Radio City Music Hall

On my first trip to LA in 1981, my family and I went looking for 10086 Sunset Blvd., not realizing that it never really existed. We could’ve used a good Hollywood guidebook, like the one that got me to the Alto Nido in 2008.

On a recent trip to LA, I visited Joe Gillis' apartment house from “Sunset Blvd.” I always thought he made it sound like a dump in the movie, but it looks pretty good in real life:

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$50 is a huge sum for an organ concert. Even at the Hall.
I imagine it loses something without being followed by an MGM movie or a rising orchestra and huge stage show all for the total of $1.75.
Do you think they’ll play ‘The Wedding of the Painted Doll?'
Sounds especially macabre on that organ.

From what I was told, they will be around $50, but the official announcement is to come next week sometime.

There will be a big organ concert at the Music Hall on Saturday night, August 9, sponsored by Theatre Organ Society International, and that tickets should be available starting next week

Here is an October 1939 ad from the NYT. Apologies if I missed it somewhere in the preceding entries:
http://tinyurl.com/2ra6v3

Warren: They were probably referring to “Magnascope” projection, which enlarged the picture although keeping the standard 1.33 aspect ratio. It was used with certain featrues such as “Old Ironsides” the 1926 Paramount silent spectacular. At climactic points in the action the masking pulled out and up and a shorter focal length lens was used to magnify the picture. Radio City had a Magnascope masking system installed with four presets to move the masking which could be operated from each projector. This was the only control the booth had over any stage draperies. The contour and title curtains were operated by stagehands from the stage. To this day, if you go up to the booth the panels engraved “Magnascope” are still at each of the original four projector positions, and a fifth was added for the fifth machine at the time 70mm was installed in 1970.

Oddly enough, the system was used into the ‘50’s to project newsreels at a larger size than the feature film. I still had a lens adapter marked “newsreel” when I started there. By that time the masking had been modified for widescreen use with CinemaScope and other formats, which made it “cranky” since instead of the sides and top masking moving out and up, the top masking now came down, and the sides out for the widescreen formats. The whole system with motors and heavy masking draperies flew out with the screen and center channel film speaker for the stage shows. I remember that if a mistake was made setting the cams on the control system the masking could “run away” and the top masking would bounce up and down like a yo-yo, which was pretty frightening considering you were moving a 70+’ by 10' or so piece of heavy duveteen. By the time I started there there were only two presets in use, so if we were mixing ratios, the Magnascope cogs had to be set for that particular combination: for instance doing a 1.37 classic cartoon with a 2.35 Scope feature. That also appliec to 1.85 and 2.21 70mm material. One of the most impressive of those uses came with our Warner classic series. In the old days, the title curtain would close at the end of the pre-feature material and then re-open to present the feature so the audience never saw the masking change. The title curtain was removed when we did “Snow White” as a stage show. Thus when we did “Blade Runner” which was Scope preceded by a 1.33 classic cartoon, I made the changeover with the masking in to the 1.33 position. The Warner logo came up perfectly centered in the 1.33 frame, and then I hit the other positon and the side masking slowly pulled out to full 65' wide Scope position. That actually elicited an “Ahh!” and applause from the audience.

So in a sense in answer to your question that same 1933 Magnascope system is still in use today.

he’s not as well known as the rockettes, I suppose.

Thanks for the info

Trainmaster

Thanks for pointing that out, DavidM. Had the Spring Spectacular been an annual booking at the Hall in the years leading up to ‘97?

In response to Ed Solero’s post on 2/15/08, the last “Easter Show” at the Hall was the 1997 Spring Spectacular. That show did feature “The Glory of Easter”.

Justin: I’d love seeing the new Indiana Jones at Radio City also, but often those world premiere events are not open to the public. One that WAS open to the public and that I did get to attend at the Hall in 1989: “The Abyss”. That and “The Lion King” were the last new movies I saw there.

Oh sorry….which musician has performed the most at the hall? I’d say probably Elton John.