Radio City Music Hall, dubbed “Showplace of the Nation,” opened its doors in New York City. Originally intended as an opera house, it boasted the world’s largest auditorium at the time, with a capacity of 6,000. Its opening show was six hours long and considered a “bust.”
Drowning in debt by the 1970s, the Music Hall was near bankruptcy, but the dance captain of the Music Hall’s ballet company led the movement to successfully place the Music Hall on the National Register of Historic Places, thus saving the building.
Today, Radio City Music Hall hosts a variety of events such as the Grammys, America’s Got Talent, and, of course, the beloved New York Christmas tradition, Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes, which, debuted in 1933.
Hats off to a monument of American culture.
