Then that raises the question of who was booking the McVickers a roadshow film house starting around the time of “South Pacific” and “Porgy & Bess”? I know in later years when I worked in a B&K (Plitt) theatre we had circuit wide passes, and the McVickers wasn’t included. Certainly the Nederlander tie would account for the legit bookings after they stopped doing roadshow films. (I apologize — I know this belongs on the McVickers thread and I’m getting us sidetracked here, but I still wonder about some continuity between the McVickers and the McClurg Court.)
BWChicago: Thanks for clearing up my confusion. Had Lubliner/Stern operated the McVickers prior to its ownership by Nederlander, and did they sell it off to become a legit theatre and create McClurg Court in the trade-off?
Here’s another question which might also be of interest to Michael Coate: do you remember a circuit (possibly Canadian) named Trans-Beacon which operated a bunch of 70mm roadshow theatres at the end of the roadshow cycle? I believe they operated the Michael Todd and Cinestage in Chicago at one point, and may have operated the McVickers for a time as well. They also had roadshow houses in other cities, but didn’t last very long.
Michael and BWChicago: I’d be interested in anything you can find. As I mentioned above, I had heard that McClurg Court was built as part of a deal with Lubliner & Trinz that if the McVickers would be made available for the stage run of “Fiddler On The Roof”, L&T would get the premiere of the film version when it opened in Chicago. At this point I can’t remember who told me that, but I do remember going to see “Fiddler” at the McClurg Court specifically because of that story. I also seem to remember that the “Trinz” was Bruce Trinz, who I believe later was the operator and booker of an art house (houses?) here in New York and was much revered. Perhaps he was a relative of the original Trinz in the circuit taken over by B&K in the ‘30’s. A cross check of the operator of the McVickers at the time of “Fiddler” might help.
Publix refers to one of the midwest’s largest chains: Paramount Publix/Balaban & Katz/Great States Theatres. The Chicago theatres were known as B & K houses, and downstate Publix Great States. They were also affiliated with the American Broadcasting Company, and at one point were ABPT Theatres (American Broadcasting Paramount Theatres). Originally part of the Paramount chain, they were divorced by the consent decrees of the late ‘40’s and early '50’s. Eventually, Henry Plitt who worked with Leonard Goldenson at ABC as an executive with the chain’s Southern theatres took over the chain and they became Plitt Theatres. As noted above, when the Plitt circuit disolved, Kerasotes Theatres of Springfield, IL. acquired many of the downstate Publix Great States sites including this one. Fox didn’t have a major presence in the Midwest as they had in other states, so the Lincoln Square would have been a likely site for a Mickey Mouse club.
The ties between Paramount/ABC the theatres were so involved that in Chicago the ABC affiliate was located in the B & K State Lake Theatre building(and now occupies the space the theatre itself had) and had the call letters WBKB for Balaban & Katz Broadcasting.
Growing up in a small downstate Illinois town which had a Publix Great States Theatre and an independent house, even after the consent decree, I don’t remember the independent ever playing a Paramount picture. On the other hand, it had an arrangement with Warners Bros. for picture exclusivity, and until it burned in the ‘60’s I never saw a Warner logo on the screen at the Publix house.
Peter, I thought that was you. We did do an organ concert sponsored by an organist’s guild which used the curtains and full facility. It even included one of the wittiest commentaries on theatre organs I’ve ever heard by Peter Schickele (P.D.Q. Bach) himself. I was backstage talking to the stage manager after my film cue, and when I went to leave I heard a murmurered “Good Night”, it wasn’t until I was outside that I realized that it was Mr. Schickele. I always regretted the fact that I didn’t get to tell him how much I enjoyed him, and that it was quite a change to get paid to hear him, as I had paid to attend his concerts at Avery Fisher and Carnegie Halls and have several of his C.D.’s.
Vito — the Screening Rooms were rented out for a number of years to CineMix which used them as re-recording studios. The broadcast studio was also rented to Plaza Sound, a recording company which did the tracks for the Macy’s Parade audio as well as recording groups such as Blondie. Involved in both operations were John Jackson, the senior production person a the Hall, as well as Greg Raffa, the music contractor, and Warren Jenkins, the technical director (and the man who brought me to New York). After CineMix outgrew the space, we restored the big room. The smaller one, “Preview B” was still used by us to screen short subjects, film effects and odd material even while it was used by CineMix. I even had the privilege to screen Ginger Rogers footage there for Ginger Rogers!
The problem was that there is no easy access to that level above the auditorium. While RKO execs could cross the roof from their offices over the lobby, and come up to the rooms. The Executive Elevator, which served the Executive entrance as well as the lobby levels, dropped people off at the Studio level,a few steps below the level which also included the rehearsal halls and the broadcast studio. The alternative was to use the backstage elevators, which was impractical when they were in use during the stage shows, and finding one’s way from the top elevator level up a couple of flights of stairs to the Studio level was not for the uninitiated. There were also security issues (one shutters to think how much tighter that would have to be in these times.) Anyone dropped off by the elevators at either end would be free to roam about anywhere in the theatre unless staff was positioned to guide them to the Screening Rooms. It worked for recording sessions, and special screenings (Robert Wise remembered carrying a print of “Citizen Kane” to one of the rooms for the first press screening), but they were designed to be used for in house screenings, and public access is a bit of a problem. (I had payroll records in my office filing cabinets that went back to the time when there were full crews in both of the Screening Rooms, the Main booth and Rear Projection as well, with some swapping between the positions. Quite a time!)
vito — I don’t have the answers to a lot of your questions, but usually the whole Hall is rented. (While I was there someone did rent just the Lobby area for a bar mitzvah, and both Coca Cola and McDonalds used just the Lobby for their new product launches.) New Line would have had the option to use the 2nd and 3rd Mezzanines. And yes, they have been used when digital screenings are projected from the 1st Mez (I’ll have to check, but I think they were for the HBO “Sopranos” premieres.)
Four walling varies. I think the first time the house was four walled was for “Airport”, which in turn led to putting 70mm in. Ross Hunter wanted it projected in 70, and my predecessor had fought it for years.
While I was there the house was four-walled twice. The first time was for the Universal summer run of “McArthur”, “The Sting” and “Smokey and the Bandit”. In that case we were paid by Radio City as usual. When Disney four-walled the house for “Return to Oz” and “The Black Cauldron”, we all went on Disney’s payroll.
There is a minimum crew size starting with Department Heads and Assistants. Again, I’m not sure about all of the changes, since the lighting system is now computer controlled from the back of the house(or wherever). When I was there, a man on the elevator/contour control board was required (and I’m sure still is), and another electrician on the lighting board, since it was located in front of the pit. The fly foor required three men, as opposed to the usual two, since the size of the pieces requires more muscle to get the lines moving. If two pieces are moved at the same time, another three men were added. Load-in and load-out crew requirements were based on the show rider, as well as other crew needs in the house as is standard. If any two of the stage departments were used, the third was also added: i.e. Props, Carpenters and Electrics. While Sound technically falls under Electrics, it is also a separate department as is Projection.
One of the contacts I still keep is with someone who has been a shop steward for Local #1, so if I get a chance I’ll ask him what is being done today. Obviously it’s a very expensive house to use, and I recall grumbling somewhere on this site about the size of the crew it took to do an organ recital, but it kind of goes with the territory when you have a facility this large and complex (and yes — that does impact the ability to show motion-pictures, whether first run or in a retrospective.)
RCDTJ a 75mm lens would have given you a picture roughly about 27' x 54' which is about what we were running 1.85 at when I was there, and is indeed certainly doable. Perhaps the overall sheet size has been reduced since I was there. At that time it was 35' x 70'. If it is still the matte and not the silver screen used for 3-D the brightness downstairs should be about what it is from the booth.
Bill H. It would be wrong for me to make any aesthetic comment about “Che”. I gather it was one of the most debated pictures at Cannes. Technically, its a very interesting project as Steven is very cutting edge. I’m told all of the picture was shot with natural light, which is amazing considering the range of the story. He also used an anamorphic lens to simulate the look of “Scope” with film. He was able to look at scenes on his laptop at night and send the files back to N.Y. Editing, sub-titling and now the digital intermediate are all being done on site at his headquarters. The project raises the scope of “personal” moviemaking to new levels. In talented hands, digital “democratization” of the motion-picture process may result in some really good pictures.
By the way, another aspect of the digital cinema change is the ability to screen “alternative” content, for better or worse. The Metropolitan Opera “cinemacasts”, as well as those from LaScala and San Francisco are filling houses. Who’d a thunk that the Met live would be selling out in multiplexes in Peoria? And the word is that Sony’s special distribution network will enable the closing performance of “Rent” on Broadway to be seen nationwide.
Vito, it may not all be good —– but it sure as heck is interesting for this old-timer! Glad I’m still around to see it.
Ed, That is an enormously complex question. In all fairness I work for a company that is involved in digital cinema, and I have both 2k digital and 35/70mm capacity in my screening room. I also work with engineers who travel the country to do digital screenings, and indeed, one was at the Hall the other night. The industry is going digital regardless of the subtleties of the situation. I’m amazed that almost all of the screens in Illinois where I vacation each year are now digital.
At the moment most digital cinema projectors are “2K”, and I have done split-screen experiments here with 35mm/2K (granted on a small 14" wide screen). The results were enough to convince a film company to do its premiere screenings digitally. We now have 4K projectors coming on line, and I’ve been screening Steven Soderbergh’s “Che” which is a 4 hour picture in two parts one “flat” one “Scope”. He shot the whole thing with a 4k handheld camera, and is doing subsequent editing and color correction in his office before making the 2k copy used at Cannes. 4K (four-thousand lines of resolutio across the frame) is said to be the equal of full-frame sprocket hole to sprocket hole 35mm, but remember the 1.85 image used for “Sex and the City” projection with optical sound track is considerably smaller.
Now NHK and JVC in Japan are working with 8K digital projection systems. The JVC chip is basically the same size as the 70mm image, and should be able to produce “IMAX” size images (IMAX is going digital by the way.)
As with everything else this oversimplifies the situation. How good is the 35mm print? (Sometimes, not very, when they have to pump out 4,000 copies for a major release.) How well maintaned are the projectors – digital OR film? Theatres that didn’t maintain their 35mm equipment probably won’t maintain their digital equipment either, and it does take maintanence.
There’s nothing wrong with being old school vito — but remember we are at the “Edison” stage of this whole transition, and digital will get better, and should in a well run situation, give a picture closer to 70mm than could have been achieved in the average situation where 70mm was not an option.
Vito, We’ll have to “agree to disagree” on this one. I talked to the Dolby tech who did the screening this morning. He said they filled the screen with the digital image all the way to the screen height. That would mean a picture 35'high by 64 ¾' wide. There is no way you can do that with 35mm. (We did do it with 70mm for “The Lion King” and a few other premieres, but as noted above we only had about 8Fl. of light on the screen. And that was with new bulbs and new reflectors in the 5Kw lamphouses.) If you focus the 7K bulbs down to a 35mm aperture there is a marked tendency to burn the film, even with water-cooled gates.
We superimposed video projectors at the Hall all the way back to the days of the Eidophor, and in the case of at least one Grammy awards show with four superimposed projectors. Unlike film, the image can be manipulated digitally so there is an almost perfect overlap. We did one show with two Hughes D-ILA projectors with 10KW lamps superimposed on a 20' wide rear projection screen that was bright enough to read on camera with full stage lighting up. In addition, the superimposed projectors give 100% backup should one fail (minus the brightness of course.) The legend about the Hall when I was growing up was that they always used two film projectors overlapped to get the brightness needed. That wasn’t the case, although I did run four projectors with 6000' reels and two complete prints to give me back-up for “McArthur”, and we used three 70mm machines with one print of “Lion King” on a platter, and the other being run reel-to-reel as a back-up. We also had a 35mm print running on another platter to provide Dolby Digital sound, and serve as an extra back-up if needed.
The premiere the other night did use a MUTT for the 35mm print.
I’m told the digital looked very good indeed, and as mentioned above, you couldn’t have gotten that size out of a 35mm 1.85 print.
We certainly did use a buzzer or ring system at the Hall. When I started there they didn’t use Clearcom headsets for communication, and all the cues between the frontlight and projection booths, D Cove frontlight booth and the stage were given by buzzer cues (and yes they could be heard in the audience since none of the frontlight booths had glass in the ports.) The stage manager’s position had a panel with switches on it that selected which position would receive a cue from the stage — thus the manager could select any one of the frontlight booths or all of them at the same time. In projection each of the Magnascope control panels at the projectors had a stage buzz button on it, as well as a button to buzz the organists. At the end of a feature we would give an eight minute warning to get the stage manager and stage control board electrician in position, then a two minute buzz, and finally a “go” buzz to bring the contour in. We would also give a buzz at the end of the pre-show material (cartoon, trailers, short subject) for the traveller —the house golds, to be brought in and then re-opened for the feature. The buzz cues still were used when I left in 1999 to start film material, be it feature presentation or film effects in the stage shows such as the Christmas Spectacular. It still works better than trying to hear the cue on an intercom over the lamp fan noise, and at the projectors a light at each machine lights when the buzz is given as well. (By the way, of all the switches on the stage manager’s panel only the projection booth one has a white knob on it and it sits alone labelled “Kinema Booth”) While projection could change the Magnascope masking from the booth, the stage drapes were always brought in by a stage electrician. (In the case of the Hall a very good idea — you want someone down there when you’re moving a 3 ton contour controlled by 13 motors to make sure you’re not crushing a Rockette or a camel!)
In some cases all too well! In the case of “Caravans” Universal picked up distribution just so we would have a picture to play. In the final years of the movie/stage show policy, Universal was the most supportive studio.
In all due fairness, one of the above films was a “hit” selling out almost every performance over the opening weekend. That was “Magic of Lassie” which hit the right combination by featuring Lassie on stage in the show which accompanied the film. Bonita Granville Wrather was a charming lady whose husband had the rights to both “Lassie” and “The Lone Ranger”. She visited us in the booth, and not only sent recording tapes to me when she found out it was an interest, but sent a “tip” to the crew and “autographed” pictures of Lassie. From the evidence at the Hall, she thought the film was going to be a huge success, and we heard she was devastated when in opened later to minimal crowds.
BobFurmanek: Alas I can’t find contact information in your profile (or perhaps I just don’t know how to access it). I didn’t want to be rude by not responding, and this is the only way I know how.
Rory — CinemaScope was indeed supposed to be projected on a curved screen. If you check out Martin Hart’s American Widescreen Museum site he may still have the original 20th Century Fox Exhibitor’s Handbook in the CinemaScope section. That book spelled out exactly the degree of curvature required for CinemaScope presentation. Fox used high-gain Miracle Mirror screens and apart from other considerations such as mimicing Cinerama’s curve (although to a much lesser degree of course) the curved screen distributed the light more evenly across the theatre.
Fox was so adamant about having a curved screen that Radio Cty, which couldn’t install a curved screen due to the stage show requirements, didn’t show a CinemaScope picture until “Knights of the Roundtable” almost a year later when MGM said they didn’t care if it was shown on a curved screen.
By the way, the 1.85 aspect ratio was never exactly approved by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. The early attempts at widescreen presentation after Cinerama triggered the idea were achieved by cutting various amounts of the 1.37 picture off with apeture plates in the projectors. The ratios varied from theatre to theatre (Radio City had l.5:1 plates which were still in use when I started there). The theatres in the U.S. gradually “standardized” at 1.85:1 with Europe using a less extreme 1.66:1 for “flat” 35mm projection. SMPTE had listings for “Standards”, “Recommended Practices” and “Accepted Practices”, the latter designation for areas they couldn’t control such as what was being done in individual theatres. The 1.85 aspect ratio fell into the latter category. As Bob Furmanek points out, the ratios varied from theatre to theatre in the early days, with some horrible situations where the flat image was cropped to 2.1 and the “Scope” image also cropped by cutting off the sides to the same ratio.
The camera negative in many cases remains full frame to this day, with the wide screen matte applied in the printer to mask out any mike booms that may intrude into the top of the frame, and in many cases the image was composed in the viewfinder to protect both the 1.33 and 1.85 ratios so the same negative could be used for TV.
I hadn’t heard about “Mines” and “Show”, but that would certainly have been an effective use of Magnascope. It must have been impresive. I remember seeing a comment somewhere that the flaw with Magnascope was that while the audience loved the screen getting bigger, they didn’t like it when it returned to normal size. Even so, that kind of “showmanship” is surely missing today which is too bad because we have more tools to work with if someone would just use them creatively.
Warren: They were probably referring to “Magnascope” projection, which enlarged the picture although keeping the standard 1.33 aspect ratio. It was used with certain featrues such as “Old Ironsides” the 1926 Paramount silent spectacular. At climactic points in the action the masking pulled out and up and a shorter focal length lens was used to magnify the picture. Radio City had a Magnascope masking system installed with four presets to move the masking which could be operated from each projector. This was the only control the booth had over any stage draperies. The contour and title curtains were operated by stagehands from the stage. To this day, if you go up to the booth the panels engraved “Magnascope” are still at each of the original four projector positions, and a fifth was added for the fifth machine at the time 70mm was installed in 1970.
Oddly enough, the system was used into the ‘50’s to project newsreels at a larger size than the feature film. I still had a lens adapter marked “newsreel” when I started there. By that time the masking had been modified for widescreen use with CinemaScope and other formats, which made it “cranky” since instead of the sides and top masking moving out and up, the top masking now came down, and the sides out for the widescreen formats. The whole system with motors and heavy masking draperies flew out with the screen and center channel film speaker for the stage shows. I remember that if a mistake was made setting the cams on the control system the masking could “run away” and the top masking would bounce up and down like a yo-yo, which was pretty frightening considering you were moving a 70+’ by 10' or so piece of heavy duveteen. By the time I started there there were only two presets in use, so if we were mixing ratios, the Magnascope cogs had to be set for that particular combination: for instance doing a 1.37 classic cartoon with a 2.35 Scope feature. That also appliec to 1.85 and 2.21 70mm material. One of the most impressive of those uses came with our Warner classic series. In the old days, the title curtain would close at the end of the pre-feature material and then re-open to present the feature so the audience never saw the masking change. The title curtain was removed when we did “Snow White” as a stage show. Thus when we did “Blade Runner” which was Scope preceded by a 1.33 classic cartoon, I made the changeover with the masking in to the 1.33 position. The Warner logo came up perfectly centered in the 1.33 frame, and then I hit the other positon and the side masking slowly pulled out to full 65' wide Scope position. That actually elicited an “Ahh!” and applause from the audience.
So in a sense in answer to your question that same 1933 Magnascope system is still in use today.
I was the projectionist for the Premiere Screenings of “The Day After” in Lawrence, KS., the town where it was filmed. I had some time off from Radio City, and Larry Shaw of Boston Light & Sound was going out to set up their 35mm projection equipment in the University of Kansas Student Union auditorium. I jokingly said I thought it would be fun to see “Lawrence in Lawrence”. Since I did quite a bit of work for B.L. & S., Larry offered to pay my expenses out and back if I would be the operating projectionist.
It was a memorable experience. We did several screenings on the premiere day to accomodate the citizens of Lawrence, many of whom are seen in the film. I remember Nicolas Meyer, the director, being concerned that seeing themselves on the screen might cause the audience to “titter” and ruin the mood, so he asked for some restraint in his introductory comments. He needn’t have worried. While the audeinces did come in in a festive mood, the impressive scenes of the destruction of their home town displayed all too realistically on screen, left them in a far more somber state of mind. There was no “tittering” as the audiences filed out after the screenings!
I also vividly remember the scene of the missiles streaking up from their silos as seen from across the University of Kansas football field (the silos were actually there in real life). It was sobering to step out of the booth door onto the roof of the Student Union and see the football field from almost the identical angle to that of the scene in the film.
If you think the film is impressive viewing on a television screen, believe me — the sight of the watching the town you’re standing in
destroyed on a large screen as you’re standing there is both eerie and unforgettable!
brenograph: The auditorium was always more or less beige as a base color. The color was designed to reflect the light shone upon it. The original paint job, and the first re-painting speckled the beige undercoat with four colors of paint which reflected the cove lighting. The cove lights are in four colors: amber (gold), red, blue and green. That lighting is also used in the soffits under the mezzanines. Thus the ceiling can look gold or any one of the other colors. I left at the time of the current remodeling, so I’m not sure how well the new system works. The light source may have changed, as well as the basic color of the auditorium, and they may not have speckled it with the colors of paint that were in the original painting, but the concept remains the same.
One of the most impressive displays I remember was during a performance of The Mighty Clouds of Joy, which were an opening act. Our lighting console crew alternated the color of each cove one color at at time in a rippling pattern, which saw red go from “A” cove all the way to the back of the house, followed by each successive color. The effect was to turn the ceiling into a huge jukebox. In my twenty-five years there I never saw the effect repeated, but never forgot it.
Another great effaect was during the Easter Sunday Sunrise service which preceded the first show of the day. At the start the coves faded from gold to black, and as chimes sounded in the organ chamber, they slowly faded up with a low blue, through purple as the reds were added, and then from there to full brightness as the “sun” rose. Since the coves were, in legend, designed to reflect a sunrise Roxy say while cruising on a ship, the effect was very impressive.
Actually, the ties between RKO and Radio City continued in a way into the ‘50’s. The building over the Radio City entrance and lobby was RKO’s headquarters. We had two screening rooms in Radio City over the lobby auditorium on the executive level. One was Radio City’s and one was RKO’s. The two rooms had a common lobby with a staircase that extended down and onto the roof between the office building and the back wall of the Hall. There was a crosswalk area that led to a set of doors into the RKO building. Thus executives from RKO could go down to that floor in the office section, cross over outside for 10’ or so, and come up the staircase to their screening room. The first time “Citizen Kane” was screened in New York it was for the press in one of those screening rooms (probably Radio City’s since it was the larger of the two). Robert Wise, who was the “Kane” editor, remembered carrying the print in from California for the screening. I don’t know when RKO stopped using the room and it became Radio City’s, but I inherited a pair of “SuperScope” lenses from the room. SuperScope was RKO’s proprietary process designed to compete with CinemaScope. Their room (which became ours) was also equipped for 3-D presentation using two interlocked projectors with large 3-D film magazines, and an RKO sticker on one of the lamp ballasts. DC power for the arc lamps in the RKO room came from a generator in the Radio City generator room in the basement. I can’t remember whether the projectionists in both screening rooms were on Radio City’s payroll, but I know I had notebooks with the booth payroll hours listed that included the screening room crew.
The ties between RKO and Rockefeller Center were complex. The “R” in RKO was for RCA which was the Center’s leading tenant. There are also accounts of the Rockefellers using their clout to counter Hearst’s drive against “Citizen Kane”. Indeed, “Kane” was originally booked into the Hall before they moved it to the Palace. Had RKO continued in its original form, they would probably have still been using their space in the Hall.
As mentioned in a post above, the McVickers went legit for “Man of La Mancha”, and I believe the Chicago home of the stage production of “Fiddler On The Roof”. I remember hearing a story which perhaps someone on this thread can verify about the “Fiddler” booking. I think at the time, the McVickers was operated by LublinerTrinz (?)and was alternating between film and live stage shows. There was a need for a live house for the Chicago run of “Fiddler”, and the McVickers was approached as a site. The story I remember hearing was that Lubliner Trinz said they would make the theatre available if when the movie version came out they would have the roadshow rights to it in Chicago. They then built McClurg Court specifically for the roadshow 70mm presentation of “Fiddler”. I know I saw the film version at McClurg Court — it was their opening attraction. Anyone care to comment?
The booth you’re talking about is indeed a broadcast booth. There’s one on each side of the auditorium, although the one on the Prompt side was used as storage for the Electric Department when I was there. The one Opposite Prompt had space for an announcer and engineer, and was used to broadcast at least one show just before I started there in 1974. It then became the Tape Room, with the much mentioned tape machines when the format changed in 1979. It also was used for Sound Department wireless mics and cable storage. Since they now use hard drives for the pre-recorded audio in the show, they are probably up at the 2nd Mezzanine mix position.
In the first place, pre-recording has been going on for years. When you saw Astaire and Rogers dancing and singing, they were working to “Playback” of recordings made on the music scoring stage. On set recording wouldn’t be of high enough quality to use and would reflect any “thumps” and extraneous noise on the stage. Indeed, these days ADR (automated dialogue replacement) is used extensively in most features even when the performances on done on a studio soundstage. Location sound has obvious disadvantages. The Rockettes are precision dancers primarily, and again, who says they aren’t really singing or doing it as satisfactorily as any Broadway performers? While I feel that the audio mixes for live performances are often over-miked and over-loud, they are what this generation has come to expect in terms of performance audio sound.
Secondly, it would be hard to get enough radio frequencies to mic 36 Rockettes individually, nor is it possible to use mics to adequately cover their movements across the whole stage, given that its a block wide and about 60' deep. In the original Hall audio operation there were five “rising” mikes that came up out of the floor to pre-set heights for solo performers. They were also used to pick up the sound of the Rockettes taps, but not vocals. In later years “Riverdance” and “Lord of the Dance” had mikes with R.F. transmitters placed in some of the dancer’s shoes to pick up the sound of their dancing, but even then some of the sound of their dancing was pre-recorded. Its possible to mic solo performers, but again getting 36 mics is a bit much. And beside, who would want to see the Rockettes wearing those annoying little boom mics that hang on the ear like a telephone headset? I’ll take a little artifice anyday.
That’s Show Business! Actually, I’m not sure that the Rockettes don’t do their own singing. The problem with all the singing done during the show is that it’s difficult to sing and dance at the same time across a stage that big without running out of breath. When I was there all of the vocal numbers, except those actually being performed by soloists were pre-recorded in the recording studio which was designed to by Roxy’s broadcast studio. Its not so much a case of deception (although in a sense that’s the basis for a lot of theatrical illusion) as practicallity.
A couple of notes on the posts above: Warren, the Rockettes have been “singing” for years, lip synched to tape. They had already started the practice when I started there in 1974. The orechestra was conducted to “click” track on tape with the vocal on another track. In fact the whole show has been tied to a click track for a very long time. I always felt frustrated in the rare times the tape stopped for some reason the whole show did also. I always felt like “you’ve got an orchestra in the pit and performers on stage — get on with it!” Now the show is done to hard drives not tape, but the concept is the same. One of the reasons for using a click track for the orchestra was that one of our conductors when I went there in 1974 (who shall remain nameless but who was famous for conducting a band on radio) was wildly erratic in keeping to a beat, and at times would start conducting at double tempo leaving the Rockettes scattered about the stage. Tying him to a click track was the solution. The tape deck in the sound booth on projection level could be started by the conductor from the podium and would stop on its own with the next cut cued up. I remember an Easter show when I got a call from one of the the projectionists that no one had shown up from the sound department for a show, and could I help. I rushed over to the theater and got there at the end of the “Glory of Easter” segment, and managed to get the P.A. system up, and get the tape cued up to the next cue. It was one of the few times the cast actually sang with no amplification for the “Glory”, and one of the House Managers said he had never heard the audience so quiet and attentive!
I have been told that while the end of “Saboteur” looks as if it were shot in the Hall it wasn’t. It was done with matte shots of the Hall. I have it on Laserdisc (remember those?)and have still framed the sequence. If you look carefully, everything above the audience, including the light beam from the projector is a matte. In the shots of the rear of the auditorium the doors don’t quite line up with aisles as they do in the Hall, and the wallpaper pattern isn’t quite the same.
Fred Kellers was always amused that when the villian runs out on the Choral Stairs he exits directly onto 50th Street. In reality the Choral Stairs openings lead into a narrow area with stairs up to the level above the stage near the passenger elevators, and down to the stage. While other films have been shot in the Hall, “Saboteur” was a careful recreation on a sound stage instead.
I should add, that while GKC was operated out of Springfield, the North/South split wasn’t entirely geographical. GKC ran theatres into upstate Illinois and I think, Indianna and Michigan, while also running theatres to the south. They shied away from Chicago, at least in part because of the strength of Local #110 at the time. Carbondale was probably as far south at they went.
Then that raises the question of who was booking the McVickers a roadshow film house starting around the time of “South Pacific” and “Porgy & Bess”? I know in later years when I worked in a B&K (Plitt) theatre we had circuit wide passes, and the McVickers wasn’t included. Certainly the Nederlander tie would account for the legit bookings after they stopped doing roadshow films. (I apologize — I know this belongs on the McVickers thread and I’m getting us sidetracked here, but I still wonder about some continuity between the McVickers and the McClurg Court.)
BWChicago: Thanks for clearing up my confusion. Had Lubliner/Stern operated the McVickers prior to its ownership by Nederlander, and did they sell it off to become a legit theatre and create McClurg Court in the trade-off?
Here’s another question which might also be of interest to Michael Coate: do you remember a circuit (possibly Canadian) named Trans-Beacon which operated a bunch of 70mm roadshow theatres at the end of the roadshow cycle? I believe they operated the Michael Todd and Cinestage in Chicago at one point, and may have operated the McVickers for a time as well. They also had roadshow houses in other cities, but didn’t last very long.
P.S. I may also be getting my “Trinz” confused with “Sterns”, but the “Fiddler” story could still be accurate.
Michael and BWChicago: I’d be interested in anything you can find. As I mentioned above, I had heard that McClurg Court was built as part of a deal with Lubliner & Trinz that if the McVickers would be made available for the stage run of “Fiddler On The Roof”, L&T would get the premiere of the film version when it opened in Chicago. At this point I can’t remember who told me that, but I do remember going to see “Fiddler” at the McClurg Court specifically because of that story. I also seem to remember that the “Trinz” was Bruce Trinz, who I believe later was the operator and booker of an art house (houses?) here in New York and was much revered. Perhaps he was a relative of the original Trinz in the circuit taken over by B&K in the ‘30’s. A cross check of the operator of the McVickers at the time of “Fiddler” might help.
Publix refers to one of the midwest’s largest chains: Paramount Publix/Balaban & Katz/Great States Theatres. The Chicago theatres were known as B & K houses, and downstate Publix Great States. They were also affiliated with the American Broadcasting Company, and at one point were ABPT Theatres (American Broadcasting Paramount Theatres). Originally part of the Paramount chain, they were divorced by the consent decrees of the late ‘40’s and early '50’s. Eventually, Henry Plitt who worked with Leonard Goldenson at ABC as an executive with the chain’s Southern theatres took over the chain and they became Plitt Theatres. As noted above, when the Plitt circuit disolved, Kerasotes Theatres of Springfield, IL. acquired many of the downstate Publix Great States sites including this one. Fox didn’t have a major presence in the Midwest as they had in other states, so the Lincoln Square would have been a likely site for a Mickey Mouse club.
The ties between Paramount/ABC the theatres were so involved that in Chicago the ABC affiliate was located in the B & K State Lake Theatre building(and now occupies the space the theatre itself had) and had the call letters WBKB for Balaban & Katz Broadcasting.
Growing up in a small downstate Illinois town which had a Publix Great States Theatre and an independent house, even after the consent decree, I don’t remember the independent ever playing a Paramount picture. On the other hand, it had an arrangement with Warners Bros. for picture exclusivity, and until it burned in the ‘60’s I never saw a Warner logo on the screen at the Publix house.
Peter, I thought that was you. We did do an organ concert sponsored by an organist’s guild which used the curtains and full facility. It even included one of the wittiest commentaries on theatre organs I’ve ever heard by Peter Schickele (P.D.Q. Bach) himself. I was backstage talking to the stage manager after my film cue, and when I went to leave I heard a murmurered “Good Night”, it wasn’t until I was outside that I realized that it was Mr. Schickele. I always regretted the fact that I didn’t get to tell him how much I enjoyed him, and that it was quite a change to get paid to hear him, as I had paid to attend his concerts at Avery Fisher and Carnegie Halls and have several of his C.D.’s.
Vito — the Screening Rooms were rented out for a number of years to CineMix which used them as re-recording studios. The broadcast studio was also rented to Plaza Sound, a recording company which did the tracks for the Macy’s Parade audio as well as recording groups such as Blondie. Involved in both operations were John Jackson, the senior production person a the Hall, as well as Greg Raffa, the music contractor, and Warren Jenkins, the technical director (and the man who brought me to New York). After CineMix outgrew the space, we restored the big room. The smaller one, “Preview B” was still used by us to screen short subjects, film effects and odd material even while it was used by CineMix. I even had the privilege to screen Ginger Rogers footage there for Ginger Rogers!
The problem was that there is no easy access to that level above the auditorium. While RKO execs could cross the roof from their offices over the lobby, and come up to the rooms. The Executive Elevator, which served the Executive entrance as well as the lobby levels, dropped people off at the Studio level,a few steps below the level which also included the rehearsal halls and the broadcast studio. The alternative was to use the backstage elevators, which was impractical when they were in use during the stage shows, and finding one’s way from the top elevator level up a couple of flights of stairs to the Studio level was not for the uninitiated. There were also security issues (one shutters to think how much tighter that would have to be in these times.) Anyone dropped off by the elevators at either end would be free to roam about anywhere in the theatre unless staff was positioned to guide them to the Screening Rooms. It worked for recording sessions, and special screenings (Robert Wise remembered carrying a print of “Citizen Kane” to one of the rooms for the first press screening), but they were designed to be used for in house screenings, and public access is a bit of a problem. (I had payroll records in my office filing cabinets that went back to the time when there were full crews in both of the Screening Rooms, the Main booth and Rear Projection as well, with some swapping between the positions. Quite a time!)
vito — I don’t have the answers to a lot of your questions, but usually the whole Hall is rented. (While I was there someone did rent just the Lobby area for a bar mitzvah, and both Coca Cola and McDonalds used just the Lobby for their new product launches.) New Line would have had the option to use the 2nd and 3rd Mezzanines. And yes, they have been used when digital screenings are projected from the 1st Mez (I’ll have to check, but I think they were for the HBO “Sopranos” premieres.)
Four walling varies. I think the first time the house was four walled was for “Airport”, which in turn led to putting 70mm in. Ross Hunter wanted it projected in 70, and my predecessor had fought it for years.
While I was there the house was four-walled twice. The first time was for the Universal summer run of “McArthur”, “The Sting” and “Smokey and the Bandit”. In that case we were paid by Radio City as usual. When Disney four-walled the house for “Return to Oz” and “The Black Cauldron”, we all went on Disney’s payroll.
There is a minimum crew size starting with Department Heads and Assistants. Again, I’m not sure about all of the changes, since the lighting system is now computer controlled from the back of the house(or wherever). When I was there, a man on the elevator/contour control board was required (and I’m sure still is), and another electrician on the lighting board, since it was located in front of the pit. The fly foor required three men, as opposed to the usual two, since the size of the pieces requires more muscle to get the lines moving. If two pieces are moved at the same time, another three men were added. Load-in and load-out crew requirements were based on the show rider, as well as other crew needs in the house as is standard. If any two of the stage departments were used, the third was also added: i.e. Props, Carpenters and Electrics. While Sound technically falls under Electrics, it is also a separate department as is Projection.
One of the contacts I still keep is with someone who has been a shop steward for Local #1, so if I get a chance I’ll ask him what is being done today. Obviously it’s a very expensive house to use, and I recall grumbling somewhere on this site about the size of the crew it took to do an organ recital, but it kind of goes with the territory when you have a facility this large and complex (and yes — that does impact the ability to show motion-pictures, whether first run or in a retrospective.)
RCDTJ a 75mm lens would have given you a picture roughly about 27' x 54' which is about what we were running 1.85 at when I was there, and is indeed certainly doable. Perhaps the overall sheet size has been reduced since I was there. At that time it was 35' x 70'. If it is still the matte and not the silver screen used for 3-D the brightness downstairs should be about what it is from the booth.
Bill H. It would be wrong for me to make any aesthetic comment about “Che”. I gather it was one of the most debated pictures at Cannes. Technically, its a very interesting project as Steven is very cutting edge. I’m told all of the picture was shot with natural light, which is amazing considering the range of the story. He also used an anamorphic lens to simulate the look of “Scope” with film. He was able to look at scenes on his laptop at night and send the files back to N.Y. Editing, sub-titling and now the digital intermediate are all being done on site at his headquarters. The project raises the scope of “personal” moviemaking to new levels. In talented hands, digital “democratization” of the motion-picture process may result in some really good pictures.
By the way, another aspect of the digital cinema change is the ability to screen “alternative” content, for better or worse. The Metropolitan Opera “cinemacasts”, as well as those from LaScala and San Francisco are filling houses. Who’d a thunk that the Met live would be selling out in multiplexes in Peoria? And the word is that Sony’s special distribution network will enable the closing performance of “Rent” on Broadway to be seen nationwide.
Vito, it may not all be good —– but it sure as heck is interesting for this old-timer! Glad I’m still around to see it.
Ed, That is an enormously complex question. In all fairness I work for a company that is involved in digital cinema, and I have both 2k digital and 35/70mm capacity in my screening room. I also work with engineers who travel the country to do digital screenings, and indeed, one was at the Hall the other night. The industry is going digital regardless of the subtleties of the situation. I’m amazed that almost all of the screens in Illinois where I vacation each year are now digital.
At the moment most digital cinema projectors are “2K”, and I have done split-screen experiments here with 35mm/2K (granted on a small 14" wide screen). The results were enough to convince a film company to do its premiere screenings digitally. We now have 4K projectors coming on line, and I’ve been screening Steven Soderbergh’s “Che” which is a 4 hour picture in two parts one “flat” one “Scope”. He shot the whole thing with a 4k handheld camera, and is doing subsequent editing and color correction in his office before making the 2k copy used at Cannes. 4K (four-thousand lines of resolutio across the frame) is said to be the equal of full-frame sprocket hole to sprocket hole 35mm, but remember the 1.85 image used for “Sex and the City” projection with optical sound track is considerably smaller.
Now NHK and JVC in Japan are working with 8K digital projection systems. The JVC chip is basically the same size as the 70mm image, and should be able to produce “IMAX” size images (IMAX is going digital by the way.)
As with everything else this oversimplifies the situation. How good is the 35mm print? (Sometimes, not very, when they have to pump out 4,000 copies for a major release.) How well maintaned are the projectors – digital OR film? Theatres that didn’t maintain their 35mm equipment probably won’t maintain their digital equipment either, and it does take maintanence.
There’s nothing wrong with being old school vito — but remember we are at the “Edison” stage of this whole transition, and digital will get better, and should in a well run situation, give a picture closer to 70mm than could have been achieved in the average situation where 70mm was not an option.
Vito, We’ll have to “agree to disagree” on this one. I talked to the Dolby tech who did the screening this morning. He said they filled the screen with the digital image all the way to the screen height. That would mean a picture 35'high by 64 ¾' wide. There is no way you can do that with 35mm. (We did do it with 70mm for “The Lion King” and a few other premieres, but as noted above we only had about 8Fl. of light on the screen. And that was with new bulbs and new reflectors in the 5Kw lamphouses.) If you focus the 7K bulbs down to a 35mm aperture there is a marked tendency to burn the film, even with water-cooled gates.
We superimposed video projectors at the Hall all the way back to the days of the Eidophor, and in the case of at least one Grammy awards show with four superimposed projectors. Unlike film, the image can be manipulated digitally so there is an almost perfect overlap. We did one show with two Hughes D-ILA projectors with 10KW lamps superimposed on a 20' wide rear projection screen that was bright enough to read on camera with full stage lighting up. In addition, the superimposed projectors give 100% backup should one fail (minus the brightness of course.) The legend about the Hall when I was growing up was that they always used two film projectors overlapped to get the brightness needed. That wasn’t the case, although I did run four projectors with 6000' reels and two complete prints to give me back-up for “McArthur”, and we used three 70mm machines with one print of “Lion King” on a platter, and the other being run reel-to-reel as a back-up. We also had a 35mm print running on another platter to provide Dolby Digital sound, and serve as an extra back-up if needed.
The premiere the other night did use a MUTT for the 35mm print.
I’m told the digital looked very good indeed, and as mentioned above, you couldn’t have gotten that size out of a 35mm 1.85 print.
We certainly did use a buzzer or ring system at the Hall. When I started there they didn’t use Clearcom headsets for communication, and all the cues between the frontlight and projection booths, D Cove frontlight booth and the stage were given by buzzer cues (and yes they could be heard in the audience since none of the frontlight booths had glass in the ports.) The stage manager’s position had a panel with switches on it that selected which position would receive a cue from the stage — thus the manager could select any one of the frontlight booths or all of them at the same time. In projection each of the Magnascope control panels at the projectors had a stage buzz button on it, as well as a button to buzz the organists. At the end of a feature we would give an eight minute warning to get the stage manager and stage control board electrician in position, then a two minute buzz, and finally a “go” buzz to bring the contour in. We would also give a buzz at the end of the pre-show material (cartoon, trailers, short subject) for the traveller —the house golds, to be brought in and then re-opened for the feature. The buzz cues still were used when I left in 1999 to start film material, be it feature presentation or film effects in the stage shows such as the Christmas Spectacular. It still works better than trying to hear the cue on an intercom over the lamp fan noise, and at the projectors a light at each machine lights when the buzz is given as well. (By the way, of all the switches on the stage manager’s panel only the projection booth one has a white knob on it and it sits alone labelled “Kinema Booth”) While projection could change the Magnascope masking from the booth, the stage drapes were always brought in by a stage electrician. (In the case of the Hall a very good idea — you want someone down there when you’re moving a 3 ton contour controlled by 13 motors to make sure you’re not crushing a Rockette or a camel!)
In some cases all too well! In the case of “Caravans” Universal picked up distribution just so we would have a picture to play. In the final years of the movie/stage show policy, Universal was the most supportive studio.
In all due fairness, one of the above films was a “hit” selling out almost every performance over the opening weekend. That was “Magic of Lassie” which hit the right combination by featuring Lassie on stage in the show which accompanied the film. Bonita Granville Wrather was a charming lady whose husband had the rights to both “Lassie” and “The Lone Ranger”. She visited us in the booth, and not only sent recording tapes to me when she found out it was an interest, but sent a “tip” to the crew and “autographed” pictures of Lassie. From the evidence at the Hall, she thought the film was going to be a huge success, and we heard she was devastated when in opened later to minimal crowds.
BobFurmanek: Alas I can’t find contact information in your profile (or perhaps I just don’t know how to access it). I didn’t want to be rude by not responding, and this is the only way I know how.
Bob
Rory — CinemaScope was indeed supposed to be projected on a curved screen. If you check out Martin Hart’s American Widescreen Museum site he may still have the original 20th Century Fox Exhibitor’s Handbook in the CinemaScope section. That book spelled out exactly the degree of curvature required for CinemaScope presentation. Fox used high-gain Miracle Mirror screens and apart from other considerations such as mimicing Cinerama’s curve (although to a much lesser degree of course) the curved screen distributed the light more evenly across the theatre.
Fox was so adamant about having a curved screen that Radio Cty, which couldn’t install a curved screen due to the stage show requirements, didn’t show a CinemaScope picture until “Knights of the Roundtable” almost a year later when MGM said they didn’t care if it was shown on a curved screen.
By the way, the 1.85 aspect ratio was never exactly approved by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. The early attempts at widescreen presentation after Cinerama triggered the idea were achieved by cutting various amounts of the 1.37 picture off with apeture plates in the projectors. The ratios varied from theatre to theatre (Radio City had l.5:1 plates which were still in use when I started there). The theatres in the U.S. gradually “standardized” at 1.85:1 with Europe using a less extreme 1.66:1 for “flat” 35mm projection. SMPTE had listings for “Standards”, “Recommended Practices” and “Accepted Practices”, the latter designation for areas they couldn’t control such as what was being done in individual theatres. The 1.85 aspect ratio fell into the latter category. As Bob Furmanek points out, the ratios varied from theatre to theatre in the early days, with some horrible situations where the flat image was cropped to 2.1 and the “Scope” image also cropped by cutting off the sides to the same ratio.
The camera negative in many cases remains full frame to this day, with the wide screen matte applied in the printer to mask out any mike booms that may intrude into the top of the frame, and in many cases the image was composed in the viewfinder to protect both the 1.33 and 1.85 ratios so the same negative could be used for TV.
I hadn’t heard about “Mines” and “Show”, but that would certainly have been an effective use of Magnascope. It must have been impresive. I remember seeing a comment somewhere that the flaw with Magnascope was that while the audience loved the screen getting bigger, they didn’t like it when it returned to normal size. Even so, that kind of “showmanship” is surely missing today which is too bad because we have more tools to work with if someone would just use them creatively.
Warren: They were probably referring to “Magnascope” projection, which enlarged the picture although keeping the standard 1.33 aspect ratio. It was used with certain featrues such as “Old Ironsides” the 1926 Paramount silent spectacular. At climactic points in the action the masking pulled out and up and a shorter focal length lens was used to magnify the picture. Radio City had a Magnascope masking system installed with four presets to move the masking which could be operated from each projector. This was the only control the booth had over any stage draperies. The contour and title curtains were operated by stagehands from the stage. To this day, if you go up to the booth the panels engraved “Magnascope” are still at each of the original four projector positions, and a fifth was added for the fifth machine at the time 70mm was installed in 1970.
Oddly enough, the system was used into the ‘50’s to project newsreels at a larger size than the feature film. I still had a lens adapter marked “newsreel” when I started there. By that time the masking had been modified for widescreen use with CinemaScope and other formats, which made it “cranky” since instead of the sides and top masking moving out and up, the top masking now came down, and the sides out for the widescreen formats. The whole system with motors and heavy masking draperies flew out with the screen and center channel film speaker for the stage shows. I remember that if a mistake was made setting the cams on the control system the masking could “run away” and the top masking would bounce up and down like a yo-yo, which was pretty frightening considering you were moving a 70+’ by 10' or so piece of heavy duveteen. By the time I started there there were only two presets in use, so if we were mixing ratios, the Magnascope cogs had to be set for that particular combination: for instance doing a 1.37 classic cartoon with a 2.35 Scope feature. That also appliec to 1.85 and 2.21 70mm material. One of the most impressive of those uses came with our Warner classic series. In the old days, the title curtain would close at the end of the pre-feature material and then re-open to present the feature so the audience never saw the masking change. The title curtain was removed when we did “Snow White” as a stage show. Thus when we did “Blade Runner” which was Scope preceded by a 1.33 classic cartoon, I made the changeover with the masking in to the 1.33 position. The Warner logo came up perfectly centered in the 1.33 frame, and then I hit the other positon and the side masking slowly pulled out to full 65' wide Scope position. That actually elicited an “Ahh!” and applause from the audience.
So in a sense in answer to your question that same 1933 Magnascope system is still in use today.
I was the projectionist for the Premiere Screenings of “The Day After” in Lawrence, KS., the town where it was filmed. I had some time off from Radio City, and Larry Shaw of Boston Light & Sound was going out to set up their 35mm projection equipment in the University of Kansas Student Union auditorium. I jokingly said I thought it would be fun to see “Lawrence in Lawrence”. Since I did quite a bit of work for B.L. & S., Larry offered to pay my expenses out and back if I would be the operating projectionist.
It was a memorable experience. We did several screenings on the premiere day to accomodate the citizens of Lawrence, many of whom are seen in the film. I remember Nicolas Meyer, the director, being concerned that seeing themselves on the screen might cause the audience to “titter” and ruin the mood, so he asked for some restraint in his introductory comments. He needn’t have worried. While the audeinces did come in in a festive mood, the impressive scenes of the destruction of their home town displayed all too realistically on screen, left them in a far more somber state of mind. There was no “tittering” as the audiences filed out after the screenings!
I also vividly remember the scene of the missiles streaking up from their silos as seen from across the University of Kansas football field (the silos were actually there in real life). It was sobering to step out of the booth door onto the roof of the Student Union and see the football field from almost the identical angle to that of the scene in the film.
If you think the film is impressive viewing on a television screen, believe me — the sight of the watching the town you’re standing in
destroyed on a large screen as you’re standing there is both eerie and unforgettable!
brenograph: The auditorium was always more or less beige as a base color. The color was designed to reflect the light shone upon it. The original paint job, and the first re-painting speckled the beige undercoat with four colors of paint which reflected the cove lighting. The cove lights are in four colors: amber (gold), red, blue and green. That lighting is also used in the soffits under the mezzanines. Thus the ceiling can look gold or any one of the other colors. I left at the time of the current remodeling, so I’m not sure how well the new system works. The light source may have changed, as well as the basic color of the auditorium, and they may not have speckled it with the colors of paint that were in the original painting, but the concept remains the same.
One of the most impressive displays I remember was during a performance of The Mighty Clouds of Joy, which were an opening act. Our lighting console crew alternated the color of each cove one color at at time in a rippling pattern, which saw red go from “A” cove all the way to the back of the house, followed by each successive color. The effect was to turn the ceiling into a huge jukebox. In my twenty-five years there I never saw the effect repeated, but never forgot it.
Another great effaect was during the Easter Sunday Sunrise service which preceded the first show of the day. At the start the coves faded from gold to black, and as chimes sounded in the organ chamber, they slowly faded up with a low blue, through purple as the reds were added, and then from there to full brightness as the “sun” rose. Since the coves were, in legend, designed to reflect a sunrise Roxy say while cruising on a ship, the effect was very impressive.
Actually, the ties between RKO and Radio City continued in a way into the ‘50’s. The building over the Radio City entrance and lobby was RKO’s headquarters. We had two screening rooms in Radio City over the lobby auditorium on the executive level. One was Radio City’s and one was RKO’s. The two rooms had a common lobby with a staircase that extended down and onto the roof between the office building and the back wall of the Hall. There was a crosswalk area that led to a set of doors into the RKO building. Thus executives from RKO could go down to that floor in the office section, cross over outside for 10’ or so, and come up the staircase to their screening room. The first time “Citizen Kane” was screened in New York it was for the press in one of those screening rooms (probably Radio City’s since it was the larger of the two). Robert Wise, who was the “Kane” editor, remembered carrying the print in from California for the screening. I don’t know when RKO stopped using the room and it became Radio City’s, but I inherited a pair of “SuperScope” lenses from the room. SuperScope was RKO’s proprietary process designed to compete with CinemaScope. Their room (which became ours) was also equipped for 3-D presentation using two interlocked projectors with large 3-D film magazines, and an RKO sticker on one of the lamp ballasts. DC power for the arc lamps in the RKO room came from a generator in the Radio City generator room in the basement. I can’t remember whether the projectionists in both screening rooms were on Radio City’s payroll, but I know I had notebooks with the booth payroll hours listed that included the screening room crew.
The ties between RKO and Rockefeller Center were complex. The “R” in RKO was for RCA which was the Center’s leading tenant. There are also accounts of the Rockefellers using their clout to counter Hearst’s drive against “Citizen Kane”. Indeed, “Kane” was originally booked into the Hall before they moved it to the Palace. Had RKO continued in its original form, they would probably have still been using their space in the Hall.
As mentioned in a post above, the McVickers went legit for “Man of La Mancha”, and I believe the Chicago home of the stage production of “Fiddler On The Roof”. I remember hearing a story which perhaps someone on this thread can verify about the “Fiddler” booking. I think at the time, the McVickers was operated by LublinerTrinz (?)and was alternating between film and live stage shows. There was a need for a live house for the Chicago run of “Fiddler”, and the McVickers was approached as a site. The story I remember hearing was that Lubliner Trinz said they would make the theatre available if when the movie version came out they would have the roadshow rights to it in Chicago. They then built McClurg Court specifically for the roadshow 70mm presentation of “Fiddler”. I know I saw the film version at McClurg Court — it was their opening attraction. Anyone care to comment?
The booth you’re talking about is indeed a broadcast booth. There’s one on each side of the auditorium, although the one on the Prompt side was used as storage for the Electric Department when I was there. The one Opposite Prompt had space for an announcer and engineer, and was used to broadcast at least one show just before I started there in 1974. It then became the Tape Room, with the much mentioned tape machines when the format changed in 1979. It also was used for Sound Department wireless mics and cable storage. Since they now use hard drives for the pre-recorded audio in the show, they are probably up at the 2nd Mezzanine mix position.
Some additional thoughts about pre-records:
In the first place, pre-recording has been going on for years. When you saw Astaire and Rogers dancing and singing, they were working to “Playback” of recordings made on the music scoring stage. On set recording wouldn’t be of high enough quality to use and would reflect any “thumps” and extraneous noise on the stage. Indeed, these days ADR (automated dialogue replacement) is used extensively in most features even when the performances on done on a studio soundstage. Location sound has obvious disadvantages. The Rockettes are precision dancers primarily, and again, who says they aren’t really singing or doing it as satisfactorily as any Broadway performers? While I feel that the audio mixes for live performances are often over-miked and over-loud, they are what this generation has come to expect in terms of performance audio sound.
Secondly, it would be hard to get enough radio frequencies to mic 36 Rockettes individually, nor is it possible to use mics to adequately cover their movements across the whole stage, given that its a block wide and about 60' deep. In the original Hall audio operation there were five “rising” mikes that came up out of the floor to pre-set heights for solo performers. They were also used to pick up the sound of the Rockettes taps, but not vocals. In later years “Riverdance” and “Lord of the Dance” had mikes with R.F. transmitters placed in some of the dancer’s shoes to pick up the sound of their dancing, but even then some of the sound of their dancing was pre-recorded. Its possible to mic solo performers, but again getting 36 mics is a bit much. And beside, who would want to see the Rockettes wearing those annoying little boom mics that hang on the ear like a telephone headset? I’ll take a little artifice anyday.
That’s Show Business! Actually, I’m not sure that the Rockettes don’t do their own singing. The problem with all the singing done during the show is that it’s difficult to sing and dance at the same time across a stage that big without running out of breath. When I was there all of the vocal numbers, except those actually being performed by soloists were pre-recorded in the recording studio which was designed to by Roxy’s broadcast studio. Its not so much a case of deception (although in a sense that’s the basis for a lot of theatrical illusion) as practicallity.
A couple of notes on the posts above: Warren, the Rockettes have been “singing” for years, lip synched to tape. They had already started the practice when I started there in 1974. The orechestra was conducted to “click” track on tape with the vocal on another track. In fact the whole show has been tied to a click track for a very long time. I always felt frustrated in the rare times the tape stopped for some reason the whole show did also. I always felt like “you’ve got an orchestra in the pit and performers on stage — get on with it!” Now the show is done to hard drives not tape, but the concept is the same. One of the reasons for using a click track for the orchestra was that one of our conductors when I went there in 1974 (who shall remain nameless but who was famous for conducting a band on radio) was wildly erratic in keeping to a beat, and at times would start conducting at double tempo leaving the Rockettes scattered about the stage. Tying him to a click track was the solution. The tape deck in the sound booth on projection level could be started by the conductor from the podium and would stop on its own with the next cut cued up. I remember an Easter show when I got a call from one of the the projectionists that no one had shown up from the sound department for a show, and could I help. I rushed over to the theater and got there at the end of the “Glory of Easter” segment, and managed to get the P.A. system up, and get the tape cued up to the next cue. It was one of the few times the cast actually sang with no amplification for the “Glory”, and one of the House Managers said he had never heard the audience so quiet and attentive!
I have been told that while the end of “Saboteur” looks as if it were shot in the Hall it wasn’t. It was done with matte shots of the Hall. I have it on Laserdisc (remember those?)and have still framed the sequence. If you look carefully, everything above the audience, including the light beam from the projector is a matte. In the shots of the rear of the auditorium the doors don’t quite line up with aisles as they do in the Hall, and the wallpaper pattern isn’t quite the same.
Fred Kellers was always amused that when the villian runs out on the Choral Stairs he exits directly onto 50th Street. In reality the Choral Stairs openings lead into a narrow area with stairs up to the level above the stage near the passenger elevators, and down to the stage. While other films have been shot in the Hall, “Saboteur” was a careful recreation on a sound stage instead.
I should add, that while GKC was operated out of Springfield, the North/South split wasn’t entirely geographical. GKC ran theatres into upstate Illinois and I think, Indianna and Michigan, while also running theatres to the south. They shied away from Chicago, at least in part because of the strength of Local #110 at the time. Carbondale was probably as far south at they went.