Radio City Music Hall
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
118 people
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The Christmas show is again featuring the 3-D ride. I wondered if anyone knows what method of projection is being used. I know
IMAX 3-D is projected with two (left eye, right eye) 70mm prints.
It is oustanding.
What exactly “saved” Radio City from being demolished? I remember the hoopla back in 1977 (or 78?) when it looked like it was going the way of so many other theaters. It was in the papers EVERY SINGLE DAY. And I remember thinking, “no way…they can’t get rid of that.” And they didn’t. But I was too young to pay attention to the specifics as to how they managed to save it. Can someone fill me in?
Also, does anyone know how it’s doing these days, financially speaking? I work really close to this place and it’s almost always booked with something (HEY! Yanni’s coming on January 21st!!!!! Should be a sellout!!) so I assume it does OK at least.
Finally, (and this is such a stupid question) but…from looking at the theater from the outside (I work “above"it, so to speak) I just can’t seem to grasp "where” it is. From above, it just doesn’t seem that big but I know it is. Does the theater itself go into the ground or something? Because it just doesnt' seem that high from the outside. Please don’t think me stupid but it’s stumped me for years. It’s probably a question for an engineer.
The 70MM version of “The Jolson Story” did not premiere till August 22, 1975 and it opened at the nearby Ziegfeld Theatre. This was the first time this picture was released in the 70MM format. It was like what MGM did to “Gone With the Wind” in the mid 60’s, by cropping the picture.
The Rockettes could use a new act as well. Of course, I know this like beating a dead horse but a movie would be nice.
The Music Hall seems to giving out so many free and steeply discounted tickets for the Christmas show that the people who run the place should seriously think about revamping the thing.(Like throwing out the junk with the midgets, the worst Nutcracker on the planet and the Las Vegas inspired Nativity.)
Warren
The live show proved so popular in October 79, that it was brought back for an encore run in February of 1980 for 6 more weeks. That is when I saw it. The tickets were $8- $15.
Warren
Thats so funny because two nights ago I came across the program from this show. This was one of the first live shows after the movie format was dropped. I can give you the dates when I get home.
Many thanks for the information about Dick Leibert.
Henry,
According to a Westminster recording I have, Leibert at Home, “Dick Leibert studied the organ at Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory of Music. He was from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and attended the Moravian Prep School there. He began to play the organ professionally at the age of 14 when he got a job as a theater organist for Loew’s in Washington, DC. Later, he toured for the Loew’s curcuit and played for two years at the Brooklyn Paramount. Against stiff competition, he won the auditions for the permanent post at Radio City Music Hall.”
It has been said that Leibert waited last to be auditioned for the Music Hall job. For his own audition piece, he improvised a medley of everything played by those before him. A friend of mine was an Associate Organist at the Music Hall in the 1950’s and told me that Leibert did the “Gala Supper Shows.”
During his tenure at the Music Hall, he lived in Westport CT. When he retired in 1971, leaving the position of Chief Organist to the late Ray Bohr, Leibert moved to Florida and continued to make appearances. I am not sure but I think he passed on around 1976.
Some of the music Leibert composed was Rosa Maria, Jasmine, English Lavender, Waltz to a Princess and Papa Won’t You Dance for Me? Although I never met him, his style at the Music Hall Grande Organ was his own. He know the instrument intimately and his style could be characterized as being “dark.”
I have also been told that Leibert and Bohr would spend time playing another Rockefeller Center organ before it was removed … the Center Theater’s. This organ was a 4/34 WurliTzer, a scaled down-version of the Music Hall’s (with many of the same ranks of pipes with the same type art-deco console, finished in natural cherry). The Music Hall organ wasn’t the only organ Leibert opened. He was loaned to the Rainbow Room to open its 3/10 WurliTzer (a residence model organ). I recently read that in Dan Okrent’s book, Great Fortune which is about the building of Rockefeller Center. He mentions Leibert a couple of times. Leibert more than likely used the Plaza Sound Studio 3/14 WurliTzer which was in Radio City Music Hall. (The organ, a custom model with a scaled down version of the big console downstairs, is in storage.)
I hope that you can used this information. Also, I hope you consider writing about the Music Hall’s last Chief Organist under the “old” show format, Raymond F. Bohr, Jr. Ray was an extremely talented organist and kindness personified. Ray passed away in 1986.
It’s worth mentioning that when “Gilda” played RCMH, they had no policy regarding children as long as they were accompanied by an adult. However, when “Gilda” went to the nabes, it was a different story. I remember my aunt being turned away by the manager who stood by the boxoffice at the Ritz Theater in Elizabeth, N.J. I remember him saying to her, “Sorry, this film is for adults only.” We did go to see “Forever Amber” at the Roxy, because she was afraid she would be turned away at Proctor’s in Newark, if she had me with her. (I had one of those wonderful aunts that mold your life) Nabes were much stricter about whom they sold tickets to.
I am doing a paper on Dick Leibert who was Senior Organist at Radio City for over 40 years. Recollections about hearing him play or any other information about the Radio City organists would be greatly appreciated.
Henry
Robert was this the 70mm version? Did anybody see it? What was it like?
Part of the vaudeville stage show at the State with “The Jolson Story” was a new comedy team by the name of Martin and Lewis! Both men developed quite an appreciation for Jolson’s music from hearing it backstage in their dressing rooms between shows.
Joe Franklin has often mentioned his accompanying Jolson on the Loew’s Theaters tour for “Jolson Sings Again.” Does anyone know which theaters Jolie visited on that tour?
I remember when Larry Parks died the Ziegfeld revived “The Jolson Story”.
Amazing to think that Jolson opened at the Hall on 10 Oct and didn’t make it to the burbs until when? How long did people in the boroughs have to wait to see a hit film that wasn’t hard ticket?
Interesting that such a sexually suggestive film like Gilda(it’s still pretty hot) played the family oriented Hall and then the State with a puppet show! I remember years ago TV used to cut the film for reasons of good taste rather than time.
SimonL and Vincent are both right — “The Jolson Story” premiered at RCMH on 10 October ‘46 and ran until the Xmas show “'Till the Clouds Roll By” opened on 5 December — a long eight weeks. It then moved to the State, where it was accompanied by a Vaudeville show, as the State in the mid-to-late '40s was wont to take films after their openers elsewhere. (Earlier in '46, at the age of three, I saw—and still remember— “Glida” at the State after it had moved from RCMH: my parents took me because the Vaudeville presentation featured a puppet show that they thought I’d like— quite a pairing to lure young tots and their folks to that seductive film— I have hazy memories of the puppet show set against a green backdrop, but can never forget Rita in stunning black-and-white.) After the State, “The Jolson Story” moved to the Fox in Brooklyn, where I remember seeing it; then, on to the nabes. “Jolson Sings Again” opened at the State on 17 August '49, and never played at RCMH. By that time, Larry Parks’s reputation was tainted by Communist allegations, no? (It’s awful to remember all this trivia—the dates come from “The NY Times Directory of the Film.”
Simon, it first played the Music Hall and was quite a sensation. There is a very nice picture in Betty Garrett’s book of her putting the letters of the title on the Music Hall marquee with her husband Larry Parks looking on.
Vincent: Record breaker for both attendance and gross “The Jolson Story” played Loews State, as did “Jolson Sings Again.”
I have heard many similar stories about Jolson over the years. Fred Astaire will always be remembered as a “class act”.
I heard Burton Lane speak once. He said the nicest man he ever worked with in the entertainment industry was Astaire(one of the Music Hall’s favorite film stars)and the greatest performer and most wretched human being was Al Jolson(The Jolson Story was one of the Music Halls biggest hits.)
I read this was one of the reasons Al Jolson was such a beloved performer, his voice could be heard all the way to the rear balcony.
Vincent finds it hard to believe that they didn’t have mics in the huge movie palaces, and that is hard to understand from today’s perspective when almost everything is miced. Firstly, movie palaces were mostly built for silent movies, not the live, spoken word. Such speech as one might hear there under normal situations was only choral singing, where the aggregate volume was sufficient to penetrate to the rear of the auditorium. While a few of the largest theatres apparently did have rudimentary mics working off of a rudimentary amplifier, most did not, and so live, spoken word was NOT the norm at all. Few famous opera stars would sing at too large a hall for the simple reason that it could damage their voices if they were expected to project or ‘throw’ to the farthest balcony. This is one reason that few large palaces were then suitable to becoming opera houses. Today, virtually everything is miced, both because of our now customary reliance on technology, and because it lets the producers and sound men have more control over what the audience hears, as well as sometimes making up for the limitations of the acoustics of the hall.
Vincent implies that they over use microphones these days, even for the orchestra, and in some measure he is right. Sound reinforcement is not as pure as the source, no matter how much money is spent on good equipment, but the temptation to have more control and the electronic power to dazzle and even cow the audience is something irresistible to them, but sad to say, this is often abused. We must also not forget the profit motives of the merchants of such who persuade venues that powerful amps and speakers on several planes are essential to versatility, if not verisimilitude. As to lip-syncing to recordings: it is to be expected these days, since it can compensate for an out-of-condition performer, and does not include the noises of the stage, so it is rationalized that the crowd hears a more ‘clean’ sound track. Whether or not such constitutes a truly ‘live’ performance is up to the listener.
RobertR,
You hunch is correct! Wow! According to the late Ray Bohr, RCMH’s last full-time organist before the change of format in mid-1979, perfomers did lip sync. The reason was for this was because of a cold/flu/epidemic that made its rounds one time through the performing staff and many came down with laryngitis which had a catastrophic effect on the currently playing show. So, the performers were recorded live to prevent future mishaps.
Vincent: The first Broadway show to use a stage mike was Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific” in 1949. It was a decision made by the composers out of town before New York and was thought quite innovative. The first body mikes were subsequently used by Lena Horn in “Jamaica” (1957)and Anna Maria Alberghetti in “Carnival.” (1961)
Jim: I second what you have to say about theatre organist vs. classical organists arguement. There was as many bad classical organists and theater organists as well as good ones. As Ben Hall states in the his Best Remaining Seats: “It – the Mighty Wurlitzer – was, after all, capable of producing honest music of compelling emotional force when properly played and, in the hands of an expert, could work musical magic far beyond the limitations of any other instrument. Without it, the movie palace would have been soulless as an armory.” The chapter to which you refer in Hall’s book is, The Apotheosis of the Mighty Wurlitzer, page 179. Having played both classical and theater instruments, the theater organ, IMHO, is more challenging to play.
The Music Hall organ sounds great in its environment, but it depends where you sit. Since the chambers are situated fairly high on either side of the proscenium, the lower level of the third mezzanine puts the listener at approximately the same level of the organ chambers. There are places in the orchestra where the organ is terribly muffled especially since it, to my knowledge, is no longer miked, particularly the percussions and the piano.