Radio City Music Hall
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
116 people
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That book for me was a great disappointment. The photos of the stage productions look like they were taken by a tourist with an instamatic(they probably were) and there are so many factual eras that it was truly a wasted opportunity. A coffee table book in conjunction with the Hall is needed.
I saw Butterflies at the Hall(on a weekday morning I couldn’t get a seat in the orchestra!) One of the best programs of the ‘70s with the last appearance of the Undersea Ballet.
'72 was probably the last year the Music Hall showed films of any quality.
Yes, I remember the “Ave Maria” at the beginning of the Easter pageant.It was amazing! Performers, each holding a lit candle would appear all around the audience with the organ music playing. It was awesome! We saw “The Singing Nun” with Debbie Reynolds. Anyone remember that each seat had an individual light, so the program could be read? The lights were later turned-off; I guess people complained it was annoying! On a different note, I think my deceased mother saw “Butterflies Are Free” with Goldie Hawn at the Music Hall, but I’m unsure.Is there a complete list anywhere of ALL films shown at the Music Hall?
Right, SimonL, as you well should know, since last 15 July, 1 September, and various times in-between you wrote vividly about your ushering at the Roxy in ‘56-'57. (Anyone skiming this post who hasn’t read those contributions should scroll back to them immediately.) I’ll meanwhile continue my current comments about the Roxy on that theater’s site page.
Thanks BoxOffice Bill. However when “Anastasia” played there, the house had already converted to an “all ice” program sans Ave Maria. However the stage show at the time Anastasia played was quite lovely and featured a Christmas in Japan finale that featured a stunning backdrop of Matsumoto mountain.
Yes, at the Roxy a choir in an enormous elevated pulpit, flanked by sparkling Christmas trees, intoned “Ave Maria.” Programs on screen included such holiday fare as “The Prince of Foxes” (with Orson Welles as Valentine Borgia, ‘49), “For Heaven’s Sake” (with Clifton Webb as an angel, '50), “Anastasia” (Bergman’s comeback, '56), and “Peyton Place” (all about sex, '57).
I have just found the programme that was handed out on my first ever visit to the RCMH.
Here are the details:
Week beginning Thursday November 11, 1976
Music Hall Grand Organ – Raymond Bohr, John Destroy
“The Slipper and the Rose: The Story of Cinderella” Richard Chamberlain, Gemma Craven.
“The Nativity” Rebecca Alford, Soloist. Entire Music Hall Ensemble
“Snowflakes” Produced and Directed by Peter Gennaro
A. “Build a Snowman"
B. "All Skating, All Singing” Barry Busse, The Caroleers & The Skaters
C. “The Penguin Ho-Down"
D. "March of the Wooden Soldiers” The Radio City Music Hall Rockettes
(Choreography by Russell Markett) (Directed by Violet Holmes)
E. “Santa” featuring Barry Busse
F. Finale: “The Christmas Tree” The Entire Company
As I stated in a previous posting on here, I stayed in to see the show twice, I was amazed and had never seen such a spectacle or use of stage facilities in my life! Two organ consoles playing together, an orchestra pit which rose up onto the stage and ‘disappeared’ into the flys, to be replaced by a real ice rink and skaters on stage. Those wonderful Rockettes and even real-live camels, sheep and donkeys too! Pity about the crap movie. I normally keep ticket stubs as a souvenir, but up to now I haven’t located it, but I’m sure it was not more than $4 admission.
Also on offer was the Rockerfeller Center Guided Tour
Adults: $2.15 Children: $1.35
Daily tours from 9:30am – 5:30pm at frequent intervals
‘This one hour guided tour of the 21-building business and entertainment complex, covers the Center’s history, its principle skyscrapers, its open plazas and rooftop gardens, its maze of shops underground and on street level, its comprehensive artwork and a glimpse backstage of the famous RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL.
Among the sites are the props and sets, the giant motion-picture screen and the massive stage elevators, a marvel of theatrical engineering.
Every tour terminates on the OBSERVATION DECK atop the 70-storey RCA building and you are invited to remain there at your leisure after the tour'.
I decided not to take the tour on this occassion, after all, I had seen the film, the show and the theatre. It must have been in later years when the tour concentrated on the RCMH totally and I have done this one several times.
Does anyone remember the “Ave Maria” prologue that the Roxy Theater presented each Christmas season? Of course, it could not compete with the Music Hall’s more spectacular “Nativity,” but it was (almost) a tradition there.
On the choral staicases were lit religious statues which the attendants would flank giving the entire auditorium the atmosphere of a church. It was quite beautiful. The last year these were used was in ‘76(though they were fewer than in the past.) I guess they were tossed along with the original Nativity sets and the Glory of Easter altar and windows.
Both of these pageants though religious in tone were never offensive but highly theatrical. Much like walking into a beautiful European church that can be appreciated on its own terms as an expression of human art and hope.
At the beginning of The Glory of Easter pageant, the curtain used to rise minimally at two spots equidistant from the arches to enable a procession of altar attendants to emerge bearing lit candles. As the attendants proceeded to climb the choral staircases, some member of the audience would inevitably express a fretful prayer that the curtain might not catch fire (each attendant was careful to cup a hand around the battery-powered wick). The two openings would close momentarily and then, after some verses of “Kamenoi Ostrow,” the entire contour would rise on the flower-bedecked altar and radiant stained-glass windows. At length, the in-house nuns would appear and form their blossoming cross, but you could get the full effect only if you sat in the exact center of the auditorium or in the mezzanines; otherwise, your perspective would distort the transversal.
Nothing could distort those magnificent Rockettes on the steps of the Trocadero/Chaillot. I wish we could see those pix too, Dorothy.
BoxOfficeBill – we have some pix of that along with an autographed Paris Expo Certificate as they won! wish I could upload them here
The curtain can raise in two styles only now; in an arc, echoing the arch of the proscenium and, alternately, horizontal across the bottom edge. Both styles still allow it to festoon/cascade as it rises and falls.I have seen them use both to great effect at the Christmas shows and also for concerts. What seems unable to happen is the use of any of the 13 motors to operate individually to allow for anything more irregular.
From Porter’s comment it appears that it no longer drapes in changeable patterns, merely goes down with a horizontal line along the bottom swags. There is a photo in MARQUEE magazine of the Theatre Historical Soc. of Third Qtr. 1999, page 23 showing the original crossbar-and-peg pattern selection switch matrix, and if such could be done in an electromechanical method, it could certainly be done today with electronic stepping motors via computer or push button. They were just too cheap to do it, apparently.
The cherry blossom curtain was used again for the revival of The Sting in the mid 70’s(too bad it didn’t open there. It looked and sounded,without visible speakers, terrific at the Music Hall.)I can’t believe they didn’t restore the motors for the curtain. What a bad joke! So it doesn’t cascade up and down?
SimonL—You once asked about RCMH shows without the Rockettes. In addition to their absence during “Madama Butterfly” in ‘34, they left town for a couple of weeks in Summer '37 to perform in Paris in the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne. The week of 27 June was designated for Exposition des Dances, so perhaps that was the interval? Films at that time were “Ever Since Eve” (with Marion Davies, opening 24 June) and “New Faces of 1937” (with Milton Berle, opening 1 July). Can you picture those seventy-two legs kicking down the steps of the Palais de Trocadero/Chaillot? I believe I’ve seen a photo of it. The best way to check on this would be to consult NYTimes microfilms for those dates, but it’s late and my library is closed.
Yes, “Executive Suite” played in May ‘54, but I didn’t see that film there then, so I can’t comment. A '50s Pictorial Program that my parents purchased when we saw “The Greatest Show on Earth” in Jan '52 displays a b&w photo of the Ballet performing “an enchanting divertissement in a scene inspired by cherry blossom time in Eashington D.C.” The more-or-less realistic set shows trees in blossom, with the capitol dome in a dusky background. The dancers wear Martha-Graham-inspired flowing shifts and are joined with hands raised in the air bearing blossom branches. No doubt a revival of this ballet accompanied the show in May '54. I don’t remember ever having seen it.
BoxofficeBill is right. I remembered it (incorrectly)as part of the stage show (the film was Executive Suite)whose theme was Cherry Blossom time in D.C. and featured the corps de ballet.
Yes, representing cherry blossoms against a golden backdrop, with abstract tree branches and blue birds in flight, it provided a setting for the Rockettes in the show accompanying “The Chalk Garden” in Spring ‘64, no? I forget the music accompanying the dance routine, but I believe the orchestral overture offered a suite from “Madame Butterfly.” The occasion marked international cooperation upon the opening of the '64 World’s Fair. If Japan presented the gift in the '50s, I’m straining to recall when I might have seen it then. It must have been for a springtime show, huh?
Does anyone remember the stunning tapestry-like “Cherry Blossom” curtain – a gift from Japan – that was also featured in many shows during the 1950s?
Jim, yes they do raise and lower the curtain as part of the tour regularly. What I was referring to with the curtain motors is that when the curtain was replaced they were not able to re-instate the way it had operated in the past. It still rises and falls in the most majestic way but it is uniform. It used to be possible to operate each of the 13 motors randomly to form patterns as the drape rose and fell or to suit a particular stage act. Originally there was an entire part of the stage programme called “Symphony of the Curtains” where the curtain changed shapes whilst the twin organs and orchestra accompanied it. What a thrill is must have been and thats before the show had even started!
It is good that Porter Faulkner chose to mention that brochure for the grand reopening with its swatch of the contour front curtain preceding the restoration, since it is a good visual record of the fabulous place today. I too bought a copy, though on-line from their ‘Gift Shop’ at their site: www.RadioCity.com where they sell it via credit card payment only, and via UPS shipment only. For those outside of New York area not able to meet those terms, one could write to its publisher: Radio City Entertainment, Two Pennsylvania Plaza, New York, NY 10121-0091 USA. The 48-page glossy softbound is titled: “RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL: A Legend Is Reborn” and while having a poor glue binding, and being focused more on what occurred there over the years than on the building, there is that invaluable swatch as well as a spectacular vintage painting/drawing of the understage area via a cutaway view that shows just how those three giant stage elevators work. As a side note, the woman who wrote the brochure should have done better research, since right in the photo of the famous contour curtain can be seen to those knowing how such things work, that it was a 15-point suspension, not 13 as she claims in her caption on page 20. She forgot that there are also lines on each end of the curtain off stage that help pull the entire mass up out of sight and into storage in the apparent ‘ceiling.’
It is a shame that they are evidently not using the curtain at every performance, since I know from seeing it move in filmstrips, that were I a tourist there visiting the place, I would definitely want to see that lustrous ‘waterfall’ of drapery rising and descending as no other curtain of such size any longer does on these shores. If Porter did not see it move when he paid to go in there, then he was cheated, as will be anyone else denied this spectacle!
Regarding the changed neon colors on the marquee.The first week when it reopened after the recent restoration I took the tour. Speaking to the very knowledgeable guide, he informed me that over the years the colors had changed due to manufacturing techniques. Just like Jim Rankin suggests.
Over time the blue had become a more royal blue and was returned to at the original turquoise blue that was more eyecatching. The red had become a screamingly bright orange-red and was returned to a rich true red.
I also took the oportunity to puchase the brochure for the grand reopening gala which they were selling in the shop. It has a 3" x 5" swatch of the original gold stage curtain fabric attached to a spectacular photo of the curatin in action. Shame they can’t seem to operate the curtain’s 13 motors they way they used to anymore…….
On my first trip to New York in May, 1977, “Smokey and the Bandit” was playing it’s first run. However, I was so excited to see the big apple on my first of only 3 days, we went ONLY to see the Rockettes perform. I ordered a box of popcorn in the lobby and recall that the poor salesgirl had to repeat herself several times since I had never heard a thick Bronx accent before and could not understand what she was saying to me. I felt so bad for her, but she was very kind and finally spoke very slowly so I could get her message. The stage show was about 20 minutes, then there was a short subject and some trailers. When the film started, we left to continue exploration of Times Square. I still have not seen the film!
I remember how incredibly massive everything was around me, and though worn and old, it was still very beautiful. Thank God the owners have lavished some money and time on one of the greatest of all Art Deco structures…. and it’s worth a visit to New York JUST TO SEE THIS THEATER!
Regarding the previous posts about “Airport” at RCMH, does anyone know what other theaters in the U.S. showed 70mm prints of this film. I’ve always heard there were very few. If you answer, please give your source.
I have now decided to attend the Fox Theatre/Atlanta open house from 1-7 tomorrow December 26th and can’t wait! I plan to wear a nametag that says CINEMA THEATRES. ORG with my name underneath PATSY! Should be fun! I will post my day at the Fox on the Fox Theatre page on Monday or Tuesday!
I hope someone knowing the details of the neon change of color comes forward, but it may simply be that the exact shade of red that preceeded it has fallen out of production. A number of colors that originated with neon in the 1920s, are not now made, since it has been found cheaper to make subsitute colors. For example, there was a “Uranium green” but it was never made after a new use was found for uranium and the price of the ore thus shot out of reach. Maybe someone at the sign company making it will know the details and tell the truth of the matter, assuming the exact choice of color was theirs.