Tudor City on Film: DOCTOR WHO

This installment of Tudor City on Film takes a look at a Doctor Who episode filmed around and atop No. 45, Prospect Tower. Entitled "The Angels Take Manhattan," it aired on September 29, 2012.

Doctor Who, the British sci-fi TV series about a time-traveling extraterrestrial, has been running intermittently since 1963. Twelve actors have assayed the title role over the years, with Matt Smith playing him here.

In this episode, the Doctor, Amy and Rory meet River in New York, where the Weeping Angels threaten the city as time periods overlap – and time runs out for two of the travelers.

In the Tudor City sequence, Rory approaches the moodily lit Prospect Tower. . .

. . . which has been renamed the Winter Quay apartment house.

He makes his way up to the roof, where he finds Amy. Some serious special effects kick in via a fanged Statue of Liberty, actually a Weeping Angel in disguise. 

They proceed to the edge of the roof, where Rory suggests jumping, to prevent the Angels from sending him back in time, or something like that. Thanks to Doctor Who, he has died and come back to life on several occasions.

Amy agrees, but just as they are about to take the plunge. . .

. . . Doctor Who and River show up, hellbent on stopping them.

But they're too late, and Rory and Amy jump off the building. And to make 

matters worse ‒ spoiler alert! ‒ they really buy it this time once and for all.

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Whovians invade Tudor City Place

The Tudor City sequence was filmed in April, 2012. Word of the location shooting spread quickly via social media and hundreds of Whovians turned out to rubberneck, cellphone cameras at the ready.

See fan footage of the filming here and here. 

REASONS TO LIVE IN TUDOR CITY, #14

Detail of newspaper ad, 1939

Tudor City Artifact: MATCHBOOK

Today's artifact is a circa-1942 matchbook advertising the Fred F. French Renting Office for Tudor City. The office was then located at 332 E. 42nd St., near the Woodstock. 

The complex's original ad slogan ‒ Live in Tudor City and Walk to Business ‒ got tweaked to the snappier Live! in Tudor City and Walk to Work in 1941.

Residents: JACK LAIT

Essex House resident Jack Lait was one of the most famed journalists of his era, the editor of the New York Daily Mirror, the racy Hearst tabloid that had the second-largest circulation in the nation during his tenure. His life, in bullet points:

Jack Lait

✤ Born in New York City in 1883, Lait is reared in Chicago, where he begins his career as a police reporter for the Chicago American. His big break comes in 1934, when he's the sole reporter to witness the capture (and death) of John Dillinger, Public Enemy No. 1.

✤ Relocates to New York in 1936, when he's named editor of the Daily Mirror. A colorful multitasker, he's said to be the model for the Walter Burns character in "The Front Page." Circulation soon doubles.

✤Heeding the slogan "Live in Tudor City and Walk to Business," he takes an apartment in the Essex House, several blocks away from the Daily Mirror offices at 235 E. 45th St. His coverage of the city's underworld leads to random death threats, and the occasional police guard at the Essex House.

✤ Nothing if not prolific, over the years he writes novels, screenplays, stage plays and short stories, all while editing the Mirror; he even takes over Walter Winchell's column when Winchell is on vacation. He dies after a long illness in 1954.

Despite these many accomplishments, Lait is best remembered for his series of "Confidential" books, co-written with his protégé, Lee Mortimer.

The first of the series, New York Confidential, published in 1948, was an unorthodox guide to the city's grittier side -- a "bon vivant's Baedecker of melodramatic Manhattan," in the words of one reviewer. In addition to headwaiters' names, backstage phone numbers and a "Glossary of Harlemisms", there are chapters running the gamut from "Where Men Wear Lace Lingerie" to where to find a "Room with Adjoining Blonde."

Of course, it was hit and spawned similar studies of Chicago, Washington, D.C., and, finally, the whole nation in U.S.A. Confidential. The books sold over 7,000,000 copies. New York Confidential was later made into a film and a TV series, and more lately inspired the name of this blog.

Below, the movie poster and paperback version.

   

PICTURE OF THE DAY

January 21, 2017. Women's March on NYC as seen from the Tudor City Bridge, looking west down 42nd St. Photo courtesy of Brian Thompson.

Building Spotlight: THE WOODSTOCK

Continuing our survey of individual Tudor City buildings, here's the lowdown on The Woodstock, known within the French Company as the Seventh Unit.

320 E. 42nd Street, at sunrise

➺ Opened May 1, 1929. Faced with red brick, trimmed with limestone and terra cotta. It once had a spire, removed in the 1940s for reasons unknown.

➺ 459 apartments, arranged over 32 stories. The tallest building in Tudor City (and the tallest apartment building in Manhattan when it first opened). Most units are studios, with some one- and two-bedroom apartments on the upper floors. 

➺ Opened as an Apartment Hotel (efficiency apartments offering hotel amenities like room service from the on-premises restaurant, plus maid and laundry services, for an additional fee). The original onsite restaurant was converted to a club room around 1942.

➺ In 1951-52, the entrance to The Woodstock was lowered 17 feet as part of the regrading of 42nd St., and the first basement became the ground floor.

Newspaper ad, March 10, 1929. The "apartments of the future" feature
31 feet-long living rooms with five windows.

Floor plan, 1930

Entire floor plan, 1930. The apartments of the future are the corner units.

A massive terra cotta lion guards a 23rd-floor terrace

INTRODUCING the Manhattan Ventilation Building

Today, the answer to an often-asked neighborhood question -- what's that little building parked between No. 25 and the river? It photobombs many a picture of Tudor City. . .

Say hello to the Manhattan Ventilation Building, built in 1940 as part of the Queens-Midtown Tunnel project. Like its sister across the river, the Queens Ventilation Building, it's equipped with 23 mammoth fans that provide a complete air change in the tunnel every 90 seconds.

An octagonal structure with a vague art deco look, the Ventilation Building shares its lot with a playground. Both were constructed by Robert Moses, the city planner behind the Queens-Midtown Tunnel (as well as the FDR Drive, the First Ave. Underpass, and the Tudor City Bridge). The playground was named in Moses's honor in 1982.

TUDOR CITY ART: Mark Freeman

 Looking west along 42nd St. from the East River -- Tudor City, the News and Chanin Buildings.

This wonderful sketch by Mark Freeman is one of a series of Manhattan on the rise made by the artist between 1929-1932, while he was a student at Columbia's School of Architecture. Both historic and poetic, these drawings delineate the dawn of modernist architecture in Manhattan. Freeman sketched Tudor City in August, 1932, perhaps from a boat in the East River.

The view shows the eastern walls of No. 5, No. 25, No. 45 and the Woodstock. At the end of 42nd St. (bottom center), a ramp leads down to the East River, presumably for the offloading of livestock and meatpacking goods. The slaughterhouse district along First Ave. was then in full throttle.

PICTURE OF THE DAY

The art deco cocktail lounge in the Hotel Tudor, 1936.

Tudor City as Seen by GOOGLE EARTH 3-D

We've recently re-discovered Google Earth 3-D, a pleasant way to while away an afternoon. Following, some screen grabs of Tudor City via this virtual helicopter.

Tudor City and the world around it.

Tudor City Bridge and 42nd St. underpass.

The Woodstock.

No. 45's ivy-covered eastern wall and the U.N.

The Neighborhood.

These screen grabs don't do justice to the actual Google Earth 3D simulations. Try it yourself here, and be sure to click on 3D (bottom right corner) for full effect.

REAL ESTATE REPORT: What's Your Apartment Worth?

Our bi-monthly survey of recent sale prices in Tudor City, via Streeteasy:

Vintage sign in Windsor Tower lobby

The Cloister 

$249,000, Apt 410, studio
$273,000, Apt 807, studio

Essex House
$790,000, Apt 806, two bedroom
$925,000, Apt 802, two bedroom

Haddon Hall
$799,500, Apt 903C, two bedroom
$845,000, Apt 902C, two bedroom

Hardwicke Hall
$529,000, Apt 204B, one bedroom
$820,000, Apt 802B, two bedroom

Hatfield House   
$279,000, Apt 402A, studio
$379,000, Apt 1306A, studio

The Hermitage 
The Hermitage is a rental-only building. Recent monthly rentals:
$1,750, Apt 406, studio

$1,795, Apt 1003, studio

The Manor  

$499,000, Apt 814, one bedroom

$860,000, Apt 721, two bedroom

Prospect Tower, No. 45
$315,000 Apt 1219, studio
$550,000, Apt 915, one bedroom

Tudor Gardens, No. 2
$660,000 Apt 11FS, one bedroom
$1,199,000, Apt 7BS, two bedroom

Tudor Tower, No. 25
$339,000, Apt 1901, studio
$525,000, Apt 2005, one bedroom

Windsor Tower, No. 5
$349,000, Apt 2128, studio
$359,000, Apt 1636, studio

Woodstock Tower
$334,000, Apt 1607, studio
$460,000, Apt 2018, one bedroom

REASONS TO LIVE IN TUDOR CITY #13

Detail of newspaper ad, 1929

PENTHOUSE Interlude

Today, an instant cure for the winter doldrums via some uplifting pictures of Penthouse 5 in No. 5. Even though it's not currently for sale, it's always fun to see how the other half lives.


These photos were made in 2015, when the apartment was last on the market, eventually selling for $1.5 million. Although that price might seem low for a Windsor Tower penthouse, this one-bedroom unit is smaller than the norm, clocking in at just under 1,000 square feet. No one notices much given its 18-foot ceilings, triplex layout and rooftop terrace.

At left, the western view through a mass of casement windows.

A working fireplace. . .

. . .and dueling staircases ratchet up the wow factor.

Looking down to the entry level and its herringbone wood floor.

Floor plan.

THEN AND NOW

The 43rd Street staircase, then and now.

1950

This original staircase leading down to 1st Ave. from the 43rd St. dead end was built around 1877. It remained in place until 1950, when it was demolished and replaced as part of neighborhood spruce-up concurrent with the arrival of the United Nations.

2017

Today, in its place, stand the Sharansky Steps and Isaiah Wall.

CONFIDENTIAL: Enraged Woman Kills Rich Mate!

Readers have asked why the heck this blog is called Tudor City Confidential when most of the material isn't very. . . saucy. Your voice has been heard, and as a New Year's gift, here's the first installment of a new series ‒ The Confidential ‒ that will take a walk on Tudor City's wild side.

Today's installment: The Murder in the Woodstock.

Front page of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 12, 1933. The complete story transcribed below.

ENRAGED WOMAN KILLS RICH MATE

Evert McCabe, Executive in Parcel Service, 

Slain in Exclusive Tudor City Apartment 

‒ Quarrels the Motive ‒ Have Daughter, 23; Son, 19

Tragedy ended a long series of domestic quarrels at 3:45 a.m. today when Mrs. Garnet McCabe, 42, shot and killed her husband, Evert McCabe, 45, vice president of the United Parcel Service, in their apartment on the 19th floor of the Woodstock Tower, 320 E. 42nd St. in Tudor City, Manhattan.

Two guests who were asleep in the apartment at the time of the shooting and Mrs. McCabe herself have given statements that Mrs. McCabe was mentally irresponsible at the time.

"Two years ago," said James Murray, counsel for Mrs. McCabe, "the first-born son, Gene, died at the age of 22. Mrs. McCabe brooded over it and eventually began to suffer from melancholia. She could talk of nothing else; it was an obsession.

"She felt that the family ought to keep the memory of Gene alive by talking about him. Her husband resorted to every possible effort to get the subject out of her mind and her ill mind resented that. He took her to their home in Florida last November, but when she returned the condition was unchanged."

Had Picture of Son in Hand

Mr. Murray said the shooting was "wholly an act of a diseased mind." He pointed out that the first persons she encountered after the shooting noticed that she carried a photograph of the dead boy in her hand.

The McCabes were married twenty-four years ago. A daughter, Ruth, is attending school in Honolulu. Two sons, George and Larry are in a school in Florida. As vice president of United Parcel Service, McCabe receives a salary of $25,000 a year plus a significant independent income from another source.

On Wednesday night, the McCabes went to the theater, returning about midnight. They had as guests Bertrand Meyers, sales manager for United Parcel Service, and Thomas Barker, an engineer for the concern.The guests retired to a bedroom at one end of the apartment and fell asleep. Soon a pounding on the door awakened them.

Mrs. McCabe confronted them when they threw the door open.

"I've shot Evert five times," she cried. "I think I've killed him." Tears streamed down her face.

Mr. McCabe's body lay near the bathroom door. There was a bullet wound on the left side of his head, with powder burns around it, indicating that the weapon had been discharged at close range.

Two notes written by Mrs. McCabe were found in the apartment. One indicated she intended to end her own life. The other contained the question "Why don't you say something about Gene once and awhile?"

When the police came, Mrs. McCabe was near collapse and able to answer only a few questions. She is alleged to have admitted that she bought a revolver in Florida just before Christmas. Despite her statement that she fired five shots, the detectives found that she had fired only one.

At the lineup, Mrs. McCabe could hardly stand. Supported by policewomen, she sagged as she stood on the platform.

"Do you have a revolver?" asked Inspector Stilson.

"I don't know," she answered weakly.

"How long have you been married?"

Hysteria seized her again and it seemed that she would faint. Further questioning proved futile, and she was led away. Later. when arraigned in Homicide Court, her body shook with deep sobs and she covered her face with her hands.

Mr. Murray did not object when the magistrate held his client without bail for a hearing next Thursday. He attributed her condition to the death of her son, and declared he would have her examined by alienists after the case was presented to the grand jury.

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The case received national attention mainly because the murder victim was a millionaire. And since he was a millionaire, Tudor City was naturally described as "luxurious" and "exclusive."

New Castle PA News, July 28, 1936 

A month after her indictment, Mrs. McCabe was declared mad and committed to the Matteawan State Asylum for the Criminally Insane.

In 1936, she obtained a writ of habeas corpus contending that psychiatrists gave conflicting testimony on her sanity. She was released on her own recognizance, a rare step in a first-degree murder case. The indictment was eventually dismissed, and she was set free, never to be heard from again.