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

Passageway to the Knickerbocker

"The Knickerbocker bar, beamed upon by Maxfield Parrish's jovial, colorful 'Old King Cole,' was well crowded."  F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise (1920)

My morning subway route is the NQR train to Times Square Station.  Leaving the station earlier this week, I noticed an obscure door at the end of the track marked "Knickerbocker."  The passageway looked like it had been boarded up for years but had led somewhere in the past.  Could it be that it led to the iconic Knickerbocker Hotel?

The grimy sign above the door says "Knickerbocker"

Sure enough, the building just above the track at 42nd and Broadway was the old Knickerbocker Hotel.  The iconic Hotel was built in 1906 and was one of the most fashionable spots in New York during the time period.  The underground passageway was built so that its wealthy patrons arriving in private train cars could privately enter the hotel.  The Hotel bar, called the Knickerbocker bar, is rumored to be the site where one Martini de Arma di Taggia created the first martini for John Rockefeller. 

"Old King Cole" painting

Behind the Knickerbocker bar hung the painting "Old King Cole" by Maxfield Parrish which depicts a monarch with a rather sheepish grin flanked by several disgusted knights.  According to legend, Parrish and his colleagues held a competition to see who first could portray the act of passing gas in a painting.  Apparently, Parrish one.  Following the Knickerbocker Hotel's closure in 1920, the "Old King Cole" was moved to the St. Regis Hotel where it remains today.  I visited the bar recently for one of their "Red Snapper" bloody marys (a great drink but at $21 a drink bring your wallet).  You can read more about the "Old King Cole" painting and its recent restoration here.

The Knickerbocker hotel has now been converted into a Gap where the lobby used to stand and commercial office space where the hotel rooms were. In February 2012, however, the building was purchased by a U.S. Reit that intends to restore the building to a 330 room 4-star hotel opening late 2013.

Former Knickerbocker Hotel (42nd and Broadway)

Knickerbocker Hotel circa 1909

"Meet Me at the Fountain"

Last week I was walking back from brunch with my girlfriend Claire when we stumbled upon a majestic building in Chelsea at 620 Sixth Avenue (6th ave between 18th and 19th).  The building is now occupied by a Bed Bath and Beyond and T.J. Maxx but the building's ornate facade suggested a deeper history - no doubt it has an interesting one.

620 Sixth Avenue (between 18th and 19th st)

Siegel-Cooper store in 1896

In 1896, the Times reported the opening of a "shopping resort" at this site.  It was called the Siegel-Cooper store and it was the largest department store in the world at its opening with over 15 acres of retail space.  The Times reported that its opening on September 12, 1896 at 7:30 pm drew a crowd of 150,000 people and 8,000 employees.  You could purchase just about anything under the sun at Siegel Cooper - bicycles, furniture, jewelry, meats, vegetables, canned goods, and even, on the roof, exotic plants.  The Times also reported that the establishment contained a barbershop, a bank, a dentist office, animal shop, a manicure salon, and purportedly the largest grocery store in the world on the 4th floor.  There was an employees-only restaurant on the 6th floor where staff could take in their 45 minute lunchbreak.  There was also a doctor and trained nurses on staff for the employees that paid the required 15 cents per month fee.  The full Times article from 1896 is available here.

Fountain of the Siegel-Cooper store

One remarkable feature about the store
was its lobby fountain with a golden-lady statue entitled "The Republic."  The fountain became a popular meeting place and the phrase "meet me at the fountain" soon caught on.  The store adopted the phrase as its slogan.  Siegel-Cooper went bankrupt in 1915 and the store closed soon after in 1917.  The building was used as a hospital during World War I and later a warehouse.  It currently underwent renovation to house the stores Bed Bath and Beyond and T.J. Maxx.

Women entering the Siegel-Cooper store circa 1896

Channeling Warhol

The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens a new exhibit called "Regarding Warhol" this Tuesday, September 18, 2012.  An intriguing and complicated American contemporary artist and New York socialite, Warhol in many ways embodied the decadent lifestyle of the inner circles of 1970s and 80s Manhattan.  According to Bob Colacello, a biographer of Andy Warhol, the 1970s and 80s were Warhol's entrepreneurial years.  After a successful emergence in the 1960s, Warhol was a Manhattan socialite during the 1970s and 80s, forming relationships with Mick Jagger, Liza Minnelli, and John Lennon among others, in hopes of rounding up wealthy donors to commission his paintings.

Among the spots Warhol frequented were the famous Manhattan nighclubs Studio 54 and Max's Kansas City.  Studio 54 opened in 1977 at 254 West 54th St in Midtown Manhattan. 

Former Site of Studio 54 (54th and 8th) - now a theater

 In many ways, Studio 54 exemplified the "sex, drugs, and rock and roll" mantra that has been associated with the 1970s and 1980s.  Cocaine was prevalent (federal agents raided the spot for cocaine in 1978) as were alcohol, popular music acts, and electric lightshows.  On February 4, 1980, Studio 54 held a blow-out party before temporarily closing its doors that included Jack Nicholson, Diana Ross, Richard Gere, and Andy Warhol.  Studio 54 is currently a midtown theatre showing "The Mystery of Edwin Drood."

Another of Warhol's hangout spots was Max's Kansas City at 17th and Park in the Union Square area, where Warhol maintained his famous studio "the factory."  Max's Kansas City was a popular hangout spot for artists and musicians in the 1970s and 80s.  It officially closed its doors in November 1981 with a performance by up and coming hip-hop band the Beastie Boys, which had formed earlier that year.  

Former Site of Max's Kansas City (17th and Park)

Scene from Almost Famous depicting Max's Kansas City

Warhol and his entourage were said to have dominated the "back room" of Max's Kansas City during the 1970s.  Aerosmith played their first New York city gig there in 1971, and, in 1973, Bob Marley opened up for a young Bruce Springsteen at Max's Kansas City.  The list goes on and on.  If you've ever watched Almost Famous, the scene where Stillwater finds out they got the cover of Rolling Stone was at a re-creation of Max's Kansas City.  Today, Max's Kansas City is a Bread and Butter coffee shop.

Warhol's Factory (6th Floor of Decker Bldg, Union Sq)

Warhol's studio "the factory" was just around the corner from Max's Kansas City on the sixth floor of the Decker Building (Union Square West and 16th St).  Warhol occupied several studios in New York, but he used this one from 1967-1973.  The iconic Campbell's Soup painting was released in 1968 and likely painted at this studio.  "The factory" itself was actually a popular celeb hangout.  The 1972 Lou Reed song "Take a Walk on the Wild Side," in fact, tells the story of several of Warhol's so-called "superstars" that frequented "the factory" and its wild times.


Let's hope the Met exhibit does a good job at depicting Warhol's intriguing and decadent life.

September 11th Anniversary - Still Covered in Rain

It's hard to believe but it's been 11 years since the events of 9/11.  I never visited New York when the Towers were standing.  I remember driving into Manhattan for the first time in 2007 with a friend from law school who grew up in Manhattan.  He told me how nicely the Towers used to center the city and how odd the city looked to him that they were no longer there.

One of my favorite songs is John's Mayer's "Covered in Rain" which provides a gloomy view of Manhattan in the aftermath of the tragedy.  It's somewhat of an obscure song but lyrically an introspective, beautiful look at such a difficult subject.  I met Mayer briefly at a party at the Bowery Hotel about this time 2 years ago.  John Mayer's apartment is several blocks away from the Bowery Hotel in a former bank building in Soho that has now been converted into an upscale loft.  No doubt many New Yorkers are still covered in rain from the tragic events, and I pray for all those still affected.  

Mayer's Soho Apartment (Spring and Lafayette)