The Manhattan Center is a building in
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...
,
New York City. Built in 1906 and located at 311 West 34th Street, it houses Manhattan Center Studios, the location of two recording studios; its Grand Ballroom; and the
Hammerstein Ballroom, a performance venue. In 1976, the building was purchased by its current owner, the
Unification Church, for $3 million. Some of the enterprises residing in the building include:
Telemundo,
Macy's, CFDA,
WeWork,
Facebook, iHeart Media,
Samsung, American Heart Association, Robin Hood,
FX Network, Endeavor,
MAC Cosmetics
MAC Cosmetics, stylized as M·A·C, is a Canadian cosmetics manufacturer founded in Toronto, Canada in 1984 by Frank Toskan and Frank Angelo. The company is headquartered in New York City after becoming a subsidiary of Estée Lauder Companies i ...
, Viacom, SiriusXM, NBA,
NBC Universal, Masterbeat, Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS.
History
The Manhattan Center was originally called the Manhattan Opera House and was built in 1906 by
Oscar Hammerstein I, and was located one half block east of the
9th Avenue Elevated's
34th Street station. Hammerstein boldly sought to compete with the established
Metropolitan Opera (at the time, located the first
Metropolitan Opera House, five blocks to the north) by offering grand opera to the New York public at lower ticket prices and with a superior orchestra and stage productions. Rapidly, it received critical acclaim and became a popular alternative to the Met, and many great operas and celebrated singers debuted at the new theater.
In 1910, after the Metropolitan Opera felt it could no longer tolerate the competition, it offered Hammerstein $1.2 million to cease producing opera for a period of 10 years. He accepted the offer and experimented with various other types of entertainment before ultimately selling the building. In March 1911, it was opened as a "combination" house by the
Shubert brothers featuring
vaudeville shows during the week and concerts on Sunday nights at affordable prices.
In 1922, the Manhattan Opera House was purchased by the
Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Free Masonry, who built a new building façade and a new Grand Ballroom on the seventh floor. In 1926, Warner Bros rented the ballroom to set up a studio for the
Vitaphone sound-on-disc system to record the
New York Philharmonic orchestra for the film ''
Don Juan''. That film marked the release of the inaugural commercial film featuring a recorded musical soundtrack.
By 1939, the name of the building had been changed to the Manhattan Center, now a multi purpose venue featuring a variety of different types of events. In 1986, Manhattan Center Studios was formed to develop the center into a venue with the capability of holding multimedia festivities. MCS expanded the audio recording facilities when Studio 4 was opened in 1993. Studio 7 was rebuilt in 1996 to become a state-of-the-art control room capable of servicing all types of recordings and live events in the ballrooms.
In March 1990, the company began investing in video equipment and studio facilities to expand into the video and television industry. The company's video post production facilities in Studio 9 were completed in 1993 and in the years that followed, two fully equipped television studios were built. Studio 1 was completed in 1994 and Studio 6 was completed in 1995. The connection of the studios to the Ballrooms makes them attractive venues for live broadcast events and webcasts. Studio 1 and Studio 6 were temporarily closed throughout the Spring and Summer of 2003 to complete extensive upgrades as the company entered into a three-year contract with Atlantic Video, a
Washington, D.C. based television services and production company.
Beginning in 1997, the Hammerstein Ballroom underwent a major renovation and reopened as a concert hall for popular musical acts.
Events
The Manhattan Center became a hot spot for "
big band" dances as well as trade shows, union meetings and other social functions.
Among the diverse events held here throughout the decades that followed were radio broadcasts, recordings and performances by such acts as
Bunny Berigan,
Paul Robeson,
Judy Garland,
Harry Belafonte,
Perry Como
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (; May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an Italian-American singer, actor and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, after signing ...
,
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...
,
David Bowie,
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, Folk music, folk, country music, country, jazz, bluegrass music, bluegrass, ...
,
Bob Marley,
Franco Luambo
François Luambo Luanzo Makiadi (6 July 1938 – 12 October 1989) was a Congolese musician. He was a major figure in 20th-century Congolese music, and African music in general, principally as the leader for over 30 years of TPOK Jazz, the most po ...
,
Evanescence,
Tool and
Alison Moyet
Geneviève Alison Jane Ballard ( ; born 18 June 1961) is an English singer noted for her powerful bluesy contralto voice. She came to prominence as half of the duo Yazoo (also known as Yaz), but has since mainly worked as a solo artist.
Her ...
, among others.
''
WWF Monday Night Raw
''WWE Raw'', also known as ''Monday Night Raw'' or simply ''Raw'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that currently airs live every Monday at 8 p.m. ET on the USA Network in the United States. The show fe ...
'' recorded its inaugural episode at the Grand Ballroom on January 11, 1993. A special ''Raw'' 25th anniversary special was co-hosted with the
Barclays Center
Barclays Center is a multi-purpose list of indoor arenas, indoor arena in the New York City Boroughs of New York City, borough of Brooklyn. The arena is home to the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association and the New York Liberty o ...
on January 22, 2018. The Hammerstein Ballroom has hosted
Extreme Championship Wrestling events in the years before its closing and in its revivals in 2005 and 2006. Since 2006, the Manhattan Center has played host to yearly
Ring of Honor
Ring of Honor (ROH) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. The promotion was founded by Rob Feinstein on February 23, 2002, and was operated by Cary Silkin from 2004 until 2011, when the promotion was so ...
events, both in the Grand Ballroom and the Hammerstein Ballroom. In 2014,
TNA TNA may refer to:
Organisations
* Tamil National Alliance, a political coalition in Sri Lanka
* The National Alliance, a political party in Kenya
* The National Archives (United Kingdom), a UK public body
* Tonga Nurses' Association, a trade union ...
taped multiple episodes of their ''
Impact Wrestling
Impact Wrestling (stylized as ''IMPACT! Wrestling''), is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Nashville, Tennessee. It is a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment.
Founded by Jeff and Jerry Jarrett in 2002, the promot ...
'' TV program at the Grand Ballroom on June 25–27, and then again August 5–7 and in 2015 also held their debut on
Destination America and taped upcoming episodes on January 7–9.
Several seasons of
NBC's ''
America's Got Talent
''America's Got Talent'' (often abbreviated as ''AGT'') is a televised American talent show competition, and is part of the global ''Got Talent'' franchise created by Simon Cowell. The program is produced by Fremantle (as well as distribut ...
'' were taped there.
The Manhattan Center was home to
Al Jazeera America's main studio and production facilities.
References
{{Authority control
1906 establishments in New York City
34th Street (Manhattan)
Extreme Championship Wrestling
Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
Music venues completed in 1906
Music venues in Manhattan
Opera houses in New York City
Recording studios in Manhattan
Sports venues in Manhattan
Television studios in the United States
Theatres completed in 1906
Unification Church and the arts
Unification Church properties
WWE