Hotel Edison
221 West 46th Street | also 228 West 47th Street, 233 West 46th Street, 240 West 47th Street | Times Square | built 1930
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1931
The Hotel Edison opens with Thomas Edison switching on its lights
Developer Milton J. Kramer opens a 1,000-room hotel designed by theater architect Herbert J. Krapp on West 47th Street, and inventor Thomas Edison himself turns on the building's lights at its opening. The hotel offers three restaurants across its 26 floors.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1950
The hotel's ballroom becomes the Arena Theatre
The Hotel Edison converts its ballroom into the Arena Theatre, adding a Broadway-adjacent performance space to the hotel. The room later operates as the Edison Theatre from 1972 to 1991, when it reverts to use as a ballroom.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1956
Johnny Burnette runs an elevator at the Hotel Edison while his trio lives there
After the Rock and Roll Trio's appearances on Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour, bandleader Henry Jerome, then working at the Hotel Edison, signed the Burnette brothers and Paul Burlison to a management contract. He found Johnny Burnette daytime work running an elevator at the hotel and moved the trio there from the YMCA. Jerome also arranged deals for them with the GAC agency and Decca's Coral label.
“He got Johnny a daytime job as an elevator operator at the Hotel Edison and moved the trio there from the YMCA.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1976
Oh! Calcutta! opens at the Edison Theatre and runs for 13 years
The Edison Theatre, a Broadway house inside the Hotel Edison, opened the revue Oh! Calcutta! on September 24, 1976. It ran for 13 years and 5,959 performances, making it the theater's best-known production. Other shows staged there included Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope and Me and Bessie.
“Its most notable production was Oh! Calcutta!, which opened on September 24, 1976, and ran for 13 years, with a total of 5,959 performances.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1980
Frances Edelstein opens Cafe Edison in a former ballroom
Restaurateur Frances Edelstein opens Cafe Edison in one of the hotel's former ballroom spaces. The coffee shop becomes a fixture of the Broadway hotel for more than three decades before closing in 2014.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2001
Playbill calls the Hotel Edison's cafe a theater hangout as Neil Simon's play honors it
When Neil Simon's 45 Seconds from Broadway began previews at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on October 16, 2001, Playbill noted that it paid homage to the Edison Cafe, on the ground floor of the Hotel Edison and known in theatrical circles as the Polish Tearoom. The cafe had long been a haunt of theater people. A corner table near the door was always held for Shubert Organization lunch meetings, and August Wilson was known to frequent the place.
Source: playbill.com
- 2014
Diners and Broadway regulars rally to save Cafe Edison from eviction
In December 2014 about 50 protesters gathered on West 47th Street to save the Cafe Edison, which had gone a decade without a lease from the hotel. The owner's son, who had taken over from his father, reportedly wanted a white-tablecloth restaurant with a name chef, and the cafe faced eviction right after Christmas. A petition gathered about 9,000 signatures, and more than 30 mostly immigrant employees stood to lose their jobs.
Source: npr.org
Further reading
- Hotel EdisonWikipedia
- The colossal midcentury hotels of 46th StreetEphemeral New York
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