53 Facts About Radio City Music Hall

Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue and theater at 1260 Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City.

Radio City Music Hall was designed by Edward Durell Stone and Donald Deskey in the Art Deco style.

Radio City Music Hall was built on a plot of land that was originally intended for a Metropolitan Opera House, although plans for the opera house were canceled in 1929.

The 5,960-seat Music Hall was the larger of two venues built for Rockefeller Center's "Radio City" section, the other being Center Theatre; the "Radio City" name later came to apply only to the Music Hall.

Radio City Music Hall was designated a New York City Landmark in May 1978, and it was restored and allowed to remain open.

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The Music Hall has hosted televised events including the Grammy Awards, the Tony Awards, the Daytime Emmy Awards, the MTV Video Music Awards, the NFL Draft, as well as graduation ceremonies for NYU and Barnard College.

Radio City Music Hall offered to build two theaters: a large vaudeville "International Music Hall" on the northernmost block, with more than 6,200 seats, and the smaller 3,500-seat "RKO Roxy" movie theater on the southernmost block.

The Music Hall was to have a single admission price of $2 per person.

The Music Hall was to be at the northwest corner of the Rockefeller Center complex, at the base of the 1270 Sixth Avenue office building; the theater's rear wall would have to support the offices above.

Radio City Music Hall was designed by architect Edward Durell Stone and interior designer Donald Deskey in the Art Deco style.

Radio City Music Hall had reportedly called Winter's painting "God-awful" and regarded the interior and exterior as not much better.

The names "Radio City" and "Radio City Music Hall" derive from one of the complex's first tenants, the Radio Corporation of America, which planned a mass media complex called Radio City on the west side of Rockefeller Center.

Radio City Music Hall was the only part of the complex that retained the name by 1937, and the name "Radio City" became shorthand for the theater.

Construction on Radio City Music Hall started in December 1931, and the theater topped out in August 1932.

Radio City Music Hall opened to the public on December 27,1932, with a lavish stage show featuring numbers including Ray Bolger, Doc Rockwell, Martha Graham, The Mirthquakers, and Patricia Bowman.

One critic said the same year that the Music Hall "is alone in carrying on the tradition of bigger things which underlay the whole project at the beginning".

Radio City became the premiere showcase for films from the RKO-Radio Studio, with Topaze being the first RKO film to play there in 1953.

Some films that premiered at Radio City Music Hall included King Kong, Breakfast at Tiffany's, To Kill a Mockingbird, Mary Poppins, and The Lion King.

Early films at Radio City included Becky Sharp, the first feature film to use three-strip Technicolor production; a 1936 film version of the musical Show Boat; and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney's first full-length feature film.

Radio City was used for Easter worship services starting in 1940.

Radio City continued to operate every day, although it sometimes closed briefly for part of the day.

Radio City disbanded its in-house male chorus in 1958, instead hiring choral acts from around the world.

Radio City closed temporarily in 1963 due to fears of a power failure, and the first full-day closure in its history took place on November 26,1963, following the assassination of John F Kennedy.

However, Radio City's operating costs were almost twice as high as those of smaller performance venues.

Radio City was closed entirely for five days in March 1965 for its first full cleaning, which included changing the curtains and painting the ceiling.

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Radio City had its 200 millionth visitor in January 1967, a little less than two years after its renovation.

Tourism to New York Radio City Music Hall started to decline by 1969, which affected the theater's attendance.

Radio City preferred to show only family-friendly movies, which further limited their film choices.

Nonetheless, the Music Hall continued to lose $600,000 a year by early 1975.

Architectural critic Ada Louise Huxtable wrote that Radio City was still more popular than other visitor attractions, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Bronx Zoo.

Many of Radio City's regular patrons moved to the suburbs, and there was a lingering fear of crime in New York City.

Plans for a 20-story mixed-use tower above Radio City were announced the same month, with rents from the proposed tower providing the necessary funds to keep the theater open.

On May 12,1978, Radio City Music Hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

However, the theatrical shows proved to be unpopular, so in 1983, the Radio City Music Hall shifted to creating music concerts and participating in the production of films and TV shows.

The parent company, Radio City Music Hall Productions, started creating or co-creating films and Broadway shows such as Legs and Brighton Beach Memoirs.

Radio City started hosting televised events including the Grammy Awards, the Tony Awards, the Daytime Emmy Awards, the MTV Video Music Awards, and the NFL Draft.

In 1997, Radio City was leased to the Madison Square Garden Company, providing funding to keep the Rockettes and the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City.

Radio City was closed on February 16,1999, for a comprehensive renovation.

Radio City Music Hall announced a decision to remain open on March 12 and 13,2020, amid a ban on gatherings of 500 or more in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City.

Radio City Music Hall is on the east side of Sixth Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets.

The main entrance to Radio City was placed at the corner of Sixth Avenue and 50th Street, underneath the marquee.

Entrance to Radio City is at its southwestern corner, where there are adjacent ticket and advance sales lobbies.

At the time, Radio City had the world's largest orchestra; the most expansive theater screen; the heaviest proscenium arch in a theater; and the "finest precision dancers", the Rockettes.

Radio City contains three mezzanines within the back wall of the auditorium, as well as a main lounge in the basement.

Radio City Music Hall designed the first-mezzanine women's lounge, a room full of mirrors with a blue-and-white carpet and frosted low-intensity lights.

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Radio City Christmas Spectacular is an annual Christmas stage musical produced by MSG Entertainment, which operates the theater.

Radio City Music Hall hosted the Cirque du Soleil show "Zarkana" from June 2011 to September 2012.

In February 1998, Radio City Music Hall was a setting for the Sesame Street music special Elmopalooza, with Jon Stewart, David Alan Grier and others with the cast of Sesame Street and the Muppets.

In October 2001, the concert Come Together: A Night for John Lennon's Words and Radio City Music Hall was simulcast live from the theater on The WB and TNT.

In 2013, it was announced that America's Got Talent would hold its live shows from the Radio City Music Hall starting with its eighth season that summer; it had held its live shows at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center for its seventh season to accommodate new judge Howard Stern.

Radio City Music Hall was the site of the NFL Draft between 2006 and 2014.

The Music Hall has hosted the Grammy Awards, the annual ceremony presented by the Recording Academy for music, six times.

The MTV Video Radio City Music Hall Awards have been hosted at the theater twelve times from 1984 to 2018.