Hotel Edison is at 228 West 47th Street in

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan, serving as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Building, the ...

, New York City. Opened in 1931, it is part of the Triumph Hotels brand, owned by Shimmie Horn and Gerald Barad.

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, ...

turned on the lights when it opened. It accommodated 1,000 guests on 26 floors and offered three restaurants. It attempted to mimic the telephone number PEnnsylvania 6-5000 of the

Hotel Pennsylvania The Hotel Pennsylvania was a hotel at 401 Seventh Avenue (15 Penn Plaza) in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, across from Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden. Opened in 1919, it was once the largest hotel in the world. It remained t ...

by using the telephone exchange name CIrcle 6-5000. Herbert J. Krapp was the architect, and Milton J. Kramer was the original owner. The hotel's

ballroom A ballroom or ballhall is a large room inside a building, the primary purpose of which is holding large formal parties called ''balls''. Traditionally, most balls were held in private residences; many mansions and palaces, especially histori ...

was used as the

Broadway theatre Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American and British English spelling differences), many of the List of ...

s Arena Theatre in 1950 and as the Edison Theatre from 1972 until 1991, when it was converted back into a ballroom. Another former ballroom was home to Frances Edelstein's Cafe Edison from 1980 to 2014. In the early 1950s, "Glorious" Gloria Parker and her orchestra hosted an evening broadcast on WOR from the Hotel Edison. Parker would open the show with the glass harp (or musical glasses) and feature the popular Latin sound on her

marimba The marimba ( ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the mari ...

with her orchestra. Henry Jerome was a band leader at the hotel when he heard from

Bill Randle Bill Randle (March 14, 1923 – July 9, 2004) was an American disc jockey, lawyer and university professor. Biography Randle was born William McKinley Randle Jr. in Detroit, Michigan. In Detroit, he hosted a popular show on WJLB-AM radio (now ...

about a trio. This led the signing of

Dorsey Burnette Dorsey William Burnett Jr. (December 28, 1932 – August 19, 1979) was an American early rockabilly singer. With his younger brother Johnny Burnette and a friend named Paul Burlison, he was a founding member of The Rock and Roll Trio. He is ...

Johnny Burnette John Joseph Burnette (March 25, 1934 – August 14, 1964) was an American singer and songwriter of rockabilly and pop music. In 1952, Johnny, his brother Dorsey Burnette, and their mutual friend Paul Burlison, formed the band that became ...

and

Paul Burlison Paul Burlison (February 4, 1929 – September 27, 2003) was an American rockabilly guitarist and a founding member of The Rock and Roll Trio. Burlison was born in Brownsville, Tennessee, where he was exposed to music at an early age. Aft ...

to a management contract. Jerome got Johnny a daytime job as an elevator operator at the hotel and moved The Rock and Roll Trio in the hotel from the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

. He secured a contract for the trio with GAC ( General Artists Corporation) and with the Coral division of

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...

. The hallway walking scene preceding

Luca Brasi Luca Brasi is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel ''The Godfather'', as well as its 1972 film adaptation. In the film, he was portrayed by Lenny Montana, an ex-wrestler and former bodyguard and enforcer for the Colombo crime fami ...

's murder in the 1972 film ''

The Godfather ''The Godfather'' is a 1972 American Epic film, epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mario Puzo, based on Puzo's best-selling The Godfather (novel), 1969 novel. The film stars an ensemble cast inc ...

'' was filmed in the hotel. It was the penthouse in

Woody Allen Heywood Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American filmmaker, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades. Allen has received many List of awards and nominations received by Woody Allen, accolade ...

's 1994 film '' Bullets over Broadway''.

Neil Simon Marvin Neil Simon (July 4, 1927 – August 26, 2018) was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. He received three ...

's 2001 play '' 45 Seconds from Broadway'' is set in the hotel's cafe.

Michael Keaton Michael John Douglas (born September 5, 1951), known professionally as Michael Keaton, is an American actor. He has received numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for an Aca ...

is seen drinking at the hotel's bar, the Rum House, in the 2014 film '' Birdman''.

References

External links

* * * {{Times Square Edison Edison Edison Theater District, Manhattan