Radio City Music Hall

Regarding Bob Endres' post on the discussions and aborted plans to install IMAX at the Music Hall… I, for one, would love to see an IMAX presentation here! I wonder if technology will ever advance to the point where an unobtrusive mechanism for quickly deploying and then stowing the huge IMAX screen between stage shows might be feasible. It would do this heart good to see the return of cinematic engagements at the Hall – even if on a semi-regular basis. Alas, I think it would take an “event” attraction such as an IMAX presentation to fill enough of the Hall’s 5940 seats and make the enterprise financially worthwhile. Seems to me that a big part of such a program would involve negotiating exclusive rights to a particular engagement – at least in Manhattan – which would probably be nearly impossible to acheive with the big box cinema chains in play.

I not that worried about the Sheen “fans” damaging the theater after his “performance” mainly because they must have incredibly low expectations. Frankly, I think anyone who bought a ticket to this fiasco and a bonafide idiot himself. I AM happy that ticket scalpers are the ones who will lose big on this debacle. It couldn’t happen to a nicer group of people.

Re: The question about sound and projection systems. The sound systems for most of the Hall’s life were RCA, not only for the movie system, but also for the P.A. system. Remember, RCA was a major tenant across the street, and “R” in RKO (which had its offices above the Hall in the front part of the building) stood for Radio for the Kieth Orpheum alliance with RCA in the movie company which also operated the Hall and the New Roxy down the street. There were two complete mono systems which could be switched by one control knob. At one point one system was set 2db higher than the other and they were switched at shift change in the booth. Originally, the night time audiences were larger, so the system with the extra gain was switched in for the evening shows. Later the daytime audiences were larger and the switching reversed. The switch also insured that both systems were fully operational. A third amplifier was also available in the P.A. amp room which could be switched in if the other systems failed (redundancy was a big deal at the Hall).

When 4 track magnetic sound was introduced with CinemaScope, two more four track RCA systems were installed next to the mono systems. Then in 1970 a six-track ElectroSound system was installed for 70mm. It was designed by Al Lewis who had worked with the Ampex 70mm theatre systems, and was solid-state rather than a vacuum tube
system.

We upgraded the power amplifiers to solid state Crown amps, and then for “The Lion King” put in a completely new system, with a Dolby CP-200, and QSC amps.

While the sound systems were largely RCA, the projectors were Simplex with RCA sound heads. Starting with the Simplex regular head, the Hall went to Super Simplex, Simplex X-L’s and finally Simplex 35/70’s which are still in use in three of the five projector positions today. The 35/70’s used Simplex Magnetic and Optical sound heads. As the newer machines were added in the main booth the previous machines gravitated to Rear Projection and the two Preview Rooms. When I started there I had booths with every model of Simplex mech head from the Regular to the 35/70’s in use. At the present time, the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens is displaying an early Music Hall projector that would have come from the ‘30’s.

even thought the Sheen shows are “sold out” at RCMH …rumor has it the that thousand of seats where bought by ticket brokers and they cannot resell them.

For Hank.sykes, Many years ago I read an article that stated they were water. When I performed there I went down to the bottom of the pit and found it so clean that you could do surgery down there.

Can anyone tell me if the stage elevators are water or oil hydrolics?

The renovation already started this year, not next year. It goes into full swing this summer after basketball and hockey are done. It is a 3 year project.

ur welcome. What was the first 3-D film that played at the hall?

Did the Glory of Easter show do so poorly after the Hall was re-opened in the early 1980’s that it wasn’t economically feasible to continue? Obviously, the Christmas Spectacular has endured, and I do remember they tried to keep the Easter show going for a few years as well, even after the old format of movie and stage show was abandoned. I guess sufficient interest in the Easter show just wasn’t there?

How many Hitchcock movies have been playing at the hall (mostly premieres)? I bet a lot. I’ve seen a lot of the trailers, and half of them have Hitchock narrate the trailer. He was truly the master of Suspense, who made his last movie nearly 35 years ago, a movie called Family Plot, which made a profit for the aging director, who died four years later in 1980.

No Justin, it was simply not a top choice for distributors in the seventies and RCMH demanded exclusive runs.

In a parallel universe, could you just imagine what the “Clockwork” stage show would look like?

Radio City would never have shown the x-rated “A Clockwork Orange” first run nor would Warner Bros. have placed the trendy-hip film into the venue. That would have been the kiss of death for the film. By 1972 Radio City was only top choice for wholesome family films which were themselves out of vogue and most distributors therefore avoided the place.

“Clockwork” opened at the Cinema 1 & 2, the top choice in NYC for quality first-runs along with the Baronet/Coronet.

RE:
Thanks so much Ron – what a great list and what great memories it triggered. Now I know for sure that the first film I saw at the Music Hall was Bon Voyage, when I always thought it was That Touch of Mink. I was 7 years old for both films. I also got to relive all the films I WANTED to see at the Music Hall but was too young to go see by myself.
posted by Bill Huelbig on Jul 18, 2004 at 6:52pm

Re TOUCH OF MINK was the fist movie I saw at RCMH myself. I was 6. It was not until years later with a little research, that I could re-call the movie title. However, the building and the stage show did make an immediate impression on me.