Radio City Music Hall
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
116 people
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This one might last forever!
Also enjoyed the photo story as I didn’t know that Jerry Maren went on to become Buster Brown! More neat trivia!
Really enjoyed the Rockefeller letter! Thanks!
Thought I would share this letter with you that was sent to my father in law who was one of the very early violinists in the pit of the RCMH and was with them for many years to follow:
Rockefeller Center Inc
50 Rockefeller Plaza
New York
May 28, 1940
Dear…
When the final rivet in Rockefeller Center was driven last November, signalling the completion of steel construction, Father and I were disappointed that lack of space made it impossible for us to ask all our employees in the Center to be present at the ceremony. Because of this we want you to have as a souvenir of the occasion a book just published by the Columbia University Press.
We trust that the reading of this book will give you the same pride and inspiration that those of us who attended the ceremony received on that occasion.
Sincerely yours,
Nelson A Rockefeller
Mr…
Radio City Music Hall
1260 Sixth Ave
New York, N.Y.
The book is entitled “The Last Rivet"
The story of ROckefeller Center, a city within a city, as told at the ceremony in which John D. Rockefeller, Jr. drove the last rivet of the last building, November 1, 1939.
A little OT- a friend sent me an oz pic not too long ago of Dorothy and the 3 lollipop kids.. well the one lollipop kid, Jerry Maren, who handed Dorothy the lollipop was 17 when he did the movie and it is autographed ;) as my friend wrote to him to get it
Jerry went on to became littlest chef with the oscar meyer wienermobile and was Buster Brown of Buster Brown shoes…
p.s Ringo is expected to tour again next year so a visit to RCMH may again be in order. Obviously I am a fan!
Thanks Dorothy from Oz for your interesing RCMH Ringo story! The Wizard of Oz was recently on TV and I just happened to catch the part where Judy G. sings Over the Rainbow…a very special moment in a very special movie!
My last trip to Radio City was to see Ringo Starr and the All Stars perform! Stood outside the side stage door to meet the artists. Took awhile but they came out eventually. Ringo & wife Barbara Bach (a Bond girl) had already dashed out super quickly at the end of the last song. Guess he didn’t have to wait for me or an elevator.
(giggle)
“There were once lights at every seat so you could read the program.” A very interesting bit of RCMH trivia! Thanks Myron and to all who have contributed their RCMH memories!
Thanks to Ron for bringing back memories by putting a list a films shown at Radio City. I often visited as a boy and fondly remember many of those films with my family. Somebody posted that Greer Garson had more films than any actress at the Music Hall, but it would seem that either Doris Day or Audrey Hepburn had the most films. Also, I remember seeing “The Bridges at Toko-Ri”, “The Teahouse of the August Moon”, “Friendly Persuasion”, and “Sayonnara” there. The films shown as revivals I don’t count as we are interested in films that premiered at the RCMH. I haven’t visited RCMH for 20 years now that movies are not shown anymore and the prices are outlandish. Also, I dislike reserved seats because if you get noisy families next to you, you cannot change seats and I don’t have a good time. In the 50’s and 60’s, you could change seats at will. Also, there were once lights at every seat so you could read the program.
My RCMH interest and subsequent questions have certainly stirred up alot of commentary which is great so I thank all who have contributed to this theatre page as there is only ONE Radio City Music Hall! And if anyone is with 100 miles of the Fox Theatre in Atlanta the place to be on December 26th is THAT theatre for the special open house to commemorate the Fabulous Fox’s 75th anniversary! If anyone does go, please post your thoughts on the Fox page as we’d all love to read them! Thanks.
I think I read in Variety on microfilm years ago the the crowds for Top Hat were so enormous that extra morning perfs were added accounting for 134k. The excitement at the Hall in those days must have been incredible. It’s hard to imagine today the Music Hall being full and having lines around the block all day long during the week.
Don’t forget that that in 1933 this was the very first Christmas show and was not yet a traditon, nor was the holiday time off as extended for school children and workers as it soon became. Also Fred and Ginger didn’t even get top billing in “Flying Down to Rio.” The stars were Raul Julian (?) and Dolores Del Rio. They didn’t sell tickets on their own until “The Gay Divorcee” opened in 1934 and grossed “$96,800 and $80,000 in its two week run Nov 15 – 28. "Roberta” was their next hit there..also two weeks $99,000 and $90,000 (March 7 – 20, 1935). “Top Hat” went through the roof in 1935 with $134,000, $115,000, $98,900 from Aug 29 – Sept 18. Nothing came close in attendance or gross for many years. “Follow the Fleet” and “Swing Time” were also mammoth 3-week hits in 1936. Getting back to “Little Women,” it got raves and was a classic with a waiting public. There were no extra performances, however mornings and afternoon shows were always sold out due to large family attendance. Sorry about the last line in my note above. “Cavalcade” also was a huge hit during Easter week of 1933 grossing $100,00.
It’s amazing that Little Women would beat out Rio by almost 20k. I would have thought that Rio would have played to capacity for both holiday weeks. And considering how cheap seats were that’s a lot of admissions.There must be some reason for this. Extra perfs perhaps?
Answer to Joe Vogel: The RKO Roxy opened on Dec 29. It was soon renamed the Center Theater following a law suit between the orginal Roxy Theater at 7th Ave and 50th Street and the new management at RKO Center (what we now know as Rockefeller Center). The Center theater had 3,700 seats and was operated as a presentation house i.e. film and stage show. The opening attraction was “The Animal Kingdom” starring Leslie Howard and Ann Harding and was a great success grossing $71,000, $60,000 and $40,000 during its three week run. (Most films that opened at the RCMH during the first couple of years rarely went past one week. However all subsequent films died at the Center Theater when the RCMH switched to films and stage shows beginning January 11, 1933. (It was also the Depression).It’s interesting to note that the Center Theater with almost half the seating capacity of the RCMH drew bigger crowds during its opening weeks than did the RCMH. For whatever it’s worth, here are the admission prices for the Center Theater. Prices changed at noon and 6Pm. Mon-Fri $35; $.55; $.72 Saturday $.83 $.94 $.1.10 and $1.65 for mezzanine reserved seats for evening shows.
For all you trivia buffs: “King Kong” played day and date at the Center Theater and the Radio City Music Hall for it first week only. It grossed $88,000 at the RCMH and then played exclusively for the next two weeks at the Center Theater. The grosses there were $35,000; $35,000 and $33,800.
Did you know that “Flying Down to Rio” with Fred and Ginger was the film that accompanied the first Christmas stage show in 1933. It opened on Dec 21 and played two weeks through January 3. It grossed $98,000 and $100,000. Very fine, but it didn’t break the previous house record of $118,000 set during November by “Little Women.” Ittle eber the previous Easter week by “Cavalcade.” Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you.
Oh, OK. I only read Benjamin’s recent comment after I posted this question. D'OH! There is my answer. The Center. I’ll be sure to read the latest comments in a thread before posting questions in the future.
Perhaps someone who is familiar with Rockefeller Center can answer a question for me. Many years ago I saw in a book, the name of which I can’t remember, a photograph of a theatre in, or very near, Radio City- a third theatre, besides the Music Hall and the small news theatre which I believe was later called the Guild. This third theatre was a good sized place- 1500 seats, if I recall. It was closed long ago, and the space it had occupied was filled in with floors of offices.
I’ve looked through the New York City theatre listings on this site and can’t find it among them. I don’t remember the name, but I think it must have been operated by RKO. Does anyone know anything about this vanished theatre? I think that its men’s lounge was decorated with aviation-themed photographs by a famous photographer of the 1930s, but that’s about all I can remember of it. Did I just imagine the whole thing?
CConnelly: The Men’s Lounge on the lower level was restored back to its 1930’s look. The mural on the wall, “Men without Women” by Stuart Davis was brought back from Museum of Modern Art, where its was sent to in the early 1970’s.
The Grand Lounge was always that size, although for a number of years, previous management used the space near the elevators to display artifacts from the Music Hall’s past.
The lamps you’re referring to have /SSB in the stock number, the SSB indicating ‘silvered bowl’. They came in several versions, with the /SSB type having a mirror-like bowl that concentrated the reflected beam, while other styles had a dull silver finish that diffused the beam slightly. I used to have track lighting with reflectors that used this type of bulb. Likely you won’t find them at your local Home Depot or hardware store these days. About the only place that would stock them now would be lighting supply houses. In addition to Westinghouse, GE, Sylvania and Osram made them too. Still, if they’re available, you’d think the management would make the effort and relamp with the proper type.
Finally found the Westinghouse lamps catalog on-line and they still make at least four versions of what they now call “½ chrome” lamps up to 100 watts. These are sometimes also called “half silvered” and maybe the Music Hall doesn’t want to invest in this short lived lamp any longer. It is a pity, for the effect described must have been classy.
Regarding the grand lounge in the lower level of RCMH, when I went there for the Christmas show this year, I thought it was MUCH smaller than I remember it. Now you’d think this was because the last time I saw it was as a kid but it wasn’t. I was there in 1986 for an REM concert and I remember the downstairs area being HUGE. And what’s more, the men’s bathroom used to have more, well, facilities….I remember going there at the concert and thinking “Geez…I never saw so many urinals in my life!”. Excuse the bad taste but that’s what I remember. What the HELL did they do to the lounge? Where did the rest of it go?
The light bulbs you are referring to are called “SILVER BOWL LAMPS” and as late as 1986 the Westinghouse brand was listed as selling seven versions of them in both medium and mogul bases. They ranged from 60 to 1000 watts. The ‘silver’ was sprayed into the inside of the glass of the bowl. I am not sure if these are still made, but various dealers around the country still have stocks according to today’s search for them on google. They were once common in ‘moderne’ ceilings and displays where they were often centered in grids of reflector tiles in ceilings, but like all incandescents, they have short life spans and are expensive to operate at today’s rates since only 5% of the energy they consume comes out as light.
Benjamin
Thanks for all this great information. The only time I was ever backstage was during one of those tours. You really got an insiders look. One thing about those light bulbs, I remember they used to be sold with the bottom painted so the light shined upward. I dont know if they still make them but I have seen them up close years ago.
One of my early childhood memories is waiting at more or less the front of the line to get into Radio City Music Hall on a very cold day in the mid-1950s. Since it was near the front of the line we, obviously, just missed getting into the show and had a l-o-n-g time to wait out in the cold. At one point, the people behind us graciously saved our spot while my father took me across the street to Whelan’s(?) drug store to warm up. (Maybe a hot chocolate?)
Of course I remember being very impressed with the theater (and have visited it a number of times since over the years), but here’s one negative note — I have to say that even from the very beginning as a child I felt that the tall lobby felt much too narrow for its vast height.
On a more positive note, I also couldn’t believe my eyes when the orchestra rose from the basement, rolled back on the stage and disappeared.
Also loved the way the performers climbed up those stepped side stages and disappeared, and the way the bands of light illuminating the auditorium would magically shift colors.
I also remember thinking at one point that the pile in the carpeting was so deep that my feet felt as though they were shifting a millemeter or two whenever I took a step!
Sometime in the 1960s, I believe, when the Music Hall was still in its heyday, there was a wonderful article about it in Reader’s Digest that went into all the superlatives about the the theater and the way it was run. Looking back, this article in Reader’s Digest really goes to show what a place this theater has in American culture.
To briefly answer a question asked by someone above about what the Music Hall was saved from. Sometime in the late 1970s(?), Rockefeller Center (which was still owned in part by members of the Rockefeller family) planned to replace the theater with office space — the way the Center Theater had been replaced with office space in the early 1950s. There was such an uproar that they decided to explore other ideas — including the idea of using it the way it is used today.
Although I can’t say I am as throughly familiar with the theater as some of the previous posters (with their really fascinating time capsule posts!), I can say that I had a really wonderful unusual Radio City Music Hall experience in the Spring of 2000(?) when I worked as an office temporary / word processor for an event that ABC held at the theater for its affiliates(?) and/or advertisers.
The original plan was for people like myself to type in stuff for the teleprompters, I believe. But they over-ordered the office temporaries and only four or five people (who had done this work before) were actually asked to do this work. The rest of us, maybe fifteen or twenty people?! — this aspect of the event was, happily for us, very poorly organized! — just lounged around with full run of the auditorium AND THE BACKSTAGE FACILITIES. It was an amazing experience.
Although the theater had supposed had a top to bottom refurbishment, much of the backstage area was apparently untouched. For instance, we were based in a dressing room that had obviously been carved out of a hallway leading from the wings. There were wires etc. still on the walls for things from the 1930s, 1940s that were no longer functional.
We also had access to the cafeteria, which had apparently only been superficially remodeled. (There were free meals and a free buffet between the meals!)
Sadly, there were some parts of the theater that were very much in need of repair that had obviously been untouched by the renovation. For instance, the locker room and showers that I suppose were for the ushers were a “slum” with missing tiles etc.
But what I really loved about this experience — and feel privlidged to have experienced — was the time capsul aspect of it. Not only did I feel like I was backstage at the Music Hall in the 1930s or 1940s, but I felt I was transported back to any big city movie palace of the 1930s or 1940s — that I could be backstage in Cleveland, Philly, Chicago, etc. (In my mind I could see the old-fashioned luggage of the traveling performers, and imagine the old railroad stations. Here the talk about upcoming engagements on the radio and in hotel ballrooms, etc.)
It was really unbelievable that they just let us wander about like that (obviously this was pre 9/11!). And it was funny too, because after a certain hour, say 6:00 p.m., they did indeed become very strict and wouldn’t even let us a few feet out of our assigned space without a special pass. But before 6:00 p.m. you could wander on the stage (and watch them rehearse from the wings) or below the stage (and watch the elevators go up or down), etc.
Almost all the stars of the upcoming ABC season were there rehearsing their lines, and as they left the stage they all would file past our dressing room “office.” (You’d see them leaving the stage on the monitor and then five seconds, or so later, you would see them filing past you.
(One enterprising office temp [a young college student] decided to become an impromptu guide/usher for all the stars who were getting lost backstage trying to go under the stage to get back to stage right[?] from their exit at stage left. So he got to personally meet and guide almost all the stars at the event [Heather Locklear, Regis Philbin, Barbara Walters, etc.].)
Two other random notes:
The grand lounge / waiting area and men’s room in “the basement” is really just a shadow of what it once was. This has been true for quite a while, however — before the most recent renovation, but I don’t remember exactly when they began carving it up. So anyone visiting the Music Hall today should be aware that these areas were VERY different in the Music Hall’s heyday.
If I recall correctly, the lighting system under the marquee has also been changed and “cheapened.” Orginally they had naked light bulbs with half the bulb “painted” to provide a built in light shade. These lights fitted nicely within the honeycomb underside of the marquee to provide a simple but striking lighting effect. I’m don’t recall exactly what they’ve done with it, but I vaguely remember being disappointed when I saw it. (I believe the Whitney Museum has places where they still use this lighting effect.)
Why thank you!
There is a Rockette alumni site and I’ll ask if it can be posted here.I certainly don’t see why not since it is already out in cyberspace for the finding. I have forwarded this site to the alumni
and I’m sure many have stories to tell as well.
p.s. mom is still with us! but..sigh.. her memory has failed considerably. She told some stories but have been able to piece together much of her history from her archives and friends all within the past year.. and boy she kept everything it seems… good for us lovers of this history!
In honor of their 75th anniversay the Rockettes were all sent a small red square to customize (and I helped with hers). Then it was all sewn together and put on display. Unfortunately we never got to see it when it was on display but we have a photo of it (gosh it looks huge)..and I’m told it is now stored in the closet. BRING it out again please RCMH
Dorothy from Oz! What a real treat to read your post this brisk NC a.m.! When I read “Mom-in-law was a Rockette 1937-1942” I just about came out of my chair in front of this computer. And yes by all means…..pass thi site onto the Rockette alumni! I never miss a Thanksgiving a.m. without watching those Rockettes in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade! This IS a wonderful site and many posts ago I started posting on the RMCH site and it took off from there with many posts about the Christmas show, etc. from several native New Yorkers. I grew up in New York, but at the other end of the state in Chautauqua County near the PA stateline so was 400 miles from the Big Apple! My husband and I hope to broad Amtrak next fall from NC and ride the train into Grand Central Station and stay in Manhattan over the long Thanksgiving weekend! I want to walk down 5th Avenue once in my life during the holidays and see all of the decorated windows i.e. Tiffany….can’t forget Breakfast at Tiffany with Audrey Hepburn! Also, Rockefeller Center, the tree, the rink and the Today Show! If anyone can suggest anything that is a must see, let me know. Have always wanted to me in Times Square at midnight on the 31st of December, so maybe that too someday. Our thoughts and concerns will all be with Dick Clark this year as he will be replaced by Regis Philbin as host to ring in ‘05. I will have to say though that I won’t miss seeing Mrs. Clark on camera for those few brief moments with her outdated hairstyle! LOL! Just a joke as I really don’t mean to offend anyone. So, keep in touch Dorothy of Oz as I’m sure you have many Rockette stories to share!