Radio City Music Hall

Just curious, does anyone know if the Music Hall was installed with movie projectors from the start? Or did they have to be added, and the booth windows rebuilt, after the variety format flopped? Thanks!

Upload of 1935’s “Mister Hobo” Ad in Photo Section.

Upload of 1935’s ad “Peter Ibbetson”

Actually, there’s some video from rehearsals that’s starting to flow out, and frankly, I’m not sure I wouldn’t have pulled the plug myself. Bad story, bad direction of the characters, cloying (i.e., repetitive without any creativity) choreography. And so many people who have worked so hard on this project – I feel for them.

It may be time for a new directorial perspective. I’m just saying…

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/rockettes-kicked-curb-article-1.1729439#ixzz2wcMvmjlK….no wonder why MSG promoted this a lot on tv…heard about it on facebook…

First time, and, in color, the public had seen America’s most popular couple, Lucy and Desi, on the big screen. Opening day February 18, 1954. See photos.

According to IMDb “The Great Race” was a Panavision blow-up to 70mm. As rcd55b points out there was only one aperture plate cut for most 70mm presentation, but there were a variety of aspect ratios in the 70mm format. 1:85:1 blow-ups (Days of Heaven, Roger Rabbit, etc.) were “hard-matted” by the labs to fit into the 2.21:1 70mm projected frame. In the case of the Music Hall where we had a downward angle we covered the keystone by adjusting the masking rather than cut a new plate as we would have for 35mm.

We also had an interesting test reel from “Ben-Hur” which was shot in “Camera 65” MGM’s proprietary 70mm process. The image had a slight anamorphic squeeze resulting in an aspect ratio of 2.76:1. (Without the custom anamorphic lens Heston and the cast looked as if they’d dropped a few pounds.)

One other note: Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” was shot on 65mm film, which may have created some complications as 65mm cameras were also designed to shoot full-frame images. Anderson wanted 1.85 as an aspect ratio, and in most cases the lab would just hard matte the printed image, but for some reason, the image on the film was wider than 1.85 but less than 2.21:1, thus exposing things the director didn’t want seen at the edges of the picture (with 35mm if you pull the 1.85 plate in the projector you’re liable to see microphone booms and lights at the top of the set if the image hasn’t been hard-matted.) Thus theatres that ran “The Master” had to cut new 70mm plates. We wanted to do it my room, but no one makes 70mm parts which would have required going to a machine shop to get the plates cut. Just one more complication for anyone wanting to make a 70mm picture today.

Doesn’t 70mm refer to the actual size of the film stock and not to the particular dimensions of its aspect ratio?

David, I’m not sure about “The Great Race”. I saw it in70mm in Illinois and it had an intermission, but the Hall didn’t install 70mm until 1970, and given their reluctance to deviate from the stanard stage show/movie policy, I doubt it.

We did do three films with intermissions when I started there in 1974. They were re-issues of what MGM called the “Fabulous Four” which included “2001”, “Dr. Zhivago” and “Gone With The Wind”. We substituted “Singing In the Rain” for “Ryan’s Daughter”. I had come from theatres in Illinois which ran shows in the roadshow format, so I recall several discussions about how to do it at the Hall. The three we did were all in 70mm and designed to lead up to the 70mm presentation of “The Wind and The Lion”. Overtures were a little tricky. We wanted to precede the first show of the day of “The Slipper & The Rose” in 1976 with the supplied overture, although there wasn’t time for it in later screenings in a day. The projection crew agreed to play the overture even though it would have meant starting before the offical shift start time, but the musician’s union wouldn’t allow it unless we did it for every show, since it would look like we were substituting “canned” music for the live organist who didn’t play before the first feature. With the roadshows, I think we did get the overtures in, and we played the entr'acte music before the 2nd half. (We were able to convince management that it was “call-in” music and the organist shouldn’t play during that break.) We also did the 50th Anniversary presentation of “Gone With The Wind” with intermision music, but lost the battle over the organist who played before the intermission music started on film.

As far as I know those were the only times during the movie/stage show policy that an intermission was done. My predecessor didn’t want 70mm in the Hall, and used the fact that most 70mm pictures at that time had intermissions and were too long for the movie/stage format. He lost the fight when the house was four-walled for “Airport” and Ross Hunter insisted on 70mm. It was short enough that it didn’t require an intermission.

Let me echo Bob Endres' sentiment about the 1964-65 Hall adverts. My Grandpa Joe took me to the Hall for the first time in the summer of 1964. I was four years old. The Unsinkable Molly Brown and Follies ‘64 was the first show I saw there. It was the first of 11 visits with him, days that transcended special. It changed and defined my life. We were always among the first 50 people to enter the Hall for the day’s first show. We sat house left of the lighting console, Joe in the seat now designated as BB 413. Mine was the lone seat in Row AA, long since removed. I still consider it as “my seat”. I remember being so small and the Hall so big that when the bandcar rose, I did not know if they were rising or the building was sinking. For almost 50 years, I have cherished every moment I spend at RCMH. I know that OSHA regulations have changed the illusion somewhat. I hope someday they figure out how to leave the bandcar out of sight until showtime without anyone falling into the pit.

Bob, I know the Hall did not present films in “roadshow” format though I recall seeing at least one with an intermission. Could it have been The Great Race in 1965?

Stephen, thanks for posting the ads for the 1964-5 season at the Hall. The “Mary Poppins” ad has particular signifcance for me as I was in New York for the first time on my own after getting out of college and had come to attend a convention of the Society of Motion-picture and Television Engineers. I wrote to the Ben Olevsky, Head Projectioist at the Hall to ask if I could see the booth during my visit and got an invitation from Ben to call him. On my first night before I had a chance to call I stumbled on the Hall and bought a ticket to see “Mary Poppins”. A few days later Ben gave me an extensive tour of not only the booth but the whole facility. I was awed to actually be able to walk into the booth that I had been curious about for so long.

It was almost exactly ten years later I was again awed to walk into that booth — this time as the newly hired Head Projectionist. The “Poppins” ad brings back a lot of memories as it marked the start of something that continued for 35 years.

In anyone is interested, I have posted ads for all nine of the program changes at RCMH in1964. This was first year of the New York World’s Fair of 1964-65 (hard to believe it was 50 years ago) from April into October. You can find the ads in the RCMH photos section.