TUDOR CITY from the REAR

For the holiday weekend, we've selected a group of photographs featuring the many flags of the United Nations. And, not incidentally, all of the pictures feature the backsides of Tudor City buildings. Happy Memorial Day.   

RESIDENTS: Paul duPont

 Today, we welcome back the residents of note column with Paul duPont, famed costume designer of the '50s and resident of No. 5.      

Paul duPont, 1955

Born in 1906, he was a budding ballet dancer when a fall through an open trap door resulted in a broken back and two years recuperation. He tried his luck in fashion, opening a shop in Paris, but this failed.

Then, back in the States, he fell in with Helen Hayes who convinced him to move to New York City and join the Group Theater. Around the same time, he also accepted a job offer from Eaves Costume, where he would work for the rest of his life.

Ultimately, he produced costumes for 64 Broadway shows, three ballets, one opera, and one Ice Capades. And that was just a warm-up to his television work, starting when he signed as costume designer for "Your Show of Shows," then signing with producer Max Liebman to design the costumes for his lavish spectaculars.

Life magazine ran pictures taken by duPont of an Eaves Costume party; Time pronounced him television's top costume designer. Everything was fine ‒ except for the small medicine cabinet he always carried around with him containing "aspirin, empirin, dysoxin, phenobarbital (to calm myself down) and dexedrine (to pep myself up)."

TV Guide article, 1955

The Sunday Star (Washington, DC) photo, 1955

The picture above is that of his Tudor City home. One glance at its windows confirmed it was one of No.5's penthouses.

In 1957, his life took an ominous turn. First, a broken leg, then an extended, unexplained hospital stay. His last appearance in print was a one-line item in Dorothy Kilgallen's column, The Voice of Broadway, running on April 17, 1957: 

It is rather astonishing, first for being "thrown out" of a dressing room, followed by being "assaulted for the first time in my career." But that's the end of this part of the story; his assaulter was never revealed.

Three days later, Paul duPont was dead, aged 51. This was confirmed by his hometown paper, the Pensacola News-Journal. He died of a heart attack at Lenox Hill hospital, the obituary read. There was no mention of Kilgallen's item. . . nor of the small medicine cabinet that duPont always kept nearby. 

Miscellaneous Miscellany

Once again, it's time to clear the desk of some random Tudor Cityana. 

First up, a photo illustration from New York magazine about mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, who appears to be gazing at No. 5 and No. 25. The article dubs him the Power Breaker, which brought to mind the original Power Broker, Robert Moses. Moses is pictured, below, during the planning for the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair.

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This postcard suggests having your cocktail party at the Hotel Tudor Cocktail Lounge, pictured above. The "finest of liquors and moderate prices make for happy entertaining." Makes sense to us.     

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Photographer Lewis Hine's picture of a man on lunch break on the rising Empire State Building with the panoply of Manhattan behind him, including The Woodstock, extreme right.  

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Fenestra Casement windows ‒ fifteen hundred of them ‒ outfitted No. 45 and prompted the manufacturer to issue this ad in the Architectural Record in December, 1928.    

Thanks to David Reiff for the ad

The INQUIRING FOTOGRAPHER Is Back

Once again, we return to the Inquiring Fotographer, the long-running question/ answer/photograph column that ran in the Daily News. It was edited by Jimmy Jemail, from 1921 t0 1973; we are only interested in responses from Tudor Citizens.  

August 28, 1941

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December 13, 1941

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November 12, 1955

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February 9, 1969

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For further reading on the subject, see here.

More Miscellany

Another grab bag of miscellanea, do with it what you may.

 

An addition to the North Park is this new library, a celebration of technology both old (stained-glass door) and new (integrated solar lighting.) It was made and donated by Charlie Jackson; thanks to Tudor City Greens for the picture.    

The Second Avenue El is being disassembled in this 1942 photograph by Percy Loomis Sperr. Rising above it all, The Woodstock.     

The Terrace had a gimmick ‒ it was the closest bar/restaurant to the United Nations ‒ and for a time in the 50s and 60s, it hosted a happening after work scene. Its matchbook depicted both buildings.   

A photograph from 1929 rendered as a postcard. The community was not yet complete; Hotel Tudor was soon to follow in 1930, and in 1956, Tudor Gardens opened. Thanks to David Reiff for the tip.

This last photo depicts the rowhouses on 43rd Street, and there are parts of The Woodstock and The Hermitage rising above them. But the real surprise is the lamp post in the park, below, famed as the oldest piece of park furniture still standing. More about it here.

RENOVATIONS

A number of rare photos taken during the 1952 transformation of Tudor City into something more appropriate for a neighborhood that would mesh with the UN. Roads were widened, a parkside sidewalk was added, and the tunnel replaced by a modern overpass. The redesign also included a much disliked split-rail fence around the parks that remains in place for 41 years.

Looking south from a Manor window, Tudor City Place (at left) appears driveable, but the parks are in a state of wild disarray. Above, one can see the North Park's fountain basin (center bottom) and to its right, the pergola. They wouldn't last in the start-from-scratch plan. 

The opposite view, facing north, showing a new feature being installed: a parkside sidewalk.  

 

        Across the street, workmen in front of No. 25.

Finally, a pile of pipes lay near one of the gazebos. Like all of the decorative details of the park ‒ the lich gates, the fountain, the pergola ‒ the gazebos did not make the cut.

More MISCELLANY

Once again, a few interesting bits of trivia.

From last Sunday's Post comes a story about the vicissitudes of New York's real estate market, entitled Prices Growing, Growing, Gone! The study of the market over the last ten years, it was a uplifting tale ‒ particularly if 0ne is a real estate agent ‒ except for a couple of straggling neighborhoods.

The main straggler, according to the Post, is "Tudor City, an apartment complex that consumes the area between East 40th and East 43rd streets and First and Second avenues. It took the greatest hit, with prices falling 17% from $402,000 in 2014 to $335,000 last year." 

Thanks to Vanessa Groce for the tip.

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Photograph around 1929, showcasing the two Tudor City signs. Then there was another sign on The Woodstock's western wall. . .

WOODSTOCK TOWER is all we can make out, however.

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The oil painting, Festival of St. Roch by E. Debat-Ponsan, hung in the lounge of Hotel Tudor in the 1950s; this postcard celebrated it.

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Finally, John McKean calls for an emergency meeting in his newsletter of January 25, 1981. "We still can win, but we must fight!"

MISCELLANY Again

 Here are the latest odds and ends to digest in our ongoing Miscellany series.

First up is this mini-ad, part of a series that ran in 1936. We have seen the other five ads before, but never this one.

The tall building is the Prospect Hill Apartments, the building that is partly credited with convincing Fred French to take a chance with Tudor City. To its left, rowhouses on 41st Street about to undergo demolition.

The parks are now home to several antique cast iron urns, once owned by Billy Rose, the theatrical impresario who lived in a No. 25 penthouse; the urns decorated his outdoor terrace. When Rose left Tudor City in the 1940s, he sold them to the Walliser family. Mr. Walliser grew fond of the urns and said they belonged in the parks, and they were given to the Greens as a gift by his widow, Mrs. Ursula Walliser, after his death. Above left, in the South Park and right, the North Park.

This item was gleaned from the newsletter of Tudor City Greens. Read the latest issue here.

  

Finally, one of the rare advertisements for No. 2, Tudor Gardens, upon its opening in the fall of 1955.   

MISCELLANY

 Time again for a round-up of items not quite worthy of a post, but worthy of at least a mention.

We came upon this can of Tudor Beer recently and wondered if it had anything to do with Tudor City. The unfortunate answer is no. Brewed in Trenton, NJ, it was for the A&P food chain ‒ in fact, it was their "premium quality" beer. One user said its taste was like "bad apple cider, without hops." Oh, well.    

A listing of all the things Tudor City had to offer, circa 1930, which was posted in all the rooms of Hotel Tudor.  

A rare matchbook cover, in black and blue, its back side plugging the Hotel Everglades in Miami. Hotel Everglades was built by the French Company in 1926, and for reasons long forgotten, it was on the cover of Tudor City Service in January, 1936, January, 1937 and January, 1938. We suspect the matchbook dates from then.

Yet another photograph of the production of "The Queen at Stratford," put on by the students of Miss Travers school in the North Park.    

PARTICIPATING IN TABLEAUX

Children of Tudor City, New York City, participated in a tableaux, "The Queen at Stratford", held under the direction of Miss Travers in the North Park of Tudor City. Little Ruth Pryor is daughter of Arthur Pryor, son of the famous bandleader. She took the part of the "Queen" while William Walker shown with her took the part of William Shakespeare. 

Instagrammable You

Hello, once again from the wondrous world of Instagram, offering inspiration to our intrepid Instagrammers. 

    

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