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In a city full of brand name hotels, the Herald Square Hotel West 31st Street is neither a chain nor a franchise. It is privately owned by Abraham Puchall, a German shepherd breeder who said he senses a psychic link with Life's founding editor, John Ames Mitchell.
"There's some kind of weird connection," Mr. Puchall, 52, said.
Life Magazine, in its heady, early days, was full of social satire and original illustrations — bearing little resemblance to the picture book it became, or to the now-defunct newspaper supplement that followed.
Today, Mr. Puchall's hotel serves as an ode to that early incarnation of Life, which was housed in that very Beaux-Arts building between 1894 and 1936. The walls of the hotel are covered with magazine memorabilia: original artwork by Life illustrators including Charles Dana Gibson, replicas of witty cover drawings, and old advertisements, such as an undated one, boasting escorts to serve as "mourners or pallbearers at fashionable funerals."
The hotel's exterior, altered over the years by construction projects, remains ornate; the interior, while spotless, is more modest — its paint a little faded, and it's tiles mismatched. But what it lacks in coordination, it makes up for in price. Depending on the season, the room rates range from $69 for a small single room with a shared bathroom, to $259 a renovated double room, featuring pillow-top mattresses, private marble bathrooms, and flat-screen televisions — hundreds of dollars less than a room at many city chains. About 40 of the 117 rooms have been renovated in recent years, a hotel manager said.
The architectural duo behind the New York Public Library on West 42nd Street, Carrere & Hastings, designed the building in 1893. In later years, the building would become residential hotel, and then a tourist hotel.
The Puchall family purchased the building in 1970. Since then, Mr. Puchall has been hiring researchers to look into the history of the building, the magazine once housed in it, and that magazine's editor. "We're trying to make it more and more like a museum," he said. One researcher, Nadine Charlsen has been studying the building, and its former tenants for nearly two decades. "Every time I think I'm coming to the end, there's a new connection," she said.
Excerpts from: "Life Magazine Lives at Herald Square Hotel", New York Sun, 24 May 2007
Buick automobile advertisement from a 1940 issue of Life Magazine for the Business Coupe.
"Smart Spot for YOUR Money too!"
Eye-catching advertisement for Dr. West's Miracle-Tuft Toothbrush from the July 13, 1942 issue of Life Magazine.
"Keeping Fit Is America's Duty! Do your part by keeping well."
"... with exclusive 'EXTON'"
Let's do the math: Its assurance of a full year of effective service for only 50 cents. That works out to 2/10ths of a cent PER DAY! I guess healthy teeth were only for the wealthy in 1942...
Model Suzy Parker wearing Balenciaga,and photographed for Life Magazine in Paris during the fashion shows of French Fashion for Autumn/Winter 1956/57.Life Magazine,August 1956.
Empress Fawzia or Queen Fawzia as they called her on the cover of the Life magazine on the 21st of september 1942,the second Egyptian Royalty figure and the first Persian Royalty figure "she took the iranian citizenship in 1939" to appear on Life cover
My daughter as Yuri Kochiyama: Yuri Kochiyama was born in 1921 in San Pedro, CA.. She was nisei or an American-born child of Japanese parents. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, her father, who was already in poor health, was detained, denied medicine and died as a result. Soon after that, the rest of her family was rounded up and interned. The US government held 120,000 people with Japanese heritage in camps because of suspicions about their loyalty. Her family stayed there for two years. This early exposure to racial profiling and injustice helped make Kochiyama an activist. Later on following an arrest for civil disobedience in Brooklyn, she introduced herself to Malcolm X and the two became fast friends. She studied with him at his Organization of Afro-American Unity. On the day that Malcolm X was assassinated, she was there. Kochiyama and her signature cat-eye glasses can be seen in the Life magazine photos holding Malcolm X’s head as he lay dying in the Audubon Ballroom. She continued to fight for human rights for all people. She fought for and won reparations for Japanese people who were interned and a formal apology from the US government in the 80s.
** Original photo of Yuri Kochiyama, courtesy of the Kochiyama family **
#theheroinesproject
Pontiac Special Six Business Coupe advertisement targeted at selling the 1940 models to fashionable women - as published in the May 13, 1940 issue of Life Magazine.
Note the "bait and switch" approach which highlights the $783 price for a model that is NOT the one shown in the ad. You can just imagine the exorbitant price of the Special Six 4-Door Touring Sedan if you decided to add whitewalls - which are always extra.
"Listen... a Pontiac is being sold!"
You can leave your hat on.
The amazing wonders of reprographic technology - circa 1940. Presenting Mimeograph, from the A. B. Dick company, from an add in the March 4, 1940 issue of Life Magazine.
"Making and/or saving money for Modern Business"
"No outside help needed."
Title: Life Magazine - Texas Oil Story
Creator: Robert Yarnall Richie
Date: ca. July - December 1937
Place: Gladewater, Texas
Part Of: Robert Yarnall Richie Photograph Collection
Physical Description: 1 photographic print: gelatin silver; 12.8 x 17.9 cm.
File: ag1982_0234_1631_01_life_sm_opt.jpg
Rights: Please cite DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University when using this file. A high-resolution version of this file may be obtained for a fee. For details see the sites.smu.edu/cul/degolyer/research/permissions/ web page. For other information, contact degolyer@smu.edu.
For more information, see: digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ryr/id/1232
View the Robert Yarnall Richie Photograph Collection digitalcollections.smu.edu/all/cul/ryr/
Ford automobile advertisement from the March 4, 1940 issue of Life Magazine.
"Watch the FORDS go by!"
Advertisement from Polk Miller Products, maker of Sergeant's Dog Medicines from the October 26, 1942 issue of Life Magazine.
"I can wait"
I can imagine the company sent out quite a few copies of English Setter illustration when the requests came in - and wonder how many are still around.
Artist Lynn Bogue Hunt was born in 1878 and quite prolific and reknown.
Advertisement for home movies available from Castle Films taken from a 1942 issue of Life Magazine - featuring "Here Comes The Circus" - complete with scary-ass clowns.
Clarification: This clown is NOT Donald Trump but he is starring in an update to "Here Comes The Circus". Check local listings.