Center Theatre
1236 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
1236 6th Avenue,
New York,
NY
10020
18 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 95 comments
Link with multiple photos of the Center Theatre.
https://drivingfordeco.com/vanished-new-york-city-center-theatre/
November 25, 1950 Center Theater, World’s Largest New TV Studio. Eyes of a Generation link below with photos.
https://eyesofageneration.com/november-25-1950-center-theater-worlds-largest-new-tv-studio/?fbclid=IwAR0FEucM-d91wx5UEmhNoZd_u1_9mmaqBL0UjTASZlSd1kjCvNDDsTohLWM
1953 photo added credit Bobby Ellerbee/Eyesofageneration.com. The Buick Berle Show shot live at The Center Theatre. Corresponding October 13, 1953 video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flJyiWO9O-Y
Mr. Hicks' “setting the record straight” is authentic and factual; he ought to know! I would only add that there is also a difference in the professional terms “interior decorators” and “interior designers.” In the case of the Music Hall and the RKO Roxy (Center), although this professional term was relatively new, Deskey and even moreover, Schoen belonged to a new group of talented designers who worked more closely with their architectural environment. Without them the success of both theatres would have been aesthetically limited. Both men paved the way for the term “interior designer”–a profession I followed for forty years. While I have the floor, it is also high time that Edward Durell Stone got his due. I hope that I have brought a certain illumination to his incredible talents with my new book: “Epic of the Center: A Theatre’s Words, Music and Wurlitzer,” available on Amazon.com.
The Center’s final movie booking was Walt Disney’s “Pinocchio,” which opened in early February 1940 and closed on March 31st after a run of seven weeks and four days. The booking had been extended due to Easter Sunday falling on March 23rd that year. The Center drew substantial family attendance during the holiday period. Following “Pinocchio,” the Center became home in May-June to a season of Fortune Gallo’s San Carlo Opera Company, and then shuttered for conversion to ice-skating spectaculars, which started in October with “It Happens on Ice.”
The Center was certainly fabulous. Many years ago, information was posted about the Center’s 4 manual/34 rank Wurlitzer. I found some detailed information about it (and many other New York City theaters) on the city American Guild of Organist’s website. (http://www.nycago.org/Organs/NYC/html/CenterTheatre.html) I heard the Center organ many when it was owned by Jimmy Boyce … had a chance to play it, but never got around to it.
If you want to see some great photos of this place, find a library with a copy of American Architect December 1932. It has a multi page spread from when it was still the RKO Roxy. Lots of great detail shots of things like the ashtrays, drinking fountains, and various lounges.
Right. I didn’t make my point clearly. I wasn’t suggesting that CBS’s Ed Sullivan bcast from the Center, just that he had his audience downstairs and close to the stage also.
Mark, Ed Sullivan didn’t broadcast from the Center, but from the theatre on Broadway which now bears his name. In the day, I believe, it was Hammerstein’s.
Also – Ed Sullivan every night looked into the theatre and pointed out the celebrities in the audience. All seated downstairs, close to the stage.
Re Tinseltoes comment, kinescopes of “The Voice of Firestone” show a large audience on the main floor of the theater. Many seats may have been removed to accommodate the cameras and lights but there were many rows of folks seated downstairs. Likewise, remember skits in “Your Show of Shows” where the performers ran into the audience? Most memorably when they pulled Sid Caesar kicking and screaming out of his seat and pulled him onstage for “This Is Your Story” lol – hysterical! Cheers.
As the son of the architect, Edward Durell Stone, as well as the author of his upcoming biography, “Edward Durell Stone: A Son’s Untold Story of a Legendary Architect” being released by Rizzoli in October, I am eager to dispel a few myths contained in the postings below.
At the relatively young age (for an architect) of 29, Stone was made the architect-in-charge of both the Center Theater and the Radio City Music Hall. This fact is acknowledged not only in my father’s 1962 autobiography, but in the biography of one of Rockefeller Center’s lead architects, Wallace K. Harrison, written by Victoria Newhouse. This information is well-established and can also be found in other sources. In fact, Harrison later characterized Stone as one of “the three great designers at Rockefeller Center.”
Eugene Schoen and Donald Deskey were the interior decorators on the projects respectively. As most architects will tell you, the differences in the areas of expertise of interior decorators and architects are clear-cut and substantial. The form and architectural detail of the theaters, both inside and out are the responsibility of the architect, in this case Stone, and as such he deserves credit for them.
That was the norm. They did the same thing with the RKO Colonial on Broadway in Manhattan where I saw Steve Allen. Believe the same for the Ed Sullivan.
After reading a book on Sid Ceaser I found out that Your Show of Shows originated from the Center. For those not familiar with it …. This was very similar to todays Saturday Night Live. Interesting that they filled the theatres 3510 seat for these TV shows.
Erwin – I could swear the lyrics specifically mentioned the Center Theatre coming down, or at least that’s what I heard. But that was 60 or so years ago.
Registering.
Referring to rvb’s comment, I too remember the show he wrote about. If I recall correctly, it was the “Texaco Star Theater” aka “The Milton Berle Show”. At the end of the last show broadcast from the Center Theatre, the entire cast faced the audience and sang a song, which I belive was called “The Curtain’s Coming Down For the Last Time”. Certainly a nostalgic moment, which has stuck with me all these years.
I remember a rather bizarre show, presumably on NBC, celebrating that “The Center Theatre’s coming down”.
I just saw the cartoon “Opening Night”, and decided to visit this site to read more. All very interesting, but the description at the top of the page states the lobby had “opaque windows”. Opaque means that no light gets through, which would simply mean the windows were a wall, and useless as far as being a window is concerned. I think the word should have been “translucent”, which means that light gets through, but not so that the window can be seen through. Of course the best description would probably be just to say the windows were frosted.
By the time the Rockefeller Center subway station opened this site was already doing ice shows.
View link
The foyer here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/2302530326/
The Center auditorium can be seen here:
View link
Renewing link.
Richard,
You would have to pay a fee to use any of the photos they have. But you should probably contact them to discuss what you are looking for.
They may another option for you. Hope that answeres the question.
How does it work with the archives? Can I call them up and ask for them to look for something and make a copy or take a picture or do I need to pay something or go in person? Let me know what you think. thank you!