54...a photos on Flickr

151 Private Laight, 1st Eastern Company Non-Combatant Corps who died on Wednesday 27th November 1918 aged 33 years. He and three other members of the large Acle family served during the war. Nothing is known of the circumstances of his death and he is buried at the Etaples Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France.

CWGC notes that he was the son of William and Ellen Laight, of Acle, Norfolk.

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=503059

No match on Norlink

The 1901 Census has the 15 year old Herbert living at The Post office, The Street, Acle, the village of his birth. This is the household of his parents, William, (age 55 and a Sub-Postmaster and Shopkeeper from Lincoln), and Ellen, (aged 54, a shopkeeper and from Acle). Also with them are:

Edward……………..age 13.…………..born Acle

Ella…………………age 17.…………..born Acle……….Post Office assistant

Emma………………age 20.………….born Acle……….Post Office assistant

Ethel………………..age 21.………….born Acle……….Post Office clerk

Florence……………age 27.………….born Acle……….Shop assistant

Ralph………………age 9.……………born Acle

Ruth……………….age 24.…………..born Acle……….Post office Clerk

Unwilling soldiers

3,400 Cos (Consciencious Objectors) accepted call-up into the Non-Combatant Corps (NCC) or the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) as non-combatants. The NCC (the 'No-Courage Corps' as the press rudely called it) was set up in March 1916, part of the army and run by its regular officers. The COs assigned to it were army privates, wore army uniforms and were subject to army discipline, but didn't carry weapons or take part in battle. Their duties were mainly to provide physical labour (building, cleaning, loading and unloading anything except munitions) in support of the military.

The NCC may have been a shock to the COs who agreed to join it. But for the absolutists and alternativists who were forcibly enlisted into the NCC it was much worse. They immediately faced the question of whether to agree to wearing uniform. The men who decided to refuse were formally charged and court-martialled. Often they were treated harshly, bullied, deprived of basic needs and rights, and imprisoned in inhumane conditions. So were the men who refused to perform duties like handling munitions or building rifle ranges. Some broke down, physically or mentally, as a result of their ill-treatment.

www.ppu.org.uk/learn/infodocs/cos/st_co_wwone1.html

This report in the Hansard shows some of the dilemmas faced by individual conscientious objectors serving in the Corps.

hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1918/mar/06/non-comba...

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William Leeder Laight………………….…………………........(Roll of Honour)

152439 Petty Officer Stoker Laight, H.M.S. Spey who died on Wednesday 7th March 1917 aged 47 years. Having served as a regular sailor he was recalled for war service at the age of 45 years. H.M.S. Spey formed part of the Home Defence and operated in the Thames Estuary. In high winds the Spey lost an anchor and was involved in a collision with SS Belvedere – a mud-hopper carrying sludge from London. As a result of the accident nineteen of the crew of thirty-seven from H.M.S. Spey were lost. He is buried in the churchyard of St Peter’s church at Boughton Monchelsea, Kent.

I assume this has been confimed, as there are no additional details on the CWGC entry for this individual.

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=369523

This William is commemorated in the Churchyard of St Peter, Broughton Monchelsea

www.stpeters-church.org.uk/church.html

However, there is also this individual:-

Name: LAIGHT, WILLIAM

Rank: Private

Service: Royal Army Medical Corps Unit Text: 2nd/1st (Home Counties) Field Amb Age: 19 Date of Death: 12/09/1917 Service No: 493352

Additional information: Son of William Leader Laight and Mary Jane Laight.

Grave/Memorial Reference: IV. D. 20. Cemetery: MENDINGHEM MILITARY CEMETERY

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=437980

(Of course Leeder\Leader may be a family name, and so the two individuals may be related or even father and son)

The younger William Laight was born at Broughton Monchelsea, Kent, and at the time of the 1901 Census, aged 3, he was living at Church Road, Broughton Monchelsea. His mother Jane, although married, is given as the head of the household. Reading the details of William Leeder Laight, I would hazard a guess that he was in the Royal Navy at the time and away on service and so does not appear on the Census.,

You have to go back to the 1871 Census to find a William Laight of the right age living in Acle, although the actual address isn’t shown on the scanned sheet available on the Genes Re-united site. However his 25 year old father is another William, and is a Coachman from Lincoln, so likely to be related to the Postmasters family listed for Herbert Laight.

The situation is made clear here

www.warcemetery.nl/kentfallen doc.pdf

The old William was the father, the younger William the son. Father William was born 21st October 1869

at Acle, and was the son of William and Ellen Laight, (nee Leeder).

No match on Norlink

Spey, collision

BOORMAN, Albert E, Chief Petty Officer (RFR A 2025), 147658 (Ch)

BULL, Joseph A, Able Seaman (RFR B 4816), 179032 (Ch)

HANCOX, George W, Able Seaman (RFR B 6033), 183687 (Ch)

HARRIS, Alfred, Armourer's Crew, 206312 (Ch)

HODDER, John F, Stoker 1c (RFR B 5867), SS 100896 (Ch)

HUMPHREY, Ernest F, Act/Lieutenant, RNR

ILSTON, John, Petty Officer, 147886 (Ch)

KEATLEY, John, Stoker 1c (RFR B 7525), 291835 (Ch)

LAIGHT, William L, Stoker Petty Officer (Pens), 152439 (Ch)

MERRITT, John, Private, RMLI (RFR B 1659), 10581 (Ch)

MORGAN, Charles C, Corporal, RMLI (RFR B 362), 5097 (Ch)

REED, Alfred J, Private, RMLI (Pens), 2222 (Ch)

REYNOLDS, William, Act/Warrant Officer

RUNACLES, Arthur W, Ordinary Seaman, J 28414 (Ch)

SEARLE, Frederick, Stoker 1c (RFR B 7769), SS 103252 (Ch)

SHIPLEE, Frederick J, Officer's Steward 2c, L 4954 (Ch)

SMITH, Arthur J, Chief Stoker, 154073 (Ch)

SOULSBY, George, Engine Room Artificer 1c, RNR, EB 426

WOODWARD, William T, Leading Stoker (RFR B 8722), 289658 (Ch)

WORNAST, Charles J, Able Seaman (RFR B 4784), 184111 (Ch)

www.naval-history.net/xDKCas1917-03Mar.htm

There’s a picture here of the Spey and confirmation that she was sold off until 1923, so she wasn’t scrapped straight away

www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/r_n_gunboats.htm

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George Alfred Lake……………………………….................................................(RoH)

6561DA Deckhand Lake, H.M. Trawler ‘New Comet’, Royal Navy Reserve who died on Saturday 20th January 1917 aged 33 years. The trawler was requisitioned by the Royal Navy in 1915 but it is not known if he was already a member of its crew. Records show that it was sunk by a mine off Orford Ness. He is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial in Kent.

CWGC notes that he was the son of George Lake, of The Hill, Acle, Norfolk, and the late Elizabeth Lake.

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=3053053

No match on Norlink

The 1901 Census has a 17 year old George A Lake living at Rotten Marsh Road, Acle, born Halvergate and employed as a General Carter and Petroleum Hawker. This was the household of his parents George, (aged 53 and a Railway Platelayer from Freethorpe), and Elizabeth, (aged 56 and from Mautby).

New Comet, ship lost

BLYTH, Clifford, Deck Hand, RNR, DA 6847

BURCH, Robert N, Deck Hand, RNR, DA 11528

CLARKE, Arthur F, 2nd Hand, RNR, SA 215

CROSBY, James, Engineman, RNR, ES 4528

CUMBERLAND, Henry, Trimmer, RNR, TS 2176

GIBBONS, Martin, Trimmer, RNR, TS 2519

LAKE, George A, Deck Hand, RNR, DA 6561

MANZIE, Thomas, Engineman, RNR, ES 2919

MARTIN, Joseph H, Deck Hand, RNR, DA 7534, DOW

www.naval-history.net/xDKCas1917-01Jan.htm

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George Hungerford Morgan………………………………...........(RoH)

430346 Lance Corporal Morgan, 7th Battalion Canadian Infantry (British Columbia Regiment) who died on Tuesday 15th August 1917 aged 37 years. As a 35 year old farming in Canada he enlisted in the Canadian Army served with the C.E.F. in Europe in March 1916. He recovered and died in the famous attack on Hill 70. Although not a native of Acle he is commemorated on a prayer desk in the parish church with his cousin – Lt E.Coleman. He is also commemorated on the Vymy Memorial.

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=1572088

No match on Norlink

George was born on the 8/12/1890 in Madras, India. On his enlistment papers he gives his next of kin as a H R Morgan, living at what looks like Mangalore, Madras coast, India.

Although he gives his profession as farmer, he also states he did three years service in the Mysore Rifles. George Attested on the 4th March 1915.

His attestation papers can be seen here

collectionscanada.ca/databases/cef/001042-119.02-e.php?im...

The 7th Battalion were in the second wave of the attack on Hill 70. By about 7.00 am the Battalion was reduced to about 120 men and three officers, and were pinned down by heavy machine gun fire. Even so they were among the most advanced of the Canadian Battalion, and had to pull back slightly to prevent themselves from being outflanked by German Counterattacks.

The battalions War Diaries for the period can be seen here,

data4.collectionscanada.gc.ca/netacgi/nph-brs?s1=7th+Batt...

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George Rowe………………………………...............................(RoH)

20701 Private Rowe 1st Battalion Essex Regiment who died on Friday 13th August 1915 aged 20 years. One of two sons of Thomas and Miriam Rowe of Acle who were killed in WW1. George Rowe enlisted in Norwich to the Norfolk Regiment and volunteered to reinforce the Essex Regiment. He was one of those 300, or so, reinforcements carried by the transport “Royal Edward” which was torpedoed and sunk in the Aegean Sea. He is commemorated on the Helles Memorial.

CWGC notes add that he was the son of Thomas William and Miriam Rowe, of 12, New Terrace, The Hill, Acle, Norwich.

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=683223

No match on Norlink

The 1901 Census has a 6 year old George and a 4 year old William, (both born Darnall, Yorkshire), living at 55 Catcliffe Road, Attercliffe cum Darnall, Sheffield. This was the household of his parents, Thomas W, (a 37 year old Bricklayer from Tickhill, Yorkshire), and Miriam, (aged 33 and from “Norfolk Narbro” - presumably Narborough). Their other children are Lucy M, (aged 8), and Robert, (aged 2). By the 1911 census, the 43 year Miriam is recorded in the District of Blofield, Norfolk.

HMT Royal Edward, 11,117 grt, sunk 13th August 1915 by German submarine SMU UB14, 6 miles W from Kandeliusa, Aegean Sea, carrying goverment stores from Avonmouth & Alexandria to Mudros. Owned by Canadian Northern Steamships Ltd-Toronto. 132 crew died. Out of a total compliment of 1586 (crew and troops) less than 500 were saved.

1/Essex lost 174 O.R's, but 172 of them were volunteers who'd transfer from the Norfolk's (3rd Special Reserve) based at Felixstowe, 100 on 23 June and 200 on 24 July.

A passage from the History of Norfolk Regiment tells the rest of Teddie's story: Colonel Tonge refers to the loss of 300 men, the best draft that ever left Felixstowe. These men volunteered to join the Essex Regiment and appear to have constituted the drafts of June 23 and July 24 1915. They were part of the reinforcements carried by the transport "Royal Edward" which was torpedoed and sunk in the Aegean Sea on August 14th 1915. She sank two and a half minutes after the torpedo struck her.Of the 1,400 men she carried only 600 were saved,and the drowned included all but 18 of the 300 Norfolk men. The men who had had a route march just before leaving Alexandria, were waiting on deck for foot inspection at about 9.20 am. Their lifebelts were down below, and when the ship was unexpectedly struck most of them ran below to fetch the belts. Owing to the ship's sudden heeling over and sinking, these never got up again. Those who escaped were picked up by a hospital ship which responded to the s.o.s. signal. To partly replace this sad loss, another draft of 150 men to the Essex Regiment was dispatched on September 29, 1915. Addenda 1994 From: "Men of Gallipoli"(David & Charles,1988) by kind permission of the publishers. One of the features of the Cape Helles monument is the rows of names of men drowned in the torpedoing of the Royal Edward,which sank in the Eastern Mediterranean on 13th August with a loss of over 850 lives. .A.T.Fraser in the Border Regiment, was in a deckchair on the afterdeck starboard side when suddenly dozens of men ran past him from port to starboard. The explosion came before he had time to ask what was the matter.

"The ship had no escort and we had not been ordered to have our life-belts with us.

The hundreds on deck ran below to get their life-belts and hundreds below would have met them on their way up.I shared a cabin accessible from the deck I was on and I raced there to get my life-belt and ran to my life-boat station which was on the star- board side.As the men arrived they fell in two ranks. Already the ship was listing and this prevented our boats from being lowered,so we were ordered to jump for it.I saw no panic,but of course one could imagine what was happening on the inside stairs. I swam away from the ship and turned to see the funnels leaning towards me.When they reached the sea,all the soot was belched out,there was a loud whoosh and the ship sank. No explosion,no surge.So I was alone.The little waves were such that in the trough you saw nothing,on the crest you saw a few yards.The water was warm.I wondered if there were sharks". Fraser found some wood to rest on and he was joined by a seaman,an older man who had twice previously been torpedoed.This brought the young Scot confidence.An up turned Royal Edward lifeboat was to provide 17 of the survivors with a little more security though in what Fraser calls half-hourly recurring turbulence,the boat turned over,offering them conventional but completely waterlogged accommodation every alternate half hour but at least providing them with something to do.There was no singing and little conversation. The first ship that passed hailed the scattered men and promised to signal for help.It could not stop as it had high explosives for Lemnos.Some of the men became depressed and showed unwillingness to clamber back in the life boat when it overturned,but on each occasion all were persuaded.Finally the hospital ship SOUDAIN arrived to pick them up in her life-boats,and at 2 o'clock Fraser was safely aboard her after just under five hours in the sea. He remembers that"a large number of men lost their false teeth as we were constantly sick in the sea- and these men were sent back to England

www.geocities.com/heartland/acres/5564/royaledward.html

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William Rowe………………………………....................................(RoH)

15678 Private Rowe 7th (Service) Battalion Norfolk Regiment who died on Monday 26th August 1918 aged 22 years. One year younger than his brother George he arrived in France on 30th May 1915. He suffered wounds to his face and right leg and was admitted to No 2 General Hospital at Le Havre in November. Returned to duty he was again wounded in the lower back, paralysed and severely ill. He was transferred to the Fulham Military Hospital where he died. He is buried in St Edmund’s churchyard at Acle beneath a stone bearing the inscription, “Erected to the honoured memory of William Rowe by the Officers, soldiers and parishioners of Acle, who died for King and Country.”

CWGC adds that he was the son of William and Miriam Rowe, of 12, New Terrace, The Hill. Acle.

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2802330

No match on Norlink

See George above for Census details

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Harry William Self………………………………..........................(RoH)

20943 Private Self, 9th Battalion Essex Regiment, who died on Monday 3rd July 1916. He died on the third day of the Battle of the Somme when his battalion was in action in the area of Ovillers la Boiselle. He has no known grave but is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=811978

No match on Norlink

There is no obvious match for Harry on the 1901 Cenus. There’s a Harry J, aged 6 at Felmingham, a Harry aged 9 at Garboldisham, and a Harry aged 20 who was born at Feltwell but was by now living near Peterborough as the most likely individuals with a Norfolk connection.

The following account is adapted from part 14 of The Hospital Way:

The 9th Essex formed part of the 35th Brigade, 12th Division, its objective the capture of Ovillers. The Division would attack on a two brigade front with the 35th Brigade on the right and the 37th on the left. The 9th Essex would be in support of the attacking battalions of the 5th Royal Berkshire and 7th Suffolk Regiments and all men would take up positions by the 2nd July in readiness for an attack the following day.

At around 3:00 am on Monday July 3rd, the attacking troops of the 12th Division left their trenches and moved under cover of artillery fire to assembly trenches dug in no man’s land. Fifteen minutes later, the barrage ceased and the men rushed the German trenches under cover of a smoke screen to their left. At first, all went well. The 5th Royal Berkshires suffered few casualties whilst crossing and used the cover of a sunken road to lead them straight into Ovillers. The German wire had been virtually obliterated by artillery fire and the men passed with relative ease through the first and second lines until they reached the ruins of houses on the Western edge of Ovillers. Here though, they were engaged in heavy bombing attacks and due to a lack of further supplies of bombs, the leading companies suffered heavy casualties. The 7th Suffolk Regiment’s advance followed a similar pattern. They too passed through the German first line, encountered strong opposition in the second line but pushed forward to the third. This position was strongly held and made even more uncomfortable for the attacking troops by German fire coming in from the left flank.

Fred and Victor Denton and their comrades in the 9th Essex fared even worse. “The march of the Battalion,” wrote one of its soldiers later, “… will forever be remembered by those engaged. Innumerable gun flashes lit the darkness of the night; they seemed endless and as one approached the line, the noise was deafening. After what appeared to be endless marching we reached the trenches in front of Ovillers. They were of hard chalk and with the bad weather not at all easy to negotiate without trench boards. In moving to positions for attack the congestion in the trenches was awful and mortally wounded men could not be moved.” To make matters worse, the German defenders, by now fully awake and repelling the attacking battalions in front of them, were sweeping no man’s land with machine gun fire. Here, states the Divisional History, “considerable casualties were sustained, and the waves of the attack becoming a series of small parties not strong enough to give any material assistance to the forward formations, the 35th Brigade attack broke down and the remnants of the battalions were driven out of the German lines.” C Company, supported by a platoon from B Company managed to reach La Boiselle and capture 200 Germans but it was an isolated success on a morning of strong initial advances, punished by vigorous counter attacks and German machine guns brought up from deep dug-outs which had been unaffected by the intense one hour bombardment which preceded the assault.

By nine o’clock, the Division was reporting that the attack had failed. A combination of flanking machine gun fire, lack of cohesion by troops advancing in the dark and the pock-marked terrain, made impassable in places due to the recent heavy rains, had put paid to the Division’s efforts.

The 6th Royal West Kent Regiment, lost 19 officers and 375 other ranks out of an attacking force of 617. Other battalions suffered similarly. The casualties for the 12th Division’s two attacking brigades amounted to 97 officers and 2277 other ranks. At around 4am, the 9th Essex attack had come to a standstill and the survivors withdrew to the front line to be relieved by the 7th Norfolks. In little under one hour the battalion had suffered 12 officer and 386 other rank casualties.

www.chailey1914-1918.net/frederick_denton.html

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Owen Rohan Waters………………………………....................(RoH)

43048 Private Waters, 7th (Service) Battalion Norfolk Regiment, who died on Monday 25th December 1916, aged 25 years. One of four members of the Waters family who saw service during the First World War. He enlisted in Norwich in October 1915 where he had worked as a Postal Clerk. During December 1916 the battalion was at Gouy-en-Ternois where they came under trench mortar fire. One man was killed and four wounded, one of whom was Owen Waters. He was taken to 41 Casualty Clearing Station at Wanquentin. Its War Diary says: “25th December, Xmas Day. Concert for patients. Admissions 5 inc. 1 officer and 1 wounded. Pte Waters O.R. died, shrapnel wound, arm. Remaining patients 143.” He is buried in the Wanquentin Communal Cemetery extension, Pas de Calais.

CWGC adds that he was the son of James Curtis Waters and Fanny Marie Waters, of Acle; husband of Laura Waters, of Old Rd., Acle, Norfolk.

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=80311

No match on Norlink

On the 1901 Census, the 8 year old Owen, born Acle, is recorded as living near the Rectory, Strumpshaw. This was the household of his widower father, James Kurks Waters, (aged 49 and a Road Surveyor from Acle). His other children are Benjamin R, (aged 11), Fanny M, (aged 16), Harriet F, (aged 13), James R, (aged 17 and an apprentice carpenter), Kathleen, (aged 10), and Wallace R, (aged 14).

A search for Owen Waters on Google throws up a number of links to a local Broadland Artist by the same name, who was born in 1916, (and who passed away in 2004). Unfortunately none appeared to have any biographical details. Was this a son who could never remember his father, or a child of a close family member named in his honour. I’d love to know.

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Benjamin Watts………………………………...................................(RoH)

SS/114488 Stoker 1st Class Watts, H.M.S. Natal who died on Wednesday 30th December 1915 aged 22 years. Having worked as a farm labourer he joined the Royal Navy on a five-year engagement in 1913. His final ship was H.M.S. Natal which blew up and sank at her moorings whilst being refitted at Cromarty. 421 officers and men perished in the explosion. A Court Martial found that the explosion was caused by spontaneous combustion of cordite in the ship’s magazines. The wreck of H.M.S. Natal is designated as a Military Maritime Grave and Benjamin Watts is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

CWGC adds that he was the Son of Mr. and Mrs. W. Watts, of Ploughman's Home, Acle, Norwich.

www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=4005200

Stoker Watts can be seen here

norlink.norfolk.gov.uk/02_Catalogue/02_013_PictureTitleIn...

The most likely match on the 1901 Census is a 7 year old Benjamin, born Gorleston and now living at Acle Road, Billockby. This is the household of his parents, William,(aged 38 and a Farm Labourer\Stockman from Upton), and Ellen, (aged 28 and from Upton.). I’m not sure if both had been married before as the Census also lists a 3 year old daughter, Lily Rivett, born Upton.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Natal_(1905)

www.theinvergordonarchive.org/picture/number8.asp

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(Missed is Private Harold Alfred Victor Miller of the 9th Battalion Norfolk Regiment.)

Private Miller can be seen here:

norlink.norfolk.gov.uk/02_Catalogue/02_013_PictureTitleIn...

The accompanying notes read,

Private Miller was born in Acle on 11th May 1897, and educated at Pulham Market School and Surrey Street School, Norwich. He enlisted on 1st September 1914, and was killed in action in France on 8th October 1918

By 1901 the 3 year old Harold was living at 239 Raglan Street, Lowestoft. This was the household of his parents, Harry, (aged 35 and a Baker & Confectioner from Norwich),

and Alice, (aged 34 and from Castle Acre). Their other children are Denton, (aged 5, born Great Yarmouth) and Dorothy, (under 1, born Lowestoft),

This was the period of The Battle of Cambrai, 1918 - (8th - 9th October 1918), which the 6th Division, of which the 9th Norfolks were part, was involved in.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cambrai_(1918)

www.roll-of-honour.com/Norfolk/Acle.html

www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/acle/acle.htm

n490_w1150 by Biodiversity Heritage Library

Icones plantarum asiaticarum.

Calcutta,Bishop's College Press,1847-54..

biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42088310

1:72 Supermarine “Seafire” FR Mk. 23, aircraft “44 (ES257)” of the Aéronavale (French Naval Aviation) Flottille 1.F, base d'aéronautique navale d'Hyères “Le Palyvestre”, late 1949 (What-if/modified Special Hobby kit) by Dizzyfugu

1

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Supermarine Seafire was a naval version of the Supermarine Spitfire adapted for operation from aircraft carriers. It was analogous in concept to the Hawker Sea Hurricane, a navalized version of the Spitfire's stablemate, the Hawker Hurricane. The name Seafire was derived from the abbreviation of the longer name Sea Spitfire.

The idea of adopting a navalized, carrier-capable version of the Supermarine Spitfire had been mooted by the Admiralty as early as May 1938. Despite a pressing need to replace various types of obsolete aircraft that were still in operation with the Fleet Air Arm (FAA), some opposed the notion, such as Winston Churchill, although these disputes were often a result of an overriding priority being placed on maximizing production of land-based Spitfires instead. During 1941 and early 1942, the concept was again pushed for by the Admiralty, culminating in an initial batch of Seafire Mk Ib fighters being provided in late 1941, which were mainly used for pilots to gain experience operating the type at sea. While there were concerns over the low strength of its undercarriage, which had not been strengthened like many naval aircraft would have been, its performance was found to be acceptable.

From 1942 onwards, further Seafire models were quickly ordered, including the first operationally-viable Seafire F Mk III variant. This led to the type rapidly spreading throughout the FAA. In November 1942, the first combat use of the Seafire occurred during Operation Torch, the Allied landings in North Africa. In July 1943, the Seafire was used to provide air cover for the Allied invasion of Sicily; and reprised this role in September 1943 during the subsequent Allied invasion of Italy. During 1944, the type was again used in quantity to provide aerial support to Allied ground forces during the Normandy landings and Operation Dragoon in Southern France. During the latter half of 1944, the Seafire became a part of the aerial component of the British Pacific Fleet, where it quickly proved to be a capable interceptor against the feared kamikaze attacks by Japanese pilots which had become increasingly common during the final years of the Pacific War. Several Seafire variants were produced during WWII, more or less mirroring the development of its land-based ancestor.

The Seafire continued to be used for some time after the end of the war, and new, dedicated versions were developed and exported. The FAA opted to promptly withdraw all of its Merlin-powered Seafires and replace them with Griffon-powered counterparts. The type saw further active combat use during the Korean War, in which FAA Seafires performed hundreds of missions in the ground attack and combat air patrol roles against North Korean forces during 1950. The Seafire was withdrawn from FAA service during the 1950s and was replaced by the newer Hawker Sea Fury, the last piston engine fighter to be used by the service, along with the first generation of jet-propelled naval fighters, such as the de Havilland Vampire, Supermarine Attacker, and Hawker Sea Hawk.

After WWII, the Royal Canadian Navy and French Aviation Navale also obtained Seafires to operate from ex-Royal Navy aircraft carriers. France received a total of 140 Seafires of various versions from 1946 on, including 114 Seafire Mk IIIs in two tranches (35 of them were set aside for spare part) until 1948, and these were followed in 1949 by fifteen Mk. 15 fighters and twelve FR Mk. 23 armed photo reconnaissance aircraft. Additionally, twenty land-based Mk. IXs were delivered to Naval Air Station Cuers-Pierrefeu as trainers.

The Seafire Mk. 23 was a dedicated post-war export version. It combined several old and new features and was the final “new” Spitfire variant to be powered by a Merlin engine, namely a Rolls-Royce Merlin 66M with 1,720 hp (1,283 kW) that drove a four-blade propeller. The Mk. 23 was originally built as a fighter (as Seafire F Mk. 23), but most machines were delivered or later converted with provisions for being fitted with two F24 cameras in the rear fuselage and received the service designation FR Mk. 23 (or just FR.23). Only 32 of this interim post-war version were built by Cunliffe-Owen, and all of them were sold to foreign customers.

Like the Seafire 17, the 23 had a cut-down rear fuselage and teardrop canopy, which afforded a better all-round field of view than the original cockpit. The windscreen was modified, too, to a rounded section, with narrow quarter windows, rather than the flat windscreen used on land-based Spitfires. As a novel feature the Seafire 23 featured a "sting" arrestor hook instead of the previous V-shaped ventral arrangement.
The fuel capacity was 120 gal (545 l) distributed in two main forward fuselage tanks: the lower tank carried 48 gal (218 l) while the upper tank carried 36 gal (163 l), plus two fuel tanks built into the leading edges of the wings with capacities of 12.5 (57 l) and 5.5 gal (25 l) respectively. It featured a reinforced main undercarriage with longer oleos and a lower rebound ratio, a measure to tame the deck behavior of the Mk. 15 and reducing the propensity of the propeller tips "pecking" the deck during an arrested landing. The softer oleos also stopped the aircraft from occasionally bouncing over the arrestor wires and into the crash barrier.
The wings were taken over from the contemporary Spitfire 21 and therefore not foldable. However, this saved weight and complexity, and the Seafire’s compact dimensions made this flaw acceptable for its operators. The wings were furthermore reinforced, with a stronger main spar necessitated by the new undercarriage, and as a bonus they were able to carry heavier underwing loads than previous Seafire variants. This made the type not only suitable for classic dogfighting (basic armament consisted of four short-barreled 20 mm Hispano V cannon in the outer wings), but also for attack missions with bombs and unguided rockets.

The Seafire’s Aéronavale service was quite short, even though they saw hot battle duty. 24 Mk. IIIs were deployed on the carrier Arromanches in 1948 when it sailed for Vietnam to fight in the First Indochina War. The French Seafires operated from land bases and from Arromanches on ground attack missions against the Viet Minh before being withdrawn from combat operations in January 1949.

After returning to European waters, the Aéronavale’s Seafire frontline units were re-equipped with the more modern and capable Seafire 15s and FR 23s, but these were also quickly replaced by Grumman F6F Hellcats from American surplus stock, starting already in 1950. The fighters were retired from carrier operations and soon relegated to training and liaison duties, and eventually scrapped. However, the FR.23s were at this time the only carrier-capable photo reconnaissance aircraft in the Aéronavale’s ranks, so that these machines remained active with Flottille 1.F until 1955, but their career was rather short, too, and immediately ended when the first naval jets became available and raised the performance bar.

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 31 ft 10 in (9.70 m)

Wingspan: 36 ft 10 in (11.23 m)

Height: 12 ft 9 in (3.89 m) tail down with propeller blade vertical

Wing area: 242.1 ft² (22.5 m²)

Empty weight: 5,564 lb (2,524 kg)

Gross weight: 7,415 lb (3,363 kg)

Powerplant:

1× Rolls-Royce Merlin 66M V-12 liquid-cooled piston engine,

delivering 1,720 hp (1,283 kW) at 11,000 ft and driving a 4-bladed constant-speed propeller

Performance:

Maximum speed: 404 mph (650 km/h) at 21,000 ft (6,400 m)

Cruise speed: 272 mph (438 km/h, 236 kn)

Range: 493 mi (793 km) on internal fuel at cruising speed

965 mi (1,553 km) with 90 gal drop tank

Service ceiling: 42,500 ft (12,954 m)

Rate of climb: 4,745 ft/min (24.1 m/s) at 10,000 ft (3,048 m)

Time to altitude: 20,000 ft (6,096 m) in 8 minutes 6 seconds

Armament:

4× 20 mm Hispano V cannon; 175 rpg inboard, 150 rpg outboard

Hardpoints for up to 2× 250 lb (110 kg) bombs (outer wings), plus 1× 500 lb (230 kg) bomb

(ventral hardpoint) or drop tanks, or up to 8× "60 lb" RP-3 rockets on zero-length launchers

The kit and its assembly:

This build was another attempt to reduce The Stash. The basis was a Special Hobby FR Mk. 47, which I had originally bought as a donor kit: the engine housing bulges of its Griffon engine were transplanted onto a racing P-51D Mustang. Most of the kit was still there, and from this basis I decided to create a fictional post-WWII Seafire/Spitfire variant.

With the Griffon fairings gone a Merlin engine was settled, and the rest developed spontaneously. The propeller was improvised, with a P-51D spinner (Academy kit) and blades from the OOB 5-blade propeller, which are slightly deeper than the blades from the Spitfire Mk. IX/XVI prop. In order to attach it to the hull and keep it movable, I implanted my standard metal axis/styrene tube arrangement.

With the smaller Merlin engine, I used the original, smaller Spitfire stabilizers but had to use the big, late rudder, due to the taller fin of the post-ware Spit-/Seafire models. The four-spoke wheels also belong to an earlier Seafire variant. Since it was an option in the kit, I went for a fuselage with camera openings (the kit comes with two alternative fuselages as well as a vast range of optional parts for probably ANY late Spit- and Seafire variant – and also for many fictional hybrids!), resulting in a low spine and a bubble canopy, what gives the aircraft IMHO very sleek and elegant lines. In order to maintain this impression I also used the short cannon barrels from the kit. For extended range on recce missions I furthermore gave the model the exotic underwing slipper tanks instead of the optional missile launch rail stubs under the outer wing sections. Another mod is the re-installment of the small oil cooler under the left wing root from a Spitfire Mk. V instead of the symmetrical standard radiator pair – just another subtle sign that “something’s not right” here.

Painting and markings:

The decision to build this model as a French aircraft was inspired by a Caracal Decals set with an Aéronavale Seafire III from the Vietnam tour of duty in 1948, an aircraft with interesting roundels that still carried British FAA WWII colors (Dark Slate Grey/Dark Sea Grey, Sky). Later liveries of the type remain a little obscure, though, and information about them is contradictive. Some profiles show French Seafires in British colors, with uniform (Extra) Dark Sea Grey upper and Sky lower surfaces, combined with a high waterline – much like contemporary FAA aircraft like the Sea Fury. However, I am a bit in doubt concerning the Sky, because French naval aircraft of that era, esp. recce types like the Shorts Sunderland or PBY Catalina, were rather painted in white or very light grey, just with uniform dark grey upper surfaces, reminding of British Coastal Command WWII aircraft.

Since this model would be a whif, anyway, and for a pretty look, I adopted the latter design, backed by an undated profile of a contemporary Seafire Mk. XV from Flottille S.54, a training unit, probably from the Fifties - not any valid guarantee for authenticity, but it looks good, if not elegant!

Another option from that era would have been an all-blue USN style livery, which should look great on a Spitfire, too. But I wanted something more elegant and odd, underpinning the bubbletop Seafire’s clean lines.

I settled for Extra Dark Sea Grey (Humbrol 123) and Light Grey (FS. 36495, Humbrol 147) as basic tones, with a very high waterline. The spinner was painted yellow, the only colorful marking. Being a post-war aircraft of British origin, the cockpit interior was painted in black (Revell 09, anthracite). The landing gear wells became RAF Cockpit Green (Humbrol 78), while the inside of the respective covers became Sky (Humbrol 90) – reflecting the RAF/FAA’s post-war practice of applying the external camouflage paint on these surfaces on Spit-/Seafires, too. On this specific aircraft the model displays, just the exterior had been painted over by the new operator. Looks weird, but it’s a nice detail.

The roundels came from the aforementioned 1948 Seafire Mk. III, and their odd design – esp. the large ones on the wings, and only the fuselage roundels carry the Aéronavale’s anchor icon and a yellow border – creates a slightly confusing look. Unfortunately, the roundels were not 100% opaque, this became only apparent after their application, and they did not adhere well, either.

The tactical code had to be improvised with single, black letters of various sizes – they come from a Hobby Boss F4F USN pre-WWII Wildcat, but were completely re-arrenged into the French format. The fin flash on the rudder had to be painted, with red and blue paint, in an attempt to match the decals’ tones, and separated by a white decal stripe. The anchor icon on the rudder had to be printed by myself, unfortunately the decal on the bow side partly disintegrated. Stencils were taken from the Special Hobby kit’s OOB sheet.

The model received a light black ink washing, post-panel shading with dry-brushing and some soot stains around the exhausts, but not too much weathering, since it would be relatively new. Finally, everything was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.

A relatively quick and simple build, and the Special Hobby kit went together with little problems – a very nice and versatile offering. The mods are subtle, but I like the slender look of this late Spitfire model, coupled with the elegant Merlin engine – combined into the fictional Mk. 23. The elegant livery just underlines the aircraft’s sleek lines. Not spectacular, but a pretty result.

n196_w1150 by Biodiversity Heritage Library

5

The quadrupeds of North America,.

New York,V.G. Audubon,1851-54..

biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34897125

The Manhattan Club at the Park Central Hotel, New York by Richard Johnson

The Park Central Hotel (formerly the Omni Park Central, The Park Sheraton)

870 7th Avenue

New York, NY

Hooters shares the street with The Manhattan Club

-----------------------

Construction started in 1926 on the Park Central Hotel. The 25-story renaissance revival style building at 870 Seventh Avenue was designed by Gronenberg & Leuchtag. The 1,600 room hotel was named Park Central due to its close proximity to Central Park, its rooms though, did not have actual views of the park. Previously at this location was the Van Corlear apartment house, designed by Henry Hardenbergh for builder Edward Clark and put up in 1878.

Gronenberg & Leuchtag were noted for many of Manhattan's apartment buildings and for one previous hotel - the Times Square Hotel (now the Common Ground Times Square Building - housing for 652 low income individuals) built in 1922 located at 255 West 43rd Street.

The hotel was built for approximately $15 million in the pre-Depression building frenzy of the late-twenties; its grand opening took place on June 12, 1927. The NY Times described the hotel as 31-stories and had a swimming pool and an elaborate roof garden. The hotel's mural paintings were done by William Clark Rice and J Scott Williams. The hotel's lobby had wood carvings and marble designed by Leo Lentelli. In 1929 the hotel opened a sales office in Paris, France.

The owner was Harry A. Lanzer who operated the 1,600 room hotel through the Great Depression and managed to make ends meet and hold on to it until he sold it in 1948 to the Sheraton Corporation of America. Ernest Henderson, president of the Sheraton Corp., led the negotiations, and the Park Central Hotel became the 28th hotel within the Sheraton chain - renamed Park Sheraton Hotel.

*Arnold Rothstein Murder*

Arnold Rothstein was known coast to coast as the nation's most notorious gambler. He was heading to a meeting in room 349 of the Park Central Hotel on Sunday, November 4, 1928, but never made it. He was found shot and mortally wounded in a first floor service corridor at the Park Central Hotel.

Rothstein had lost $300,000 at a 3-day poker game in September of 1928 and refused to pay the debt. More famously he was known as the man behind the Black Sox scandal in which the 1919 World Series was fixed. No one is ever convicted of his murder. Rothstein's show biz girlfriend, Inez Norton, opens in the Broadway play "Room 349" at the National Theater (now the Nederlander Theatre) on April 21, 1930 - it closes after 15 performances.

*WPCH*

Prior to the Park Central opening the radio station WFBH (the Voice of Central Park) was given notice in 1927 its antenna located atop the Hotel Majestic would have to move since the Majestic was to be demolished. WFBH moved its broadcasting facilities and transmitting towers to the Park Central Hotel. The move to the Park Central Hotel ended the WFBH call letters and the station became known as WPCH, incorporating the new hotel's initials into their call sign. It seems that once the Park Central installed its electrical roof signage there were transmission problems and WPCH had to again relocate - this time to the Hotel McAlpin. WPCH went silent in 1933 and was absorbed by WMCA - named after its transmission tower location - the Hotel McAlpin.

*Wine Cellar*

Prohibition was lifted in 1933. The Park Central Hotel was opened without any consideration to the possibility of storing or serving alcoholic beverages. To prepare for the expected demand of wine and spirits the NY Times reported Park Central Hotel's Chief Steward, J.J. Mullins, authorized the excavation through the hotel's bed rock of a wine cellar some 30 feet below the hotel. The wine cellar would hold up to 150,000 bottles. In those days it was thought that vibrations from subways would rattle the wine and spoil it, hence the need to go in to the bedrock.

*Albert Anastasia Murder*

Albert Anastasia was a founder of the American Mafia. A Brooklyn gangster, he was an accomplished underworld enforcer, earning the nickname of "Lord High Executioner." Anastasia was gunned down in what was probably the most sensational public and daytime assassination in mob history.

On the morning on October 25, 1957, Anastasia went to his usual barber at Arthur Grasso's Barber Shop at the Park Sheraton Hotel for a shave and haircut. He sat in the fourth of twelve barber chairs manned by Joseph Bocchino. Starbucks is now located at approximately this location on the hotel's first floor at 55th Street and Seventh Avenue. According to www.mafiahistory.us two masked gunmen burst into the shop and unloaded handguns into the 55-year-old Anastasia's body. The former Murder Inc. chief was hit in his head, back, right hip and left hand. Witnesses said he lunged from the chair and attacked the reflection of his attackers in the mirror in front of him before collapsing dead in a pool of blood on the floor.

The murder has never been solved. The killing allowed Carlo Gambino to take control of the crime family that would now bear his name.

Two weeks after the killing the Park Sheraton Hotel attempted to evict the operator of the barber shop claiming the shop served objectionable patrons. Thomas C. de Veau, the Park Sheraton Manager said the Anastasia killing was a ghastly incident that resulted from Arthur Grasso's failure to heed the term of the lease for maintaining an orderly shop. The complaint alleged that Grasso solicited and encouraged the patronage in the barbershop of notorious underworld characters.

*Jackie Gleason*

In 1953 Jackie Gleason negotiated a two year deal with CBS TV to produce 39 episodes of the Honeymooners to be filmed live at the Adelphi Theater. Upon signing the contract Gleason leased a penthouse atop the Park Sheraton Hotel to be the headquarters of his entertainment company. The 7-room 23rd floor suite had a terrace and sweeping views of Manhattan. According to www.drunkard.com Gleason outfitted the penthouse with a pool table, dance studio and four bars, staffed by a live-in bartender. It resembled a sultan’s palace more than a place of business. Gleason used the penthouse from 1953 to 1957, the heady years of ''The Honeymooners.''

In 1987 the Omni Park Central Hotel named "the Great One's” penthouse suite ''The Jackie Gleason Suite''.

Hilton New York owned the Adelphi Theater (demolished in 1970) which was adjacent to the hotel and held the site for expansion. In 1989 an office tower 1325 Avenue of the Americas was built on the site.

*Eleanor Roosevelt*

Eleanor Roosevelt was the niece of President Theodore Roosevelt and married her father's fifth cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt who was president from 1933 to 1945. After FDR's death, the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt rented suites at the Park Sheraton Hotel from 1950 to 1953. She returned to the Park Sheraton Hotel in 1958 as she waited for renovations on a new house to be completed. During the 1950's long term guests were using the 202 West 56th Street address (today 200 West 56th Street is the address for the Manhattan Club).

According to a 1956 Walter Winchell column it was Eleanor Roosevelt who forced the hand of hotel management to cover the bare breasted mermaids hanging from the Mermaid Room's ceiling. The room was celebrated for its Mermaids... but Eleanor Roosevelt complained the undraped sea sirens were indecent. Bras made of fish net were made to cover their frontages.

*The Mermaid Room*

The Mermaid Room was established on the main floor of the Park Central Hotel in the late 40's. Its fare was cocktails, steak, lobster lamb chops with dinner music 6.30 to 9.30pm and star entertainment from 10pm to 4am. The Mermaid Room had a large curvaceous bar and dance floor. It was known for its four very large terra cotta mermaids on the walls.

The Mermaid Room was designed by night club designer Franklin Hughes - live orchids in his night clubs was his signature. He also designed the decor for El Morocco and the Copacabana.

Irving Fields and his Trio found a home at the Mermaid Room and played for 16 years, 1950 to 1966. His hits included Miami Beach Rhumba and "Managua Nicaragua." Other Mermaid Room entertainers included pianist Belle Gale, Rosa Linda, The Milt Herth Trio, the Pepe Morreale Trio and the renowned organist, Ashley Miller.

*Cocktail Hostess Sues Widow of Park Sheraton Hotel Manager for Husband's Estate*

In 1952 Ralph H. Freeman was appointed General Manager of the Park Sheraton. He brought with him from the Sheraton Hotel in Chicago his mistress Delores Dunn, a cocktail lounge hostess. Freeman died unexpectedly in 1957 at the age of 54. A lawsuit was filed by Dunn against Freeman's widow for $100,000 claiming she had a relationship with Freeman for 8 years, that he induced her to move to New York and performed all the nursing, housework and cooking for him. Freeman had been a prominent hotelier serving as a director for the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau and a director for New York City Hotel Association. At his death he was the Sheraton Hotel's Regional Manager for the Atlantic Division.

*70's and 80's*

The Park Sheraton Hotel changed its name to the New York Sheraton in 1972. A press release issued by Jim Sheeran, the public relations spokesperson for the Sheraton chain said there was a corporate decision made to boost New York and the West Side of New York with the name change.

In May, 1983 V.M.S. Realty, a Chicago-based national real estate investment firm, acquired the New York Sheraton Hotel, on Seventh Avenue between 55th and 56th Streets, from the Sheraton Corporation. V.M.S. paid $60 million for the 1,450- room hotel, at the time the city's fifth largest. V.M.S contracted with Dunfey Hotels Corporation (owned by Aer Lingus) to manage the hotel. Peter R. Morris, the chairman of V.M.S., called the acquisition a ''once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.'' He added that the company's decision to take over the Sheraton reflected its strong belief in the renaissance taking place on the West Side between Times Square and Lincoln Center. In January 1984 Dunfey changed the name to Omni Park Central. V.M.S. and Dunfey provided the 1,450 room hotel with $15 million in improvements. Philip Grosse was the Omni Park Central's general manager in 1984.

Since its beginning in 1977, V.M.S. has acquired 3,500 hotel and motel units. VMS was one of the largest real estate syndicators, raising more than $1.5 billion through more than 100 real-estate limited partnerships. The firm's hotel properties included the Boca Raton Hotel in Florida, Four Seasons Hotel in Santa Barbara, California and Caneel Bay in the Virgin Islands. By 1989 VMS Realty Partners disclosed that it is suffering cash-flow problems and would replace its top management and lay off some of its 500 employees. The dismantling of VMS Realty Partners was one of the largest liquidations in real estate history.

*Ian Bruce Eichner and The Manhattan Club*

In 1995 New York developer Ian Bruce Eichner acquired the Omni Park Central Hotel in a bankruptcy sale from VMS Partners for $60.225 million. The hotel has more than 1,430 rooms and is the fifth largest in the city with more than 800,000 square feet. That translates into a purchase price of $42,115 per room. Upscale hotels were selling at that time for per room prices ranging from $75,000 to $200,000. Eichner said the Sheraton hotel chain still held the first mortgage for V.M.S that had failed in the early 90's. Sheraton agreed to maintain the mortgage for Eichner who had bid $60 million -- or $20 million more than the next highest bidder.

Construction began in 1996 on a $40 million conversion of half the 26-story Park Central Hotel into New York City's first time-share condominium. Eichner would keep the eastern half of the building as a "lower-end hotel" with its entrance on Seventh Avenue. They would have separate lobbies, separate entrances, separate heating systems. The western half transformed to a 360-unit time-share operation called the Manhattan Club, with a new entrance on 56th Street. The "intervals" or weekly shares initial price for seven days' use a year of a 650-square-foot one-bedroom would be $15,000; a two-bedroom will be $23,000. Annual maintenance fees would average $575, including real estate taxes. Manhattan Club buyers would be able to trade their weeks for any one of Resorts Condominium International's (RCI) 3,500 locations in 85 countries. Eichner thought that if The Manhattan Club ever sells out, there is a whole other side-full of rooms to tap! A sell-out of the timeshares would produce more than $300 million.

Eichner was developing a product that had never before been offered in New York City. Eichner even negotiated with the hotel unions to come up with a set of job rules and qualifications for a time share project.

The 1996 cleaning of the hotel's 1925 Tuscan Renaissance facade -- found a beautiful mixture of arches, bas relief squirrels, deer and pelicans and Corinthian half columns that had been hidden for years by gold-colored aluminum panels.

In July 2011 Ian Bruce Eichner, the developer and the operator of The Manhattan Club, was sued for fraud by five buyers of time-shares in The Manhattan Club. According to the documents they are alleging fraud and “breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.” The timeshare owners allege that Eichner is not granting them access to their timeshares, despite their attempts to book up to nine months in advance, and is instead renting them out to the general public.

*Mony Mony*

The 1740 Broadway Building shares the block with the Park Central Hotel and was once the headquarters of the MONY (Mutual of New York). In 1968 the insignia "MONY" was located where *1740* is today. Tommy James was struggling with the lyrics for a new song when he looked out of his apartment building in New York and saw the sign "MONY".

Sung by Tommy James And The Shondells: "Here she comes now sayin' Mony Mony Shoot 'em down turn around come on Mony" …

*Recent Events*

In December 2004 the 935-room Park Central was sold by H. Park Central, LLC to Goldman's Whitehall Real Estate Funds and Highgate Hotels for $215,000,000 or $230,000 per room. Following this sell Bruce Eichner went on to develop the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas however, in 2008 he defaulted on a $768 million construction loan from Deutchse Bank. Deutchse foreclosed on Eichner and took control of the property.

In October 2010 owners Rockpoint and Highgate Hotels put the 1,000-room Park Central Hotel on the market. The hotel had recently received a $65 million renovation.

In a January 2012 press release Lasalle Hotel Properties (LHO) announced it acquired the 934-room Park Central Hotel in New York City for $396.2 million. Michael D. Barnello, President and Chief Executive Officer of LaSalle Hotel Properties said “We remain excited about this well located New York City asset and our ability to acquire the hotel at an attractive purchase price.” Lasalle plans to implement a renovation of the hotel, currently estimated at between $30.0 and $35.0 million, including guestrooms and guest bathrooms, corridors and the hotel’s lobby. The renovation is expected to commence late 2012 and conclude during 2013. Highgate Holdings will continue to manage the Park Central.

All photos and text by Dick Johnson, February 2012

richardlloydjohnson@hotmail.com

212-832-0098

Park Central Hotel, New York City, NY by Richard Johnson

1

The Park Central Hotel (formerly the Omni Park Central, The Park Sheraton)

870 7th Avenue

New York, NY

Lobby art at the Park Central Hotel

------------------------

Construction started in 1926 on the Park Central Hotel. The 25-story renaissance revival style building at 870 Seventh Avenue was designed by Gronenberg & Leuchtag. The 1,600 room hotel was named Park Central due to its close proximity to Central Park, its rooms though, did not have actual views of the park. Previously at this location was the Van Corlear apartment house, designed by Henry Hardenbergh for builder Edward Clark and put up in 1878.

Gronenberg & Leuchtag were noted for many of Manhattan's apartment buildings and for one previous hotel - the Times Square Hotel (now the Common Ground Times Square Building - housing for 652 low income individuals) built in 1922 located at 255 West 43rd Street.

The hotel was built for approximately $15 million in the pre-Depression building frenzy of the late-twenties; its grand opening took place on June 12, 1927. The NY Times described the hotel as 31-stories and had a swimming pool and an elaborate roof garden. The hotel's mural paintings were done by William Clark Rice and J Scott Williams. The hotel's lobby had wood carvings and marble designed by Leo Lentelli. In 1929 the hotel opened a sales office in Paris, France.

The owner was Harry A. Lanzer who operated the 1,600 room hotel through the Great Depression and managed to make ends meet and hold on to it until he sold it in 1948 to the Sheraton Corporation of America. Ernest Henderson, president of the Sheraton Corp., led the negotiations, and the Park Central Hotel became the 28th hotel within the Sheraton chain - renamed Park Sheraton Hotel.

*Arnold Rothstein Murder*

Arnold Rothstein was known coast to coast as the nation's most notorious gambler. He was heading to a meeting in room 349 of the Park Central Hotel on Sunday, November 4, 1928, but never made it. He was found shot and mortally wounded in a first floor service corridor at the Park Central Hotel.

Rothstein had lost $300,000 at a 3-day poker game in September of 1928 and refused to pay the debt. More famously he was known as the man behind the Black Sox scandal in which the 1919 World Series was fixed. No one is ever convicted of his murder. Rothstein's show biz girlfriend, Inez Norton, opens in the Broadway play "Room 349" at the National Theater (now the Nederlander Theatre) on April 21, 1930 - it closes after 15 performances.

*WPCH*

Prior to the Park Central opening the radio station WFBH (the Voice of Central Park) was given notice in 1927 its antenna located atop the Hotel Majestic would have to move since the Majestic was to be demolished. WFBH moved its broadcasting facilities and transmitting towers to the Park Central Hotel. The move to the Park Central Hotel ended the WFBH call letters and the station became known as WPCH, incorporating the new hotel's initials into their call sign. It seems that once the Park Central installed its electrical roof signage there were transmission problems and WPCH had to again relocate - this time to the Hotel McAlpin. WPCH went silent in 1933 and was absorbed by WMCA - named after its transmission tower location - the Hotel McAlpin.

*Wine Cellar*

Prohibition was lifted in 1933. The Park Central Hotel was opened without any consideration to the possibility of storing or serving alcoholic beverages. To prepare for the expected demand of wine and spirits the NY Times reported Park Central Hotel's Chief Steward, J.J. Mullins, authorized the excavation through the hotel's bed rock of a wine cellar some 30 feet below the hotel. The wine cellar would hold up to 150,000 bottles. In those days it was thought that vibrations from subways would rattle the wine and spoil it, hence the need to go in to the bedrock.

*Albert Anastasia Murder*

Albert Anastasia was a founder of the American Mafia. A Brooklyn gangster, he was an accomplished underworld enforcer, earning the nickname of "Lord High Executioner." Anastasia was gunned down in what was probably the most sensational public and daytime assassination in mob history.

On the morning on October 25, 1957, Anastasia went to his usual barber at Arthur Grasso's Barber Shop at the Park Sheraton Hotel for a shave and haircut. He sat in the fourth of twelve barber chairs manned by Joseph Bocchino. Starbucks is now located at approximately this location on the hotel's first floor at 55th Street and Seventh Avenue. According to www.mafiahistory.us two masked gunmen burst into the shop and unloaded handguns into the 55-year-old Anastasia's body. The former Murder Inc. chief was hit in his head, back, right hip and left hand. Witnesses said he lunged from the chair and attacked the reflection of his attackers in the mirror in front of him before collapsing dead in a pool of blood on the floor.

The murder has never been solved. The killing allowed Carlo Gambino to take control of the crime family that would now bear his name.

Two weeks after the killing the Park Sheraton Hotel attempted to evict the operator of the barber shop claiming the shop served objectionable patrons. Thomas C. de Veau, the Park Sheraton Manager said the Anastasia killing was a ghastly incident that resulted from Arthur Grasso's failure to heed the term of the lease for maintaining an orderly shop. The complaint alleged that Grasso solicited and encouraged the patronage in the barbershop of notorious underworld characters.

*Jackie Gleason*

In 1953 Jackie Gleason negotiated a two year deal with CBS TV to produce 39 episodes of the Honeymooners to be filmed live at the Adelphi Theater. Upon signing the contract Gleason leased a penthouse atop the Park Sheraton Hotel to be the headquarters of his entertainment company. The 7-room 23rd floor suite had a terrace and sweeping views of Manhattan. According to www.drunkard.com Gleason outfitted the penthouse with a pool table, dance studio and four bars, staffed by a live-in bartender. It resembled a sultan’s palace more than a place of business. Gleason used the penthouse from 1953 to 1957, the heady years of ''The Honeymooners.''

In 1987 the Omni Park Central Hotel named "the Great One's” penthouse suite ''The Jackie Gleason Suite''.

Hilton New York owned the Adelphi Theater (demolished in 1970) which was adjacent to the hotel and held the site for expansion. In 1989 an office tower 1325 Avenue of the Americas was built on the site.

*Eleanor Roosevelt*

Eleanor Roosevelt was the niece of President Theodore Roosevelt and married her father's fifth cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt who was president from 1933 to 1945. After FDR's death, the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt rented suites at the Park Sheraton Hotel from 1950 to 1953. She returned to the Park Sheraton Hotel in 1958 as she waited for renovations on a new house to be completed. During the 1950's long term guests were using the 202 West 56th Street address (today 200 West 56th Street is the address for the Manhattan Club).

According to a 1956 Walter Winchell column it was Eleanor Roosevelt who forced the hand of hotel management to cover the bare breasted mermaids hanging from the Mermaid Room's ceiling. The room was celebrated for its Mermaids... but Eleanor Roosevelt complained the undraped sea sirens were indecent. Bras made of fish net were made to cover their frontages.

*The Mermaid Room*

The Mermaid Room was established on the main floor of the Park Central Hotel in the late 40's. Its fare was cocktails, steak, lobster lamb chops with dinner music 6.30 to 9.30pm and star entertainment from 10pm to 4am. The Mermaid Room had a large curvaceous bar and dance floor. It was known for its four very large terra cotta mermaids on the walls.

The Mermaid Room was designed by night club designer Franklin Hughes - live orchids in his night clubs was his signature. He also designed the decor for El Morocco and the Copacabana.

Irving Fields and his Trio found a home at the Mermaid Room and played for 16 years, 1950 to 1966. His hits included Miami Beach Rhumba and "Managua Nicaragua." Other Mermaid Room entertainers included pianist Belle Gale, Rosa Linda, The Milt Herth Trio, the Pepe Morreale Trio and the renowned organist, Ashley Miller.

*Cocktail Hostess Sues Widow of Park Sheraton Hotel Manager for Husband's Estate*

In 1952 Ralph H. Freeman was appointed General Manager of the Park Sheraton. He brought with him from the Sheraton Hotel in Chicago his mistress Delores Dunn, a cocktail lounge hostess. Freeman died unexpectedly in 1957 at the age of 54. A lawsuit was filed by Dunn against Freeman's widow for $100,000 claiming she had a relationship with Freeman for 8 years, that he induced her to move to New York and performed all the nursing, housework and cooking for him. Freeman had been a prominent hotelier serving as a director for the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau and a director for New York City Hotel Association. At his death he was the Sheraton Hotel's Regional Manager for the Atlantic Division.

*70's and 80's*

The Park Sheraton Hotel changed its name to the New York Sheraton in 1972. A press release issued by Jim Sheeran, the public relations spokesperson for the Sheraton chain said there was a corporate decision made to boost New York and the West Side of New York with the name change.

In May, 1983 V.M.S. Realty, a Chicago-based national real estate investment firm, acquired the New York Sheraton Hotel, on Seventh Avenue between 55th and 56th Streets, from the Sheraton Corporation. V.M.S. paid $60 million for the 1,450- room hotel, at the time the city's fifth largest. V.M.S contracted with Dunfey Hotels Corporation (owned by Aer Lingus) to manage the hotel. Peter R. Morris, the chairman of V.M.S., called the acquisition a ''once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.'' He added that the company's decision to take over the Sheraton reflected its strong belief in the renaissance taking place on the West Side between Times Square and Lincoln Center. In January 1984 Dunfey changed the name to Omni Park Central. V.M.S. and Dunfey provided the 1,450 room hotel with $15 million in improvements. Philip Grosse was the Omni Park Central's general manager in 1984.

Since its beginning in 1977, V.M.S. has acquired 3,500 hotel and motel units. VMS was one of the largest real estate syndicators, raising more than $1.5 billion through more than 100 real-estate limited partnerships. The firm's hotel properties included the Boca Raton Hotel in Florida, Four Seasons Hotel in Santa Barbara, California and Caneel Bay in the Virgin Islands. By 1989 VMS Realty Partners disclosed that it is suffering cash-flow problems and would replace its top management and lay off some of its 500 employees. The dismantling of VMS Realty Partners was one of the largest liquidations in real estate history.

*Ian Bruce Eichner and The Manhattan Club*

In 1995 New York developer Ian Bruce Eichner acquired the Omni Park Central Hotel in a bankruptcy sale from VMS Partners for $60.225 million. The hotel has more than 1,430 rooms and is the fifth largest in the city with more than 800,000 square feet. That translates into a purchase price of $42,115 per room. Upscale hotels were selling at that time for per room prices ranging from $75,000 to $200,000. Eichner said the Sheraton hotel chain still held the first mortgage for V.M.S that had failed in the early 90's. Sheraton agreed to maintain the mortgage for Eichner who had bid $60 million -- or $20 million more than the next highest bidder.

Construction began in 1996 on a $40 million conversion of half the 26-story Park Central Hotel into New York City's first time-share condominium. Eichner would keep the eastern half of the building as a "lower-end hotel" with its entrance on Seventh Avenue. They would have separate lobbies, separate entrances, separate heating systems. The western half transformed to a 360-unit time-share operation called the Manhattan Club, with a new entrance on 56th Street. The "intervals" or weekly shares initial price for seven days' use a year of a 650-square-foot one-bedroom would be $15,000; a two-bedroom will be $23,000. Annual maintenance fees would average $575, including real estate taxes. Manhattan Club buyers would be able to trade their weeks for any one of Resorts Condominium International's (RCI) 3,500 locations in 85 countries. Eichner thought that if The Manhattan Club ever sells out, there is a whole other side-full of rooms to tap! A sell-out of the timeshares would produce more than $300 million.

Eichner was developing a product that had never before been offered in New York City. Eichner even negotiated with the hotel unions to come up with a set of job rules and qualifications for a time share project.

The 1996 cleaning of the hotel's 1925 Tuscan Renaissance facade -- found a beautiful mixture of arches, bas relief squirrels, deer and pelicans and Corinthian half columns that had been hidden for years by gold-colored aluminum panels.

In July 2011 Ian Bruce Eichner, the developer and the operator of The Manhattan Club, was sued for fraud by five buyers of time-shares in The Manhattan Club. According to the documents they are alleging fraud and “breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.” The timeshare owners allege that Eichner is not granting them access to their timeshares, despite their attempts to book up to nine months in advance, and is instead renting them out to the general public.

*Mony Mony*

The 1740 Broadway Building shares the block with the Park Central Hotel and was once the headquarters of the MONY (Mutual of New York). In 1968 the insignia "MONY" was located where *1740* is today. Tommy James was struggling with the lyrics for a new song when he looked out of his apartment building in New York and saw the sign "MONY".

Sung by Tommy James And The Shondells: "Here she comes now sayin' Mony Mony Shoot 'em down turn around come on Mony" …

*Recent Events*

In December 2004 the 935-room Park Central was sold by H. Park Central, LLC to Goldman's Whitehall Real Estate Funds and Highgate Hotels for $215,000,000 or $230,000 per room. Following this sell Bruce Eichner went on to develop the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas however, in 2008 he defaulted on a $768 million construction loan from Deutchse Bank. Deutchse foreclosed on Eichner and took control of the property.

In October 2010 owners Rockpoint and Highgate Hotels put the 1,000-room Park Central Hotel on the market. The hotel had recently received a $65 million renovation.

In a January 2012 press release Lasalle Hotel Properties (LHO) announced it acquired the 934-room Park Central Hotel in New York City for $396.2 million. Michael D. Barnello, President and Chief Executive Officer of LaSalle Hotel Properties said “We remain excited about this well located New York City asset and our ability to acquire the hotel at an attractive purchase price.” Lasalle plans to implement a renovation of the hotel, currently estimated at between $30.0 and $35.0 million, including guestrooms and guest bathrooms, corridors and the hotel’s lobby. The renovation is expected to commence late 2012 and conclude during 2013. Highgate Holdings will continue to manage the Park Central.

All photos and text by Dick Johnson, February 2012

richardlloydjohnson@hotmail.com

212-832-0098

Park Central Hotel, New York, NY by Richard Johnson

The Park Central Hotel (formerly the Omni Park Central, The Park Sheraton)

870 7th Avenue

New York, NY

Construction started in 1926 on the Park Central Hotel. The 25-story renaissance revival style building at 870 Seventh Avenue was designed by Gronenberg & Leuchtag. The 1,600 room hotel was named Park Central due to its close proximity to Central Park, its rooms though, did not have actual views of the park. Previously at this location was the Van Corlear apartment house, designed by Henry Hardenbergh for builder Edward Clark and put up in 1878.

Gronenberg & Leuchtag were noted for many of Manhattan's apartment buildings and for one previous hotel - the Times Square Hotel (now the Common Ground Times Square Building - housing for 652 low income individuals) built in 1922 located at 255 West 43rd Street.

The hotel was built for approximately $15 million in the pre-Depression building frenzy of the late-twenties; its grand opening took place on June 12, 1927. The NY Times described the hotel as 31-stories and had a swimming pool and an elaborate roof garden. The hotel's mural paintings were done by William Clark Rice and J Scott Williams. The hotel's lobby had wood carvings and marble designed by Leo Lentelli. In 1929 the hotel opened a sales office in Paris, France.

The owner was Harry A. Lanzer who operated the 1,600 room hotel through the Great Depression and managed to make ends meet and hold on to it until he sold it in 1948 to the Sheraton Corporation of America. Ernest Henderson, president of the Sheraton Corp., led the negotiations, and the Park Central Hotel became the 28th hotel within the Sheraton chain - renamed Park Sheraton Hotel.

*Arnold Rothstein Murder*

Arnold Rothstein was known coast to coast as the nation's most notorious gambler. He was heading to a meeting in room 349 of the Park Central Hotel on Sunday, November 4, 1928, but never made it. He was found shot and mortally wounded in a first floor service corridor at the Park Central Hotel.

Rothstein had lost $300,000 at a 3-day poker game in September of 1928 and refused to pay the debt. More famously he was known as the man behind the Black Sox scandal in which the 1919 World Series was fixed. No one is ever convicted of his murder. Rothstein's show biz girlfriend, Inez Norton, opens in the Broadway play "Room 349" at the National Theater (now the Nederlander Theatre) on April 21, 1930 - it closes after 15 performances.

*WPCH*

Prior to the Park Central opening the radio station WFBH (the Voice of Central Park) was given notice in 1927 its antenna located atop the Hotel Majestic would have to move since the Majestic was to be demolished. WFBH moved its broadcasting facilities and transmitting towers to the Park Central Hotel. The move to the Park Central Hotel ended the WFBH call letters and the station became known as WPCH, incorporating the new hotel's initials into their call sign. It seems that once the Park Central installed its electrical roof signage there were transmission problems and WPCH had to again relocate - this time to the Hotel McAlpin. WPCH went silent in 1933 and was absorbed by WMCA - named after its transmission tower location - the Hotel McAlpin.

*Wine Cellar*

Prohibition was lifted in 1933. The Park Central Hotel was opened without any consideration to the possibility of storing or serving alcoholic beverages. To prepare for the expected demand of wine and spirits the NY Times reported Park Central Hotel's Chief Steward, J.J. Mullins, authorized the excavation through the hotel's bed rock of a wine cellar some 30 feet below the hotel. The wine cellar would hold up to 150,000 bottles. In those days it was thought that vibrations from subways would rattle the wine and spoil it, hence the need to go in to the bedrock.

*Albert Anastasia Murder*

Albert Anastasia was a founder of the American Mafia. A Brooklyn gangster, he was an accomplished underworld enforcer, earning the nickname of "Lord High Executioner." Anastasia was gunned down in what was probably the most sensational public and daytime assassination in mob history.

On the morning on October 25, 1957, Anastasia went to his usual barber at Arthur Grasso's Barber Shop at the Park Sheraton Hotel for a shave and haircut. He sat in the fourth of twelve barber chairs manned by Joseph Bocchino. Starbucks is now located at approximately this location on the hotel's first floor at 55th Street and Seventh Avenue. According to www.mafiahistory.us two masked gunmen burst into the shop and unloaded handguns into the 55-year-old Anastasia's body. The former Murder Inc. chief was hit in his head, back, right hip and left hand. Witnesses said he lunged from the chair and attacked the reflection of his attackers in the mirror in front of him before collapsing dead in a pool of blood on the floor.

The murder has never been solved. The killing allowed Carlo Gambino to take control of the crime family that would now bear his name.

Two weeks after the killing the Park Sheraton Hotel attempted to evict the operator of the barber shop claiming the shop served objectionable patrons. Thomas C. de Veau, the Park Sheraton Manager said the Anastasia killing was a ghastly incident that resulted from Arthur Grasso's failure to heed the term of the lease for maintaining an orderly shop. The complaint alleged that Grasso solicited and encouraged the patronage in the barbershop of notorious underworld characters.

*Jackie Gleason*

In 1953 Jackie Gleason negotiated a two year deal with CBS TV to produce 39 episodes of the Honeymooners to be filmed live at the Adelphi Theater. Upon signing the contract Gleason leased a penthouse atop the Park Sheraton Hotel to be the headquarters of his entertainment company. The 7-room 23rd floor suite had a terrace and sweeping views of Manhattan. According to www.drunkard.com Gleason outfitted the penthouse with a pool table, dance studio and four bars, staffed by a live-in bartender. It resembled a sultan’s palace more than a place of business. Gleason used the penthouse from 1953 to 1957, the heady years of ''The Honeymooners.''

In 1987 the Omni Park Central Hotel named "the Great One's” penthouse suite ''The Jackie Gleason Suite''.

Hilton New York owned the Adelphi Theater (demolished in 1970) which was adjacent to the hotel and held the site for expansion. In 1989 an office tower 1325 Avenue of the Americas was built on the site.

*Eleanor Roosevelt*

Eleanor Roosevelt was the niece of President Theodore Roosevelt and married her father's fifth cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt who was president from 1933 to 1945. After FDR's death, the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt rented suites at the Park Sheraton Hotel from 1950 to 1953. She returned to the Park Sheraton Hotel in 1958 as she waited for renovations on a new house to be completed. During the 1950's long term guests were using the 202 West 56th Street address (today 200 West 56th Street is the address for the Manhattan Club).

According to a 1956 Walter Winchell column it was Eleanor Roosevelt who forced the hand of hotel management to cover the bare breasted mermaids hanging from the Mermaid Room's ceiling. The room was celebrated for its Mermaids... but Eleanor Roosevelt complained the undraped sea sirens were indecent. Bras made of fish net were made to cover their frontages.

*The Mermaid Room*

The Mermaid Room was established on the main floor of the Park Central Hotel in the late 40's. Its fare was cocktails, steak, lobster lamb chops with dinner music 6.30 to 9.30pm and star entertainment from 10pm to 4am. The Mermaid Room had a large curvaceous bar and dance floor. It was known for its four very large terra cotta mermaids on the walls.

The Mermaid Room was designed by night club designer Franklin Hughes - live orchids in his night clubs was his signature. He also designed the decor for El Morocco and the Copacabana.

Irving Fields and his Trio found a home at the Mermaid Room and played for 16 years, 1950 to 1966. His hits included Miami Beach Rhumba and "Managua Nicaragua." Other Mermaid Room entertainers included pianist Belle Gale, Rosa Linda, The Milt Herth Trio, the Pepe Morreale Trio and the renowned organist, Ashley Miller.

*Cocktail Hostess Sues Widow of Park Sheraton Hotel Manager for Husband's Estate*

In 1952 Ralph H. Freeman was appointed General Manager of the Park Sheraton. He brought with him from the Sheraton Hotel in Chicago his mistress Delores Dunn, a cocktail lounge hostess. Freeman died unexpectedly in 1957 at the age of 54. A lawsuit was filed by Dunn against Freeman's widow for $100,000 claiming she had a relationship with Freeman for 8 years, that he induced her to move to New York and performed all the nursing, housework and cooking for him. Freeman had been a prominent hotelier serving as a director for the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau and a director for New York City Hotel Association. At his death he was the Sheraton Hotel's Regional Manager for the Atlantic Division.

*70's and 80's*

The Park Sheraton Hotel changed its name to the New York Sheraton in 1972. A press release issued by Jim Sheeran, the public relations spokesperson for the Sheraton chain said there was a corporate decision made to boost New York and the West Side of New York with the name change.

In May, 1983 V.M.S. Realty, a Chicago-based national real estate investment firm, acquired the New York Sheraton Hotel, on Seventh Avenue between 55th and 56th Streets, from the Sheraton Corporation. V.M.S. paid $60 million for the 1,450- room hotel, at the time the city's fifth largest. V.M.S contracted with Dunfey Hotels Corporation (owned by Aer Lingus) to manage the hotel. Peter R. Morris, the chairman of V.M.S., called the acquisition a ''once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.'' He added that the company's decision to take over the Sheraton reflected its strong belief in the renaissance taking place on the West Side between Times Square and Lincoln Center. In January 1984 Dunfey changed the name to Omni Park Central. V.M.S. and Dunfey provided the 1,450 room hotel with $15 million in improvements. Philip Grosse was the Omni Park Central's general manager in 1984.

Since its beginning in 1977, V.M.S. has acquired 3,500 hotel and motel units. VMS was one of the largest real estate syndicators, raising more than $1.5 billion through more than 100 real-estate limited partnerships. The firm's hotel properties included the Boca Raton Hotel in Florida, Four Seasons Hotel in Santa Barbara, California and Caneel Bay in the Virgin Islands. By 1989 VMS Realty Partners disclosed that it is suffering cash-flow problems and would replace its top management and lay off some of its 500 employees. The dismantling of VMS Realty Partners was one of the largest liquidations in real estate history.

*Ian Bruce Eichner and The Manhattan Club*

In 1995 New York developer Ian Bruce Eichner acquired the Omni Park Central Hotel in a bankruptcy sale from VMS Partners for $60.225 million. The hotel has more than 1,430 rooms and is the fifth largest in the city with more than 800,000 square feet. That translates into a purchase price of $42,115 per room. Upscale hotels were selling at that time for per room prices ranging from $75,000 to $200,000. Eichner said the Sheraton hotel chain still held the first mortgage for V.M.S that had failed in the early 90's. Sheraton agreed to maintain the mortgage for Eichner who had bid $60 million -- or $20 million more than the next highest bidder.

Construction began in 1996 on a $40 million conversion of half the 26-story Park Central Hotel into New York City's first time-share condominium. Eichner would keep the eastern half of the building as a "lower-end hotel" with its entrance on Seventh Avenue. They would have separate lobbies, separate entrances, separate heating systems. The western half transformed to a 360-unit time-share operation called the Manhattan Club, with a new entrance on 56th Street. The "intervals" or weekly shares initial price for seven days' use a year of a 650-square-foot one-bedroom would be $15,000; a two-bedroom will be $23,000. Annual maintenance fees would average $575, including real estate taxes. Manhattan Club buyers would be able to trade their weeks for any one of Resorts Condominium International's (RCI) 3,500 locations in 85 countries. Eichner thought that if The Manhattan Club ever sells out, there is a whole other side-full of rooms to tap! A sell-out of the timeshares would produce more than $300 million.

Eichner was developing a product that had never before been offered in New York City. Eichner even negotiated with the hotel unions to come up with a set of job rules and qualifications for a time share project.

The 1996 cleaning of the hotel's 1925 Tuscan Renaissance facade -- found a beautiful mixture of arches, bas relief squirrels, deer and pelicans and Corinthian half columns that had been hidden for years by gold-colored aluminum panels.

In July 2011 Ian Bruce Eichner, the developer and the operator of The Manhattan Club, was sued for fraud by five buyers of time-shares in The Manhattan Club. According to the documents they are alleging fraud and “breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.” The timeshare owners allege that Eichner is not granting them access to their timeshares, despite their attempts to book up to nine months in advance, and is instead renting them out to the general public.

*Mony Mony*

The 1740 Broadway Building shares the block with the Park Central Hotel and was once the headquarters of the MONY (Mutual of New York). In 1968 the insignia "MONY" was located where *1740* is today. Tommy James was struggling with the lyrics for a new song when he looked out of his apartment building in New York and saw the sign "MONY".

Sung by Tommy James And The Shondells: "Here she comes now sayin' Mony Mony Shoot 'em down turn around come on Mony" …

*Recent Events*

In December 2004 the 935-room Park Central was sold by H. Park Central, LLC to Goldman's Whitehall Real Estate Funds and Highgate Hotels for $215,000,000 or $230,000 per room. Following this sell Bruce Eichner went on to develop the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas however, in 2008 he defaulted on a $768 million construction loan from Deutchse Bank. Deutchse foreclosed on Eichner and took control of the property.

In October 2010 owners Rockpoint and Highgate Hotels put the 1,000-room Park Central Hotel on the market. The hotel had recently received a $65 million renovation.

In a January 2012 press release Lasalle Hotel Properties (LHO) announced it acquired the 934-room Park Central Hotel in New York City for $396.2 million. Michael D. Barnello, President and Chief Executive Officer of LaSalle Hotel Properties said “We remain excited about this well located New York City asset and our ability to acquire the hotel at an attractive purchase price.” Lasalle plans to implement a renovation of the hotel, currently estimated at between $30.0 and $35.0 million, including guestrooms and guest bathrooms, corridors and the hotel’s lobby. The renovation is expected to commence late 2012 and conclude during 2013. Highgate Holdings will continue to manage the Park Central.

All photos and text by Dick Johnson, February 2012

richardlloydjohnson@hotmail.com

212-832-0098

n16_w1150 by Biodiversity Heritage Library

4

Icones plantarum asiaticarum.

Calcutta,Bishop's College Press,1847-54..

biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42059617

The GBH's Are Back at Wako by Michael Pancier Photography

17 32

Went back to Wako today and the GBH's are back and nesting. Here's one as you enter the wetlands area on your right. This was shot at 6:54 a.m. You need to get there early.

Explore # 372 - 12/2/07

Northgate / Vickers Vimy Reserve plaque commemorating the Smith Brothers' England/Australia Flight terminating on what was then the Northfield Aerodrome in 1920. Wally H Shiers attended the plaque unveiling. South Australia by Contemplari

1

*"Pioneer Aviators Captain Sir Ross Smith and Lieutenant Sir Keith Smith residents of this district with crew members Lieutenant J M Bennett and Lieutnant W H Shiers at this spot terminated the first England to Australia Flight on March 23rd 1920.

Unveiled by Senator K A Laught in the presence of W H Shiers on February 19th 1966"

Erected by the Lions Club of Enfield.

The Vickers Vimy G-EAOU aircraft was flown from England to Australia in 1919 by Ross Smith and Keith Smith, South Australian born pilots.

For some time the aircraft was placed at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra: however it is now enclosed in this protective pavilion located at the Smith brothers’ home town.

Sir Ross Macpherson Smith KBE, MC & Bar, DFC & Two Bars, AFC was an Australian aviator. He and his brother, Sir Keith Macpherson Smith, were the first pilots to fly from England to Australia, in 1919.

The brothers were born on 20 December 1890 in Adelaide, and on 4 December 1892 at Semaphore, Adelaide, sons of Scottish-born Andrew Bell Smith, station manager, and his wife Jessie, née Macpherson, born in Western Australia. In 1897 Andrew Smith became the manager of the Mutooroo Pastoral Co. and Mutooroo station, a property of some 3000 sq. miles (7700 km²). Both Keith and Ross were educated at Queen's School, Adelaide (as boarders), and for two years at Warriston School, Moffat, Scotland, their father's birthplace.

Ross Smith had served in the cadets and the militia before World War One when he left Australia as a sergeant with the 3rd Light Horse Regiment in October 1914: he was at Gallipoli the following year. He was later commissioned and was at the battle of Romani (in the Sinai) in August 1916. The next year he volunteered for the Australian Flying Corps.

Flying with No 1 Squadron AFC, Smith took part in attacks, aerial photography missions, and bombing raids on Turkish forces. On one occasion he landed in the face of the enemy to rescue a downed comrade. During his extensive war service he was twice awarded the Military Cross, received the Distinguished Flying Cross three times, as well as the Air Force Cross.

A gifted flyer, Smith became experienced in flying his squadron’s twin-engined Handley Page 0/400 bomber: on occasion Lawrence of Arabia was his passenger. While still with the flying corps, he made pioneering flights from Cairo to Calcutta, and from Calcutta to Timor.

On 12 November 1919, assisted by his brother Keith and two mechanics, Wally Shiers and Jim Bennett, he set out to fly from England to Australia in a large Vickers Vimy bomber. It was an epic 28 day flight, completed at an average speed of 137 kilometres per hour, but not without mishap. On their arrival, the pioneering flyers were welcomed home as national heroes. The brothers were knighted. Their mechanics were commissioned and awarded Bars to their Air Force Medals. The £10,000 reward offered by the South Australian Government was divided into four equal shares.

In a Vickers Vimy (a type similar to the 0/400 bomber), supplied by the manufacturer, and with Keith as assistant pilot and navigator and accompanied by two mechanics, the attempt began from Hounslow, England, on 12 November 1919. Flying conditions were very poor and most hazardous until they reached Basra on 22 November. From Basra to Delhi, a distance of 1600 miles (2575 km), they spent 25½ hours in the air out of 54. A poor landing-area at Singora and torrential rain almost brought disaster on 3 December. Disaster again almost came at Sourabaya where the aircraft was bogged and had to take off from an improvised airstrip made of bamboo mats. By 9 December, however, they were at Timor, only 350 miles (563 km) from Darwin. The crossing was made next day and at 3.50 p.m. on 10 December they landed in Darwin. The distance covered in this epic flight was 11,340 miles (18,250 km). It took just under 28 days with an actual flying time of 135 hours at an average speed of 85 mph (137 kmph).

SIR ROSS SMITH'S ARRIVAL

According to the latest official information Sir Ross Smith and his party are expected to arrive in Adelaide on Thursday afternoon next, assuming that the overhaul of the aeroplane proves to be satisfactory. After the aviators have flown over the metropolitan area, including Malvern, Hawthorn, Unley, Henley Beach, Port Adelaide, Woodville, Norwood, and Goodwood, they will soar above soar above Gilberton and Prospect, and thence proceed to the Northfield aerodrome, escorted by whatever aeroplanes may be able to meet them.

At the aerodrome they will be met by their parents and the official party, including the members of the Welcome Committee—the Premier (Hon A H Peake), who is Chairman, the Lord Mayor of Adelaide (Mr F B Moulden), the District Commandant (Brig-Gen Antill CB CMG), the Director of the Tourist Bureau (Mr V H Ryan), the secretary of the committee, and the secretary of the Aero Club (Captain Matthews).

The Premier has asked that the time of the arrival of the aviators shall be as nearly as possible 2.30pm.

The District Commandant, with the aid of the police and members of the Australian Army Reserve, will keep the enclosure at Northfield clear.

After the greeting and formal introductions there the party will proceed to the city. From St Peter’s Cathedral they will be escorted by mounted police, and on arriving at Parliament House, where the Returned Soldiers' Association Band will be in attendance, addresses of welcome will be delivered by the Lieutenant-Governor (Sir George Murray) and the Premier.

In the evening Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith will be entertained by their old comrades of the 3rd Light Horse at the Town Hall: on the following day there will be a civic reception by the Lord Mayor. The Welcome Committee desires particularly to warn the public against the danger of crowding the enclosure at Northfield, and points out that the machine will not come to a full stop immediately it reaches the ground. [Ref: Journal (Adelaide) 13-3-1920]

SIR ROSS SMITH IN ADELAIDE

Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith were given a civic reception this morning. The Lord Mayor (Mr F B Moulden) said that in the Smith family there were three sons, and all enlisted: in the Shiers family six sons, and five enlisted, while the other mechanic, Sergeant Bennett, was an only son. The Lord Mayor handed to Sir Ross Smith an address of welcome and congratulations from the inhabitants of the Northern Territory. [Ref: Argus (Melbourne) 25-3-1920]

ROUND of FESTIVITIES

Sir Ross and Sir Keith Smith spent a quiet morning, although the telephone to their home has been ringing almost continuously with messages of congratulation from friends and strangers.

They spent yesterday afternoon inspecting the Vickers-Vimy at Northfield, where a military picket of 12 men is posted to protect the machine.

This afternoon the aviators are being entertained by the Commonwealth Club. A tremendous crowd was present, and the reception to the guests lasted for several minutes. Tonight their friends are giving them a private dance in a large city hall.

Mr F B Moulden, the Lord Mayor is arranging a party in their honour at the Town Hall on Monday.

On Saturday afternoon Sir Ross Smith will lay the foundation stone of the War Chapel at St Peter's Church, Glenelg.

Sir Keith Smith goes to the races on that day. [Ref: Herald (Melbourne) 25-3-1920]

THE ROSS SMITH SEASON

The Adelaide Town Hall has been too limited in capacity for intending patrons, many of whom have been unable to gain admission to hear the story and see the films of “The Great Flight”.

The programme is divided into two sections, the first being from Darwin to Adelaide, photographed from the Vickers-Vimy by Captain Frank Hurley. In the second half Sir Ross Smith relates his experiences in racy vein between the 'story' with screen illustrations.

No one returning to Adelaide has ever been given a more enthusiastic ovation than Sir Ross Smith received on Monday night. [Ref: Register 10-5-1920]

Sir Ross Smith will make his final appearance in Adelaide at the St Peters Town Hall, on Thursday night prior to leaving on Friday for Tasmania. The story of the flight will be told for the last time in South Australia, and as Sir Keith and Sir Ross will be leaving for England early in August there is no likely return visit of the flight pictures in Adelaide.

The plan of reserve seats [is] at Dorling’s Sweet Shop, next to the Town Hall, St Peters. [Ref: Daily Herald 26-5-1920]

SHY AUSTRALIA FLIERS. Two rather shy-looking young men, bronzed and smiling (states The London Daily Mail of February 24), yesterday received endless congratulations from unknown people, autographed menu cards, and made two speeches— “more dangerous” they said, 'than flying to Australia’.

They were Sir Ross Smith and his brother, Sir Keith Smith— both of Adelaide— who flew to Australia in 1919 and were entertained at luncheon yesterday by the Overseas Club and Patriotic League at The Hyde Park Hotel. Memories of their romantic 11,000 miles journey were recalled when they spoke. With hardly a reference to their difficulties, both of them spoke in the first breath of their two mechanics, and avowed they would never have “got through” without them. When Sir Keith Smith mentioned his father and mother, who were waiting for them in their own home at the end of the journey, applause drowned the rest of the sentence.

Major-Gen Seely, who presided, recalled that the Air Ministry classified the day on which the brothers left England (November 12 1919) as “Class 5” which meant it was totally unfit for flying. [Ref: Register 5-4-1921]

ROSS SMITH MEMORIAL. THE UNVEILING ON SATURDAY

The Ross Smith Memorial in Creswell Gardens perpetuates a nation's admiration for South Australia's "most distinguished son," as the Lieutenant-Governor termed Sir Ross Smith on Saturday.

As the Lieutenant-Governor (Sir George Murray) was unveiling the memorial, the drone of circling aeroplanes recalled the deeds with which Sir Ross Smith won distinction as the first Australian air pilot in Palestine during the war, and carried the thoughts of the spectators back to the 12,000 miles pioneer flight with which the Smith brothers and their mechanics placed the seal of achievement on an audacious ambition.

With the face of Sir Ross Smith's figure to the rising sun, the statue is placed between the pathway to the Adelaide Oval entrance and the bank of the Torrens. To a large crowd of people the Lieutenant-Governor told how Sir Ross Smith had his mind turned to aviation from the time he landed in Egypt, and how he became the most famous pilot and observer in the East. His was the only aeroplane to take part in Lord Allenby's triumphal march into Cairo after the war.

In a letter to his mother during the war he spoke of the joy he would experience in flying straight to Australia to take Mr P Waite for a flight to Mutooroo Station, probably the germ of the famous enterprise.

Dr A A Lendon related Sir Ross Smith's desire, expressed to his mother during his last visit to Adelaide, that a monument to the Third Light Horse should occupy the place chosen for his own. The doctor went on to point out how fitting it was that the Ross Smith memorial should be placed there, and associated that gallant corps with it.

Sir George Murray was also filling the position of Lieutenant-Governor when Sir Ross Smith reached Adelaide after the flight, and at the time the aviator was killed while preparing for a flight around the world and his performance of the ceremony on Saturday was a natural completion of such notable coincidences. The time of the ceremony was an inconvenient one, but the crowd which assembled testified to the place Sir Ross Smith occupied in public esteem. At the conclusion of the ceremony there was a general movement inward to inspect the statuary, admiration of which was openly expressed. A guard of honour was provided by Queen's School, the present pupils of which were thus linked with a former scholar, whose name has become imperishable. [Ref: Register 12-12-1927]

Flight of 1922

The next proposal, to fly round the world in a Vickers Viking amphibian, ended in disaster. Both brothers travelled to England to prepare for the trip and on 13 April 1922, while Ross and his long-serving crew member Bennett were test flying the aircraft at Weybridge near London, it spun into the ground from 1000 feet (305 m), killing both. Keith, who arrived late for the test flight witnessed the accident. The flight was abandoned. The bodies of Sir Ross Smith and Lieutenant Bennett were brought home to Australia.

SIR ROSS SMITH

BODY TAKEN TO ADELAIDE

Wednesday—The Commonwealth liner ‘Largs Bay’ has brought home the bodies of Sir Ross Smith and Lieutenant Bennett. Sir Keith Smith was present at the Outer Harbor to watch the landing of the casket containing his brother's remains. Both bodies were conveyed from London in the forward hold of the vessel, but were kept separate from the cargo.

The casket holding the embalmed body of Sir Ross Smith was encased in a lead coffin, on the outside of which was a wooden case to prevent damage. Both coffins were under the direct care of the ship’s officers.

There was a large gathering on the wharf when the ship's siren gave a salute as the casket was lifted from the hold. As it came into the view of the crowd, draped with the Australian flag, every head was bared, and silence prevailed as it was lowered to the wharf. A band of sailors from the ship bore the coffin to the conveyance which was to take it to St Peter's Cathedral.

The first floral tribute to the dead hero from this State was a bunch of red geraniums, which was put on the coffin as a mark of respect from the sailors at the Outer Harbor. The flags on all the vessels and buildings at the harbor were at half-mast. No ceremony was attached to the conveyance to Adelaide of the coffin. After it had been removed from the case it was transferred to a hearse and was taken to the cathedral.

Although the public had been notified that there would be no admission to the cathedral until three o'clock in the afternoon a number of people had collected in the vicinity.

The Dean of Adelaide met a small official procession at the cathedral gates. Inside the building the precentor (Dr Milne) and Archdeacon Bussell preceded the coffin to a position between the choir stalls, where trestles had been placed to receive it. The coffin is of oak, lead lined and sealed, and bears the following inscription:

"Captain Sir Ross Macpherson Smith, KBE, MC, DFC, AFC died at Brooklands, 13th April, 1923 aged 29 years."

Nearly 30 airmen will participate in the funeral. [Ref: Recorder (Port Pirie) 15-6-1922]

THE LATE SIR ROSS SMITH

FUNERAL IN ADELAÏDE TODAY

THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ATTEND

Adelaide. Thursday.

General Leane represented Lord Forster, the Governor-General, at the late Sir Ross Smith's funeral in Adelaide today. Thousands of people viewed the body lying in state at the Cathedral yesterday, and thousands watched the funeral procession today The city was deserted. The public offices, business places, and hotels were closed. The Town Hall bells were tolled, and flags were at half-mast. Mr Bickersteth, headmaster at St. Peter's College, delivered a brief address. Seventy Australian airmen participated. An aircraft trailer was used to carry the coffin and another carried the flowers.

The firing party at the graveside consisted of 40 men.

Three military aeroplanes flew over the route as the procession was making its way to the cemetery.

The interment was in the North-road cemetery, the grave being dug in a plot of green lawn close to the entrance of the picturesque little chapel. [Ref: Barrier Miner (Broken Hill) 15-6-1922]

LAID TO REST

SIR ROSS SMITH'S FUNERAL

The remains of Sir Ross Macpherson Smith, aviator and soldier, were laid to rest this afternoon in soil of his beloved homeland. Enormous crowds of sorrowing people assembled in the vicinity of St. Peter's Cathedral and thronged the route to the North Road Anglican Cemetery, desiring to pay a last tribute of respect to the memory of the illustrious airman. At the Cathedral the solemn service of mourning was held, immediately after which the body was borne from the edifice by members of the Royal Australian Flying Corps and placed on an aeroplane trailer at the head of the State Funeral cortege, which was of unprecedented dimensions.

From an early hour this morning a continuous procession of thousands of people filed quietly and sadly past the body as it lay in state in the Cathedral, draped with the British colours and guarded by members of the RAFC with arms reversed.

At the Cathedral the service, which was of a most impressive character, was conducted by Dean Young, and was attended by Mr and Mrs Andrew Smith, parents of Sir Ross Smith, and also by Mr and Mrs John Fordyce, of Melbourne (uncle and aunt of the deceased), and Sir Keith Smith and Lieutenant W Shiers, who flew with Sir Ross and Lieutenant Bennett to Australia in the Vickers Vimy. There was a fine muster of Sir Ross Smith's former comrades in the Third Light Horse, and other branches of the AIF.

We are not unmindful of his comrade, Lieutenant Bennett, who died with him, and whose body is to be laid to rest on Saturday, in Melbourne. [Ref: Daily Telegraph (Sydney) 16-6-1922]

n48_w1150 by Biodiversity Heritage Library

Icones plantarum asiaticarum.

Calcutta,Bishop's College Press,1847-54..

biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42102663

Park Central Hotel, New York, NY by Richard Johnson

2

The Park Central Hotel (formerly the Omni Park Central, The Park Sheraton)

870 7th Avenue

New York, NY

Starbucks now occupies the site of Arthur Grasso's Barber Shop - where in 1957 Albert Anastasia was gunned down in what was probably the most sensational public and daytime assassination in mob history.

------------------------------

Construction started in 1926 on the Park Central Hotel. The 25-story renaissance revival style building at 870 Seventh Avenue was designed by Gronenberg & Leuchtag. The 1,600 room hotel was named Park Central due to its close proximity to Central Park, its rooms though, did not have actual views of the park. Previously at this location was the Van Corlear apartment house, designed by Henry Hardenbergh for builder Edward Clark and put up in 1878.

Gronenberg & Leuchtag were noted for many of Manhattan's apartment buildings and for one previous hotel - the Times Square Hotel (now the Common Ground Times Square Building - housing for 652 low income individuals) built in 1922 located at 255 West 43rd Street.

The hotel was built for approximately $15 million in the pre-Depression building frenzy of the late-twenties; its grand opening took place on June 12, 1927. The NY Times described the hotel as 31-stories and had a swimming pool and an elaborate roof garden. The hotel's mural paintings were done by William Clark Rice and J Scott Williams. The hotel's lobby had wood carvings and marble designed by Leo Lentelli. In 1929 the hotel opened a sales office in Paris, France.

The owner was Harry A. Lanzer who operated the 1,600 room hotel through the Great Depression and managed to make ends meet and hold on to it until he sold it in 1948 to the Sheraton Corporation of America. Ernest Henderson, president of the Sheraton Corp., led the negotiations, and the Park Central Hotel became the 28th hotel within the Sheraton chain - renamed Park Sheraton Hotel.

*Arnold Rothstein Murder*

Arnold Rothstein was known coast to coast as the nation's most notorious gambler. He was heading to a meeting in room 349 of the Park Central Hotel on Sunday, November 4, 1928, but never made it. He was found shot and mortally wounded in a first floor service corridor at the Park Central Hotel.

Rothstein had lost $300,000 at a 3-day poker game in September of 1928 and refused to pay the debt. More famously he was known as the man behind the Black Sox scandal in which the 1919 World Series was fixed. No one is ever convicted of his murder. Rothstein's show biz girlfriend, Inez Norton, opens in the Broadway play "Room 349" at the National Theater (now the Nederlander Theatre) on April 21, 1930 - it closes after 15 performances.

*WPCH*

Prior to the Park Central opening the radio station WFBH (the Voice of Central Park) was given notice in 1927 its antenna located atop the Hotel Majestic would have to move since the Majestic was to be demolished. WFBH moved its broadcasting facilities and transmitting towers to the Park Central Hotel. The move to the Park Central Hotel ended the WFBH call letters and the station became known as WPCH, incorporating the new hotel's initials into their call sign. It seems that once the Park Central installed its electrical roof signage there were transmission problems and WPCH had to again relocate - this time to the Hotel McAlpin. WPCH went silent in 1933 and was absorbed by WMCA - named after its transmission tower location - the Hotel McAlpin.

*Wine Cellar*

Prohibition was lifted in 1933. The Park Central Hotel was opened without any consideration to the possibility of storing or serving alcoholic beverages. To prepare for the expected demand of wine and spirits the NY Times reported Park Central Hotel's Chief Steward, J.J. Mullins, authorized the excavation through the hotel's bed rock of a wine cellar some 30 feet below the hotel. The wine cellar would hold up to 150,000 bottles. In those days it was thought that vibrations from subways would rattle the wine and spoil it, hence the need to go in to the bedrock.

*Albert Anastasia Murder*

Albert Anastasia was a founder of the American Mafia. A Brooklyn gangster, he was an accomplished underworld enforcer, earning the nickname of "Lord High Executioner." Anastasia was gunned down in what was probably the most sensational public and daytime assassination in mob history.

On the morning on October 25, 1957, Anastasia went to his usual barber at Arthur Grasso's Barber Shop at the Park Sheraton Hotel for a shave and haircut. He sat in the fourth of twelve barber chairs manned by Joseph Bocchino. Starbucks is now located at approximately this location on the hotel's first floor at 55th Street and Seventh Avenue. According to www.mafiahistory.us two masked gunmen burst into the shop and unloaded handguns into the 55-year-old Anastasia's body. The former Murder Inc. chief was hit in his head, back, right hip and left hand. Witnesses said he lunged from the chair and attacked the reflection of his attackers in the mirror in front of him before collapsing dead in a pool of blood on the floor.

The murder has never been solved. The killing allowed Carlo Gambino to take control of the crime family that would now bear his name.

Two weeks after the killing the Park Sheraton Hotel attempted to evict the operator of the barber shop claiming the shop served objectionable patrons. Thomas C. de Veau, the Park Sheraton Manager said the Anastasia killing was a ghastly incident that resulted from Arthur Grasso's failure to heed the term of the lease for maintaining an orderly shop. The complaint alleged that Grasso solicited and encouraged the patronage in the barbershop of notorious underworld characters.

*Jackie Gleason*

In 1953 Jackie Gleason negotiated a two year deal with CBS TV to produce 39 episodes of the Honeymooners to be filmed live at the Adelphi Theater. Upon signing the contract Gleason leased a penthouse atop the Park Sheraton Hotel to be the headquarters of his entertainment company. The 7-room 23rd floor suite had a terrace and sweeping views of Manhattan. According to www.drunkard.com Gleason outfitted the penthouse with a pool table, dance studio and four bars, staffed by a live-in bartender. It resembled a sultan’s palace more than a place of business. Gleason used the penthouse from 1953 to 1957, the heady years of ''The Honeymooners.''

In 1987 the Omni Park Central Hotel named "the Great One's” penthouse suite ''The Jackie Gleason Suite''.

Hilton New York owned the Adelphi Theater (demolished in 1970) which was adjacent to the hotel and held the site for expansion. In 1989 an office tower 1325 Avenue of the Americas was built on the site.

*Eleanor Roosevelt*

Eleanor Roosevelt was the niece of President Theodore Roosevelt and married her father's fifth cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt who was president from 1933 to 1945. After FDR's death, the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt rented suites at the Park Sheraton Hotel from 1950 to 1953. She returned to the Park Sheraton Hotel in 1958 as she waited for renovations on a new house to be completed. During the 1950's long term guests were using the 202 West 56th Street address (today 200 West 56th Street is the address for the Manhattan Club).

According to a 1956 Walter Winchell column it was Eleanor Roosevelt who forced the hand of hotel management to cover the bare breasted mermaids hanging from the Mermaid Room's ceiling. The room was celebrated for its Mermaids... but Eleanor Roosevelt complained the undraped sea sirens were indecent. Bras made of fish net were made to cover their frontages.

*The Mermaid Room*

The Mermaid Room was established on the main floor of the Park Central Hotel in the late 40's. Its fare was cocktails, steak, lobster lamb chops with dinner music 6.30 to 9.30pm and star entertainment from 10pm to 4am. The Mermaid Room had a large curvaceous bar and dance floor. It was known for its four very large terra cotta mermaids on the walls.

The Mermaid Room was designed by night club designer Franklin Hughes - live orchids in his night clubs was his signature. He also designed the decor for El Morocco and the Copacabana.

Irving Fields and his Trio found a home at the Mermaid Room and played for 16 years, 1950 to 1966. His hits included Miami Beach Rhumba and "Managua Nicaragua." Other Mermaid Room entertainers included pianist Belle Gale, Rosa Linda, The Milt Herth Trio, the Pepe Morreale Trio and the renowned organist, Ashley Miller.

*Cocktail Hostess Sues Widow of Park Sheraton Hotel Manager for Husband's Estate*

In 1952 Ralph H. Freeman was appointed General Manager of the Park Sheraton. He brought with him from the Sheraton Hotel in Chicago his mistress Delores Dunn, a cocktail lounge hostess. Freeman died unexpectedly in 1957 at the age of 54. A lawsuit was filed by Dunn against Freeman's widow for $100,000 claiming she had a relationship with Freeman for 8 years, that he induced her to move to New York and performed all the nursing, housework and cooking for him. Freeman had been a prominent hotelier serving as a director for the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau and a director for New York City Hotel Association. At his death he was the Sheraton Hotel's Regional Manager for the Atlantic Division.

*70's and 80's*

The Park Sheraton Hotel changed its name to the New York Sheraton in 1972. A press release issued by Jim Sheeran, the public relations spokesperson for the Sheraton chain said there was a corporate decision made to boost New York and the West Side of New York with the name change.

In May, 1983 V.M.S. Realty, a Chicago-based national real estate investment firm, acquired the New York Sheraton Hotel, on Seventh Avenue between 55th and 56th Streets, from the Sheraton Corporation. V.M.S. paid $60 million for the 1,450- room hotel, at the time the city's fifth largest. V.M.S contracted with Dunfey Hotels Corporation (owned by Aer Lingus) to manage the hotel. Peter R. Morris, the chairman of V.M.S., called the acquisition a ''once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.'' He added that the company's decision to take over the Sheraton reflected its strong belief in the renaissance taking place on the West Side between Times Square and Lincoln Center. In January 1984 Dunfey changed the name to Omni Park Central. V.M.S. and Dunfey provided the 1,450 room hotel with $15 million in improvements. Philip Grosse was the Omni Park Central's general manager in 1984.

Since its beginning in 1977, V.M.S. has acquired 3,500 hotel and motel units. VMS was one of the largest real estate syndicators, raising more than $1.5 billion through more than 100 real-estate limited partnerships. The firm's hotel properties included the Boca Raton Hotel in Florida, Four Seasons Hotel in Santa Barbara, California and Caneel Bay in the Virgin Islands. By 1989 VMS Realty Partners disclosed that it is suffering cash-flow problems and would replace its top management and lay off some of its 500 employees. The dismantling of VMS Realty Partners was one of the largest liquidations in real estate history.

*Ian Bruce Eichner and The Manhattan Club*

In 1995 New York developer Ian Bruce Eichner acquired the Omni Park Central Hotel in a bankruptcy sale from VMS Partners for $60.225 million. The hotel has more than 1,430 rooms and is the fifth largest in the city with more than 800,000 square feet. That translates into a purchase price of $42,115 per room. Upscale hotels were selling at that time for per room prices ranging from $75,000 to $200,000. Eichner said the Sheraton hotel chain still held the first mortgage for V.M.S that had failed in the early 90's. Sheraton agreed to maintain the mortgage for Eichner who had bid $60 million -- or $20 million more than the next highest bidder.

Construction began in 1996 on a $40 million conversion of half the 26-story Park Central Hotel into New York City's first time-share condominium. Eichner would keep the eastern half of the building as a "lower-end hotel" with its entrance on Seventh Avenue. They would have separate lobbies, separate entrances, separate heating systems. The western half transformed to a 360-unit time-share operation called the Manhattan Club, with a new entrance on 56th Street. The "intervals" or weekly shares initial price for seven days' use a year of a 650-square-foot one-bedroom would be $15,000; a two-bedroom will be $23,000. Annual maintenance fees would average $575, including real estate taxes. Manhattan Club buyers would be able to trade their weeks for any one of Resorts Condominium International's (RCI) 3,500 locations in 85 countries. Eichner thought that if The Manhattan Club ever sells out, there is a whole other side-full of rooms to tap! A sell-out of the timeshares would produce more than $300 million.

Eichner was developing a product that had never before been offered in New York City. Eichner even negotiated with the hotel unions to come up with a set of job rules and qualifications for a time share project.

The 1996 cleaning of the hotel's 1925 Tuscan Renaissance facade -- found a beautiful mixture of arches, bas relief squirrels, deer and pelicans and Corinthian half columns that had been hidden for years by gold-colored aluminum panels.

In July 2011 Ian Bruce Eichner, the developer and the operator of The Manhattan Club, was sued for fraud by five buyers of time-shares in The Manhattan Club. According to the documents they are alleging fraud and “breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.” The timeshare owners allege that Eichner is not granting them access to their timeshares, despite their attempts to book up to nine months in advance, and is instead renting them out to the general public.

*Mony Mony*

The 1740 Broadway Building shares the block with the Park Central Hotel and was once the headquarters of the MONY (Mutual of New York). In 1968 the insignia "MONY" was located where *1740* is today. Tommy James was struggling with the lyrics for a new song when he looked out of his apartment building in New York and saw the sign "MONY".

Sung by Tommy James And The Shondells: "Here she comes now sayin' Mony Mony Shoot 'em down turn around come on Mony" …

*Recent Events*

In December 2004 the 935-room Park Central was sold by H. Park Central, LLC to Goldman's Whitehall Real Estate Funds and Highgate Hotels for $215,000,000 or $230,000 per room. Following this sell Bruce Eichner went on to develop the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas however, in 2008 he defaulted on a $768 million construction loan from Deutchse Bank. Deutchse foreclosed on Eichner and took control of the property.

In October 2010 owners Rockpoint and Highgate Hotels put the 1,000-room Park Central Hotel on the market. The hotel had recently received a $65 million renovation.

In a January 2012 press release Lasalle Hotel Properties (LHO) announced it acquired the 934-room Park Central Hotel in New York City for $396.2 million. Michael D. Barnello, President and Chief Executive Officer of LaSalle Hotel Properties said “We remain excited about this well located New York City asset and our ability to acquire the hotel at an attractive purchase price.” Lasalle plans to implement a renovation of the hotel, currently estimated at between $30.0 and $35.0 million, including guestrooms and guest bathrooms, corridors and the hotel’s lobby. The renovation is expected to commence late 2012 and conclude during 2013. Highgate Holdings will continue to manage the Park Central.

All photos and text by Dick Johnson, February 2012

richardlloydjohnson@hotmail.com

212-832-0098

2017-01-07-A-091 by pellio-54

West Coast Jet Sprint Club

Round 5

7th January 2017

Images by

Pixell Photography

Mob: 0438 396 054

pixellphoto@yahoo.com.au

www.facebook.com/pixellphotography

www.flickr.com/photos/pellio-54/

#pixellphoto #jetsprints #jetboat #adrenalin

Abri a canons by Poo.243

3 3

Batterie de l’Éperon, Frouard (54)

www.batteriedeleperon.fr

n432_w1150 by Biodiversity Heritage Library

1

A monograph on the sub-class Cirripedia,.

London,Ray society,1851-54..

biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2011425

NASA Aqua Satellite Launch by AIRS, the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder is a spaceborne instrument onboard NASA's Aqua satellite whose data are being used to improve our understanding of Earth's weather and climate.

2

NASA's Earth observing satellite, Aqua, successfully launched at 2:55 a.m. PDT on ay 4, 2002. Aqua is dedicated to advancing our understanding of Earth's water cycle and our environment. Launching the Aqua spacecraft marks a major milestone in support of NASA's mission to help us better understand and protect our planet. The Aqua spacecraft lifted off from the Western Test Range of Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., aboard a Delta II rocket at 2:55 a.m. PDT. Spacecraft separation occurred at 3:54 a.m. PDT. inserting Aqua into a 438-mile (705-kilometer) orbit.

______________________________________________________________________

About AIRS

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, AIRS, in conjunction with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit, AMSU, sense emitted infrared and microwave radiation from the Earth to provide a three-dimensional look at Earth's weather and climate. Working in tandem, the two instruments make simultaneous observations all the way down to the Earth's surface, even in the presence of heavy clouds. With more than 2,000 channels sensing different regions of the atmosphere, the system creates a global, 3-dimensional map of atmospheric temperature and humidity, cloud amounts and heights, greenhouse gas concentrations, and many other atmospheric phenomena. The AIRS and AMSU fly onboard NASA's Aqua spacecraft and are managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, under contract to NASA. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Credit

NASA

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Adelaide North Terrace walk of fame plaque honouring Sir Keith Smith and Sir Ross Smith, pilots on the first England Australia flight in 1919. South Australia by Contemplari