Saturday, December 9, 1933

Was going to town but Daddy got a carpentry job* so didn't go. Nadine and Ruth and I went up to Perky's. Played with Betty. Stayed at Mrs. Raifert's.

*Average annual construction worker's salary in 1933: $907.

1933 Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall, New York

The group was founded in St. Louis, Missouri by Russell Markert in 1925, and originally performed as the "Missouri Rockets." Markert had been inspired by the "Tiller Girls" in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1922, and was convinced that "If I ever got a chance to get a group of American girls who would be taller and have longer legs and could do really complicated tap routines and eye-high kicks... they'd knock your socks off!" The group was brought to New York City by Samuel Roxy Rothafel to perform at his Roxy Theatre and renamed the "Roxyettes." When Rothafell left the Roxy Theatre to open Radio City Music Hall, the precision dance troupe followed and later became known as the Rockettes. The group performed as part of opening night at Radio City Music Hall in 1932.