More than a dozen US presidents and stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra were guests at the Waldorf Astoria. Now the luxury hotel on Park Avenue in New York is 90 years old.
New York – Frank Caiafa was actually the bartender at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York – but one day he happened to be given the job of getting the musician Chuck Berry to perform.
Jennifer and Nick Boccagno married at the luxury hotel on Park Avenue and left some wedding photos in an envelope behind a picture on the wall – found ten years later by a construction worker doing renovations. Abbie Newman started out as a maid at the Waldorf Astoria as a young woman – and one day accidentally bumped into “Superman” actor Christopher Reeve in a hallway.
The operators of the famous hotel have now collected all of these stories and many more on their own website – on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the opening of the Waldorf Astoria on Friday (October 1st). “When we bought the legendary Waldorf Astoria, we knew that we were also taking on the task of preserving its great history,” said Andrew Miller, US head of the Chinese insurer Dajia, which sold the building for almost two billion dollars in 2014 Hotel chain bought Hilton. “We’re celebrating the hotel’s 90th birthday by capturing its history with the memories of people who walked through its famous corridors.”
Famous guests
Stars like Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Queen Elizabeth II and more than a dozen US presidents have stayed at the luxury hostel over the past few decades, which first opened its doors on Park Avenue on October 1, 1931 – Back then as the largest, highest and most expensive hotel in the world. Countless films have been shot there, and room service is said to have been invented at the Waldorf Astoria – and of course the Waldorf salad: apples, celery, walnuts and mayonnaise.
The 90th birthday is also celebrated online with memories of the story, because the hotel has been closed since the beginning of 2017. The Chinese owners are renovating the building for around a billion dollars. Around three years were originally budgeted for this, and work is currently being carried out until 2023. However, only a small part of the building will then be a hotel. Many of the more than 1,000 rooms, which were available in the cheapest price range from around $ 200 per night, are to be converted into luxury apartments. The facade and lobby have to remain, they are listed.
First hotel with electricity
In 1893, the wealthy entrepreneur William Waldorf Astor opened a hotel on Fifth Avenue. A few years later, his cousin, John Jacob Astor, followed suit. They teamed up and the Waldorf Astoria became the first hotel with electricity and telephones in the rooms. In 1929, however, it had to make way for the Empire State Building. Two years later, the hotel on Park Avenue reopened.
With an entire block of streets in a prime location, fine restaurants and lavish balls, the Waldorf Astoria built its reputation, but in the years before it was closed, it had crumbled tremendously. A shootout at a party and rumors about bed bugs – and then, contrary to tradition, the then US President Barack Obama moved to another hotel after the sale to the Chinese company for fear of a spying attack during UN Week. In addition, the once splendid Waldorf Astoria was crumbling and dusty everywhere, and renovation seemed urgently needed.
In the meantime, however, the hotel’s extensive archive will remain well protected, said Dajia-US boss Miller of the “New York Times”. This includes, among other things, Sinatra’s lease from the 1970s. The singer rented a six-room suite for a million dollars a year. Sinatra wanted exactly this suite, said Miller – “because the composer Cole Porter had it before”. dpa
