Demise of a Favorite

 

If you can believe a little girl's memories of conversations held long ago, it was the Roxy which was New Yorkers' favorite movie theater, but Radio City Music Hall which attracted the know-nothing tourists who flocked to the city. While the memory of that young girl might have been faulty, I found it somewhat vindicating to note a simple Wikipedia statement that Radio City Music Hall clocked more tourists in a year than the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building combined—or, closer to the time period we're discussing, that Radio City remained successful, regardless of the status of the city's economic, business, and entertainment sectors as a whole. Perhaps my mother was right, and it was the city's visitors who fueled the competition even though the true New Yorkers preferred the Roxy.

Whatever the case, it was the Roxy's demise which came before any problems overtook their competitor. Despite the size of a city like New York, perhaps it was the sheer numbers of tourists which turned the tables for the opulent and beloved Roxy, after all—or was it?

While my mother didn't share much about her work experience prior to settling down to mundane, suburban family life—nor did my dad add any commentary to fill in the blanks—I remember her fixing the blame for the Roxy's demise upon federal anti-trust laws. That, for a kid in grade school, was far more than I could take in, but somehow I remembered it. But I never saw any explanation of it that could bolster those childhood memories. Now, knowing how to research my family's history, it turns out I have the tools needed to ferret out those statements made so long ago.

To go back and explore what became of the Roxy, we need to also examine the timeline of their competitor, Radio City Music Hall. When Radio City staged its live show on opening night, almost ninety one years ago on December 27, 1932, reviews were negative. Early in 1933, the management opted to copy the Roxy's more successful formula of coupling live shows on stage with the showing of featured movies.

Embedded in that plan at Radio City was the decision to feature films produced by one company, RKO Pictures. From the start, the description of RKO's formation paints a portrait of mergers just daring government officials to cry "anti-trust." RKO became a film production and distribution company through the 1928 merger of three corporations: a theater chain, a "film booking" concern, and the well-known corporation, RCA.

Meanwhile, as the country clawed its way out of the Depression of the 1930s, the federal Antitrust Division of the U.S. Justice Department, influenced by key economists, entered an era of robust antitrust enforcement. Their goal was to "de-concentrate" large corporations and promote competition.

Changes were also happening, back at the Roxy. Though Samuel Rothafel—whose brainchild movie palace still bore his Roxy nickname—had long left the organization, by 1955 his son Robert Rothafel was back there, designated as the Roxy's managing director. One year later, the Roxy was acquired by Rockefeller Center, the same entity at which Radio City operated. The two competitors were now owned by the same corporation.

I first spotted that information through a curious entry within the holdings of the New York Pubic Library's archives. Apparently, an unpublished autobiographical typescript, along with several mementos, had been donated to the library by John Joseph North, a former usher at the Roxy in 1951. Currently held under the title, "Roxy Theatre Reminiscences," the collection at the Billy Rose Theatre Division included a note that the Roxy was "taken over in the late 1950s by Rockefeller Center, which ran it as a first-run movie house without a stage show."

By 1960, the archival notes continued, the Roxy was demolished "as Rockefeller Center expanded."

This, of course, helps me zero in on my father's career timeline, for without a stage show at the Roxy, there was no need for any musicians, and certainly no reason to keep a music arranger on staff. If I'm reading this collection of notes correctly, that means my dad was out of work at the Roxy by 1956. No wonder my brother had framed it as "after the Roxy" when he mentioned my dad's next gig was with the Versailles. There was no need to wait around for the soon-to-come wrecking ball at this theater.

For the larger picture—the social and economic history behind my own family's personal story—seeing one of two competing businesses cave to the other certainly could qualify as a possible target for antitrust legal action, yet I still can't find any actual statements to that effect. All I'm left with is a childhood memory of what my mom affirmed was the cause of the Roxy's demise. It may take many more hours poring over sixty year old newspaper headlines before I get the scoop.

Whatever the reason, that became the end of an entertainment paradise which flourished during a time period I can barely imagine. Times change, and I have no way now to experience what it might have been like to live the life such a milieu supported. But I can at least take a long look at what might have been and let it broaden my understanding of the people shaped by its influences.