Roosevelt Hotel, Madison Avenue and East 45th Street, New York, New York 10017.
Not exactly what you’d expect as a beguiling aspect, looking out on a late night at the office somebody else’s office. But for this, our 105th Room with a View, we turned the camera on ourselves.
It just happened that at this epic moment (for us), the hotel across the street, the Roosevelt, had undergone a much-needed face-lift. There is a buzz about Madison Avenue-home of Giorgio Armani, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, and, symbolically, the art of advertising-and the Roosevelt Hotel itself is steeped in history. Nationally known for its New Year’s Eve radio broadcasts with Guy Lombardo, the big ballroom and its big bands played host to New York’s bejeweled elite of the 1920s and ’30s.
”Auld Lang Syne” brought in the new yeaı; waiters with champagne cocktails roamed the Roosevelt Grill, and porters greeted guests arriving at Grand Central Terminal and escorted them straight to their rooms ($5.45 a night back in 1932). Those days (and those prices) are gone, and one of the first hotels to install radios in every room has at last traded them in for more timely TV sets. But some things do return-the underground tunnel to Grand Central will reappear within a yeaı; this time far rush-hour commuters and other midtown males.
The lobby, with its high ceiling and low-hanging chandeliers, its new marble floors, and its refurbished antique trimmings, should still make for grand entrances. And as part of a rejuvenated railroad complex, the hotel could be hot again. This is the view from Room 927, right on the Avenue. Here’ s looking at you!
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