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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Topic: For Sale: The Ziegfeld Theatre (plus: projection at Radio City Music Hall)
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Jeff Taylor
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 601
From: Chatham, NJ/East Hampton, NY
Registered: Apr 2000
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posted 05-11-2012 12:53 PM
The size of the hall was a major factor in the organ as well. The pipe chambers are located on both sides of the procenium, which meant one chamber was on 50th St. and the other on 51St. On peppy, fast songs it was an issue that when the solo and toy box sections were a block away from the bass sections--the organist had to be really careful not to be confused by the echo. Dick Liebert, the original head organist, was gone RIP by the time I got there, but I did meet Ray Bohr, his assistant, and he was a font of information about the good old days at RCMH. I did get up to the booth, but didn't note the lighthouses. What was really impressive was the OTIS elevator configuration for the three stage lifts and the separate band gondola lift. Interesting was that the organs were originally supposed to have their own two lifts, but at the end they put them in the two chambers one each side of the procenium--there are half doors in each compartment and the organists had to crawl out on top of the bass pedals in their tuxedos to get onto the benches before the mechanisms pushed them out into view. Tough for poor Dick Liebert when he was 70 years old!
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Stephen Furley
Film God
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 05-12-2012 04:01 PM
The Odeon Leicester Square normally had three film projectors, of five different models over the years, but it did briefly have five. Three of these were BTH SUPAs and the other two were Kalee 8-perf Vistavision machines. Only one or two films ever ran in Vistavision. I don't know of anywhere with five normal machines.
I know of three cinemas which ran 3-D on four machines. Two were demolished long ago, one in the '50s. The other still stands but has been totally closed for about ten years. before that the main auditorium was disused apart from occasional organ concerts. As far as I know, three projectors are still installed, two converted to xenon, but seriously underpowered for the screen size, and the third still carbon, but probably also underpowered; it was a large screen.
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Jeff Taylor
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 601
From: Chatham, NJ/East Hampton, NY
Registered: Apr 2000
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posted 05-15-2012 01:09 PM
Everything you never wanted to know about the Center Theater pipe organ:
The organ in the RKO Roxy (Center) Theatre was one of three Wurlitzers ordered for Rockefeller Center, the others going to Radio City Music Hall (4/54, Op. 2179) and the Radio City Studio (3/14, Op. 2180). According to Music Hall organist C.A.J. Parmentier, the specifications for all three organs were drawn by R.P. Elliot of the W.W. Kimball Company, yet Wurlitzer got the contracts to build them. One possible explanation is that S.L. "Roxy" Rothafel, manager of both the RKO Roxy and Music Hall, had good experiences with the large Kimball organs that had been installed under his watch at the Roxy Theatre.
Although Op. 2178 had a similar design to Op. 2179 in the Music Hall, the latter was larger due to it having "straight" ranks while the RKO Roxy organ was highly unified. The RKO Roxy organ had a factory date of August 2, 1932 and cost $32,510. By comparison, the larger Music Hall organ cost $107,445, owing to it having a second console, second relay and two 32' stops.
The Center Theater organ was removed in the early 1950's and was installed in a roller skating rink in Alexandra, VA, where it remained for years. It was installed "unenclosed", meaning the pipes were out in the open, not enclosed in a chamber as is normal theatre organ practice. This made it LOUD for the skaters. It was removed in the late 70's-early 80's and sold to a collector in Phoenix, Ariz. The instrument was broken up some time after that, and the console is now in the Berkeley Community Auditorium, in Berkeley, Calif., controling a spectacular instrument based on the Toledo, Ohio, Paramount Wurlitzer, with choice Wurlitzer ranks added.
(courtesy NYC Chapter of the American Guild of Organists)
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