I don’t know if that discussion will take place. As far as I know there is no talk of restoring it back to a theatre. All I can tell you is to come. All the powers that be will be there so you can ask them. I plan on being there for the whole thing. I think it is going to be very interesting and informative. Not to mention they now have a small museum for the Brooklyn Paramount. Photos, Uniforms, etc.
Brooklyn Paramount fans, now is your chance!!! There will be “A one credit course/ conference at the old Brooklyn Paramount on Friday, April 15, 2011. This will be free and open to the public. From 9 am to 5 pm. Lunch will be provided only for those paying for the credit course. The schedule as it stands now will be panels in the morning session from Joe Baskin (Rebeilious Laughter) Mary Favia (Palace Theatre Veteran) Joe Franklin (Memory Lane) David Harmon (Harmony Productions) Dr. Sue Horowitz (Women in Vaudeville) Ron Hurchinson (The Vitaphone Project) Craig Morrison (Brooklyn Theatre History) Richie "O” (Producer, “The Joe Franklin Show”) Don K. Reed (The Doo-Wop Shop -WCBS FM) Ron Schweiger (Brooklyn Borough Historian) Norman Steinberg (Blazing Saddles) Travis Stewart (Vaudeville Historian) Peter Tymus (Architecture & Theatre Engineering). Performers will include: A short concert showing off the Mighty Wurlitzer. Sammy Sax and the MD’s will perform songs from the old Alan Freed shows, Travis Stewart will bring you back to the Vaudeville days, The Giacomo Gates Quintet (feturing Sam Newsone) Greg Lewis, Carlo de Rosa & suprise guests will also perform.
I also have confidence in Ron Bishop. Most people have no idea how many things can go wrong with a pipe organ. The 4/58 has over 4,000 pipes. Not counting all the toys it has. Most of the time you would find a small problem, like one or two pipes not speaking. But, for the entire instrument not to play (I can only guess) it was probably a main electrical problem. Then getting the part or parts and installing them. At least those things can be got at a supply house near-by.
Re: the Wurlitzer 4/58. I am sure that getting parts is not the problem. I’ll bet that funding for the parts is. Mr. Bishop can only do so much. There comes a time that one must spend some money for maintenance on something so large and complex as that. Also there are a few things that if any one thing goes out, the organ will not play. I am sure that Mr. Bishop will find and fix the problem. I just hope that the organist still gets paid.
To longislandmovies, The building is still there. Still with a for lease sign on it. I don’t think the inside has been touched. Last I heard the owner of the property wanted too much rent to make it work for an operator.
My father had a butcher and grocery store in east new york brooklyn and sold merkel products for years. I thought there bacon was the best. Merkel’s building could be seen from the Long Island Railroad platforms at the Jamaica station. The Merkel Big sign above the building has been gone for many years but the building was there until about a year ago. One of the reasons Merkel closed down was that government inspectors found that to save money they were mixing horse meat into their products. If you go back that far you would have read that in the Long Island Press.
rvb, That is not a second organ. It is a second console connected to the same organ. Also, it is not a slave console. I also have been impressed when both are used. djf7 The Paramount organ can still kick. I was there yesterday. I’ll try resending you that e-mail.
DJF7 I emailed you a photo of Ray at the Rainbow Room Organ. Hope you got it. I would like to find out more about Ray. I was first taken to the Music Hall in 1958 and I must have seen all the organists at one time or another. From time to time I play the Brooklyn Paramount organ which is where Richart Liebert played before getting the job at the Music Hall.
I’m so glad someone had them to post DJF7. I play the pipe organ but never got to meet Ray. I do know afew people who did know him well and thats all they talk about. Ray was there at the beginning but started at the New Roxy and the Rainbowroom. Richard Liebert had the final say on all the organists there and they were all monster players. I hope you have more to put up. I’ll be watching for them.
To all my friends here on this page who have been talking about the real Christmas Show. GOOD NEWS. Someone just posted an audio only recording from the 1978 show. For those of us who saw those shows it should still give you goose bumps because we can see the show in our minds. For our younger friends, at least you can now hear what we have been talking about all this time. A large vocal chorus, a 60 + piece orchestra and you can hear when the organ comes in at the end. The only thing missing is that you can’t feel the building shake. I would only hope that people from RCMH see this and listen to find out what has been missing all this time. This is why we stood outside in the cold and the snow for three hours and more every christmas. I hope you all enjoy this.
Re: the organ. I believe It’s not the age but the budget. If you don’t use it, you loose it. Also, they put in a 10 ton PA system, so re-mike the poor thing. For those who don’t know, the design of the auditorium sends the sound of the organ towards the stage and not the seats. They could use what is called tone shoots but they would need 8 of them and they are not going to cut into the walls for 8 large holes. So, use 8 mikes. Also I haven’t felt the organ shake the place in years. I don’t know if it’s from the air leaks or was that caused by the old PA system. I do know that 16 foot trombones will shake the place. The grand organ has them plus a lot more that should jiggle your eyeballs. This past christmas show, when the crowd was coming in I like to sit in the first row of the 2nd mez. and I could hardly hear the organ. Up until the end of the 70’s you knew the organ was playing. One other thing I forgot to mention in my prior post. While I was being interviewed I made a big stink about a young trumpet player in the orchestra. In the middle of a rockettes number with the orchestra in site. This kid with an orphan annie hair-cut takes a big yawn and lifts both hands high over his head. Everyone could see this. I told them that it took my attention away from the stageshow and that I bet in the old days when the elevator went down he would have been asked to leave.
Mr. Leonidoff, by reading your description, I can see it in my mind. It gives me goose bumps. To everyone one else, if you never saw this, you really missed the real RCMH. Buy the way, I wonder why the conductor does not use the lighted baton anymore? They haven’t used it for years.
In answer to Leon Leonidoff, What I mean by Big Mistake is that that is part of the magic of the Music Hall, It always is done, I expected it and very disapointed when it didn’t happen. One of the best scenes created for the Christmas show after the films were dropped was “Christmas In New York” I just sat there with my mouth open. Also, Maybe you would know this. The very ending of the old show just before the curtin came down. The organ, orchestra and chorus would go up (I believe it was) the Gm7th chord starting with Gm7 with G on top to Gm7 with Bb on top, Pause, then to Gm7 with D on top and end with a F chord. At the F the organ would go back into its alcove, the orchestra would start down and the curtin started coming down. The piece being played was either Oh Holy Night or Oh come all ye faithfull. It was a very powerful ending and always left with a lot of red eyes and handkerchiefs. I might be wrong about the actual key for the chords but it works just as well. I still use it when I play a large pipe organ and it still gets me.
Some info for “tolover”. Last time I checked, there were over 600 dead notes on the organ. Most of these are to be fixed before the concert. Re: the fireworks from the 40’s, I remember seeing a color photo of them in a 1951 popular machinecs mag. with a full page story on how they were made. I was at the hall in the early 60’s and almost jumped out of the chair when I saw them being used on stage. I only remember that it was a year or two before the Worlds Fair opened. In fact when I went to this past Christmas show I was questioned if I could give a non-bias review after the show. When I told them how many Christmas shows I’ve been to and have performed on the Great Stage they excepted me. After the show I went down and was escorted into a booth and was asked many questions re: this new show as compaired to older shows and I know I was asked questions to see if I was really paying attention (Believe me I was!). When they asked me about the new firewords part I told them that because it came out at you and the tech. involved it was better than the originial (they looked at me like I was from Mars or something, They didn’t know that there were fireworks used there before. So I explained it to them. I also told them that I was disapointed that the orchestra didn’t go down on the orchestra lift and come back out on the rear of the stage (BIG MISTAKE). Also I did not like the 12 days of christmas number (It is too long.). Then I told them to spend some money and get the guts back into the organ. I ended with they should go back and look at the ending for the original Christmas Show. With the organ, orchestra and chorus all going up the chord ending on the 7th, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house and they havn’t had an ending so moving as that was yet. For anyone in the know I was #92.
I have a question to ibnybill. You say that the show will be stored upstate this year. Do you know what happened to the wherehouse they had uptown I think in Harlem?
PKoch, I checked into it and the theatre was the Loews Gates and then I checked with an older area resident who who said the same thing that I said in that it stopped showing movies on the night of the blackout and was empty for a short while and then became a church. I remember these facts because I worked in the area at the time and went by it on a regular basis.
PKoch, The theatre was located on B'way right around the corner from the Police Pct. stationhouse. After the blackout it stood empty for awhile and then became a church.
In responce to PKoch. You must remember that the devastation in Bushwick was caused by the residence (not all) on the night of the big black-out in July of 1977. The Loews on Broadway was still showing movies until the lights went out. The patrons were escorted out of the theatre, they closed the door and never came back. Yes the stories are true. When the sun came up the next day what I saw reminded me of streets in Europe during WW II after a large bombing raid and to this day, the neighborhoods there and around there haven’t come back to where they were the day before the balckout.
I found out that the organ will be used this saturday from 1 to 4 PM as a mini-concert I’m told that all are welcome to come and listen. This means the auditorium only.
I did see the Three Stooges in the 60s in the Kanema (spelling?) on Pitkin Ave. in East New York. I was also inside the Lowes Pitkin in the mid 70’s when it was a church. It was still beautiful. You could have put on live shows at any time. Even the pipe organ was still there. I also, about the same time took a walk through the Palace which was just a few blocks away and it was a bombed out mess due to fire and water damage. I got out when pieces of the ceiling came down near me.
Sorry it takes me so long to read all the posts. Re: the post on Aug 23,24. The theatre was a church for awhile and 4 days after they left the building the looters started going in. The glass on the front door was smashed in. I happened to see that so I went in with a flashlight and saw they started in the lobby to rip the copper wiring out of the walls. I went in up to the stage area and it was really nice in there with the large overhanging mez. That was the one and only time I was on the inside and that was in 1978.
Gertz department store was one of the top of the line places to go for a wedding dress. The best thing about Gertz was going there as a kid to see Santa!!! It was better than Macy’s in Manhattan is now! I’m talking about the mid to late 1950’s when I was taken there. The line would go all around the place with all kinds of things to see. The smaller childred would be able to walk on a raised walkway while the bigger kids and the adults walked along with you on the floor level. I took your mind off of the endless line until to got to see the big guy himself. :–)
I don’t know if that discussion will take place. As far as I know there is no talk of restoring it back to a theatre. All I can tell you is to come. All the powers that be will be there so you can ask them. I plan on being there for the whole thing. I think it is going to be very interesting and informative. Not to mention they now have a small museum for the Brooklyn Paramount. Photos, Uniforms, etc.
Brooklyn Paramount fans, now is your chance!!! There will be “A one credit course/ conference at the old Brooklyn Paramount on Friday, April 15, 2011. This will be free and open to the public. From 9 am to 5 pm. Lunch will be provided only for those paying for the credit course. The schedule as it stands now will be panels in the morning session from Joe Baskin (Rebeilious Laughter) Mary Favia (Palace Theatre Veteran) Joe Franklin (Memory Lane) David Harmon (Harmony Productions) Dr. Sue Horowitz (Women in Vaudeville) Ron Hurchinson (The Vitaphone Project) Craig Morrison (Brooklyn Theatre History) Richie "O” (Producer, “The Joe Franklin Show”) Don K. Reed (The Doo-Wop Shop -WCBS FM) Ron Schweiger (Brooklyn Borough Historian) Norman Steinberg (Blazing Saddles) Travis Stewart (Vaudeville Historian) Peter Tymus (Architecture & Theatre Engineering). Performers will include: A short concert showing off the Mighty Wurlitzer. Sammy Sax and the MD’s will perform songs from the old Alan Freed shows, Travis Stewart will bring you back to the Vaudeville days, The Giacomo Gates Quintet (feturing Sam Newsone) Greg Lewis, Carlo de Rosa & suprise guests will also perform.
I also have confidence in Ron Bishop. Most people have no idea how many things can go wrong with a pipe organ. The 4/58 has over 4,000 pipes. Not counting all the toys it has. Most of the time you would find a small problem, like one or two pipes not speaking. But, for the entire instrument not to play (I can only guess) it was probably a main electrical problem. Then getting the part or parts and installing them. At least those things can be got at a supply house near-by.
Re: the Wurlitzer 4/58. I am sure that getting parts is not the problem. I’ll bet that funding for the parts is. Mr. Bishop can only do so much. There comes a time that one must spend some money for maintenance on something so large and complex as that. Also there are a few things that if any one thing goes out, the organ will not play. I am sure that Mr. Bishop will find and fix the problem. I just hope that the organist still gets paid.
In answer to Myron’s comment. I know that Hunter College used RCMH for their graduations. I have no idea who else might use it.
To longislandmovies, The building is still there. Still with a for lease sign on it. I don’t think the inside has been touched. Last I heard the owner of the property wanted too much rent to make it work for an operator.
My father had a butcher and grocery store in east new york brooklyn and sold merkel products for years. I thought there bacon was the best. Merkel’s building could be seen from the Long Island Railroad platforms at the Jamaica station. The Merkel Big sign above the building has been gone for many years but the building was there until about a year ago. One of the reasons Merkel closed down was that government inspectors found that to save money they were mixing horse meat into their products. If you go back that far you would have read that in the Long Island Press.
rvb, That is not a second organ. It is a second console connected to the same organ. Also, it is not a slave console. I also have been impressed when both are used. djf7 The Paramount organ can still kick. I was there yesterday. I’ll try resending you that e-mail.
DJF7 I emailed you a photo of Ray at the Rainbow Room Organ. Hope you got it. I would like to find out more about Ray. I was first taken to the Music Hall in 1958 and I must have seen all the organists at one time or another. From time to time I play the Brooklyn Paramount organ which is where Richart Liebert played before getting the job at the Music Hall.
I’m so glad someone had them to post DJF7. I play the pipe organ but never got to meet Ray. I do know afew people who did know him well and thats all they talk about. Ray was there at the beginning but started at the New Roxy and the Rainbowroom. Richard Liebert had the final say on all the organists there and they were all monster players. I hope you have more to put up. I’ll be watching for them.
To all my friends here on this page who have been talking about the real Christmas Show. GOOD NEWS. Someone just posted an audio only recording from the 1978 show. For those of us who saw those shows it should still give you goose bumps because we can see the show in our minds. For our younger friends, at least you can now hear what we have been talking about all this time. A large vocal chorus, a 60 + piece orchestra and you can hear when the organ comes in at the end. The only thing missing is that you can’t feel the building shake. I would only hope that people from RCMH see this and listen to find out what has been missing all this time. This is why we stood outside in the cold and the snow for three hours and more every christmas. I hope you all enjoy this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxACcFtuF6s
For those of us who could not be there but would have liked to, Sooo, how was the show?
Re: the organ. I believe It’s not the age but the budget. If you don’t use it, you loose it. Also, they put in a 10 ton PA system, so re-mike the poor thing. For those who don’t know, the design of the auditorium sends the sound of the organ towards the stage and not the seats. They could use what is called tone shoots but they would need 8 of them and they are not going to cut into the walls for 8 large holes. So, use 8 mikes. Also I haven’t felt the organ shake the place in years. I don’t know if it’s from the air leaks or was that caused by the old PA system. I do know that 16 foot trombones will shake the place. The grand organ has them plus a lot more that should jiggle your eyeballs. This past christmas show, when the crowd was coming in I like to sit in the first row of the 2nd mez. and I could hardly hear the organ. Up until the end of the 70’s you knew the organ was playing. One other thing I forgot to mention in my prior post. While I was being interviewed I made a big stink about a young trumpet player in the orchestra. In the middle of a rockettes number with the orchestra in site. This kid with an orphan annie hair-cut takes a big yawn and lifts both hands high over his head. Everyone could see this. I told them that it took my attention away from the stageshow and that I bet in the old days when the elevator went down he would have been asked to leave.
Mr. Leonidoff, by reading your description, I can see it in my mind. It gives me goose bumps. To everyone one else, if you never saw this, you really missed the real RCMH. Buy the way, I wonder why the conductor does not use the lighted baton anymore? They haven’t used it for years.
In answer to Leon Leonidoff, What I mean by Big Mistake is that that is part of the magic of the Music Hall, It always is done, I expected it and very disapointed when it didn’t happen. One of the best scenes created for the Christmas show after the films were dropped was “Christmas In New York” I just sat there with my mouth open. Also, Maybe you would know this. The very ending of the old show just before the curtin came down. The organ, orchestra and chorus would go up (I believe it was) the Gm7th chord starting with Gm7 with G on top to Gm7 with Bb on top, Pause, then to Gm7 with D on top and end with a F chord. At the F the organ would go back into its alcove, the orchestra would start down and the curtin started coming down. The piece being played was either Oh Holy Night or Oh come all ye faithfull. It was a very powerful ending and always left with a lot of red eyes and handkerchiefs. I might be wrong about the actual key for the chords but it works just as well. I still use it when I play a large pipe organ and it still gets me.
Some info for “tolover”. Last time I checked, there were over 600 dead notes on the organ. Most of these are to be fixed before the concert. Re: the fireworks from the 40’s, I remember seeing a color photo of them in a 1951 popular machinecs mag. with a full page story on how they were made. I was at the hall in the early 60’s and almost jumped out of the chair when I saw them being used on stage. I only remember that it was a year or two before the Worlds Fair opened. In fact when I went to this past Christmas show I was questioned if I could give a non-bias review after the show. When I told them how many Christmas shows I’ve been to and have performed on the Great Stage they excepted me. After the show I went down and was escorted into a booth and was asked many questions re: this new show as compaired to older shows and I know I was asked questions to see if I was really paying attention (Believe me I was!). When they asked me about the new firewords part I told them that because it came out at you and the tech. involved it was better than the originial (they looked at me like I was from Mars or something, They didn’t know that there were fireworks used there before. So I explained it to them. I also told them that I was disapointed that the orchestra didn’t go down on the orchestra lift and come back out on the rear of the stage (BIG MISTAKE). Also I did not like the 12 days of christmas number (It is too long.). Then I told them to spend some money and get the guts back into the organ. I ended with they should go back and look at the ending for the original Christmas Show. With the organ, orchestra and chorus all going up the chord ending on the 7th, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house and they havn’t had an ending so moving as that was yet. For anyone in the know I was #92.
I have a question to ibnybill. You say that the show will be stored upstate this year. Do you know what happened to the wherehouse they had uptown I think in Harlem?
PKoch, I checked into it and the theatre was the Loews Gates and then I checked with an older area resident who who said the same thing that I said in that it stopped showing movies on the night of the blackout and was empty for a short while and then became a church. I remember these facts because I worked in the area at the time and went by it on a regular basis.
PKoch, The theatre was located on B'way right around the corner from the Police Pct. stationhouse. After the blackout it stood empty for awhile and then became a church.
In responce to PKoch. You must remember that the devastation in Bushwick was caused by the residence (not all) on the night of the big black-out in July of 1977. The Loews on Broadway was still showing movies until the lights went out. The patrons were escorted out of the theatre, they closed the door and never came back. Yes the stories are true. When the sun came up the next day what I saw reminded me of streets in Europe during WW II after a large bombing raid and to this day, the neighborhoods there and around there haven’t come back to where they were the day before the balckout.
Ed,
Sorry you missed the mini concert but it will happen again. Most likley early next year. As soon as I hear anything I will post it.
I found out that the organ will be used this saturday from 1 to 4 PM as a mini-concert I’m told that all are welcome to come and listen. This means the auditorium only.
I did see the Three Stooges in the 60s in the Kanema (spelling?) on Pitkin Ave. in East New York. I was also inside the Lowes Pitkin in the mid 70’s when it was a church. It was still beautiful. You could have put on live shows at any time. Even the pipe organ was still there. I also, about the same time took a walk through the Palace which was just a few blocks away and it was a bombed out mess due to fire and water damage. I got out when pieces of the ceiling came down near me.
Sorry it takes me so long to read all the posts. Re: the post on Aug 23,24. The theatre was a church for awhile and 4 days after they left the building the looters started going in. The glass on the front door was smashed in. I happened to see that so I went in with a flashlight and saw they started in the lobby to rip the copper wiring out of the walls. I went in up to the stage area and it was really nice in there with the large overhanging mez. That was the one and only time I was on the inside and that was in 1978.
Gertz department store was one of the top of the line places to go for a wedding dress. The best thing about Gertz was going there as a kid to see Santa!!! It was better than Macy’s in Manhattan is now! I’m talking about the mid to late 1950’s when I was taken there. The line would go all around the place with all kinds of things to see. The smaller childred would be able to walk on a raised walkway while the bigger kids and the adults walked along with you on the floor level. I took your mind off of the endless line until to got to see the big guy himself. :–)