This is a little company led by Harold Goldberg, who takes tickets, answers the phone and stands in the cold with a runny nose on the corner of Lexington and 42nd St for his raggle taggle group to foregather. We were taken on an hours walking tour of Grand Central Station and regaled with many tales..lots of them inaudible..of the station in its early days. Harold sold papers outside the station when he was 10 (he's 80 if not more ) and took his girls to a now demolished News Theatre ( it's a bank ) for newsreels and cartoons.
Maybe these two went on to a session
and then to Horn and Hardarts ( also gone) for coffee and pie.
These were automats where you put money in a slot and opened a glass door to select your choice of entrees or desserts.
The date would finish with a five cent subway ride back home.
We started the tour in the Grand Central Food Market under a splendid upside down festive tree
This hangs at the Lexington Ave end of the what has once been a "dirty, disgusting alley way" which Harold and his fellow newsies would use to get to their beats. This is what it looks like now
A corner ticket office in Tennessee marble and brass. The station has been the setting for many Hollywood films including North by Northwest, The Cotton Club and Fisher King
This wonderful clock now has all sides co-ordinated to the exact time. You can see its facsimile on the music set of Saturday Night Live
This escalator was featured in Carlito's Way
Makes you want to run after him and hop on...to the train I mean
Under the clock at the Biltmore was one of
the places to meet
Tra......ck 30 Hey, boy, your shoes are all dirty
In the foyer of the Campbell Apts, the private residence of financier, Thomas Campbell, is now a cocktail bar
Maybe this is where Cary Grant bought his ticket just before meeting Eva Marie Saint
CBS had their studios on the third floor of Grand Central Terminal and such live-to-air Golden Age tv gems as "Studio One" were produced here, although they had to work around the rumbling of the trains below. Also, Grand Central was where the USO was based during WWII so the place was literally packed with servicemen during the early 40s.
The Oyster Bar is the oldest business at the station. Sheldon has vowed we will return
Look at that detail!!
A shoe shine stand called "The Leather Spa" !!!
Harold got the group to sing "Happy Birthday, Grand Central" to commemorate its 98th birthday.
Our glorious reward in the fabbo lower concourse food hall.
Coffee, pastrami panini and the Arts section of the New York Times!!
Loving all the NYC shots Tony. I love that you get to see and do things that you just dont have the time to get to when your a tourist for a week or so. Grand Central is a fav of mine with all those wonderful details and I LOVED your shot of the clock! Ive been to Grand Central twice now and still havent got the shot I wanted but your one is pretty close. Strangely the Automat brings back a strong memory of seeing Doris Day in some movie with them I remember thinking what a great idea ... more than likely one of the very early reasons I wanted to get to NYC so much! What a shame they didn't preserve one of these look at that Art Deco!!!!
ReplyDelete