Tuesday, March 12, 1957 Cont'd - Uibles and Johnsons are in NYC and have returned to the Piccadilly Hotel following a tour of the Manufacturers Trust Building. Elizabeth calls her relative (Oscar's cousin?) Hildegard who will be picking them up on Thursday evening.
The diary continues....
After talking to Hildegarde we cleaned up and were ready for a gay evening, which was to include dinner at Toffenetti. [Opened in 1940, Closed 1968, known for big plates of American staples, served 3,000 meals/day.] Here we ate their famous Ham and Yams. It was a lovely place, the service was good and the food was served in generous amounts and it was delicious and not too expensive.
Postcard sent by Jean to Elizabeth in March, 1958 "Remember here?"
From there we walked to 250 West 52nd St., and the Alvin Theatre [Alvin is still open, renamed Neil Simon Theatre in 1983]. Here we attended a Broadway Hit show. [No Time for Sergeants] It was a thrill long to be remembered. It gives us a feeling of really having lived, to be able to say we were at a Broadway Show in person. And to make it more thrilling as we neared our Hotel, Charles Laughton, the great Broadway Star came out of the Morosco theatre next door and we passed so close we could have touched him.
Wednesday, March 13, 1957
The day started with breakfast at Horn and Hardart and Harold had to leave us as he had business to attend to. Oscar, Jean and I started for Rockefeller Center and on the way we passed the building where Dave Garroway [Host of NBC's Today Show, 1952-1961] was airing his morning show so we had to stop for that.
Jean went shopping while we took a tour of the Rockefeller Center. We rode on the world's fastest elevator as we climbed the 70 stories to the top where we had a wonderful view of the city. It was a treat to see Central Park from the air and to see the big ships in the harbor. We met Jean again at the St. Patrick's Church at 11.
From here we got a bus and rode back to Macy's where we all went shopping. Oscar and I went across the street to Woolworth's for our lunch. We met Harold and Jean at 1pm for a guided tour of one of the world's largest Post Offices. The tour lasted over two hours and we got a complete education on how mail was handled. An armed guard went along with our small tour group to protect the US mail.
Harold had to go back to his business and Jean wanted to go shopping so Oscar and I went back to the Hotel, stopping at Penn Station to rest for awhile and enjoyed watching the people. Form there we walked to the new very large Bus Station and walked through it. We walked slowly back to our Hotel so as not to miss anything, past the New Yorker Hotel where the toy Fair was in full swing and then on to New York's garment district which we had heard a lot about. The streets were full of clothes. It was quite hard to believe and my only question is what in the world do they do with all the clothes should it start to rain suddenly.
To be continued....
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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
1 comment:
Article in NYT on 7/14/2011 "Judge Halts Landmark's Alterations" -- Renovations have been halted on the office building at Fifth Avenue and 43rd St that preservationists call a model of modernism, the former bank that was originally part of the Manufacturers Trust Company, was designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill was built in 1954. Elizabeth included a pamphlet in the scrapbook as well as a postcard which is captioned, "New concept in bank design. This distinctive Fifth Avenue office of the Manufacturers Trust Company at 43rd Street New York City offers inviting, comfortable surroundings for banking transactions."
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