GE Building
The GE Building at Rockefeller Center
General information
Status	Complete
Type	Offices and television studios (NBC)
Location	30 Rockefeller Center New York, New York 10112 United States[1]
Coordinates	40°45′32″N 73°58′44″W / 40.759°N 73.979°W / 40.759; -73.979Coordinates: 40°45′32″N 73°58′44″W / 40.759°N 73.979°W / 40.759; -73.979
Completed	1933
Height
Roof	850 ft (260 m)
Technical details
Floor count	70
Design and construction
Owner	NBC (NBCUniversal)
Architect	Raymond Hood
References
[2] GE Building U.S. Historic district Contributing property Area: 22 acres (8.8 ha) Architectural style: Modern, Art Deco Part of: Rockefeller Center (#87002591) Significant dates Added to NRHP: December 23, 1987[3] Designated CP: December 23, 1987[4]

The GE Building is an Art Deco skyscraper that forms the centerpiece of Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, USA. Known as the RCA Building until 1988, it is most famous for housing the headquarters of the television network NBC. At 850 feet (259 m) tall, the 70-story building is the 10th tallest building in New York City and the 33rd tallest in the United States. Some of the building's nicknames include The Slab and 30 Rock. The latter is derived from its address which is at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

History[link]

The Rockefeller Center with what was then the RCA Building, December 1933

The building was completed in 1933 as part of the Rockefeller Center. The noted Art Deco architect Raymond Hood led a team of Rockefeller architects. It was named the RCA Building for its main tenant, the Radio Corporation of America, formed in 1919 by General Electric. It was the first building constructed with the elevators grouped in the central core. During construction, photographer Charles Clyde Ebbets took the famous photograph Lunchtime atop a Skyscraper on the 69th floor. National Broadcasting Company, also owned by General Electric, leased space in the building.

The office of the Rockefeller family occupied Room 5600 on the 56th floor. This space is now occupied by Rockefeller Family & Associates, spanning between the 54th floor and the 56th floor of the building. In 1985, the building acquired official landmark status. The RCA Building was renamed as the GE Building in 1988, two years after General Electric re-acquired the RCA Corporation.

Facade of the GE Building

The GE Building is one of the most famous and recognized skyscrapers in New York. The frieze located above the main entrance was produced by Lee Lawrie and depicts "Wisdom",^[5] along with a slogan that reads "Wisdom and Knowledge shall be the stability of thy times", from Isaiah 33:6 (KJV). The vertical detailing of the building's austere Art Deco facade is integrated with a slim, functionally expressive form. The present exterior is recognized for the large GE letters at the building's top. The famous marquee above the building's entrance is seen on numerous television shows, such as 30 Rock and Seinfeld. Unlike most other tall Art Deco buildings constructed in the 1930s, the GE Building has no spire on its roof.

The building's nickname has become the title of the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, which follows the cast and crew of a fictional television show filmed inside the building. The television show uses the building for exterior shots while interior shots are filmed at Silvercup Studios in Queens.

KWO35, the NOAA Weather Radio station for the majority of the Tri-State area, transmits from atop the GE Building at 162.55 MHz.

Below the building is a shopping concourse, connected to the lobby via an escalator. The open lobby's rich materials and reduced black and beige ornamental scheme is enhanced by dramatic lighting. Granite covers the building base to a height of 4 feet (1.2 m), and the shaft has a refined facade of Indiana Limestone with aluminum spandrel panels.

The 65th floor of the GE Building was an event room and restaurant named the Rainbow Room. It was revamped and reopened to the public with new operators until it closed in 2009 due to the economic downturn.

Saturday Night Live is and telecast live from the building (Studio 8H).

NBC Studios[link]

The NBC Studios entrance to the GE Building

The building is well known for housing the headquarters of NBC and the New York facilities of NBC Studios. In 1996, NBC bought the 1,600,000 square feet (150,000 m²) of space it had leased since 1933. The purchase allowed the company to introduce new technologies and renovate the space; it also gave them options to renew the lease on the Today Show studios, broadcast from a nearby building, 10 Rockefeller Plaza.^[6] NBC owns floors 1-30 & 50-59. The office of Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric, is located on the 51st floor of the GE Building.

The building's studios include Studio 8H, the home of Saturday Night Live. Studio 8H was once the largest radio studio in the world, originally home to the NBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. It was converted into a television studio in 1950. The Tonight Show was also taped at the GE Building in Studio 6-B from the early Jack Paar years until 1972, when the show moved to Burbank, California. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon now occupies the former Tonight Show space. During its run, Rosie O'Donnell broadcast her syndicated talk show from the building.

NBC Studio productions[link]

The building is also the headquarters for Bravo, Chiller, MSNBC, Oxygen, Syfy, Cloo, Universal HD and USA Network. CNBC and CNBC World are headquartered in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Observation deck[link]

The observation deck atop the skyscraper, dubbed "Top of the Rock", reopened to the public on November 1, 2005, after undergoing a $75 million renovation. It had been closed since 1986 to accommodate the renovation of the Rainbow Room. The deck, which is built to resemble the deck of an ocean liner, offers sightseers a bird's eye view of the city, competing with the 86th floor observatory of the Empire State Building.^[24] It is often considered the best panoramic city view,^[25] if only because it offers a view of the aforementioned Empire State Building, which obviously cannot be seen from its own observation deck.^[26]

The "Top of the Rock" had also been co-opted for NBC's Sunday Night Football during the 2006–07 season, with the top player/MVP in that night's game according to John Madden and Al Michaels receiving the honor of being that night's "Rock Star" in the form of a glass trophy display on the observation deck; this was a replacement for the Horse Trailer Award formerly awarded on ABC's Monday Night Football. The Horse Trailer honor was restored for the 2007–08 season.

View of New York City from the "Top of the Rock" observation deck of the GE building

See also[link]

• Architecture of New York City
• Original General Electric Building (1931, built as the RCA Victor Building)
• List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan
• List of tallest buildings in New York City
• List of tallest buildings in the United States
• Rainbow Room a restaurant on the 65th floor of the GE building

Further reading[link]

• Harr, John Ensor; Johnson, Peter J. (1988). The Rockefeller Century: Three Generations of America's Greatest Family. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 
• Okrent, Daniel (2003). Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center. New York: Viking Press. 
• Roussel, Christine (2006). The Art of Rockefeller Center. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-06082-9. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: GE Building

• Top Of The Rock – Official "Top Of The Rock" page
• in-Arch.net: The RCA/GE Building
• Top Of The Rock Photo Gallery – About.com
• NYC Insider Guide – Insider tips and secrets about Top of the Rock
• Top of the Rock Panorama

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"The Soup Nazi" is the title of the 116th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, which was the sixth episode of the seventh season. It first aired in the United States on November 2, 1995.

The Soup Nazi is also the nickname of the titular character played by Larry Thomas. The term "Nazi" is used as an exaggeration of the excessively strict regimentation he constantly demands of his patrons.

Plot[link]

Jerry, George and Elaine go out to a new soup stand Kramer has been raving about; its owner is referred to as the "Soup Nazi" due to his temperament and insistence on a strict manner of behavior while ordering. Jerry explains the procedure for ordering which George accepts, but Elaine rejects. En route, Elaine notices a sidewalk furniture dealer with an armoire for sale and decides to stop and buy it. However, when she returns to her building with it, the building superintendent tells her there is no moving allowed on Sundays.

When Jerry and George get to the soup stand, George follows the procedure but notices that he did not get the free bread with his soup order. Jerry tells him to let it go, but George asks for some and is told he will have to pay $2 for it. When George objects, claiming that everybody in front of him got free bread, he is told that the price for bread is now $3. When George continues to protest, he quickly has his money returned and his soup is brusquely taken back, with the catchphrase "No soup for you!"

Over the past weeks, Jerry has been annoying George and Elaine with his open affection and baby talk (calling each other "Schmoopie") with his new girlfriend Sheila (Alexandra Wentworth). During another visit to the soup stand, when Sheila will not stop kissing Jerry in the line of customers, the Soup Nazi orders her out of the line, and Jerry is forced to pretend he does not know her. When George finds out, he admits his annoyance with their "baby talk" romantic behavior to Jerry. Jerry later tells Sheila he was just joking at the soup stand and makes up with her. When George finds out, he begins to act similarly with Susan to make a point. Susan misinterprets George's intentions and thinks that George is finally enjoying showing his feelings in public, continuing to act that way after Jerry again breaks up with Sheila.

Elaine, still awaiting the chance to move her new armoire upstairs, asks Kramer to guard the piece of furniture on the street overnight. When he arrives, she goes to the soup stand to get him soup. While she is gone, some "street toughs" intimidate Kramer and steal the armoire. At the soup stand, Elaine ignores everyone's prior advice and annoys the Soup Nazi with her behavior. He refuses her soup and bans her from coming to his restaurant for one year. She returns to her building to find Kramer without the armoire.

Later, Kramer, who has become friends with the Soup Nazi, tells him the story of the stolen armoire in passing. The Soup Nazi offers Kramer an antique armoire he has in storage in his basement. Kramer gives the armoire to Elaine as a replacement for her stolen one. Elaine goes to thank the Soup Nazi for the armoire, but the Soup Nazi angrily declares that he never would have given it to Kramer if he knew it was for her—instead, he would have smashed it to pieces with a hatchet. Offended, Elaine returns home, where she and Jerry subsequently discover the Soup Nazi's secret soup recipes, which have been left behind in a drawer of the old armoire. She returns to his shop, recipes in hand and declares that she is going to destroy him and his business by exposing the recipes, gleefully revealing this in an ironically similar way he brushed her off earlier. Feeling ruined, the Soup Nazi decides to close the business and move to Argentina and starts giving away his remaining soup, which Newman and Jerry hurriedly try to take advantage of.

Production[link]

"The Soup Nazi" was Spike Feresten's first credited Seinfeld episode as a writer. The idea for the episode arose when Feresten told Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David about New York soup vendor Al Yeganeh, who was nicknamed "The Soup Nazi." Seinfeld and David laughed and said, "That's a show. Do that as your first show." Feresten's inspiration for the armoire subplot was a New York apartment building in which he had lived, which forbade moving furniture on certain days. The armoire thieves were written as homosexual because Larry David decided that "only gay guys would steal an armoire."^[1] The first cast table reading for "The Soup Nazi" was held on September 28, 1995, and it was filmed before a studio audience on October 3.^[2] In the episode, Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) imitates Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman. This was done at Jerry Seinfeld's suggestion, even though Louis-Dreyfus had never seen the film.^[3]

The character[link]

The Soup Nazi was portrayed by Larry Thomas, who was nominated for a 1996 Emmy for the role. Thomas, who did not realize that the character was based on a real person, received the inspiration for his portrayal from watching Lawrence of Arabia and studying Omar Sharif's accent.^[4]

A stone-faced immigrant chef with a thick Stalin-esque moustache, he is renowned throughout Manhattan for his soups. He demands that all customers in his restaurant meticulously follow his strict queuing, ordering, and payment policies. Failure to adhere to his demands brings the stern admonition ("No soup for you!") whereupon the customer is refunded and denied his or her order. He will then yell at the top of his lungs to the next person in line, "Next!" Elaine parodies this when she reveals that she has his recipes. She says to him, "You're through, Soup Nazi. Pack it up. No more soup for you. NEXT!"

The Soup Nazi has a cameo in the Seinfeld series finale, in which his name is revealed to be Yev Kassem. Serving his soup to people at the courthouse, Kassem is asked by Poppy for some salt to add to his soup. This angers Kassem, who angrily takes away Poppy's soup.

Inspiration[link]

Soup Kitchen International on 55th Street in 2008 after it closed but with the sign remaining

The character was inspired by Al Yeganeh, a New York City soup vendor who runs Soup Kitchen International in midtown Manhattan at 259A West 55th Street, near 8th Avenue, and The Original Soup Man chain of restaurants throughout the United States.^[5]

Before the episode was written, much of the cast of Seinfeld (including Wayne Knight) had been to Soup Kitchen International. After "The Soup Nazi" had aired, Seinfeld and several writers went to Yeganeh's soup stand for lunch. Upon recognizing Seinfeld, Yeganeh launched into a profanity-laced rant about how "The Soup Nazi" episode had "ruined his life," and he demanded an apology. Seinfeld gave what show writer Spike Feresten described as "the most sarcastic, insincere apology" he'd ever heard. Yeganeh bellowed "No soup for you!" and ejected Seinfeld and his friends from the restaurant.^[1]

According to Nora Ephron's DVD commentary, the first pop culture reference to Yeganeh (though not by name) seems to have come years before the Seinfeld episode, in the 1993 movie Sleepless in Seattle. In the film, a magazine writer discusses writing a story: "This man sells the greatest soup you have ever eaten, and he is the meanest man in America. I feel very strongly about this, Becky; it's not just about the soup."

Legacy[link]

• Like Jackie Chiles, the Soup Nazi has appeared in commercials after the end of the series. In an advertisement by the Center for Consumer Freedom, he denies food to people he considers to be too fat.
• Larry Thomas appeared as himself in the Scrubs episode "My Self-Examination." He denies he is the Soup Nazi when asked by J.D. (Zach Braff), who then tricks him into saying the catchphrase "No soup for you!" by asking him "What is [the catchphrase] again? It's like, 'You're out of luck in the soup department...'"
• In August 2009, Albert Gonzalez was convicted for robbery, being the most prolific hacker of credit cards (130 million). He operated on the Internet using the handle: "Soupnazi."^[6]
• Larry Thomas has used the character to promote soup kitchens for the homeless.^[7]
• Larry Thomas appeared, in character, along with Jerry Seinfeld in a television commercial for Acura that aired during the 2012 Super Bowl.
• Washington D.C. Rapper Wale used lines from the episode as an introduction and outro to his song "The Soup" on his More About Nothing Mix-Tape. He acts as the Soup Nazi and uses the catchphrase "No soup for you!"
• In the 2010 reboot of classic video game NBA Jam for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii, when an alley hoop manoeuvre is blocked by an opponent, you can hear the announcer say: "No hoop for you!". In 2011's NBA Jam: On-Fire Edition, the tagline "No soup for you!" can be purchased among numerous rewards for the player's card.

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Soup Nazi at the Internet Movie Database
• Soup Nazi Fan Site
• Seinfeld - Official Site
• Larry Thomas, Seinfeld actor, audio interview at MrMedia.com