August 8, 2025 • 57 mins
Exploring the Manhattan Center with Peter Ross: A Journey Through History and Events
In this episode of the Silver Disobedience Perception Dynamics podcast, host Dian Griesel sits down with Peter Ross, the longtime general counsel of the iconic Manhattan Center. They delve deep into the rich history of the center, from its origins as Oscar Hammerstein's opera house in 1906, to its transformation into a modern venue hosting a variety of concerts, recordings, and special events. Peter shares captivating stories about renowned artists like Carlos Santana, Alicia Keys, Bono, and provides insights into the unique acoustics and architectural marvels of the Grand and Hammerstein Ballrooms. The episode also highlights the Center's role in film scoring, including work on Steven Spielberg's 'West Side Story.' Whether you're a music enthusiast or intrigued by historic venues, this episode offers a fascinating glimpse into the storied legacy and ongoing vibrancy of The Manhattan Center.
Please SUBSCRIBE! I’m Dian Griesel, Ph.D. aka @SilverDisobedience to my hundreds of thousands of monthly blog readers. You can learn more about me here: https://diangriesel.com
But for starters…I am a perception analyst, counselor, hypnotherapist, author of 16 books and a Wilhelmina model. For 30 years I have helped my clients to achieve greater understanding as to how perceptions impact everything we do whether personally or professionally.
This episode was recorded in collaboration with The Manhattan Center, New York City, New York. https://www.themanhattancenter.com/
Show Run: 00:00 Introduction and Guest Introduction
00:44 Memorable Recordings at Manhattan Center
03:29 Exploring the Unique Features of Manhattan Center
05:00 The Grand and Hammerstein Ballrooms
07:05 Oscar Hammerstein's Legacy
25:24 Renovation and Modern Events
28:26 Event Transformations and Notable Performances
28:52 Corporate and Fundraising Events
29:41 Memorable Musical Moments33:17 Sports and Entertainment Events
35:37 Production and Recording Studios
40:11 Iconic Film Scores and Acoustics
56:06 Conclusion and Reflections
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello, everyone, Welcome. This is the Silver Disobedience
Perception Dynamics podcast. And today we're in the iconic
Manhattan Center, and we're going to learn about it today
because my guest is Peter Ross, who's been the longtime general
counsel here. You know, I met Peter.
(00:20):
Oh my gosh, I'm really dating myself here.
But as if the Gray hair didn't give it away.
Or Peters, who you'll see any minute.
You know, we met each other almost 30 years ago and we were
exploring different topics. Thanks to a great engineering
producer, Jay Messina, who created our introduction, who
recorded some really cool thingshere.
(00:41):
And Peter can share insights about this building that has
hosted some of the most amazing concerts recording soundtracks.
So please say hi to Peter Ross. And hello Diane, lovely to be
here today in a place that looksfairly familiar to me.
(01:04):
Have you ever recorded in TV 2 before?
Have I been recorded in TV 2? Not that I know.
No, no. I've watched a lot go on here,
but I've never been recorded. What kind of thing?
I'm still. Waiting for my great break and
maybe this is it. This is it, Peter, this is it.
We're having a big break at Manhattan Center, right?
Good in TV two, Yes. Can you think of anything that
(01:28):
did record here in TV 2O? I can think.
Of lots of things that have beenrecorded here.
ESPN when we had them in our TV one, we're in TV 2 at the moment
and but this is our TV Two, our smaller studio.
ESPN, when we had them in TV One, they had a couple of shows
(01:48):
that they would do here. I've just got to, as they roll
into my head and pop into my head and whatever I may feel
from the vibe now that I'm underthe lights.
Ed Brown, famous reporter out ofChicago, He he did a a series.
He was here for several weeks doing his news broadcast.
(02:10):
Jenny McCarthy was here for her show on Bravo and she would have
a a live audience here with a, with a band performing.
And it was a very animated show and I believe quite successful.
And it was part of her rebranding and doing other
things. We've had location shoots here.
(02:35):
We've had Pace magazine, Deuce, when they were here with us
doing some of their, their smallintimate music performances.
They would shoot some of them here.
Let me see who else. And then from time to time,
yeah, different location shoots.You know, when you talk about
location shoots that that one night I'm sitting watching, I
(02:58):
think it was on Amazon, has produced the series Friends and
Family with Jon Hamm. And I'm sitting watching it and
I'm like, wait a second, That's the log cabin.
That's the log cabin at Manhattan Center.
Yes, it's nice when it shows up in different places.
And if I was back in the day where something was happening
(03:18):
here, it was always nice to point out to my kids, who of
course are a lot cooler than I am and I could say look and
point out that's where I work. So yes, it's it's been this is a
terrific place. And one of the things I like
about here is it's an intimate set, but the control room that
governs and runs the set where we do the television production,
(03:43):
the control room and all the facilities that go along with
it, engineering tech core and all of that are just adjacent
here. And we do a lot of live
broadcasts of course, from here.But that same control room is
usually the control them that isused when we're doing big TV
(04:05):
galas and specials from either and I know we'll get to them
from either our Grand Ballroom or our Hammerstein Ballroom.
Let's talk about those because this facility to me is, I think
it's still to some degree, it's just a secret treasure within
New York. You know, people think of, let's
say, Madison Square Garden or, you know, because it's been
(04:28):
there for also forever, you know, or maybe they think of
yeah, yeah, somewhere in the neighborhood.
But when I think of the uniqueness of Manhattan Center,
you've got 2. Incredible concert halls that
could be used for recordings or concerts or events.
(04:50):
And then you've got TV studios, recording studios.
It's like it's such an unique treasure in New York to have
that all in one. Let's talk about because your
acoustics are also amazing. There are some places you can go
to in New York and I won't name some of those competitors, but
they are brutal. You can you can, you know, there
(05:12):
there are some that are just youthink of them as concert halls,
but they're brutal or sound the acoustics.
Every time I walk into particularly the grand, I just
want to go up on that stage and sing, even though I Can't Sing
because the acoustics hit you the minute you walk in that
(05:32):
room. What kind of things?
Let's start at the ground and work our way down to the
Hammerstein. What if you recorded in the
Grand? And what makes that room so
special? Because it is?
OK, what makes the Grand so special is that it was.
It was built in in 1922 by the Scottish Masons, the Ancient
(05:56):
Order of Free Scottish Freemasonry, and they were
renowned for building very elegant rooms for their own
purposes, for their own meetings, and in some cases
allowing their their their meeting spaces to be used by
others. We'll start, well, we're jumping
(06:17):
around the history, so let's start with this.
Yeah, let's. Let's start any place you want
because I want the full history here because I love this place.
Well, one thing I'm going to do,Diane, I'm going to answer your
questions so so you well. You know, my questions go all
over the place. Yes, but I'm going to answer the
one that's in play. So it's it's a beautiful,
(06:37):
vibrant room built on top of a larger venue, which is the
Hammerstein Ballroom. And it was built when the
Scottish Masons built that, whenthey acquired the building and
didn't necessarily know what to do with an Opera House, but knew
what they wanted to do for theirown.
(06:57):
Purposes. So then let's go backwards for
the sake of history and so I canunderstand this.
So the Hammerstein was an Opera House, Yes.
OK. Yes, it was built in 19 O 6 by
Oscar Hammerstein the 1st and I I just you know, Ken Burns.
(07:21):
If you're looking we need to do a documentary on Oscar
Hammerstein, the first, or we need to do a, a, a film, a full
blown film. He is an, he is an extraordinary
character who had an indelible influence on New York, on
theater, on on music, on many, many facets of life.
(07:47):
And so if I go back to who he was for a few moments, yeah.
Please. He grew up in Pomerania, which I
had to look up some time back. It is a place that would be
somewhere between on the border of Germany and Poland.
He grew up in a middle class family, the eldest son and he,
(08:12):
he was greatly influenced by hismother, who had real musical
chops and imbued that in her eldest son.
He loved music, he loved classical music, but he fell in
love with opera. So at the age of 15 his mother
died and a combination of reasons but one being well, I
(08:35):
can think of two things because many of us in this city and in
this country are immigrants. But something was calling him to
be elsewhere than where he grew up.
And the fact that his mother died and that his father was not
a very caring, loving and non brutal person.
So at the age of 15, he hopped on a boat and came to New York
(09:00):
and landed, landed here, middle of the Civil War, New York City.
And his first job was sweeping the floor of a tobacco factory,
earning $3 a week within 10. Within a few years he was.
(09:23):
The first thing he started to dowas learn his trade and after
some years he actually founded an industry journal on the
tobacco industry in New York. He rose up through the ranks.
He looked at how things were being done and in his own
innovative and creative way introduced new changes to the
(09:46):
industry of making cigars. Some of his inventions were
patented and he was obviously quite successful and he even
revised the paper that is used for rolling cigars.
So on the foundation of his 1520year career in the tobacco
(10:10):
industry, cigar making industry,he established a financial
foundation upon which he could pursue his real passion.
And his real passion as it was imbued in him from his mother
was music and in particular opera.
And so he wanted to build. His ultimate goal was to build
(10:33):
an Opera House. So this is the Oscar Hammer.
The Oscar Hammerstein's first ballroom.
Yes. No, no.
No. No, his it's not even his first
Opera House. Really.
His first Opera House was calledthe Harlem Opera House in 125th
(10:54):
St., which was Scrabble country.Goats, sheep, cows.
Not too many people living there, but he thought if I build
a theater, they will come. And in order to induce people to
come, he actually built a residential, about 55 dwelling
places, then built a second studio at a second theater
(11:18):
there. And, and people started to go
Uptown to the Harlem Opera House.
Big name people who would be in the city, they would make it up
there and people would go up there because he, with his
innovative mind, he designed everything impeccably.
(11:40):
The sound you were talking aboutthe sound, the sounds, the
lights, the colors, the experience.
And his real passion was to makeopera accessible to ordinary
people, as opposed to the Stush as a major making friends would
say, the snobby Stush people whowere going to the Met not to
(12:02):
really listen to the music, although I'm sure many.
For the social experience. To be seen and to see and to
gather the news of the day. So 2 theaters Uptown by now.
Then he built the First Manhattan Opera House, which is
on 34th, was on 34th St., probably the site of where
(12:25):
Macy's is. Really.
Yes. Oh.
My God, this. History is fantastic.
And that proved to be a financial disaster because he
wanted to hire the best artist. The best musicians get the best
costumes, get the best production people, and it adds
up. And on the back end, you want to
(12:46):
make the ticket price accessiblefor ordinary people, if they've
never experienced opera before, to come and experience it.
And once they would experience it, they would keep coming back.
But his intention was less aboutthe money and more about his
passion for what he was doing. So I'll just say a few more
(13:10):
things before we come back. No, I find this really
fascinating because, you know, you can see things built by
particularly, I don't know, the example you just gave is so
perfect that someone had this passion for music and opera.
Because when you do walk in thatroom, whether it's, you know,
(13:35):
lighting the structure of the room, whatever it is that.
Yes, the Hammerstein, everythingthat goes into the sound effect.
You know how the balcony has done everything.
Yeah. You know, you really say, I
wonder if someone who didn't love opera could have created
this. I'm not.
So if you were just straight andarchitect, it's like that
passion for something and bringing it into permanence.
(13:59):
Fascinating. Well, funny story to shoot
forward, Yeah. And you will bring me back to
your question. But anyway.
Whatever that was. There was, there was a Dublin
band called The Script, quite famous.
And there's they're still playing.
They're a top shelf. You know something about Dublin?
A little bit, yes. I only spent about 20 years
(14:19):
there. So.
I grew up, I could smell Guinness being me and not only
Dublin, as you know. As long as you've known me, I
don't just say I'm from Dublin, I go outside because it was the
scrappy part of Dublin. But the script came and they had
just shown up ready to start their their sound check.
(14:42):
And I went down and introduced myself and I knew something of
their music. And I remember, I think it was
the drummer, and they're just standing on the stage and they
look into the room, and if you come in there and it's empty, it
kind of looks cavernous. But they're used to playing
different venues, and they get afeel for a room pretty fast.
(15:02):
But he looked up the boxes on the sides, 3 on each side, the
two working balconies facing himand the floor.
And he said, this is so intimate.
Exactly. And I said, I'm glad you see
that. And tonight I can tell you, you
can see the eyes of most people in this room while you're
(15:26):
playing. Oh, that.
And, and they can see yours. And so I think to see a touring
band, 3500 people. We had Fontaine's DC here a
little while ago. Oh.
My gosh, that I was blown away because the last one I think I
(15:46):
saw here was New Order about, I don't know, 10 years ago or
something. And they were phenomenal and the
whole experience was unbelievable.
But being in that first balcony or second balcony, looking down
at the crowd, the energy as the crowds came in, as the balconies
filled up, you know, and those are two big balconies up there.
(16:07):
And as the crowd started to move, it's awesome.
Awesome. That's why I when you mentioned
that other place across the street, I said, yeah, I'd heard
of it. I've been to shows there, and I
have. I have to say, Diane, for
someone who loves music and comes from the only country in
(16:27):
the world that has a musical emblem, symbol as its national
symbol, a music instrument as its national symbol, the harp,
it's just in my DNA. But to be able to be in a room
like that, as intimate as it is,and to see that quality of
touring bands come through, never mind the other bands who
(16:51):
show up for private galas, television specials.
One of my favorites used to be country music.
Television used to come here, part of the whole MTV, VH1
family, and they had a show. I think it still continues in
some iteration or other, but it was called Crossroads.
And. You would take a country artist
(17:13):
and a non country artist and they would perform together.
And the unusual nature of them getting together in such a way
always produce some magic. Because the country artist has
been the country artist, the rocker has been the rocker or
pop singer, whoever it was. You know, that is so
interesting. And talk about something ahead
(17:35):
of its time. Just this weekend, I was in a
car with our 25 year old daughter and she's like, I'm one
of those people who flips the dial, flips the dial, flips the
dial. Maybe I listen for, you know, a
minute of the song, then I flip the dial.
Yeah. Yeah.
She's like, mom, hold it there. This is the new trend.
It's country singers with pop stars.
Oh. Yeah, yes.
(17:56):
And duets and collaborations andall that.
Something magical happens when people are out of their lane.
And you know, one of them I can think of was Brad Paisley and
John Mayer downstairs. Oh wow.
The other one I loved and I don't know if I'm allowed to
tell the story, but the other one was.
Tell it anyway. OK, Dave.
(18:16):
Dave Matthews and Emmylou Harrisupstairs.
Really. Yes.
Interesting combo. Yes, yeah, what can I say about
the song the performance did. You like it?
I did it was, it was wonderful. It was wonderful.
I'll, I'll, I'll try and tell itsomewhat discreetly.
(18:37):
So they're doing the sound checkand I will describe Dave
Matthews as, as we all would recognize, he's singing away.
He's on the guitar and he's in the microphone and he's just
going at it. Emmylou is Queen Regal Emmylou,
and she's doing a the duet and you know the the harmony.
(18:58):
Dave screeches to a halt. When the song finishes.
He says something to her. I'll just say that.
He says something to her and shelooks at him and she walks over
to him and she just puts her armaround him.
And they walk to the back of thestage of our grand ballroom,
which is a very large stage. They have a few words and they
(19:21):
come back. Amy Liu is exactly the same and
Dave is. Chill.
Changed and ready to continue. Oh my gosh.
And we're sitting in the front row.
Whoa. What just happened?
What just happened? But you know the beauty of what
happened, whatever it was, they came back and when they
(19:44):
performed together, it was just a fantastic evening and these
duets and collaborations. I love those.
I mean, my daughter laughs to me.
My husband got me to listen to Rob Thomas at one point and when
he did his collaboration Smooth with Carlos Santana, which I
(20:05):
think was a Clive Davis idea. But when they put those two
together, I mean, I could just listen to the combo.
Yes. Over and over and over again,
because there's something just so sexy and cool and ageless.
You've got such a span of musical talent.
But it all merges, yes, totally different styles.
Yes, and I was here when they sang together in the
(20:28):
Hammerstein. Oh, now you're making me really
jealous. Where was I?
Was the end of the Supernatural tour and it's a long story, but
I can. Oh, give us some color on that
I'll. Give you some color.
I'm born on Halloween and my good friend, her name is Obie
O'Brien, who is the director of operations for our studios, is
(20:52):
born exactly one day after me. And so somewhere around those
dates, I think it might have been actually on her birthday
and they were performing. Carlos was performing with other
artists, not everybody who was, but Rob Thomas was there.
And it was almost like the the ultimate finale and everybody in
(21:13):
the places dancing, just dancing.
We had a little pregame and we were in perfect form dancing and
the concert. That whole album is just
extraordinary. And to see Carlos live.
Unbelievable. Magic, mystical.
Doing his thing was just a treat.
But they get to Supernatural. No smooth and everybody's
(21:36):
dancing with everybody. I'm in our box.
We have a box that's kind of avip box and everybody's dancing
with each other and I'm dancing and, and then, you know,
everything comes to a close and everybody leaves.
I walk in the next morning and Ipass Obie's desk and I say,
Obie, what a treat for you on your birthday that you could
(21:56):
have this concert. And she looked at me and she
just said, well, you certainly enjoyed yourself.
She said, me, didn't you enjoy yourself?
Everybody in the house enjoyed themselves.
She said, well, you know who youwere dancing with?
And I said, somebody, every we're all dancing.
She said that was Carlos Santana's wife.
(22:18):
Oh, OK. Were you behaving yourself?
Of course. I was I was being the perfect
host making. I wanted to make every make sure
everybody was comfortable in dancing.
Oh my gosh, that's hilarious. Great night.
So, so back-to-back to Oscar. Yeah.
So he had built the two at 125thSt.
(22:41):
You have a career as a comedian.No, I don't.
Yeah, you might, because you're very good at recall.
Bring it back to where we were. That's a.
Professional occupation. Bring the witness back.
So we got 2 up in 120 5th St. the Manhattan Opera House on
34th St. Macy's Way.
(23:02):
Then he goes to Times Square andhe builds at least another 5
theaters over as many years. And that's why he came to be
known as the father of Times Square.
There was no Times Square. It was called Long Acre Square
at that time. And about 10 years later it
(23:24):
became known as Times Square. So by the time he came here in
19 O 6 to build the Manhattan Opera House, because the first
one floundered, the Harlem one went its own course.
We're now at 19 O 6, but he's already built about 7 theaters
(23:46):
before he got here. Oh.
My gosh. And in each place looking for
innovation, design, sound, music, artists.
And all the time following his passion, he wanted people to
have a good time, like the nightwith Supernatural in the hammers
thing. He wanted everybody to have a
(24:07):
good time and ordinary people. And paying a a, a worker, you
know, a good price. So you can see the inevitable
collision. On the one hand, trying to do it
all and on the other hand tryingto take care of all.
But it's hard to do so. His real passion was opera.
(24:30):
And so he built this building in19 O 6 and as an Opera House.
And in mid-december of 19 O six,the first performance curtains
opened. And I think it was a Bellini
opera and I forget who starred in it and how how it went, but
(24:55):
it was well received and for thenext 4 years he was doing opera
here until 1910. Wow, I loved hearing that
history. Yeah.
Did you read that in a book? How'd you find all that?
Out I I well, where did? You find that history.
It's not a single book, but whenwe reopened, when Manhattan
(25:19):
Center Studios did a renovation of the opera, what was a a
building venue downstairs that had been the original Opera
House had long gone. And it had been changed over the
years. But then somebody thought to
(25:39):
bring it back to its former grandeur.
And so it was a stripped down demolition.
And so it looked like something from a war zone.
Oh. My gosh.
Stripped. Down.
I can't even imagine that because you walk into them now,
they're truly magical. You feel like you're looking at
gorgeous architecture. Yes.
(25:59):
And I mean, the when I look up and I see those, what do you
call them? The balconies and the booths?
Yes, they're just the boxes. The boxes, Yes, they're so
pretty. And the ceiling and the.
Ceiling. Oh my gosh.
The original ceiling had been closed off back in the 40s.
Huh. The the third balcony had been
(26:22):
closed. Closed like they covered it.
Yeah, they didn't use it really yes and the and the floor got
changed. It wasn't any more a raped floor
when an orchestra pit as you would need for opera.
So it had gone undergone a majorchange before the stripped down
anticipating returning it to itsformer grandeur so.
(26:46):
How long did that renovation take?
Around what year? Did it reopened in 97?
So probably about two years. The renovation I was done in
house with a lot of our own people and team and obviously a
lot of additional, you know, architects, engineers and
everything else were brought on and then an additional staff to
(27:08):
do that. But it opened in, I think it was
a, a post Grammy Sony. It was a post Grammy Sony.
After Party was the first event after it had been opened and
renovated. And then it became, you know,
the hottest house in New York City.
Because it's the new venue. You can use it for music.
(27:31):
You can use it for special events next year.
It won 22 awards, Poll star and I forget the other industry
magazine, the best new venue. And it got off to a roaring
start, and it's been roaring ever since.
Now you said you you've got concerts here.
(27:52):
Yes, you've got. What kind of events do you
throw? Corporate events?
Are they industry events? What kind of events happen?
Downstairs we do, yes. It it runs the whole gamut of
anything you can imagine. We do product launches.
Really. Yeah, Samsung a couple of years
ago did a major, major product launch.
(28:14):
That's interesting. And I love going down there when
you have a client with that caliber booking in here for
about two weeks, completely redoing the room.
And I go down just to see what'shappening and you walk into the
room and it's just completely transformed.
(28:34):
Pirelli tires did one of every year they go around the world
and I think it's celebrating their and you know, another
birthday and they did a major, major event here.
So product launches, fashion shows, corporate corporate
(28:54):
events, you know, dinner and speakers, media tours.
The CEO comes here, some tech company, a panel on the stage,
and it's been broadcast internationally or broadcast
domestically. Yeah.
Fundraising events, political fundraising events.
One of my favorite events, Senator Obama was here with
(29:17):
Misses Obama and they were doinga big fundraiser.
DNC sponsored. And the music for that evening
were Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen and Saturday and
somebody else. And to see those two perform and
and interact was just extraordinary nonprofits.
(29:42):
Nile Rodgers. Still comes here.
His nonprofit is We Are Family, of course, and he will usually
give an award to some celebrity and then that celebrity will
come. And if it's a musician, then
they will play together. One of my favorite ones in
recent years was We Are Family. We're honoring Bono.
(30:05):
Oh wow, so. Bono came, and, you know,
there's the dinner and whatever announcements.
Sometimes if it's a nonprofit, there may be a silent auction
and then a live auction, and then the music performance
starts. So Bono came, He was honored.
(30:26):
He said a few words as as he's one to do a few words turned
into a few more words and gave alovely gracious speech.
And then he started singing withthe band.
And then about his fourth song, I saw him do what he had done at
the sound check. And I've met him when he has
(30:47):
been here over over times. But he when the events, when the
dinner and all the proceedings are over, the music starts,
people tend to stand up and movetowards the stage because they
want to. They want to start dancing and
partying and get close. About halfway through his final
song, he walks off the stage, walks in front of the stage
(31:09):
where the densest portion of thecrowd is.
They make space and they can't believe he's walking among us
and he's still singing and he's looking back at the band and
singing. And then he turns around and he
continues to sing, walks into the middle of the room, stands
up in a chair, finishes his song, steps down, hands the
(31:33):
microphone to somebody, and he walks out the front of the
Manhattan Center. That would leave a lot of people
speechless. Yes, Alicia Keys is coming here
again this year. Keep a Child Alive.
It's an organization that does great work in Africa and
primarily treating children withAIDS.
And she is the patron celebrity for that event.
(31:56):
And she has, she's been great tomeet, great to see perform.
And again, the great thing aboutthose events, similar to the
Crossroads, you've got Bono singing with Chic and Rodgers.
Now you got Alicia Keys and somebody, whoever she may have
invited, Lenny Kravitz. It was one night and they
(32:16):
perform and it's again one of these great evenings.
US Ski and Sports, the foundation that runs all of US
skiing and winter sports. They did a big fundraiser here
and Sheryl Crow was the the mainact.
And after they showed some of the artists, some of the skiers
(32:39):
and, you know, yeah, skiers and skaters show how they train for
some things. Huge big trampolines on the
stage. Then all that dramatic stuff
finishes the dinner, the fundraising, and then along
comes Cheryl and knocks it out of the ballpark.
It's. Corporate events, Fundraisers.
(32:59):
House Transitional The room is how it can go from, you know,
tables and dinners to concerts at the same night, to live
auctions to displays on stage toa band on stage.
It's really phenomenal. Yeah, yes, you triggered a
memory of oh, we had, we had. We've done, you know, in both
(33:23):
venues. We do a lot of sports and
martial arts, boxing, wrestling,mixed martial arts, WWE type
wrestling and other events. But one that I was there and it
was the top of the bill in the boxing was a Orthodox Jewish
(33:45):
boxer somewhere in Eastern Europe.
The ring girls were not allowed to wear their usual attire.
They had to robe up and he was expected to win.
I'll just say the judges gave him the win and right after he
stopped on the stage the ring was set up in the round
(34:06):
underneath the the 75 foot ceiling.
And after the boxing finish the stage was further back towards
our building goes from 34th St. to 35th St. the stage being
closer to 35th St. And when he finished, lights
came up and there was Matt as Yahoo performing and it was a
(34:27):
terrific. It was early in his career or
well, he was well established bythem, but to segue from boxing
and. Oh my gosh.
Now you've got a Mataziahu live music performance.
It was great. I had a couple of my boys here
that night, so they got boxing and they got music.
Unbelievable. Yeah.
(34:48):
Now, is it producers that come in and set these things up or
you know, event production companies?
How does that work? Most of the top shelf events
that are held here, the client will come with a production
company, but that production company will inevitably interact
(35:10):
with our own in house productionteam.
So depending upon the size and the scope of the event, we can
do the production or we collaborate.
And obviously if somebody's coming into the house they need
to know where the the plugs are.But it's far more than that.
The full integration of top shelf production companies
(35:31):
coming to work with our top shelf production in house team
and they make it seamless. Now let's, let's talk further
about that because we've been talking about the Hammerstein
and the Grand and the grand events you can have here, yes.
You've also got iconic recordingstudios, yes, and you've had
some interesting people in thosestudios, including people that
(35:55):
have made them their homes almost, and they've rehearsed
here and recorded here and engineered here and produced
here. So give us some scoop on that,
Peter. OK.
Well, again, we're very fortunate because of the, our
studios are are well acclaimed, well appreciated for what's in
(36:16):
the studios. And again, our staff who are
interacting with whoever it is that's coming in.
And we've had a great roster of producers who have been here
over the years. Jack Douglas.
Directly How I Met you in the 1st.
Place, yes, courtesy of Jack. Yeah, Jack, if you're listening,
(36:38):
thank you for introducing me to.Diane, thank you, Jack and Jay.
Jay the scene also. Great producers.
One of the standouts is is Timberland.
And. Mid 90s he pretty much made the
Log Cabin, which is one of our studios that is intended to
(37:01):
provide artists with a a getawayspace.
And that's what exactly what it feels like.
Yeah, stone and rock and and logs some and logs, very big
trees that when they were put inthere by our team who designed
in house and built in house, obviously with experts support
(37:27):
and mechanics and engineers and architects.
And but the trees that one of our production guys, he used to
be a roadie with a with an English band for many years, but
he became our director of production.
He was dispatched upstate to go to a tree farm to buy trees, to
make logs to put in the studio. Robert Carville is his name and
(37:48):
the tree. So he showed up at the tree
farm. He said, I'd like some trees
please. And the farmer said, well, which
trees? Well, trees for our studio, OK,
we'll pick them. So he picked the trees with the
farmer. They cut them down.
They stripped them down. And because they were so
recently harvested, they were put in place after some drying
(38:10):
out and whatever. But in some of the early days
that people would be in the studio and they would hear an
unusual sound, but it was just the trees adjusting themselves
to settle into place between thestone and the rock and the
floor. So but Timberland made it his
studio and had a great array of of artists come in here, Missy
(38:32):
Elliott, Aaliyah, Justin Timberlake and his great
engineer Jimmy Douglas. And we got to see somebody,
whatever status he was at when he came, but become, you know, a
national and a global figure and, and, and the amount of
music he recorded here was extraordinary.
(38:55):
And what our staff used to be amazed by, a lot of things would
get done and it would get inventoried.
And he could recall not from a computer, he would recall,
remember that track. And he would send one of our
crew up there to retrieve the track, bring it down, whether it
was done a year ago, two years ago or three, four years ago.
(39:15):
And he integrated into whatever he was doing.
One of my favourites was meetingmy hero Tom Petty in In Our Log
Cabin. He had just dropped one of his
solo albums and was doing a Clear Channel nationwide
promotion. DJ from LA came out, interviewed
(39:38):
him, play a track, chit chat, play a track, chit chat and it
was just wonderful to have him here.
But that's Studio 4. If you're if you're good, I
would like to talk about Studio 7.
Please do, I want to hear about them all.
So we can get to film score. Oh.
OK. OK, we'll talk about film.
(39:59):
So we're talking about concerts,we're talking about events,
we're talking about recording albums.
If they use the word albums these days sound and now we're
going into film school, yes. What?
What's the difference in? Well, we well films as work, as
we all know, is it's an acceptedfactor of, you know, a musical
(40:23):
experience is hearing the music and how the music contributes to
a given film. But we didn't always have films
scores. In fact, up until 1926, there
was no such thing as a film score.
You had an somebody playing an organ or you had a little band
or an orchestra playing. And it's funny these days to see
(40:44):
recreations of that where Red Bull will produce events, it's a
movie and they'll have a live orchestra playing.
And that's how it was before Warner Brothers perfected their
Vitaphone system in 1926. And we can say, and we continue
to do film score, we can say we've been doing it longer than
(41:06):
anybody else because the the very first film score was done
in our grand ballroom in 1926 bythe Warner Brothers.
The movie was Don Juan. They had done a lot of recording
in a studio in Brooklyn, but it wasn't quite working and it
wasn't quite going right. So they move things over to hear
(41:30):
Manhattan Center and to our grand ballroom and and got it
and finished it. And it was even though there was
no talking in the movie. And I like that.
My take away is music always comes first.
So it was it was a silent film, but a film that had an
(41:52):
integrated film score in it. And the Warner Brothers then
were very happy with what they had done and their experience
and they went to the West Coast and the rest, the rest is
history, so. You know, it's so interesting
when you think of film scores because you don't often think
about them. But I saw I could have been
(42:13):
Steven Spielberg or someone getting lectured and he talked
about, or maybe it was the person who did his film scores
saying, here's the movie. You know, if you've seen it,
what comes to your mind and what's missing when you watch
this And with that film score absent, Like, I can't listen to
the song Layla anymore, even though I've always loved the
(42:35):
song without thinking of the scene in Goodfellas or whatever
it is, you know, with them driving, you know, or you think
of, I mean, any movie, how that film score changes every aspect
of how you remember the movie orhow you feel.
Yes. Wow, are you doing film score
still now? Yes, the most recent film score
(42:55):
we did was for Spike Lee and hismovie that's going to be
released, I believe sometime before Christmas.
High and low or highest and lowest?
It's a take on a Kurosawa film and the score was done here.
But you mentioned something and you prompt another story there.
Tell me, getting, getting, What did you say?
(43:18):
Getting lectured or getting getting towed off or something.
OK so so one of our great fans in the film score world is
Elliot Goldenthal and his significant other Julie Tamar.
When Julie gets an independent film, Elliot, who's a classical
(43:41):
music composer, if he's I'm not going to say anything, he will
always get the film from you. The opportunity to do the film
score. And so I heard he was here.
One of the films, the films theydid here or he did the film
score for was Freda, for which he won.
(44:03):
He won an Oscar for best film score.
I don't think it was Freda, but some other film.
And I heard he was here. So I got myself together and I
came down, you know, there's 150piece, 120 piece orchestra.
On the. Floor of the grand ballroom, and
I don't think we got to this before, but the natural
acoustics of that room are are special.
(44:25):
Special is the perfect word because they are so unusual.
You can only say special. Yes.
So I see him. It's a quiet moment and I go
over and I was president of the company, I think at the time and
I went over and introduced myself, welcomed him yet again
and thanked him for being here and and he said something nice
(44:48):
about the room. Nice.
Maybe he said something more. He paid a beautiful compliment
to the room, but he said it to me.
And as we I explained earlier, I'm from Northside Dublin and
I've had discussions with some of my Irish friends from time to
time. Why can't we accept a
(45:10):
compliment? It's always a good question.
And I came up with in the wee hours of the morning, after much
discourse with a friend of mine,a singer-songwriter from
Ireland. And it's this.
When you've been oppressed for 400 something years and subject
to all sorts of abusive laws andwhatever else, when somebody
(45:33):
above pays you a compliment, you're never too sure is the
hand coming back. So we tend to shy.
Or some people might interpret it as modesty, but it's
something else. Anyway, back to Elliot.
Very interesting. So Elliot says something good
about the room and I do something pathological and just
(45:57):
let it let it go by and he cut it.
And so he was, we started off about this distance apart and my
recollection, he certainly movedtowards me.
And as he's moving towards me, he's telling me just how good
(46:17):
this room is. And he recites to me getting
about midway. I've done 75 film scores all
around the world, Peter, including Abbey Road and other
places. And now he's almost not quite.
Right. But moving in giving you, giving
you the body language. And almost within finger in the
(46:41):
PEC, yeah, closeness. And he says at the end, and your
job is to protect this room. Oh my gosh.
This is. My second time getting.
Goose mastering this and now I'mgoing to bring this back to Dave
Matthews. I was a little bit like Dave
Matthews after after Emmylou hadspoken to him and I realized
(47:04):
this was a compliment of all compliments.
It is, but when the Scottish Masons built it, they it's.
Perfect. That almost makes me feel
cheery. I mean, that's like, that's like
a really, it's a very moving compliment and it's an honor to
have been told it by someone so accomplished, like.
That, yes. And that's why every time, just
(47:26):
about every time I give a tour, I have to honor Elliot by
pointing out just what he did and helped me and what it said
about the room. But we're very fortunate and
I'll come back around. Steven Spielberg's redo of West
Side Story was done. All of the music was done in the
(47:50):
Grand Ballroom using our Studio 7 because I just about an hour
ago was talking about Studio 4 and now I'll talk about Studio
7. It is integrated with both
ballrooms and most especially with the Grand Ballroom because
that's where we do our film scores or Broadway cast albums
or other classical music performances because they love
(48:14):
the room. It's natural acoustics.
Now you're saying integrated, sosomeone could be recording,
let's say a concert in the Grand, but you're picking that
up in Studio 7 and you can be recording.
And TV 2 control room, we can belive broadcasting it.
(48:36):
So in that instance, and I'm glad you mentioned it, it's
using one of our recording studios, using our control room
and using our venue, in this case the the Grand Ballroom.
OK, this is this is definitely something that should be
repeated more than once. So I want to make sure we get
this because frankly, I'm going to make this a clip because it's
(48:58):
a really good point. So someone could come in here,
they can have host a concert, have a concert.
People come in here. Sorry.
OK, go ahead. Yeah, let's hear.
No, please. You.
No. Let's take it from the top.
So people come in here? Yep, and they.
To Manhattan Center. To Manhattan Center with all the
efficiencies we offer by extending, in this case, let's
(49:21):
say it's a live music show. And in fact go back to
Crossroads. We don't have trucks, so we have
our TV 2 control room. They're broadcasting it live or
recording it for later broadcast.
The music is going to be mixed in Studio 7 right adjacent to
the Grand Ballroom, and then thebroadcast will be done out of
(49:43):
our TV control. And right down the hall from the
control room is our transmissionroom.
And it can go anywhere. And that's why I often say,
Diane, all roads lead to the Manhattan Center and all roads
lead from the Manhattan Center. So Steven Spielberg is here for
West Side Story. All of it done here.
(50:06):
And I come in, a kid who fell inlove with America because of
watching movies when I was a kid, the West Side Story, I
loved it, huge John Wayne fan. But I come in, I'm on my way to
work, and this is one of the loveliest things about working
in a building like this. And I'm ready to go into my
(50:27):
office and I know they're in andfigure they're probably due to
start. I sneak into the upper balcony
and I can look down on the floor.
The orchestra is ready and do them all.
Lifts his baton and it's the prelude to Maria.
(50:48):
Oh my gosh. And I'm on my way to work.
I love this film. And in that room?
I mean, I'm like, seriously, Peter, I think that's now the
third or fourth time I literallygot goosebumps.
Says you're telling stories. That's such a funny physical
reaction to get the stories. Oh, well, good.
(51:08):
Wow. And yes, it is a it's a very
uncommon place and a very special place.
And Oscar, I think we take seriously the historical legacy
that we inherit, and I think we try not to forget it.
And what was he doing trying to produce the highest quality
(51:30):
entertainment for ordinary New Yorkers?
Why? They could be entertained, but
more than being entertained, they could be changed.
Their life could be improved. They could have some inspiration
while they're here and go from here and design some great
(51:52):
building or be the best teacher or be a great music teacher or
suddenly remember something thatthey had forgotten along life's
journey and go home. And but I like to think that's
part of what we're doing here isengaging people, elevating
people and ennobling their livesby what we're extending and what
(52:17):
our clients are coming in and producing.
And that makes it a transformative place.
I, I think you're you're nailingthat, you know, in in a lot of
ways. I know when I walk in here to
record these podcasts, yes, it'sit's such a first of all, I love
the sound in this room. It feels like it's got this
(52:37):
great mojo the minute you walk in yes, every guest has the same
reaction. It's just, it's, it's, it's
transformative and it and it andI walk out, I'm on a high for
the afternoon. It's like, and it's and it's
everything and this everyone youhave here, like literally from
the minute you walk in the door and it's like, hi Jackie, how
(52:58):
are you? You know, everyone, you know,
whether whoever is here, you just have, you know, when I see
Dave in the hallway, you know, where he's walking.
Whoever it's such, it's a reallyspecial place.
It's it's so unusual in so many ways.
You know, one thing I wanted to go back to is you mentioned no
(53:22):
sound trucks. Can we talk about that again?
And can you explain, you know, because so often you go places
and there's that, you know, hugesound truck outside.
Yeah, but you don't have that. Well, I say that as a general
proposition and that was always our intention, because I think
(53:42):
you were looking to go back and repeat it and I and I
interrupted you earlier, but everything is integrated.
I could pretty much guarantee I did the interrupting, no?
I think you I did at that point,but everything is integrated.
So it adds great efficiency. And you come in here and a lot
of stuff is taken care of by Josh, our engineer who's
(54:04):
recording this and others who are here during very good hands
and the efficiencies that it offers.
So the bold thing is we, we don't need a recording truck
come up here. We don't need ATV truck to come
up here. But there are occasions when a
client believes they need to do so and want to do so prior
(54:26):
relationships, the production company they're working with.
But by and large, we try and, and, and limit that.
And when people appreciate what we offer, then, you know, it's
their call. Like for example, the sound that
you heard when you were watchingFontaine, DC Pete Austin, you
(54:47):
know, did his research and he was our director of of
productions and we identified the very best sound system for
that room. If somebody is coming a touring
band and they're touring with all their gear and stuff, we
will let them know if they want to you.
Got it. If they want to, they can.
(55:09):
We can take down our stuff. They can put their stuff up and
then they can take down their stuff and then help us to put
back our stuff. But when they hear what our
stuff is, often times that's unnecessary because of just
what's here. And then the team that's knows
(55:31):
it best and cares for it best and takes care of it.
Right. So Oh my gosh, you know, I have
a feeling we went over on this podcast because I think the
clock used to countdown and thenit goes.
I think it started counting up. So I'm not sure because I
totally missed any timer, but I didn't want this to end.
So I'm good with whatever lengthof this podcast.
(55:54):
We'll find out from Josh after. I have no idea.
We'll find out if I totally ignored the clock of.
Course, he's supposed. To watch.
He's the master of the house. But Peter Ross, general counsel
here at Manhattan Center, thank you so much for your time.
I enjoyed the history, really understanding this iconic spot
(56:16):
in New York a lot more. It's a treasure.
It really is. Whether it's a concert or, you
know, I'm noticing something on TV and I say, oh, I recognize
that. It's just a cool place, you
know, built from the history, the inside out and the people.
You you sum it up well. Thank you.
(56:37):
Thank you very much for allowingme to speak in my own studio,
our own studio, but most especially thank you for
allowing me to be part of this wonderful series that you have
developed and I'm delighted by our collaboration so.
I'm the lucky 1. Well, I want to thank you all.
(56:57):
This has been the Silver disobedience perception Dynamics
podcast. I'm Diane Grisell.
We have been in iconic Manhattancenter.
I've been talking with Peter Ross, who's given us a really
great history. And I really recommend follow
Manhattan Center to see what's going on here.
There's so many cool things going on.
Pay attention to their social media feed.
Check in on the website, you know, if you're a business, pay
(57:21):
attention when you have an event, this is where you want to
have it because it is a cool place, no doubt about it.
So come check it out for sure. So yeah, that's a plug.
And that's just on my own volition because I just love
this place. So thanks for watching.
Please subscribe.
Hello, everyone, Welcome. This is the Silver Disobedience
Perception Dynamics podcast. And today we're in the iconic
Manhattan Center, and we're going to learn about it today
because my guest is Peter Ross, who's been the longtime general
counsel here. You know, I met Peter.
(00:20):
Oh my gosh, I'm really dating myself here.
But as if the Gray hair didn't give it away.
Or Peters, who you'll see any minute.
You know, we met each other almost 30 years ago and we were
exploring different topics. Thanks to a great engineering
producer, Jay Messina, who created our introduction, who
recorded some really cool thingshere.
(00:41):
And Peter can share insights about this building that has
hosted some of the most amazing concerts recording soundtracks.
So please say hi to Peter Ross. And hello Diane, lovely to be
here today in a place that looksfairly familiar to me.
(01:04):
Have you ever recorded in TV 2 before?
Have I been recorded in TV 2? Not that I know.
No, no. I've watched a lot go on here,
but I've never been recorded. What kind of thing?
I'm still. Waiting for my great break and
maybe this is it. This is it, Peter, this is it.
We're having a big break at Manhattan Center, right?
Good in TV two, Yes. Can you think of anything that
(01:28):
did record here in TV 2O? I can think.
Of lots of things that have beenrecorded here.
ESPN when we had them in our TV one, we're in TV 2 at the moment
and but this is our TV Two, our smaller studio.
ESPN, when we had them in TV One, they had a couple of shows
(01:48):
that they would do here. I've just got to, as they roll
into my head and pop into my head and whatever I may feel
from the vibe now that I'm underthe lights.
Ed Brown, famous reporter out ofChicago, He he did a a series.
He was here for several weeks doing his news broadcast.
(02:10):
Jenny McCarthy was here for her show on Bravo and she would have
a a live audience here with a, with a band performing.
And it was a very animated show and I believe quite successful.
And it was part of her rebranding and doing other
things. We've had location shoots here.
(02:35):
We've had Pace magazine, Deuce, when they were here with us
doing some of their, their smallintimate music performances.
They would shoot some of them here.
Let me see who else. And then from time to time,
yeah, different location shoots.You know, when you talk about
location shoots that that one night I'm sitting watching, I
(02:58):
think it was on Amazon, has produced the series Friends and
Family with Jon Hamm. And I'm sitting watching it and
I'm like, wait a second, That's the log cabin.
That's the log cabin at Manhattan Center.
Yes, it's nice when it shows up in different places.
And if I was back in the day where something was happening
(03:18):
here, it was always nice to point out to my kids, who of
course are a lot cooler than I am and I could say look and
point out that's where I work. So yes, it's it's been this is a
terrific place. And one of the things I like
about here is it's an intimate set, but the control room that
governs and runs the set where we do the television production,
(03:43):
the control room and all the facilities that go along with
it, engineering tech core and all of that are just adjacent
here. And we do a lot of live
broadcasts of course, from here.But that same control room is
usually the control them that isused when we're doing big TV
(04:05):
galas and specials from either and I know we'll get to them
from either our Grand Ballroom or our Hammerstein Ballroom.
Let's talk about those because this facility to me is, I think
it's still to some degree, it's just a secret treasure within
New York. You know, people think of, let's
say, Madison Square Garden or, you know, because it's been
(04:28):
there for also forever, you know, or maybe they think of
yeah, yeah, somewhere in the neighborhood.
But when I think of the uniqueness of Manhattan Center,
you've got 2. Incredible concert halls that
could be used for recordings or concerts or events.
(04:50):
And then you've got TV studios, recording studios.
It's like it's such an unique treasure in New York to have
that all in one. Let's talk about because your
acoustics are also amazing. There are some places you can go
to in New York and I won't name some of those competitors, but
they are brutal. You can you can, you know, there
(05:12):
there are some that are just youthink of them as concert halls,
but they're brutal or sound the acoustics.
Every time I walk into particularly the grand, I just
want to go up on that stage and sing, even though I Can't Sing
because the acoustics hit you the minute you walk in that
(05:32):
room. What kind of things?
Let's start at the ground and work our way down to the
Hammerstein. What if you recorded in the
Grand? And what makes that room so
special? Because it is?
OK, what makes the Grand so special is that it was.
It was built in in 1922 by the Scottish Masons, the Ancient
(05:56):
Order of Free Scottish Freemasonry, and they were
renowned for building very elegant rooms for their own
purposes, for their own meetings, and in some cases
allowing their their their meeting spaces to be used by
others. We'll start, well, we're jumping
(06:17):
around the history, so let's start with this.
Yeah, let's. Let's start any place you want
because I want the full history here because I love this place.
Well, one thing I'm going to do,Diane, I'm going to answer your
questions so so you well. You know, my questions go all
over the place. Yes, but I'm going to answer the
one that's in play. So it's it's a beautiful,
(06:37):
vibrant room built on top of a larger venue, which is the
Hammerstein Ballroom. And it was built when the
Scottish Masons built that, whenthey acquired the building and
didn't necessarily know what to do with an Opera House, but knew
what they wanted to do for theirown.
(06:57):
Purposes. So then let's go backwards for
the sake of history and so I canunderstand this.
So the Hammerstein was an Opera House, Yes.
OK. Yes, it was built in 19 O 6 by
Oscar Hammerstein the 1st and I I just you know, Ken Burns.
(07:21):
If you're looking we need to do a documentary on Oscar
Hammerstein, the first, or we need to do a, a, a film, a full
blown film. He is an, he is an extraordinary
character who had an indelible influence on New York, on
theater, on on music, on many, many facets of life.
(07:47):
And so if I go back to who he was for a few moments, yeah.
Please. He grew up in Pomerania, which I
had to look up some time back. It is a place that would be
somewhere between on the border of Germany and Poland.
He grew up in a middle class family, the eldest son and he,
(08:12):
he was greatly influenced by hismother, who had real musical
chops and imbued that in her eldest son.
He loved music, he loved classical music, but he fell in
love with opera. So at the age of 15 his mother
died and a combination of reasons but one being well, I
(08:35):
can think of two things because many of us in this city and in
this country are immigrants. But something was calling him to
be elsewhere than where he grew up.
And the fact that his mother died and that his father was not
a very caring, loving and non brutal person.
So at the age of 15, he hopped on a boat and came to New York
(09:00):
and landed, landed here, middle of the Civil War, New York City.
And his first job was sweeping the floor of a tobacco factory,
earning $3 a week within 10. Within a few years he was.
(09:23):
The first thing he started to dowas learn his trade and after
some years he actually founded an industry journal on the
tobacco industry in New York. He rose up through the ranks.
He looked at how things were being done and in his own
innovative and creative way introduced new changes to the
(09:46):
industry of making cigars. Some of his inventions were
patented and he was obviously quite successful and he even
revised the paper that is used for rolling cigars.
So on the foundation of his 1520year career in the tobacco
(10:10):
industry, cigar making industry,he established a financial
foundation upon which he could pursue his real passion.
And his real passion as it was imbued in him from his mother
was music and in particular opera.
And so he wanted to build. His ultimate goal was to build
(10:33):
an Opera House. So this is the Oscar Hammer.
The Oscar Hammerstein's first ballroom.
Yes. No, no.
No. No, his it's not even his first
Opera House. Really.
His first Opera House was calledthe Harlem Opera House in 125th
(10:54):
St., which was Scrabble country.Goats, sheep, cows.
Not too many people living there, but he thought if I build
a theater, they will come. And in order to induce people to
come, he actually built a residential, about 55 dwelling
places, then built a second studio at a second theater
(11:18):
there. And, and people started to go
Uptown to the Harlem Opera House.
Big name people who would be in the city, they would make it up
there and people would go up there because he, with his
innovative mind, he designed everything impeccably.
(11:40):
The sound you were talking aboutthe sound, the sounds, the
lights, the colors, the experience.
And his real passion was to makeopera accessible to ordinary
people, as opposed to the Stush as a major making friends would
say, the snobby Stush people whowere going to the Met not to
(12:02):
really listen to the music, although I'm sure many.
For the social experience. To be seen and to see and to
gather the news of the day. So 2 theaters Uptown by now.
Then he built the First Manhattan Opera House, which is
on 34th, was on 34th St., probably the site of where
(12:25):
Macy's is. Really.
Yes. Oh.
My God, this. History is fantastic.
And that proved to be a financial disaster because he
wanted to hire the best artist. The best musicians get the best
costumes, get the best production people, and it adds
up. And on the back end, you want to
(12:46):
make the ticket price accessiblefor ordinary people, if they've
never experienced opera before, to come and experience it.
And once they would experience it, they would keep coming back.
But his intention was less aboutthe money and more about his
passion for what he was doing. So I'll just say a few more
(13:10):
things before we come back. No, I find this really
fascinating because, you know, you can see things built by
particularly, I don't know, the example you just gave is so
perfect that someone had this passion for music and opera.
Because when you do walk in thatroom, whether it's, you know,
(13:35):
lighting the structure of the room, whatever it is that.
Yes, the Hammerstein, everythingthat goes into the sound effect.
You know how the balcony has done everything.
Yeah. You know, you really say, I
wonder if someone who didn't love opera could have created
this. I'm not.
So if you were just straight andarchitect, it's like that
passion for something and bringing it into permanence.
(13:59):
Fascinating. Well, funny story to shoot
forward, Yeah. And you will bring me back to
your question. But anyway.
Whatever that was. There was, there was a Dublin
band called The Script, quite famous.
And there's they're still playing.
They're a top shelf. You know something about Dublin?
A little bit, yes. I only spent about 20 years
(14:19):
there. So.
I grew up, I could smell Guinness being me and not only
Dublin, as you know. As long as you've known me, I
don't just say I'm from Dublin, I go outside because it was the
scrappy part of Dublin. But the script came and they had
just shown up ready to start their their sound check.
(14:42):
And I went down and introduced myself and I knew something of
their music. And I remember, I think it was
the drummer, and they're just standing on the stage and they
look into the room, and if you come in there and it's empty, it
kind of looks cavernous. But they're used to playing
different venues, and they get afeel for a room pretty fast.
(15:02):
But he looked up the boxes on the sides, 3 on each side, the
two working balconies facing himand the floor.
And he said, this is so intimate.
Exactly. And I said, I'm glad you see
that. And tonight I can tell you, you
can see the eyes of most people in this room while you're
(15:26):
playing. Oh, that.
And, and they can see yours. And so I think to see a touring
band, 3500 people. We had Fontaine's DC here a
little while ago. Oh.
My gosh, that I was blown away because the last one I think I
(15:46):
saw here was New Order about, I don't know, 10 years ago or
something. And they were phenomenal and the
whole experience was unbelievable.
But being in that first balcony or second balcony, looking down
at the crowd, the energy as the crowds came in, as the balconies
filled up, you know, and those are two big balconies up there.
(16:07):
And as the crowd started to move, it's awesome.
Awesome. That's why I when you mentioned
that other place across the street, I said, yeah, I'd heard
of it. I've been to shows there, and I
have. I have to say, Diane, for
someone who loves music and comes from the only country in
(16:27):
the world that has a musical emblem, symbol as its national
symbol, a music instrument as its national symbol, the harp,
it's just in my DNA. But to be able to be in a room
like that, as intimate as it is,and to see that quality of
touring bands come through, never mind the other bands who
(16:51):
show up for private galas, television specials.
One of my favorites used to be country music.
Television used to come here, part of the whole MTV, VH1
family, and they had a show. I think it still continues in
some iteration or other, but it was called Crossroads.
And. You would take a country artist
(17:13):
and a non country artist and they would perform together.
And the unusual nature of them getting together in such a way
always produce some magic. Because the country artist has
been the country artist, the rocker has been the rocker or
pop singer, whoever it was. You know, that is so
interesting. And talk about something ahead
(17:35):
of its time. Just this weekend, I was in a
car with our 25 year old daughter and she's like, I'm one
of those people who flips the dial, flips the dial, flips the
dial. Maybe I listen for, you know, a
minute of the song, then I flip the dial.
Yeah. Yeah.
She's like, mom, hold it there. This is the new trend.
It's country singers with pop stars.
Oh. Yeah, yes.
(17:56):
And duets and collaborations andall that.
Something magical happens when people are out of their lane.
And you know, one of them I can think of was Brad Paisley and
John Mayer downstairs. Oh wow.
The other one I loved and I don't know if I'm allowed to
tell the story, but the other one was.
Tell it anyway. OK, Dave.
(18:16):
Dave Matthews and Emmylou Harrisupstairs.
Really. Yes.
Interesting combo. Yes, yeah, what can I say about
the song the performance did. You like it?
I did it was, it was wonderful. It was wonderful.
I'll, I'll, I'll try and tell itsomewhat discreetly.
(18:37):
So they're doing the sound checkand I will describe Dave
Matthews as, as we all would recognize, he's singing away.
He's on the guitar and he's in the microphone and he's just
going at it. Emmylou is Queen Regal Emmylou,
and she's doing a the duet and you know the the harmony.
(18:58):
Dave screeches to a halt. When the song finishes.
He says something to her. I'll just say that.
He says something to her and shelooks at him and she walks over
to him and she just puts her armaround him.
And they walk to the back of thestage of our grand ballroom,
which is a very large stage. They have a few words and they
(19:21):
come back. Amy Liu is exactly the same and
Dave is. Chill.
Changed and ready to continue. Oh my gosh.
And we're sitting in the front row.
Whoa. What just happened?
What just happened? But you know the beauty of what
happened, whatever it was, they came back and when they
(19:44):
performed together, it was just a fantastic evening and these
duets and collaborations. I love those.
I mean, my daughter laughs to me.
My husband got me to listen to Rob Thomas at one point and when
he did his collaboration Smooth with Carlos Santana, which I
(20:05):
think was a Clive Davis idea. But when they put those two
together, I mean, I could just listen to the combo.
Yes. Over and over and over again,
because there's something just so sexy and cool and ageless.
You've got such a span of musical talent.
But it all merges, yes, totally different styles.
Yes, and I was here when they sang together in the
(20:28):
Hammerstein. Oh, now you're making me really
jealous. Where was I?
Was the end of the Supernatural tour and it's a long story, but
I can. Oh, give us some color on that
I'll. Give you some color.
I'm born on Halloween and my good friend, her name is Obie
O'Brien, who is the director of operations for our studios, is
(20:52):
born exactly one day after me. And so somewhere around those
dates, I think it might have been actually on her birthday
and they were performing. Carlos was performing with other
artists, not everybody who was, but Rob Thomas was there.
And it was almost like the the ultimate finale and everybody in
(21:13):
the places dancing, just dancing.
We had a little pregame and we were in perfect form dancing and
the concert. That whole album is just
extraordinary. And to see Carlos live.
Unbelievable. Magic, mystical.
Doing his thing was just a treat.
But they get to Supernatural. No smooth and everybody's
(21:36):
dancing with everybody. I'm in our box.
We have a box that's kind of avip box and everybody's dancing
with each other and I'm dancing and, and then, you know,
everything comes to a close and everybody leaves.
I walk in the next morning and Ipass Obie's desk and I say,
Obie, what a treat for you on your birthday that you could
(21:56):
have this concert. And she looked at me and she
just said, well, you certainly enjoyed yourself.
She said, me, didn't you enjoy yourself?
Everybody in the house enjoyed themselves.
She said, well, you know who youwere dancing with?
And I said, somebody, every we're all dancing.
She said that was Carlos Santana's wife.
(22:18):
Oh, OK. Were you behaving yourself?
Of course. I was I was being the perfect
host making. I wanted to make every make sure
everybody was comfortable in dancing.
Oh my gosh, that's hilarious. Great night.
So, so back-to-back to Oscar. Yeah.
So he had built the two at 125thSt.
(22:41):
You have a career as a comedian.No, I don't.
Yeah, you might, because you're very good at recall.
Bring it back to where we were. That's a.
Professional occupation. Bring the witness back.
So we got 2 up in 120 5th St. the Manhattan Opera House on
34th St. Macy's Way.
(23:02):
Then he goes to Times Square andhe builds at least another 5
theaters over as many years. And that's why he came to be
known as the father of Times Square.
There was no Times Square. It was called Long Acre Square
at that time. And about 10 years later it
(23:24):
became known as Times Square. So by the time he came here in
19 O 6 to build the Manhattan Opera House, because the first
one floundered, the Harlem one went its own course.
We're now at 19 O 6, but he's already built about 7 theaters
(23:46):
before he got here. Oh.
My gosh. And in each place looking for
innovation, design, sound, music, artists.
And all the time following his passion, he wanted people to
have a good time, like the nightwith Supernatural in the hammers
thing. He wanted everybody to have a
(24:07):
good time and ordinary people. And paying a a, a worker, you
know, a good price. So you can see the inevitable
collision. On the one hand, trying to do it
all and on the other hand tryingto take care of all.
But it's hard to do so. His real passion was opera.
(24:30):
And so he built this building in19 O 6 and as an Opera House.
And in mid-december of 19 O six,the first performance curtains
opened. And I think it was a Bellini
opera and I forget who starred in it and how how it went, but
(24:55):
it was well received and for thenext 4 years he was doing opera
here until 1910. Wow, I loved hearing that
history. Yeah.
Did you read that in a book? How'd you find all that?
Out I I well, where did? You find that history.
It's not a single book, but whenwe reopened, when Manhattan
(25:19):
Center Studios did a renovation of the opera, what was a a
building venue downstairs that had been the original Opera
House had long gone. And it had been changed over the
years. But then somebody thought to
(25:39):
bring it back to its former grandeur.
And so it was a stripped down demolition.
And so it looked like something from a war zone.
Oh. My gosh.
Stripped. Down.
I can't even imagine that because you walk into them now,
they're truly magical. You feel like you're looking at
gorgeous architecture. Yes.
(25:59):
And I mean, the when I look up and I see those, what do you
call them? The balconies and the booths?
Yes, they're just the boxes. The boxes, Yes, they're so
pretty. And the ceiling and the.
Ceiling. Oh my gosh.
The original ceiling had been closed off back in the 40s.
Huh. The the third balcony had been
(26:22):
closed. Closed like they covered it.
Yeah, they didn't use it really yes and the and the floor got
changed. It wasn't any more a raped floor
when an orchestra pit as you would need for opera.
So it had gone undergone a majorchange before the stripped down
anticipating returning it to itsformer grandeur so.
(26:46):
How long did that renovation take?
Around what year? Did it reopened in 97?
So probably about two years. The renovation I was done in
house with a lot of our own people and team and obviously a
lot of additional, you know, architects, engineers and
everything else were brought on and then an additional staff to
(27:08):
do that. But it opened in, I think it was
a, a post Grammy Sony. It was a post Grammy Sony.
After Party was the first event after it had been opened and
renovated. And then it became, you know,
the hottest house in New York City.
Because it's the new venue. You can use it for music.
(27:31):
You can use it for special events next year.
It won 22 awards, Poll star and I forget the other industry
magazine, the best new venue. And it got off to a roaring
start, and it's been roaring ever since.
Now you said you you've got concerts here.
(27:52):
Yes, you've got. What kind of events do you
throw? Corporate events?
Are they industry events? What kind of events happen?
Downstairs we do, yes. It it runs the whole gamut of
anything you can imagine. We do product launches.
Really. Yeah, Samsung a couple of years
ago did a major, major product launch.
(28:14):
That's interesting. And I love going down there when
you have a client with that caliber booking in here for
about two weeks, completely redoing the room.
And I go down just to see what'shappening and you walk into the
room and it's just completely transformed.
(28:34):
Pirelli tires did one of every year they go around the world
and I think it's celebrating their and you know, another
birthday and they did a major, major event here.
So product launches, fashion shows, corporate corporate
(28:54):
events, you know, dinner and speakers, media tours.
The CEO comes here, some tech company, a panel on the stage,
and it's been broadcast internationally or broadcast
domestically. Yeah.
Fundraising events, political fundraising events.
One of my favorite events, Senator Obama was here with
(29:17):
Misses Obama and they were doinga big fundraiser.
DNC sponsored. And the music for that evening
were Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen and Saturday and
somebody else. And to see those two perform and
and interact was just extraordinary nonprofits.
(29:42):
Nile Rodgers. Still comes here.
His nonprofit is We Are Family, of course, and he will usually
give an award to some celebrity and then that celebrity will
come. And if it's a musician, then
they will play together. One of my favorite ones in
recent years was We Are Family. We're honoring Bono.
(30:05):
Oh wow, so. Bono came, and, you know,
there's the dinner and whatever announcements.
Sometimes if it's a nonprofit, there may be a silent auction
and then a live auction, and then the music performance
starts. So Bono came, He was honored.
(30:26):
He said a few words as as he's one to do a few words turned
into a few more words and gave alovely gracious speech.
And then he started singing withthe band.
And then about his fourth song, I saw him do what he had done at
the sound check. And I've met him when he has
(30:47):
been here over over times. But he when the events, when the
dinner and all the proceedings are over, the music starts,
people tend to stand up and movetowards the stage because they
want to. They want to start dancing and
partying and get close. About halfway through his final
song, he walks off the stage, walks in front of the stage
(31:09):
where the densest portion of thecrowd is.
They make space and they can't believe he's walking among us
and he's still singing and he's looking back at the band and
singing. And then he turns around and he
continues to sing, walks into the middle of the room, stands
up in a chair, finishes his song, steps down, hands the
(31:33):
microphone to somebody, and he walks out the front of the
Manhattan Center. That would leave a lot of people
speechless. Yes, Alicia Keys is coming here
again this year. Keep a Child Alive.
It's an organization that does great work in Africa and
primarily treating children withAIDS.
And she is the patron celebrity for that event.
(31:56):
And she has, she's been great tomeet, great to see perform.
And again, the great thing aboutthose events, similar to the
Crossroads, you've got Bono singing with Chic and Rodgers.
Now you got Alicia Keys and somebody, whoever she may have
invited, Lenny Kravitz. It was one night and they
(32:16):
perform and it's again one of these great evenings.
US Ski and Sports, the foundation that runs all of US
skiing and winter sports. They did a big fundraiser here
and Sheryl Crow was the the mainact.
And after they showed some of the artists, some of the skiers
(32:39):
and, you know, yeah, skiers and skaters show how they train for
some things. Huge big trampolines on the
stage. Then all that dramatic stuff
finishes the dinner, the fundraising, and then along
comes Cheryl and knocks it out of the ballpark.
It's. Corporate events, Fundraisers.
(32:59):
House Transitional The room is how it can go from, you know,
tables and dinners to concerts at the same night, to live
auctions to displays on stage toa band on stage.
It's really phenomenal. Yeah, yes, you triggered a
memory of oh, we had, we had. We've done, you know, in both
(33:23):
venues. We do a lot of sports and
martial arts, boxing, wrestling,mixed martial arts, WWE type
wrestling and other events. But one that I was there and it
was the top of the bill in the boxing was a Orthodox Jewish
(33:45):
boxer somewhere in Eastern Europe.
The ring girls were not allowed to wear their usual attire.
They had to robe up and he was expected to win.
I'll just say the judges gave him the win and right after he
stopped on the stage the ring was set up in the round
(34:06):
underneath the the 75 foot ceiling.
And after the boxing finish the stage was further back towards
our building goes from 34th St. to 35th St. the stage being
closer to 35th St. And when he finished, lights
came up and there was Matt as Yahoo performing and it was a
(34:27):
terrific. It was early in his career or
well, he was well established bythem, but to segue from boxing
and. Oh my gosh.
Now you've got a Mataziahu live music performance.
It was great. I had a couple of my boys here
that night, so they got boxing and they got music.
Unbelievable. Yeah.
(34:48):
Now, is it producers that come in and set these things up or
you know, event production companies?
How does that work? Most of the top shelf events
that are held here, the client will come with a production
company, but that production company will inevitably interact
(35:10):
with our own in house productionteam.
So depending upon the size and the scope of the event, we can
do the production or we collaborate.
And obviously if somebody's coming into the house they need
to know where the the plugs are.But it's far more than that.
The full integration of top shelf production companies
(35:31):
coming to work with our top shelf production in house team
and they make it seamless. Now let's, let's talk further
about that because we've been talking about the Hammerstein
and the Grand and the grand events you can have here, yes.
You've also got iconic recordingstudios, yes, and you've had
some interesting people in thosestudios, including people that
(35:55):
have made them their homes almost, and they've rehearsed
here and recorded here and engineered here and produced
here. So give us some scoop on that,
Peter. OK.
Well, again, we're very fortunate because of the, our
studios are are well acclaimed, well appreciated for what's in
(36:16):
the studios. And again, our staff who are
interacting with whoever it is that's coming in.
And we've had a great roster of producers who have been here
over the years. Jack Douglas.
Directly How I Met you in the 1st.
Place, yes, courtesy of Jack. Yeah, Jack, if you're listening,
(36:38):
thank you for introducing me to.Diane, thank you, Jack and Jay.
Jay the scene also. Great producers.
One of the standouts is is Timberland.
And. Mid 90s he pretty much made the
Log Cabin, which is one of our studios that is intended to
(37:01):
provide artists with a a getawayspace.
And that's what exactly what it feels like.
Yeah, stone and rock and and logs some and logs, very big
trees that when they were put inthere by our team who designed
in house and built in house, obviously with experts support
(37:27):
and mechanics and engineers and architects.
And but the trees that one of our production guys, he used to
be a roadie with a with an English band for many years, but
he became our director of production.
He was dispatched upstate to go to a tree farm to buy trees, to
make logs to put in the studio. Robert Carville is his name and
(37:48):
the tree. So he showed up at the tree
farm. He said, I'd like some trees
please. And the farmer said, well, which
trees? Well, trees for our studio, OK,
we'll pick them. So he picked the trees with the
farmer. They cut them down.
They stripped them down. And because they were so
recently harvested, they were put in place after some drying
(38:10):
out and whatever. But in some of the early days
that people would be in the studio and they would hear an
unusual sound, but it was just the trees adjusting themselves
to settle into place between thestone and the rock and the
floor. So but Timberland made it his
studio and had a great array of of artists come in here, Missy
(38:32):
Elliott, Aaliyah, Justin Timberlake and his great
engineer Jimmy Douglas. And we got to see somebody,
whatever status he was at when he came, but become, you know, a
national and a global figure and, and, and the amount of
music he recorded here was extraordinary.
(38:55):
And what our staff used to be amazed by, a lot of things would
get done and it would get inventoried.
And he could recall not from a computer, he would recall,
remember that track. And he would send one of our
crew up there to retrieve the track, bring it down, whether it
was done a year ago, two years ago or three, four years ago.
(39:15):
And he integrated into whatever he was doing.
One of my favourites was meetingmy hero Tom Petty in In Our Log
Cabin. He had just dropped one of his
solo albums and was doing a Clear Channel nationwide
promotion. DJ from LA came out, interviewed
(39:38):
him, play a track, chit chat, play a track, chit chat and it
was just wonderful to have him here.
But that's Studio 4. If you're if you're good, I
would like to talk about Studio 7.
Please do, I want to hear about them all.
So we can get to film score. Oh.
OK. OK, we'll talk about film.
(39:59):
So we're talking about concerts,we're talking about events,
we're talking about recording albums.
If they use the word albums these days sound and now we're
going into film school, yes. What?
What's the difference in? Well, we well films as work, as
we all know, is it's an acceptedfactor of, you know, a musical
(40:23):
experience is hearing the music and how the music contributes to
a given film. But we didn't always have films
scores. In fact, up until 1926, there
was no such thing as a film score.
You had an somebody playing an organ or you had a little band
or an orchestra playing. And it's funny these days to see
(40:44):
recreations of that where Red Bull will produce events, it's a
movie and they'll have a live orchestra playing.
And that's how it was before Warner Brothers perfected their
Vitaphone system in 1926. And we can say, and we continue
to do film score, we can say we've been doing it longer than
(41:06):
anybody else because the the very first film score was done
in our grand ballroom in 1926 bythe Warner Brothers.
The movie was Don Juan. They had done a lot of recording
in a studio in Brooklyn, but it wasn't quite working and it
wasn't quite going right. So they move things over to hear
(41:30):
Manhattan Center and to our grand ballroom and and got it
and finished it. And it was even though there was
no talking in the movie. And I like that.
My take away is music always comes first.
So it was it was a silent film, but a film that had an
(41:52):
integrated film score in it. And the Warner Brothers then
were very happy with what they had done and their experience
and they went to the West Coast and the rest, the rest is
history, so. You know, it's so interesting
when you think of film scores because you don't often think
about them. But I saw I could have been
(42:13):
Steven Spielberg or someone getting lectured and he talked
about, or maybe it was the person who did his film scores
saying, here's the movie. You know, if you've seen it,
what comes to your mind and what's missing when you watch
this And with that film score absent, Like, I can't listen to
the song Layla anymore, even though I've always loved the
(42:35):
song without thinking of the scene in Goodfellas or whatever
it is, you know, with them driving, you know, or you think
of, I mean, any movie, how that film score changes every aspect
of how you remember the movie orhow you feel.
Yes. Wow, are you doing film score
still now? Yes, the most recent film score
(42:55):
we did was for Spike Lee and hismovie that's going to be
released, I believe sometime before Christmas.
High and low or highest and lowest?
It's a take on a Kurosawa film and the score was done here.
But you mentioned something and you prompt another story there.
Tell me, getting, getting, What did you say?
(43:18):
Getting lectured or getting getting towed off or something.
OK so so one of our great fans in the film score world is
Elliot Goldenthal and his significant other Julie Tamar.
When Julie gets an independent film, Elliot, who's a classical
(43:41):
music composer, if he's I'm not going to say anything, he will
always get the film from you. The opportunity to do the film
score. And so I heard he was here.
One of the films, the films theydid here or he did the film
score for was Freda, for which he won.
(44:03):
He won an Oscar for best film score.
I don't think it was Freda, but some other film.
And I heard he was here. So I got myself together and I
came down, you know, there's 150piece, 120 piece orchestra.
On the. Floor of the grand ballroom, and
I don't think we got to this before, but the natural
acoustics of that room are are special.
(44:25):
Special is the perfect word because they are so unusual.
You can only say special. Yes.
So I see him. It's a quiet moment and I go
over and I was president of the company, I think at the time and
I went over and introduced myself, welcomed him yet again
and thanked him for being here and and he said something nice
(44:48):
about the room. Nice.
Maybe he said something more. He paid a beautiful compliment
to the room, but he said it to me.
And as we I explained earlier, I'm from Northside Dublin and
I've had discussions with some of my Irish friends from time to
time. Why can't we accept a
(45:10):
compliment? It's always a good question.
And I came up with in the wee hours of the morning, after much
discourse with a friend of mine,a singer-songwriter from
Ireland. And it's this.
When you've been oppressed for 400 something years and subject
to all sorts of abusive laws andwhatever else, when somebody
(45:33):
above pays you a compliment, you're never too sure is the
hand coming back. So we tend to shy.
Or some people might interpret it as modesty, but it's
something else. Anyway, back to Elliot.
Very interesting. So Elliot says something good
about the room and I do something pathological and just
(45:57):
let it let it go by and he cut it.
And so he was, we started off about this distance apart and my
recollection, he certainly movedtowards me.
And as he's moving towards me, he's telling me just how good
(46:17):
this room is. And he recites to me getting
about midway. I've done 75 film scores all
around the world, Peter, including Abbey Road and other
places. And now he's almost not quite.
Right. But moving in giving you, giving
you the body language. And almost within finger in the
(46:41):
PEC, yeah, closeness. And he says at the end, and your
job is to protect this room. Oh my gosh.
This is. My second time getting.
Goose mastering this and now I'mgoing to bring this back to Dave
Matthews. I was a little bit like Dave
Matthews after after Emmylou hadspoken to him and I realized
(47:04):
this was a compliment of all compliments.
It is, but when the Scottish Masons built it, they it's.
Perfect. That almost makes me feel
cheery. I mean, that's like, that's like
a really, it's a very moving compliment and it's an honor to
have been told it by someone so accomplished, like.
That, yes. And that's why every time, just
(47:26):
about every time I give a tour, I have to honor Elliot by
pointing out just what he did and helped me and what it said
about the room. But we're very fortunate and
I'll come back around. Steven Spielberg's redo of West
Side Story was done. All of the music was done in the
(47:50):
Grand Ballroom using our Studio 7 because I just about an hour
ago was talking about Studio 4 and now I'll talk about Studio
7. It is integrated with both
ballrooms and most especially with the Grand Ballroom because
that's where we do our film scores or Broadway cast albums
or other classical music performances because they love
(48:14):
the room. It's natural acoustics.
Now you're saying integrated, sosomeone could be recording,
let's say a concert in the Grand, but you're picking that
up in Studio 7 and you can be recording.
And TV 2 control room, we can belive broadcasting it.
(48:36):
So in that instance, and I'm glad you mentioned it, it's
using one of our recording studios, using our control room
and using our venue, in this case the the Grand Ballroom.
OK, this is this is definitely something that should be
repeated more than once. So I want to make sure we get
this because frankly, I'm going to make this a clip because it's
(48:58):
a really good point. So someone could come in here,
they can have host a concert, have a concert.
People come in here. Sorry.
OK, go ahead. Yeah, let's hear.
No, please. You.
No. Let's take it from the top.
So people come in here? Yep, and they.
To Manhattan Center. To Manhattan Center with all the
efficiencies we offer by extending, in this case, let's
(49:21):
say it's a live music show. And in fact go back to
Crossroads. We don't have trucks, so we have
our TV 2 control room. They're broadcasting it live or
recording it for later broadcast.
The music is going to be mixed in Studio 7 right adjacent to
the Grand Ballroom, and then thebroadcast will be done out of
(49:43):
our TV control. And right down the hall from the
control room is our transmissionroom.
And it can go anywhere. And that's why I often say,
Diane, all roads lead to the Manhattan Center and all roads
lead from the Manhattan Center. So Steven Spielberg is here for
West Side Story. All of it done here.
(50:06):
And I come in, a kid who fell inlove with America because of
watching movies when I was a kid, the West Side Story, I
loved it, huge John Wayne fan. But I come in, I'm on my way to
work, and this is one of the loveliest things about working
in a building like this. And I'm ready to go into my
(50:27):
office and I know they're in andfigure they're probably due to
start. I sneak into the upper balcony
and I can look down on the floor.
The orchestra is ready and do them all.
Lifts his baton and it's the prelude to Maria.
(50:48):
Oh my gosh. And I'm on my way to work.
I love this film. And in that room?
I mean, I'm like, seriously, Peter, I think that's now the
third or fourth time I literallygot goosebumps.
Says you're telling stories. That's such a funny physical
reaction to get the stories. Oh, well, good.
(51:08):
Wow. And yes, it is a it's a very
uncommon place and a very special place.
And Oscar, I think we take seriously the historical legacy
that we inherit, and I think we try not to forget it.
And what was he doing trying to produce the highest quality
(51:30):
entertainment for ordinary New Yorkers?
Why? They could be entertained, but
more than being entertained, they could be changed.
Their life could be improved. They could have some inspiration
while they're here and go from here and design some great
(51:52):
building or be the best teacher or be a great music teacher or
suddenly remember something thatthey had forgotten along life's
journey and go home. And but I like to think that's
part of what we're doing here isengaging people, elevating
people and ennobling their livesby what we're extending and what
(52:17):
our clients are coming in and producing.
And that makes it a transformative place.
I, I think you're you're nailingthat, you know, in in a lot of
ways. I know when I walk in here to
record these podcasts, yes, it'sit's such a first of all, I love
the sound in this room. It feels like it's got this
(52:37):
great mojo the minute you walk in yes, every guest has the same
reaction. It's just, it's, it's, it's
transformative and it and it andI walk out, I'm on a high for
the afternoon. It's like, and it's and it's
everything and this everyone youhave here, like literally from
the minute you walk in the door and it's like, hi Jackie, how
(52:58):
are you? You know, everyone, you know,
whether whoever is here, you just have, you know, when I see
Dave in the hallway, you know, where he's walking.
Whoever it's such, it's a reallyspecial place.
It's it's so unusual in so many ways.
You know, one thing I wanted to go back to is you mentioned no
(53:22):
sound trucks. Can we talk about that again?
And can you explain, you know, because so often you go places
and there's that, you know, hugesound truck outside.
Yeah, but you don't have that. Well, I say that as a general
proposition and that was always our intention, because I think
(53:42):
you were looking to go back and repeat it and I and I
interrupted you earlier, but everything is integrated.
I could pretty much guarantee I did the interrupting, no?
I think you I did at that point,but everything is integrated.
So it adds great efficiency. And you come in here and a lot
of stuff is taken care of by Josh, our engineer who's
(54:04):
recording this and others who are here during very good hands
and the efficiencies that it offers.
So the bold thing is we, we don't need a recording truck
come up here. We don't need ATV truck to come
up here. But there are occasions when a
client believes they need to do so and want to do so prior
(54:26):
relationships, the production company they're working with.
But by and large, we try and, and, and limit that.
And when people appreciate what we offer, then, you know, it's
their call. Like for example, the sound that
you heard when you were watchingFontaine, DC Pete Austin, you
(54:47):
know, did his research and he was our director of of
productions and we identified the very best sound system for
that room. If somebody is coming a touring
band and they're touring with all their gear and stuff, we
will let them know if they want to you.
Got it. If they want to, they can.
(55:09):
We can take down our stuff. They can put their stuff up and
then they can take down their stuff and then help us to put
back our stuff. But when they hear what our
stuff is, often times that's unnecessary because of just
what's here. And then the team that's knows
(55:31):
it best and cares for it best and takes care of it.
Right. So Oh my gosh, you know, I have
a feeling we went over on this podcast because I think the
clock used to countdown and thenit goes.
I think it started counting up. So I'm not sure because I
totally missed any timer, but I didn't want this to end.
So I'm good with whatever lengthof this podcast.
(55:54):
We'll find out from Josh after. I have no idea.
We'll find out if I totally ignored the clock of.
Course, he's supposed. To watch.
He's the master of the house. But Peter Ross, general counsel
here at Manhattan Center, thank you so much for your time.
I enjoyed the history, really understanding this iconic spot
(56:16):
in New York a lot more. It's a treasure.
It really is. Whether it's a concert or, you
know, I'm noticing something on TV and I say, oh, I recognize
that. It's just a cool place, you
know, built from the history, the inside out and the people.
You you sum it up well. Thank you.
(56:37):
Thank you very much for allowingme to speak in my own studio,
our own studio, but most especially thank you for
allowing me to be part of this wonderful series that you have
developed and I'm delighted by our collaboration so.
I'm the lucky 1. Well, I want to thank you all.
(56:57):
This has been the Silver disobedience perception Dynamics
podcast. I'm Diane Grisell.
We have been in iconic Manhattancenter.
I've been talking with Peter Ross, who's given us a really
great history. And I really recommend follow
Manhattan Center to see what's going on here.
There's so many cool things going on.
Pay attention to their social media feed.
Check in on the website, you know, if you're a business, pay
(57:21):
attention when you have an event, this is where you want to
have it because it is a cool place, no doubt about it.
So come check it out for sure. So yeah, that's a plug.
And that's just on my own volition because I just love
this place. So thanks for watching.
Please subscribe.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Law & Order: Criminal Justice System - Season 1 & Season 2
Season Two Out Now! Law & Order: Criminal Justice System tells the real stories behind the landmark cases that have shaped how the most dangerous and influential criminals in America are prosecuted. In its second season, the series tackles the threat of terrorism in the United States. From the rise of extremist political groups in the 60s to domestic lone wolves in the modern day, we explore how organizations like the FBI and Joint Terrorism Take Force have evolved to fight back against a multitude of terrorist threats.