Radio City Music Hall
1260 Avenue of the Americas,
New York,
NY
10020
1260 Avenue of the Americas,
New York,
NY
10020
93 people
favorited this theater
One of the greatest Art Deco style structures ever built, Radio City Music Hall is one of the most well known landmarks of New York City. Opened on December 27, 1932, with a variety show, it screened its first film Barbara Stanwyck in “The Bitter Tea of General Yen” on January 11, 1933. The proscenium is 100 feet wide, the stage 66 feet deep. It was equipped with a Wurlitzer organ, which has twin 4 manual consoles and 58 ranks. The organ was opened by organists Dick Leibert and Dr. C.A.J. Parmentier.
Showing a mixture of movies and stage shows in the program for 45 years, the format was ended on April 25, 1979 with Kathleen Quinlan in “The Promise”. Thereafter the programming changed to concerts, stage shows and special events.
Reborn after a $70 million renovation in 1999, Radio City has been restored to all of its original opulence.
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Recent comments (view all 3,226 comments)
I looked in the NY Times and saw it opened February 17, 1966. But when did it close?
On March 17 THE SIGNING NUN moved in.
Sixty-nine years ago today, George Stevens' B&W wartime housing shortage comedy, “The More the Merrier,” starring Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, and Charles Coburn, opened its world premiere engagment at RCMH. The Columbia release was later re-made by Columbia Picures in color as “Walk, Don’t Run,” with Cary Grant taking over Coburn’s original role, which did not receive a RCMH booking. Supporting “The More the Merrier” was Leon Leonidoff’s five-scene revue, “Melody Time,” which used the Last Movement of Rachmaninoff’s “Concerto in C Minor” as the overture.
Here’s a January, 1938 photo showing a waiting line during the smash engagement of Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (plus stage show): lunaimaging
Cirque du Soleil opens again soon I wondered if it is the same show as last year and is anyone here working on it?
Cirque is leaving after this year. They are not staying as long as they were supossed to.
I recall they had an option for 2013, was it not as popular as they had hoped?
That’s what it seems.
I miss the 6th Avenue el, (seen in the photo five responses above this) even thought it was torn down decades before I was born.
Seventy-nine years ago today, RCMH opened what is still regarded as one of the most bizarre programs in its history. On screen was WB’s “Elmer the Great,” a B&W baseball comedy with wide-mouthed clown Joe E. Brown in the title role. The stage show was topped by a condensed version of the classic Italian opera “I Pagliacci,” plus the 60 members of the Corps de Ballet in “La Sylphide,” and “An Orchid to You” spectacle featuring “the incomparable” Roxyettes. An added screen bonus was Walt Disney’s latest Technicolor cartoon, “Three Little Pigs,” which introduced what quickly became one of the theme songs of the Depression era— “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?”.