Even on a sweltering August day, the Rockettes can still manage a perfect smile and cheery demeanor while everyone else is complaining about the heat. For their annual Christmas in August event, Sixth Avenue in front of Radio City Music Hall was blocked off to kick off ticket sales to this year's Christmas Spectacular show. The Rockettes also celebrate their 75th anniversary this year.
Hundreds of passersby gathered as Santa bounded out of Radio City to plug show tickets and introduce a troupe of 18 Rockettes dressed as toy soldiers who gave an abbreviated performance of their "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" number in the Christmas Spectacular show. They were followed by a procession of more than 300 former and current Rockettes, who came together for a reunion to celebrate the dance group's 75th anniversary. This group included three of the original Missouri "Rockets," as they were known before the group made Radio City their permanent home and changed their name to the Rockettes. (The dancers also convened at an anniversary party at Radio City later in the evening.)
Match Catering and Eventstyles designed a cake worthy of such a huge event: A big, three-tiered confection adorned with 75 Rockette Barbie dolls was wheeled out onto the street. Match's Joan Steinberg told us it was mostly made of weatherproof Styrofoam and plaster--materials that wouldn't collapse under the heat and humidity. The finale came when Zenith Pyrotechnics blasted off a shower of white confetti to look like snow, to the delight of the cheering audience.
--Suzanne Ito
Read about the Rockette's anniversary party later that evening...
Hundreds of passersby gathered as Santa bounded out of Radio City to plug show tickets and introduce a troupe of 18 Rockettes dressed as toy soldiers who gave an abbreviated performance of their "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" number in the Christmas Spectacular show. They were followed by a procession of more than 300 former and current Rockettes, who came together for a reunion to celebrate the dance group's 75th anniversary. This group included three of the original Missouri "Rockets," as they were known before the group made Radio City their permanent home and changed their name to the Rockettes. (The dancers also convened at an anniversary party at Radio City later in the evening.)
Match Catering and Eventstyles designed a cake worthy of such a huge event: A big, three-tiered confection adorned with 75 Rockette Barbie dolls was wheeled out onto the street. Match's Joan Steinberg told us it was mostly made of weatherproof Styrofoam and plaster--materials that wouldn't collapse under the heat and humidity. The finale came when Zenith Pyrotechnics blasted off a shower of white confetti to look like snow, to the delight of the cheering audience.
--Suzanne Ito
Read about the Rockette's anniversary party later that evening...
At the Rockettes' Christmas in August event in front of Radio City Music Hall to kick off ticket sales for their Christmas Spectacular, Zenith Pyrotechnics set off a shower of white confetti to look like snow.
Eighteen Rockettes dressed as toy soldiers gave an abbreviated performance of a number in the Christmas Spectacular show.
Match Catering & Eventstyles designed a huge, three-tiered cake adorned with 75 Rockette Barbie dolls, which was wheeled out onto the street.
Three of the original Rockettes (from left to right) Thelma Bischoff, Marge Mowrey and Maxine Demmler posed with current members of the troupe.
