Radio City Music Hall
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
118 people
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bad movie, poor stage show, just days before strike.
BOB Why do you say “on that dark day?” Is it a bad movie or was this during the strike?
That’s right too—Even though I was a thirty-year-old presumptive adult at the time, I marvelled that Hollywood could advertise a yet unfinished and certainly unedited movie six months in advance of its scheduled opening—a marketing marvel. That, by the way, was the first time I’d seen coming attractions at RCMH. In the ‘40s and '50s, as Simon L has so eloquently described, the announcement of the next attraction unreeled as a b&w film strip, home-movie-style, in minuscules running bottom to top against a cross-hatched mesh background, while the grand organ played a pertinent melody (minor key for drama, major for comedy), always at the end of the newsreel and before the orchestral overture. In '72, I was shocked that RCMH was showing coming attractions, just as the local dives did. Before “Butterflies,” the previous picture I had seen there was “Up the Down Staircase” in '67, and even on that dark day there were no coming attractions. Sometime in-between, something had happened.
By the way I remember that during this run of Butterflies in July there was what seemed like a 20 minute trailer for the Christmas attraction 1776.(Interesting because Blythe Danner created the Goldie Hawn role but was in 1776 instead.) And I remember seeing Cool Cool Considerate Men. But when I saw the film at Christmas the number didn’t exist at all!
Right—the setting was Hawaiian, and the routine concluded on the runway. I should’ve stayed through repeat performances ‘till I caught a shoe.
But BOB did they do that in this stage show? I seem to remember them doing an Hawaiian number in grass skirts. Maybe I’m just dreaming it.
Warren—As a kid in the ‘50s, I heard people refer to this theater as “the RCMH,” much as one would refer to its rival as “the Roxy.” On his “Toast of the Town” TV review, for example, the stolid Ed Sullivan would introduce celebrity guests as “starrrs of a fffine fffilm nnnow playing at the RCMH.” The particle nonetheless struck me as funny, since none of my family used it in that way—we always omitted it in deference, perhaps, to the theater’s exceptionality: “We went to RCMH” (often just “Radio City,” without “Music Hall,” but sometimes “the Music Hall” [particled!] without “Radio City”—gotta assign a linguist to this case). I remember a neighborhood kid who wrought a splendid inversion: “Radio Music City Hall.” (Fatefully, she is now married to a world-class musician and is herself a great political activist.)
Vincent—Through a quirk, I too had seen “Butterflies Are Free” at RCMH, and I vividly remember the Rockettes' routine: the thirty-six of them (still thirty-six in ‘72) opened their act on center-stage, then filed out onto the narrow (what-do-you-call-it?) runway that rimmed the orchestra pit to perform their high kicks. I was sitting in the third row, and could only hope that one of them might dropkick a shoe into my lap—just as in '40s Hollywood musicals would happen to a perplexed old geezer in the front stalls.
That book for me was a great disappointment. The photos of the stage productions look like they were taken by a tourist with an instamatic(they probably were) and there are so many factual eras that it was truly a wasted opportunity. A coffee table book in conjunction with the Hall is needed.
I saw Butterflies at the Hall(on a weekday morning I couldn’t get a seat in the orchestra!) One of the best programs of the ‘70s with the last appearance of the Undersea Ballet.
'72 was probably the last year the Music Hall showed films of any quality.
Yes, I remember the “Ave Maria” at the beginning of the Easter pageant.It was amazing! Performers, each holding a lit candle would appear all around the audience with the organ music playing. It was awesome! We saw “The Singing Nun” with Debbie Reynolds. Anyone remember that each seat had an individual light, so the program could be read? The lights were later turned-off; I guess people complained it was annoying! On a different note, I think my deceased mother saw “Butterflies Are Free” with Goldie Hawn at the Music Hall, but I’m unsure.Is there a complete list anywhere of ALL films shown at the Music Hall?
Right, SimonL, as you well should know, since last 15 July, 1 September, and various times in-between you wrote vividly about your ushering at the Roxy in ‘56-'57. (Anyone skiming this post who hasn’t read those contributions should scroll back to them immediately.) I’ll meanwhile continue my current comments about the Roxy on that theater’s site page.
Thanks BoxOffice Bill. However when “Anastasia” played there, the house had already converted to an “all ice” program sans Ave Maria. However the stage show at the time Anastasia played was quite lovely and featured a Christmas in Japan finale that featured a stunning backdrop of Matsumoto mountain.
Yes, at the Roxy a choir in an enormous elevated pulpit, flanked by sparkling Christmas trees, intoned “Ave Maria.” Programs on screen included such holiday fare as “The Prince of Foxes” (with Orson Welles as Valentine Borgia, ‘49), “For Heaven’s Sake” (with Clifton Webb as an angel, '50), “Anastasia” (Bergman’s comeback, '56), and “Peyton Place” (all about sex, '57).
I have just found the programme that was handed out on my first ever visit to the RCMH.
Here are the details:
Week beginning Thursday November 11, 1976
Music Hall Grand Organ – Raymond Bohr, John Destroy
“The Slipper and the Rose: The Story of Cinderella” Richard Chamberlain, Gemma Craven.
“The Nativity” Rebecca Alford, Soloist. Entire Music Hall Ensemble
“Snowflakes” Produced and Directed by Peter Gennaro
A. “Build a Snowman"
B. "All Skating, All Singing” Barry Busse, The Caroleers & The Skaters
C. “The Penguin Ho-Down"
D. "March of the Wooden Soldiers” The Radio City Music Hall Rockettes
(Choreography by Russell Markett) (Directed by Violet Holmes)
E. “Santa” featuring Barry Busse
F. Finale: “The Christmas Tree” The Entire Company
As I stated in a previous posting on here, I stayed in to see the show twice, I was amazed and had never seen such a spectacle or use of stage facilities in my life! Two organ consoles playing together, an orchestra pit which rose up onto the stage and ‘disappeared’ into the flys, to be replaced by a real ice rink and skaters on stage. Those wonderful Rockettes and even real-live camels, sheep and donkeys too! Pity about the crap movie. I normally keep ticket stubs as a souvenir, but up to now I haven’t located it, but I’m sure it was not more than $4 admission.
Also on offer was the Rockerfeller Center Guided Tour
Adults: $2.15 Children: $1.35
Daily tours from 9:30am – 5:30pm at frequent intervals
‘This one hour guided tour of the 21-building business and entertainment complex, covers the Center’s history, its principle skyscrapers, its open plazas and rooftop gardens, its maze of shops underground and on street level, its comprehensive artwork and a glimpse backstage of the famous RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL.
Among the sites are the props and sets, the giant motion-picture screen and the massive stage elevators, a marvel of theatrical engineering.
Every tour terminates on the OBSERVATION DECK atop the 70-storey RCA building and you are invited to remain there at your leisure after the tour'.
I decided not to take the tour on this occassion, after all, I had seen the film, the show and the theatre. It must have been in later years when the tour concentrated on the RCMH totally and I have done this one several times.
Does anyone remember the “Ave Maria” prologue that the Roxy Theater presented each Christmas season? Of course, it could not compete with the Music Hall’s more spectacular “Nativity,” but it was (almost) a tradition there.
On the choral staicases were lit religious statues which the attendants would flank giving the entire auditorium the atmosphere of a church. It was quite beautiful. The last year these were used was in ‘76(though they were fewer than in the past.) I guess they were tossed along with the original Nativity sets and the Glory of Easter altar and windows.
Both of these pageants though religious in tone were never offensive but highly theatrical. Much like walking into a beautiful European church that can be appreciated on its own terms as an expression of human art and hope.
At the beginning of The Glory of Easter pageant, the curtain used to rise minimally at two spots equidistant from the arches to enable a procession of altar attendants to emerge bearing lit candles. As the attendants proceeded to climb the choral staircases, some member of the audience would inevitably express a fretful prayer that the curtain might not catch fire (each attendant was careful to cup a hand around the battery-powered wick). The two openings would close momentarily and then, after some verses of “Kamenoi Ostrow,” the entire contour would rise on the flower-bedecked altar and radiant stained-glass windows. At length, the in-house nuns would appear and form their blossoming cross, but you could get the full effect only if you sat in the exact center of the auditorium or in the mezzanines; otherwise, your perspective would distort the transversal.
Nothing could distort those magnificent Rockettes on the steps of the Trocadero/Chaillot. I wish we could see those pix too, Dorothy.
BoxOfficeBill – we have some pix of that along with an autographed Paris Expo Certificate as they won! wish I could upload them here
The curtain can raise in two styles only now; in an arc, echoing the arch of the proscenium and, alternately, horizontal across the bottom edge. Both styles still allow it to festoon/cascade as it rises and falls.I have seen them use both to great effect at the Christmas shows and also for concerts. What seems unable to happen is the use of any of the 13 motors to operate individually to allow for anything more irregular.
From Porter’s comment it appears that it no longer drapes in changeable patterns, merely goes down with a horizontal line along the bottom swags. There is a photo in MARQUEE magazine of the Theatre Historical Soc. of Third Qtr. 1999, page 23 showing the original crossbar-and-peg pattern selection switch matrix, and if such could be done in an electromechanical method, it could certainly be done today with electronic stepping motors via computer or push button. They were just too cheap to do it, apparently.
The cherry blossom curtain was used again for the revival of The Sting in the mid 70’s(too bad it didn’t open there. It looked and sounded,without visible speakers, terrific at the Music Hall.)I can’t believe they didn’t restore the motors for the curtain. What a bad joke! So it doesn’t cascade up and down?
SimonL—You once asked about RCMH shows without the Rockettes. In addition to their absence during “Madama Butterfly” in ‘34, they left town for a couple of weeks in Summer '37 to perform in Paris in the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne. The week of 27 June was designated for Exposition des Dances, so perhaps that was the interval? Films at that time were “Ever Since Eve” (with Marion Davies, opening 24 June) and “New Faces of 1937” (with Milton Berle, opening 1 July). Can you picture those seventy-two legs kicking down the steps of the Palais de Trocadero/Chaillot? I believe I’ve seen a photo of it. The best way to check on this would be to consult NYTimes microfilms for those dates, but it’s late and my library is closed.
Yes, “Executive Suite” played in May ‘54, but I didn’t see that film there then, so I can’t comment. A '50s Pictorial Program that my parents purchased when we saw “The Greatest Show on Earth” in Jan '52 displays a b&w photo of the Ballet performing “an enchanting divertissement in a scene inspired by cherry blossom time in Eashington D.C.” The more-or-less realistic set shows trees in blossom, with the capitol dome in a dusky background. The dancers wear Martha-Graham-inspired flowing shifts and are joined with hands raised in the air bearing blossom branches. No doubt a revival of this ballet accompanied the show in May '54. I don’t remember ever having seen it.
BoxofficeBill is right. I remembered it (incorrectly)as part of the stage show (the film was Executive Suite)whose theme was Cherry Blossom time in D.C. and featured the corps de ballet.
Yes, representing cherry blossoms against a golden backdrop, with abstract tree branches and blue birds in flight, it provided a setting for the Rockettes in the show accompanying “The Chalk Garden” in Spring ‘64, no? I forget the music accompanying the dance routine, but I believe the orchestral overture offered a suite from “Madame Butterfly.” The occasion marked international cooperation upon the opening of the '64 World’s Fair. If Japan presented the gift in the '50s, I’m straining to recall when I might have seen it then. It must have been for a springtime show, huh?
Does anyone remember the stunning tapestry-like “Cherry Blossom” curtain – a gift from Japan – that was also featured in many shows during the 1950s?