Evening star., 1932-12-26
SNOWMAN ROXY"
REALIZES DREAM
Radio City, Rockefeller Cen.
ter Theaters Will Open
This Week.
BY the Associated Press.

by the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, December 90 The
cream Of Roxy. the Showman"-S. L
Rothafel to his bankers-will come true
this week when the two immense Radio
City, Rockefeller Center Theaters throw
open their doors.
For weeks a vast army Of dancers
singers, orchestra members, stage hands
costumers, stage managers and tech
nicians have been working long into
the night getting ready for the big
event.
The Radio City Music Hall. with 6 .2oo
seats, opens tomorrow night, and the
R.-K.-O. Roxy Theater on Thursday
night.
Rockefeller Center itself covering II
acres in the heart of midtown New
York, is called the largest private
building project in the world" and al
most everything about the theaters is
described as the largest in the world
or lone of the largest ever built
Chandelier Weighs 6 Tons.
The chandelier in the Roxy Theater
for example, is 25 feet in diameter
weighs tons, has a special ventilating
system to carry off the intense heat OF
its 400 flood lights. consumes enough
current in one night to illuminate the
average large office for a week and is
said to be the biggest ever constructed
The 3C0-ton steel arch supporting the
music hail prOscenium is one of the
largest ever used in any kind OF build
ing.
The music hall stage 144 feet wide
and e. feet deep, is larger than that OF
any other American theater.
The music hall itself is called the
largest incloscd theater in the world.
The main plush curtain in the mu-
sic hall is operated by 13 separate cleo
trio motors and is IN sections SO it can
be made into various designs and 50
the stage opening can be made any size
desired
constructed" will raise the music hall
stage from a subbaSement level to a
position IA feet above the normal stage
level. An ingenious interlocking device
makes it possible to raise or lower the
three sections of the stage in unison, in
step formation, or Independently.
Three Section Stage.
There is also a Intersection re-
yOlying stage.
The stage elevators can be dropped to
position below the stage level and a
portable water tank, which will cover
the entire stage surface. moved into
place and raised to stage level.
The orchestra seats itself on a car
riage" or band wagon" and can be
raised by still another elevator to the
level of the stage. Or dropped down 80
feet, rolled through a tunnel and
hoisted onto the back of the stage.
Five months Of experimentation pre-
ceded the building CT the two organs,
which will initiate the squeek of d
mouse or the roar of thunder. The
largest pipe in the organs is 16 feet
long and weighs 300 pounds; the small
est is three-quarters OF an inch long
and weighs half an ounce.
A color organ" with 900 controls. is
used to obtain the almost magical
lighting effect on the music hall stage
and throughout the auditorium.
Famous artists were called in to aid
in the interior decorating. The mems
smoking room in the Roxy is lined
with photo murals,' 6foOt enlarge
ments of actual photographs.
Dressing rooms contain loud speakers
by which the actors may be called to
the stage when wanted. Elevators
eliminate stair climbing for the per-
formers. A dormitory is provided for
those who are kept late at rehearsals.
All in all. Roxy himself describes it
as "a dream, a dream in which l was
fortunate in erlisting the aid of John
D. Rockefeller, j., and Owen D.
Young"