Carlyle Hotel
The Carlyle Hotel, A Rosewood Hotel, known formally as The Carlyle, is a combination luxury and residential hotel located at 35 East 76th Street on the northeast corner of Madison Avenue, in the Upper East Side area of New York City. The hotel is designed in Art Deco style and was named after Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle.
Owned since 2001 by Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, the Carlyle is a cooperative with 191 rental rooms and suites,[1] and 60 privately owned residences.
Out of the Depression
The Carlyle was built by Moses Ginsberg, maternal grandfather of Rona Jaffe.[2] Designed by architects Sylvan Bien and Harry M. Prince, it opened as a residential hotel, with apartments costing up to $1,000,000 a year.[3] Apartment hotels had become increasingly popular since World War I. As the economy boomed and skyscrapers rose, New York was transforming so quickly that owning a townhouse began to fall out of fashion.[4] The new thirty-five floor hotel "was to be a masterpiece in the modern idiom, in which shops and restaurants on the lower floors would give residents the convenience and comforts of a "community skyscraper".[5] However, by the time the Carlyle was ready to open its doors, the 1929 stock market crash had decisively ended the boom times. The new hotel struggled, went into receivership in 1931 and was sold to the Lyleson Corporation in 1932.[3] The new owners kept the original management, which was able to dramatically improve the property's financial situation through maintaining high occupancy and rates favorable to the hotel's costs. However, the hotel's reputation at this time was "staid rather than ritzy".[6]
The next postwar boom allowed the hotel to take on new high-society prominence. In 1948, New York businessman Robert Whittle Downing purchased the Carlyle and began to transform it from a "respectable" address to a "downright fashionable" one, frequented by elegant Europeans.[7] That year, Harry S. Truman became the first president to visit the Carlyle; each of his successors through Bill Clinton followed.[8]
Rise to prominence
The Carlyle became known as "the New York White House" during the administration of President John F. Kennedy, who owned an apartment on the 34th floor for the last ten years of his life. He stayed at the apartment in a well-publicized visit for a few days just prior to his inauguration in January 1961. Marilyn Monroe was sneaked in through the service entrance on East 77th Street.[citation needed] After famously singing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" at Kennedy's birthday gala at Madison Square Garden on May 19, 1962, Monroe reportedly used a warren of tunnels to enter the Carlyle secretly with Kennedy and friends.[citation needed] The New York Post reported a Mob smear campaign plot on Robert F. Kennedy planned as an informant passed on information that a Mrs. Jacqueline Hammond had information on the sex-capade; however, the Post article stated "An FBI summary of the documents released yesterday said the bureau didn't consider the Milwaukee and Hammond information "solid".[9][clarification needed] Years later, longtime bellman Michael O'Connell recalled, "Those tunnels. President Kennedy knew more about the tunnels than I did".[10] The Carlyle was the last place John F. Kennedy, Jr. ate breakfast before departing on his ill-fated plane trip to Martha's Vineyard with his wife and her sister.[8]
The Council for United Civil Rights Leadership (CUCRL) was organized in a meeting held at the Carlyle. Malcolm X expressed his concerns with having a white man in charge of this new fundraising organization during a November 10, 1963, speech, "Message to the Grass Roots". He described the hotel (rather than just one suite) as being owned by the Kennedy family.[11]
In 1967 the hotel was purchased by a partnership of Jerome L. Greene, Norman L. Peck, and Peter Jay Sharp.[12]
The hotel is also the source of the name for the Carlyle Group, as it was the location where that firm's founders first met in the mid-1980s.[13]
Despite its brushes with history, the hotel retained a reputation for discretion; in June 2000, The New York Times called it a "Palace of Secrets".[8]
Entertainment and dining
The hotel's Café Carlyle has featured a number of well-known jazz performers – notably George Feyer from 1955 to 1968, and Bobby Short from 1968 to 2004. Woody Allen and his jazz band have played weekly at the café since 1996. According to New York Times writer Joe Heller, Mick Jagger maintains a residence at The Carlyle to use when he visits New York.[14] Alan Cumming gave a series of concerts at the Café Carlyle in June 2015;[15] the album of the performance, Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs features a photograph of a nude Cumming flanked by a male and a female model, also nude, shot in the doorway of the cafe.[16]
The Café Carlyle is noted for the murals by Marcel Vertès, which were cleaned in the summer of 2007 as part of a renovation and redecoration of the café.[17] Interior designer Scott Salvator oversaw the renovation and redecoration, the first significant alterations to the café since its debut in 1955. During the renovations the café closed for three months and was widely praised after reopening in September 2007. Salvator removed the dropped acoustical ceiling, exposing two feet of newly found space which allowed for a modern sound and a lighting system to appeal to a younger generation.[18]
The Bemelmans Bar is decorated with murals depicting Madeline in Central Park painted by Ludwig Bemelmans. Bemelmans is the namesake of the bar, and his murals there are his only artwork on display to the public. Instead of accepting payment for his work, Bemelmans received a year and a half of accommodations at The Carlyle for him and his family.[19] The 2015 film A Very Murray Christmas was set in the Carlyle and in Bemelmans Bar.[20]
The Carlyle Restaurant was formerly known as Dumonet at the Carlyle.
References
- ^ "About – Our Story". The Carlyle. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
- ^ Brenner, Marie (19 December 1983). "Grand Hotel: the Inside Story of the Carlyle". New York. pp. 30–43.
- ^ a b Foulkes, Nick; Wyatt, Lynn; Levy, Bernard-Henri (1 December 2007). The Carlyle. New York: Assouline Publishing. p. 50. ISBN 978-2759401659.
- ^ Foulkes, p. 25
- ^ Foulkes, p. 30
- ^ Foulkes, p. 57
- ^ Foulkes, pp. 69–71
- ^ a b c Collins, Glenn (23 June 2000). "Palace of Secrets Receives Suitors, Quite Discreetly; Carlyle Hotel Regulars Hope Sale Will Not Bring Changes". The New York Times. NYtimes.com. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
- ^ Soltis, Andy (15 June 2010). "Kennedy orgies in romper room". New York Post. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
- ^ Foulkes, p. 83
- ^ Malcolm X (10 November 1963). "Message to the Grassroots". TeachingAmericanHistory.com. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
- ^ Collins, Glenn (4 January 2001). "Owner of 17 Luxury Hotels Buys Carlyle for $130 Million". The New York Times. Retrieved 2016-10-12.
- ^ Vise, David A. (5 October 1987). "Area Merchant Banking Firm Formed". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
- ^ Heller, Joe (3 December 2010). "Mick Without Moss". The New York Times. NYtimes.com. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
- ^ "Alan Cumming gets personal and 'sappy' in his debut show at Cafe Carlyle" by Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Daily News, 3 June 2015
- ^ "Alan Cumming Bares All For His Sappy Songs Album Cover" by Curtis M. Wong, The Huffington Post, 16 January 2016
- ^ Hague, Lesley; Ballen, Sian (14 December 2007). "Scott Salvator". Newyorksocialdiary.com. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
- ^ Ryzik, Melena (18 September 2007). "Wiping the Stains Off a Bit of Old New York Glamour". The New York Times. NYtimes.com. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
- ^ "Bemelmans Bar". Rosewood Hotels and Resorts. Retrieved May 16, 2014.
- ^ "Bill Murray's Little Christmas Miracle" by Ian Crouch, The New Yorker, December 4, 2015