May 1, 1933: Rockefeller Center Opens

May 1, 1933: Rockefeller Center opens in Midtown Manhattan, a complex bounded by 48th and 51st Streets, and 5th and 6th Avenues.

Many places in New York City have been described as "a city within a city," including the train stations, and skyscrapers such as the Empire State Building and the old and new World Trade Centers. But that was the stated idea of John D. Rockefeller Jr., son and namesake of the founder of Standard Oil and America's 1st billionaire.

Rockefeller Jr. became a director at some of the biggest businesses in America, including Standard Oil, U.S. Steel, and Chase Manhattan Bank. He bought the land from Columbia University. He intended the site to include a new building for the Metropolitan Opera, but they turned it down, staying at 39th and Broadway until moving to Lincoln Center in 1966.

But one of the few businesses doing well during the Great Depression was radio. Rockefeller made a deal with Radio Corporation of America (RCA), the owners of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). This led to the project being nicknamed "Radio City." On December 27, 1932, Radio City Music Hall opened, on 6th Avenue between 50th and 51st.

The centerpiece of the complex was 30 Rockefeller Plaza, which became headquarters for RCA, including the main studios for NBC radio, and eventually television. The photograph titled Lunch Atop a Skyscraper was taken in the progress of building this tower.

It was named the RCA Building until 1988, when General Electric bought RCA; then the General Electric Building, or "the GE Building," until Comcast bought RCA from GE, and it's officially been the Comcast Building since. But everybody calls it "30 Rock." The building is 850 feet tall (making it the 5th-tallest in the City at the time), with 66 floors, and includes a rooftop garden restaurant and observation deck known as "Top of the Rock."

Among the 19 buildings in the complex, but not the original 14 that were built in the Art Deco style, is 75 Rockefeller Plaza, built in 1947, houses the offices of Major League Baseball. The other major leagues' offices are nearby: The NBA at 645 5th Avenue at 52nd, the NFL at 345 Park Avenue at 52nd, and the NHL at 1185 6th Avenue between 46th and 47th. Major League Soccer's offices are a bit of a longer walk, at 420 5th Avenue between 37th and 38th.

Rockefeller's son, Nelson Rockefeller, later a 4-term Governor of New York, a 3-time candidate for President, and President Gerald Ford's Vice President, was in charge of selecting the artwork for the complex. For the lobby at 30 Rock, he chose Man at the Crossroads by Diego Rivera.

But someone found out that the mural included images of Vladimir Lenin and a Soviet May Day parade. Nelson ordered it plastered over before Rivera could finish it. Rivera suspected that this would happen, and took black & white photos of it, so he could do it again later, which he did, in his native Mexico, under a new title: Man, Controller of the Universe. It was replaced by a mural by Catalan painter Josep Maria Sert.

A major feature of Rockefeller Center is the annual Christmas tree, between the front doors of 30 Rock and the below-street-level skating rink.

*

May 1, 1933 was a Monday. Football, basketball and hockey were all out of season. And there were only 2 baseball games played:

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 10-0 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia. Bill Swift, no relation to the much later Seattle Mariners pitcher of the same name, allowed 9 hits, but kept the shutout. Arky Vaughan and Earl Grace each hit a grand slam.

* And the Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox, 8-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.