the following year that he would form a 100-person Town Hall Council and seek $1,000 pledges for each of the auditorium's 1,500 seats. James Speyer donated an organ to the auditorium in 1922. Anna Blakeley Bliss donated money to cover the estimated $500,000 cost of completing the interior in either 1922 or 1923. In April 1924, Ely announced that Town Hall needed to raise another $600,000 to pay off its debts. Two donors had pledged $400,000 on the condition that the remaining funds be raised by the end of that June. Ultimately, more than three thousand people donated to fund Town Hall's development. The upper stories were completed by the end of December 1924. To celebrate the venue's debts being paid off, Town Hall's management ceremonially burned the mortgage documents on the fourth anniversary of the venue's opening. The Town Hall Club was established within the two top stories in January 1925, with a thousand members. The club, which accepted both men and women, aimed to promote "a finer public spirit and a better social order". Town Hall acquired a property at 125 West 43rd Street in May 1930, and architect Louis Jallade filed plans to expand the original structure by five stories, as well as develop a twelve-story wing at number 125. This addition was never completed, and Town Hall instead expanded its offices into the existing four-story building at 125 West 43rd Street. Eventually, Town Hall, alongside Carnegie Hall and the old Metropolitan Opera House at 39th Street, became one of New York City's top musical venues in its 20th-century heyday. The neighboring Aeolian Hall closed not long after Town Hall opened. Town Meeting era Ely hired George V. Denny Jr. as an associate director of the league in 1930. Denny thought "an honest system of political education" was vital to the "safety of American democracy", and he believed that Americans should be exposed to multiple viewpoints. In 1934, Denny was inspired to create America's Town Meeting of the Air, a radio show to promote the free exchange of ideas; it became the first public-affairs media program. NBC approved a limited run of the show in early 1934, and Town Meeting premiered at Town Hall on May 30, 1935, to wide praise. The show was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network every Thursday night. (The Blue Network eventually split from NBC, becoming the American Broadcasting Company (ABC).) The