The Ziegfeld Theatre opened in 1927, an elaborate and beloved venue produced by Florenz Ziegfeld. It was located on Sixth Avenue at 54th Street and designed by architects Thomas W. Lamb and Joseph Urban. Fred and Adele Astaire and Marilyn Miller appeared here in the 1930 production of Smiles. Following Ziegfeld’s death, producer Billy Rose took over management in 1943, presenting revivals of The Red Mill and Show Boat in the mid-1940s. The theatre later housed original productions of Brigadoon, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Kismet. After a stint as an NBC studio, the theatre had difficulty attracting legitimate bookings, and the cost of maintaining the venue became unmanageable. Despite protests by conservationists, the Ziegfeld Theatre was demolished in 1966.