WEBVTT - Selects: Rockettes: Still Kicking After All These Years 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:04.040 Hey, everybody, Happy Saturday. I got a select for you. 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:06.200 This is Chuck here of the Stuff You Should Know 0:00:06.240 --> 0:00:11.880 podcast introducing Rockettes Colon still kicking after all these years. 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:16.200 This one came out January first, twenty nineteen, and it's 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:18.120 about the Rocketts, and this is the time of year 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:20.479 to talk about the Rockets. I learned a lot about 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:25.200 this organization, organization, this dance troup and their storied history, 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:27.240 and I think you're gonna like it, So give it 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:30.200 a listen and please enjoy. 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:38.159 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:44.840 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:47.800 Charles W Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry. Happy New Year. 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:50.400 You are too tall to be a rocket, aren't you? 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:52.360 Just barely? 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:56.080 Jerry and I can be rockettes. That's a good than 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:59.640 you can't. No, it's true, which is a shame because 0:00:59.640 --> 0:00:59.880 you have the. 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:04.560 I do. Actually, I've got pretty decent legs, you know, 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:06.400 at least my calves are all right. 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:08.320 What no thighs. 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:13.840 They're a little tree trunky for my taste. Oh yeah, yeah, 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:16.600 I've got a bit of like a fertility idle thing 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:19.200 going on, like up toward the hips and all that. 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:21.960 Yeah, well it's because of all those squats. 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:24.279 I was not expecting to talk about this. 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:27.680 About your gams. Yeah, oh well, I'll talk about my 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:28.560 legs all day long. 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:29.399 Well, let's hear it. 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:33.920 They're shapely, Okay, they're they're not. I gain all my 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:38.880 weight between my waist and my chin. Aha, Like I don't. 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:41.520 If you looked at my legs in my arms, you'd 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:47.000 be like, thin guy weighs one hundred and sixty pounds 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:49.400 and then the rest of me comes along to bust 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:53.680 that myth step aside, still have a nice little fanny, 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:59.480 sure everybody knows that. Sorry listeners in the UK, Oh yeah, 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:02.520 that means something different over there, does It's just so 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:07.480 dainty and nice that a little little five year old kids. 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:09.240 Can say fanny in the United States. 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:09.839 That's right. 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:12.519 It's just the Brits who are sick ghos. 0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:16.960 But this isn't about our gambs. This is about a 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:19.520 dance troupe, A legendary dance troupe. 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:23.440 Yeah, about as legendary as a dance troup can possibly be. 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:24.840 Are the Rockets? 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:25.440 I think so. 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:30.840 I just said that sentence like Yoda, can you do 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:35.240 the voice no, no, no, not even going to try. 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:39.200 But this totally surprised me digging into the research on 0:02:39.280 --> 0:02:44.560 this to learn that the legendary Rockets of New York 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:47.400 City and Radio City Music Hall are not from New 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:47.960 York City. 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:51.120 No, they're not. Where are they from? Chuck? 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:51.680 Did you know this? 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:53.520 I had no idea. 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:56.679 Now, yeah, so shout out to Saint Louis. 0:02:56.880 --> 0:03:01.560 Yeah. They were founded in the nineteen twenties, nineteen twenty 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:05.360 five to be exacted in Saint Louis, Missouri as the Rockets, 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:09.400 the Saint Louis Rockets, which I think they were trying 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:10.480 to be a basketball team. 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:12.240 Maybe Saint Louis Rockets. 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:12.680 Sure. 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:17.400 Yeah. There was a choreographer named Russell Markert, which is 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:20.079 I kept wanting to say market but that is an 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:23.320 r yep. And he founded them, like you said, in 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:26.880 nineteen twenty five, and he was he was inspired by 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:32.040 a British dance troupe named the Tiller Girls, which was 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:35.720 founded in the eighteen ninety four by John Tiller, and 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:37.880 it was kind of a similar idea. He saw these 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:42.640 Tiller Girls and he was like, I want a high kicking, glamorous, 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:47.680 theatrical dance troupe of my own. Yeah, so I'm gonna 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:48.240 rip it off. 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:53.360 He did, actually, so. John Tillers is widely acknowledged as 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:58.240 the creator of what's called precision dance, which is where 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:02.400 you have a bunch of dancers who were really highly trained, 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:07.720 really athletic, and really precise in their movements that can 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:12.120 move in such unison. Yeah, that you take a number, 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:14.800 like a number of different dancers and they basically become 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:20.040 one thing that can do things that an individual dancer 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:24.320 can't do. That's precision dance technique. And John Tiller literally 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:26.920 invented it with I think four ten year old girls 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:30.920 in the eighteen nineties, and he came up with some 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:34.320 further refinements to it, like when you put your hand 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:37.200 around the waists of the people on either side of you, 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:40.000 it kind of lends to the unity of the whole thing. 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:45.680 And Russell Maker Markert saw this and was like, this 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:49.160 is amazing. If I can get some American girls with 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:53.000 longer legs to kick higher, it'll knock everybody's socks off. 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:54.280 That's a quote, by the way. 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:58.320 Yeah, and there's a there's something too that that synchronicity 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:03.080 of for me for movement and sound that just knocks 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:07.480 me out every time when I go and see a choir, 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:11.160 what's like one hundred people singing together and high kicking. 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:15.400 Or a symphony, just the not only the sound, but 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:18.040 the movement when you watch a symphony, that's a big 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:22.240 part of it for me. Forget a choral symphony. Like 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:26.919 I'm on the floor weeping if you take me to 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:30.520 a choral symphony. But there's something about that precision of 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:35.680 all these people together. It's just really like, I don't 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:38.359 know what it is about it. I mean, it's a 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:41.680 collective voice or collective movement, but it's that precision that 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:44.000 really just gets me every time for sure. 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:46.240 Well that's what the Rockets are known for. It's their 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:50.440 trade is precision dance. They're as good as it gets 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:53.680 with it. Although the Tailor girls are definitely still around. 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:57.720 They still have Christmas specials themselves and they're doing their 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:01.880 thing for sure. So it's it's not just an offhand 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:04.159 thing to say the Rockets are as good as it comes, 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:06.919 as good as they come in precision dance, because the 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:11.520 Tiller girls would probably say I would dispute that statement, but. 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:13.680 They would say it with a British accent. 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:16.800 Right, I dispute that statement. 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:20.640 So they were not as tall. Back then, the original 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:25.360 height requirements were between five to two and five six 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:29.200 and a half. And now they went, we'll take your 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:33.880 tallest dancer and make them our shortest dancer, because I 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:36.320 guess it's just I don't know. I'm not sure why 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:39.359 they did that. But now it's between five six and 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:42.240 five ten and a half. And it is not because 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:47.520 they want to exclude people or any or discriminate against 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:50.240 people who are too tall or they feel too short, 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:54.160 but so they can just all look it's an optical illusion, 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:56.760 so they can all look the same height because they 0:06:57.400 --> 0:06:59.719 take that five foot ten and a half inch dancer, 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:02.520 although they don't have to be that tall, but they 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:05.360 take whoever their tallest. Answer is put her right in 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:07.920 the middle and then just stagger it out from there 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:11.680 and in the end everyone looks. It's weird. Everyone looks 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:13.160 to be the same height even though they're not. 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:15.720 I don't understand how this works. It's just I saw 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:18.960 so many different places that I'm convinced that it does work. 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:24.400 I just don't get the illusion of it. How it works. 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:29.040 Well, I think over four inches and thirty six women, 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:33.720 it's just so minute of differences as you scale down 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:38.200 that it would take I guess an extraordinary human to 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:41.360 be like that woman is an inch and a half 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:44.400 taller than the one five people away from her, right, 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:45.040 you know. 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:48.800 I got you. Yeah, I guess that's true. 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:52.680 So you're just a normal person, is what I'm saying. Yeah, 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:55.240 you should feel good about that. I fall for that 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:59.920 optical illusion every time. Yeah, everybody should. So they started 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:04.160 with the Missouri Rockets with just sixteen women, and like 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:07.320 I said, now they have thirty six. And they debuted 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:09.560 in Saint Louis, but then went to New York to 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:13.600 perform Rain or Shine on Broadway. And that is where 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:19.240 a man named sl Roxy that was his nickname, Rothefel, 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:23.360 which is an interesting name. That's where he saw them 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:26.560 and said, hey, I gotta get in on this. This 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:27.200 is amazing. 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:33.320 Yeah. So Russell Mamarkert took the idea from John Tiller, 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:37.760 and Roxy Rothafel said, Hey, I want in on this. 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:41.400 Cham So I'm going to grab a few of these 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:44.319 dancers from Saint Louis and bring them over to New 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:48.640 York City and we're going to have him start dancing there. Okay, 0:08:49.040 --> 0:08:50.920 And I know, just the place for him. There's this 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:54.600 new venue that's opening up in nineteen thirty two, and 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:56.880 they're going to call it the Radio City Music Hall, 0:08:57.080 --> 0:08:59.760 and I'm going to make sure that these dancers are 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:03.160 a to perform and we're going to call them the Roxyets. 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:03.800 How about that? 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:06.600 Huh huh because of his nickname. 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:09.120 Right, And Markert said, that's fine, just make sure you 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:10.560 pay me some money for it. 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:14.520 Sure, And he did get paid and got paid until 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:18.160 nineteen seventy one. It's hard to believe, but he worked 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:23.160 for the Rockets or with the Rockets from nineteen thirty 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:25.679 two to or I guess even previous in Saint Louis. 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:27.560 Yeah, nineteen twenty five, all the way. 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:28.640 Until nineteen seventy one. 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:29.240 Yep. 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:30.280 Really amazing. 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:32.880 Yeah, it is pretty amazing. That's a pretty long career. 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:37.760 So they opened Radio City Music Hall. I think they 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:43.280 were part of a seventeen group act and that was 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:45.400 like such a hot ticket, something like one hundred thousand 0:09:45.400 --> 0:09:48.679 people wanted in. But it's a sixty two hundred seat theater, 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:54.000 which I think it still remains the nation's largest indoor venue, 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:57.920 which is really saying something because I guess it'd just 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:01.440 be a like a theatrical venue, because obviously. 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:03.960 The largest indoor venue sports venues. 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:06.880 Have it beat by quite a bit. 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:09.120 But oh, theatrical, Okay, I got you. 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:12.240 It has to be. Yeah, it's either movie or theatrical 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:15.040 or something. But it's the largest venue of its kind 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:17.200 in the United States from what I see. 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:19.920 Yeah, and for many years they I mean they had 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:22.240 specials every now and then, but it was sort of 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:23.199 just a movie theater. 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:26.840 Yeah, and here's the thing, you could go see the movies. 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:29.840 I think especially it started to take off in the fifties. 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:33.080 Like before, they would have premieres for movies and the 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:36.319 Rockets would like perform at the premiere. And then at 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:38.800 some point, I don't know if it was Russell Markert 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:42.280 or Roxy Rothafeller or somebody said, well, why just do 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:45.600 this once. How about every time somebody comes to see 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:48.920 a movie at the Radio City Music Hall, We'll have 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:52.080 the Rockets perform before the movie. 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:54.000 Can you imagine that? 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:57.199 It would be pretty cool? I mean, like imagine seeing 0:10:57.200 --> 0:10:59.280 that and then being like, okay, now for the movie. 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:04.320 It's just it'd be a different experience for sure. Yeah, 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:06.640 But it was rough on the Rockets because not all 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:10.920 the movies were successes, so they would change the rockets 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:15.240 show for each movie. So if a movie came along 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:18.960 and it was just a terrible flop, this whole choreographed 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:21.080 routine that they'd learned would be out the door in 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:22.560 two days, and now all of a sudden they had 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:24.760 to learn a new one quick because there was a 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:26.640 new movie coming in to replace that one. 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:29.200 Oh, so they did a different routine for each film. 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:32.439 Yes, interesting, Yeah, And sometimes they would have to learn 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:35.439 it in a matter of hours, like around midnight before 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:36.880 the next day's performances. 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:40.040 I wonder if it was tied to the film. 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:42.680 Sometimes, I think, but not all the time. I think 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:45.560 it was. I think it was in some cases, but 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:48.960 I think more than anything, they would change the routine 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:51.960 just because the people coming to see a different film 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:53.439 would want to see a different routine. 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:55.360 Okay, I gotcha, Yeah, that makes sense. 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:56.320 Yeah. 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:59.280 So in the nineteen forties they were one of the 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:02.840 first groups to sign up for the United Service Organization 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:06.160 and go and perform for the troops. And in the 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:11.319 nineteen fifties is when things really started to kind of 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:14.520 take their toll. Like they were performing sometimes up to 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:17.800 five times a day, and so they said they built 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:21.880 a dormitory there, which you know, they could live in. 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:24.520 I don't think they were required to, but it really 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:28.520 was to accommodate the fact that they were working almost 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:31.720 around the clock rather because learning these new routines, like 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:34.000 you said, and then performing up the five times a 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:35.240 day really grueling stuff. 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:39.360 It was basically the prototype for Google. Yeah, just making 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:41.760 it so your employees didn't have to leave. 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:45.920 Oh interesting, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, just go 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:46.760 sleep in your pod. 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:52.720 So the Rockets their fame started to grow pretty quickly, 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:57.719 and they made like a few steps I feel free 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:01.320 of the pun along the way that kind of cemented 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:06.480 them as as much a piece of America as apple 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:11.160 pie or baseball or moms or what have you. So 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:14.840 the fifties were also big for the Rockets too, because 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:19.480 they joined the Macy's Thanksgiving they prayed in nineteen fifty seven. 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:23.040 I think, yeah, that was the big move. 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:27.080 Yeah, because they went from just a group that you 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:29.400 either had to go to New York or go off 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:32.800 to war to see to. While they're in my living 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:36.560 room now, these girls are high kicking on my television 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:39.960 and I'm just loving life, all right. 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:43.800 So let's take a break to nineteen fifties. Good times 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:46.559 are ahead, and then dark times come in the seventies 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.400 because it's New York City in the seventies and everything 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:52.280 was kind of awful then. So we'll be back right 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:58.640 after this. 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:23.440 Okay, Hey, before we get started to check, I want 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:26.800 to say we put on a pretty good stage show ourselves. 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:29.880 We've been known to and we've got some coming up, 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:31.080 you know, plug plug. 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:32.720 Yeah, there's no high kicking involved. 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:35.840 There could be if people demanded it. I would be 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:37.320 willing to do a little high kicking. 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:40.400 So are we talking about some shows. 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:43.000 Yeah, let's do that real quick, all right. 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:46.880 So we're going out west for our annual sojourn in 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:50.640 January where we go to Seattle, we go to Portland, 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:53.240 and then we end up at SF sketch Fest like 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:54.840 we always do in mid January. 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:58.160 Yeah, and I've got an End of the World live 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:01.600 show on Friday sketch Fest, and you have a movie 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:03.400 Crush on Saturday at sketch Fest, right. 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:07.400 Yeah, I'm doing a matinee show at one o'clock on Saturday, 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:10.120 January nineteenth, with Busy Phillips as my guest. 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:13.680 Nice, and my show is Friday the eighteenth, at Cafe 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:17.440 Do Nord and I am my own guest, fine solo. 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:19.920 And then I have another one in Brooklyn on the 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:22.640 twenty fourth at the Bellhouse too. 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:25.000 Oh I thought you already did that one now huh. 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:28.520 It got postponed to January twenty fourth. Oh great, yes, 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:30.600 so you haven't missed it. There's still time for you 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:31.040 to come. 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:31.960 Fantastic. 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:35.960 So that is our little plug, how about that? 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:38.360 Yeah? And of course our big stuff you should know 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:42.040 show is at the Castro on what is that Thursday night? 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:45.080 That is Thursday the seventeenth. 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:47.120 Yeah, so come see us at the More in Seattle, 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:51.720 Revolution Hall in Portland, at the Castro in San Francisco. Yeah, 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:56.680 check out. Our individual little shows are cute little individual shows. 0:15:57.320 --> 0:15:59.960 And there's plenty of information on SYSK live. 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:05.880 That's right. So now it's the seventies. New York is 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:11.200 uh is suffering? Yehih is crazy. When you look at 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:14.760 pictures of New York City in the seventies and early eighties, 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:18.440 even just hard to believe how bad things were there. 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:21.560 Yeah, it was pretty rough. And actually it's funny, like 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:24.680 you can thank Rudolph Giuliani for I guess cleaning up 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:26.120 the town. If you want to call it that. 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:31.440 Okay, have you ever heard that? What to thank Rudolph 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:32.760 Giuliani for cleaning up the town? 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.800 Uh? Huh uh sure, okay. 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:38.680 Good for him. So I saw him in the park 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:39.080 one day. 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:41.480 You did, what was he doing talking to a duck? 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:43.400 No, he was. He was doing like a photo op. 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:47.600 But I had friends in from uh from another country even, 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:50.640 I think, and I said, hey, guys, that's the Mayor 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:52.520 of New York over there, and they were like, oh, 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:54.600 that's nice. I went, it's kind of a big deal 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:56.240 to just walk around and see the Mayor of. 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:58.720 New York did they say, but they have a chalk. 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:00.480 I think they're Australian. 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:03.200 Actually, oh that was my Australian impression. 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:03.800 Oh that was good. 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:07.760 Then, yeah, thank you, that's pretty that's a great story, Chuck. 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:12.359 Yeah, it's fine. But for them, they didn't understand fully 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:15.760 that the mayor of New York City is is it's 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:17.520 quite a big deal to see him just out and 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:18.439 about in the city. 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:22.119 I have a similar story. I was watching one of 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:24.280 the first few seasons of Law and Order on my 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:27.199 television one day, and there was the Mayor of New 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:31.199 York City, ruly Rudy Giuliani. Interesting, but I knew it 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:32.520 was a big, a big deal. 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:37.000 I got another story. Okay, did you know in the 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:41.960 Michael Bay film Pearl Harbor that they comped in Bruce 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:45.560 Willis's John McClain character from Diehard in one hospital scene. 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:51.119 How just digitally? That's an anachronism. I know that doesn't 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:52.600 make any sense. Did they really do that? 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:55.399 Yeah, you can look it up Pearl Harbor John McLain 0:17:55.440 --> 0:18:00.400 And there's like screenshots of John McLain and his white 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:03.879 tank top just briefly for a blip in the background 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:07.320 of one of the hospital scenes in Pearl Harbor. It's 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:07.840 so weird. 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:11.680 So you know, there's a nude woman in the window 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:14.440 of one of the buildings that the rescuers fly by. 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:16.920 Really the Disney movie from the sixties. 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:21.520 Yeah, all these weird movie easter eggs just board editors. 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:25.480 I guess that's exactly what it hits because we're juvenile. 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:28.680 Editors, all right. So it's the nineteen seventies in New York. 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:31.000 None of this has happened yet that we're talking about. 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:32.560 The rescuers did. 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:34.720 The rescuers did, but there was no Diehard, there was 0:18:34.720 --> 0:18:38.399 no Pearl Harbor. Movie except for Tora Toro, Torah, But 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:44.240 no bad Pearl Harbor movie. Okay, No Rudy Giuliani. He 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:47.440 was alive, sure, but he was not in the mayor 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:49.280 of New York City in the nineteen seventies. 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:51.159 Not as far as we know. Who was at that 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:53.879 was Ed Koch, he was the eighties, I think was 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:55.400 he maybe late seventies. 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:58.040 All right, we'll get that straightened out. Okay, But New 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:02.040 York City is going down the toilet, including, believe it 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:05.080 or not, the Great Radio City Music Hall, much like 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:11.000 our own legendary Fox Theater in Atlanta, was facing shut 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:12.960 down and demolition potentially. 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:15.680 Yeah, there was a rough transition from some of those 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:19.520 old movie palaces after people stopped well going to movie 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:23.040 palaces and moved out to the suburbs. A lot of 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:26.560 those beautiful places were left out in the cold, and 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:28.720 some of them didn't well, a lot of them didn't 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:30.479 make it, but some of them almost didn't make it. 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:34.040 Like you said, the Fox and Radio City, and apparently 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:36.080 it was going to be turned into a parking lot. 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:39.919 And Belushi himself got onto the news desk at Saturday 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:43.000 Night Live and was railing against the demise of radio 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:48.240 City Music Hall, and the Roquettes too had said hey, hey, hey, hey, 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:51.920 this is our home. This is an iconic place. Let 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:56.159 us help go raise awareness and funds to save this place. 0:19:56.600 --> 0:19:58.760 And they did. They were successful. They got it put 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:02.320 on the National Historic Register of Historic Places and it 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:06.120 has a landmark designation, not just the building. There's twelve 0:20:06.200 --> 0:20:09.159 hundred buildings in New York with the landmark designation, but 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:13.240 only one hundred and ten interiors have the landmark designation, 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:15.640 and Radio City Music Hall is one of them, which 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:19.240 means that its interior is so amazingly beautiful that it 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:22.320 is a protected landmark in the United States. 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:23.720 Yeah, I've never been in there. 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:24.560 I haven't either. 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:28.200 I've been to Carnegie Hall, but never Radio City. That's 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:31.520 on the list for sure. But it's interesting because they 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:34.840 tried to Their whole deal was is they wanted exclusive 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:39.960 movie bookings, like they were to be the only theater 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:42.639 in town that would be showing a particular movie, so 0:20:42.680 --> 0:20:48.919 that limits their pool immediately, and then they really preferred 0:20:48.960 --> 0:20:53.080 g rated movies. They had really strict screening criteria, so 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:57.240 that just it narrowed down their movie pool so small 0:20:57.800 --> 0:20:59.800 that they would go weeks and weeks at a time 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:01.359 where nothing happened there. 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:04.560 Yeah, so they would just shut down because again, remember 0:21:04.640 --> 0:21:07.240 like the Rockets are a dance troupe that you would 0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:09.879 see before you saw a movie. So if they're not 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:13.159 showing movies, they're not showing the Rockets. And at this 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:16.720 time in the seventies, the Rockets said, Okay, we're our 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:19.560 talent is being wasted here. At least let us go 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:21.399 take the show on the road while you guys are 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:24.280 sitting around waiting for another movie to come along. And 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:27.920 they actually they gained that right because their union dancers. 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:29.960 We should say, we'll get into that a little more later, 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:32.480 but they managed to get the right to take the 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:34.680 show on the road and they really started to make 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:37.720 a name for themselves in the seventies in places like 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:41.520