Radio City Music Hall
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
118 people
favorited this theater
Showing 2,951 - 2,975 of 3,332 comments
I have to say this once again: The Rockettes were as good as I remember them. If the numbers have dwindled, it had no effect on the presentation. They were outstanding. They did a finale where they were Santa’s reindeer that was as good as anything I remember from the shows as a kid. It was the stuff before this scene and others that was appalling and worse, BORING and pointless (what the HELL was with that toy making factory set? Even my daugther said it looked tacky). If the show was simply the Rockettes “doing-their-thing” it would’ve been a winner. Less is more is definately the key to this kind of show. And that goes for the ticket prices too.
I was surprised to read that the number of Rockettes on stage has been reduced! :–(
Vincent and CC: Boy, between the 2 of you I’m learning ALOT about RCMH and the Christmas Show over the years! Thanks!
Vincent
You are so right, and every year the show got sparser and sparser. I remember by the late 70’s people standing in front of the drapes singing with no backdrops or props for some numbers. The thing is I long for those days just beacuse seeing the movie and stage show was special. I have a question, was there any other theatre anywhere in the world that was still running a stage show and movie until almost 1980?
CC I hope you saw the Disney Robin Hood Christmas show as it was the last one with the ballet company and the Rockettes looking especially sensational much like in that great Kodak photo of them in red against a blue background. For me after that it was never the same. I guess it was right after Leonidoff left that they disbanded the ballet. For me the stage started looking pretty sparse and then they reduced the Rockettes from 36 to 30.(I think at the very beginning the Rockettes totaled 46 on stage. Please correct me if I’m wrong.)
I know I saw the terrible “The Slipper and the Rose” (an absure “reworking” of Cinderella) in 1976…it was the last Christmas show I saw at RCMH. Like KenRoe, we loved the Christmas show so much that year that we saw it twice but exited before we’d have to sit through the movie again.
The first time I saw the Christmas show was with “1776” and it was packed. I was way too young to understand or like the movie. But I loved the Christmas show. Every year after that until 1976, we went to see the show and the movie. Funny thing is I can only remember one other movie besides Slipper and 1776 and that was “The Sunshine Boys” which must’ve been 1975. My parents laughed their heads off at that one but I didn’t think much of it at the age of 9. Again, I loved the show. I don’t remember exactly what was performed…the shows have all kind of morphed into on another.
Ironically, in 1976, for the Bicentennial, my school and (it seemed) all the other school districts in Nassau County saw a special screening of “1776” at the un-multiplexed Lynbrook. I can remember sitting in the high balcony and looking down at the “orchestra” seats and thinking how big the place was. God, that theater was, to me, the Radio City Music Hall of LI. I absolutely LOVED that place.
I saw the Rockettes perform their wooden soldiers routine when I paid my first visit to the USA (and NYC) in 1976 and the R.C.M.H. Christmas Show was performed with the Richard Chamberlain movie “The Slipper and The Rose”. I watched the film once but sat through the Christmas Show twice, I was so impressed.
According to Charles Francisco’s book “The Radio City Music Hall -An Affectionate History of the World’s Greatest Theater” (1979), the 1976 Christmas Show was a Peter Gennaro production. Leon Leonidoff’s last production was ‘Saluda a Colombia’ on his retirement in 1974.
I don’t remember it with The Slipper and the Rose(awful) at all. But maybe you are right. The Variety review would clear that up. Still that would be twice in 10 years.
The movie for that Christmas show should have been Bogdonovich's
Nickolodeon, with the O'Neals pere et fille and Brian Keith, and Slipper should have been the following Easter Show. However Nick had major problems so they moved up Slipper.
I may be the only person in the world who enjoyed Bogdonovich’s At Long Last Love. At least at the Music Hall it was visually stunning(the final moments alone worthy of Lubitsch.) And hearing Porter there was heaven. Yeah for the most part everyone sang very badly, the dialogue was strained and maybe today its unwatchable(anyone out there for a restoration-it was cut during the Music Hall run! I saw two different versions of it there a week apart) but seeing it as an Easter show in the mid 70’s well what else could they have shown. Maybe visually it was the best new film I ever saw at Radio City.
And as regards 1776 imagine anyone sitting through that thing and I had loved the Broadway album as a kid! Though I believe it was the last film to sell out the Hall in the evening shows with people being told that the final stage show was sold out and they could only buy tickets for the movie.
Vincent: I truly hate to disagree with you about the wooden soldiers and I will bow to your memory but I swear I saw it more than once. Yes, I did see the show when “1776” played there (hated it…imagine a 6 year old sitting through a movie like that!). I think I saw it the last time I saw the show which was in 1976 or 1977 with a terrible movie called “The Slipper and the Rose”. Look, I’m probably wrong. But I’m not wrong about the Nativity which we “discussed” here before. Do you know when they did away with the old one and put on the “new” Nativity?
So what’s up with the Rockettes?
Why does their director know what she is doing while her colleagues are 100 percent clueless? It makes no sense.
By the way the wooden soldier routine was not done every year. I saw most of the Christmas shows for the late ‘60’s to the mid 70’s and the only time they did it was for the film 1776. It was a special event not to be overdone. It was done under the large lower branches of a Christmas tree and they came out of a toy castle.
People at the Music Hall today this is not curing cancer-it is simple showmanship. To have them now parade about in front of nothing but a cyclorama makes about as much sense as have them march about in front of the bare back wall.
Oh and by the way did I mention the midgets? It’s like we’re in some seedy presentation house in '32 watching vaudeville die.
Patsy, the movie you’re thinking of is Miracle on 34th Street, with Natalie Wood, Maureen O'Hara, John Paine and Edmund Gwenn as Santa.
CConnolly: Thanks for your RCMH memories! Your then 8 year old sounds like quite the lady…another Natalie Wood in “Miracle”!
Patsy: don’t get me wrong about the Rockettes. They were wonderful and my daughter LOVED them. Each and every single time they came out and did their “thing”, which was not just them lining up and kicking their legs (which they did) but a lot more, she got very into it. It was all this nonsensical filler in the show that made it so lame and LONG. And the Hall itself awed my daughter but she did make the impressive remark about how the speakers on the side and especially down the middle of the arch marred it’s look (very observant and accurate for an 8 year old).
When I saw the show last in 1977, there was none of this filler in the show. It started with the AWESOME Nativity, then then the Rockettes doing their leg kicking thing, then the Santa Clauses, then the Rocketttes as the Wooden Soldiers…then there was an ice skating thing…my mind gets hazy here…I remember they used the turntable to make it look like people were skating and “snow” would fall. I believe there was maybe one or two more scenes and that was it. Quick (about 45 minutes), dazzling and incredibly satisfying.
You’ll get more Christmas spirit by walking around Rockefeller Center and 5th Avenue than you would or will seeing this show. And you’ll save a bundle.
CConnolly: I never thought that I’d get such response from fellow theatre buffs about the present RCMH Christmas Spectacular which I guess isn’t so ‘spectacular’ anymore. If I ever got the chance to see it though, I’d at least go just to see the beautifully restored hall and those wonderful Rockettes. I always sit and watch them in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade…it’s not the beginning of the holidays for me until I see the ‘old world’ Santa and those Rockettes…then and only then does the turkey get put in the oven! If you’re in NYC, walk by the Christmas windows for me on 5th Avenue. My favorite Christmas movie is White Christmas, but a close second is Miracle on 42nd Street with Natalie Wood. Who played Santa in that movie and Natalie’s parents? Didn’t Maureen O'Hara play her mother?
Vincent: I’m sure we’ve gone back and forth on this same issue on the Nativity but as far as I’m concerned, it can’t be said enough. When I saw the Nativity as a kid, it nearly brought tears to my eyes and I was not a weepy kid. My heart would be pounding…it was truly awe inspiring.
But now? God it’s so pathetic and lame it’s not worthy to be discussed in the same breath with the original.
And as I walked around Rockefeller Center this afternoon and saw the hordes waiting on line for the “show”, I thought about what a scam they are getting into. It made me feel so sad.
If they cut the show by 45 minutes, lowered the prices and returned the old Nativity, people would go bonkers for this thing. There is not a single person that has seen this new version who says they will ever see it again. To them, once is enough. So right now, the RCMH show is playing strictly to people’s memories (like mine) and to people with little kids looking for a holiday distraction. But they’re not going to get any return business. It’s too expensive and totally not worth it.
Ugh. I’m getting into a funk just writing this.
I wrote this to Patsy on the Ziegfeld page but it really belongs here. Sorry for the repetitions but these things can’t be said often enough.
Patsy,
Yes the page on Radio City Music Hall in Cinema Treasure has many posts and I have certainly contributed quite a few as I am crazy about this building(worked there during Robin and Marian) and grieve over the way it has been wasted in recent years.
Leonidoff was the stage show producer who Roxy brought from the his original theater on 7th Av to Rockefeller Center(literally a block away.)
Leonidoff along with greats like Russel Markert and Florence Rogge created the stage shows for which the Music Hall became famous and was responsible for the religious portions of both the Christmas and Easter shows. His Nativity was a Renaissance pagaent stressing color, spectacle, movement and tableau as imagined by a Medici.
Now it has been reimagined by a Walgreens middle manager on a weekend trip to Branson.
Patsy: you had asked on another theater listing about the Christmas “Spectacular”. I took my 8 year old daughter on the day after Thanksgiving. I had VERY fond memories of the Christmas show when I was a kid in the 70’s…very vivid especially of the Nativity.
Well, now the more I’ve thought and thought about it I realize what a complete, absolute RIP OFF the current show is. Just read my posts above to get an idea. To charge $77 and UP for what is basically a hyped up amusement park show is absurd. Yes, the Rockettes were great and they were one of the few things that kept my daughter very interested. But the rest was stupid story padding to up the running time to 90 minutes (to make people feel as though they got their money’s worth). And the biggest disappointment of all was that the Nativity was not the one I remember and gave me goose-pimples as a kid. Again, if you read the posts above, you will see this.
To think that my Mom used to take me and my brother to see this every year in the 70’s and we loved it and it cost next to nothing. And it was absolutely beautiful. And it’s been replaced with this piece of crap. It’s appalling.
The only thankful thing I can say about it is that it keeps RCMH alive and in use. At least when I walk by it now, I remember the Christmas show when I saw it as a kid.
I have a RCMH story to relay. My husband and I were visiting friends on Long Island the year before 9/11 and our friends decided to take us into Manhattan. We toured the World Trade Center on an overcast day (will now always remember our special visit one year before tragedy struck our nation). We later entered the lobby of RCMH. I saw there was a line and figured it was for the Christmas Spectacular which it probably was, but the line was probably also for folks wanting to take the RCMH tour which is available on Sundays (the day we were there)! Our hosts didn’t think to ask for us and so we left. On the way home the next day I was looking through my Fodor book on NYC and read that tours are available at RCMH on Sundays! :–((((
In spite of my preference for Cinerama-type theatres, I still must say the RCMH is my favorite of theatre of all. Can you just imagine that huge curtain coming down on the Gloria Swanson’s final closup in “Sunset Boulevard”?
And, Warren, I wish i could locate this photograph. But at some time during the 40’s or 50’s I saw a theatre marquee – during hot weather – and the signage read “Who Cares? It’s Cool Inside”
Ok, have found the RCMH site and now have it among my favorites…don’t we all! So I will now read what has been written about this wonderful theatre which such history in the Big Apple! Thanks Vincent and others!
I remember waiting on long lines for the Radio City Music Hall in the 50’s. And yes, it was under a dollar before noon for a ticket plus you got a program with the cast of the film as well as the name of the live presentation. I believe on the cover it said “Showplace of the Nation”; I saved most of the programs, but I collect so many things, I’d have to really look hard to find. We saw “Charade”,“The Singing Nun”, “Two For the Road”, “The Band Wagon”, “Funny Face”, “Sayonnara”, “The Teahouse of the August Moon”,“How To Steal A Million”, “Love Me Or Leave Me”, “Jumbo”, “Arabesque”, and several others. They seemed to favor Doris Day and Audrey Hepburn films.
The last time I went to the Music Hall was to see Napoleon, the second time they presented it with the live orchestra led by carmine coppola, it was a wonderful event, and I too am sad that they stopped showing films there. Its crazy. The 1st time I went to the music hall was to see Friendly persuasion, and that theatre left a lasting impression on me. I loved Radio city the most of all the theatres in new york, and saw many many films there in my youth including Les Girls, The Pajama Game, The Days Of wine and roses, North by Northwest, How to Suceed in business, wait until dark, The spirit of st. louis, and many many others. In 1969 I did a “conceptual” art work (Im an artist) on the hall which was a booklet listing all the films that played there, I also reproduced a program and laid in postcards of the hall. I did a very small edition and sent it to artists, critics etc, and I sometimes I check on the internet for it, and see that some dealers are selling it for around 200 bucks. Andrew Sarris loved it and wrote me a nice note, it got me lots of notice. As a teenager I even applied for an usher job there, but think I was too short. I remember going down to the locker room area for an interview and recall the basement was in white tiles. I also did a slide presentation as a work on the hall in the late 60’s and was planning to do an article on the hall for a serious art mag. but never got around to it. I also published a series of stories called 5 stories of the music hall which was published in a magazine put out by the st. marks poetry project. I too wish they would start showing films again.
During some of our earlier posts on presentation at Radio City Music Hall and other theatres on this page, I referred to the Dorchester Cinema in Hull, England.
I have now added the Dorchester to Cinema Treasures. I have an exterior photo before it was demolished which will be submitted once the Add a Photo page is working again. I also hope to have some interior shots sent to me soon and I will make those available to anyone who wants to see them.
this is most beautifull theatre I seen ever I be here two times and enjoy very much
Saw a bit of the original Pink Panther on TCM last night. It hurt to see in letterboxed on a TV screen. It is one of my favorite films with Sellers giving his best Clouseau(not the caricature it became)and doing his slapstick with the incredibly beautiful and funny Capucine. Then there’s Niven, Cardinale, Cortina D'Ampezzo, Mancini sambas, and the gorgeous 60’s color in Technirama.
What this must have looked like on the Music Hall’s screen in ‘64 must have been sensational.
Thank you Blake Edwards. Just wish I could have been there.