborhood kid who wrought a splendid inversion: “Radio Music City Hall.” (Fatefully, she is now married to a world-class musician and is herself a great political activist.)

Vincent—Through a quirk, I too had seen “Butterflies Are Free” at RCMH, and I vividly remember the Rockettes' routine: the thirty-six of them (still thirty-six in ‘72) opened their act on center-stage, then filed out onto the narrow (what-do-you-call-it?) runway that rimmed the orchestra pit to perform their high kicks. I was sitting in the third row, and could only hope that one of them might dropkick a shoe into my lap—just as in '40s Hollywood musicals would happen to a perplexed old geezer in the front stalls.

Yes, I remember the “Ave Maria” at the beginning of the Easter pageant.It was amazing! Performers, each holding a lit candle would appear all around the audience with the organ music playing. It was awesome! We saw “The Singing Nun” with Debbie Reynolds. Anyone remember that each seat had an individual light, so the program could be read? The lights were later turned-off; I guess people complained it was annoying! On a different note, I think my deceased mother saw “Butterflies Are Free” with Goldie Hawn at the Music Hall, but I’m unsure.Is there a complete list anywhere of ALL films shown at the Music Hall?