December 27, 1932: Radio City Music Hall Opens

December 27, 1932: Radio City Music Hall opens, at 1260 Sixth Avenue (renamed "Avenue of the Americas" in 1945, but everybody still calls it "6th Avenue") and West 49th Street in Midtown Manhattan, at the northern end of "The Theater District."

It was built as part of the Rockefeller Center complex -- which, at the time, because it housed the headquarters of Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and its radio network, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), was nicknamed "Radio City." For most of the Music Hall's history, the Radio City name has applied to it, alone. This should not be confused with "Radio Row," the series of appliance stores on the Lower West Side of Manhattan that were among the buildings demolished in the mid-1960s to make way for the original World Trade Center.

At 5,960 seats, it was the largest movie theater in the world. While it is still in operation, it rarely shows films anymore, sticking to stage shows, like the annual Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Most of its shows feature its famous high-kicking lady dancers, the Rockettes.

It has hosted the Grammy Awards, the Tony Awards, the Daytime Emmy Awards, the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs); and, in sports, the NFL Draft and, with a temporary court put on its stage, 6 home games of the WNBA's New York Liberty, a setup done so that the 2004 Republican National Convention could be held at Madison Square Garden.

Notable rock concerts at Radio City include Pink Floyd in 1973, The Grateful Dead in 1980, Devo in 1981, A-ha in 1986, the WCBS-FM 15th Anniversary Concert headlined by Dion in 1987, Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett in 2015, Adele in 2015, Britney Spears in 2018, Christina Aguilera in 2018, and Mariah Carey in 2019.

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December 27, 1932 was a Tuesday. Baseball and football were out of season. Professional basketball was strictly minor-league at this point. There were 4 games played in the NHL that night:

* The New York Americans lost to the Detroit Red Wings, 3-1 at what would come to be called "the old Madison Square Garden." The New York Rangers were not scheduled for the day. The Americans went out of business in 1942.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 1-0 at the Boston Garden.

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Montreal Maroons, 3-0 at the Ottawa Auditorium. The Senators went out of business in 1934, the Maroons in 1938.

* And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 4-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

December 24, 1931: The 1st Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

December 24, 1931: This is the 1st Christmas with a Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center in New York, even though the project is still under construction. 30 Rockefeller Plaza -- a.k.a. 30 Rock, and known as the RCA Building, then the GE Building from 1988 to 2015, and now the Comcast Building -- opened on May 1, 1933, and the Rockefeller Center Skating Rink in 1936. The tree has been placed between 30 Rock's front entrance and the Rink ever since.

The tree is usually a Norway Spruce, nearly always cut from somewhere in New York State, and tends to rise to between 70 and 100 feet. It is decorated only with lights, not "ornaments" as we now understand that term. With 30 Rock's most famous tenant being NBC, the tree-lighting ceremony, presided over by the Mayor of New York, was televised locally beginning in 1951 and nationally since 1997.

Some cities, including Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Miami and Denver,  have their main trees at City Hall. Other cities:

* Atlanta: Colony Square.

* Boston: Boston Common.

* Chicago: Millennium Park.

* Cincinnati: Fountain Square.

* Cleveland: Public Square.

* Dallas: The Galleria Dallas, a shopping mall.

* Detroit: Campus Martius Park.

* Kansas City: Crown Center.

* Los Angeles: The Grove at The Farmers' Market.

* Milwaukee: Fiserv Forum, the new sports arena.

* Minneapolis: Nordic Plaza.

* New Orleans: The French Market.

* St. Louis: Kiener Plaza Park, in front of the Old Courthouse.

* San Diego: Liberty Station.

* San Francisco: Union Square.

* Seattle: Pike Place Market.

* Washington, D.C.: In front of the White House.

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December 24, 1931 was a Thursday. Baseball was in the off-season. Football was in midweek: There was a college game on Christmas Day, but no college or pro games on this Christmas Eve. The NBA hadn't been founded yet.

There was 1 game in the NHL: The Toronto Maple Leafs beat their arch-rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, 2-1 at the Montreal Forum. Harvey "Busher" Jackson, the left wing on the Leafs' "Kid Line" with right wing Charlie Conacher and center Joe Primeau, scored the winning goal 9:55 into overtime.

December 17, 1969: Tiny Tim Marries Miss Vicki On "The Tonight Show"

Left to right: Ed McMahon, Vicki Budinger, Tiny Tim, Johnny Carson

December 17, 1969: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson has its highest-rated episode ever. Oddball singer Tiny Tim, on the show, married Victoria Budinger, whom he called Miss Vicki, before 40 million viewers. He was 37, she was 17.

Tim was born on April 12, 1932 in Manhattan, as Herbert Butros Khaury. Though old enough to have been one of the original rock and roll performers, he fell in love with the music of the 1920s. He began appearing in New York nightclubs as Larry Love, the Singing Canary. His repertoire included several songs from that era, especially "Tiptoe Through the Tulips," by Al Dubin and Joe Burke, from the 1929 musical Gold Diggers of Broadway.

By 1963, he had followed a midget act, which led him to adopt the stage name "Tiny Tim." He began playing the ukelele -- lefthanded, which was unusual for any instrument at the time -- and singing mainly in falsetto. On February 6, 1968, he appeared on NBC's comedy variety show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, singing "Tiptoe Through the Tulips," and he was a hit.

Since The Tonight Show was also on NBC, host Johnny Carson was told to book him. When Tim sat down next to Johnny desk, Johnny asked him, "Are you married?" Tim giggled, and Johnny said, "I'll take that as a 'No,'" and the studio audience cracked up.

Victoria May Budinger was born on April 20, 1952, in the Philadelphia suburb of Haddonfield, New Jersey. She met Tiny Tim at a bookstore when he signed her copy of his poetry book. They got engaged, he always called her "Miss Vicki" in public, and their wedding was set up for The Tonight Show, and its studio, then in the RCA Building at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan.

Among the 40 million viewers were my parents. My mother went into labor during the show, and, earlier in the year, had missed a wedding due to morning sickness. She was not going to miss this wedding. I was born about 12 hours later.

The marriage lasted 7 years, and they had a daughter together, named Tulip. Tulip Victoria Khaury, born on May 10, 1971. Each of them was married 3 times. Tim remained a novelty act, and married Jan Alweiss in 1984, divorced her in 1995, and quickly married Susan Gardner, a Harvard graduate, but also a fan of his. He developed heart trouble in 1996, and on November 30, at a gala benefit hosted by the Women's Club of Minneapolis, he suffered a heart attack on stage. He died that night, at the age of 64.

Vicki later married a man named Lombardi, divorced him, and became romantically involved with Fred Neulander, a rabbi in her native South Jersey, who hired a hitman to kill his wife in 1994. In 2006, she married John Benson. As of December 17, 2022, they are still together, and living in Tennessee. She does not give interviews or talk about her past. Her daughter, now named Tulip Stewart, is married with 4 children, and lives in Western Pennsylvania.

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December 17, 1969 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Boston Celtics, 124-106 at the Boston Garden.

* The Baltimore Bullets beat the Atlanta Hawks, 138-133 at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum (now the McCamish Pavilion) in Atlanta. Lou Hudson of the Hawks led all scorers in both leagues with 44 points, but the Bullets got 30 points from Jack Marin, 29 from Gus Johnson, and 27 from Earl "the Pearl" Monroe.

* The San Diego Rockets beat the Detroit Pistons, 114-107 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Cincinnati Royals, 117-104 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 4 games in the American Basketball Association:

* The New York Nets lost to the New Orleans Buccaneers, 111-100 at the Island Garden in West Hempstead, Long Island, New York.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Miami Floridians, 101-100 at the Dinner Key Auditorium in Miami. Eight months earlier, the Auditorium hosted a concert by The Doors, at which lead singer Jim Morrison was accused of exposing himself.

* And there was a doubleheader at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. The Kentucky Colonels beat the Washington Capitols, 124-117. Then the Los Angeles Stars beat the Carolina Cougars, 105-98.

There were 4 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers played to a tie, 2-2 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 3-1 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* The Oakland Seals beat the Minnesota North Stars, 3-1 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

* And the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Boston Bruins, the Detroit Red Wings and the St. Louis Blues were not scheduled.

And in European soccer, the North London team I would one day support, Arsenal F.C., played away to F.C. Rouen of France, at Stade Robert-Diochon in Rouen. The game ended in a 0-0 draw.

June 19, 1926: NBC Is Founded

TTheir 1979-86 logo. It's my favorite because

it's the only one they've ever used

that combines the letter N with a peacock.

June 19, 1926: The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) founds the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), the 1st major broadcast network in America.

RCA was then owned by General Electric (GE), American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), Westinghouse, and United Fruit Company (forerunner of Chiquita Brands). In 1932, GE had to sell its shares of RCA, due to antitrust charges.

In 1986, with Ronald Reagan as President, and the federal government no longer caring about antitrust laws -- AT&T had been broken up in 1982, but that was a process begun under the Carter Administration -- GE was able to buy RCA, and therefore NBC, in its entirety. In 2011, Comcast bought NBC from GE, and remains the owner.

The 4 longest-continuously-running television series in American history are all still currently running on NBC: The weekly news program Meet the Press, which debuted in 1947; the morning news and entertainment program Today, or The Today Show, 1952; The Tonight Show, originally just Tonight, 1954; and Saturday Night Live, which, since 1975, has tried to do for Saturday what The Tonight Show does for weeknights.

RCA chairman David Sarnoff made NBC the first coast-to-coast radio network. In 1927, he established a 2nd radio network, which became known as NBC Blue or "The Blue Network." In 1939, he began to move NBC into television. In 1943, antitrust laws forced him to sell Blue, which became ABC. By 1947, NBC had beaten CBS in the race to become the 1st nationwide TV network.

Microphone logo, 1943-57 

In 1948, NBC became the 1st network to televise the two major American political parties' national nominating conventions. Their teaming of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley to do cover the conventions in 1956 led to the two of them co-anchoring the 1st half-hour nightly news broadcast, The Huntley-Brinkley Report, which lasted until 1970.

Huntley-Brinkley was replaced by the much more generically-titled NBC Nightly News, with John Chancellor as anchor. He was succeeded by Tom Brokaw in 1982, Brokaw was followed by Brian Williams in 2005, and Williams was succeeded by Lester Holt in 2015. (UPDATE: In 2025, Holt was succeeded by Tom Llamas.)

In 1957, NBC debuted its Peacock logo, designed to symbolize the transition to color television. It would be shown with the following announcement: "The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC."

Peacock logo, 1957-75

Its official name is Johnny Chimes, after the three-note programming cue that NBC has used since 1929: "G₃ E₄ C_4." In 1959, NBC introduced the animated "Snake" logo that would appear at the end of every broadcast, with the Chimes playing as the animation played out. It also appeared at the base of every sportscaster's microphone.

But the Snake never proved as popular as the Chimes, which remained NBC's main identifier on radio, or the Peacock, which became even more identified with the network. So much so that, when they decided to retire the Peacock in 1975, there was an uproar. The Snake was retired at the same time, but few people cared. The Peacock was used for the last time to start The Tonight Show on New Year's Eve, December 31, 1975. And host Johnny Carson roasted the network over it. He could do that: The network was not going to fire its most popular employee over a few non-profane jokes.

This 50th Anniversary logo never caught on.

The Peacock was brought back in 1979, in a combination of the new "N" logo. In 1986, NBC dropped the N, switching from an 11-feathered Peacock facing the viewer's left, which every version thus far had been, to a 6-feathered Peacock facing right, which they have used ever since.

NBC was a sports pioneer. Their 1st coast-to-coast broadcast of anything was the 1927 Rose Bowl. NBC became the 1st network to broadcast a baseball game, in 1939; a football game, that same year, first at the college level, then in the NFL; the 1st to broadcast the World Series, in 1947; and the 1st to broadcast coast-to-coast in color, with the Rose Bowl again, in 1962.

In the 1966 season, NBC owned the broadcast rights to the American Football League, while CBS held those to the NFL. As part of the leagues' merger that season, both got to cover Super Bowl I. Regrettably, due to the high cost of videotape, which led to so many events, sports and otherwise, being taped over, no complete color videotape copy of Super Bowl I exists.

This is also true for most of NBC's World Series broadcasts up until 1975. Some black & white copies, meant as backups, survive. It's only because of a resourceful New York sports fan that the 1969 "miracles," the Jets' win in Super Bowl III and the Mets' home games (3, 4 & 5) in the World Series, have been saved in their entirety. (The subsequent 1970 NBA Finals, won by the Knicks, were on ABC.)

NBC's headquarters is at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, on 6th Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets in Midtown Manhattan. Nicknamed "30 Rock," it has officially been known as the RCA Building from its opening 1933 to 1988, the GE Building from then until 2015, and the Comcast Building ever since.

NBC also owns the cable networks CNBC and Bravo, the Spanish-language network Telemundo, and the streaming service Hulu; and, with Microsoft, co-owns the cable network MSNBC. (UPDATE: In 2026, NBC restructured its cable holdings, creating the holding company Versant, and MSNBC became MS NOW.)

NBC's affiliates for major league cities include:

* New York: WNBC-4 (formerly W2XBS, WNBT and WRCA)

* Philadelphia: WCAU-10 (formerly KYW-3)

* Baltimore: WBAL-11

* Washington: WRC-4

* Boston: WBTS-15 (formerly WBZ-4)

* Atlanta: WXIA-11

* Tampa: WFLA-8

* Miami: WTVJ-6

* Pittsburgh: WPXI-11

* Cleveland: WKYC-3

* Cincinnati: WLWT-5

* Detroit: WDIV-4

* Chicago: WMAQ-5

* Milwaukee: WTMJ-4

* Minneapolis: KARE-11

* St. Louis: KSDK-5

* Kansas City: KSHB-41

* Dallas: KXAS-5

* Houston: KPRC-2

* Denver: KUSA-9

* Phoenix: KPNX-12

* San Diego: KNSD-39

* Los Angeles: KNBC-4

* San Francisco: KNTV-11

* Seattle: KING-5

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June 19, 1926 was a Saturday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-5 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Babe Ruth went 2-for-3 with a walk and 2 RBIs. Lou Gehrig went 2-for-4.

* The New York Giants lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-2 at the Polo Grounds.

* The Brooklyn Robins (as the Dodgers were known while Wilbert Robinson was their manager from 1914 to 1931) beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-1 at Ebbets Field.

* The St. Louis Cardinals swept a doubleheader from the Boston Braves, 4-0 and 3-2 at Braves Field in Boston. Jesse Haines pitched a 7-hit shutout in the opener. Over the 2 games, Rogers Hornsby, player-manager for the Redbirds, went 3-for-9 with an RBI.

* The Cincinnati Reds swept a doubleheader from the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-2 and 14-8 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-3 at League Park in Cleveland. Tris Speaker, player-manager for the Tribe, went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 5-3 at Navin Field (later Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. Ken Holloway outpitched Lefty Grove. Ty Cobb, player-manager for the Tigers, went 2-for-3 with 2 RBIs. For the A's, Jimmie Foxx went 0-for-3.

* And the St. Louis Browns beat the Washington Senators, 9-4 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.

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.

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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.