Elizabeth and Oscar, March 11, 1957 (18-19 of 56)

"we were quite proud to have been there in person"

Monday, March 11, 1957 Uibles and Johnsons now in NYC.  After HH leaves them at Battery Park, Jean, Oscar and Elizabeth visit the Statute of Liberty and are now seeking lunch.


We walked until we came to a small restaurant called "Chock-Full-o'Nuts" where we ate very good cream cheese on Raisin Bread Sandwiches.

After lunch we [went to Trinity Church, and NY Stock Exchange, and other "important buildings"].  From the Stock Exchange we mailed several cards to our families back home.  The Stock Exchange was to pay the postage but somehow they missed the one I sent to Blanche and she had to pay the 2¢ + 3¢ to send the 2¢, so it cost 5¢ just to know we were on Wall St.

Then we took a bus and rode for an hour to reach the Hotel New Yorker where we were to meet Harold at 4pm and we just made it.  He was in the lobby and had it all fixed so we could get into the toy fair which was being held there.  The Fair covered 12 floors of the hotel so we only saw a small part which was very interesting.  Several of our friends saw it on TV so we were quite proud to have been there in person.

We drove to the Hotel Piccadilly at 227 W. 45th St at Broadway.  Here we had nice rooms on the 11th floor.  We were next to the "Morosco Theatre" where the play, Major Barbara was playing.

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Here's an ad from 1953. As you can see from the receipt, by 1957 the rates had gone up to $7.50 (tax rate of 5.1%).


The Hotel Piccadilly closed July 1, 1982 and was demolished soon after along with the Morosco, Bijou and Helen Hayes theaters. The Marriott Marquis was built on the site.

Here's a link to a wikipedia article about the Toy Fair, which unfortunately does not include any information about the history. I did learn that the TIA (Toy Industry Association) was founded on April 21, 1916 as the Toy Manufacturers of America, Inc.
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For other posts in this series see:
March 9, 1957 (1-2 of 56) New Vienna to Philadelphia
March 9-10, 1957 (2-14 of 56) Philadelphia
March 10-11, 1957 (15-18 of 56) Philadelphia to NYC
March 11, 1957 (18-19 of 56)  NYC
March 11-12, 1957 (20-27 of 56) NYC
March 12-13, 1957 (28-31 of 56) NYC
March 13-18, 1957 (31-34 of 56) NYC - CT - RI
March 18-19, 1957 (34-45 of 56) RI - MA
March 20, 1957 (46-49 of 56) MA - NYC
March 20-21, 1957 (49-51 of 56) NYC - Hershey
March 22, 1957 (52-56 of 56) Hershey PA to New Vienna