The
Carlyle Hotel, known formally as
The Carlyle is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
luxury hotel located at 35 East 76th Street on the northeast corner of Madison Avenue, in the
Upper East SideThe Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side is within an area bounded by 59th Street, 96th Street, Central Park and the East River....
area of
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. The hotel, designed in
Art DecoArt Deco was a popular international art design movement from 1925 until the 1940s, affecting the decorative arts such as architecture, interior design, and industrial design, as well as the visual arts such as fashion, painting, the graphic arts, and film...
style and named after Scottish essayist
Thomas CarlyleThomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.
Coming from a strict Calvinist family,...
, was built by Moses Ginsberg, maternal grandfather of
Rona JaffeRona Jaffe was an American novelist.Born in Brooklyn, Ms. Jaffe grew up in affluent circumstances on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the only child of Samuel Jaffe, an elementary-school principal, and his first wife, Diana...
. The hotel was opened in November 1930, the year before Jaffe was born.
A
cooperativeA cooperative is defined by the International Co-operative Alliance's Statement on the Co-operative Identity as an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and...
with 180 rental units and 60 privately owned
suitesA suite in a hotel or other public accommodation, denotes a class of luxury accommodations, the key feature of which is multiple rooms. Many properties have one or more "honeymoon suites", and sometimes the best accommodation is called the "presidential suite".Suites offer multiple rooms, with more...
as of 2009, the Carlyle in 2001 had become one of the 15 hotels owned by Rosewood Hotels & Resorts.
The Carlyle was designed by architects Bien & Prince and originally opened as a residential hotel, with apartments costing up to $20,000 a year.
The
Carlyle Hotel, known formally as
The Carlyle is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
luxury hotel located at 35 East 76th Street on the northeast corner of Madison Avenue, in the
Upper East SideThe Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side is within an area bounded by 59th Street, 96th Street, Central Park and the East River....
area of
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. The hotel, designed in
Art DecoArt Deco was a popular international art design movement from 1925 until the 1940s, affecting the decorative arts such as architecture, interior design, and industrial design, as well as the visual arts such as fashion, painting, the graphic arts, and film...
style and named after Scottish essayist
Thomas CarlyleThomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.
Coming from a strict Calvinist family,...
, was built by Moses Ginsberg, maternal grandfather of
Rona JaffeRona Jaffe was an American novelist.Born in Brooklyn, Ms. Jaffe grew up in affluent circumstances on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the only child of Samuel Jaffe, an elementary-school principal, and his first wife, Diana...
. The hotel was opened in November 1930, the year before Jaffe was born.
A
cooperativeA cooperative is defined by the International Co-operative Alliance's Statement on the Co-operative Identity as an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and...
with 180 rental units and 60 privately owned
suitesA suite in a hotel or other public accommodation, denotes a class of luxury accommodations, the key feature of which is multiple rooms. Many properties have one or more "honeymoon suites", and sometimes the best accommodation is called the "presidential suite".Suites offer multiple rooms, with more...
as of 2009, the Carlyle in 2001 had become one of the 15 hotels owned by Rosewood Hotels & Resorts.
Out of the Depression
The Carlyle was designed by architects Bien & Prince and originally opened as a residential hotel, with apartments costing up to $20,000 a year. Apartment hotels had become increasingly popular since World War I. As the economy boomed and skyscrapers rose, New York was transforming so quickly that "owning a townhouse made no sense". The new thirty-five floor hotel "was to be a masterpiece in the modern idiom, in which shops and restaurants on the lower floors would give residents the convenience and comforts of a "community skyscraper". However, by the time the Carlyle was ready to open its doors, the 1929 stock market crash had decisively ended the boom times. The new hotel struggled, went into receivership in 1931 and was sold to the Lyleson Corporation in 1932. The new owners kept the old manager, Frank J. L. Lenney, and managing agents, Douglas L. Elliman and Company, who were able to dramatically improve its financial situation through maintaining high occupancy and a high ratio of rate structure to fixed costs. However, the hotel's reputation at this time was "staid rather than ritzy".
The next postwar boom allowed the hotel to take on new high-society prominence. In 1948, the Carlyle was purchased by New York businessman Robert Whittle Downing, who began to transform it from a "respectable" address to a "downright fashionable" one, frequented by elegant Europeans. That year, Harry Truman became the first president to visit the Carlyle; each of his successors, at least up to and including
Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
, has followed suit.
Rise to prominence
The Carlyle became known as "the New York White House" during the administration of President
John F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
, who owned an apartment on the 34th floor for the ten years prior to his death. He stayed at the apartment in a well-publicized visit for a few days just prior to his inauguration in January 1961.
Marilyn MonroeMarilyn Monroe , born Norma Jeane Mortenson, but baptized Norma Jeane Baker, was an American actress, singer and model....
was sneaked in through the service entrance on East 77 street. After famously singing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" at Kennedy's birthday gala at Madison Square Garden on May 19, 1962, Monroe reportedly used a warren of tunnels to enter the Carlyle secretly with Kennedy and friends. Years later, longtime bellman Michael O'Connell recalled, "Those tunnels. President Kennedy knew more about the tunnels than I did". The Carlyle was the last place John F. Kennedy, Jr. ate breakfast before departing on his ill-fated plane trip to Martha's Vineyard with his wife and her sister.
The Council for United Civil Rights Leadership (CUCRL) was organized in a meeting held at the Carlyle.
Malcolm XMalcolm X , also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African-American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist. To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against...
expresses his concerns with having a white man in charge of this new fundraising organization during his 10 November 1963 speech
Message to the Grassroots. He describes the hotel (rather than just one suite) as being owned by the Kennedy family.
On the 16th floor of the hotel, lies a bedroom named the
Roger FedererRoger Federer is a Swiss professional tennis player. As of October 2009, he is ranked world number 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals , having previously held the number one position for a record 237 consecutive weeks...
Suite where Federer and his family resides during the first two weeks of September every year for the U.S. Open.
The hotel is also the source of the name for the
Carlyle GroupThe Carlyle Group is a global private equity investment firm, based in Washington, D.C., with more than $84.5 billion of equity capital under management, diversified over 64 different funds as of March 31, 2009. The firm operates four fund families, focusing on leveraged buyouts, growth capital,...
, as it was the location where that firm's founders first met in the mid-1980s.
Despite its brushes with history, the hotel retained a reputation for discretion; in 2000, the New York Times called it a "Palace of Secrets".
Entertainment and dining
The hotel's Café Carlyle has featured a number of well-known
jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
performers - notably
George FeyerGeorge Feyer was a classically trained pianist who turned to 'light' music upon graduating, and released a series of top-selling "Echoes of..." records on Vox Records. Feyer was born György Fejér, but westernised his name after leaving Europe...
from 1955-1968, and
Bobby ShortRobert Waltrip "Bobby" Short was an American cabaret singer and pianist, best known for his interpretations of songs by popular composers of the first half of the 20th century such as Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke, Noel Coward and George and Ira Gershwin.He...
from 1968-2004.
Woody AllenWoody Allen is an American screenwriter, film director, actor, comedian, writer, musician, and playwright....
and his jazz band have been playing weekly at the café since 1996. Other artists who have performed at the Cafe Carlyle include
Elaine StritchElaine Stritch is an American actress and vocalist, best known for her performance of "The Ladies Who Lunch" in Company, her 2001 one-woman show Elaine Stritch at Liberty, and most recently for her role as Jack Donaghy's mother Colleen on NBC's 30 Rock.-Early years:Stritch was born in Detroit,...
,
Judy CollinsJudith Marjorie Collins is an American folk and standards singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism.-Musical career:As a child Collins studied classical piano with Antonia Brico, making her public debut at age 13,...
,
Barbara CookBarbara Cook is an American singer and actress who first came to prominence in the 1950s after starring in the original Broadway musicals Candide and The Music Man among others, winning a Tony Award for the latter...
,
Eartha KittEartha Mae Kitt was an American actress, singer, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit Christmas song "Santa Baby"...
,
John PizzarelliJohn Pizzarelli, Jr. is an American jazz guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and bandleader. He has had a lengthy career as a recording artist, performing for a variety of labels that include Telarc Records, RCA Records and Chesky Records, among others. He has recorded twenty-three albums of his own,...
and
Jessica MolaskeyJessica Molaskey is a singer of torch songs and show tunes who is a professional recording artist. She has appeared in a dozen Broadway shows such as the revival of Sunday in the Park With George and Cats and has premiered theater pieces off-Broadway, including the Jason Robert Brown 1995 musical...
,
Beverly PeerBeverly Peer was an American jazz double-bassist.Peer played piano professionally early in his career before switching to bass. He worked with Chick Webb from 1936 to 1939 and continued to play in the orchestra under the direction of Ella Fitzgerald. In 1942 he joined Sabby Lewis's orchestra...
, and
Ute LemperUte Lemper is a German chanteuse and actress renowned for her interpretation of the work of Kurt Weill.- Biography :Born in Münster, Germany, Ute Lemper joined the punk music group known as the Panama Drive Band at the age of 16...
.
Steve Tyrell-Early career:Upon moving to New York City at the age of 18, he was made head of A&R and promotion at Scepter Records. There he was mostly behind-the-scenes, producing hits for popular recording artists and movie soundtracks....
has been the featured performer in December through New Year's Eve for several years.
The Cafe Carlyle is noted for the murals by
Marcel VertesMarcel Vertès was a Hungarian costume designer. He won two Academy Awards for his work on the 1952 film Moulin Rouge....
, which were cleaned in the summer of 2007 as part of a renovation that included raising the ceiling of the intimate space by two feet. Scott Salvator was responsible for the 2007 renovation. In its Bemelmans Bar, the hotel features a mural entitled "Central Park", the only surviving publicly accessible artwork by
Ludwig BemelmansLudwig Bemelmans was a German-American author, an internationally known gourmet and also a writer and illustrator of children's books. He is most famous today for the series of Madeline books.-Life:...
, the author of the
MadelineMadeline is a children's book series written by Ludwig Bemelmans, an American author of Belgian, Austrian and German origins. The first book in the series, Madeline, was published in 1939. It proved to be a success, and Bemelmans wrote many sequels to the original during the 1940s and 1950s. The...
children's books.
The Carlyle Restaurant was formerly known as Dumonet at the Carlyle.