Radio City Music Hall
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
118 people
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Right— As for “Shane,” I believe that it had been finished early in ‘52, a full year before its release. If it could sit in the cans that long before being shown, it could surely wait a few weeks before jumping into the neighborhood circuit.
Odder delays occurred. “The Glass Menagerie” opened at RCMH in Sept ‘50, but took until mid-Feb '51 to reach the Loew’s circuit. At that, it received second billing to a Van Johnson-Kathryn Grayson frolic, “Grounds for Marriage.” Oddly too, “Menagerie” was released by Warner Bros, whose product always went to the RKO nabes. Were the circuits experimenting with distribution in the wake of the studio breakup decision? Or was “Menagerie” perceived as a huge flop? Gertrude Lawrence, where are you when we need you?
“Ivanhoe” opened at RCMH in August ‘52, but did not reach the Loew’s neighborhood chain until Easter '53. Did RCMH have such pre-release privileges? Was Loew’s trying to build anticipation for its expensive wares? Was the picture thought to be disappointing, so that by holding it back people might forget the tepid reviews? “Ivanhoe” played at RCMH for eight peak weeks in '52 (31 July-24 Sept, and kids like me loved it: there could have been worse ways to be introduced to the twelfth century.
Warren, I believe the faster release of “Young Bess” was prompted by the current interest in the coronation of the Queen as seen with the great success of “A Queen is Crowned” documentary.
Yes, this database is sensational. If you have on-line access to a research library collection, it’s terrific.
Some institutions allow library membership privileges for a fee that may well be worthwhile for access to the rest of the collection. And when Stanford, NYPL, and other institutions collaborate for complete on-line access to all their non-copyrighted collections, we’ll all have a blast. Meanwhile, I enjoy fingering hard-copy library materials. At my library, back issues of Variety are still the original paper product.
Meanwhile, what’s this got to do with RCMH? At midnight last night when I tested out ProQuest on line, I looked up the review of “Shane” at RCMH on 24 April ‘53 (it’s already reprinted in the “NYT Directory of Film” and in the paperback “NYT Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made,” ed. Vincent Canby and Janet Maslin). It includes a notice of the stage show, “a musical review in a Latin mood,” excised from the above. I printed out the page (you can do that, too, though you’ll need a magnifying glass to read it: the one that comes with the OED Dictionary works just fine). There’s a notice next to the stage listings (Danny Kaye at the Palace, Patricia Neal and Kim Hunter in “The Children’s Hour” at the Coronet) that Jascha Heifetz was recovering from an attack “on the right hand by a youth wielding an iron bar. The attack apparently was made because of Mr. Heifetz’s insistence on playing German music, despite threats.” Life imitates art?
Links, please!
Whoa— I take back that comment about accessing previous pages on ProQuest Historical Newspapers: you can do that, and you can access subsequent pages as well. There’s a button at the top of the Page Image that allows you to range through the entire issue. This is great. Thanks again, Benjamin.
Benjamin— Yes, it works.
I went to a university on-line catalogue, then to databases, then to ProQuest Historical Newspapers, then to a hypothetical article based on the release date of a film, then to its review by Crowther, then to full page.
It’s a shame, though, that we can’t access contiguous pages to gather further ads printed on them. Still, it gives us at least a page from the past sans microfilm. I would never have thought of the clever tip you provided. Thanks for sharing it.
Re: accessing old issues of the “New York Times” for info on movies and movie theaters
Until a few weeks ago, I didn’t realize that there is something much, much better than either a) the online archive of the “New York Times” or b) microfilm/microfiche. Apparently university libraries subscribe to online database services which allow the user to not only search a publication like the “New York Times” using keywords in a search engine, but also allow the user to view a) an online photograph (a pdf file?) of the article and/or b) an online photograph of the entire page of the newspaper (including the advertisements).
The first time I ever used such an online database was to look up the article that Warren mentioned in his Feb 6th post on Radio City Music Hall’s underground box office. By typing in “Radio City Music Hall” and specifying the date of the article (12/18/40), I was able to access a photograph of the the original article within seconds! (You can also specific a date range, rather than just a specific date.) If you select “page view,” you get to see not only the article itself, but the advertisements surrounding them.
I’ve since used the database to look up articles and advertisements about the Loew’s “Wonder” Theaters (was able to view the advertisements that listed the “Wonder” theaters, what they were showing and the show times); the original “Lindy’s” restaurant (which, apparently, was next door to the Rivoli); the theater where the original production of the Broadway musical “Gypsy” opened (it was the Broadway, which had been a movie theater, the B.S. Moss Colony); etc.
I assume all university libraries subscribe to this database, called “Proquest,” but don’t know if public research libraries, like the research division of the New York Public Library, do also — but would imagine that they do. (If they do, I suspect you have to access them at the actual library — not over the internet.)
It’s still not clear to me what a database company like “Proquest” does/is, but this is the tentative understanding I got after speaking to the librarian (and another one, later):
A company, like “Proquest,” contracts with a publication, like the “Times,” to photograph all of its issues between certain dates. (“Proquest” has the rights to issues of the “Times” between 1851 and 2001.) I think the company then photographs (pdf?) all the pages that have been published between those dates — or maybe they use existing microfiche?). The company develops software that allows a computer to search through the images for certain words in headlines or text. The company provides this package to libraries for a certain fee.
All in all, it sounds like an amazing undertaking and a wonderful service. (I’m just guessing that this is the way it is set-up, but would be interested in hearing the true story from anyone who knows.)
(Don’t know how many other publications are accessible this way, but “Proquest” also offers historical database searches for the “Chicago Tribune,” the “Los Angeles Times” and the “Washington Post.”)
P.S. — Although I’d seen these databases mentioned before, I had no idea what they were. I guess I thought that they were electronic equivalents of the old “Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature” — I didn’t think that you could also access the articles themselves (and the advertisements around them). A few weeks ago, a librarian gave me a more detailed look at what they could do when I mentioned that I was trying to find out the prices for things like movies in years gone by. He suggested the “Proquest” database as a way of indirectly accessing the advertisements in old issues of the “New York Times” (first you access an article on the entertainment page, and then you select page view to see the ads surrounding it).
Actually, it hasn’t been that helpful for my original purpose (the ads don’t seem to mention prices as much as I thought they would), but it seems to me to be a tremendous research resource nevertheless.
veyoung— what an awful thing, that “constant width” that you mention. I never heard of it, but the words send a knife through me. At least RCMH never contemplated going that route, did it?
SimonL— I know of no web archive or site that offers Variety’s grosses, much less its reviews, articles, and other data.
Variety.com charges an annual subscription rate of $259 for access to its on-line archives— whew, no thanks, can’t go there.
The NY Times on-line archive charges $2.95 per article (or a reduced bulk rate of $25.95 for twenty-five articles)— um, no thanks, unless perhaps the article mentions me by name and I’m feeling vain enough to want it. You can get free previews of the first few lines of many articles. But I find that its key-word cataloguing is spotty.
So, for me (for now) archival work in a good library is the only possibility. Microfilms aren’t all that awkward to use, are they?
For rapid reference to release dates in NYC, I use the NY Times Directory of the Film (up to 1969), and then the NY Times Film Reviews (through 1982), and then Variety Film Reviews (1983-86). From there, I track down the specifics in relevant issues of the NY Times, Variety, or NY Herald Tribune (to its demise in ‘67).
Like the rest of us, I enjoy thumbing through “Marquee.” And I also like the journal “Theatre Catalog” (note the idiosyncratic spelling for this American publication!), which is chock full of data about projection, exhibition, and theater design, with swell pictures of the real stuff up to the mid-1960s.
One of the most enduring myths about widescreen/stereo sound presentation is that the horrid curses of mono sound and incorrect aspect ratios are something new. Not so. As early as December 1953, scarcely 3 months after The Robe premiered, some chains, notably Walter Reade, Jr. steadfastly refused to install stereo screen speakers or surrounds. Reade, in particular, used a “mixer” which mixed the output from the 4 mag tracks into one single signal which went on its way to the one single loudspeaker with no one being any wiser. Likewise, I distinctly remember as far back as 1954 being in a major theatre (Philadelphia, Stanton) with that god-awful “constant width” masking which rendered the anamorphic image actually smaller than the pre-Scope screen. Bad showmanship has been around for decades!
Question for BoxOfficeBill: Other than going to the library to view Variety’s grosses through the years on microfilm, is there a web archive or site that offers that data? I know that Variety’s own site does not offer that even to subscribers.
Bill, it must then cause you much pain to see what the theatre owners are doing to aspect ratios in todays movies house boxes.
I have seen some real nightmares out there.
Between “Shane” and “Kiss Me Kate,” RCMH simply used its old Magnascope screen, framed at the standard but by-then unfashionable ratio of 1.33. When RCMH introduced a wider frame on an evidently new screen for its Christmas ‘53 show (the anemic “Easy to Love,” preceding the CinemaScope “Knights”), you could see black lines on its surface where its horizontal panels has been sewn together.
I know I’ve complained about this before (above, on 21 July '04 and 1 Sept '04), but as a pint-sized nut about film projection, I was enraged by what had been happening at that theater. Humpf.
RCMH continued for several years afterward to show its newsreels and announcements-of-next-attraction on its older-size screen, and that was a nice, nostalgic touch.
Radio City is not the tourist attraction it once was because the Rockettes and stage show are used only once a year. When people would visit New York City, Broadway and Radio City was one of there stops. Its sad Radio City is a shadow of its former self even though the theatre has been restored. What made Radio City famous in the first place is used only at Christmas. It is to bad the Disney Corporation didn’t buy Radio City becuase they at least would have shown a little showmanship that is sadly missing with Cablevision. Radio City could have showcased Disney films with stage shows featuring the Rockettes like they do with the El Capitan in Hollywood but on a much bigger scale. When the theatre was dark from the Disney fare the theatre could hold concerts and special events.Cablevision has not been in good financial shape so they are following a very safe but boring policy at Radio City.brucec
Warren: The nice thing about the presentation of “Shane” at the Music Hall was that the opening credits appeared on the regular size screen before the screen widened. This was an impressive effect. It’s too bad all the subsequent wide-screen and Cinemascope films weren’t presented that way as it helped to create a sense of awe as the screen widened.
REndres, I remember the fire curtain very well. As one of the last patrons to leave I watched it slowly decend and then immediately go back up. I remenber thinking what the heck was that? I asked a staff member and was told it was a fire department regulation to test the curtain twice a day. Sorry I did not get to see the “fire drop”. Once again, you have brought back great memories of RCMH.
A couple of notes: “The Bells of St. Mary’s” was the 1945 Christmas Show, but ran for nine weeks, starting 12/6/45 and ending 2/6/46. The stage show was “The Nativity” and “Heigh Ho!” produced by Leon Leonidoff, for four weeks and just “Heigh Ho!” for the remaining five weeks of the run. While in the twenty-two years of the Hall’s life, 109 out of 348 films were from RKO, “Bells” was the only RKO film played in 1945.
The fire curtain referred to in an earlier e-mail is (or was when I was there) asbestos. It is in two huge sections that completely seal off the 60' x 100' proscenium opening. It was brought in every morning before the first show and evening after the last show by motor in the movie/stage show days. Far more dramatic however, is when it is cut loose in a “fire drop”. Then the curtain comes hurtling at the stage with a roar in free fall until a short distance above the deck when hydraulic pistons hit fluid which slows it to a stop. Nothing is supposed to be placed on the fire curtain line which is marked on the deck with brads. Rumor has it that one person did leave his briefcase on the line just before a test drop and it was crushed! The curtain was tested in free fall mode before every concert load-in, and the test was dramatic enough that everything stopped on stage (for safety reasons)and everyone watched. When we did the 50th Anniversary show, it started with the curtain down, and the 50th Anniversary logo projected on it from a loop of 35mm film in the booth.
That’s probably true for that time, Bill. But don’t you think those figures I quoted above for this weekend’s event are just slightly ridiculous?
It’s time for the unions to work with the management of these venues. Show business is a seven-day-a-week operation, I don’t understand their position of “overtime” for a Saturday afternoon on a week when they had maybe one other event. And it’s time for the management to reduce their overhead as well – many do earn some outrageous numbers not always tied to profits, I’d love to see bonuses reduced/eliminated if a venue is running at a loss (as the MH does every single year). There’s plenty of room on both sides to make these things work. My point was strictly about that one event, not the entirety of the operation.
Um, I wouldn’t tell any union member to get lost. I’d chip away at the CEOs and smarmy management honchos who pull in much bigger bucks than any union member could imagine, for doing much less with no loss to fingers or thumbs. The RCMH audience in the ‘30s through '60s was largely union affiliated, and better off because of it.
Peter…Thanks for the clarification of costs. Figured as much, but did not realize that the costs would be so astronomical… Thank you NYTOS for a great show.
I think your estimate is probably correct – I didn’t think to take a closer count prior to the playing.
To lower the curtain would have cost NYTOS close to $4000 – the union demanded 4 stagehands for 8 hours at overtime rate to press 4 buttons. To have a PA system would have cost another couple thousand – the union demanded at least one electrician and a soundman for 8 hours at overtime rate. Same goes for the lights. The Hall would not absorb these costs nor tell the union to get lost – which they should do immediately.
Yes Peter, I was there too. It was great to hear the organ again after the last time which was a Xmas Spectacular about ten years ago prior to the restoration. I thought it went quite well also and look forward to the next one. I estimated attendance close to 200, which was rather good for an event on such short notice. However, I think that the current owners of RCMH could have used a little more showmanship by providing a PA system, lowering the contour curtain and splurging for the amber house lights. I do understand that this would have probably negated the cost effectiveness of the event, but it certainly would have been nice to capture the ambience of
the “olden days”.
So – did anybody else from here go to the organ concert Saturday afternoon? I thought the event went pretty well – it looked like around 100-150 people attended.
The main problem is the company Cablevision who are the operators of the Music Hall and Madison Square Garden, their cable company and former operators of the WIZ stores in New York.
The Radio City Music Hall should be a public institution like any other great New York landmark. It should not be holding basketball games or religious fundamentalist pageants to make money. With corporate and city funds a summer show based on Markert and Leonidoff is not impossible. If the Hall had survived solely on commercial considerations it would have closed up shop in ‘55. After that it was the Rockefellers who propped it up.