Radio City Music Hall

Vito: Thanks for posting that article. I had seen it — there was a section in the booth filing cabinet for articles about the projection at the Hall most of the wider read trades such as Boxoffice and Motion Picture Herald and from Intrnational Projectionist. I have a few of them but not that article. Fortuately, Boxoffice is in the process of putting its past articles on line, which is really something to look forward to.

Hank: I agree with you. I think that the current contour curtain is made from a much lighter fabric than the first two. It does not seem to hang like it used to and is very billowy. Lately, I’ve seen the feet of people moving about the stage when the curtain is down, something I do not recall seeing in the past.

Thanks, Lost Memory, for the LIFE photos. I’m am going to post some of my photos in the near future.

Here is a March 1946 photo from Life:
http://tinyurl.com/5c5v8a

Greetings:
July 1961 The Monday-Friday General Admission prices were $.99 opening to noon, $1.25 Noon to 6:PM $1.75 6PM to Box Office Close. The Reserved First Mezz. was $2.50 Matinee (Admission from Opening to 3PM Only) and $2.75 Every Evening (Seat Held from 7PM to the Start Of the Last Overture) The Sat GA was $1.25 Opening to 3PM and $1.75 from 3PM to Box Office Close. The Sunday and Holiday General Admission was $1.75 All Day. When the Christmas and Easter Shows came around there usually was a Morning Reserved Seat Sale. The Reserved Ticket holders ha a choise of coming to the opening show (film) at 7AM or could wait until the first stage show break and come in no later then 10 AM intime for the second showing of the film which would let out the the Matinee patrons at 1PM the promised time for their seats. again up to 3PM. On Sundays the first Morning sale of Reserved had to be seated by the start of the first show at noon, (Stage Show) and out at the first feature break so we could get the next 944 patrons in within 45 min in specific seats. No one could be allowed in after 3:45PM as they might still be there three hours later when the evening seats were guaranteed. This I recall from my management of the upper floors for two three year periods. Sorry but I don’t know what the earlier year prices were.

RobertR posted this “Father Goose” ad three years ago. It displays the 1964 prices at the Hall:

View link

We are proud of you RCDTJ, keep up the good work.
Oh, and never allow them to substitute the 70mm with Digital-3D :)

Maybe not, since this will keep attendance down at the Hall with a bad economy affecting ticket sales, but annual showings of the show on MSG as well sales of the DVD will generate some much needed cash to Cablevision, not Time-Life, as its profit slowed down at many of its businesses, including Clearview Cinemas.

OldJoe: I cannot be a newer piece; it has a small cigarette burn in it. I am confident it has been walked on for many years. It has a brown background with tan and dark brown/black “women”.

OldJoe: Did the purple “singing women” take on a brownish tint after 45 years of use? I know my carpet is not from the 1979 renovation. I recall that carpet as having a black background.

Deskey designed and titled “ the singing women ” carpet – it was part of his entry for for the competion to desgin RCMH. While the carpet looked blue -green from being soiled and darkened with age, it was replaced before the 1999 restoration while a color match of blue – green tones. The 1999 restoration research of the rockefeller center archives found the true colors to be a backround of rust , with the stylized singing women in tan and purple.

The waves symbolize singing as well the womens hair. I like the fish story though. If the carpet is brown, I would assume it to be newer carpet that is now replaced with greater frequency.

DavidM: When I stopped to remember the carpeting, the “Singing Ladies” hair becomes the “waves” under the “fish”. Try turning your carpet sideways (talk about a new angle on things!) I hadn’t thought about the carpet being blue (it was usually kind of gummy when I was laying cable down along side the aisles), but that would also make “sea theme” sense. I had a piece of the original wall covering at the back of the house, but sacrificed it for the sake of acoustic analysis. The original treatment was acoustically pourous like speaker grille cloth. When they redid it in 1979, they just printed the pattern on cloth. The difference in absorbtion was impressive. The new material reflected the P.A. system sound, rather than let it be absorbed through perforated metal grill work behind the original fabric. In additon, the metal work which was like ceiling tiles had been backed with sound absorbant filler, which had all decayed and fallen to the bottom. Thus there was a huge sound reflection from the curved wall area behind the 3rd Mezzanine. That resulted in an echo so prominant that if I turned my head while screening new show film prints in an empty house at Midnight, I heard two distinct soundtracks — one from the screen and one from the back wall. When an acoustician analyzed it he found that the sound from the back wall was actully focussed in such a way that it was louder than the original sound from the screen at some frequencies. Once you sat under the shadow of the First Mezzanine the echo disappeared. Afte listening to a bit of mono film soundtrack which I played for him he came up to the booth saying, “Why haven’t they FIXED that?” Hopefully, that’s all been corrected in the last redo of the auditorium.

RCDTJ: That was a pretty good run for the projectors. I don’t think the 70mm machines had been rebuilt since they were taken out to National Theatre Supply in Paramus in 1974 when I started there. Considering that they were adaptations of the Simplex X-L projector head, we always felt that they weren’t as stable as say a Norelco DP-70 or AAII would have been. The fact that they ran as long as they did was a tribute to the head of National Theatre Supply’s head machinist (Leo Lucas?) who did the rebuild.

It would be interesting to know if the shutter drive gear was replaced. Originally the X-L drive gear was rubber centered to give less vibration. Those centers rotted out from the projector oil, and the shutter would stop rotating. The 35/70 machines had standard fiber gears, but when Leo rebuilt the ones for the Hall he put rubber centered gears in since they were military spec. I could see them going after 34 years, particularly running at 30 F.P.S. for the Christmas Show 70mm footage.

DavidM: are those really “Singing Ladies”? I know the tour guides list them as such, but I was also told that they represent fish in water. Since Roxy was supposed to have been inspired to create the coves by a sunrise while on an ocean liner, the pattern in the aisle carpeting was of fish in the waves in the ocean, and the effect was enhanced by the “wave” image of the aisle lights at the end of the seat standards which gave a “wave” appearance looking down from the Mezzanines. If you turn the Singing Ladies sidways, the image is kind of like fish fins with an eye at one end.

RCDTJ, Thanks for that booth update.
Great to hear you are happy with the results, it sounds like you should have a trouble free and fun time up there.
It was also good to hear you got that exhaust problem resolved,
I recall Rendres was concerned about that a while back.
Please keep us informed and write from time to time about your experiences with the show. It is geatly appreciated.