New Yorker Hotel

The New Yorker Hotel opened on January 2nd, 1930, just two months after the stock market crash- impeccable timing for a $22.5 million, 2,500-room colossus. To drum up business during the Depression, the hotel became a radio broadcasting headquarters: four major networks operated studios inside, and NBC broadcast live big band performances nightly from the Terrace Room. Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, and Tommy Dorsey all played regular gigs here, their music piped directly into American living rooms. The hotel pioneered the use of radio to create celebrity- if you performed at the New Yorker, the entire country heard you. At its peak, the building employed 2,300 staff members just to keep the operation running. The hotel’s barber shop alone had 42 chairs. There were 73 telephone operators working around the clock. For a brief moment in the 1930s and 40s, this single building was the beating heart of American popular music.