the auditorium. Each rib contains molded foliate decorations as well as bosses. Midway up the ribs, there is a set of ten latticework grilles between the ribs. A lantern hangs from the center of the ceiling. The five-story dome was covered by ceiling panels when Letterman hosted The Late Show, but they were uncovered in 2015 during Colbert's tenure. Use as Broadway theater Times Square became the epicenter for large-scale theater productions between 1900 and the Great Depression. During the 1900s and 1910s, many theaters in Midtown Manhattan were developed by the Shubert brothers, one of the major theatrical syndicates of the time. The Ed Sullivan Theater in particular was developed by Arthur Hammerstein, son of Oscar Hammerstein I, who went to form his own theatrical career in 1910. After Oscar died in 1919, Arthur started negotiating with Lee Shubert, one of the Shubert brothers, to develop a theater in Oscar's honor. Arthur proposed naming what is now the Imperial Theatre after his father. While Shubert rejected the proposal, the Imperial did host two Hammerstein works in its early years. One of those, Rose-Marie, grossed enough to fund a dedicated memorial theater for Oscar Hammerstein I, which was to cost $3 million. Development and early years In 1926, Arthur Hammerstein paid $1.5 million for several land lots at 1697 Broadway and 213–223 West 53rd Street, near the northwest corner of these two streets. That May, Hammerstein announced plans for a "Temple of Music" in memory of his father, to be designed by Herbert Krapp in the Gothic style. In October 1926, Variety reported that Arthur planned to leave a covenant in his will, prohibiting the theater from being renamed while it was standing. The following January, Hammerstein hired Emmerich Kálmán to write the musical Golden Dawn, to be played at the theater's opening, with soprano Louise Hunter as a featured performer. The theater's name was shortened to "Hammerstein's Theatre" in March 1927 because the words "Temple of Music" could not fit on playbills. Work officially began on March 21, 1927. A cornerstone-laying ceremony was held on September 30, where mayor Jimmy Walker made a speech praising the Hammersteins. The Broadway Association donated a bronze tablet, and mementos of Oscar Hammerstein, including a silk top hat and a cigar, were placed into the cornerstone. Hammerstein's Theatre was formally dedicated on November 30, 1927. The first production at the theater was Golden