Radio City Music Hall

1260 6th Avenue,
New York, NY 10020

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AGRoura
AGRoura on February 16, 2010 at 4:41 pm

I wonder why the beautiful and spectacular RCMH was built facing 6th Ave. with an elevated train track in front of the facade. Why it was not built facing 5th Ave.? Anyone knows?

MarkK
MarkK on January 27, 2010 at 3:17 am

Hi, I am researching for a documentary on the life of Tessa Smallpage-Goldman, wife of Radio City’s Sidney Goldman. Tessa was an Australian soprano and married SIdney in 1950 and was a performer at the Radio City until her death in 1969.
If anyone has any stories, memories or photos etc of Sidney and/or Tessa I would love to hear from you.
Sidney started working at Radio City in 1934, he was Vice President of the Radio City until his retirement in 1970.
I can be contacted at

.au

Many thanks

Mark

Denpiano
Denpiano on January 22, 2010 at 7:41 pm

a line got cut out, sorry, I said" there must be a curse on the organ"we all had something happen to us, my buddy&tech extraordinary
Ken ladner passed away,me with the Stroke Ray Bohr with lung cancer&so on

Denpiano
Denpiano on January 22, 2010 at 7:36 pm

it was a load of fun watching the Christmas spectacular come together while I was there&listening to the Rockette rehearsals from the organ chambers, the orchesra rehearsals always brought tears to my eyes, plus my many late nights for george wesnerr&fred davies rehearsals on the organ, they were good guys and fun to work with,fred passed away last year in case anyone is interested, there I had a stroke, it goes on&on

Vito
Vito on January 15, 2010 at 11:16 am

Paul there is a great story regarding the presentation of the film including the projection of the train wreck on a larger screen image. It is described somewhere here if you have the patience to scroll around or perhaps REndres would be kind enough to repeat the marvelous story.

Paul Noble
Paul Noble on January 14, 2010 at 10:15 pm

Was the stage show with The Greatest Show on Earth the shortest in RCMH history and the feature the longest shown? The stage presentation was barely 20 minutes. The usual newsreel was dispensed with. In fact, I recall the feature began over a large oval screen (a circus ring?) on stage right so that there was a seamless integration of stage show and film. The Paramount logo filled the oval and then I believe the credits were projected on the main screen which was lowered over the show finale.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig on January 14, 2010 at 10:11 pm

That’s right! It looked like an arm that had all the life drained out of it.

robboehm
robboehm on January 14, 2010 at 8:21 pm

I always remember how Cornell Wilde’s hand and arm looked after his fall; very strangely lit, sort of blue/green spooky.

If you like circus stories, there was an autobiography some years ago by a woman who did some TV called, I believe, “I Love You Honey but the Season’s Almost Over”. Her name was Claussen or something like that. A good read.

moviebuff82
moviebuff82 on January 14, 2010 at 7:25 pm

It was a good movie. I first rented it from the local library. Not as good as Ten Commandments, but worth watching if you like circus clowns and behind the scenes of what goes on behind the red tent.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig on January 14, 2010 at 5:20 pm

That was the first time I was allowed to stay up till midnight to see the end of a movie. It was on the ABC Sunday Night Movie from 9 PM to midnight, in around 1966 or 1967. I was only 11 or 12 and had school the next day, but my parents couldn’t send me to bed before I saw the train wreck and its aftermath. That ending is extremely moving – to me it sums up what show business is all about, and who should know more about that than Cecil B. DeMille?

Vito
Vito on January 14, 2010 at 4:52 pm

I agree Bill, I have a 16mm print I drag out every now and again.
Oh my goodness, how I would love to see it again at RCMH with the enhanced big screen train wreck scenes.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig on January 14, 2010 at 4:32 pm

Thanks, Vito. I love that movie, and I defend it against people who say it didn’t deserve to win the Best Picture Oscar every chance I get.

Vito
Vito on January 14, 2010 at 3:35 pm

January 10th 1952 the World premere at RCMH of
of the “Greatest Show on Earth”

View link

Denpiano
Denpiano on January 14, 2010 at 12:57 pm

I can’t begin to tell how depressed i’ve been since my stroke 4 years now the music hall was my 2nd home the people there are family
they are great, the music hall has a safe future from what I saw while I was there, everyone cares very much for its continued success&they work very hard to ensure it.my love to all of you who work there and read this.

DavidM
DavidM on January 10, 2010 at 9:18 pm

“Up The Down Staircase” played the Hall in the Summer of 1967. It is one of the famous “Radio City 11”. Well, they are certainly famous, and fabulous to me. I don’t have time to go into detail now; I will in my next post, which will be all about the numbers 2, 11 and 36.

There were no depressing films that played Radio City. Downbeat, maybe. Evocative, thought provoking, definitely. I"m Bipolar, and I can’t imagine the instance of sadness or depression that I would stay in one moment after seeing The Rockettes take the stage. I think it is physically and emotionally impossible to be depressed at the Music Hall.

Denpiano
Denpiano on January 10, 2010 at 7:25 pm

nice interior shot Lost memory,I need all the help I can get,i’m forgetting how the place looked, i’m away 4 years now

Denpiano
Denpiano on January 9, 2010 at 5:31 pm

radio city has really great people working therethat care for its operation, I
miss them dearly they’ve always offered me help where needed and kept me out of trouble, theres plenty of places one could get hurt if not alert, especially working on the Wurlitzer,so many tight spots
I’m 6'1" tall and banged my head more then one time taking care of an emergency sticking noteor other horror stories too many to write
of here

Myron
Myron on January 6, 2010 at 9:54 pm

Sorry I forgot the ending in “Staircase”. I agree it was a very powerful film not like most of the silly teenage films that is made nowadays. Sandy Dennis was a great actress. I was training that year for my own teaching career when I saw the film in 1969. Through the years, I often had trouble hearing films at RCMH because of the acoustics the speech was often echoed. I wonder if that was ever fixed.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig on January 6, 2010 at 6:19 pm

But remember, she didn’t die. The ledge broke her fall. And that movie did have a very effective happy ending. It’s one of my favorites and I only wish I could’ve seen it at the Music Hall.

I guess “Days of Wine and Roses” qualifies as a depressing RCMH film. The scariest horror movie to ever play there: “Wait Until Dark”.

Myron
Myron on January 6, 2010 at 6:12 pm

The most depressing film I ever saw at the RCMH was “Up The Down Staircase” about a dysfunctional high school in upper Manhattan. It was back in 1969; even the stage show couldn’t cheer me up. I recall a troubled student jumping out of a window because she learned that her teacher didn’t love her. What other depressing films played at RCMH?

DJF7
DJF7 on January 6, 2010 at 6:06 pm

there are a few of Bohr’s intermissions on youtube

Denpiano
Denpiano on January 6, 2010 at 2:30 pm

that organ was taylor made for the styles of Liebert, Bohr&Miller
we’ll never hear those great intermissions again, makes me very sad

HenryAldridge
HenryAldridge on January 6, 2010 at 1:46 am

I got hooked on theater organs and film history after hearing Dick Leibert play an intermission one Friday evening during the Christmas season of l963. He really knew what he was doing. So did Ray Bohr.

Denpiano
Denpiano on January 5, 2010 at 12:20 am

does anyone have recent shots from inside the theatre?
I agree with Vito, great shot Bryan, taken between 49th&50th Ithink?
looks familiar to me

Vito
Vito on January 4, 2010 at 6:47 pm

Beautiful shot Bryan. I will be prining that on glossy paper.