Gustav S. Eyssell*

Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Gustav Eyssell worked as a teenager for the owner of a local movie theater. Those were the glory days of silent movies, and the theater provided the audience of 1,200 with live entertainment as well as movies accompanied by music. Before long, Eyssell moved up the ladder and became the theater's assistant manager. When he was 19, Eyssell became treasurer of all Newman theaters in Kansas City.

After Newman sold his theaters to Paramount in 1925 and became director of the Los Angeles Paramount theaters, he appointed Eyssell as manager of the Million Dollar Theater in Los Angeles. Five years later, Eyssell became district manager in the Texas division of the Paramount Publix Theater circuit. Those theaters included vaudeville entertainment. Eventually, Eyssell supervised Paramount theaters in New York City.

In January 1933, RKO asked Eyssell to join the New Radio City Music Hall as assistant managing director. One month later, RKO went into bankruptcy, and the Radio City Music Hall was taken over by Rockefeller Center. By 1942, Eyssell was named president of Radio City Music Hall and a director of Rockefeller Center. Succeeding Nelson Rockefeller, Eyssell served as president from 1951 until his retirement in 1971.

Under his presidency, Rockefeller Center expanded to include many well-known skyscrapers such as Time-Warner, Exxon, Sperry Rand, and McGraw-Hill buildings, as well as the New York Hilton.

Another Rockefeller family development, Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, also interested Eyssell. In 1945, he was appointed a trustee of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, a position he held for the next 25 years.