This black and white 1930s film (part 4 of a series made by architect Walter Harrington Kilham Jr.) depicts the construction of Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall in Midtown Manhattan, New York (TRT 17:22).

Title card: “The Building of Rockefeller Center” (0:08). “Todd, Robertson & Todd, Engineering Corporation – Todd & Brown – Managers” and “Reinhard & Hofmeister – Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray – Hodd & Fouilhoux – Architects” (0:17). In a staged shot, three men in boater hats look up at the Manhattan skyline from street level (0:30). Cameraman Walter H. Kilham pans a 16mm film camera. Kilham uses a film viewer on a small editing table to inspect footage (0:38). Intertitle: “Part One 1930-1931” (0:50). The Manhattan Skyline as seen from the East River, with the Brooklyn Bridge in the foreground. A newsstand. A news ticker. Sun peeking through clouds and a grated window. Smokestacks (0:55). The Graybar Building at 420 Lexington Ave., with passing pedestrians. An office door with decals indicating the architects previously noted (1:11). Drafting tables fill the office. A clock reads half past eight. A man pencils in a timesheet. Another man shaving. Another man using a drafting triangle while smoking a pipe (1:17). “An Early Model of the Accepted Scheme.” Draftsmen crowd around plans. A scale architectural model (1:42). An actual excavation site. A model, labeled “Number One Building” and “Theater No. 10.” Inside the architectural model, mock theatrical stage scenery. Sculpting the proscenium and balconies with clay. Radio City Music Hall takes shape (2:08). More model making: Sculpting, painting, assembly, plaster molding, detail work. Rockefeller Plaza finds its place (3:13). Aerial photography of Midtown (3:55). A rough diagram shows the placement of the “New Roxy,” the R.C.A. Building, the British Empire Building, La Maison Française, The R.K.O. Building, the Music Hall, spanning the area between 5th and 6th Avenue. The plan is filled in with greater detail, and Radio City Music Hall (No. 10 Theater) is highlighted (4:02). The Roxy (No. 8) is next indicated on the map and plaster model (4:48). “The French and British Buildings and the Plaza” (4:58). An architect smoking a pipe reviews an architectural drawing. A man in a suit with a cigarette uses a rotary telephone intercom system (5:29). Sign: “National Blue Print Co. Drawing Materials.” Inside, blueprints are reproduced and printed using the cyanotype process. Multiple copies are flipped through. An employee feeds a drawing into a printer. Cyanotypes on rollers are coated in chemicals and exposed (5:44). Cutting the completed blueprints into sheets using scissors. Rolling and sorting prints (6:23). Inside a larger model of Radio City, applying decorative paneling (6:57). A construction crew excavating with shovels, pick axes, hammers. A progress chart lists: Excavation, Foundations, Structural Steel, Arches & Fireproofing, Cement Finish (7:29). Trucks. A drill press. Intertitle, “Excavation” (7:34). A steam shovel dumps debris and hauls rocks. A truck: “DuPont Explosives.” A row of tractor engines. Drilling (8:12). Laying sticks of dynamite and blasting mats (9:13). A blasting machine and explosion (10:00). Break time. Workers file into the construction site. A wide panorama (10:28). Extended excavation continues with steam shovels and blasting (11:05). Men in silhouette on a rooftop. A sign: George J. Atwell Co. and jackhammers. Trucks clear debris (13:54). A man shovels stones. Cement is mixed and poured through chutes and into troughs. “Foundations for a Skyscraper” (14:40). Buckets of concrete are hoisted by a crane and dumped on target (15:43). Men shovel amidst clouds of steam. A large concrete mixer (16:33). Foundations take shape. Men stand atop elevated scaffolding (17:01).

Rockefeller Center is a mixed-use complex consisting of 19 commercial high-rise buildings in the Art Deco style. Walter Kilham worked under architect Raymond Hood, the chief designer of Rockefeller Center, and this series of films documents their historical collaboration. The handwritten title cards were likely intended to complement an in-person lecture. In addition to creating this series of films, Kilham also authored a 1933 book entitled, “Rockefeller Center: A Pictorial Record from Photographs.”