Spectacular Facts About Radio City Music Hall You Didn’t Know
In the last 10 years, Lauren Renck Manning has performed roughly 1,000 shows as a Rockette at Radio City Music Hall. “At the top of each show, I feel like it’s my very first time,” the dancer tells AD. “The magnitude of the theater and the weight of its history is never lost on me.” Though millions of people visit the illustrious venue every year, only a few, like Renck Manning, get to see it from the stage perspective. “When the curtain rises, as a performer, you are instantly reminded that you are a part of something much bigger than yourself,” she says. “With every performance, I glance out as the orchestra starts and see 6,000 seats that have brought joy and escape to so many since 1932.”
Now nearly a century old, the Art Deco theater has become an emblem of the New York City arts and culture scene. “When you are on the stage, it’s hard not to be in awe of the immense talent that has graced the same space,” Renck Manning says. Though the shows inside certainly dazzle, it’s also fair to say the building’s architecture and design has played an equally important role in the venue’s lasting legacy. Below, learn more about Radio City Music Hall’s impressive history through seven little-known details about the legendary space.
Photo: Kevin McMahon courtesy of Radio City Music Hall1/9It’s the largest indoor theater in the world
When Radio City Music Hall opened on December 27, 1932, it was the largest indoor theater in the world—and it’s held on to this title for the past 90 years. When it comes to records like these, it’s not uncommon for titleholders to change every few years or so. Since Radio City Music Hall opened, six different buildings have held the record for the tallest tower in the world, for example—making the iconic venue’s claim to fame that much more impressive. Located at 1260 Avenue of the Americas, the marquee takes up an entire city block, signaling the theater’s grand scale. Adding to the theater’s record-setting size, the auditorium is also remarkably large. At its highest point, it measures to 84 feet, which is about the size of an 8-story building. For context, this is about the same size as De Gooyer, the tallest windmill in Amsterdam.
Photo: MCNY/Gottscho-Schleisner/Getty Images2/9The theater’s design stood for prosperity and American optimism during a rocky economy
Though designed in the Art Deco style—which, because of its lavish and decorative nature, can often signal a structure built in times of economic prosperity, especially throughout the 1920s in the United States—Radio City Music Hall was actually built in the midst of the Great Depression. In 1928, a group of New Yorkers convinced philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. to support the construction of a new opera house for the Metropolitan Opera Company, leading him to lease the land on which the theater was later built. When the stock market crashed in 1929, the opera project was canceled, but Rockefeller was determined to honor his lease. He felt compelled to create a theater so grand it would convince patrons to attend despite the less than fruitful economy. Apart from the alluring nature of the design, he hoped to build something that could physically represent the American dream, portraying optimism and prosperity.
Photo: Courtesy of Radio City Music Hall3/9Both the theater’s architect and interior designer were relatively unknown when selected
Despite the venue’s ambitious goals, Edward Durrel Stone and Donald Deskey, the theater’s respective architect and interior designer, weren’t huge names when they were selected to work on the theater. An early advocate of the International Style, Stone didn’t receive his first independent commission until after designing Radio City Music Hall and is largely remembered for his designs from the ’50s and ’60s, like the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. When he became principal on the project, he was working for the Associated Architects of Rockefeller Center. Deskey, on the other hand, was selected through a competition and had gained some recognition after designing a window display in 1926 for the Franklin Simon Department Store in Manhattan. Still, he wasn’t known particularly as an interior designer and to this day is still regarded more as a furniture and graphic designer. Besides Radio City Music Hall, perhaps his most recognizable work is the Crest Toothpaste packaging and the Tide bullseye.
Photo: Kevin McMahon, courtesy of Radio City Music Hall4/9The theater’s stepped arches are designed to mimic the sunrise
When designing Radio City Music Hall, Stone and Deskey were inspired to take a more modern approach with an effort to show delicate restraint. The facade is constructed from Indiana limestone, which was favored in many buildings of the era because it is relatively easy to carve and shape. Like many buildings in the Art Deco style, the interiors make use of sharp lines and geometric forms, as well as a material palette full of brass, glass, aluminum, and chrome. The results were a modern, refined, and decorative theater without the over-the-top ornamentation that was previously used in Rococo-style theaters, which were common at the time. Deskey designed over 30 separate spaces in the venue—including the foyer, auditorium, and various lounges and smoking rooms—each with its own unique motif. However, perhaps the most recognizable of these is the theater’s stepped arches, which were designed to mimic the sunrise. Besides beautiful, this element also aids the theater’s acoustics and conceals over 5,000 house lights.
Photo: Santi Visalli/Getty Images5/9The stage is the length of a New York City block
The Great Stage at Radio City Music Hall is incredibly large—36 Rockettes can span its width, which is the length of a New York City block—but it’s also extremely technical. When creating the performance space, the design and development team at Radio City Music Hall were eager to produce something that had never been done before. Various sections of the stage can be raised and lowered independently, and the center of the platform includes a circle that rotates in either direction. When the theater debuted in 1932, it was the first time these two features were combined in one location. Today, four elevators—which collectively weigh 380,000 pounds—make quick scene changes and elaborate sets possible.
Still, though the stage might be massive, the same can’t be said for the backstage. With limited storage, many of the props are stored in the sky—hung up with chains and supported by more than 60,000 pounds of counterweight. Among the “flying” props is a seven-ton double-decker bus used in the Christmas Spectacular Show.
Photo: Courtesy of Radio City Music Hall6/9There is a secret apartment inside of Radio City Music Hall
Samuel “Roxy” Rothafel was a prominent theater operator and an early advisor and advocate of Radio City Music Hall. When the theater was being built, a secret Art Deco apartment hidden inside the theater was created for the impresario. Though he never ended up living there, the unit has been used as an event space and welcomed numerous Hollywood stars, including Walt Disney, Alfred Hitchcock, and Judy Garland. Inside, the suite’s dome-shaped ceiling above the dining area was designed to enhance the acoustics so guests around the table could hear each other with perfect clarity.
Photo: Circa Images/GHI/Universal History Archive/Getty Images7/9The first performer in the space wasn’t a person
On the theater’s opening night in 1932, writers, critics, and the public gathered for the venue’s inaugural performance. The program for the first show included many different acts including dancer Marthat Graham, Harold Kreustzber and his ballet, contralto Vera Schwartz, the Tuskegee Negro Choir, and the comedy team Wber and Fields. However, the first slated event for the evening wasn’t any of these notable entertainers, but rather the building itself. After ushers marched down the center aisle and saluted—serenaded by the brassy ring of a band of trumpeters—the evening’s first number was called the “Symphony of Curtains.” As the Landmark Preservation Committee, “it was simply the folding and unfolding of the large contour stage curtain.” Roxy was so impressed with the theater's technical capabilities, that he devised this opening act just to show off what the new venue could offer.
Photo: Andy Ryan/Getty Images8/9There used to be a tennis court on the rooftop
While most famous for its various live performances and as the home of the New York City Rockettes, the building has other uses too. In favorable weather, arguably the best place to be is on the theater’s rooftop, which even housed a tennis court at one point. In 2021, the latest iteration of this space was reimagined as Radio Park, which, similar to the interiors, features various garden “rooms,” each with its own unique typology and biophilic motif.
Photo: Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket/Getty Images9/9When it first opened, the theater received more acclaim than the performance
These days, there’s palpable excitement from the audience at nearly every show. “I will never forget my first performance. At the start of the Parade of the Wooden Soldiers, a number that has been in the show since 1933, the audience started clapping,” Renck Manning says. “The number hadn’t even started but there was an overwhelming sense of excitement and anticipation from the audience.” However, that wasn’t always the case. In fact, on the opening night of the theater, many found the show lackluster. As one New York Tribune writer wrote, “The least important item in last evening’s event was the show itself...it has been said of the new Music Hall that it needs no performers; that its beauty and comforts alone are sufficient to gratify the greediest of playgoers.”
