Radio City Music Hall
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
1260 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
116 people
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Showing 1,301 - 1,325 of 3,325 comments
According to a 1958 NYT article, ticket prices were around $1.80 on the east side, $2.00 at Broadway first-runs, and from $2.50-$3.50 for Roadshows. No mention of RCMH.
RobertR posted this “Father Goose” ad three years ago. It displays the 1964 prices at the Hall:
View link
Does anyone know what the price of a ticket was at Radio City in 1958? Or what the price of a ticket at a typical Times Square movie theater would have been in that year?
We are proud of you RCDTJ, keep up the good work.
Oh, and never allow them to substitute the 70mm with Digital-3D :)
The economy does not seem to be affecting ticket sales. I am surprised at how crowded it has been so far. Much better than I expected. BTW, the 3-D film looks better than ever. Judging by the reaction from the audience, which we can here in the booth, they agree.
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.
side note: they now sell remnants door mat size pieces of singing women carpet @ radiocity.com
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”.
i thought you meant the background of remnant was brown (or rust), making the carpet newer , since the carpet has been replaced a couple times since 1999. What are the three colors on the piece of carpet you have ?
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.
Bob, the shutter gear actually was replaced. It was also replaced 2 years ago when it stripped during a show. Someone else replaced it then. It was a rubber gear. They installed a fiber gear. When I rebuilt the projector last week, I replaced it with a fiber gear again. I also had to replace some other gears that stripped. That led to changing bearings, the oil pump, and a few other things (while I was in there). As far as running film more, that probably will not happen. Although the exhaust is now much better, they have dedicated projectors 2 and 3 to the Christmas show. They do not want to use them for any kind of film shows.
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.
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.
REndres: I have read and heard them referred to as “Singing Ladies”, but your explanation makes much more sense. So, singing ladies or fish, I’d still like to determine how old they are. I am very fond of the carpet, which hangs in my bedroom. In fact, I have so much Music Hall memorabilia, I could open a small museum.
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.
To the best of my recollection, the style book (for lack of a better, or proper term) was not published for the general public. I saw one on Ebay about a year ago, but did not win the auction. The “Singing Ladies” on my piece of carpet that were originally blue now have a brownish tint. I am wondering if this is a result of 47 years of use.
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.
no info of the style book
But as far a Radio City Music hall being maintained. The carpets are regularly steam cleaned, floors polished, seats cleaned and gum removed. Before each cmas season, all metal surfaces are polished, the gold leaf is repaired, outside marquees and blades is polished, all back stage areas are repainted.
Question to RCDTJ…with projector 3 finally repaired, is this to suggest that FILMS may actually show here again in the future, perhaps as a premiere or something? Or am I just dreaming. Also. I will be here tomorrow to see the Christmas show. My wife is one of the many set dressers.
I’m glad the carpet is being replaced on a regular basis and the Hall is being kept up. That’s “two points” for the Dolans. Now if they could make the old lighting booth presentable, at least as a curiosity. My question, however, still exists. Does anybody have any information about that style book?
Well all the work is finally done in the booth. Projector 3 has been rebuilt after stripping gears on the last show of last year. The new motion controller has been installed and FINALLY programmed 100%. We have increased the airflow from the lamphouse exhaust by more than 300%. We have also improved the water flow through the traps. After realigning both lamphouses 3 times, we have improved the light output, although not as much as I was hoping. The final thing we did was steady the picture from one of the machines that was giving us trouble last year. The new 3-D film has arrived. Nothing other than sponsors had changed on the print. Content remained unchanged from last year. After viewing it, we are happy with the repairs that were done. The picture from both machines were rock solid, bright and focus was sharp. Too bad we don’t have an entire 70MM print to run.
hopefully it’s cleaner this time around!!!
david m – FYI all the carpet in the building was replaced again this year.
Greetings:
While working at The Hall between July 61 and May 64, and then after Uncle Sam had me I went back May 67 to about January 70. I remember that portions of the carpet would ware out faster in certain areas of the theater faster then other areas and were always being replaced especially at the doors from the lobby to the foyer are and the areas were the “foyer lines” were and certain areas up stairs on the first, second and third Mezz. during the two three year periods I remember where the entire foyer was replaced on two nights after house close and also the Grand Lounge carper on another two nights. those being during the 67 to 70 years.