Radio City Music Hall

Ziggy: Since I’ve been out of the Hall for a decade now, the decision is no longer mine. Actually, they had formed an Archive in 1979, prior to which I tried to deal with the film library.

A lot of the film was from travelogues which Leon clipped scenes from and used in the stage shows. We also had a lot of historical footage of the Rockettes and the opening of the Hall from newsreels and the “March of Time”. While, as I mentioned above, I was able to get much of the RKO newsreel footage to the Museum of Modern Art, some of it was nitrate and lost to age (I was particularly upset to find a reel of the opening of the Center Theatre had started to bubble and couldn’t be saved, since there was very little documentation on the Center.)

Another complication was the rights to the footage. The Sherman Grinberg stock footage library bought out the RKO newsreel library, so we couldn’t use the footage we had without an agreement from them. It became easier to just contract them to supply the footage rather than deal with material we had.

I’m not sure what happened to Leon’s footage, since it was just one case of 16mm four minute reels. It did come back from the L.A. transfer, so presumeably it’s still in the Music Hall Archives. They now have a full time archivist to tend the material, and since it still turns up on specials such as the recent Music Hall history on the MSG channel, I presume it’s being cared for.

Oh and ‘62 was Jumbo.

paljoey: The only film we had of the stage shows was taken by Leon Leonidoff with his 16mm camera. He wrote to me after he left asking if I could return it, but I didn’t know what he was asking about. After his death I found a case containing the footage buried in with hundreds of reels of 35mm film I always felt badly about not being able to return it to him.

When we were doing the 50th Anniversary Show, a producer on the West Coast asked for footage to incorporate into intersticial montage sequences than ran on a scrim between numbers. I sent Leon’s footage along with our prints of RKO newsreel footage about the theatre to them with the admonition that they reassemble what they used. Unfortunately, the footage all came back in short sections which we never had a chance to reassemble even if we could figure out what went where.

In reality, Leon’s footage (which did include clips from “Bolero” as well as “Rhapsody”) wasn’t very complete. 16mm rolls for non-professional use only lasted about 4 minutes so only the highlights of a number were seen (some photographed from the electric bridges at the sides of the stage).

We did give the nitrate RKO newsreel footage to the Museum of Modern Art, which is how we got the copies we used in our shows. The rest of the materials went to the Music Hall Archive which is now off-site, so we’re not sure how much is still in existence (there was a plan at one point to send it to Bonded in N.J. for proper storage in a film vault.) And yes — one of the most interesting parts of the job when we were there was working with the production people to edit footage for the stage shows and then integrate the projection into the set pieces. I must confess I’m a little envious about the freedom the producers now have with video projection and wall capability to expand the range of effects. Even the Metropolitan Opera is now using digital video to expand the artistic capability of its producers and scenic designers.

Anybody seen the Pulham movie? Does it ever show up on TCM?
Seems a very bizarre choice for a holiday show even if it’s good. Why is it unheard of?

REndress is any of that film of stage shows from the sixties and before? Or is all of that gone for good? Would love to have movies of the big set pieces available to experience as much as possible the holiday shows and Bolero, Court of Jewels and Serenade to the Stars etc. We don’t even have good color photos!
And wasn’t there a Voyage of the Vikings?
What fun it must have been devising this stuff. And even more fun to see it. And then stay and see it again!

There may have been a little contemporary “lip syncing” in Breen’s performances. A few years ago we were told to clear all nitrate film out of the Music Hall’s archives. At one point I could just kind of sneak it out, but the growth of enviorenmental awareness precluded just throwing it out. Firms were charging a fee to dispose of nitrate stock.
As an alternative, we offered it to the Sherman Grinberg stock footage library, since we had used their services for effects for our stage shows. Among the rolls of film, one which puzzled me was one labled “Breen”. Thinking it was a reference to the Breen of the Motion Picture Code who had ties to Rockefeller Center we took it to Grinberg’s office. The woman who was their main archivist put the footage up on a projector and said, “That’s Bobby Breen singing.” She remembered both his film and live performances in the New York area. Apparently, someone was concerned that he wouldn’t be able to do the number of shows a day required, or wanted a back-up, but it’s quite possible that audiences of the time who thought he was singing were actually hearing a 35mm film recording of his voice mixed with the live orchestra.

For a string of posts about “Auntie Mame” at RCMH, scroll above to 8 September 2005.

Between 2 June 2005 and 20 January 2006, my Showplace programs from 1956-74 appeared on this site (weekly on Thursdays around 10:00), with strings of valuable commentary from CinemaTreasures members at that time.

Nearly three years later, I’m looking forward to rejoining the discussion and sharing still earlier Showplace programs.

I do agree with LuisV, although I am a little luckier. My wife is working on the show, and I had free tickets early in November. I took my 75 year old mother, who up till then had never been inside the music hall. ( Her and my father had been to the Roxy in the 50’s). What a great time she had, and the joy on her face said it all.

Interesting comment about TKTS. Since I work in Times Sqaure and walk past the (new) TKTS booth all the time, I have never seen the Christmas Spectacular available on the discount board. The last I heard, Radio City does not belong to the TDF (Theater Development Fund), the group that operates the booth. It work be great if they did.

My great aunt from West Orange had an annual tradition of going in to Manhattan every year to see the Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall. I’ve never seen it. I wish I had availed myself of the opportunity, because at today’s prices, and with no movie, I don’t think I ever will see it.

Great poster. That was 50 years ago yesterday, when the Hall mostly played movies alongside its Xmas shows.

The first couple weeks I thought attendance was up but now it has dropped off. Most of the optional shows have been cancelled already. I suspect the remaining ones will be also. Also, from what I have heard, they are looking to start the shows next year later into the season.

BTW, has attendance for the Christmas show increased or decreased from last year? Right now we’re in a recession that started a month after the Xmas show opened last year, and people can’t afford a lot of money to watch a christmas tradition that has been a mainstay of the hall forever. Maybe Cablevison could follow suit and broadcast the show to all the Clearviews that have DLP, like they did with the Knicks/Rangers games at the venue that it owns, the Garden.

Thanks, Vito – what a great article! I loved how the projection team was referred to as a family.