Center Theatre
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An innovation unique in theatrical history -- the estabishment of the Center Theatre in Rockefeller Center as America's first and only ice theatre -- was the result of the meeting of two of the entertainment world's most outstanding personalities. It brought together G.S. Eyssell, executive manager of Rockefeller Center and president of the world famous Radio City Music Hall as well as that of its companion playhouse, the Center Theatre, and Arthur M. Wirtz, of Chicago.
A meeting with world figure-skating champion Sonja Henie solidified the idea of a theatre expressly designed for the presentation of this new kind of musical spectacle.
Mr. Eyssell, a youthful veteran of the theatrical world, celebrated for his ability to assess accurately the popular taste and entertainment needs of audiences numbering more than seven million persons a year at the Music Hall, was immediately enthusiasitc about the conversion of the lovely 3,200 seat Center Theatre into an "ice theatre."
Plans were made in keeping with the grandeur of his conception. Architects and engineers were marshalled to build an ice stage 100 feet wide with a skating surface of 7,000 square feet. Beneath it, 28,000 feet of pipe were laid, capable of continuously circulating a freezing solution at the rate of 500 gallons per minute. Tons of specially designed "ice-making" machinery were installed. The result was the creation of the most perfect setting for the presentation of ice entertainment ever designed. The Center Theatre, with its simple, majestic, modernity was one of the world's most beautiful playouses. The auditorium with its walls of paneled mahogany, its great three-tiered metal chandelier weighing six tons, its ceiling studded with circles decorated in half-relief with mythological figures, its three shallow mezzanines giving an unobstructed view of the great ice stage, was outstanding in the feeling of intimacy and luxury.
As an ice theatre, the Center Theatre was opened on October 10, 1940 for the presentation of "It Happens On Ice," first of the new musical ice spectacles, destined to make theatrical history and provide a new form of popular entertainment. For two years it was aplauded by audiences numbering more than 1,500,000 delighten theatre-goers. It was followed by "Stars on Ice." "Hats Off To Ice," "Icetime," "Icetime of 1948," and "Howdy Mr. Ice."
In 1954, the Center Theatre was demolished and replaced by a skyscraper.
