MISCELLANY Deluxe

 Some odds and ends. . .

First is this latest addition to No. 5, an example of heraldry that replaced the original terra cotta figure which lasted nearly 100 years. 

The East River is home to a rainbow, in a photo taken from No. 25 by Sally Hill. Thanks, Sally!

This colony artwork was published in 1939, the first year of the New York World's Fair, and reflected city optimism. Other images were used to illustrate a brochure and menu covers.  

An early example of fake Tudor City, The Tudor Shoppe had a name that somehow convinced people it was affiliated with the community. It wasn't, and it didn't last, but at least it got mentioned in a New Yorker story.

A rarely seen photograph of cartoonist Will Eisner in his Tudor City office, a one bedroom apartment in No. 5. Eisner created his masterpiece, The Spirit, here. However, his fame came years later, for The Spirit never ran in New York. It was not until 1965, with the publication of The Great Comic Book Heros, that this forgotten strip became legendary. More on Eisner here.

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. 

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.

RESIDENTS: James T. Farrell letter

Another post concerning James T. Farrell, author of the Studs Lonigan trilogy in the 1930s, and a resident of No. 5 in the 1960s.

Today's artifact is a letter written by Farrell to Marylew Kogan. What their relationship was exactly is unclear, but Farrell dutifully reports where he stands at the moment on various projects, then asks Kogan to forward some stories to him for inclusion in his archive.  

A familiar return address first caught our eye. Where exactly he lived in No. 5 remains a mystery, but insiders insist it was one of the penthouses. 

Dear Marylew,

    I'll write soon. This is in haste. I finished Invisible Swords yesterday. I regard it as the most powerful book I have ever written.

    Judith is out.

    Childhood Is Not Forever will be out in Sept, 1969. I have a shorter novel than Invisible Swords ‒ Tom Carroll is almost ready. [Tom Carroll never published]

Jim Farrell       

P. S. And please do get the stories back to me so that I can send them away to my archive. 

Farrell was a busy writer, and he produced 52 books in all. But in the end, the most revered were the Studs Lonigan trilogy, written at the start of his career. See more about him here.

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Please note that I'm taking a couple weeks vacation and will be back in October. See you then!

RESIDENTS: Madeleine Carroll

Madeleine Carroll cigarette cards

A return to our series of posts about well-known people who once lived in Tudor City. Today, we examine the life of Madeleine Carroll, at one time the highest paid actress in the world and later a resident of a No. 5 penthouse.

Carroll was British, and her career began in London. After making a name for herself in plays and movies, she was offered a starring role in The 39 Steps, to be directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Of course, she accepted it.

 

The 39 Steps lobby cards

And so it was that Carroll appeared as Hitchcock's first ice-cold blonde. The picture was a hit in the states, and off she went to Hollywood. By 1938, she had managed to become the world's highest paid actress. 

Carroll made such memorable pictures as The Prisoner of Zenda, On the Avenue, and One Night in Lisbon opposite leading men such as Gary Cooper, Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda. Then, once war was declared, she stopped making movies altogether to volunteer for the Red Cross, specializing in aiding orphans.

In her Red Cross uniform

After the war's end, she took up with Andrew Heiskell, the newly named publisher of Life magazine. He was 30, married with two children; she was 44 ‒ and pregnant for the first time with Heiskell's child. (She also had three former husbands, among them Sterling Hayden, but that was another matter.)

Things worked out in a manner of speaking. Heiskell got a divorce, they were married, and he took the Tudor City penthouse. They used this as a base in New York, although a country house in Darien, CT was their primary residence. Tudor City was reserved for entertainment; he was the publisher of Life, after all.

The Heiskell family in happier times.

Carroll made her last film in 1949, and acted only occasionally in radio and television programs over the next decade. The couple remained together until Heiskell fell in love with another woman, and they divorced in 1965. Carroll never remarried. She died in Spain at the age of 81.

Circa 1937

The Inquiring Fotographer Returns

It's been a couple of years since we last visited the Inquiring Fotographer, the column in the Daily News in which a question is asked, then answered, along with a photo. Let's see what average Tudor City folks thought about various issues.

 

August 31, 1949

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November 4, 1971

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January 30, 1972

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And here is a bonus shot of Jimmy Jemail, the man who was the Inquiring Fotographer. He's photographing actress Gene Tierney, no doubt for some other project, or just because she's there.

Residents: HERBERT MATTER

Herbert Matter in 1937

In this installment of Tudor City notables, meet Herbert Matter, Swiss photographer/designer, and former resident of No. 45. His innovative work helped shape the vocabulary of 20th-century graphic design.

Between the years 1932-1935, he designed a series of posters for the Swiss National Tourist Office. They are much admired ‒ the Museum of Modern Art acquires them for its permanent collection ‒ and he was off and running; he left for America in 1935.

He lands in New York City where he meets Alexey Brodovitch, art director of Harper's Bazaar, who hires him as a freelance photographer. This leads to many magazine covers, above. The painter Fernand Léger introduces him to his future wife, Mercedes, and she moves into his Tudor City digs, a small studio in No. 45 for living and one of its penthouses for working.

The couple become friendly with some of the artists of that time: Alexander Calder, Willem de Kooning, Alberto Giacometti, and Jackson Pollock. They leave Tudor City for good in 1943, eventually settling in Greenwich Village.

In the years that followed, Matter worked as a design consultant for the furniture company Knoll, taught photography at Yale, and was design consultant for the Guggenheim Museum. Above, a sample of his work for Knoll and the cover design for a Guggenheim show on Alexander Calder.

Matter died in 1984. His wife (pictured above) was a notable artist herself and profiled earlier by this blog. And it was their son, Alex, who raised a ruckus some years later. 

RESIDENTS: Claudia Schiffer

Welcome back to our residents of note feature, where today we spotlight Claudia Schiffer, supermodel and one-time Manor resident.

Schiffer was born in Germany and discovered in a discotheque at age 18. Soon thereafter, she was photographed for Guess Jeans by Ellen von Unwerth (above) and her tousled look reminded many of Brigitte Bardot. "The company became much more known around the world because of Claudia" said the owner of Guess Jeans. A supermodel was born.

She posed on cars and in speedboats, and had a roaring career. She holds the Guinness record for the most magazine covers ever ‒ over 1,000. In 2002, she married director Matthew Vaughn and they now have three children. 

Schiffer lived in The Manor at the beginning of her career, probably starting around 1990, and probably underwritten by Guess Jeans. The above photograph was made on the terrace of PH 6, her apartment. "From the archive," she says. "Early days in my first apartment in NYC, and my first ever Fendi bag." 

Thank you David Reiff for the tip.

RESIDENTS: Anna Nicole Smith

Tudor City has had many residents of note over the years, but no one quite like Anna Nicole Smith, shameless self-promoter and Manor resident.

Following a surgical enhancement of her bust, she was discovered by Playboy in 1992. Immediately thereafter, she signs a contact to model with Guess Jeans, and suddenly she is very well known. Around this time, she takes Apartment 518 in The Manor. How long she keeps it is anyone's guess.

She begins to make a name for herself in the gossip columns by being pictured beside players like Hugh Hefner and Donald Trump, above. But she had a secret.

Back in 1991, Anna Nicole had met an 89-year-old Texas oil tycoon at a strip club, where she was a stripper. They strike up a friendship and one night a year or so later, he asked her to marry him. She said 'yes' immediately.

Her career struggles are put on hold so that she could take care of her husband. When he dies a year later, she spends the rest of her life in court fighting with the family over her inheritance. She would never know the outcome, however.

Anna Nicole dies of accidental prescription drug overdose in 2007, aged 39. Four years later, the court would finally rule against her; her estate would get nothing.

Thanks to David Reiff for the tip.

Resident: WALT CESSNA

A look at the teenaged publishing wunderkind, Walt Cessna, who lived in the colony in 1991.

Walt Cessna, circa 2005

Born in 1964, Cessna lived many lives: street hustler, club kid, photographer, clothing designer, Village Voice writer, stylist for a Nine Inch Nails tour. He was in and out of drug rehab, HIV positive, and very amusing to be around.

He also was a prolific publisher of 'zines, including his infamous journal, STOP, in which he sums up the scene in his own pictures. 

One issue gave its address as 5 Tudor City Place, where Cessna was living at the time. He didn't stay there long.

Returning to the East Village, he continued to do what he had always done -- more 'zines, more photos, more drugs -- but somehow it wasn't the same. At the time of his death in 2017, Cessna was 53 years old. By his own standards, he stayed way too long at the party.

More of the INQUIRING FOTOGRAPHER

Another installment in our ongoing feature spotlighting select items from The Inquiring Fotographer, the Daily News' longtime question/answer/photo column, a guilty pleasure of this blog. Today, three locals discuss Charley Horses, the United Nations, and Nikita Khrushchev.

December 28, 1939

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October 31, 1949

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April 26, 1956

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Background on the Inquiring Fotographer column here.