Radio City Music Hall
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
118 people
favorited this theater
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The five minute break would have been in addition to the exit and entrance music between parts one and two. As I recall that would have added about 7-8 more minutes.
GWTW had music everywhere, at the beginning and end of part one,
as well as the beginning and end of part two.
In one of the 70mm engagements I ran in order to fit all the music and still fit in three showings the projectors never stopped rolling between parts one and two. The music was enough time for the intermission.
As I thumb through the pages*
First show……..
Organ……..10:32
Stage Show…10:45
Organ……..11:18
Trailer……11:19
Feature……11:22
Intermission.1:03
Feature……1:08
End……….3:06
earlier today, channel 13 in NYC showed the radio city xmas spectacular commercial free in hd. It’s no better than going to see it at the hall!!!
Interesting that for the RCMH four-week engagement, “Singing' in the Rain” rounded out the quartet of MGM classic epics that included “Gone With the Wind,” “Doctor Zhivago” and “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
Invariably when the MGM package was booked around the country, the fourth epic was “Ben-Hur” or “Ryan’s Daughter,” making it a foursome that originally had been released as roadshow (reserved-seat) attractions. “GWTW” invariably did the biggest business and earned the most additional weeks, followed by “Zhivago.”
hahahaha!!!!
REnders could probably know the intermission question.
I believe he was working at RCMH then.
Or perhaps RCDTJ could find something in the file cabinet he found in the old generator room.
If they indeed ran an intermission, then all of the bathrooms in the building (there are a lot) would be packed for 15 or so minutes and the concession stands busy before the movie resumed its second act!!!
Here is the ad for the Gone With the Wind showing with “it’s in your Stars on stage.It is dated April 24, 1975, the opening day of a four-week engagement of "classics” originally released by MGM. By this time, United Artists had the distribution rights. All but “Singin' in the Rain” were shown in 70mm
The same stage revue, “It’s in Your Stars,” was used throughout, but it ran less than 30 minutes and featured only the Rockettes, some “guest artists,” and the Symphony Orchestra. This was probably the first and only time in history that “GWTW,” with its exceptional running time of 3.7 hours, was ever presented with a stage show. It was shown three times daily, preceded by the stage show. First complete show started at 10:50 AM, and the last one at 7:35 PM.
Simply click on ad to enlarge
View link
Yep. The 3-D is still 70MM on the silver screen. The file cabinet is great. So much info.
RCDTJ, thanks for the responce.
So the 3-D image is not on the LED screen but 70mm projected on a screen from the booth,have I got that right?
You must be like a kid in a candystore rummaging through that old generator room :)
Sorry I got the date wrong in my entry above for Gone With The Wind. I checked and found an old Showplace and it was April of 1975. And yes, there was a stage show entitled “It’s In Your Stars” which remained the same through the series of movies. In addition to the films mentioned above, Doctor Zhivago was the last of the series beginning May 15, 1975.
Gone With The Wind…..4/24/75-4/28/75
2001…..5/1/75-5/5/75
Singing In The Rain……5/8/75-5/12/75
Sorry Ed. No grosses listed on any.
Any chances the individual weekly grosses are included?
Some pretty interesting stuff I just came across here. There is an old filing cabinet in the old generator room here. In it are books dating back to the early 30’s with most if not all the movies that played here. Pretty big collection. Goes into the 70’s.
If I remember correctly I believe the 70mm version of Gone With The Wind was shown during the summer of 1976 in a series which included Singing In The Rain and 2001: A Space Odyssey. I think they kept the same stage show for each of the films. I remember being annoyed at the presentation of Gone With The Wind because the impressive sweeping titles for the film were changed to plain white lettering while the background image swept across. This was due to the wide screen format which chopped off the top and bottom of the images.
Yes, the bus has been a consistent pain in the ass. Still having issues. As far as the 3-D is concerned,…….
“Soon Santa is off, and the sleigh ride from the North Pole to Manhattan, with 3-D effects on the giant LED screen at the back of the enormous stage, draws oohs and aahs.”………
At least part of that is right. It does get lots of oohs and aahs. It IS still on 70MM film (as it should be)……..
I seem to remember that “Gone With the Wind” was re-released in a 70mm version which played at RCMH. If so, which year was it screened? I am sorry that I never attended.
That bus giving them trouble again,same thing last year.
The review mentions 3-D effects on gisnt LED screen, are they not using the 70mm from the original booth?
And the first show only cost 90 cents.
some scanned old photos of mine taken in the 90's
exterior
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/4072621815/
vintage postcard from the 60's
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/3546929898/
one of the projectors taken on a back stage tour in 1990
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woody1969/4073383004/
This is something I posted last year:
Here’s the “Airport” program, first posted here 3 years ago:
View link
View link
I recall newspaper ads from that time announcing “Airport” as the first 70mm presentation in the history of Radio City Music Hall.
posted by Bill Huelbig on Sep 2, 2008 at 11:41am
So thanks, Vito, for giving me a chance to see that ad again.
In March 1970 Radio City presented Airport
The first time 70mm was presented at the hall.
On screen “Airport"
On stage "Glory of Easter”
View link
You make some good points about viewing films. The sound was often unclear and reverberated. If someone sitting in front of you was tall or was wearing a hat, that could obstruct your view and ruin the film and yes people kept going in and out of the aisles throughout the film which is very annoying.
Being a New Yorker, I went to Radio City numerous times growing up. I saw “The Thrill of It All” and “Where Were You When the Lights Went Out” with Doris Day, Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren in “Arabesque,” Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Natalie Wood in “The Great Race,” Lemmon and Matthau in “The Odd Couple,” etc. However it was in Steve McQueen’s “Bullitt” that I came to the conclusion that Radio City wasn’t the best place to see a movie you really wanted to see. The theater was jammed and I was up in the balcony. During the film’s legendary car chase, an elderly gentleman decided to make his way towards a seat in the row in front of me. He moved extrememly slow and the people in the row in front all had to rise for him to get through. As a result, I missed most of the most famous scene in the movie.
The last film I saw in Radio City was when my wife won tickets to the World premiere of “MacArthur.” Attending that night were the star, Gregory Peck, Frank Sinatra, Henry Kissinger and Mayor Koch. Sitting in the balcony, I never saw any of them.
I now go to Radio City each March to see Celtic Woman in concert. It is still a very impressive place and never fails to bring back memories of the many times I was there in the 1960s.
Myron,
If you do a search on previous posts on this page you will find answers to a lot of your questions.
Here is an example:
Cary Grant is the Music Hall’s alltime boxoffice champ.The
Music Hall played Twenty-seven of his films which played a
total of 113 weeks.
Fred Astaire is second place with Sixtheen films playing a
total of sixty weeks.
Greer Garson is the Queen of Radio City with Eleven films
playing a total of Seventy-Nine weeks.
Ginger Rogers had twenty-three films which played fifty-five
weeks.
Katherine Hepburn had twenty-two films which played sixty-four
weeks. Hepburn is the only performer,male or female,to have
seventeen successive films open at the Music Hall.
Note the above stats are from the 1979 Radio City Music Hall
by Charles Francisco.brucec
posted by brucec on Jul 11, 2004 at 2:05pm