There's something charmingly old-fashioned about The Rockettes of Radio City Music Hall, and the idea that even now, 80 years after the heyday of vaudeville, our hearts are expected to beat faster at the sight of 36 pairs of fabulous gams, raised high in a femoral salute.
When I first suggested to my fellow TV Clubbers that it might be fun to take on some holiday specials during this slow TV month, I confess that I had visions of us gleefully pecking away at "Sonny and Cher in the '70s"-style cheese. What I didn't expect was the network TV version of Leg Show. Over the course of NBC's hourlong Radio City Christmas Spectacular, I saw Rockettes in reindeer costumes (complete with antlers!), Rockettes in Santa suits (flashing their Fosse jazz hands!), and Rockettes in tin soldier outfits (getting shot by a cannon and falling backwards in slow motion!). Mostly though, I saw shins and thighs, lovingly lit and photographed in HD.
Over the years, The Rockettes–and this Christmas show in particular–have become family entertainment, which is something that NBC kept emphasizing throughout the telecast, by showing awestruck children in the audience, cradled by their delighted moms and dads. But personally, I never quite know how to react to scantily clad dancers or gyrating cheerleaders in the context of wholesome family fun. I'm not saying I'm opposed to it–unless my wife is reading this, in which case I find the whole prospect of half-dressed women on public display completely revolting–but it's definitely…curious.
But I was just as intrigued by the "New York-y"-ness of this whole Spectacular, because I'm a southern boy who's never been to NYC, and so the city's yuletide traditions–like lighting the tree, going ice skating, and yes, visting Radio City Music Hall–all seem like something out of a fairybook to my hayseed ass. In the middle of the show, The Rockettes performed a long number–so long in fact that NBC had to take a commercial break in the middle of it–that was all about touring The Big Apple on a double-decker bus, seeing the holiday sights, and then stepping off the coach to stretch the legs a little. (Or make that a lot.) It all made New York look like the capital of Christmas.