By Terry Trucco
Celebratory butter cream with chocolate filling.
Not many guests check into hotels long term unless you count inventor Nikola Tesla, who lived for a decade at The New Yorker, or Cole Porter, who stayed for years at the Waldorf (the hotel lent him a grand piano).
Staff members are another matter. Two or three decades of service are not unusual at large New York hotels. But five decades? (more…)
By Terry Trucco
In glorious black and white — the Americana Hotel, ca 1962
Here’s a snapshot of New York, ca 1962: John F. Kennedy is POTUS. The Cuban Missile Crisis revs up the Cold War. The first James Bond movie makes a splashy debut. The average annual income is $5,556.
And the Americana Hotel opens in a gleaming 51-story concrete tower designed by Morris Lapidus.
Historic hotels aren’t exactly a rarity in New York, even if oldies like the Algonquin (1902), the Plaza (1907) and the Waldorf=Astoria (1930) grab most of the attention. Still, it’s hard to argue that 1962 was yesterday.
“The hotel was built with the idea it would play a significant role in the New York World’s Fair of 1964,” says Mark Sanders, General Manager of the Sheraton New York Hotel, long-time occupant of the impossible-to-miss building that’s celebrating its 50th birthday with a special deal September 1 (more on that later). (more…)
