Radio City Music Hall

Vito: The contour curtain was raised and lowered by the control board operator who also controlled the traveller (when we had one — it was removed because we needed another line set for the live “Snow White” production we did). That operator also controlled the elevators and the turntable in the middle of the stage. There was also a stage manager on duty at the end of the feature next to the control board position. We would give the stage an 8 minute warning before the end of the film by buzzing them, and they would acknowledge with a return three buzzes. Then a 2 min.– 2 buzz warning, and finally the actual buzz to start the contour in. We would also buzz at the end of the shorts and trailers preceding the feature to close the traveller and reopen it. The traveller was acoustically transparent so it didn’t muffle the sound from the screen, but the three ton contour did as it came in. Screen masking both sides and top was controlled from either the booth or the stage by the original Magnascope system. The guy, and sometimes guys, in the pit actually operated the lighting for the stage show. The board for the lighting was made by G.E. and was the first electronic thyratron controlled system in the city. There was a smaller version in the Rainbow Room at the top of the RCA (now G.E. Building). The controls on the board operated two huge banks of thyratrons, one over the stage in a room that extended from 50th St. to 51st. Street, the other on the shop level one floor below the stage which extended from just a walkway’s thickness behind the proscenium line to the back of the stage. That board also controlled selsyn operated color changers for the “X’s” and “O’s”, huge floods mounted in C cove above the stage. There was also a shutter system for blanking out the lights, since thyratrons have a delay time in dimming, and a “blackout” wasn’t possible. It was pretty impressive to be in the upper reactor room when either the show was on or the house was fully lit. There were hundreds of rectifier tubes glowing blue. In addition, there had to be ghost loads, since if the stage load wasn’t high enough for a given circuit it wouldn’t dim completely out, so there were bunches of large wattage incandescent lamps in the reactor room that could be added to a dimmer circuit so it would fully dim. The system was finally replaced during the last remodeling with a computer controlled system operated from the back of the house, although the original board is still in its position. I only worked in that area once during Julio Iglesias' show. The video projector controls were placed on the board. Since the pit elevator was up, that meant we were literally at the performer’s feet which I found discomforting (particularly with the warm-up comedian who opened the show by juggling axes!) I felt it would be rude to sit there reading in between cues since we were in full view of Julio. I was trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, when on the second night he looked right at us and said, “There are men down there!” He then got down on his knees at the edge of the elevator and leaned over and looked at the board and said, “Ooh! There are lots of switches and things. Stand up and show everybody that you really are there.” So the three of us stood up. The audience must have seen three disembodied heads resting on the back console cover which were spotlighted and then popped out of sight! It was my only time in the spotlight at the Hall!

Vito: I run all my film emulsion “it”! At the Hall we ran emulsion IN. A year or so ago a reporter from my hometown newspaper in Illinois e-mailed me to do a story about me when she found out that a local man had worked at Radio City. There was a typo in her e-mail which made the headline read, “Local Man Makes Goo!” (I actually kind of liked that.) We had two men on a shift and two shifts per day when I was at the Hall. Prior to my arrival there were three men on a shift. Oddly enough, the union was pushing to eliminate one man and retain the same pay scale to raise the booth rate per man, while the Hall didn’t think that two men could run the show and handle the high-intenstiy spot and film effect cues during the stage shows. When I started the Hall agreed to go to two men per shift. As the Head Projectionist I worked two shifts per week as an operator. Ben Olevsky said that was to insure that if the person in the Head’s position was deemed unsuitable for that job he would still have two shifts per week to gaurantee some income. And yes, we always did call cues. The schedule was equalized in a way only one of the operator’s on the crew really understood, but everyone worked the same number of weekends during the year. There long weeks and short weeks, and those who worked one week on the opening shift would move to the evening shift the next week. I kind of gummed up the works a bit since my boss wanted me free to do other gigs once in a while during the week. Thus I always worked Saturday and Sunday opens, while my predecessors were on a rotating schedule. There were eight men on the crew when I started, and that was later by attrition reduced to seven. The man on the crew who worked out the schedule said someone once tried to do it on a computer and it crashed! After the change in policy in ‘79 the crew size would vary according to the show, but with the exception of one film series we did when the Hall first changed format, Feature presentations always used two men, and three for the tryptich sequence in “Napoleon”. I did do a three screen film effect for the Summer Spectacular one year using the “Napoleon” selsyn rig all by myself, but all of the premieres and the Warner and Universal film retrospectives used two of us in the booth at all times.

Correction, I meant to say the sound track was running along the right side of the screen. well…… at least it wasn’t upside down

Indeed I have. I was on the Projection Practice Committee of the SMPTE when Eastman came out with that recommendation (16mm film was always oriented that way). We decided when I went to the Hall that since we wanted to follow SMPTE recommendations when possible, we would change the wrap from emulsion out to emulsion in. (I had tried it in the theatre I worked in in Illinois before going to the Hall, but the Business Agent made me put it back lest it lead to a relief operator threading up wrong.) My boss at the Hall and I warned management that there could be a mistake made, but that it was worth trying. Sure enough — even though we had arrows marked in the magazines, one of the operators at the Hall did thread up wrong and the other operator on the shift didn’t catch it. I was in the house at the time, and got to the booth as quickly as I could after the changeover, and by then the crew was rethreading the reel. No one was fired, and of course the operator who made the error felt terrible about it. That was the only time it happened, and up until the time I left, all film 35 and 70mm was wound emulsion it for projection at the Hall.

RichePipes: Good to catch up with you also! Glad you’re around this site. So many people have questions, and there’s so much speculation that I often want to just refer them to the Music Hall staff, but don’t want to create a bother for anyone. At the Hall the tech staff has been there for literally generations, in some cases going all the way back to the opening as with you. Its really possible to go to the “horses mouth” for answers, so I’m glad to see you’re here to definitively answer queries about the Music Hall organ. RobertR: I was still in the Midwest when “Happiest Millionaire” opened in Chicago at either the Michael Todd or Cinestage theatres (they were both owned by Todd and were next to one another). It was roadshow, although not 70mm. I remember it because it was the first non-70mm roadshow they played in the house and in refocussing the carbon arc lamps for 35mm, the heat created a “breathing” problem on the film which was quite noticeable. I don’t think it had a very long run there roadshow before being released in its non roadshow engagements

Greetings All… I’m the Curator of the Music Hall Pipe Organ, as my family has been involved with & worked at the Theater since it’s opening in 1932. Bob Enders – so glad to catch up with you Sir! If there are any facts or questions concerning the Pipe Organ or the Music Hall itself that I can help with, please let me know. My great Uncle installed the organ on the Wurlitzer crew, my father came to work with him in 1956, and my Mother was a Rockette ~ then I started working here at the young age of ten – so my family’s history is well entwined within this Majestic building. I look forward to chatting with people within this group!

With all deference to Miss Greer Garson a her crowning as “Queen” of the Music Hall for most weeks played there, I believe that Doris Day’s films have actually brought in more at the box-office. I believe her 13 films have taken in more than 14 million dollars. In fact the last Day film to play the Music Hall in August-September, 1968, “Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?” briefly held the title of biggest opening week gross in history ($ more than
$ 278,000). It lost that title later that when the the Christmas attraction “The Impossible Years” beat it.

Scroll down on here, there are some Radio City programs for sale

http://www.the-forum.com/whatsnew.html

Gance was alive at the time of this screening and though too ill to attend(that would have been something!) I believe they hooked up a sound system so he could hear it. When he heard the applause at the end he said “It’s too late.”

For me, one especially memorable event at Radio City Music Hall was on July 7, 1983. That night the restored/reconstructed “A Star is Born” (George Cukor, 1954) had its gala first presentation in New York. The place was packed to the rafters. Some celebrities in attendance were Liza Minnelli, Lorna Luft, James Mason, and Lillian Gish. It was a thrilling class act.

Another case of too many cooks spoiling the soup. If they had any sense at all they would simply say to guys like REndres, here’s our movie do your magic and play it the way it should be played.
I remember during the technical rehersal for “Hello Dolly” at the Rivoli, the Fox guys were running around playing with the sound, the lights, even the curtain which closed to late leaving a white sheet, the sound seemed loud enough to be heard across the street from the theatre. Some of us complained, and Rivoli management said, “don’t worry guys let the Fox guys have some fun, after they leave we can set up everything the way we know it should be” Which is what we did.

I did the Radio City tour this weekend, first time I’ve been inside since about 1977. Was it my imagination or did the giant mural become faded when it was cleaned?
Another question, was the theatre originally built with a sprinkler system or was that installed some time later? The guide didn’t know.