Saving Radio City Music Hall with Rosemary Novellino-Mearns

Join the this March for a special Women’s History Month virtual presentation.

In January 1978, Rockefeller Center president Alton Marshall announced that Radio City Music Hall would close its doors that April and was slated for demolition, shocking fans worldwide. Determined to prevent this from happening, a group of the Music Hall employees, fans, dancers, and politicians banded together to save the theater.

On March 13th, join Rosemary Novellino-Mearns, the former president of the Showpeople’s Committee to Save Radio City Music Hall as she shares her firsthand account of the three-month struggle to reverse Rockefeller Center’s decision.

Using archival media coverage and personal anecdotes, Rosemary will discuss how she and the Showpeople’s Committee fought in a David-and-Goliath battle to preserve the iconic theater for future generations.

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About the Speaker:

Rosemary (Rosie) Novellino-Mearns is the author of . Her career began at the Radio City Music Hall Ballet Company where she danced for 12 years and served as the company’s Dance Captain. In 1978, after the announcement of the planned closure of the Music Hall, Rosemary formed “The Showpeople’s Committee to Save Radio City Music Hall” and led the fight to save the famed institution from demolition.

Since retiring from dance, Rosemary has become a lyricist working with her husband, composer and singer William Mearns, who she met at Radio City. Together, they have written the score for Ebenezer (based on A Christmas Carol), A Patch of Life (based on Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch), and The Haunted Bookshop.

Host or Publisher The New York City Department of Records and Information Services/Municipal Archives