Episode 18: Margaret Bourke-White and the NBC Murals

In October 2021 we sold a photograph by Margaret Bourke-White. It sold for a bargain- a little over $5000.

Radio Loudspeakers for NBC Mural at Rockefeller Center, 1933

It was a study of a portion of a photo-mural she completed for the NBC headquarters in 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The mural was 160 feet long and devoted to the subject of radio.

The lobby mural was unveiled in December of 1933.

Margaret Bourke-White was only 29 when she completed this mural. She was independent, intelligent, charming, and skilled at her craft.

Oscar Graubner took this photograph of Margaret Bourke-White atop the Chrysler Building outside her studio in 1933. We sold it at Sotheby’s for over $2000 in 2020 as part of our sale of Photographs from the Ginny Williams Collection.

Drix Duryea was a wealthy commercial photographer hired to print and hang Bourke-White’s photographs for the NBC commission. Just like Bourke-White, he had his own endorsement deals like the athletes of today; he lent his name to Seagram’s Whisky.

The murals were removed in the 1950s but for over 15 years they were installed in the lobby of the NBC radio studios. Once television took over as the reigning medium, the murals lost their relevance. Today, this is where guests wait before entering Studio 6-B to see The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.