“An enormous macédoine of musical comedy, patriotism, and burlesque, spangled with American history—that is ‘American Jubilee.’ ”

Joan McCracken leaves the Littlefields to perform at Radio City Music Hall and eventually on Broadway. Catherine stages dances for the large-scale “American Jubilee” pageant at the World’s Fair in New York in 1940. Her innovative bicycle ballet in the pageant is a tremendous hit. Al Jolson hires her for his comeback show on Broadway, Hold On to Your Hats. She is then enlisted to choreograph ice-skating routines for New York’s Center Theatre, which has been converted into an ice theater by Chicago entrepreneur Arthur Wirtz and his business partner, Olympic skating champion Sonja Henie. Wirtz soon installs Catherine as choreographer for Henie’s touring Hollywood Ice Revues as well. She takes her Littlefield Ballet on an eight-week national tour. She and Philip officially separate, although they remain friends and business associates. She and her Littlefield Ballet return to Chicago for the 1941 opera season. The company disbands after Pearl Harbor is bombed and many of Catherine’s male dancers, including Carl, enlist in the military.

Depression Days

Chapter 4 focuses on the societal and cultural impetus for the creation of Radio City Music Hall, which would resurrect vaudeville by hosting two eight-act shows daily; it was part of Rockefeller Center, a fifteen-building campus enshrining media, big business, and modern architecture in the heart of Manhattan. Bolger served as the master of ceremonies for Radio City Music Hall’s opening performances. The chapter also examines Bolger’s brief stint in Earl Carroll’s Vanities as well as his career development thanks to his agent, Abe Lastfogel, of the William Morris Agency. Included is information on Bolger’s Broadway show Life Begins at 8:40 and the importance of his signing his first film contract for a major studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).

The Radio City Rockettes and the making of a sisterhood

Since their origins in 1925, the Radio City Rockettes have been a self-proclaimed sisterhood that has long been viewed as wholesome family entertainment. Although dancers for the Rockettes have had to submit to stringent guidelines of physicality, personality and uniformity, most alumnae are quick to wax poetic on their years in the line. This article investigates the meaning and the making of such sisterhood by looking at how a ‘community of practice’ is created through the structure of the company and the shared labour involved in precision dance. Their group dynamic and joint performance goals, along with the stable workplace and practices of Radio City Music Hall, shaped how the Rockettes’ identity was formed and propagated, in a way that differed from other more sexualized dance companies, which existed in the same era.

Engineers for an Icon

This article highlights the restoration of Radio City Music Hall that returns a landmark to its original glory with a number of updates. At the height of its glory, the hall was a glamorous showplace for first-run films and live entertainment on a stage that measures 144 by 66½feet. When the army of architects, engineers, and consultants attacked the restoration of Radio City Music Hall, they discovered that many of the technical systems in the building were the same ones that were in place when the building opened more than 65 years earlier. The goal of architectural lighting throughout the building was twofold: to restore everything that was there and to upgrade everything to meet modern expectations. To reduce maintenance and increase reliability, the designers re-engineered the marquee to use smaller transformers, with fewer lamps per transformer.