The Other Booth

The Players Club, just a few blocks from my apartment, is a unique building overlooking Gramercy Park.  The faded Greek Revival facade, the wood-paneled interior you can see through its large windows, and its opulent balconies speak of a rich past, and its history does not disappoint.

Players Club in Gramercy Park

The Players Club was founded as a gentleman's club in 1888 - the first of its kind according to the club's website.  The purpose was and continues to be "the promotion of social intercourse between members of the dramatic profession" and artists, sculptors, musicians, etc.  The Club was founded by Edwin Booth, Mark Twain, General Tecumseh Sherman amongst others.  In his off hours from developing revolutionary technology related to power and telephony, scientist Nikola Tesla regulalry played cards there in the early 1900s. Jimmy Fallon, Ethan Hawke, Roger Moore and many others are members of the club today.  While generally closed to the public, the Club allows the public to purchase tickets for certain events such as poetry readings and jazz nights.

Edwin Booth, the pre-eminent Shakespearean actor of his day, purchased the mansion in 1888 from American tennis champion Valentine Hall.  After some rearrangements, the Club was opened to members in a grand ceremony on New Years Eve 1888.  Edwin Booth kept the top floor for his personal apartment and tragically died there of a stroke on June 7, 1893.  The apartment continues to be maintained exactly as it was on his death.

Edwin Booth as Hamlet (1870)

Edwin Booth was the brother of John Wilkes Booth.  Both Booth brothers were considered among the finest actors of their day.  In November 1864, Edwin and John Wilkes took the stage at Winter Garden Theatre in New York for the play Julius Caesar.  Little did Edwin know that John, a Confederate sympathizer, would assassinate Lincoln 6 moths later.  This theater has since been bulldozed but once stood in Greenwich Village on the site where NYU law dorm D'Agostino Hall now stands.  Coincidentally, I spent my first summer in New York in that dorm. 

After John Wilkes assassinated President Lincoln in April 1865, Edwin went into severe depression and left the stage for nearly a year.  He disowned his brother and would not allow his brother's name to be spoken in his house.  In January 1866, he took the stage at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York .  When he stepped on the stage for the first time since the assassination, the crowd gave him a standing ovation.  Wilkes performance of Hamlet would become the signature role of his career.  The center piece of Gramery Park is a statue of Edwin Booth in his role as Hamlet.  It was dedicated in 1919 and was the first New York statute dedicated to an actor, and the statute faces the fascinating Players Club of Gramercy Park.

Edwin Booth statue in Gramercy Park

Jimi Hendrix's Last Night in NYC

John Mayer's Born and Raised, my favorite CD out right now, was recorded at Electric Lady Studios on 6th avenue and 8th street in West Village.  Yesterday, I visited this studio and learned about its incredible past.

From 1930-1967, the studio was a country western club called the Village barnyard.  Jimi Hendrix, who lived around the corner at 6th ave and 12th st, purchased the space in 1968 to make it his personal studio.  Hendrix wanted a place where the creative energy would flow.  Psychedelic murals, rounded walls, and homey features were essential. The project took Hendrix 2 years to complete and cost over one million dollars, more than twice the time and cost he expected.

Electric Lady Studios (8th st and 6th ave)

Psychedelic mural at Electric Lady

On August 26, 1970, Hendrix threw a blowout opening party to celebrate his new studio.  Yoko Ono, Johnny Winter, Mick Fleetwood, and other musicians partied the night away and ate Japanese food according to Rolling Stone magazine.  Strangely, a food fight broke out leaving Hendrix upset with his guests.  According to Rolling Stone, he spent most of the evening in the stairway conversing with up-and-coming musician Patti Smith about his plans and excitement for the studio.

Hendrix in his unfinished studio June 17, 1970

 Electric lady studio went on to be a huge success.  The legendary albums Houses of the Holy (Zeppelin), Chinese democracy (Guns n Roses), and Back in Black (AC/DC) were all recorded there. The Rolling Stones also recorded there.  Rumor has it there's a tiny hole in the bathroom door, just big enough to fit Keith Richards' guitar plug.  Apparently, he liked to record in the bathroom, the most intimate of places.  Hendrix never recorded at his studio, although a month before the opening party he laid down the track "Valleys of Neptune" with Steve Winwood in his near finished studio. The night of his opening party, just after the food fight and his talk with Patti Smith, he left for the Isle of Wight festival in England promising to be back soon to start recording in his new studio.  Tragically, he died in London three weeks later from an overdose of Vesparax sleeping pills.  He was 27.

New York's Hidden Subway Station

Earlier this week I viewed an unusual site: the exquisite, abandoned subway station below City Hall that few know of its existence.  It is an almost perfectly preserved time-capsule to the grand architecture of early twentieth century New York and such techniques as brass chandaliers, ornate skylights, Roman arches, and Guastavino tile. 



The Abandoned "City Hall" Station Today

Once the crown jewel of the New York subway, the station was abandoned in 1945 because the platform was too narrow and curvy and the nearby Brooklyn Bridge stop received more traffic.  To see this gem, board a southband 6 train to the end of the line at Brooklyn Bridge.  When everyone gets off, stay on as it loops around the City Hall station to head back uptown.

"City Hall" Station circa 1904

The station contains almost a carnival theme to it with stunning skylights that let sunlight from City Hall Park in.  The station was built to be the jewel of the "Manhattan Main Line," a station that commemorated the hardwork that it took to build the subway line with its beautiful Romanesque revival architecture and commemurative plaques throughout the station.

On October 28, 1904 at 2:35 pm, the first subway train departed from the City Hall station, and, reportedly 15,000 tickets were issued for the first series of rides with even the mayor attending.  According to Travel and Leisure magazine in 2009, the station is the 12th most beautiful train station in the world.  The station has also been in a number of movies, including the slime-filled station in the Ghostbusters movies and the underground liar for the Ninja Turtles in the Ninja Turtles movies.



Opening of the Manhattan Main Line in 1904