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First called the Rotunda Saloon, it became known as The Astor House Exchange and featured a large central mahogany bar with private dining rooms to the sides and two long, curved counters where businessmen could lunch. For decades, The Astor House Exchange was a favored meeting place and dining room for New York businessmen, professionals, and politicians. Ex-Saturday Night Live cast member and general funnyman Andy Samberg and harpist/singer/songwriter Joanna Newsom have, somewhat surprisingly, just purchased the famous Moorish-Gothic-Art Nouveau-Mission Revival estate in Beachwood Canyon known as Moorcrest, reports the LA Times. The early-1920s house, home to Maltese Falcon actress Mary Astor and little tramp Charlie Chaplin over the years, wasn't on the open market; Samberg and Newsom closed on it in late March for $6.25 million. After meeting the sultry Ava Gardner in 1948, Sinatra moved out of the Toluca Lake house and into a West Hollywood apartment building, visiting his children on weekends.
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Webster even told the Times “he would stay at no other hotel.” Thurlow Weed, the legendary New York political boss and a confidant of Governor (and almost President) William Seward, lived at the hotel for 30 years. Photographer Matthew Brady, whose first studio was on Broadway near The Astor House, also lived there. A very young Thomas Edison favored Astor House on weekend trips into the city from his rural Menlo Park, N.J., laboratories. If you prefer vintage, there is The Beekman, in the landmark Temple Court Building (1883) on Beekman Street, centered in what reputedly was New York’s first skyscraper. For those who prefer modern luxe, there is the Four Seasons New York Downtown, located in a Robert A.M. Stern-designed tower nearing completion on Church Street.
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After both her marriage and her film career fell apart, she and young Dodd remained in Toluca Lake for several years before moving to the Beverly Hills area. Born Lucile Langhanke in 1906, the young woman had been homeschooled by her strict parents, who dictated her every move. A stage father from hell, Otto Langhanke pushed Lucile into show business at the age of 13. Paramount signed her to a movie contract and gave her the screen name Mary Astor. She received a small allowance from her large movie salary while her father pocketed the rest. It was not until Astor secretly married Thorpe in 1931 that she finally declared her independence from her parents.
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Hotchener designed other house in the area, as well, but this is the one she's famous for. While on the set of his first major film, Come September, in 1960, Darin wooed virginal 16-year-old screen star Sandra Dee (born Alexandria Zuck), whom he married six months later. Dee’s innocent screen persona in films like Imitation of Life, Gidget and A Summer Place hid her personal trauma stemming from years of abuse by her stepfather.
Owner of Newport's “$100M Fixer Upper” Has Moved To Hawaii and Spent $300M Buying an Island - GoLocalProv
Owner of Newport's “$100M Fixer Upper” Has Moved To Hawaii and Spent $300M Buying an Island.
Posted: Fri, 19 Mar 2021 07:00:00 GMT [source]
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Yesterday, we heard that actor/comedian Andy Samberg and musician Joanna Newsom have purchased Moorcrest, the famed 1920s house where Mary Astor and Charlie Chaplin once lived. Today, thanks to the semi-secret listing site (hit cancel at the password prompt), we finally get a look inside the estate, and it is damn spectacular. We'd heard that the lavish residence combined several styles, from Moorish to Art Nouveau, but who could have imagined this? The large glass bubble visible in earlier aerial shots of the property is a beautiful, light-flooded atrium; the pool in the backyard is more like a movie set, with a little (man-made) cave and a stepping-stone path. Nearly every inch of the house is covered in what look like painstakingly-detailed patterns. Relax in a roomy 750 square foot Park Suite with swift access to the poolside lounge, patio, and fitness & wellness amenities.
As a Times article from June 1913 indicates, there was a multi-day auction (where items were “knocked down at ridiculously low prices”) so they must be out there somewhere. Darin parlayed his celebrity into making successful television shows and movies. Popular screen queen Astor, best known for her roles in The Maltese Falcon and The Palm Beach Story, and her physician husband, Dr. Franklyn Thorpe, hunted larger quarters for their growing family after the birth of their daughter, Marylyn, in 1932. Finding nothing to their liking in the neighborhood surrounding their rental on Toluca Lake Avenue, the couple determined to construct a mansion just across the lake, near Astor’s work at Warner Bros. Built for silent screen actress Mary Astor in 1925, this Old Hollywood Classic is steeped in Hollywood history and has played host to many musical acts including The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, and Marilyn Manson. Now up for sale, the nearly 100 year old home is in need of a full restoration but underneath it all one can picture a home as beautiful and timeless as ever.
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The Astor House had become decidedly old-fashioned in a now unfashionable part of town. The Astor House was from the start favored by New York’s wealthy and powerful. According to Burrows and Wallace in their book “Gotham,” the Astor House was the nation’s “most prestigious hostelry” for decades. It was centrally located across from City Hall and in New York’s flourishing newspaper and entertainment district on Park Row. Barnum’s “American Museum” (1841 – 1865), an emporium of exotic animals and curiosities on Broadway at Ann Street, were nearby.
Nancy Sinatra also remembered animated parties filled with family and friends, enjoying downtime with her dad while eating rich Italian food prepared by her mother. Such celebrities as Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Phil Silvers and Sammy Cahn entertained themselves cracking jokes and singing the latest hits. In her autobiography, Nancy recalled festive Fourth of July shindigs where the Sinatras entertained neighbors with barbecue and fireworks shows, orchestrated with music that she and Frank Jr. played from records. On one particular Independence Day, neighbors gathered around as Sinatra steered his fireworks-laden raft to the middle of the lake.
This suite features a semi-private patio, 2 seat dining table and cozy breakfast bar setup for your in-room dining pleasure. The end came in in early 20th century in two awful blows, apparently because the two Astor heirs who then owned it did not get along. First, in 1913, the southern half (including the Rotunda and its famous bar) was demolished in connection with the construction of the BMT subway line (today’s R train) through the site. Vincent Astor, who controlled that part of the property, then built the “Astor House Building,” a modest office structure, in 1916, which remains there to this day (Staples is the main retail tenant). The northerly part of the now-gored hotel survived forlorn for a few more years before it too was demolished in 1926 to make room for the “Transportation Building,” today’s 225 Broadway. In 1852, the interior courtyard was covered over by an elliptical vaulted cast-iron-and-glass rotunda designed by James Bogardus, the cast-iron architecture pioneer.
Intending to impress the neighborhood with an enormous fireworks display, Sinatra inadvertently dropped a firecracker into the boat, setting off his entire stock in one gigantic explosion. Though divorced, Astor and Thorpe continued sharing the large home for some time due to depleted finances from the court fight. Astor added an open porch with a glass roof to the rear of the home in November of that year to better enjoy the lakeside view, one of her few pleasures at the time. The book, however, was discovered and exploited by her angry, resentful husband (even though he had also had extramarital relationships himself), who leveraged it to coerce Astor into giving up custody of their daughter in exchange for a quick divorce. Growing tired of his blackmail, Astor battled to regain full custody of her daughter and her reputation in 1936, leading to a trial full of explosive testimony, a circus-like atmosphere and blistering diary excerpts.
President-elect Lincoln, on his way to Washington for his first inauguration, in 1861, stayed overnight and made an impromptu speech from the top of the entrance portico to a crowd of 40,000, according to a report from Walt Whitman himself. Records indicate that no less than 18 U.S. presidents, spanning from Andrew Jackson to Theodore Roosevelt, stayed at The Astor House, probably the most of any hotel in U.S. history. The Astor House was for many years the headquarters for the Whig Party, the party of powerful Senators Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, which dominated American politics in the decades leading up to the Civil War.
Nearly five years later, on December 27, 1865, he again spent the night, this time as a prisoner of the North, while being escorted to the Washington Navy Yard where Federal authorities would decide whether to put him on trial. Constructed of bluish Quincy granite by Boston architect Isaiah Rogers in a subdued Greek Revival style with two massive Doric columns at its main entrance, this opulently furnished hotel contained more than 300 guest rooms surrounding an interior tree-shaded courtyard. It had baths and toilets on each of its six floors, an unheard-of luxury at the time and an astonishing engineering feat pulled off by the hotel’s own steam engine plant, necessary because pressurized water from the Croton Aqueduct (1842) system was still a few years off. Water was drawn from two large cisterns in the hotel’s basement, which also is where the hotel had its own printing press, for printing of its daily menus. Astor House Apartments features luxury apartments for rent with gleaming, flooded with natural light from the massive floor-to-ceiling windows. The fitness center and pool are on top of the building, complemented by a gorgeous Chicago skyline and lake views.
A new rooftop restaurant, bar and garden inspired by the agrarian past of old Hollywood. Menus courtesy of celebrity Chef Marcel Vigneron — views courtesy of Hollywood Hills. Cracks began appearing early in their marriage as Darin spent a majority of his free time headlining in Las Vegas, touring the country and making movies on the side. The clinging Dee turned to the bottle for solace, which further antagonized Darin.
New York’s oldest continuously operated hotel is Tribeca’s own Cosmopolitan (1845), at West Broadway and Chambers. If you look hard, in just the right place, you'll find Astor House Apartments hidden in the Gold Coast Historic District. Located at 1340 N Astor St., these Gold Coast luxury apartments for rent are a gem. The couple divorced in 1967, with Dee awarded the house in the property settlement.
Darin converted the old garage into a playroom for his son, and constructed a new garage to house their automobiles. Like other celebrity residents, the young couple loved the home’s close location to their work at nearby Universal Studios. For the best houses for sale, places to eat, wine to drink, things to do, and untold histories of Los Angeles's brightest stars and their Hollywood homes. Los Angeles | Lifestyle | Homes | Hollywood History | News | Nightlife | Architecture | Art | Food & Wine | by Jacqueline Tager, Sotheby’s International Realty. The crystal blue pool is magical and the property’s many meandering trails and lush private grounds offer plenty of spots to explore and inspire.
Warm and welcoming, the Astor House employs an expert staff skilled at creating any kind of event. The Astor House is easily accessible to New York’s major public transportation hubs, including Grand Central, Penn railroad stations and The Port Authority bus terminal. Schools close to Astor House Apartments include Chicago Grammar School, Cornerstone Academy, Skinner North Classical School, Immaculate Conception - St Joseph School, Catherine Cook School, St Chrysostom's Day School, and The Latin School of Chicago.
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