Radio City Music Hall

When the stock market crashed in 1929, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. held a $ 91 million, 24-year lease on a piece of midtown Manhattan property properly known as 'the speakeasy belt.' Plans to gentrify the neighborhood by building a new Metropolitan Opera House on the site were dashed by the failing economy and the business outlook was dim. Nevertheless, Rockefeller made a bold decision that would leave a lasting impact on the city's architectural and cultural landscape. He decided to build an entire complex of buildings on the property-buildings so superior that they would attract commercial tenants even in a depressed city flooded with vacant rental space. The project would express the highest ideals of architecture and design and stand as a symbol of optimism and hope. The search for a commercial partner led to the Radio Corporation of america, a young company whose NBC radio programs were attracting huge audiences and whose RKO studios were producing and distributing popular motion pictures that offered welcome diversion in hard times. Rockefeller's financial power and RCA's media might were joined by the unusual talents of impresario S.L. 'Roxy' Rothafel. Roxy had earned a reputation as a theatrical genius by employing an innovative combination of vaudeville, movies and razzle-dazzle decor to revive struggling theatres across america. Together Rockefeller, RCA and Roxy realized a fantastic dream - a theatre unlike any in the world, and the first completed project within the complex that RCA head David Sarnoff dubbed 'Radio City.' Radio City Music Hall was to be a palace for the people. A place of beauty offering high-quality entertainment at prices ordinary people could afford. It was intended to entertain and amuse, but also to elevate and inspire.

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