Radio City Music Hall

I was in the third row of RCMH for the first show of Bambi August 13, 1942. I was six, and it was the first time at the Hall. What an impression! I’m still in awe of the building and the film.

A sequel would soon follow (direct to DVD…)

Is 64 years really “soon”?

I agree rvb. Bambi also was probably the first animated feature that involved an off-screen death of Bambi’s mom (spoiler alert!!!) by the hunter. A sequel would soon follow (direct to DVD and featuring Bambi all grown up and married to his fawn).

isn’t she great!!, Iused to wonder how they got ready for a new show while performing a show already on stage, what talented people indeed!

To tinseltoes:
Thanks for the Judy Holiday info, she was the best. So hard to believe “Bells are Ringing” was her last role. She was so unique.

Point of order Tinseltoes. After Alaska and Hawaii entered the union the total number of states is 50.

Woody Allen’s “Radio Days” (1987) has a scene where the characters go to Radio City to see “The Philadelphia Story”. I’m pretty sure they shot inside the real thing.

Alfred Hitchcock shot an important scene inside Radio City for his 1942 film “Saboteur”.

For starters, there is the 1983 TV Movie, “Legs”. It was the story of three dancers auditioning for one spot in the line. Shanna Reed, Maureen Teefy, and Deborah Geffner played the dancers. Gwen Verdon played the director of the Rockettes, a role based on Violet Holmes. The movie featured bits and pieces of some of the Rockette numbers being performed at that time. I remember that a friend’s loft was rented to serve as the apartment that the three women shared.

theres always stories going aroundabout the hall,wishI was that popular!!lets wait till next year shall we??maybe they’ll hold the tonys at the disney theatre? possible?but..its not on broadway, maybe the renovated Beacon theatre?maybe they want to show it off?
ahh, whocares!!! i’m not gonna be there!

nice how they clean the sign up so that it doesn’t age that much.

I appeciate the update on both the ecreening rooms and “Sex in the City” screening.
I was surprised to learn that they have not installed red light readers in any of the projectors. I would have thought they would have updated the optical sound heads if for no other reason but to provide analogue backup to the digital track. THe Music Hall must have one of the very few projection rooms still using exciter lamps (do they still make those anymore?)
Of course it would be highly unlikely for both digital projectors and the digital sound on the 35mm to all go down leaving them to have had to cancel the show for lack of the red light readers.
Or would it, I mean seriously, can you imagine. :)
Thanks again guys I appreciate the feed back.

Vito: I haven’t been in the rooms since I left in 2000, but as far as I know they’re still being used for office space, although I understand a number of the offices have now been moved to the Garden. One of the projectors from Preview B is on (or was on) display on a staircase niche out at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens.

I do have some more information for you about the “Sex and the City 2” screening. They used two digital cinema projectors with 6K lamps. Because one had an E-Fib card, and the other an F-Fib card (don’t ask!) they couldn’t run both superimposed during the show, but did have both superimposed so they had back-up. You will be pleased to note that they agree with you and ran the 35mm print from a Double-MUTT rather than a platter. They did lower the gamma on the digital copies to get a little more light on the screen — the equivalent of my having prints pulled a couple of points lighter. Since the Music Hall asn’t installed red lilght readers for analogue, only the digital track on the film could be used, but by the time they would have needed the SR track they would have lost two digital projectors and the 35mm digital track, so it wasn’t a major concern. Apparently everything looked and sounded fine.