Radio City Music Hall
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
116 people
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Hopefully a strike is averted. My Mom plans on splurging for a fistful of tickets to take me and my kids, my brother and his kids – the whole clan – to this year’s X-mas show. I’ve explained to her that it just aint what it used to be – and particularly at these stupifyingly high prices – but, she wants a nice family holiday excursion into the City and who am I to spoil her plans?
My parents never took me to Radio CIty. Nope. It was my Aunt Lee (and later my Grandad) who always took me into Manhattan for shows and special nights out. The first movie I remember seeing here was Disney’s “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” and then back again a couple of years later for their animated take on “Robin Hood.” I remember they showed the coming attraction reel for “Mame” at either “Robin Hood” or the ‘73 musical “Tom Sawyer” and it seemed like it was a 10 minute preview. I can still see my cousin leaning in to me and saying, “We won’t have to come and see that one, they’re practically showing the whole movie right now!” Of course, we went back and saw “Mame” anyway. I also recall a movie with David Niven as a tutor for the children of a Japanese ambassador – I think it was called “Paper Tiger.” I also saw the reissue of “Fantasia” here (I posted on the Ziegfeld Theater site that I thought I saw it there, but I’m obviously mistaken).
The last movie I saw at Radio City was a version of the Prince and the Pauper entitled “Crossed Swords” – a lighthearted all-star costume adventure in the same vein as the recent (at the time) pair of Richard Lester Musketeer films. It had been billed as the Hall’s last attraction (in fact, I have to dig around for the souvenier booklet I kept that has a sticker on the cover with the words “Final Attraction”), but I remember the Anthony Quinn flick “Caravans” playing there afterwords. Anyway, someone else noted here that “The Promise” in 1979 was the last first run movie and stage show attraction.
I remember the line to get in would stretch down 50th Street and then zig-zag on the plaza behind the building like the queue’s at Disney World (though this was several years before I ever made it down to Disney World and – I suspect – lines such as this had been forming in the plaza long before Walt Disney ever conceived of his first amusement park). I never saw a movie from any of the three balconies… we always seemed to get relatively decent orchestra seats, even when the crowds were large.
In 1980 I caught 5 of the 10 concerts held here by the Grateful Dead (including the Halloween show that was simulcast via satellite to theaters in other parts of the country). In celebration of their 15th anniversary at the time, the Dead played an acoustic set as well as two electric sets for some 5 plus hour evenings. Good times. The owners of the Hall were not thrilled that a poster for these shows depicted a giant skeleton leaning against the famed marquee of the theater… Perhaps they should have just been happy that the place hadn’t been gutted for office space or a parking garage at this point! I know I was and still am.
I didn’t make it back to Radio City for nearly 20 years, by which time I was a father of two and had taken my kids to see a live Barney the Dinasaur show of all things! That was after the ‘99 renovations. Finally sat in the balcony for that one. Caught the Christmas show a couple of years back and was even able to snag tickets for the Tony Awards in 2001 (saw Mel Brooks accept his record number of awards for The Producers). Being in the place nowadays – particularly up in one of the balconies – it’s hard to imagine how a movie would play here. I mean it is so vast and the balconies are set so far back. I remember the screen being nice and big when I was a kid in attendance, but it would have to be enormous to satisfy the desires of today’s moviegoers if you were planning on filling the theater right up to the third tier. And would there be an acoustical challenge with DTS surround sound in such a space?
New York needs a Christmas Show on a stage to compliment the one on the streets, so I hope there won’t be a strike.
Warren,that is disturbing news. Rob,any news/comments?
Bill do you remember the fact hat the newsreels were made up of bits and pieces of all the different studio news reels for each week. There would be a clip from “News of the Day”, “Warner Pathe” and perhaps one from “Universal News”, usually ending with a sports clip from the one and only “Movietone News”. All of this proceded by RCMH’s own news intro simply called Radio City Music Hall News. In addition, RCMH never ran conventional movie trailers but instead substituted a more dignified rolling narrative produced I think by National Sreeen Service. No loud obnoxious previews, It was after all a very classy joint.
Here’s a Program from November, 1957:
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I know that Leonard Maltin rates “Don’t Go Near the Water†as a dud, but as a gutter-minded fifteen-year-old connoiseur of double entendre in the late ‘50s, I found this film unexpectedly hilarious and still think of it fondly today. Part of the delight might have come from the sharp contrast between the rowdy, adolescent tenor of the film and the stately, sublime, ever-so-tasteful demeanor of RCMH. This contrast shapes up in the stage show that accompanied the film: the theme focused on the music of Victor Herbert from start to finish, beginning with the Overture’s “Herbert Melodies†and ending with the Rockettes’ “March of the Wooden Soldiers [here transvestized to ‘Wooden Toys’].†It was a turn-of-the-century show that my grandparents would have loved as much as the film moved my potty-mouthed pals to spasms of laughter. The “Wooden Soldiers,†was of course a routine that usually accompanied Christmas shows with a Tannenbaum set. For this Thanksgiving production, Leonidoff used a toy-shop set and clad the seventy-two legs in rag-doll costumes.
Geoffrey: Thanks for the info about the RMCH recordings. In this program, look at the notation on the “Announcing… the Great Christmas Show†page. It entices us to buy any of three LP recordings offered by three competing record companies: “Showplace of the Nation†by Roulette, “RCMH†by Columbia, and “Holiday Music†by Columbia. The subsequent recording of the “Sayonara†stage show music evidently updated the lot. The stage show with “Sayonara†was an abbreviated one because the film ran twenty-seven minutes over two hours. Stage shows conventionally began with an organ intermezzo after the film, then the newsreel under dimly blue-lit arches as crowds still searched for seats, often a cartoon, and finally the “Announcing our next attraction†strip accompanied by the organ. The orchestra would rise while tuning up as the curtain descended on the strip. In the case of this Christmas show, the organ intermezzo segued directly into the tuned-up orchestral strains, skipping the rest. Every fraction of a minute counted.
1960 “The World of Susie Wong"
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1961 “Fanny"
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It might be of interest to some that the stage show that played with “Sayonara” (see BoxOfficeBill’s October 5 post above) was recorded by RCA Victor the following March and released later that year as the Living Stereo album “Christmas Holidays at RCMH” (LSP 1010). It has recently been re-released by Classic Compact Discs (www.classicrecs.com) under the same title, as LSOCD-1010. The new CD sports the same wrap-around cover shot of the Rockettes in red from the Kodak Colorama display in Grand Central Station that year, and includes a scaled-down but unedited version of the original multi-page booklet with the story of producing the show and tons of full-colour backstage photos – plus another Rockettes fold-out!
The recording starts out with the original Nativity in its entirety, the segue into the show, the Cinderella Ballet, the Commercial Carollers, the Rockettes dance routines (all that’s missing is the sound of 72 tap shoes going at it!) and the finale. I never saw the original show, so someone may want to enlighten me on this, but the primary “theme” song, if you will, of the show on the recording was the recent hit song “Chances Are”. It shows up in the part before the ballet and again in the finale. I am curious about this because the songs used were usually listed in the programme and in this case neither “Chances Are” nor “Cinderella” by Eric Coates are credited.
In any case, the crowning glory of the recording for this lifelong Dick Leibert fan is a 10-minute Christmas organ medley – what some of us believe to be his single most perfect recording. It is the first stereo recording by Leibert of the big organ. It is also the first appearance of his own piece “Under the Chrictmas Mistletoe”. He often told the story, with variations each telling, that he was noodling around playing anything that came to him while the engineers were setting their levels, and the producer questioned one of the livelier pieces he had played, an Irish jig he had written years earlier and called “Brickbats and Shillelaghs”. According to Leibert, he did some quick thinking and said it was a Christmas piece he had written called “Under the Christmas Mistletoe” – a title that perfectly matches the cadence of the first four bars of the music. The producer suggested they put it into the medley, and it became an instant hit with organ fans, being published not long after and showing up on another Leibert-RCA Christmas album years later.
I have found both the album versions (mono and stereo) and the new CD version on eBay and they are well worth the price to any RCMH fan. It is also especially valuable as the only record (literally) of Leonidoff’s original Nativity pageant (see previous discussions on the more recent Christmas Spectaculars, above), save for an inferior recording (IMHO) of a later show released in the early seventies on another label.
Close your eyes and listen to the CD through earphones and you will think you are right there in the Hall. It’s hard to tell if the orchestra was recorded in the studio or in the theatre, but it is obvious to these ears that the organ used with the orchestra during the segue from the Nativity into the show (called the “Interlude” on the album) is the big one in the theatre and not the smaller one in the studio upstairs. If anyone can enlighten me on that, I would be grateful. This album has been part of my Christmases for the past 42 years and I never get tired of it.
Warren, I have had problems with several sites since yesterday,
a lot of servers seem to be down. Thankfully not CT.
Warren, I have had problems with several sites since yesterday.
A lot of servers seem to be down. Thankfully not CT.
What a great story and a great memory Bill, beautifully written too.Thats what CT needs more of.
Here’s a Program from December 1957:
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I wound up seeing “Sayonara†twice at RCMH. It wasn’t the first nor the last time that that happenedâ€"I ‘ll spare the details, ‘cept to say that in later years when I reported to my friends that I saw a terrific show at RCMH, they wanted to see it too, and I invariably caved in and went back to see it with them. With “Sayonara,†the situation was more delicate. I had seen it with high-school friends in the first week of its run, and thought it exotic and wonderfully liberating in a United-Nations sort of way (whatever happened to the UN now that that troglodyte Bolton is, um, representing us?).
The time-frame occurred when, according to my parents, I was seeing far too many movies, growing far too thin and pale from spending too much time in front of the screen, and developing alarmist pink views about the world and the state of the nation. So, naturally, I did not report to my folks that I had entered the golden arches to see Marlon Brando and Miiko Take fornicate hours after the film had opened. Then, one day in mid-December, my mom said, “You’re so thin and pale. Let’s get rid of your pink cast. Marlon Brando is such a wonderful actor. Let’s go to RCMH to see the Christmas show!†I gulped and said, “Sure, I won’t turn down a trip to RCMH.â€
The first time, I thought the film explored a part of Japan that George Hersey had written about (you gotta think mid-‘50s to fathom what that means). The second time, I thought the film was dull (and I’d stand by that verdict today). What I most remember was that, during the dual-suicide (Red Buttons of TV clown fame and the wasted Miyoshi Umeki, an AA winner cited in eighth place on the Showplace Programâ€"an awful scene for a Christmas show at RCMH)â€"an roar emanated from backstage, behind the screen. The first time, I figured that stagehands were bringing out the nativity creche for the stage show that would begin approximately twenty minutes later. The second time, I knew that the stagehands were doing exactly that. A year later, with “Auntie Mame,†the same roar went up: it co-incided with the scene twenty minutes from the end of the film when Roz Russell delicately accepts an sticky-sweet cocktail from prospective in-lawsâ€"“O, diaquiries, how nice.†Roar. I’m sure that the stagehands were awfully busy at that point, four times each day. Butâ€"camels and magi be damned—the noise interfered with the film.
After the show, my mom brought me to Ho Ho’s Chinese Pavilion on W 50 Street to fatten me up. But at the age of fourteen, I couldn’t dare tell my friends that I’d accompanied her to see “Sayonara†a second time at RCMH. “Mu gu gai pan†barely added poundage to my frameâ€"I starved to save money to see filmsâ€"but I thought it worth the subterfuge to find out what a second viewing of “Sayonara†at RCMH might reveal.
Brucec. You’ll be seeing the Music Hall used for shuttle launches and spelling bees before you see a film and stage show there again.
“The Unsinkable Molly Brown” was a good musical not a great one. It was far better than a lot of the big budget musical bombs of the late 1960’s. I remember my parents going to see it at the huge Fox Oakland in 1964 and enjoying it. The film was a major hit in the United States but didn’t do well in Europe.It was the last musical hit for M-G-M until “Thats Entertainment” in 1974. My personal favorite “Singing in the Rain” is considered the best musical ever made which was produced in 1952 also starring Debbie Reynolds and M-G-M. I think the Music Hall at least once a year for at least 4 weeks produce a stage show with the Rockettes and classic films paying homage to its histoical past. It would have to be a quality stage show with quality classic fims. It would have to be promoted properly and have a corporate sponsor.brucec
Here’s a Program from March, 1958:
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One of the good things about going to a Catholic high school was that you got a few days off for religious feasts. One such feast was St. Patrick’s Day, when you were sometimes encouraged to attend or perhaps even march in the parade up Fifth Avenue. Despite my Irish surname, I’ve never done that, and probably never will. The closest I came to it was that day in 1958 when my friend and I (his surname blatently Irish too) thought vaguely about checking out the parade and headed off for St. Patrick’s Cathedral. But when we emerged from the subway at W 50 Street, RCMH loomed in front of us, and “The Brothers Karamazov†beckoned us inside. Marilyn Monroe had been touted for the role of Grushenka, but we had seen Maria Schell in René Clément’s “Gervaise†(at the Baronet) and thought that she might play an appropriately wide-eyed naif in the part. Before we knew it, we were sitting in the third mezzanine smoking cigarettes and laughing at the Russian accents (or lack of them).
What I remember most about the stage show is that during the newsreel, the orchestra pit rose abruptly to the stage level without the orchestra on it (you could see that very well from the mezzanine). When the contour curtain descended on the title-strip announcing the next attraction (accompanied by the grand organ), it remained fractionally in place and then suddenly drew upward again, revealing a fully set stage with the entire orchestra on it and ready to launch into the “Lecuona Fantasy.†The effect was stunning. I had always thought that the overture in front of the closed curtain (usually bathed in green, sometimes in red light) served the purpose of allowing stagehands to send up the screen and arrange the set, but now I realized that the stage could be ready for action in a matter of seconds, all prepared as the film portion was winding down. As I recall, RCMH staged this effect a few times in my experience. Once was with “Show Boat†in summer, 1951, when, after the newsreel ended, the orchestra rose from the pit and rolled on stage in a mamouth band wagon and played Americana tunes, more to my liking than the “classical†music it usually undertook. The rapidity of it all amazed me, but I was too young then to reflect upon the mechanics.
When I returned home, I reported to my parents that I had watched a good portion of the parade. It’s a good thing that MGM’s version of Dostoevsky didn’t include the Grand Inquisitor episode from the novel: that would have scared the hell out of me for designing such a lie.
I would have loved to have worked with/for Ben. Is he still around?
Regarding 70mm installations, while I was working in Hawaii
(1972-1982)I pleaded with management to make better use of the five 70mm theatres, They bauked about things like shipping costs of the large film cans to the islands, and did not want to pay the premium projectionist pay, many of them felt the audience does not know the difference. I was relentless however, and bugged the hell out of them. Finally when I was appointed chief projectionist, one of my jobs was to upgrade the projection booths in all of the theatres.
I got my hands on a 70mm reel of “Fame” and invited the bosses to the Cinerama for a demonstration of what I had planned for the theatres. I did not tell them they were going to see a 70mm film. When it was over, the CEO said it was the best thing he had seen and heard in quite a while, “are all the theatres going to look and sound like that” he asked, yes I said, as soon as you begin importing more 70mm prints. I had convinced them, and 70mm prints finally began arriving, at one point in early 1980s we had three prints playing at the same time. We had started installing Dolby in just about all the theatres by the time I left, we did not have Dolby in time for “E.T.”, however Universal struck a 70mm six track mag print without the Dolby encode just for us to play at the Waikiki #1. As for some of the management guys, like they say in the South Pacific song, “They have to be taught”.
Thank you RE for an excellent post.
It seems that Molly Brown was one of the Hall’s biggest hits of the decade. The summer of ‘64 had the Worlds Fair and this was a Debbie Reynolds musical after all. Time magazine(not Variety!) as well reported that the film had 21,000 visitors a day. Too bad about the 70mm print.
There were several reasons for Ben’s being able to veto 70mm. Most 70mm releases in those days were road shows that were too long to fit into the Music Hall policy of a stage show and movie. They had never done a show with pre-show music, intermission, entr'acte music and exit music until we did a 70mm retrospective in 1974. It wasn’t until “Molly Brown” that there was a 70mm film that was short enough to fit the policy. Ben was friends with the head of post production at MGM who told him that there weren’t going to be many 70mm releases coming up, so Ben was able to convince management that it wasn’t economically advisable to install the equipment, although at one point in time Norelco supposedly offered to give the Hall three machines for the publicity. They did consider it. I had in my files (and may have at home now) a proposal for a 70mm sound system from Ampex, complete with drawings of how it would fit in the booth. Another possible reason was that Music Hall management was more stage than film oriented (and still is). For good reason they trusted their department heads who were regarded as experts in their fields. Ben and Charlie Muller before him were expected to manage a large crew and see that the show never went down. Thus the caution about new technology. When Charlie needed technical expertise he could rely on the studio’s technical departments to supply it. Ben ran 70mm at the World’s Fair in ‘64, and understood an installation of the magnitude necessary at the Hall would very possibly interrupt the presentation, since at that time they couldn’t shut down during the installation time to work out the bugs as many theatres did. As I mentioned above there were a whole bunch of unusual problems associated with the installation that were still there when I came in as Head Projectionist in '74. I actually had a crew member try to choke me (in jest) when he heard we were going to run 70mm, and say, “We don’t want to run 70mm at the Hall.” Ben even hated the color of the ElectroSound system that was installed and which was a copy of the Ampex system originally discussed, and retired about three years after the conversion.
By the way, regarding “Molly Brown”, I mentioned to the head of post at MGM during a tour of the studio (the same one who told Ben there weren’t going to be many more 70mm releases) that I had seen the film in 70mm in Chicago. He said that they were unsure about striking any 70mm prints until they made one with a full stereo mix with surrounds and ran it for an audience. He said it was like they were watching a completly different film. Remember, most people only saw it in Scope and with a mono track. It may not be one of the great musicals, but seen on a big screen with full stereo, it has its moments.
I'mmmmmmmmmmmm going to let Rob Endres field that one.
I will say that management respected and trusted experts like Ben to guide them in matters pertaining to projection. How was that Rob,
am I a diplomat or what. I should have been a business agent.
Speaking of Molly Brown. There was this weekend on a Broadway chat line a discussion of that film and the consensus is that everyone hates it. From what I’ve seen on TV I would have to agree but seeing it in 70mm at the Hall. That would be tremendous.
Now how could this guy Ben have so much clout at the Hall as to nix 70mm there. I would have thought that most people would have been overjoyed to see a 70mm musical there including the president of the place and Leonidoff et al.
Wouldn’t the president(maybe Gould?) say to him “you figure out the logistics just make it work!”
Rob, I will be scraching my head over this one for a while. I remember being told in the early 70s, by other 306 operators, that RCMH had converted to xenon, obviously that was not the case. I also remember NO ONE challenged Ben. I can’t believe they tried that crazy half frame projection, I remember Universal trying to save costs on raw stock by reducing a six reel movie to three reels, talk about disturbing the booth operation. Let’s see, if the reel is heads up you have reel one and when it’s tails it’s reel 3. Yeah… what could possibly go wrong there? Thank God that died a quick death, I have a six inch sample to show my grand children. By the way were you aware that when the operators struck two new carbons you could hear, in the third mezz, the neg and pos carbons kissing in the 180 amp lamps? What a sweet sound that was. Thanks for all the technical info, I love to continue to learn. As for the 7,000 watt xenons I’ll look forward to seeing that, but I would not want to be in the booth if one of those explodes. The audience members will think the operator shot himself. For those of you who are unaware, sometimes a xenon bulb explodes inside the lamphouse, there is no danger to anyone but it makes a terrific bang.
Oops! Should have done my proof-reading more carefully! The sound delay from the SCREEN to the back row of the 3rd Mezz. is four frames. If the sound is in sync at the screen its four frames out of sync in the back row. Advancing the track two frames puts the sound in sync in the middle of the orchestra and at the front of the 1st Mezz. where the VIPs sit for premieres.
Vito, the HyCans were getting so dull, you might have seen one of them and thought it was xenon. I doubt that they would have experimented during Ben’s regime as he didn’t like anything that could disturb the booth operation (although they did try Universal’s half frame projection in which the reel was run from head to tail, and then taken out of the lower magazine and threaded back in the upper magazine with the other picture so there was no rewinding).
Inerestingly enough, when we started looking at xenon none of the major manufacturers wanted to give us a lamp to because of the angle and screen size. Finally, Al Bodouris of Eprad gave us a lamp to try. Once he broke the ice, Christie and ORC also installed lamps (in the case of ORC both their prototype console with vertical bulbs pointing into a 45 degree mirror, which we picked to counteract the angle), and horizontal lamps. Strong never did get involved. The light output with new collector mirrors and dichroic mirrors and new bulbs did equal the HyCans which did give a pure light, but were inefficient compared even to reflector carbon arc lamps. At 4500 watts for xenon we equalled or bettered the HyCans which ran at 100 volts at the generator and 180 amps or 18,000 watts. We didn’t change to save electricity but rather because we just couldn’t get parts for the arc lamps. We still needed to get lighter prints for premieres as we had with the carbon lamps, and we still got prints made with the soundtrack advanced two frames to count for the delay from the booth to the back row of the third mezzanine which is four frames. Now with 7,000 watt xenons in use in the 70mm projection in the Christmas Show they should really have a nice looking picture.
Ok Rob, I am sure you are right, however I left for Hawaii in 1972 and did not return to NY until 1982. I could have sworn I saw xenon projection at RCMH prior to 1972, I remember thinking the light was dull by comparison to the carbon arc, although the focus had improved. This is an eye opener for me and it has left me a bit confused. Oh, and thanks Vincent for bringing this whole thing up, just another reminder of my old mind turning to mush, lol.
“Airport” was the first film shown in 70mm at Radio City. My predecessor, Ben Olevsky, was against installing 70mm (perhaps because he knew it would disrupt a smooth running booth). MGM had wanted to do “Unsinkable Molly Brown” there in 70, but Ben was able to veto the idea. (A shame, since I saw it in Chicago in 70mm and it was a good transfer with a great sound mix.) Ross Hunter insisted that “Airport” be shown in 70, and since Universal was four-walling the Hall, Ben had no choice. The three projectors were commandered from the Paramount complex in the Gulf and Western Building at Columbus Circle, since there were three going into the theatre and four more into the two screening rooms upstairs, which weren’t ready to open. There are many stories to be told about that installation. The machines for a variety of reasons didn’t work well, and when I started there, we took them out to National Theatre Supply (Simplex) in Paramus and had them rebuilt.
I might quibble with Vito about the xenon installation. We couldn’t get condensers for the Hall & Connely carbon arc lamps. We even tried to get the used Ashcrafts from the Astor Theatre, and couldn’t do that. In 1974 we started experimenting with xenon, and at one point had a different lamp on each projector. We finally settled on ORC lamps, with vertical lamps for the 35/70 machines and horizontal lamps for the 1 and 5 machine, which had to remain on Simplex bases so they could be readily moved for use in film effect projection in the stage shows. We did get more light out of the xenons than we were getting out of the HyCans (in all fairness, that was in part due to the burned lenses in the lamps.) Focus did improve with the xenons although we had to change to slower Scope back-up lenses to compensate for the higher lamp speed. Scope focus was dramatically improved over the HyCans with the 4" Bausch and Lomb lenses that were being used.
By the way, we did run “Becky Sharp” in the first Art Deco Film Festival in 1974 and it was indeed beautiful.