Radio City Music Hall

DavidM: I gather the original fire curtain is still in place and in use. Cutting it up to get it out of the building would probably create more of an evnviornmental issue than leaving it.
Re: the Doncho — the story is that Japan gave that drop to the City of New York for the ‘64 World’s Fair Exhibition in a pavillion which featured a show produced by — Leon Leonidoff. He specified the size, knowing that when the fair was over, there was only one place in New York that could handle a drop that size. You guessed it — that place was the Hall. (Leon was pretty wily!) I don’t know whether its still in the flies or not. It is so heavy that it is tied to two pipes, which is valuable line set space. (At least it used to be before the video wall came into place.) I think there was some talk of moving it to Weehauken warehouse, but as with the fire curtain, getting it out of the building without damage would have been a major challenge.

On another note — one of the passenger elevators may have been a place to store deceased audience members, but I remember Fred Kellers telling me about at least one body that was stored in his very tiny office at the back of the orchestra, and which was shared with his secretary. He said he had to step over it until the amubulance arrived. Perhaps that episode led to the later storage on the elevator.

Some info for “tolover”. Last time I checked, there were over 600 dead notes on the organ. Most of these are to be fixed before the concert. Re: the fireworks from the 40’s, I remember seeing a color photo of them in a 1951 popular machinecs mag. with a full page story on how they were made. I was at the hall in the early 60’s and almost jumped out of the chair when I saw them being used on stage. I only remember that it was a year or two before the Worlds Fair opened. In fact when I went to this past Christmas show I was questioned if I could give a non-bias review after the show. When I told them how many Christmas shows I’ve been to and have performed on the Great Stage they excepted me. After the show I went down and was escorted into a booth and was asked many questions re: this new show as compaired to older shows and I know I was asked questions to see if I was really paying attention (Believe me I was!). When they asked me about the new firewords part I told them that because it came out at you and the tech. involved it was better than the originial (they looked at me like I was from Mars or something, They didn’t know that there were fireworks used there before. So I explained it to them. I also told them that I was disapointed that the orchestra didn’t go down on the orchestra lift and come back out on the rear of the stage (BIG MISTAKE). Also I did not like the 12 days of christmas number (It is too long.). Then I told them to spend some money and get the guts back into the organ. I ended with they should go back and look at the ending for the original Christmas Show. With the organ, orchestra and chorus all going up the chord ending on the 7th, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house and they havn’t had an ending so moving as that was yet. For anyone in the know I was #92.

REndres: I’m curious. Was the fire curtain refurbished as part of the 1999 Restoration? What material is it made of these days?

REndres: Thanks for reminder that the fire curtain was used for the 50th Anniversary show. I saw “Encore” many times. When I worked there, I did see the fire curtain flown in and out a few times. It raised and lowered at such a slow pace. Who wouldn’t think it was part of the show? I never had the opportunity to see a fire drop; I wish I had. Every time I visit the Hall, I look at the top of the proscenium to see it.

Thanks also for the “briefcase” story. I recall another story about the fourth passenger elevator, the one to the far right. Several people told me this was used as the “death car”. If a patron would suffer a fatality while the Hall was open, the body would be kept in there on a stretcher until an ambulance arrived.

I remember the Archives room as well. There was so much stored in that room, even my voice. The first time I went in there was to make a copy of the audio casette with my introduction of the Christmas Show. The archives exist today, although everything has been moved to the MSG Penn Plaza offices.

Leon: The Cherry Blossom Doncho curtain was first used in “Follies ‘64”, the show that accompanied “The Unsinkable Molly Brown”. It is mentioned in the program for that show. I imagine it still exists to this day. It may still hang in the fly space, but I do not know.

A website like the one Leon mentions above would be take a tremendous effort, one that I would be happy to assist in if the opportunity arose.

There is kind of a filmed record of what was staged at the Hall; the 1983 TV Movie, “Legs”. Many scenes were filmed at the Hall and it features excerpts from a few Rockette dances, most memorably(for me) the “Dancing in Diamonds” number. Gwen Verdon is featured in a role sort of based on Violet Holmes, who took over as Director of the Rockettes following Russell Markert’s retirement. Occasionally, you could find a VHS copy of the movie on Ebay.

Creating the website envisioned above would take an enormous amount of effort, since the archives (when still in the Hall) filled a room under the stage with filing cabinets and storage space from floor to what was probably a 12' ceiling (I’m 6'4" and had to climb up a tall ladder to get to some of the film footage that was stored there.)
One of the disappointments I had was failing to return Leon’s 16mm footage to him after he left the Hall. He wrote an extremely kind and complimentary letter to me saying that he enjoyed working with me more than any other projectionist (we didn’t have the chance to work together long enough in all probability for him to get annoyed with me!) I looked through the film footage which was stored behind the screen in Preview A, but couldn’t find what he was looking for (not realizing at the time he was talking about 16mm film).
A few years later for the 50th Anniversary show, I found the case containing his footage. I sent it out to the west coast to be included in a montage of stage shows and historical footage, asking that the footage be put back together when returned. Instead, they sent it back in a jumble of edited pieces used to make the montage. I would never have the time to reassemble them properly. That footage may still be in the archives, although it was shot by Leon with available light on relatively slow 16mm reversal stock, so the images are pretty grainy.

Vito: If you think the fire curtain is impressive as it came in at the end of the day, you ought to see a “fire drop” which is truly awesome! The rule is that NOTHING is ever to sit on or be wired across the fire curtain line. There are brads in the stage floor to stake out its position when dropped. At one point there was a sign referring to the curtain as DavidM does above as being made of the material which dare not speak its name in this day and age. By the sign there was a rope and a knife, which could be used to cut the rope and put the curtain into free-fall. That curtain is in two sections, since the proscenium is 60' high at the top, so the sections have to fit in the fly space above the stage. Thus you have two pieces of heavy material 30'+ by 100'+. As recently as this week they did a fire drop, which releases the curtain just as if the ropes had been cut. It comes in with a roar that you can hear before you actually see it emerge at the top of the proscenium, and comes crashing toward the deck. At about 12' above the deck, plungers hit hydraulic stops that slows it to a pace similar to that which you see when it is lowered at night. After the test it is raised, but you can hear fluid dripping in the hydraulic cylinders for minutes afterward. The stage is cleared before a drop, and crew members and stage managers stand on either side of the line to make sure no one is near the drop area. Several times I was allowed to stand on the pit elevator to watch the drop, and that’s really about as close as I wanted to be. (The story — probably apocryphal — was that someone once left a briefcase on the drop line and it was crushed as the curtain landed.) It’s quite a piece, and DavidM, it really was part of the 50th Anniversary Show in 1982, when it was lowered as the audience came in, and we projected the 50th Anniversary Logo on it from the booth.

Thank you David M. for the alert to the Time magazine article, I did find the piece with a nice black and white picture of the fireworks at the end of the item in a bound copy in our library. Sorry I never got to see the fireworks used at any of my attendings in the 1950’s.

I guess I am the only one who if I go to the Hall and there’s not a movie and a stage show the place seems kind of empty even if there is a sold out audience.
David you were lucky going there during that period. It was still regularly playing good Hollywood films that one wanted to see. It was in ‘69 that the Hall started regularly showing duds with a rare good one.

PS: A Yahoo search for Leon Leonidoff led me to a 1949 article in Time Magazine about the 1949 Independence Day stage show. Here’s the link:

View link

Does anyone of out insiders have any behind the scenes info on what is going on for tonight Tony broadcast?

To answer the question posed about the many shows I have attended at the Hall. I started going regularly in the early 50s until leaving NY in 1972. I believe I saw every show during that time frame which computes to about 20 years at about 9-10 shows a year making it somewhere in the range of 175-200 movies and stage shows.
I don’t remember ever going back to see any one show a second time and to pick a favorite would be difficult. As I have mentioned before, the shows in those days always changed on a Thursday and we would arrive at about 6pm in time to beat the price change and sit as close to the stage as possible for the stage show. My favorite seat was the one directly behind the control booth. After seeing the first stage show we rushed up to the 3rd mezzanine to sit directly under the booth for the movie. Then often we would return to the orchestra level to watch the stage show a second time. We would spend about four hours at the hall
For me the best part of any show, after the Rockettes and ballet, was the orchestra. I loved hearing the musicians tuning up as the pit rised up to stage level. For those who remember the orchestra could be heard tuning up as part of the start of the show. Sometimes we would get an extra treat and watch the orchestra rise to stage level and then roll to the back of the stage, this would usually lead to the Rockettes coming up on the stage elevator vacated by the orchestra. That was fun.
The wonderful steam curtain (do they ever use that anymore) was exciting, the entire front of the stage would fill with a curtain of steam with a marvelous rushing sound, just breathtaking.
So for me it was not so much the quality of the stage show but the technical aspects I found fascinating, and of course, the marvelous orchestra and organ.
I recall once, when we saw the last showing of the movie, there was this huge thing that began to descend upon the stage. It lowered and then rose up again. Well, I had to know what the heck that was and asked a manager as we were leaving to explain. I learned it was the stage fire curtain which they were required by the fire department to test at the end of every day.
So favorite movie or stage show? Hard to say, but favorite thing to go to see in New York was the new show at Radio city. The Roxy shows were grand to be sure as was the Paramount, but entertainment nothing beat the experience of going to Radio City Music Hall.

If you thought sitting through them once was bad, you should have had to watch them several times a day for the run after check screening both of the show prints at 1 in the morning after the previous show ended for the day!

In all due fairness to the “Petrovka” stage show, that may have been the one where Peter Gennaro had the corps de ballet pulled out from under him not long before the show was to open. The ballet staffing was fixed, and the Hall wanted more flexibility, so they simply dropped the ballet from the shows. After that they were able to hire dancers as needed. This left Peter (who’s forte was dance after all) with only singers and the Rockettes to work with. He later did some pretty decent shows considering the budget he had to work with. I particularly remember a 1776 tribute he did using the “Love” theme arranged in styles to accompany dance from 1776 to 1976.

By the way “Leon”, I did get to work on your namesake’s last show at the Hall which was a tribute to Colombia. I think Leon got to see the world by staging those shows, all of which were built around performers from various countries at a time when, for most of the Hall’s audience, travel there in person was unattainable. Thus I had film footage in the vault of Leon in Israel, Leon in Italy, Leon weaving baskets with the natives “somewhere”. He had arranged co-sponsorship of the show with the airline of Colombia, and had spectacular footage of the performers arriving on a plane which buzzed the Statue of Liberty and flew under the Brooklyn Bridge, with the narration going something like, “look out for that Statue!” Unfortunately the airline of Colombia wanted you to believe that their planes were so safe that they taxied all the way here, and they went into shock at the opening performance. They insisted the best footage be cut over Leon’s objections. We were also to return all of the footage to them, but somehow, an original print survived and may still be in the Music Hall archives somewhere.

Warren in a post above mentions wishing he had details about the stage shows. Cablevision may have pitched them, but when I was there the Music Hall library had extensive documentation on all of the shows, with multiple photos of each of the sets and all of the costumes. The numbers ran into the 100’s, and filled books. Since the numbers were often repeated, particularly for such hits as “Rhapsody In Blue”, “The Undersea Ballet” and “Bolero”, not to mention the “Nativity” and “Glory of Easter” prologues, the documentation was essential. I know they still do have an historian who was featured in the documentary on the Hall recently run on the MSG Network, and judging from that program they still keep an archive, so the stage show documentation is probably there. (According to Fred Kellers, the Vice President of House Operations, there was an agreement with the press not to review the stage shows when reviewing the films. I have the list of all the films that played and their dates and the names of the stage productions which accompanied them, but that’s all.)

I would have wished they had played Meet Me In St Louis(Astor) for Christmas of 44 instead of NV. Probably would have been the best Christmas show ever at the Hall.
Also as the summer attraction in 48 Easter Parade(Loews State) instead of A Date with Judy. That again would have been something.
Also roadshow films of the 60’s which would have done much better at the Hall and had a terrific sendoff there like Half a Sixpence, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Sweet Charity.
One of the strangest non picks for the Hall was Walk Don’t Run(I think Loew’s State.) The last Grant film and the Hall’s biggest
star. Instead they had Kaleidascope!
And there were quite a few that opened in New York in the 70’s Radio City should have had but they ended up in small east side houses. Very strange and unfortunate. This was why the Hall was playing such unbelievable drek.
Try watching The Girl from Petrovka(it had the cheesiest, worst, most embarrassing stage show ever. People were in shock.) or Hennessy.
At that point I knew not to go to most movies there.

Interesting comment about movies being chosen for the Hall. Which movies of the late 40’s-mid 50’s would you have liked to have played…and which ones that played wish they haden’t.!!! That would be fascinating information.