Celebrity Clients of the The Astor Hotel

Astor Hotel: Famous For Being Famous
Fur Traders And Real Estate Brokers

John Jacob Astor came to England from Germany in the late 18th century and gained his livelihood through crafting flutes. Immigrating to New York, Astor entered the rather more lucrative fields of fur trading and real estate, gaining control over land that was once the province of the Manhattan Indians. In the late 19th century, this family who came to be associated with hotels were known as the "landlords of New York."

Longacre Opulence

William Waldorf Astor, great-grandson of John Jacob Astor, acquired a large portion of the family's real estate wealth, including a tract of land called Longacre Square. In modern times, this bucolic land became Times Square. Astor desired to create a hotel that was more grandiose than the Astoria, which was developed by his cousin, John Jacob Astor IV. This hotel integrated with the Waldorf Hotel to become the Waldorf-Astoria, which was torn down after thirty years to make room for the Empire State Building. John Astor and his titanic wealth went down with the Titanic in 1912, proving that there are no real estate tycoons on the ship of death.

William Astor developed the Astor Hotel in 1904, at the end of La Belle Epoque, the beautiful era. Built on a foundation of $7,000,000, the Astor combined French Renaissance Baroque with Victorian eclecticism. It was a grandiloquent architectural statement, written in red brick and copper and speaking of an aristocratic age that was rapidly coming to an end. The Astor stood in archaic splendor for over sixty years, haunted by a plethora of celebrated figures from the arts, the cinema and from European royalty.

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High Society And Song Writers

From its completion, the Astor became a focal point of congregation for the elite theatrical set. Being framed against the theatrical milieu of Broadway, the Astor developed into a stomping ground for musical theater producers, actors and song writers. Cole Porter would hammer out lyrics to his songs while sipping absinthe in the notoriously popular bar. His lyrics concerning Mimsie Starr being pinched in the Astor Bar were inspired by the Astor's ornate, high energy libation lounge.

Presidents And Pretenders

It has been said that nine presidents stayed at the Astor Hotel. Charles Evans Hughes, who ran against Woodrow Wilson in the 1916 election, went to sleep the night of the election believing himself to be the next president of the United States. He awoke to learn that he had lost California and thereby the election. A reporter called Hughes the morning after the election. His valet answered and told the reporter that the President is asleep. The reporter responded: "When he wakes up, tell him he isn't the President."

Old Soldiers And Old Hotels

The Astor Hotel has also been popular with renowned military men. General John D. Pershing stayed at the Astor just before sailing for Europe to lead his victorious troops in World War 1. General Douglas MacArthur was reputed to have spent his honeymoon at the venerable Astor Hotel. As MacArthur said: Old soldiers and old hotels never die. They just fade away. The Astor Hotel faded away in 1967.