the rainbow room, a cultural icon september 25, 2008

The Rainbow Room, A Cultural Icon September 25, 2008 The Rainbow Room at 30 Rockefeller Center is one of the most celebrated nightclubs in the world and remains a cultural icon of New York City today. The significance of the Rainbow Room and its associated spaces lies as much in its social and cultural importance as it does in its architecture and décor. It is such an integral part of New York City’s heritage that it would greatly benefit the public if it was designated as a New York City landmark. 30 Rockefeller Center (the former RCA building) lies within the Rockefeller Center Historic District and its lobby is an interior landmark. The Rainbow Room has many of the features common to NYC interior Landmarks – its unique interior was designed by renowned architects, it has served as host to some of the City’s most famous events and beloved figures, and it has become an integral part of American popular culture. While there have been renovations since its opening 74 years ago, The Rainbow Room still retains its original fabric and it is still operating today.

The Rainbow Room, A Cultural Icon Mary B. Dierickx Historic Preservation Consulting September 25, 2008

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, and the

Hechler Photo for Cipriani

The Rainbow Room opened to the public on October 3, 1934 in the depths of the worst depression this country has ever known, a dramatic icon of human spirit triumphant over adversity and a glamorous antidote – the anti-Depression – to the despair that gripped the city streets 65 stories below. It was “escapology” at its most luxurious, where, less than a year after the repeal of Prohibition (on December 5, 1933) revelers no longer secreted away in dark smoke-filled rooms but now danced and imbibed sans souci among the clouds for all the world to see, and admire. It was the highest, the most central, by virtue of its location in midtown Manhattanmost glamorous of New York City’ rooftop clubs.


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The space was designed by Associated Architects, the three firresponsible for Rockefeller Center: Reinhard & Hofmeister; Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray and Raymond Hood, Godley & Fouilhoux. Raymond Hood has been suggested as the lead architect of the room. Elena Schmidt, an interior designer who was a protégé of Elsie de Wolfe and wife of architect Mott B. Schmidt, with whom she sometimes worked, was brought in to assist in the decoration. Film director Vincente Minnelli, a young designer at the time, assisted. The Rainbow Room was named for the lighting produced by the $100,000 RCA “color organ” that washed various hues over the high, 41’ diameter domed ceiling at night. Architecture and stage design combined in the Rainbow Room to create one of the City’s most dramatic settings, and this is still true today. The feature that makes possible the eloquence of the whole is its spaciousness, with its double-height ceilings unencumbered by internal supports, the circular, 32’ dance floor at its open center, and its 24’ high floor-to-ceiling windows and the sprawling views they afford. The circular motif is enhanced by the stepped terraces with their original round crystal balustrades and punctuated by the Czechoslovakian crystal chandeliers. During the day, the associated spaces functioned as the Rockefeller Center Luncheon Club, said to be New York’s oldest luncheon club in continuous operation.

Fay S. Lincoln Collection, Pattee Library, Pennsylvania State University

ms that together were


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original material in the Rainbow Room, mains. The dance floor, for example, is a re-creation of the original compass-rose inlay

f maple and fumed oak by Roger Berk, whose grandfather laid the original floor in the 930s and whose father laid a replacement in the 1950s.

tions, has been inseparable from the New York experience and a ’s rich social and cultural history. The list of notables (from

Mostel) who have visited the Rainbow Room is long and elebrated rostrum for charity events, political gatherings, awards s, weddings, and entertainment. The Rainbow Room opened to sponsored by the Hygiene and Social Service Committee of the

od Association, for which society guests each paid the then elp the neighborhood’s poor immigrants. There was convocation

and territories in 1936. The 1936 National Poetry Awards ew York Film Critics Awards took place there. Elizabeth

Richard Burton there after his opening in Hamlet in 1965 and etrich celebrated in the Rainbow Room after her Broadway the ex-wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy, Cecilia

ed her wedding at the Rainbow Room.

eens of Hollywood and Swing showcased at the Rainbow Room and lthough scores of early superstar entertainers have faded into

came legends, including Mary Martin, who debuted in the Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Noel Coward, Cole Porter,

Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Woody Herman, rubeck, Cab Calloway and stand-up comedians Henny

n, and Flip Wilson.

The restaurants were served by a large kitchen and pantries on the 64th floor; the kitchen is still there today and renowned for its views. In the evening, the spaces were transformed into cocktail lounges with views to the north and south. A few months after the Rainbow Room opened the Rainbow Grill, a less formal room for the younger set, took over the space at the western end of the 65th floor. Wining, dining and dancing and other entertainment were offered in both rooms. The spaces have undergone renovations over the years but the glamour, and much of the reo1 Nowhere is the importance of architecture as a social art more telling than in the Rainbow Room which, for generadramatic stage for the cityEdward Albee to Zero distinguished. It was a cceremonies, fashion showthe public with a benefit Lenox Hill Neighborhoprincely sum of $15 to hof governors from 17 statesceremony and the 1939 NTaylor feted her husbandtwo years later Marlene Didebut at age 62. In 2008 Ciganer-Albeniz, celebrat The kings and qualso at the Rainbow Grill. Athe past, many others beRainbow Room in 1939, EllaCharlie McCarthy, Louis Benny Goodman, Dave BYoungman, Jackie Maso


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From its early years and continuing through to modersustained by the appearance of the Rainbow Room in numerous films, including Swing Time (the great Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers classic of 1936, as a model for the Silver Sandal nightclub), George White’s Scandals of 1926 (1935), Top of the Town (as the model for the Moonbeam Room, 1937), Say It in French (1938) and more recently, in Prince of Tides (1991), Six Degrees of Separation (1993) and Sleepless in Seattle (1993). Inclusion in the 8-part television series Pride of Place: Building the American Dream, presented by architect Robert A.M. Stern in 1986, codified the Rainbow Room’s importance in the psyche of New York, and of the nation at large. Selected Notable Dates 1934 Rainbow Room opens October 3rd 1935 Rainbow Grill begins operating June 7th 1943 Operations suspended during the war, January 1st Rockefeller Center Luncheon Club reopens February 15th 1950 Rainbow Room reopens in October 1964 Under new management by Brody Corp., first large party for opening of Barbara

Streisand’s Funny Girl in March; swiftly returns to café society scene 1966 Rainbow Grill: Music to dancing resumes in May. Ella Fitzgerald begins singing

engagement in 1968 1973 Entertainment returns to the Rainbow Room on a regular 5 night/wk basis,

September 1975 Tony May & Brian Daly (The DM Restaurant Corp.) assume management,

dancing resumes, big band music reintroduced 1977 43rd Anniversary of the Rainbow Room in October, has hosted more than 10

million visitors 1984 50th anniversary celebration of Rainbow Room, the Woody Herman band plays

with Tony Bennett singing 1987 Rainbow Room reopens after restoration, under management by Joseph Baum,

with Hugh Hardy as architect, December 31st 1998 Management taken over by Cipriani USA in 1998, Rainbow Room and

associated spaces used for dining and as a catering facility today

n times, the public aura was

the rainbow room, a cultural icon september 25, 2008

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