Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's
Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was
for a time the leading tourist destination in the city. Its interior was declared a city landmark in 1978.
Early history
The 12 acre (49,000 m²) complex in midtown Manhattan known as Rockefeller Center was developed between 1929 and 1940 by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., on land leased from Columbia
University. Rockefeller initially planned a new home for the Metropolitan Opera on the site, but after the
Stock Market Crash of 1929, the plans changed and the opera company withdrew
from the project.
The names "Radio City" and "Radio City Music Hall" derive from one of the complex's first tenants, the
Radio Corporation of America. Radio City Music Hall was a project of Rockefeller, Samuel Roxy Rothafel who previously opened the Roxy Theater in 1927, and RCA chairman
David Sarnoff. RCA had developed numerous studios for NBC at
30 Rockefeller Plaza, just to the south of the Music Hall, and the radio-TV complex that lent the Music Hall its name is still
known as the NBC Radio City Studios.
The Music Hall opened to the public on December 27, 1932 with a spectacular stage show, featuring Ray Bolger and Martha Graham. The opening was meant to be a return to
high class variety entertainment. Unfortunately, it was not a success and on January 11, 1933, the first film was shown on the
giant screen: Frank Capra's The Bitter Tea of General Yen starring
Barbara Stanwyck.
Radio City has 5,933 seats for spectators; it became the largest movie theater in the world at the time of its opening.
Designed by Edward Durell Stone, the interior of the theater, by Donald Deskey, incorporates glass, aluminum, chrome, and geometric ornamentation. Deskey rejected the
Rococo embellishment generally used for theaters at that time in favor of a contemporary
Art Deco style, borrowed heavily from a European Modern aesthetic style, of which he was the
foremost exponent at the time.
For much of the theater's history, it presented both a movie and a stage show as part of the same program. By the 1970s,
changes in film distribution made it difficult for Radio City to secure exclusive bookings of many films; furthermore, the
theater preferred to show only G-rated movies,
which became less common as the decade wore on. Regular film showings at Radio City ended in 1979, although movies have
occasionally been shown there in succeeding years.
Attractions
The Great Stage, measuring 66.5 feet (20 m) deep and 144 feet (44 m) wide, resembles a setting sun. Its system of elevators
was so advanced that the U.S. Navy incorporated identical hydraulics in constructing
World War II aircraft carriers. According to Radio City lore, during the war, government
agents guarded the basement to assure the Navy's technological advantage.
The Music Hall's Mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ is the largest theater pipe organ built
for a movie theater. Twin identical consoles flank both sides of the Great Stage, 144 feet apart. As it was installed in 1932,
the instrument, the largest produced by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company of
North Tonawanda, New York, was not built to accompany silent movies, but
rather to be a concert instrument, capable of playing many styles of music, including classical organ literature. Its 4,410 pipes
are installed in chambers on either side of the proscenium's arch. A restoration of the historic organ was undertaken that was
completed in time for the theater's restoration in 1999. A smaller Wurlitzer organ was installed in the theater's radio studios,
but was put into storage when the studio was converted into office space.
The theater is also home to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, a
New York Christmas tradition since 1933, and to the women's precision dance team known as The
Rockettes. The theater, which is managed by Cablevision, is also used for a variety of concerts and special events. In
1998, Latin pop artist Luis Miguel held shows in the hall by selling out five consecutive
shows in five straight nights, and also sold out four straight nights in four straight concerts in 2000.
The Music Hall is the regular home of the Daytime Emmy Award ceremony (though the
2006 and 2007 shows were held in Los Angeles) and the Tony Awards, is the frequent site of
the annual MTV Video Music Awards (although the ceremony has occasionally been
held since the 1990s in Los Angeles, Miami and was in Las Vegas in 2007), and has often been the venue for the Grammy
Awards on years when New York has won the bid to host the show, although Madison
Square Garden, owned by Cablevision, hosted the Grammys in 2003 while the Staples
Center in Los Angeles most recently hosted the awards in 2007. In addition, Radio City Music Hall is also the regular home of
commencement ceremonies for Hunter College
and Pace University's New York City campus. The Great Stage has been home for the
NFL Draft in 2006 and 2007, and will do so again in 2008.
On January 15, 2000, Radio City Music Hall played host to its first ever sports event, a boxing card that featured undisputed
light heavyweight champion Roy Jones, Jr.
defeating David Telesco in the main event, and in the co-feature heavyweight
David Izon defeating Derrick Jefferson.
The New York Liberty played some of their 2004 home games at Radio City while
Madison Square Garden was renovated for the Republican National Convention.
Famous Progressive Rock band, Dream Theater, recorded their concert here on April 1,
2006 during their 20th anniversary tour and released it on a 3CD/2DVD live album named Score
(album). Heaven and Hell recorded their March 30, 2007 concert here,
releasing it as a two CD live album and DVD, Heaven and Hell: Live from Radio
City Music Hall.
Further reading
- Okrent, Daniel. Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center, New York: Viking Press, 2003.
- Roussel, Christine. The Art of Rockefeller Center, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006.
See also
External links
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