 Radio City Music Hall, New York City
Radio City Music Hall is a famous entertainment center within New York City's Rockefeller Center. It is part of Rockefeller Center developed by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., on land leased from Columbia University.
Radio City Music Hall is located at the junction of Sixth Avenue (aka Avenue of the Americas) and West 50th Street. The names "Radio City" and "Radio City Music Hall" came from the complex's first tenants, RCA, the Radio Corporation of America. The hall was originally intended to be called International Music Hall, but the name Radio City Music Hall remains until today.
Radio City Music Hall opened to the public on December 27, 1932 with a spectacular stage show, featuring Ray Bolger and Martha Graham. The show recaptures the high class variety entertainment of the pre-Depression era. However the attempt was unsuccessful in resurrecting live entertainment, and the hall was eventually used for movie screening. The first film shown there, on a giant screen on 11 January, 1933, was Frank Capra's The Bitter Tea of General Yen starring Barbara Stanwyck.
With a seating capacity of 5,933 seats, Radio City Music Hall is the largest movie theater in the world when it opened. The interior of the theater incorporates glass, aluminum, chrome, and geometric ornamentation, elements favored by the contemporary Art Deco designers of the time.
For much of its history, the Radio City Music Hall was both a movie cinema and a stage theatre. However by the 1970s, changes in film distribution made it difficult for Radio City to secure exclusive bookings of many films. Furthermore, the theater preferred to show only G-rated movies, which became less common as the decade wore on. Eventually film showings at Radio City ended in 1979, when Radio City was saved from a possible closure due to lack of funds. Movies and Movie premieres have occasionally been shown there in succeeding years. In 1980 after a renovation the Music Hall reopened with a focus on concerts and live stage shows.
Radio City Music Hall declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978, and given the nickname Showplace of the Nation.
Getting there
Take the B, D, F or M train to the 47th-50th Streets-Rockefeller Center Subway Station and walk a short distance from there.
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