Radio City Music Hall

Tues 12/19/39 Astor (all seats reserved, twice daily) and Capitol (no reserved seats, 3 shows daily)

Christmas 1969
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Thanks Jay, I kinda thought I was not imaging things, I enjoyed reading you tell the whole communications story. :)
Oh yes, you are quite right “those were the days”. Indead!

Your right, some of us had a louder or softer “cluck” then others, but we always looked in the direction it was coming from as it could be one of your equals or one of the front of the house management or higher management. It was understood that all Music Hall employees knew that was the way the Service Staff communicated. After the party had our attention a number of established hand signals were given either asking a question, such as “check” – people sitting down or empty seats in your area, which Aisle were you filling now, or maybe open or close a door. Also a number of had signals had been established to the effect that managment wanted a line to move or a few hundred were headed in your direction NOW. Ah yes, those were the days…. I was reading most of the entries yesterday, and I noticed a number of them signed by “Warren” I knew a Warren who worked at The Hall. Actually he was a department head at time “Sound” and also I worked for him after a day shift downstairs at the front of the house, at Plaza Sound. This was a recording studio on the top floor of The Hall. I wonder if this Warren is one and the same? Thanksgiving will be here soon and that reminds me of the times some of us on the Service Staff marched in the Parade a few times I marched in 1961 and 1962.

I worked at Radio City Music Hall also. It was my first job out of high school. I was there for two, three year periods. First was July 1961 to May 1964. My second period was May 1967 to January 1970. I started as an evening usher for $1.00 a hour, and switched to days when management found out I was able to work days. I worked my way up to being one of the twelve assistant managers at the front of the house. I was usually upstairs in charge many a weekday matinee and evening shift. I will never forget The Hall and all the regular patrons,who had a 10 show subscription of tickets and all the opening matinees with top management coming down to view the first couple of days of a new show. I remember many a Opening Night as the time was getting close to the start of the Last Overture we would expect Mr. and Mrs. Gustave Eyssell (The Chairman Of the Board) to come down after having dinner for The Studio Apartment, on the upper floors, and see the show with other noted guests in attendance. I have met many a star, diplomats of The United Nations, and heads of State, and the New York State Officials and a few from Washington. All on the job.. Oh the memories. Jay F. Mould Just now RETIRED….Anybody remember me?

DavidM, Another instance where we openend the masking to applause was going into the triptych sequence of “Napoleon”. We also did it on another occassion during the Warner series. By that time the traveller had long been removed to make way for a piece of scenery hanging in that space during our live presentation of “Snow White”. It was never put back, and to lower the contour and take it out would take almost 30 seconds in each direction, so it was no longer practical, and as you mentioned, seeing the masking move from 1.37 to Scope or 70mm size is fun. I think it was either “Blade Runner” or “Jaws” which was preceded by a “flat” short with the masking in. At the changeover, the Warner shield was contained in the flat frame, and then the masking opened out to full scope size while the logo was still on. It was actually pretty neat.

EdSolero, I am in a screening room that is owned by a company which makes technical equipment for a wide range of entertainment companies from production to exhibition and digital HD. It shall be nameless here to protect my editorial independence, but it is the only company that I would leave Radio City for. We had a long relationship together starting with my first year at Radio City, and I met the Vice President of the N. Y. office back when he was a projectionist at the Ziegfeld when I started doing relief work there, and convinced him to work with me at Radio City as needed. Similarly, the Director of Engineering Operations here worked at the South Street Seaport and the New York Experience when I was there, and he also joined me at Radio City. He had started as a projectionist in Pennsylvania and had toured internationally as head electrician with the Dance Theatre of Harlem when he was still in his 20’s. This room was built as a technical resource for our engineers and clients with no idea of renting it out, but because of the theatrical backgrounds of the three of us it mirrors what we learned from Radio City and the Ziegfeld in terms of presentation. I came here a couple of years after the room was finished to help out with a couple of things while Radio City was closed for the renovation, and ended up staying. When the head prodcution stage manager at Radio City came over to see me and a demo while the Hall was closed he said, “Wow! You’re your own stage manager.” Because of the nature of our business, we do have 35 and 70mm capability as well as Dolby, DTS and SDDS and now 2k Digital Cinema projection (the projector is an NEC, the same as the Ziegfeld’s with a smaller lamp), and digital tape capability. We do press and industry screenings now, but that’s not the main thrust of the company. And yes — I do think we put on a better show than your average neighborhood multiplex!

Rob… Where is it that you currently practice your art? Are these press or industry screenings? If so, sounds like they get a better show then the paying public!!!

CinemaSightlines, I am total agreement with you. Rob will be able to tell us the process that enabled RCMH folks to perfectly time both the opening and closing of the travelor and waterfall curtain in perfect sync with the start and end of the movie.
No blank screen ever!
As a matter of fact, in the early days of CinemScope we would always close the curtain between flat and scope shows as not to let the audience see the masking opening, exposing a partical white sheet.
We never had any problems with the studios in those days. If a studio exec attended a technical rehersal (dry run) of a big movie, and made a lot of dumb suggestions, we would just yes them to death and then after they left we would do it right.
Of course in todays theatres, few have curtains, but when you do,
NO WHITE SHEET EVER!!

I’m a big fan of the El Cap too. I was in it not long after the renovation, and was backstage before the THX wall was removed. At that time the stagehouse was cleaned and painted, but had no grid. Ken Billington, who designed the lighting for a number of shows at Radio City, told me he had been out there to do some lighting design about the time they installed the organ.

When we did “The Lion King” at Radio City, Disney was trying to do the same stage show at the El Cap, and their tech person got a call in our booth telling him that during the “Aladdin” sequence, the computer missed a cue, and the flying carpet took off leaving Aladdin and his girl stranded! We kind of took that as a victory at the Hall where we had real live stagehands doing the cues. (I was also reminded of the tenor in a Wagner opera who was to exit in a swan boat. As he moved toward the boat, it took off across stage without him, and he was heard to ask in a loud aside, “What time does the next swan leave?”)

Vito, I must have used the generator at the St. George to run the FR10, as I don’t think it had a rectifier supply. I could only get one of the two going for the show, but as all FR10’s do, it looked great. And yes, after running down to the auditorium to look at it from the orchestra, I did RUN back up to the booth so I could get there before the end of the number. If I did that now either at the St. George or the Hall I’d probably go into cardiac arrest!

REndres, I wish we had known one another back in the day, we would have made a great team.
Speaking of the St.George, as you know shortly after the time you wrote about the theatre it closed for many years, a couple of years ago I was approached to help in the restoration and re-opening. My primary job was to get the booth up and running again, the spot light is still there but some parts had been taken out and it needed work. A few other things were sabotaged, like the amplifiers had missing parts, and someone had cut the take up belts on the projectors, silly childish stuff. I figured out where the power came from with all those knife switches and breakers all over the booth and it was a great deal of fun bringing life back into the place. I wish you had been there, I could have used your ideas and help fiquering out where evrything was, I used the rectifiers, did you use those or the generator? It looked to me that generator had not been used in a very long time.
I dropped the screen and found the cable coming from the booth for the speaker connection and I was able to run film on the two Century projectors. I also found an old Brenkert projector in the backroom and wondered if that was part of the original booth, we had Brenkerts at the Paramount and Ritz. I had to laugh when you spoke of running down to the stage from the booth, that’s quite a run! I used to get all out of breath just climbing to the top of the balcony and then up those stairs to the booth, I can’t imagine running. We would hold meetings sitting at a table on the stage, and I would open all of the fire shutters in the booth and turn on the lights, so from the stage you could see all three projection ports as well as the spot port from the stage, I just liked looking up at that.
I am no longer involved in the theatre, but it is running successfully. It is a very functional stage with a great red curtain (rag) that although it functions in an up and down fashion it used to be able to open as a traveler as well. I hope that some day we can run classic films there along with a stage show.

We have written about the stage and screen shows at the Roxy, RCMH as well as the Capital and Paramount. Another one was the Palace, I used to enjoy the movie and 8 vaudeville acts that went on untill the late 50s. REndres, I sure wish I had taken a different direction in my career, and instead of working for Fox I sometimes wish I had worked those stage/screen shows, it must have been a blast. I did work a few palaces that featured live organ between shows but I missed out on the big stage/screen theatres. I remember the stage/screen shows at the Loews and RKO theatres all over NY, perhaps Warren or someone has ads to share from those days.
Yes Archie and Edith…“those were the days”

The Glorious El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood is on a small scale the heir apparent to RCMH’s Movie and Show policy… And they have a live organist center stage as the audience comes in… The quality of the stage shows has varied from simple and fun to elaborate and cheesy. Still the potential and the effort is there.