More THEATER PROBLEMS

Once again, a return to an offshoot of Tudor City promotion, that which was aimed at the theatergoer. 

"They come late and leave early ‒ leaving annoyance and irritation in their wake. It's absolutely inexcusable ‒ with Tudor City within easy walking distance of all the theaters."     

   

"Did you stand for thirty minutes hanging to a strap to get here this evening? . . . How much more you would enjoy the play if you had arrived untired and knew that it would take you only ten minutes to get home. And you could do just that if you lived at Tudor City."

"When you deposit your nickel, you don't know whether yours will be standing room for your own feet or whether your feet will be furnishing standing room for someone else's. . . Tudor City offers a definite solution to subway crowding."

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The attached caught our eye recently. "Tudor City Takeover" was part of the sizzle reel of The Millennial Broker on YouTube. Made in 2023, it said there were over 60 micro-apartments in Tudor City for sale, all priced at under $350,000 ‒ and micro because they all measured less than 400 square feet. The video concludes with speedy montage of designers and floor plans with groovy add-ons. See for yourself.

#ClapBecauseWeCare

That nightly clapping that you've been hearing at 7:00 pm over the last week is part of a citywide initiative meant to show appreciation for the essential workers keeping our hospitals ‒ and city ‒ functioning in these fraught times. Organized on social media via the hashtag #ClapBecauseWeCare, the originally once-a-week event proved so popular that it's become a nightly one.

Below, a video (that's more about the audio) made last night. Tap the bottom right corner to enlarge. 

In Tudor City, the clapping is augmented by car honking, pots-and-pans clanking and overall hooting and hollering. It's reminiscent of the colony's early days, when there was a tight-knit sense of community that's faded over time. It's nice to see this spirit back at an event that evokes comfort, community, and hope.

Thank you to David Reiff for the suggestion.

Up on the Roof with Lily Donaldson

Another installment of our ongoing series of beautiful people looking particularly beautiful on a Tudor City rooftop. Today's photos ran in the Fall 2013 issue of Bal Harbour Magazine, a journal promoting Bal Harbour Shops, the tony Miami mall.

Photographed by Nagi Sakai, the shoot took place on No. 45's South Roof, home to the Tudor City Sign. The model, British cover girl Lily Donaldson, is best known for her work with Victoria's Secret. 

Above, the opening spread of the article, "Up on the Roof."

Above and below, Donaldson in full va-va-voom mode.

The shoot was immortalized in a fun video, "Behind the Scenes with Lily Donaldson," which we highly recommend ‒ see it here. 

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For more rooftop glamour, check out the past posts on Kate Winslet, Sarah Jessica Parker and Gwyneth Paltrow.

VIDEO INTERLUDE: Olivia Palermo Up on the Roof

In this edition of beautiful people looking fetching on Prospect Tower's roof, please welcome mannequin Olivia Palermo, modeling clothes from the Argentinian fashion house, Vitamina.
Her duds are from Vitamina's 2014 line, and the shoot immortalized in a promotional video, here. Below, some screen grabs from the video.

Palermo and The Woodstock, above and below.

No visit to No. 45's roof would be complete without interacting with the Tudor City Sign.

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Like this sort of thing? Check out our earlier posts on Sarah Jessica Parker, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert Pattinson, Kate Winslet, and our personal favorite, Coco Rocha.

PADDY CORCORAN Rendered in Song

Vincent Cross and band.

We've written before about Paddy Corcoran, the de facto overlord of Prospect Hill circa 1860, long before the arrival of Tudor City. The head of the notorious Rag Gang, Corcoran terrorized the neighborhood for decades.

Now, a distant relative of Corcoran's, singer-songwriter Vincent Cross, has written some songs about his "five times great grand uncle."  A performer of traditional folk ballads who has been compared to Woody Guthrie, Cross records for the indie label, Rescue Dog Records.

He will be performing these new Paddy Corcoran compositions live in the city on the dates listed below. Mark your calendar!

Sunday, Oct 28 at L.I.C. Bar, Long Island City, 6 to 8 pm

Friday, Nov 16 at the Old Stone House, Park Slope, 7 to 9 pm

For more details, check out a video about this project, here, and Cross' website, here.

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In another neighborhood-related event, a recent book has come to our attention, A Worldly Affair, the story about the complicated relationship between the United Nations and its host city. 

Author Pamela Hanlon will be giving a talk about the book next month:

Wednesday, Oct 10, in the Program Room of the Mid-Manhattan Library at 42nd Street, 6:30 pm.

More details here. Mark your calendar!

The ZEISS ART CALENDAR Visits Tudor City

Above, actors Alec Baldwin and Gemma Arterton posing on the roof of No. 45. Baldwin needs no introduction; Arterton is best known as the Bond Girl in Quantum of Solace.

McCartney at a gallery show of the calendar pictures.

They're posing for the 2014 Zeiss art calendar, an annual portfolio promoting the namesake camera lens company, which matches prominent photographers with celebrated thespians. This particular calendar is titled "Moments in the City," and was shot in Tudor City and the Met Museum.

The photographer is Mary McCartney, best known for her renowned relatives: she's the daughter of Paul, and the sister of Stella. A video about the shoot here.

The couple against a scene-stealing backdrop of skyscrapers and heraldic figures.

No visit to No. 45's roof is complete without paying homage to the Tudor City sign.

ANNIE LEIBOVITZ Shoots the TUDOR CITY SIGN

Annie Leibovitz, big-time celeb photographer, and the larger-than-life Tudor City sign seem made for each other. Today, a look at their inevitable meeting.

It takes place in 2011, when Leibovitz is hired to shoot four pictures for Macallan Whisky, the luxury Scottish distiller. Her pictures are meant to inspire four single-cask whiskys, and are part of Macallan's ongoing Masters of Photography series, pairing notable shutterbugs with limited-run brown liquors.

One of Leibovitz's images ‒ entitled "The Skyline" ‒ is set on No. 45's South Roof, and features Scottish actor Kevin McKidd (of Grey's Anatomy and Trainspotting fame) as its model. Below, the photo, along with its description from the Macallan website.

THE SKYLINE   Tudor City, on the East side of Manhattan, is not only famed as the first residential skyscraper complex in the world but is renowned for some of the finest city skyline views worldwide. As dawn broke over the city, Kevin is seen on the iconic building sign feeling heroic, on top of his game and glorying in a glass of The Macallan as his just reward for his endeavours. At this moment, the master of his craft being photographed by the master of photography, Annie Leibovitz.

The Tudor City sign on a bottle of whisky.

The image is engraved on the bottle, which comes in a lavish presentation box (at left) that includes a signed, gallery-sized print of "The Skyline." Only 285 bottles are made, retailing for $2,750 apiece.

So what does it taste like? Some helpful notes via Macallan: Nose: Intense, dried fruits, ginger, nutmeg and clove. Palate: Ginger and cinnamon spice with rich dried fruits. Finish: Medium to long finish, smooth.

Below, some outtakes from the shoot.

See a video of Annie Leibovitz at work here. The Tudor City sequence starts at 3:07.

Residents: PAUL TRIPP

Continuing our coverage of noteworthy Tudor City residents, here's a look at Paul Tripp, Prospect Tower tenant and author of Tubby the Tuba, the symphonic fairy tale phenomenon.

Paul Tripp, circa 1946

♫  Born in 1911, Tripp shows an early interest in theater, particularly children's theater.

♫  While serving in the army during WWII, he comes up with the story of Tubby, a dejected tuba who's mocked by the rest of the orchestra as overweight and one-note, but who triumphs in the end. Written in collaboration with composer George Kleinsinger, Tubby the Tuba integrates story and melody in the same manner as Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, with each character given a distinctive musical motif.

♫  Released in 1945 with Tripp narrating, Tubby the Tuba is a hit, but it becomes a smash after Danny Kaye re-records it, selling over eight million copies. Over the years, it has many more interpretations, conducted by everyone from Leonard Bernstein to Arthur Fiedler, and narrated by Annette Funicello, Julia Child and Carol Channing, among others.

♫  Paramount buys the film rights in 1946, and it's released as a stop-action "Puppetoon," later nominated for a Best Animated Short Oscar.

♫  In 1954, Tripp releases Tubby the Tuba as a book, below, which remains in print to this day, then goes on to a thriving career as a producer of children's television shows. He is living in No. 45 when the original recording is first released (and is profiled by Tudor City View at the time), but we suspect he relocates after fame and fortune arrive.

Video Interlude: COCO ROCHA for LONGCHAMP

Today, a welcome break from the endless sepia toned photographs that this blog is so fond of running. Instead, here's a fun, mindless video of a pretty girl prancing around town and winding up in Tudor City.

Shot in 2013, the video is a promotional spot for Longchamp, the Parisian purveyor of luxury leather goods. The model, Coco Rocha, is a familiar face to followers of fashion.

The spot's entitled "Bigger Than Life," so naturally enough Coco plays a giantess roaming the canyons of Midtown, swinging her Longchamp bag.

She gets coffee, and strolls past the Tudor City sign.

Later, she takes a seat on the roof of the Ford Foundation, opposite The Woodstock.

Roll logo, end of spot.

See the video in all its 1:27-minute glory here.

Tudor City appears at 0:30 and 1:19, but the music ‒ "Toop Toop" by Cassius ‒ and Coco's supercool dance moves (0:37) ultimately steal the show.

RESIDENTS: Brian Thompson

Brian Thompson in his Prospect Tower apartment, 2017

We're saddened to report that Brian Thompson, Tudor City aficionado extraordinaire, passed away last week.

Brian blew into the enclave in 1993, after learning that some Tudor City apartments were being auctioned at the Centre Street Courthouse. He bought five of them ‒ for $24,000 ‒ thereby changing his life. He became a resident, a local real estate broker, a community activist, and eventually Tudor City's de facto historian and tour guide.

Well known in the area over his 25-year residency, he could be controversial, but had the courage of his convictions and a genuine passion for Tudor City. Most recently, he launched a new website, Tudor City Living, devoted to maximal living in minimal surrounds. 

The photos in this post come from 6sqft, a web enterprise similarly devoted to living in micro spaces. Check out their 2017 interview with Brian here and their video of him here.

The view from Brian's bathroom window. No wonder he loved Tudor City so much.

VIDEO INTERLUDE: A Day in the Life of the 43rd Street Cul-de-Sac

We ring in the new year with a wacky Video Interlude that breaks from our typical presentation, usually involving models lolling around No. 45's roof.  Today's video is something else altogether, a day in the life of the 43rd Street cul-de-sac, boiled down to 16 minutes via time-lapse photography. It was shot on December 1, 2011, apparently from a window in The Hermitage.

Sounds boring? Well, granted, it's got no plot, no sound, iffy production values, and runs on the long side, yet somehow it's kind of hypnotic, even Warhol-esque. Watch it here and decide for yourself. For less patient viewers, some highlights below:

Day breaks (0:23)
First selfie of the day taken against the backdrop of the UN ( 2:17)
Trash pickup (2:48)
Sun comes out (2:59)
First of many cars tries to make right turn onto 1st Avenue, turns around (4:20)
Police car arrives (8:22)
Police car departs (8:32)
Black car drivers take a cigarette break (11:56)
Night falls (13:54)

Video Interlude: KENNETH COLE 'MANKIND' AD

The video of the day is a promotional spot for the Kenneth Cole fragrance Mankind, introduced in 2014.  Shot in part in Tudor City, the ad was directed by Hunter & Gatti and features the hypnotic tune "Circles," performed by The Brocks. Some screen grabs, below.

A dapper dad, smelling like Mankind, leads his son into No. 45.

Meanwhile on the roof, another dude smelling of Mankind climbs down the Tudor City Sign. 

The spot concludes with all the models in the video posed on the roof 
against the 42nd St. corridor. Everyone smells like Mankind.

See the full video here. (Tudor City sequence starts at 1:15). 

Video Interlude: MASSIMO DUTTI PHOTOSHOOT

We can never get enough of beautiful people posing alongside the Tudor City Sign. Today's video shoot was produced in 2013 by Spanish fashion designer Massimo Dutti, and features two perfect specimens ‒ models David Gandy and Carolyn Murphy ‒ exchanging smoldering looks atop No. 45's roof. The musical accompaniment, "Circle of Uncertainty," is by British composer Oliver Ledbury.

See the dreamy video here and some screen grabs below.

Video Interlude: VOLKSWAGEN TIGUAN AD

A reader tip led us to the rather improbable screen grab above, showing a King Kong‒esque gorilla gliding past the Tudor City Sign. It's grabbed from a current commercial for the Volkswagen Tiguan, a compact SUV billed as "The New King of the Concrete Jungle."

The spot revisits the old tale of Beauty (a hot blonde in a cool Tiguan) and the Beast (a mammoth inflatable ape) in an amusing way, with cameras swooping through the canyons of Manhattan to the catchy tune of ELO's "Livin' Thing."

See the full spot here. Tudor City makes a brief but memorable appearance at 0:47, when the ape floats by the sign.


Thanks Jonathan Rosenthal for the tip.

Save the Date: THE TICK Is Coming!

Back in April, we featured a behind-the-scenes look at the Tudor City location shoot for the new TV series, The Tick. And now, the news you've been waiting for ‒The Tick will start streaming this Friday, August 25, on Amazon Prime.

The Tick is based on an '80s comic book series whose title character is a postmodern kind of superhero, goofy and prone to bad puns.

The official trailer for the series has just been released, with Tudor City making brief appearances at 0:51 and 1:05 in the spot. See it here.

Some neighborhood screen grabs from the trailer, below.

A scene in the North Park. At right, The Tick's nerdy sidekick, The Moth. 

A bad guy in front of The Manor shoots at The Tick . . .

. . . getting him right in the ticker. . .

. . . and blasting him past Prospect Tower.

But our hero just sneers and keeps on ticking. 

Thanks to Bonnie Stokes for this tick alert.