Rockettes at 100

1925 marks the founding of what was then the "Missouri Rockets", in St. Louis, who would swiftly move to New York City and become The Rockettes.  

The Rockets were a Midwestern response to someone seeing a Ziegfeld Follies show and saying "I could maybe do that".  And, indeed, Russell Markert brought his vision to the stage in the Midwest and a sensation was born.

If you've never checked out the remarkable history of the Ziegfeld Follies, it is weird, wild stuff.  There's nothing like it in 2025 (and who can say if we're better or worse for it).  But suffice to say, Florenz Ziegfeld made an impression that echoes through to today in more ways than we can count.  

Circa 1932, the Missouri Rockets moved to New York's Radio City Music Hall, renamed themselves The Rockettes, and by 1933, they put on their first Christmas Spectacular, which dazzles to this day.

ya see, girls..  ya gotta give 'em the ol' razzle dazzle

 

Almost nothing in entertainment lasts for more than a few years.  And of course live performances are ephemeral.  Stage shows come and go, and those that run for a decade are wild outliers.  Your Les Mis's are absolute unicorns.  So to have an unbroken chain of performances in a single location like Radio City Music Hall and it's hosting of the Rockettes, still kicking in synch after 100 years, is absolutely bananas.*

Really, we've now proven that multiple generations will pay to see a whole bunch of women between 5'5" and 5'10" perform precision dancing.  What a business proposition.

Is it corny?  You're corny for asking.  Of course it's corny.  People now pay to go to musicals of actors playing out Disney cartoons and pretending adding fanfic lore to Wizard of Oz is deep art.  Don't come to me talking about corny.

It is well known here at League HQ that I think the Rockettes are nifty, and that despite the fact I've never seen the Rockettes in person, they are absolutely part of my personal holiday traditions.  

Each year on Thanksgiving morning, I drink coffee and watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC.  And in the pre-float part of the show where Broadway shows do a bit in front of Macy's, the Rockettes always get a spot, a tradition going back to the 1950's.  

I very specifically remember being in college, watching the parade, and thinking "but really...  this is insane.  How can they do this on a cold, wet street with all the crowd noise?"  And 30 years later I still cheer every time they show up.  Them's my team.

Then, in early December I watch the NBC tree lighting at Rockefeller Center, and the Rockettes always make an appearance there as well.  In the cold and the wet.  Salute.

But the first time I think I was aware of the Rockettes was after seeing John Huston's Annie where they appear in the Let's Go To the Movies sequence.  I kinda think it's one of the great musical sequences filmed in my lifetime.**

As mentioned, I've never seen the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular in person.  It's certainly a bucket-list item to do NYC at Christmas and take in the Spectacular.  I'd probably wear a festive sweater and everything.

With a hundred years behind them, it looks like the Rockettes are set for another century.  So hopefully one day I'll make it.  

As I found during lockdown, YouTube is rife with Rockettes material.  There was even a full version of the show at one point

Here's to kicklines and a century of not accidentally launching a tap shoe into the fourth row.

*yes, they were shuttered during Christmas 2020

**for a movie about a kid I'd find intolerable in real life, Annie kind of slaps