LIQUOR STORE Story

Tudor City's first liquor store opened in 1934, shortly after the repeal of Prohibition. The colony had been dry for the first seven years of its existence, or at least legally so ‒ there were plenty of speakeasies in East Midtown.

Somewhat hidden in a walled-off space in the rear of No. 45's grocery, the Tudor City Liquor Store had its own entrance in the 43rd Street cul-de-sac. Its interior was as matter-of-fact as its name.

No. 45's grocery, above. The liquor store was behind the latticework at top left. In 1938, the business moved around the corner to a more prime space adjoining the grocery on Prospect Place, today's Tudor City Place. 

Around 1950, new operators took over the business and gave it a sophisticated new spin, starting with the name.

The Bottle Shop in the 1960s, timestamped by the Volkswagen Beetle parked in front. Currently the space is home to a dry cleaner. 

Above, some tongue-in-cheek '50s ads for the enterprise.

The Bottle Shop closed around 1972. 

The Tudor City Bulletin Board

Above, the Tudor City Bulletin Board, found in a 1934 issue of Tudor City Service. An advertisement disguised as a bulletin board, it points out the many services the enclave offered residents, a key part of Tudor City's DNA in its early years. Select clips, below.

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More about Tudor City services here and here.

Special BEAUTY Edition

Caruso Beauty Salon, 1962

Herewith, a selection of advertisements for Tudor City's longtime beauty parlor, in business for over 35 years. All the ads come from Tudor City View, the monthly neighborhood gazette. 

In 1934, the Tudor City Beauty Shop opens in No. 25, leased by Michael Caruso.

The business gets a new name (Caruso's Beauty Salon) and a new address (Windsor Tower) in 1939. 

Caruso's two sons, Enrico and Julius, learn the trade in the shop, and go on to become celebrity hair stylists. In 1951, Enrico invents the Poodle Cut, a tightly curled style popularized by Lucille Ball that would prove to be his claim to fame. 

A nostalgic look back at hair curling techniques of yore, from 1966, when nostalgia was in flower.

More on the Caruso Beauty Salon here.

TUDOR CITY GOES TO WAR

With the onset of World War II, Tudor City adjusted to a new world of shortages, blackouts, rationing, and salvaging. Civilians were urged to volunteer for "short-notice" jobs such as nurses' aides, air-raid wardens, auxiliary firemen, and so on. Even dogs were pressed into service ‒ for sentry duty.

Above, a volunteer collecting aluminum for defense in 1943. Her sign reads:

TUDOR CITY 3-Day Drive / Aluminum for Defense / July 21-22-23 / All deposits of aluminum made here will be turned over to the Mayor's Committee for Defense / Give a pot or pan / A.W.V.S. 

A.W.V.S. was the American Women's Voluntary Services organization. Other items collected for the war effort ranged from kitchen fat and nylon stockings to tin cans and short-wave radios.

War bond drives were ongoing. Above, the 6th War Loan Office was located in the lobby of No. 5.

USE IT UP / WEAR IT OUT / MAKE IT DO / DO WITHOUT was the motto of the Tudor City Laundry Service ‒ where "the clothes hangers have gone to war."

The war gave Tudor City's ad agency a new way to sell the enclave ‒ as a safe haven for the duration. "Of course, you are willing to make sacrifices to win the war," the ads allowed, "but have you considered how much easier it is to adjust your living to war conditions by moving to Tudor City?"

"Driving to the country to cool off isn't as simple as it used to be [owing to gas rationing] . . . but in Tudor City you need go only across the street to find pleasant private parks."

Introducing AZALEA & OAK

The former flower shop in Windsor Tower is now home to the just-opened Azalea & Oak, a chic boutique offering a curated selection of reclaimed jewelry and accessories, vintage designer handbags, plus toys and togs for kids. 

This is the first brick-and-mortar location for the company, which has hosted pop-ups around town and has kiosks in Bryant Park's Holiday Shops. We wish it much success!

Above, the shop exudes a groovy downtown vibe. Below, the section set aside for smaller fry. 

PICTURE OF THE DAY

An aisle of the Tudor City Drug Store in a photo from the March, 1940 issue of Tudor City View, the complex's monthly gazette. This section of the store featured gift items ‒ perfumes, cigars, Sheaffer pens, and the like. At far left, a soda fountain with stools vended Coca-Cola, as advertised. Today, the former drug store space is home to Conrad's Bike Shop and the Tudor Garden Nail Salon. 

Click on photo to enlarge.

Lost Tudor City: DRUG STORE Edition

Once upon a time, Tudor City had its very own drug store, set in No. 25. In place when the building opened in 1928, it remained in business until the early 1970s.

After that, the drug store space became a Thomas Cook Travel Agency. Today, Conrad's Bike Shop and the Tudor Garden Nail Salon stand in its place.

Above right, a 1941 rendering of the drug store's location in No. 25.

The drug store was originally named Old English Tudor Chemists. Above, a 1944 ad offering everything from sunglasses to beach bags to leg makeup ‒ owing to the wartime nylon shortage.

The pet-friendly interior of the drug store, 1957. Cotton balls, Kleenex and eau de cologne share space with a rack of paperbacks in the rear.

By the 1960s, the name has changed to Tudor City Pharmacy, with a new focus on beauty products.  The Tudor City Luncheonette (mentioned above and pictured below) was a modest counter-service affair with half-a-dozen stools.

Tudor City Pharmacy, bottom right corner, circa 1960.

TUDOR CITY vs. DOGS

Tudor City and dogs have long had a fractious history. Canines are initially welcomed when the complex opens, but their major drawbacks ‒ barking and pooping ‒ quickly become annoying. Things haven't changed much since. Here, chronologically, the story of Tudor City vs. Dogs.

1932

Above, an item from a nationally syndicated man-about-town column. 

The 1930s is not a good time to be a dog in New York. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle elaborates: "The world is not going to the dogs, in fact it's going against them. The canine society has been much changed by Old Man Depression. . . more dogs have been sent out into the cold, cruel world to shift for themselves than ever before. Lots of folks feel it's tough enough these days for humans to get by without worrying about quadrupeds."

October 7, 1937
Tudor City bans dogs altogether.

From the Associated Press: "The dog question has risen here in a kind of complex way, and no man knows where it will all end.

Tudor City, one of the largest apartment house groups in New York, has taken the plunge and ruled that hereafter tenants with dogs will not be admitted.While other major apartment house corporations are hanging back from any such drastic step, as yet at least, most of them are strongly "discouraging dogs. . ."

1948
  An unsettling item from celeb columnist Dorothy Kilgallen.

1962

By 1962, curb-your-dog laws with hefty fines are in effect. At left, a warning sign in the 43rd Street cul-de-sac.

The model is Jean Shrimpton, the photographer, David Bailey, and the image part of the fashion shoot credited with launching the Swinging Sixties in America. More about it here.









1967
Caruso Beauty Salon ‒ profiled earlier ‒ takes an indignant ad out in Tudor City View. Pooper scooper laws will not go into effect in the city until 1978.

2018
After Tudor City goes co-op in the 1980s, the choice to allow dogs is at the individual building's discretion. Here's how it stands now ‒ for some reason, canines are more welcome south of 42nd Street than north of it.

DOG FRIENDLY: 
No. 2
No. 5
The Cloister
Essex House
3 H's
The Woodstock

DOG UNFRIENDLY:
No. 25
No. 45
The Hermitage
The Manor

The Caruso Beauty Salon

Continuing our series of posts about various Tudor City shops over the years, here ithe Caruso Beauty Salon.

The salon, on No. 5's southwest corner, in an undated photograph. 

One of the longest-running businesses in Tudor City, the Caruso Beauty Salon originally opens in Tudor Tower, but moves across the street to No. 5 in 1939, where it remains for over 30 years. Along the way, it launches the careers of two celebrity hairstylists, the owner's sons. Here is the Caruso story, in bullet points.

Ad detail, 1941

✴ Founded by Michael Caruso, an Italian immigrant who arrives in NYC as a stowaway and whose first job is sweeping the floor in a barbershop. He leases the original Tudor Tower shop in 1934. It's enough of a hit for him to relocate to cushier digs in No. 5 ‒ and to add a "budget" branch, including a men's barber, in the Hotel Tudor.

✴ It is a true mom-and-pop shop in the beginning. Caruso's wife is a colorist, and their two sons, Julius and Enrico, are part-time apprentices as teenagers. Both boys demonstrate a flair with hair.

✴ By the late 1940s, Enrico is considered the star of the shop. He invents the poodle cut, and movie stars ‒ like Ann Sheridan, below ‒ start showing up.

✴ Julius leaves the Tudor City shop to open his own salon in 1952, and Enrico follows suit, opening his place two blocks away. Talented and personable, they soon are working with big-name celebs (Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly) and famed photographers (Irving Penn, Richard Avedon). The brothers have a friendly rivalry, right down to their endorsement deals ‒ Julius shills for Lilt home permanents, while Enrico endorses Toni, its chief competitor.

Above, magazine ads. Enrico and Candice Bergen for Clairol, Julius for a product called Condition.

Like all good media stars, the Carusos leave behind some choice YouTube clips. See "Hairstyling Hints with famous stylist Julius Caruso" here. Enrico as the celeb guest on the game show To Tell the Truth here.

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✴ In 1965, Michael Caruso, the father, retires and sells his Tudor City shop to Mario Caruso, a cousin. It closes, we believe, in the early 1970s.

Building Spotlight: WINDSOR TOWER, NO. 5

Continuing our survey of individual Tudor City buildings, here's the lowdown on Windsor Tower, No. 5, known within the French Company as the Ninth Unit.

Windsor Tower's western and eastern facades, as rendered on SimCity, a city-building computer game.

Detail of 1929 ad

➺ Opened January 1, 1930 as an Apartment Hotel (efficiency apartments offering hotel amenities like maid and laundry services, as well as a central switchboard). Faced with red brick, trimmed with limestone and terra cotta. 

➺ 22 stories, plus 4 sub-floors. 788 apartments, the most of any Tudor City building, primarily studios and one bedrooms. The only building on Tudor City Place to offer river views, because the slaughterhouse district ended one block north.

➺ Considered the grandest building in the complex because of its 10 showplace penthouses, with dizzying city views and drop-dead double-height ceilings.

Studio floor plan, 1930. Dotted lines represent Murphy beds.

No. 5 offered the most services of any Tudor City building, as shown above, circa 1941. The Grey Room was a community space used for dances, lectures, art exhibits and the like.

No. 5 also houses a block-long SHOPPING ARCADE at its eastern base. Now unoccupied, it variously housed a radio shop, a Studebaker showroom and the clubhouse of the Tudor City Camera Club over the years. We think its fortunes are looking up with the current (and inevitable future) development along First Avenue.

Effortless Living, 1930

Another installment in our series on Tudor City services. Today's post is drawn from a wonderful 1930 brochure that details how Tudor City's extra services make for "effortless living."