The Hotel Claridge was a 16-story building on

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Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

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, at the southeast corner of Broadway and 44th Street. Originally known as the Hotel Rector, it was built of brick in the

Beaux-arts style Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorporat ...

in 1910–1911. The 14-story building had 240 guest rooms and 216,000 square feet of space."Claridge Hotel in Times Square is Acquired by Douglas Leigh". The New York Times, May 21, 1964. p. 57. It operated for 61 years until the building was demolished in 1972 and replaced with 1500 Broadway.

History

The Hotel Rector was established by George Rector as a complement to his popular restaurant, which had been founded by his father and was frequented by New York's rich and famous, including Diamond Jim Brady and

Cornelius Vanderbilt III Brigadier General Cornelius "Neily" Vanderbilt III (September 5, 1873 – March 1, 1942) was an American military officer, inventor, engineer, and yachtsman. He was a member of the Vanderbilt family. Early life Born in New York City to Corneliu ...

. The timing of his new venture was unfortunate, because as the hotel was being developed, a popular Broadway play was released, called '' The Girl from Rector's''. The play was considered indecent by many critics and gave the Rector's name an unsavory reputation. Rector held the play responsible when he declared his new hotel bankrupt in May 1913. The new owners wanted a new name to escape the stigma, so the Hotel Rector became the Hotel Claridge in 1913. The new name evoked the exclusive Claridge's of London. Although they were no longer using the old name, the new management refused to allow use of the Rector's brand for another restaurant. Rector successfully sued to regain use of his own name. The

American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

(ASCAP) was founded at the Hotel Claridge on February 13, 1914. In 1923, the hotel was purchased by real estate investor Benjamin Winter, Sr. for $3 million. In May 1964 it was bought by Douglas Leigh Inc. for an unspecified sum. Leigh indicated he would turn the hotel into a commercial building, with stores, a restaurant and exhibit space on the lower floors and showrooms, offices and meeting rooms on the upper floors. One of the most enduring images of Times Square is the “Camel Man”, who blew cigarette smoke rings around the clock from 1941 to 1966 from a billboard mounted on the Hotel Claridge.

Demolition and rebuilding

The building was razed in 1972 to make way for a 33-story office tower.

National General Corporation National General Corporation (NGC) was a theater chain holding company, film distribution and production company and was considered one of the "instant majors". It was in operation from 1951 to 1974. Divisions Its division National General Pic ...

based their eastern operations in the building and also incorporated a movie theater into the building, the first new movie theater in Times Square for more than 30 years, which opened December 12, 1972, with the premiere of '' The Poseidon Adventure''. The theater added a screen in 1982 and closed in 1998. The first and second floors are occupied by ABC's Times Square Studios, home to the ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. ...

'' television program.

In popular culture

In the film, ''The Hustler'' (1961), with Jackie Gleason and Paul Newman, the pool scenes were shot in the Hotel Claridge bar. In the film ''

Midnight Cowboy ''Midnight Cowboy'' is a 1969 American drama film, based on the 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy. The film was written by Waldo Salt, directed by John Schlesinger, and stars Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, with notable smaller ...

'' (1969), Joe Buck ( Jon Voight) lodges in the Hotel Claridge at the beginning of his stay in New York City (but he is soon expelled due to failure to pay).

References

External links

Images of the Hotel Rector/Hotel Claridge
{{Broadway (Manhattan) 1911 establishments in New York City Beaux-Arts architecture in New York City Broadway (Manhattan) Buildings and structures demolished in 1972 Defunct hotels in Manhattan Demolished hotels in New York City Hotel buildings completed in 1911 Hotels in Manhattan Times Square buildings