Radio City Music Hall
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
116 people
favorited this theater
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Leon Leonidoff used to film his shows i would love to see some of them. As for the new management i don’t believe they have any intrest or even care about the great history of the music hall
The reason why you probably cannot recall anything about this version is that it was very boring. This came right after the mediocre Promise at Dawn to be followed by a not very funny A New Leaf.
The stage show A Southern Medley had a sensational Rockette number called Bayou Rhythym and I’d sit through the whole thing all over again just to see it. This was also done with the film Picnic and unfortunately is lost to the ages. Why the current management of the Rockettes doesn’t insure the preservation of these routines is beyond me.
I saw this in 1971 and for some strange reason can’t recall a thing about this version?
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Wow, these comments hve spilled over to another page…I think!
I can empathize with Theaterat concerning the size of the Music Hall when you’re a little kid. I first went when I was 7. My family always sat in the third mezzanine. We took the elevator up and walked down when the show was over. I can recall thinking the stairs going down were never going to end – whenever we got to the bottom of one huge staircase, there was always another one just around the corner. This was not a complaint, mind you – I thought it was fun.
As a New Yorker, I have only been to RCMH 4 times in my entire life. The first time when I was about 11, I went with my mother to see “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” a musical with Debby Reynolds and the stage show. I had to “GO Potty” during the movie, but I was afraid to leave my seat due to the overwhelming size of it. An usher showed me the way. I think it was on the second floor. The next time I wenr was in 1975 with “the crowd” to see GWTW. When blown up to 70mm for the huge screen, it looked like all the color was washed out of it. I did not enjoy it. The third time was in 1981 when the Grateful Dead did a 12 or 13 show stint. I( really did not care about theaters too much then, but the Dead, who played for almost 6 hours were teriffic!The last time was in 1995 for the X Mas show. I difd this with my mother, brother and sister-in-law. Enjoyed the show, but for the first time I really got to see the theater for what it is, and it made an impression on me that I will NEVER forget! Hope to go back soon.
Rob, a couple of questions if I may, regarding the 70mm 3-D sequence, Are both projectors running interlock or is the left/right image on one print. Also, What is the wattage on the 35mm lamphouses.
Lastly, when you run digital prints, where is the projector located?
and does RCMH have it’s own digital projector(s) Thanks
I saw Fay Wray at that screening also. I was told recently that had Fay lived she was going to appear in the last scene of the King Kong remake that is being filmed now. Maybe that film could be premiered at Radio City like the original was. I would pay extra to see that.
The projectors are definitely still there. Two of the three 35/70mm machines now have 7,000 watt xenon lamphouses for projection of the opening 70mm 3-D sequence in the Christmas Show, and the two 35mm machines have upgraded lamphouses installed. Most motion-picture premieres these days are done with digital projection rather than film (as they increasingly are everywhere else).
How typically idiotic of Radio City not to have had recently a gala showing of King Kong with Fay Wray in attendance. The place would have been packed. She died only very recently and I saw her twice not that long ago at Film Forum. That was a real thrill sitting near her watching her watch herself in a film made by Stroheim in the 20’s. Mind blowing.
I should have asked her if she enjoyed Jungle Rhythms.
I’m pretty sure the projectors are still installed. I’m basing this on a Radio City tour I took around 4 years ago, but I know they still show movies as premieres and special events from time to time (“West Side Story”’s 40th anniversary which was not open to the public, “Harry Potter”).
I was at the concert also. Is the projection equipment still installed? I was in the 3rd mezz. but I could not see thru the projection slots. I remember seeing “Gone With The Wind” there in 1989 and that was after the change-over.
>> The last fillm to play there was “The Promise”, starring Kathleen Quinlan.
posted by RobertR on Jan 9, 2004 at 2:51pm <<
That was also the last time stage shows were presented with the Rockettes BETWEEN feature films. A bad movie, which I sat through three times to see the stage shows as at the time it appeared the theater was doomed and finished. But many people, including then Lt Gov of NYS, Mary Anne Krupsak, organized and saved the landmark. I can still hear the theme song of “The Promise” echoing in my head! Ugh.
Just got back from seeing The Moody Blues at Radio City. They put on their usual fine show, but even if the show was lousy it would’ve been enough just to be in the Hall again …
The Rockettes even put in an appearance. Only two of them, but two Rockettes are better than none. They got a great ovation when they did their high kicks with Moody Blues drummer Graeme Edge.
The New York Times rarely discussed the stage show when reviewing a Music Hall film but I believe Bosley Crowthers singled out the Iwo Jima finale as being sensational. Though today its hard to imagine what the staging for such a thing might be.
Here’s a Program from June ‘66. If you want to read the fine print, after you click on the URL you must click the image itself so that it enlarges on your screen. I’m sorry that a print-out won’t be so clear.
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The stage and screen fare listed here delivered the theater’s typically high-class full-entertainment package. The live portion concluded with the celebrated fireworks effect.
Another stylish show from the period accompanied “How to Steal a Million†the following August. I’ve lost the program for it, but I remember that the Purdue University Band performed in the theater’s aisles and that a lavish re-enactment of the battle of Iwo Jima constituted the finale. I also remember that my date and I were sitting in my favorite seats at RCMH: in the row on the left-side cross-aisle, so as to have an unobstructed view of the stage and screen. My mom had discovered the advantages of these seats when I was a kid and prone to interference from grown-up heads in front of us. As an adult, I favored these seats so that I could stretch my long legs in full comfort. When the Purdue University Band began its march across the aisle, I thought fractionally of tripping up the tuba player for devilment when he passed, but I withdrew the idea for fear of being ejected from the theater before viewing Audrey Hepburn on the screen. Still, if we had happened to see the movie before the stage show, well then…
This program is the last in my collection with the old cursive “Showplace†logo and the majuscule RCMH name.
Thanks, Robert. I especially like the picture from 1959. I can’t read the letters on the marquee, but I like to think that either “North by Northwest” or “The Nun’s Story” was playing that day.
There is a tiny pic when they desicrated the great stage by playing basketball there
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Rockettes in 2003
http://www.christithomas.com/images/MVC-013F11.jpg
There is one real pic of the hall in here from 1934
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The Music Hall paid much less than that to the film company(after all it is a prestige booking. You get to use in your advertising that it played the Hall.)
Also I don’t believe they paid very much to the staff and performers(what I did for love as they say in ACL.)
I believe at the end of Snow White’s run Variety reported that on a 5 week $550,000 gross Disney got $150,000.
Mike Igers should be happy with that today.
Besides, what movie out of the ones they’re making today would be good enough to attract that many people to the Hall? Maybe the new “King Kong” could do it? I’m hoping the premiere of the movie is held at Radio City, and that the public is able to attend. Kong will have come full-circle from 1933 to 2005.
Subtract payment to the film company (approx. 75%) and they’d be left with $436,590 – subtract payroll, utilities, taxes, etc. and I’d guess they’d lose money at the end of the week, especially since there is no way they’d sell out 4 shows a day with the current studio release patterns.
There’s no audience for a stage show and a movie now days. But…if the Hall could play a movie exclusively for a couple of weeks, then you would have people going there.
If the Music Hall were to reinstate its film stageshow policy at todays movie prices and to sell out all performances 4 times a day it would gross $1,746,360.00 a week which would be an improvement over the $200,000 it would gross a week in the 70’s. Though I believe 2001 grossed less than $100,000 for its one week run.