Brill Building
1619 Broadway | also 1623 Broadway, 207 West 49th Street | Times Square | built 1931
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Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1929
Abraham Lefcourt announces plans for the world's tallest tower at Broadway and 49th Street
On October 3, 1929, the developer Abraham Lefcourt announced plans for the world's tallest structure on this corner, a $30 million, 1,050-foot tower that would have topped the 1,046-foot Chrysler Building. Three weeks later the stock market crashed. By March 1930 plans were filed for a far lower building costing about $1 million, and the Brill Brothers, whose clothing store was already on the corner, sold Lefcourt's company the lease.
- 1930
Alan Lefcourt dies, and a brass bust over the entrance is read as his memorial
Abraham Lefcourt's son Alan died of anemia in February 1930, two months before the architect filed plans for the building that was first named for him. A brass portrait bust over the Broadway entrance is likely a memorial to him, and a slightly larger bust at the 11th-floor penthouse was in place by September 1930. Lefcourt's 1932 obituary mentioned the entrance bust, though the Landmarks Commission says the penthouse bust might show an idealized tenant.
- 1931
Abraham Lefcourt completes a Broadway office building later named for a haberdasher
Developer Abraham E. Lefcourt finished this 11-story building by Victor Bark Jr. in 1931 and named it after his son Alan. It took its lasting name from Maurice Brill, a haberdasher with a store on the ground floor who later bought the building. Before World War II, music publishers such as Leo Feist and Mills Music had offices here, sending song pluggers to the big bands.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1931
The Trans-Lux opens two movie theaters at street level, and President Hoover sends congratulations
The Trans-Lux Movies Corporation opened two theaters beside the Broadway entrance in May 1931, one showing short features and the other sound newsreels. They used turnstiles instead of doormen and daylight projection. President Herbert Hoover wired the sponsor, Courtland Smith, saying that bringing world events to many Americans would improve understanding between nations.
“The Trans-Lux opened in May 1931, with one screen devoted to short features and the other to sound newsreels.”
- 1937
Boxing champion Jack Dempsey opens a restaurant in the space left by the Trans-Lux theaters
After the two Trans-Lux theaters closed in late 1937, the space was leased to Jack Dempsey, who held the world heavyweight title from 1919 to 1926. It was one of several businesses the fighter owned. The restaurant had a streamlined storefront and interior, and its napkins advertised a Broadway bar and cocktail lounge as the world's meeting place.
- 1941
Brill Building songwriters dodge the 1941 ASCAP radio strike with pseudonyms
In 1941 a licensing dispute between ASCAP and radio broadcasters kept ASCAP-affiliated songs off the air for months. Publishers working out of the Brill Building kept material moving by having composers write under pseudonyms, sidestepping the boycott so their songs could still reach broadcasters. The workaround let tenants keep placing new material even while the fee standoff dragged on.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1943
Duke Ellington headlines the Hurricane, a Tahiti-themed club upstairs with a troubled history
After the Paradise cabaret closed around 1940, the second floor became the Hurricane, decorated with palm trees and tropical plants to evoke Tahiti. The lawyer David J. Wolper reportedly got it in a 1942 settlement with a gangster, and the club was marred by suspicious fires and stench bombs. Duke Ellington headlined there in 1943 and 1944, and some of his shows were broadcast nationally on the Mutual and CBS networks.
- 1943
Aspiring actor Sidney Poitier takes his first New York job washing dishes at the Turf
The large corner space became the Turf Restaurant in 1940, run by Jack Joseph Amiel and Arnold Ruben as one of a small chain. It served lobster, steak and cheesecake and was popular with songwriters and musicians, and Duke Ellington was a frequent customer. In 1943 the aspiring actor Sidney Poitier washed dishes there, which was his earliest job in New York.
“…aspiring actor Sidney Poitier worked as a dishwasher…”
- 1949
Bop City opens on the second floor with Artie Shaw and Ella Fitzgerald
Bop City opened upstairs on April 14, 1949, headlined by Artie Shaw and Ella Fitzgerald, in the space that had been Club Zanzibar. Manager Ralph Watkins, formerly of the Royal Roost, told the press his staff would wear berets and polka-dot ties, and some would grow goatees. Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole and Dizzy Gillespie's orchestra followed, and the club hired waiters of different races. It struggled to find a steady audience and closed in 1950 or 1951.
“It debuted with Artie Shaw and Ella Fitzgerald on April 14, 1949…”
- 1951
Count Turf, owned by the Turf Restaurant's proprietor, wins the Kentucky Derby
In 1951 Jack Amiel, who ran the Turf Restaurant on the corner, saw his horse Count Turf win the Kentucky Derby, which gave the restaurant extra notoriety. The Turf closed in 1963.
- 1957
Burt Bacharach and Hal David meet in 1957 and keep writing together in a small Brill Building room
Composer Burt Bacharach and lyricist Hal David met at Famous Music, a Brill Building tenant, in 1957 and went on to write more than a hundred songs for films, Broadway shows and singers such as Dusty Springfield, Dionne Warwick and Tom Jones. David later recalled working in one small room with an upright piano and meeting nearly every day in the building for about 17 years.
“…met almost every day in the Brill building for about 17 years…”
- 1957
The building's gilt lobby appears in the film Sweet Smell of Success
The 1957 film Sweet Smell of Success shows the building's gilt lobby. The Brill Building had earlier appeared in The House on 92nd Street in 1945, and it later turned up in several Woody Allen productions: Broadway Danny Rose in 1984, Hollywood Ending in 2002 and Anything Else in 2003.
“…the Sweet Smell of Success (1957), in which the gilt lobby appears…”
- 1962
The Brill Building houses 165 music businesses
By 1962 the building held 165 music businesses, and its name had become shorthand for a style of pop turned out by songwriting teams such as Goffin and King, Mann and Weil, and Bacharach and David. Carole King recalled writing in tiny rooms with room for little more than a piano. The city made the building a landmark in 2010.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2010
The city designates the Brill Building a landmark
On March 23, 2010, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated 1619 Broadway a New York City landmark, citing its decades as the hub of American popular songwriting. The designation recognized the building's shift from a Depression-era office tower into the address most identified with the Brill Building Sound of the 1950s and 60s.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Brill BuildingWikipedia
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