Radio City Music Hall

Were the stage shows at the music hall miked or pre-taped? I remember the later shows in the 70’s seemed to have the look of the performers lip-synching.

“Miking” started with radio, of course, and was largely perfected with the arrival of sound movies, but most theatres were not “miced” until the late Twenties or after that. The arrival of sound depended upon the arrival of practical amplifiers, and Western Electric was the pioneer in introducing sound service to theatres with the first vacuum tubes (called electronic “valves” at the time), and it was not long thereafter that sound ‘systems’ were introduced to theatres on a limited basis. Prior to that, actors were trained to ‘throw’ their voices out into the reaches of the theatre, which is what limited earlier theatres to smaller audiences due to the limitations of the human voice. Many a would-be actor/performer failed on the early stage due to the inability to throw their voice. Early microphones, such as the carbon and the taught-band types were large, heavy and inefficient, and thus introduced much ‘noise’ into the amplifier to mix with the noise created by early amplifiers and speakers themselves. For this reason, there was no such thing as the portable, personal mics that are now clipped to a costume, nor were overhead mics practical until the 30s, and then only in the movie studios on huge boom cranes. With the advent of efficient sound reinforcement and electret miniature microphones in the 1950s, the tradition of the ‘thrown’ voice faded away as performers learned that they could speak in normal volumes and be easily heard anywhere if properly miced. The untoward affect of all this was the presence of ugly speaker clusters in our theatres since no one could hear the people these days without them.

The ornamentation and auditorium decorative draperies so usually seen in movie palaces was not just for show; it was essential to absorb and deflect the sound waves coming from the stage and organ/orchestra so that only one sound wave struck the listener. When sound hits an essentially smooth surface —such as the ceiling of an ‘atmospheric’ (stars and clouds) theatre— it is focused by that surface upon a single broad point in the audience, effectively amplifying the sound to those there, but dimming it for those elsewhere. Not only will others outside of that point not hear as much volume, but worse is the echo that develops as the main sound front hits the listener, followed by the delayed sound front reflected off the ceiling a split second later. Many smaller atmospherics had smaller effective reflective ceilings where the flanking false building fronts were closer to the surface and these absorbed or deflected much of the sound. In the over 3,000 seats in the PARADISE ( /theaters/344/ ), the vault of the ceiling was just too vast to have any ornament or draperies near enough to counteract the reflection(s); remember the laws of physics: the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection/refraction. Thus when the sound front hit the ceiling, it crashed onto the audience mid-floor, AFTER they had heard the other sound fronts from the stage and elsewhere. During music this may just cause muddled sound, but speech can be rendered unintelligible. How could the great architect Eberson miss this fact during planning? I don’t know, since acoustics was not an unknown science even then. It may be that the owner put too much pressure on him for a triumphal spectacular, which he achieved, as opposed to a good concert hall. After all, ‘he who pays the piper calls the tune.’

AS to organists and organs: snobbery exists in all levels of society, but more so in the arts, where egos dominate. There are those who believe that the Theatre Organ was a crass warping of the ‘classical’ sound of traditional organs, and with their sound effects in addition to a distinctive sound such as the “sobbing” vox humana voice, the Theatre Organ was more than many ‘classicists’ could endure, especially if they saw multitudes going into a theatre to hear its organ while a pitiful few attended classical or church concerts. That theatre instruments were expected to also play the latest ballads of the day also made them declass in the ears of the classically trained ‘elite.’ It boils down to taste, or the lack thereof. The late Ben Hall well covered this matter in his chapter on organs in his landmark book: The Best Remaining Seats: The Story of the Golden Age of the Movie Palace, 1961 and later editions at most libraries, via Inter-library Loan, or at www.Amazon.com

Hello, Organ-ize: It is kind of you to reply to my message, but I will not dwell long on a reply here since it is not good for us to go too far off-topic on the RCMH page. I would have written you directly had you listed Contact information on your ‘Profile Page’ which is accessed for anyone on this site by clicking on their name in blue at the bottom of a comment. You will find my E-mail address in that way.

Just because I am geographically closer to the Minneapolis Civic than you are doesn’t mean that I know anything of its organ — or of the Civic Auditorium, for that matter, sorry to say. That place is about 400 miles from me. You are privileged to be part of that giant Dickinson Kimball installation. There are classical organs of that size in both the Marcus Performing Arts Center and the Cooley Auditorium of the Vocational School here, but no such huge theatre instruments survive (or were ever built here to my knowledge). I am not an “organ nut” per se (architecture is my specialty) but I do enjoy a good concert on a pipe organ, especially by such as Lew Williams who knows how to use the toy counter and percussions to great effect, or Clark Wilson who can make an organ sing.

Organ-ized: Your comment about the ORIENTAL here in Milwaukee is right on the money; it is perhaps unique in its approach to ‘oriental’ as being East Indian, rather than Chinese, Indo-Chinese, or Japanese. There is a group of photos of it here: http://www.cinematour.com/tour.php?db=us&id=4035 but none are of the auditorium, unfortunately. The CT page about it is at: /theaters/443/ and this may help others to learn of its special place in America’s theatres. I must bow to your conclusions about the organ, though I too had heard that it was a twin to the one in the STANLEY, though it is now up to 38 ranks and growing, from its original 28. It is indeed a sweet sound, especially the strings! And you are quite right that it was originally in the WARNER/GRAND here ( /theaters/1903/ ) and while it may have helped re-use the WARNER had it stayed there, it is now ironic, given what happened to the theatre, that it was best that it was removed.

Your story about the STANLEY’s organ is sad to read; greed so often destroys beauty, but at least you have a recording of it before the end. If you track down the author of “Exit”, Robert Headley in the Baltimore/DC area, you might have a wonderful conversation, since he was also often here in Milw. and could no doubt tell you much.

And lucky Baltimore to have the restored HIPPODROME ( /theaters/1264/ )..

Yes but mud wrestling accompanied by the mighty Wurlitzer. So sad isnt it?

Vincent has a point about being in a largely full movie palace and hearing an appreciative audience laughing, cheering, applauding or even singing along to the movie; it IS an exhilarating experience not at all akin to the noise of a sports or rock concert crowd. I last experienced it in 1970 when the shortly-to-be-split former WARNER here in Milwaukee was filled for the movie “Airport” and all 2500 cheered when the old lady slapped the hysterical guy, and laughed as one at other appropriate times. You didn’t feel isolated as a lone viewer as you do nowadays in the multiplex screening rooms regardless of what is showing. Occasionally I can still feel that audience response as when our ORIENTAL has an organ show with a silent film and a stage act, but not otherwise anymore.

Imagine it with The Hooray For Hollywood show that accompanied Bullit in 1968 :)

Lets start a letter writing campaign to have a 70mm screening of The Sound of Music here next year. It’s the 40th anniversary.

For “Organized”: Although I never met “Ray”, the theater staff was often able to tell the difference in musical style between him and Dick Liebert and Ashley Miller. Liebert, who played mostly the evening shows was very big with special effects i.e. bells and whistles; Ashley was fond of show tunes and Ray seemed to like bright marches and was the best at exit music. What a treat to hear them at the twin consoles at holiday time. The biggest problem was getting the audience to leave during the break music, as many stayed to applaud and then leave as the curtain rose on the film credits.

Your right, I just always thought of the Gotham as the Trans-Lux. Did you manage the theatre? Creative Entertainment got me the passes that night. I was horrified when Fox released that moronic sing along version of The Sound of Music and would not go to see it, even though it would have been nice to have seen it at the Zeigfeld. It’s my favorite movie and I still have the program from when my parents took me to see it at The Rivoli. The last time I saw MFL in a theatre was in the 70’s when The Cinerama played that 70mm Broadway Salutes Broadway series. The print was pink but the sound was unreal.

PS – I’m still waiting for the film version of Stephen Sondheim’s “Follies” with Debbie Reynolds singing “I’m Still Here,” as well as film versions of “Pippin,” “Dreamgirls,” “Promises, Promises,” and “On the 20th Century.” Probably not to be…alas! But there is “The Phantom of the Opera” coming for Christmas, which would be perfect for the RCMH as an exclusive NYC run. That won’t happen either!
posted by Ron3853 on Sep 22, 2004 at 11:37am

“Dreamgirls” could easily be made into the type of musical that seems to work today where the musical numbers are part of a show or a dream sequence like “Chicago”. People today seem unwilling to accept the break out in song numbers that all of the great musicals had. When the Trans-Lux east revived “Sound of Music” for it’s 25th anniversary the audience laughed when Julie Andrews started singing “Something Good”. That also happened with this years Cole Porter biography “De Lovely”. It’s actually sad that people cant just sit back and escape. Movies were never meant to be total reality. The incredible films made during WW2 were to give people two hours of escapism during those trying times. I for one find movies relaxing and want to get lost in the story. Give me stair case full of chorus girls any day.

Simon L!

Did you know organist Raymond “Ray” F. Bohr, Jr. when you were at the Hall? A very good friend of mine was an Associate Organist there in 1955-1956 and it was through him I was honored to know Ray, whom I first met in January 1977, which was a time of trouble for the Hall. My friend and I visited Ray in 1978 and 1979 and we always treated like family. Ray would always show us some interesting part of the theater and standing on the platform at the top the fly tower over the Great Stage is something I will never forget, along with watching the movie from the orchestra elevator, lowered at the bottom of the pit. Of course, the organ was the special attraction.

Ray was the last full-time house organist (John DeTroy was part-time) at the Music Hall under the “old” format until 1979. The management there basically dismissed him. My friend and I kept in touch with Ray until his untimely passing in 1986. Ray knew the Mighty WurliTzer inside and out as he was also a trained organ technician, although he did not service the Music Hall organ. (He would always say, “Not my job!”) Ray was from Nyack, NY.

Fortunately, the Music Hall organ is under the expert care of the same family since its installation in 1932. She’s very lucky not to find the fate of other treasures, such as the Roxy’s organ.