May Day 04/05/2006 - Hotels (Part 2)

“Arm in arm they sallied out the door, and turning east in Forty-fourth Street set out for the Commodore” (page 122).

Commodore

Before I go on to the Commodore, there is an interesting article that I should make note of at The City Review. It goes into great detail about the “Terminal City” that once surrounded Grand Central Station.

“The 16-story Ritz Carlton, whose chef for a while was Escoffier, was the most luxurious, followed by the Biltmore, then the Roosevelt and finally the Commodore, which was the largest with about 2,000 rooms” (Horsley).

However, the majority of the piece focuses on the one remaining hotel from the “Terminal City” era the Roosevelt hotel.

I had trouble describing why I thought the Bank of America Plaza was so utterly tedious. It’s this mirror shit that really puts me off. Every other building has the same fucking thing. The Commodore, which is now the Grand Hyatt, is no exception.

"What ruined the ambiance was the rebuilding of the Commodore Hotel into the New York Grand Hyatt by Donald Trump and Hyatt Hotels. Its reflective-glass facade broke the teeth of the complex's smile" (Horsley).

I would kill for a metaphor like that. Not only does the guy come up with this great image of a cracked glass smile but he also rips on Donald Trump all within two sentences.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “May Day”. Tales of the Jazz Age. First Pine Street Books: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.
Horsley, Carter B. “The Roosevelt Hotel”. The Midtown Book. http://www.thecityreview.com/roose.html
The picture is from, http://www.rosshorwood.com/RailSiteLinksFiles/HotelCommodore.jpg