wongentube: July 2011

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Summer 1959 Jordan Drug, Jordan, MN Weekly Newspaper Ad (/W/ Elvis Guitar)

1959 Jordan Drug - Jordan, MN (Elvis Guitar)

(Image via: NYCDreamin Archives)

One From The Archives: 08/01/06 Impaler/ Blitzkid/ Ripsnorter/ Invasion Earth @ 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis, MN

(Image via: NYCDreamin Archives)

More Postcards from New York City #76: Hotel Commodore

(Undated) Hotel Commodore, NYC Postcard (Front)

(Image via: NYCDreamin Archives)

Back of the card reads:

The unexcelled location of the Commodore affords the New York visitor ready access to anything and everything of interest and importance in this fabulous city. Midtown on 42nd Street at Lexington Avenue. Grand Central Terminal is right next door, with a special entrance from the concourse into the lower lobby. Pennsylvania Station is only a few minutes away. Airlines terminals (both East Side and West Side) are within prompt and easy reach. Airlines Annex, handling ticket sales and information, is diagonally opposite the Commodore. Just a step from all midtown centers.

More information, via Wikipedia:

The Commodore Hotel of New York located on 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue adjacent to Grand Central Terminal was one of the major structures in the Grand Central City complex. The Commodore was named after the founder of The New York Central Railroad System Corneliu Commodore Vanderbilt whose Statue adornes The Grand Central Driveway next door to the hotel even to this day.The Commodore was designed by Warren & Wetmore and leased by The New York State Realty and Terminal Company to The Bowman-Biltmore Hotels Corporation of which John McEntee Bowman was President. The Commodore opened its doors on January 28, 1919 and Bowman-Biltmores own Herbert R. Stone oversaw the decor of its 1800 rooms. The "Most Beauitful Lobby in The World" as it was known was also the singel largest room of the day with modern low ceilings and a waterfall designed by John B. Smeraldi.The Commodore also had the largest grand ballroom and was located off the mezzanine unusual for that era. A group of conventioners once told President Bowman that "New York City was like a circus" , so the next day the showman Mr. Bowman was arranged to place a circus complete with elephants in the grandball room . Another popular spot was the Century Room which boosted its own orchestra. The Commodore shared Grand Central Terminal and a parking garage with its sister hotel The Biltmore which was Bowman-Biltmore Hotel Corporations first hotel investment.Another property one block from both Biltmore and Commodore was The Roosevelt a United Hotel asset which merged with Bowman-Biltmore Corporation on March 4, 1929 which gave them access to all railroad passenger traffic in and out of New York City. The Commodore held its own and in June 1967 The New York Central Railroad which was running the hotel though a division called Realty Hotels upgraded The Commodore with a $3.4 million dollar refurbishment.On May 10, 1972 while John R. Garside was the hotels General Manager the Commodore became the first hotel in New York City to show in room movies though Player Cinema Systems . By the late 1970s the railroad now called The Penn Central Transportation Company and the hotel business began to wane.To no ones surprise on May 11, 1977 the bankrupt railroads asset manager Victor Palmieri told the city the Commodore lost $1.5 million in 1976 and may have to be shuttered. At this point the Trump Organization bought The Commodore and gutted the first few floors down to her steel frame and transformed it into what today is The Grand Hyatt featuring The Commodore Grill.

(Image via Readio.com) While the current-glass look of the hotel is sleek and not so horrible, I much prefer the old look of the hotel as pictured in the postcard at the top.

More information, via Wikipedia:

The Grand Hyatt New York is a hotel located east of the Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was originally built and opened on January 28, 1919 as the Commodore Hotel by The Bowman-Biltmore Hotel Group and was named for "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt. The structure itself was owned by The New York State Realty and Terminal Company a division of The New York Central Railroad who owned Grand Central Terminal next door. In 1980, the Commodore was reconstructed into the present-day Grand Hyatt New York. The hotel has 1,311 rooms, stands 295 ft (90 m) and has 36 floors. The hotel won the 2007 and 2008 Corporate and Incentive Travel magazine "Award of Excellence".