Daily News from New York, New York • 104

DAI tYs NEWS I 1 v-f i ENCORE ENCORE ENCORE a lmmmmKmmmmmm- jnniiiiiiiiiii I 1 jSxHSxSJHiiSxSS I i I 1 4 fr i A fr if if I ''A By PATRICIA O'HAIRE iADIO CITY MUSIC HALL was born in 1932 and almost died in 1978. But, unlike the Morosco and Helen Hayes Theaters, it was given a reprieve that took, a reprieve that lasted long enough for it to celebrate its 50th birthday Li 1 tonight its golden anniversary. The actual birthday won't occur until Dec. 27. It was on Dec.

27, 1932, when most of the nation was still living through the Depression and talking about the kidnaping of the Lindbergh baby, that the magnificent showplace first opened its doors. That night, while such as Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, Arturo Toscanini, Noel Coward, Irving Berlin, Amelia Earhart, David Samoff, Walter P. Chrysler, William Randolph Hearst and John D. Rockefeller (who had commissioned the building of the theater) all sat down to watch a spectacular show which featured hundreds of performers and starred dancer Ray Bolger, the tight-rope-walking Wallendas, the Corps de Ballet and the Roxyettes, the precision dancing team which, now renamed the Rockettes, is still a fixture of the presentations on the huge stage. Tonight, that night, and hundreds of similar first nights, stage shows, movies which have opened there, and other memorable occasions will be recalled when the new stage presentation, appropriately called "Encore," takes a second look at the 50 years the Music Hall has served up entertainment in this city.

"Encore" is in for a limited run, at least through the summer. Most New Yorkers, myself included, remember fondly their first trip "down- i (Continued on page 3) Photo by Martha Swope lit 5 -W.