Radio City Music Hall

DavidM, Another instance where we openend the masking to applause was going into the triptych sequence of “Napoleon”. We also did it on another occassion during the Warner series. By that time the traveller had long been removed to make way for a piece of scenery hanging in that space during our live presentation of “Snow White”. It was never put back, and to lower the contour and take it out would take almost 30 seconds in each direction, so it was no longer practical, and as you mentioned, seeing the masking move from 1.37 to Scope or 70mm size is fun. I think it was either “Blade Runner” or “Jaws” which was preceded by a “flat” short with the masking in. At the changeover, the Warner shield was contained in the flat frame, and then the masking opened out to full scope size while the logo was still on. It was actually pretty neat.

EdSolero, I am in a screening room that is owned by a company which makes technical equipment for a wide range of entertainment companies from production to exhibition and digital HD. It shall be nameless here to protect my editorial independence, but it is the only company that I would leave Radio City for. We had a long relationship together starting with my first year at Radio City, and I met the Vice President of the N. Y. office back when he was a projectionist at the Ziegfeld when I started doing relief work there, and convinced him to work with me at Radio City as needed. Similarly, the Director of Engineering Operations here worked at the South Street Seaport and the New York Experience when I was there, and he also joined me at Radio City. He had started as a projectionist in Pennsylvania and had toured internationally as head electrician with the Dance Theatre of Harlem when he was still in his 20’s. This room was built as a technical resource for our engineers and clients with no idea of renting it out, but because of the theatrical backgrounds of the three of us it mirrors what we learned from Radio City and the Ziegfeld in terms of presentation. I came here a couple of years after the room was finished to help out with a couple of things while Radio City was closed for the renovation, and ended up staying. When the head prodcution stage manager at Radio City came over to see me and a demo while the Hall was closed he said, “Wow! You’re your own stage manager.” Because of the nature of our business, we do have 35 and 70mm capability as well as Dolby, DTS and SDDS and now 2k Digital Cinema projection (the projector is an NEC, the same as the Ziegfeld’s with a smaller lamp), and digital tape capability. We do press and industry screenings now, but that’s not the main thrust of the company. And yes — I do think we put on a better show than your average neighborhood multiplex!

Rob… Where is it that you currently practice your art? Are these press or industry screenings? If so, sounds like they get a better show then the paying public!!!

CinemaSightlines, I am total agreement with you. Rob will be able to tell us the process that enabled RCMH folks to perfectly time both the opening and closing of the travelor and waterfall curtain in perfect sync with the start and end of the movie.
No blank screen ever!
As a matter of fact, in the early days of CinemScope we would always close the curtain between flat and scope shows as not to let the audience see the masking opening, exposing a partical white sheet.
We never had any problems with the studios in those days. If a studio exec attended a technical rehersal (dry run) of a big movie, and made a lot of dumb suggestions, we would just yes them to death and then after they left we would do it right.
Of course in todays theatres, few have curtains, but when you do,
NO WHITE SHEET EVER!!

I’m a big fan of the El Cap too. I was in it not long after the renovation, and was backstage before the THX wall was removed. At that time the stagehouse was cleaned and painted, but had no grid. Ken Billington, who designed the lighting for a number of shows at Radio City, told me he had been out there to do some lighting design about the time they installed the organ.

When we did “The Lion King” at Radio City, Disney was trying to do the same stage show at the El Cap, and their tech person got a call in our booth telling him that during the “Aladdin” sequence, the computer missed a cue, and the flying carpet took off leaving Aladdin and his girl stranded! We kind of took that as a victory at the Hall where we had real live stagehands doing the cues. (I was also reminded of the tenor in a Wagner opera who was to exit in a swan boat. As he moved toward the boat, it took off across stage without him, and he was heard to ask in a loud aside, “What time does the next swan leave?”)

Vito, I must have used the generator at the St. George to run the FR10, as I don’t think it had a rectifier supply. I could only get one of the two going for the show, but as all FR10’s do, it looked great. And yes, after running down to the auditorium to look at it from the orchestra, I did RUN back up to the booth so I could get there before the end of the number. If I did that now either at the St. George or the Hall I’d probably go into cardiac arrest!

REndres, I wish we had known one another back in the day, we would have made a great team.
Speaking of the St.George, as you know shortly after the time you wrote about the theatre it closed for many years, a couple of years ago I was approached to help in the restoration and re-opening. My primary job was to get the booth up and running again, the spot light is still there but some parts had been taken out and it needed work. A few other things were sabotaged, like the amplifiers had missing parts, and someone had cut the take up belts on the projectors, silly childish stuff. I figured out where the power came from with all those knife switches and breakers all over the booth and it was a great deal of fun bringing life back into the place. I wish you had been there, I could have used your ideas and help fiquering out where evrything was, I used the rectifiers, did you use those or the generator? It looked to me that generator had not been used in a very long time.
I dropped the screen and found the cable coming from the booth for the speaker connection and I was able to run film on the two Century projectors. I also found an old Brenkert projector in the backroom and wondered if that was part of the original booth, we had Brenkerts at the Paramount and Ritz. I had to laugh when you spoke of running down to the stage from the booth, that’s quite a run! I used to get all out of breath just climbing to the top of the balcony and then up those stairs to the booth, I can’t imagine running. We would hold meetings sitting at a table on the stage, and I would open all of the fire shutters in the booth and turn on the lights, so from the stage you could see all three projection ports as well as the spot port from the stage, I just liked looking up at that.
I am no longer involved in the theatre, but it is running successfully. It is a very functional stage with a great red curtain (rag) that although it functions in an up and down fashion it used to be able to open as a traveler as well. I hope that some day we can run classic films there along with a stage show.

We have written about the stage and screen shows at the Roxy, RCMH as well as the Capital and Paramount. Another one was the Palace, I used to enjoy the movie and 8 vaudeville acts that went on untill the late 50s. REndres, I sure wish I had taken a different direction in my career, and instead of working for Fox I sometimes wish I had worked those stage/screen shows, it must have been a blast. I did work a few palaces that featured live organ between shows but I missed out on the big stage/screen theatres. I remember the stage/screen shows at the Loews and RKO theatres all over NY, perhaps Warren or someone has ads to share from those days.
Yes Archie and Edith…“those were the days”

The Glorious El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood is on a small scale the heir apparent to RCMH’s Movie and Show policy… And they have a live organist center stage as the audience comes in… The quality of the stage shows has varied from simple and fun to elaborate and cheesy. Still the potential and the effort is there.

Well I couldn’t resist taking a couple days and many hours skim-reading through the long string of previous posts here and now know who Mr. Endres is. I’m not sure which is more amazing, that I remember his name after 30 years, or that he is still with us, but I’m very grateful for both.

My memories of the Music Hall begin in 1968 when my father took me to see THE ODD COUPLE. I clearly remember being very impressed with the place, the lower lounge with a TV playing, no popcorn then, only Cracker Jacks (?!?) The amazing grand curtain, and, okay this will sound funny… the Men’s Room was so big and so very Art Deco that I thought all that was missing was Ann Miller tapdancing her way past that long wall of urinals! (hey, I was a kid)

Some time later I think I saw WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT? there… and I’m certain I saw BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS there on Thanksgiving (‘71 I think) I didn’t know then how much the picture had been cut to play the Hall but I do remember Disney had abandoned its original classy ad art for the kind of cheesy stuff normally only seen in post roadshow popular price runs. Part of th e fun of the Christmas show was the Nativity and watching to see if one of the camels would choose that moment to relieve himself on The great Stage. I also clearly remember the show’s ice skating gag and even as a kid knew they were on a turntable.

When I moved to NY in 76, I saw THE SLIPPER AND THE ROSE with a Christmas show at Thanksgiving. Before it stopped showing movies, I also saw CROSSED SWORDS, and HARRY AND WALTER GO TO NEW YORK among other things. It was obvious the caliber of film booked at the Hall had plummeted. I think the last thing I saw there was the sad VIncente/Liza Minnelli “musical” A MATTER OF TIME. I heard in its later years the Hall had lost out on many blockbuster films because they reportedly insisted on maintaining their policy of being exclusive for a 50 mile radius. Some years later, after a pretty decent restoration, I saw a godawful stage show called NEW YORK SUMMER, and a concert or two…

I remember the Hall as a great place to watch a movie and I would love to see a classics film festival done there, or maybe a steady regular once a week or twice a month kind of thing, something they could sell in advance. Something like personal appearances or programming like the old days with vintage newsreels, cartoons and trailers might make it special enough to fill the house. Of course the organ and grand curtains would have to be running. Sponsorship/advertising tie-ins from some Studio Home Video departments or TV networks might help. I’d also suggest a wide range of prices so that most regular folks could afford it, while the affluent could pay a high premium for VIP treatment in the first Mezzanine.

For many years I’ve missed seeing a good movie there with a Christmas show, and was happy to find a double LP from RCA called CHRISTMAS AT RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL that consisted entirely of Christmas Carols played on the Mighty Wurlitzer, just like I remember between shows at Christmas. I still have the LP although attempts to transfer it to CD have been unsuccessful… If anyone knows a way to get that album on a CD I’d be thrilled.

It is also disappointing to note that the once impressive RMCH website that used to offer 360 views of the place and much more history and pictures, is now a memory.

Bill, I worked every performance of “Napoleon” as Head Projectionist. I had worked with Boston Light & Sound doing dailies at Astoria, and recommended them to do the three projector interlocking. It was run from the third of the five projectors in the booth, with the other two panels on Machines #1 and #5. I had two other operators on #1 and #5 to open the lamp dousers and make sure the projectors were running properly. After they were threaded and locked, I was able to start all three from the center machine, and when I hit that changeover pedal all of the changeovers opened at the same time. The first run of the show, #1 and #5 operators had spotlight gel holders with blue and red gels, and on my cue would drop them in front of the lenses to create the French Tricolor effect. Later runs used tinted film on those machines. Vito, if you think a normal changeover at the Hall was thrilling, you ought to do one to 3 projectors at once! I always thought that after sitting for four hours watching the film, if we blew that finale the audience would lynch us!
A couple of summers later one of our producers wanted to do three screen effects in our stage show, but didn’t want to rent the selsyns and hire operators to do it. We snuck selsyn rentals (which we HAD to have to keep the machines in step) into the toilet paper account for the show, and I rewired the lamps for auto strike, so that when I started the machines the lamps would light on all three machines. That way I could leave the lamp dousers open. Since I couldn’t close them remotely the lamps extinguished when I stopped the machines in black film a the end of the cue and I would go over an manually close the changeovers for the next cue. I did every performance of that show by myself over the space of a couple of months with only l misframe on one machine during the run, and with three of those multiscreen effects in the show. THAT was really thrilling!

Robert, I attended one of the Sunday afternoon “Napoleon” shows at Radio City. The only seat I could get was in the back row of the third mezzanine, right underneath you if you were working that day. But even from that faraway vantage point, the 3-screen sequence was an awesome sight.

If only some rich Hollywood bigshot would do for Cinerama what Francis Ford Coppola did for “Napoleon”.

Robert and Ed: You’re right. Cinerama is a wonderful process, flaws and all. But the last time I saw it, in Hollywood 2005 (“How the West Was Won”), the presentation was so skillful that whatever flaws there were in the process were not even noticed! Cinerama must be to a projectionist what playing in the World Series is to a baseball player.

Vito, I hope Universal does that too. “Mulholland Drive” wasn’t a box office smash but it did OK business, and more importantly it was a great movie that earned Lynch a Best Director Oscar nomination. He’s too good a director to have his films struggle to get widely seen.