Over 50,000,000
people are expected to visit the Fairs in New York and San Francisco.
ambitious music programs ever attempted are being planned.
The most
You may tie in some of your business
activities with the big events described on these pages.
MUSIC AT THE NEW YORK FAIR
MUSIC BUILDING SEATING 2,500, is being com-
pleted by the New York World's Fair 1939 as a center
for the great international music festival which will be
an outstanding feature of the Exposition.
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Plans for the Music Building were made public recently by
Grover A. Whalen, President of the Fair Corporation, follow-
ing a meeting of the Fair's Advisory Committee on Music, with
Mrs. Vincent Astor, Vice-Chairman, presiding, in the Empire
State Building.
The Music Building, to cost $350,000, is being erected on a
plot 106,500 square feet in area east of the New York State
Building and Amphitheatre, a short distance from Horace
Harding Boulevard. The structure will be of modern func-
tional design, air-conditioned and equipped with the very latest
of stage mechanisms and appliances.
"It is our intention to make the Music Building a Mecca for
the music lovers of all nations," Mr. Whalen declared. "The
festival we are planning will be the greatest ever held in this
country. It is due to the effort and stimulation of this Advisory
Committee that it has been possible to bring about the program
we plan. The Committee has aroused in the Fair Corporation a
spirit for the presentation of music such as never before existed
in a Corporation like ours.
"In our program, world-famous singers, instrumentalists and
conductors will participate; compositions of every land, of every
era of music will be heard. The program will be too vast,
naturally, for one structure to house it. Therefore, we plan
to use several, including the Marine Amphitheatre of the New
York State Building. But the festival will be centered, very
properly, in the Fair's Music Building."
The structure, designed by Reinhard & Hofmeister, architects
of Radio City Music Hall, is to consist of an egg-shaped audi-
torium and a box-like stage house. The latter, instead of being
disguised or screened, as usual, is to be the dominant architectural
feature of the building, rising to a height of 80 feet.
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Unusual features of the auditorium will be a complete absence
of side walls, the roof sweeping from foundation to foundation
in an unbroken line, and also lack of plane surfaces. Even
the semicircular facade is to curve backward in conformity to
the egg-shaped interior.
The auditorium will be 171 feet long by 116 feet wide, laid
out like a section of a stadium, without a balcony but with
tiers of seats rising behind the entrances. Beneath these tiers
will be a large foyer-lounge and smoking and powdering rooms,
while a projection room is to be sunk in the rear wall above
them. The orchestra pit will accommodate 100 musicians.
Backstage are to be ballet and musicians' rehearsal rooms and
about 40 dressing rooms.
The proscenium arch is to be 30 feet high and 60 feet wide,
the depth of the stage being 60 feet. The wings on each side of
the stage are to be 30 feet in width. Owing to the absence of
visible supports in the auditorium, the sight lines will be perfect
for every seat-holder. The acoustics, also, will be perfect, due
to the shape of the auditorium.
The Music Building is to be of fireproof construction. Its
stucco exterior will be painted an off-white. Its only embel-
lishments are to consist of sculpture-murals and decorative
lettering on front and rear facades. Inside, the decoration will
be extremely simple so that attention may be concentrated on
the performance.
Among those who have had a part in approving the plans
for the Music Building are: Mrs. Melbert Cary, Jr., Director
National Orchestra Association; Dr. Walter Damrosch; George
Gartlan, Director of Music, New York Board of Education;
Mrs. Charles S. Guggenheimer, Vice-President, New York Phil-
harmonic Society, moving spirit of the open air concerts in
Central Park; Ernest Hutcheson, of the Juilliard School of
Music; Electus D. Litchfield, former President, Municipal Art
Commission; Mrs. Arthur M. Reis, Chairman, American League
of Composers; Hugh Ross, Conductor, Schola Cantorum, and
Alexander Smallens, Philharmonic conductor.
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