SAVING RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL: A DANCER'S TRUE STORY Hits the Shelves

At last, the true story of how Radio City Music Hall, Art Deco masterpiece, iconic cultural landmark, and New York City's premiere tourist attraction for generations, was saved from demolition is told.

Saving Radio City Music Hall: a Dancer's True Story, by Rosemary-Novellino Mearns, is now available from TurningPointPress.

Nearly forty years later and after years of intense research, Rosemary Novellino-Mearns tells the amazingly honest, fact-filled, emotionally charged, and often humorous story of how she motivated a small group of dedicated colleagues and friends to join forces to save Radio City Music Hall. Encouraged by having touched the hearts of New York and the Nation with their early efforts, they continued to challenge the Rockefeller establishment and political forces determined to raze the building. Against all odds, Rosemary, her small group of determined idealists, a few well-placed public figures and media allies, succeeded in saving "The Showplace of the Nation."

A modest but determined young dancer from Glen Rock, New Jersey, Rosemary Novellino joined the Music Hall Ballet Company, the classical counterpart to the world-famous Rockettes, in 1966. After a shaky beginning, she danced with the group for twelve years, eventually becoming its Dance Captain and Assistant to the legendary choreographer Peter Gennaro.

In the mid-1970s, questionable behind-the-scenes changes in Music Hall management alarmed hundreds of employees, but no one was prepared for the official announcement in early 1978, that Radio City Music Hall was slated to close and be demolished to make way for a commercial high-rise.

Drawing upon formerly untapped inner strengths, Rosemary refused to let this happen. She became President of "The Showpeople's Committee to Save Radio City Music Hall" and motivated fellow workers, friends, thousands of Radio City fans around the world, New York and national media, and cultural leaders and politicians to support the cause. As a result, she was instrumental in having the Art Deco palace declared a National Historic Landmark, saving it from demolition.

Rosie's reward for the key role she played in saving this symbol of New York City and popular American culture will shock readers.

Rosie made her last professional appearance in the national tour of Ballroom. After retiring as a dancer, she became a lyricist with her composer husband William Mearns who she met at Radio City Music Hall. Together they have created three full-length musicals: Ebenezer (based on Dickens' A Christmas Carol), A Patch of Life (based on Alice Hagen Rice's Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch), and The Haunted Bookshop (adapted from the novel by Christopher Morley).

Saving Radio City Music Hall: A Dancer's True Story, by Rosemary Novellino-Mearns, can be ordered direct from: www.turningpointpressllc.com or from www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com.

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