Radio City Music Hall

Vincent I will ask my friend Rob Endres to verify this, but I believe it was with the Easter 1970 showing of “Airport”, when RCMH installed the three 35/70 projectors. That would have been projectors #2-#3-#4. Perhaps Rob can tell us if the other two straight 35mm projectors, #1 and #5 get converted to xenon at the same time.
As for your comment about Becky, “you got that right”

Yes warren, it was in fact the first film to be shot in the three strip Techniclor process. Audiences, having only experienced two strip color,were blown away by the spectacular life like images.
In my humble opinion, with all of the advancements in color photography we have today, nothing compares to the splender of
three strip Techniclor print projected with a carbon arc lamp.
I remember when RCMH converted to Xenon lamps, the result in my opinion was dramatic, and not in a good way. Carbon arc is gone as is three strip, Progress? I say Humbug!

True, “Indiscreet” is exactly the sort of film that TCM lionizes. Life is short and art is long and there’s so much to see, but if the chance comes along, I might peek at it again. Both Grant and Bergman were then a lot younger than I am now, so maybe their ages won’t seem so distracting this time.

Here’s a Program from April, 1959:

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“Merry Andrew” also seemed a minor effort, despite the talent of Michael Kidd, Johnny Mercer, IAL Diamond, Baccaloni, and others associated with it. But it was a RCMH Easter show, and Danny Kaye seemed practically a member of the family (though I never met him), and my high school friends were ready for a good laugh (which hardly came with this picture), so we went to it on Good Friday afternoon while the rest of NYC bowed hushed in prayer. That was a good thing about the Easter show at RCMH: if you didn’t have a reverent bone in your body, you could always walk in on that day without encountering a line. On the other hand, look at what happened to President Lincoln when he went to Ford’s Theater on Good Friday nearly a century earlier.

Here’s a Program from July 1958:

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“Indiscreet” struck me as a dud projecting the exhaustion of a H’wood studio system intent on making its stars of a decade or two earlier perform as though they were younger again. I stand second to none in my admiration for Bergman, ever since at the age of three I saw her twice in “Bells of St. Mary’s,” first at RCMH and then at the RKO Dyker. And if I could only come across like Cary Grant (I try, believe me, I still try). But I remember when seeing the film at that time I thought, “This is what it must have been like at RCMH ten or fifteen years ago.” Only it wasn’t, of course.

One Showplace Program I regret having lost or misplaced around that time was for “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” the following September. Last 22 August, Myrtleave posted a newspaper ad for that film and stage show, and I’m grateful for it. My senior year in high school had just begun, and to celebrate it, a bunch of us piled onto the subway and headed for W 50 Street. The film had its daring moments, to be sure, and also its sexy and its tender ones. I remember that when the great contour curtain descended, we engaged in a lively debate about whether Brick was really an, um, you know, shhing one another so that our frank conversation would not scandalize the tourists and families who sat all around us. It’s a kick to think that little more than a dozen years later Robert Wagner, Natalie Wood, and Laurence Olivier would perform in a prime-time television version (I never saw it) based more closely on the play’s uncensored script (or so I’ve heard). It’s also a kick to imagine that today any high school kids might shh one another on any topic whatsoever. And yet films at RCMH allegedly went out of style for lack of suitable GP product.

I was told recenly by one of the top theater organists that the american Theater Organ Society was working on some kind of event for this summer. He said the plans fell through, but that they are still working on something for the near future. Is there any new information on this?
DeanS

I also remember Ginger Rogers at Radio City. As I recall, she was a guest star in the show for a 2 week period during the 90 minute summer show that the Music Hall ran during the tourist season from Memorial Day thru Labor Day. Nearing 70 at the time, Ginger managed quite well with slow dance numbers with chorus boys doing most of the faster dancing around her. Somewhere in my archives, I have some Super 8mm footage that I shot during her numbers. All in all I have positive memories of the show although I do not recall what songs Ginger performed.
I used to look forwarded to those summer spectaculars, which were reasonably priced and reminiscent of the stage shows of previous times. Too bad they were discontinued.

Now BOB that’s enough. Leave such comments to the Roxy or Paramount page. What would the women in hats and gloves in the first mezz at the latest Greer Garson movie say?

BOB other than the Rockette do you remember anything else about the stage show? That Santa of the Sea finale seems somewhat bizarre. I know that the Kirby flying ballet was often used for the Undersea Ballet. So was the ballet underwater and did they manage to submerge Santa as well? What I would give for films or even photos of some of these stage shows!

I have been a theater manager for twenty five years and had ten more years at the music hall. I have never seen the industry so down The morons who claim to run the buisness have it so low that it will never recover!The reason projection is so bad is that they have cut the projectionist there will come a time when there will be no more projectionist. ronfrompittsburgh hit it on the head dvd home theaters.

I second the motion. Too bad people in the business are not as caring. Heck, they don’t even have projectionists any more. Just kids or managers (who are kids sometimes themselves) do all the so- called projection!! How many times has the picture been out of focus or projected on the masking!! It was so bad onetime at a Lowe’s I asked for a refund. The apature was so out of sync that in closeups the actors lips were barely seen. Guess that’s why I haven’t been to a cinema for almost a year now. Good old DVD on my wide screen home theatre system is the best way to see films today.

Bill, I can relate to your feelings about projection quality, it has been a passion of mine for over 50 years. I have had my share of battles with exibitors who showed little or no interest in what the picture on the screen looked like, I remember telling one theatre owner to get out of the business. I too was a crank, a trouble making pain in the butt to any one who dared not to take the fine art of projection seriously. I must tell you it warms my heart to know there were folks like you out there appreciating the kind of film presentation I took so much pride in. sometimes my complaints to theatre owners were ignorned with a comment like “don’t worry about it,no one will notice” Well, they were wrong, you noticed.

Now the whole thing is beginning to make more sense. I recall the MiracleMirror screens quite well but they were not necessary in very many theatres, I did not realise Vincent and Bill were writing about screens with horizontal seams, I was refering to the horizontal louvered screens which is what we used in Cinerama, forgive an old man. As for the panels in the screens, which we still have today, I would agree with REndres in that they are not very noticable. I should mention that in many of the theatres running digital projection, we are being encouraged to install seamless screens.

Bill, all through the 50s during the wide screen era, in the many theatres I have worked, I never saw what you have described, and I worked in some theatres with some rather large screens. I would love to hear from others out there on this subject, I am fasinated by what you have written. By the way, your not a crank, it has been a pleasure sharing information and stories with you.