The 1970s

Radio City management began closing the theatre for weeks at a stretch, leaving the once busy Rockettes with time on their hands.  The troupe petitioned for the right to take the show on the road when Radio City was dark.  In 1977, the Rockettes appeared at Harrah's in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.  Their precision dancing took the west coast by storm as they went on to play to sold-out crowds in Las Vegas.  They even opened for Liberace at the Las Vegas Hilton in 1979.  In 1978, Radio City was slated to close due to financial problems.  The Rockettes lead the crusade to save the theatre.  In 1979, Radio City was designated a New York City landmark, saving it from the wrecking ball.  The movie-and-stage format remained a Radio City signature until 1979, when the mass showcasing of new films called for a different focus.  The decade ended on a wonderful upbeat note.  The Rockettes starred with Swedish-American actress, singer and dancer Ann-Margaret in a two-hour television special, A Holiday Tribute to Radio City Music Hall.  Ann-Margaret even joined the Rockettes in their iconic Parade of the Wooden Soldiers number!

The 1980s

The Rockettes led the fitness movement that swept the country.  The dancers were arguably the fittest women in Amercia.  Radio City had moved to a new format: it no longer showed movies, but presented 90-minute stage shows.  The Rockettes danced four or five numbers in each of them, four times a day, seven days a week, for four weeks straight.  Then each woman got a week off.  During the '80s, the Rockettes performed with Ginger Rogers in a show called A Rockette Spectacular with Ginger Rogers and also worked alongside Carol Lawrence and Liberace.  They appeared as themselves in the movie Annie, starred in the 1988 Super Bowl halftime show and made a commercial for L'Eggs pantyhose singing and dancing in praise of "a great pair of L'Eggs".  They went on the road, too, and performed in Las Vegas and in Lake Tahoe.  There, Sammy Davis Jr., a great admirer of theirs, watched their show night after night.  On their closing night, without warning he stepped out on stage and joined the line.  Former Rockette, Leslie remembers him being one of the sweetest men she has ever met. To celebrate the 50th birthday of Radio City in 1982, producer and choreographer Bob Jani presented a lavish show featuring 50 years of Rockettes costumes. Another memorable event throughout the '80s was a series of three television specials in honor of the centennial of the Actors' Fund of America.  They were called The Night of 100 Stars, but actually over 200 of the most famous performers in the world took part.  If you were a star of stage, screen or television, you were there! It all took place at Radio City so, of course, the Rockettes welcomed the audience, danced the opening number and even got to share the stage with talent like Dick Van Dyke, Lana Turner, Grace Kelly and Muhammad Ali.  

The 1990s

The Rockettes continued to present their ever-popular Christmas Spectacular and Easter Extravaganza.  Choreographers and designers created new routines and new costumes for them, but the historic Radio City Music Hall was beginning to show its age.  Radio City's parent company decided that the world's greatest theater was in need of the world's greatest restoration.  The vision?  To restore Radio City to its former glory, to recapture the magnificence that made people gasp as they entered on that opening night back in 1932.  Every bit of gold leaf was repainted.  Every one of the 6,200 seats were re-covered. In fact, there were now exactly 269 few seats.  The company had surveyed the sightlines and ordered that seats be removed because they did not have an adequate view of the stage.  They approved the purchase of a huge 50,000 pound LED screen which can be raised and lowered.  It is the largest of its kind in the world.  The projections from the screen's "light emitting diodes" make all kinds of scenery possible taking the audience on magical journeys. Another innovation was the sound system.  Radio City wasn't satisfied that the audience was hearing the Rockettes' pre-recorded taps .. they wanted the real thing.  The company wouldn't settle for the dancers to wear wired microphones and belt packs .. they were too bulky and slowed down costume changes so they challenged the best engineers to come up with a solution.  Today, when the Rockettes are doing a tap number during the Christmas Spectacular, they wear custom dance shoes that have a special cavity within the heel for a sound transmitter so what the audience hears is the actual rhythmic tapping of 72 feet.  When the Rockettes appeared in the Christmas Spectacular at the newly re-opened Radio City in 1999, one of the new numbers featured Santa Claus and his workshop.  Greg Barnes, the Tony Award-winning designer who's known for his costumes for Follies, Flower Drum Song and the revival of Bye Bye Birdie created many outfits for the Rockettes, but perhaps his most memorable idea was to dress them as reindeer, complete with antlers.  At every performance, when they pranced on stage pulling Santa's sled, they brought down the house.

The 2000s

Radio City Music Hall marked the 75th Anniversary of the Rockettes with around 2,500 women having shared in the legacy by performig as a Radio City Rockette.  In 2001, the Rockettes were invited to perform at the 43rd President of the United States George W. Bush's inauguration in Washington D.C. where they danced their way down the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.  In 2005, the Rockettes performed their second presidential inauguration.  Linda Haberman became the first woman named solo director and choreographer for the Rockettes in 2006.  Trained at the School of American Ballet, Haberman was in the original cast of Bob Fosse's Dancin' then went on to become his assistant choreographer.  Her vision for the Rockettes was to transform them into a contemporary dance company.  Haberman's amazing choreography brought the troupe to new heights and demanded superb dance technique as well as true athleticism.  On the Radio City stage, her productions combined dance with the ground-breaking technology and called for the Rockettes to interact with 3D effects.  For the New York at Christmas number, Haberman put the Rockettes on a full-scale double-decker bus which moved in sync with the images of the city projected on the 90-foot LED screen. Haberman created the first touring productions of the Christmas Spectacular which visited more than 80 cities in the United States during their time.  The tour ended after the 2014 season as new approaches were explored to best showcase the Christmas Spectacular and the Rockettes.  This decade saw an important new Rockettes dance education program: The Rockettes Summer Intensive which offers aspiring professional dancers the unique opportunity to train with the Rockettes and learn their world-famous precision dance technique.  More than 1,000 young dancers from across the country audition each year.  Those who are accepted spend a week in New York where they rehearse and learn the Rockettes' disciplines and dance routines.  To date, more than 60 Rockettes have come from this training program.

The 2010s

Since the 1990s, the Rockettes have only performed at Radio City Music Hall from November to January in the Christmas Spectacular.  However, that changed in the Spring of 2015 when the Rockettes starred in a new eight-week production, The New York Spring Spectacular alongside Tony Award-winner Laura Benanti and Dancing with the Stars' Derek Hough.  In June 2016, the Rockette performed on the Great Stage to celebrate New York City in The New York Spectacular. Centered around the trip of a lifetime for two kids, who, while on a vacation in New York are separated from their parents, the city magically comes to life to show them its many splendid wonders.  The Rockettes have been busier and more in the public eye than ever.  They have performed on the Great Stage with Oprah, Heidi Klum, Michael Buble and have made numerous appearances on The Today Show, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and America's Got Talent in 2013, 2014 and 2015!

From the moment they first appeared in 1925, the Rockettes have been American icons.  They are symbols of what you can achieve if you move with passion, dream big, work hard and most importantly .. believe in yourself.  

Merry Christmas

Pat Locke, Maestro Muse 

 

For almost a century, the Rockettes have been American icons.  They have appeared at Radio City Music Hall in hundreds of stage spectaculars and have participated in many historic and memorable events like joining the USO and traveling aboard to entertain the troops and support wartime efforts plus performing at the inauguration of the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush in 2001.  

Take a trip down memory lane with me through the decades to see how the Rockettes evolved as an iconic part of American history.

In the 1920s

The Rockettes began kicking up their shoes since Russell Markert, the Rockettes' chief choreographer, image-perserver and resident "father figure" of the famous troupe until he retired in 1971, founded the exemplary American chorus line .. an exciting precision dance company with great style, flair and glamour in 1925. Inspired by the British dance troupe formed by John Tiller ("The Tiller Girls" performed in a 1922 Ziegfeld Follies production), Russell wanted to achieve absolute precision and ultimate uniformity in the movements of the dancers.  Originally, a Rockette had to be between 5'2" and 5'6 1/2", but today, she is between 5'6" and 5' 10 1/2" and had to be proficient in tap, modern, jazz and ballet.  Starting with just 16 women, over the years the troupe has grown to a line of 36 dancers.  The dancers known as the "Missouri Rockets" made their show debut in St. Louis.  That same year, the troupes traveled to New York City to perform in the Broadway show rain or shine and were discovered by showman S.L. "Roxy" Rothafel.  The "Missouri Rockets" were such an instant hit that Rothafel was loath to let them leave after their performances at the Roxy Theatre and pleaded with Markert to form another line to replace the departing dancers.

In the 1930s

While there were three separate dance troupes performing in New York City in the early 30s, Rothafel moved two of the troupes to Radio City Music Hall for opening night on December 27, 1932.  Described as "the hottest ticket in town" more than 100,000 people requested admission, but only 6,200 could be obliged.  Rothafel first dubbed the troupe as the "Roxyettes" who performed a routine to the song With a Feather in Your Cap on opening night, but in 1934 the "Roxyettes" officially became the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes.  Two weeks after its gala opening, Radio City Music Hall premiered its first film, The Bitter Tea of General Yen.  Radio City quickly became the favorite first-run theatre for moviemakers and moviegoers alike.  Before long, a first showing at the Music Hall virtually guaranteed a successful run in theatres around the country.  Since 1933, more than 700 movies have opened at the Music Hall.  Among the movies was the original King Kong, National Velvet, White Christmas, Mame, Breakfast at Tiffany's, To Kill a Mockingbird, Mary Poppins, 101 Dalmation and the Lion King. Radio City featured a new movie every week accompanied by a lavish and unique stage production starring the Rockettes.

In the 1940s

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States entered WWII.  The Rockettes were among the first entertainers to volunteer for the USO.  They entertained our troops abroad and were involved in wartime shows at the Copacabana, the Army Air Corps base in Pawling, NY and at the Stage Door Canteen.  The Rockettes and Eleanor Roosevelt even hosted a war bond rally at the world's most famous arena, Madison Square Garden.

In the 1950s

Radio City was showing world premiere movies together with stage shows sometimes as many as five a day.  The movies kept playing as long as there was demand for tickets and the shows changed every time the movies did.  If a film failed at the box office, the Rockettes suddenly had to rehearse the new show at dawn, at midnight and in between.  Because of their demanding schedule, Radio City Music Hall became their home away from home. They worked, played, ate and often slept within its walls.  Facilities including a 26-bed dormitory, cafeteria, recreation area, tailor shop and hospital with medical staff were provided to support and sustain what many recall as an extended family.  Americans in the '50s increasingly turned to television for their entertainment so it was inevitable that television would feature the Rockettes.  They made their first TV appearance on Wide, Wide World and also performed for the first time in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1957.  Like so many events the Rockettes took part in, it became a New York City tradition.  

In the 1960's

The '60s were a time of social change and political activism so it's no surprise that the Rockettes broke new ground for women in those early years.  In a salute to both feminism and the space age, the Rockettes danced as astronauts on the Great Stage.  The production numbers also reflected an incredible variety of music, dance and costuming.  After the bikini craze that entered the fashion world in the '60s, the Rockettes raised their kicks and hemlines! They appeared as Geisha girls, hula dancers, bull fighters, chimney sweeps and even can-can dancers.  In 1961, Eastman Kodak created a color photomural featuring the Rockettes.  It was the largest mural of its kind ever made and was hung in New York City's Grand Central Terminal.  While Radio City was a popular venue for filmmakers to premiere a movie, it wasn't uncommon for the stars to make an appearance before the showing.  In 1962, none other than Cary Grant surprised the Rockettes when he came to promote his new movie, That Touch of Mink.  One of the most awesome productions in the history of Radio City took place with a salute to Walt Disney.  Sections of the theme park's famous Main Street, Frontierland, Tomorrowland and Fantasyland were recreated right on the Great Stage all under the personal supervision of Walt Disney, himself. 

On a personal note,  a former Rockette lives among us in Chautauqua County.  Emma Bishop teaches dance at her studio on Main Street in Westfield.  Upon entering her studio you will see photos of her 3 years as a Rockette along with a personally signed b/w photo of Frank Sinatra that reads .. To Emma.  Those of us who know Emma as a teacher to their children or simply know her as a resident of Westfield are always in awe when in her presence.  She loves the art of dance though she loves her students even more.  And it shows with each and every program she puts together for the community, at large.  Thank you, Emma ..our very own hometown Radio City Music Hall Rockette. 

The 1970's through to the 2010's will be featured under a separate post.  Stay tuned to read more about the world famous Radio City Music Hall Rockettes.  A 2017 article that appeared in the Jamestown Post Journal about our local Rockette, Emma Bishop and another that was in a 1986 New York Times article.

Happy Holidays.

Pat Locke, Maestro Muse

The Macy's Santa

Sadly, Santa will not be at Macy's Santaland for the first time in almost 160 years this Christmas.  For the first time, the jolly old elf will not make an appearance at Macy's Santaland as the coronavirus pandemic poses too many risks for such a crowded experience. 

Macy's Santaland will instead be transformed into an interactive, virtual experience for families to enjoy at home.  Santa won't be leaving the North Pole this year for his annual holiday visit to Macy's flagship store in the Big Apple, New York City. 

The department store will instead move the tradition to an online platform to "safely bring the joy of the season to visitors nationwide from the comfort of home".  Families can access the event beginning Friday, November 27 through Thursday, December 24 at the Macy's Santaland at Home website and up to three children can take part in the customized experience at a time.  

                                              

The online experience will include a special greeting from Santaland elves interactive games, a virtual tour of Santa's workshop and an interactive meet-and-greet with Santa where kids can snap a selfie with the iconic holiday figure.  

The 2020 Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade was the 94th since the famed holiday parade started in 1924 and had been televised nationally on NBC since 1953.  The parade was a different kind of event this year.  They reinvented the event for this moment in history allowing its viewers to be able to feel the spirit and the joy of other years so thanks to Macy's and to the City of New York the famous parade gave us all that warmth and great feeling we have always had on Thanksgiving Day despite the changes and the challenges which involved staging the parade over 2 days with the number of participants reduced by nearly 75 per cent. The traditional 2.5 mile parade route was not part of this year's event.

On a personal sidenote, I had the great honor to meet the adorable Macy's Santa several years ago when he arrived in a big red motorcoach at the North Lake Mall in Charlotte NC.  Before he exited the vehicle a red carpet was rolled out to welcome the "man in red" as a local high school band performed to herald in his long anticipated arrival.  He walked into Macy's, sat down in his grand chair with children gathered around him.  He read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and I can honestly say that through my tears I had never heard it read quite the same before then nor since then.  Thank you, Santa.  I Believe.

So on Thursday morning (Nov. 26), the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade stepped off on the streets of New York City for a special, socially-distanced edition of the annual holiday spectacular.  The Chairman and CEO of Macy's, Jeffery Gennette helped Al Roker cut the ribbon.  While this year's event may have looked a little different without its usual miles of crowds, the Manhattan parade managed to go on, thanks to strict safety precautions, plenty of masks and a whole lot of technological ingenuity.

And with special performances that included a Motown tribute to The Temptations, the parade was also filled with the floats and balloons pulled by Ford trucks rather than balloon handlers .. families around the country have come to love every Thanksgiving morning for decades despite the changes that had to be made this year.  The parade was filmed over 3 days with everybody tested for COVID-19 and wearing masks.  

It was nice to see all our favorites back this year .. the balloons, the musical performances and the World Famous .. Radio City Music Hall Rockettes!

Be Safe.

Pat Locke

Maestro Muse 

                          

 

White Christmas is an American musical film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen.  Filmed in Technicolor, it features the songs of Irving Berlin, including a new version of the title song, White Christmas introduced by Crosby in the 1942 film, Holiday Inn.

White Christmas was released on October 14, 1954.  The budget was $2 million and it made $30 million at the box office.  Produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures, the film notable for being the first to be released in VistaVision.

On March 4, 1943 Irving Berlin presented himself the Oscar for White Christmas at the 15th Annual Academy Awards ceremony in the Ambassador Hotel's Cocoanut Grove.  When he opened the envelope and saw his name, Berlin told the audience "I'm glad to present the award. I've known him for a long time."  

Legend says that Berlin prefaced the award with "he's a good kid and I think he deserves it".  There were 10 song nominees that year including It Seems I Heard That Song Before from Youth on Parade and I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo from Bambi.  But the winner that night was Berlin's classic standard White Christmas.

The name of the inn was the Columbia Inn located in Pine Tree, Vermont. Sadly, the inn isn't real.  The exteriors and interiors were all created on the soundstage at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, California.  So if you try and fine Pine Tree on a map or go there for a stroll you're of luck.  The town lives only inside the Vistavision musical that sings and dances nonstop on laptops and TV sets this time of year.  No part of the Bing Crosby-Rosemary Clooney romantic comedy was ever filmed in the Green Mountain State.  The movie does, however, broadcast an image of Vermont as a simple, rural, authentic place, an image that endures today. None of the tap dancing, waltzing or crooning was filmed in Vermont and the quaint Vermont backdrop is the work of set artists. White Christmas was filmed from September to December 1953 entirely in southern California according to film library archivists at the Fairbanks Center for Motion Pictury Study in Beverly Hills, California.  The train station in the movie was filmed on the 20th Century Fox lot.  And even some of the other movies that do make lists of made-in-Vermont films were made mostly .. somewhere else. 

These days, technology makes it easier for small crews to shoot low-budget movies in Vermont.  The Vermont Film Bureau was created in 1981 with Gregory Gerdel, director after state authorities began wringing their hands at the success of the movie On Golden Pond which was filmed next door in New Hampshire and brought the Granite State good publicity.  

Anne Whitfield played General Waverly's granddaughter, Susan. Young Susan wasn't more than 16 when the movie was released and is now 82 years old having been born August 27, 1938 in Oxford Mississippi.  

When Berlin wrote White Christmas, he said, "I've not only written the best song I've ever written .. I just wrote the best song that's ever been written."  During World War II, it was the most famous and biggest selling Christmas song of the 20th century, translated into dozens of languages.  Crosby's recording, alone, sold over thirty million copies.  

The concept for the movie came from the song, White Christmas which was hugely popular at the time and still is!  Berlin built the rest of the songs around what was a loose script adding Count Your Blessings, Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me and The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing.  The scene with Danny Kaye and Vera-Ellen dancing could have paired Vera-Ellen with Fred Astaire had he not turned down the script. 

Irving Berlin

"Snow snow, snow, snow.  It won't be long before we'll all be there with snow"

Through the magic of modern technology Michael Buble is singing White Christmas with Bing Crosby.

Merry Christmas

Be Safe.

Pat Locke                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Happy Thanksgiving from the Chautauqua Lake Pops.  May we all remain safe so we can once again gather at the Pops in the New Year .. 2021.   Make It Mayville!

Be Safe.

Pat Locke

Maestro Muse