the movie palace to beat them all

Out of all the movie palaces in all the world there was only one destination that beat them all. The opulent, amazing Radio City Music Hall. Located in midtown Manhattan this art deco movie palace opened in 1932 and showed first run films up until 1979. It focused on family friendly films for the most part and always featured a stage slow with the film. At Christmas and Easter there were special shows.

I saw two films here. Both were rewards I earned by selling newspaper subscriptions. The first and one of my favorite films "1776" I saw in 1972 and the following year we saw "Tom Sawyer". Both movies were followed with a trip to Tad's Steakouse.

I'll talk about 1776 at a later date. Tom Sawyer was a musical produced by the Reader's Digest company and is still popular with kids today. It featured TV sitcom star Johnyy Whitaker (Family Affair) as Tom and a young Jodi Foster as Becky Thatcher. It was followed the following year with a sequel, "Huckleberry Finn".

In 1989 MGM held a 50th Anniversary screening of "Gone With The Wind" at Radio City. I went with my sister and it was an unforgettable event to see this magnificent film on the big screen at the most opulent movie house in the country. It was a wonderful experience.

In the early 90's I returned to Radio City to see a number of feature films shown by Warner Bros. they had a summer long film festival featuring some of their greatest pictures including My Fair Lady, Blade Runner, Superman and The Shining. Seeing them at the music hall seemed to make them better.