The Famous Historic and Cultured Algonquin Hotel
It’s near Times Square and the Theater District and is more than another place to stay, it has a host of interesting and legendary stories behind its fame.
The Algonquin Hotel opened on November 22, 1902. At that time single rooms cost $2 a night while larger three bedroom accommodations cost $10. The hotel was originally planned to be a residential building, but found short-term guests to be more profitable. Being located in the Theater District, it’s owner and manager, Frank Case, enjoyed the company of actors and writers, thus he was instrumental in making certain these creative types felt welcomed in his hotel. This positioned The Algonquin at the center of New York’s literary and theatrical world.
THE ALGONQUIN ROUND TABLE
Back in the 1920s the most well know of the creatives to frequent the hotel became known as The Algonquin Round Table. It was a group of New York City writers, critics, actors, and wits who gathered initially around a table as part of a practical joke on New York Time drama critic Alexander Woollcott, serving up a surprise “roast.” They all enjoyed it, including Woollcott, and decided to start meeting for lunch every day at the Algonquin – to gossip, discuss celebrities, and to talk about the arts and New York City in general. The Round Table lasted for ten years starting in 1919. Their wisecracks, wordplay, and witticisms were recorded in the newspaper columns several of the members wrote, giving the Round Table group a huge microphone throughout the city and the entire country.
The members became very close and were inspired once to collaborate on a project. The entire group worked together to create a revue called No Sirree! which helped launch the Hollywood career of Round Tabler Robert Benchley, who was a humor based newspaper columnist and a film actor. (Later, his short film How to Sleep won Best Short Subject at the 1935 Academy Awards.)
In its ten years of association, the Algonquin Round Table and a number of its members acquired national reputations, both for their contributions to literature and their sparkling wit. the Round Table’s reputation has endured long after its dissolution
The group first gathered in the Algonquin’s Pergola Room (now Oak Room) then moved to the Rose Room and a round table. Their name changed over time, starting out as “The Board” (as in board of directors) after their fulltime waiter became Luigi, they changed it to the “Luigi Board,” then to “The Vicious Circle” and finally to The Algonquin Round Table which stuck and has survived with more fame than any of the members had individually. A caricature that ran in the paper by cartoonist Edmund Duffy of the group sitting at the round table wearing armor – cemented the name in the public’s consciousness.
DOROTHY PARKER’S SUITE (Room 1106)
Dorothy Parker was a poet, writer, critic, and satirist; she was best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles. She was a founding member of the Round Table and actually lived in the Algonquin Hotel. You can rent her suite, room 1106. It has a display of memorabilia from her heyday on the wall above the living room couch.
Dorothy Parker, perhaps the Algonquin Round Table’s most-often quoted member, coined many of her most memorable jabs while in session at the table.
“This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.”
“If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised.”
“If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.”
Dorothy Parker Quotes:
• The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.
The Algonquin’s Oak Room launched the career of Harry Connick Jr.
THE ALGONQUIN’S RESIDENT CAT!
Starting in 1923 Billy the cat lived in the hotel for 15 years. Two days after he died a stray cat wandered in looking for food. Frank Case immediately adopted the cat and named him Rusty. An Algonquin Hotel resident, the actor John Barrymore, felt that Rusty was too commonplace of a name for the Algonquin Hotel, so he renamed Rusty, Hamlet, in honor of his greatest stage role. This began a long lineage of resident hotel cats either named Hamlet (males) or Matilda (females). There have been 8 Hamlets and 3 Matildas, along with the first resident male cat, Billy.
THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE WAS CONCEIVED AND LAUNCHED AT THE ALGONQUIN.
In 1925 Harold Ross, a member of the Round Table, won a handsome amount of money in a poker game against the other Round Table members and declared he would use that money as seed capital to start a much needed literary magazine. He named the magazine “The New Yorker.”
A DILEMMA FOR THE NEW YORK DRAMA CRITICS CIRCLE AT THE ALGONQUIN
On March 25, 1936, the members of N.Y. Drama Critics Circle meets at the Algonquin Hotel and have a very heated argued for three hours in a private room trying to decide who should be the winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. Red-faced, they left and returned a week later to the hotel to present the award for a very controversial play by Maxwell Anderson, “Winterset.”
“Winterset” is verse drama written largely in a poetic form, similar to Shakespeare. The tragedy deals indirectly with the famous Sacco-Vanzetti case, in which two Italian immigrants with radical political beliefs were executed. Its plot follows a Mio Romagna’s quest to prove his father, Bartolomeo Romagna, was innocence, now years after Bartolomeo was executed for a robbery and murder he did not commit. Mio lives only to prove his father’s innocence. Judge Gaunt, who presided over the trial, is convinced the trial was unfair, it is driving him insane. Mio’s quest is complicated by his love for fifteen-year-old Miriamne Esdras, who’s brother witnessed the murder and knows who the real murder is actually a gangster named Trock, but has stayed quiet, after being threatened by Trock. Difficult ethical situations evolve as interests collide between his life’s quest and his love of Miriamne.
A highly political play, with conflicts swirling around the court system, faith, truth, justice, love, family and duty.
THE BLUE BAR
In 1933, when prohibition ended, the owner of the Algonquin, Frank Case, reopened the bar in the hotel. John Barrymore convinced Case to place blue gels over the lights to make it feel interesting. The Blue Bar has been a part of the hotel since.
Appealing to the Cocktail Culture of New York, the Algonquin’s Blue Bar is great for a post-theater nightcap or an after-work gathering with colleagues. The Blue Bar draws many who want to see and be seen. You can enjoy the rich history of the hotel and the subtly blue ambiance while drinking a perfectly poured cocktail. Open 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m
THE $10,000 MARTINI AT ALGONQUIN’S BLUE BAR
The Algonquin Hotel quite possibly served the most expensive martini ever—Grey Goose’s $10,000 Martini—a cocktail that came with a one-of-a-kind diamond engagement ring placed in the glass. The program was first established in 2004 when a young man popped the question. to his girlfriend who immediately accepted. The evening ended up costing the lad $13,000. The hotel then partnered with Grey Goose to make the next cocktail an even more luxurious affair.
THE ALGONQUIN HOTEL ACCOMODATION
Standard Rooms, Deluxe Queen, King, Suites & The Barrymore Suite. All rooms come with
- Complimentary WiFi
- In-room safe
- Desk / Work Area
- Iron and ironing board
- Stand-in shower
- Beekman 1802 Bath Amenities
- Lighted make up mirror
- Flat Screen TV with premium channels
- Complimentary bottled water
- Bathrobe
The larger the room the more space and amenities.
- Some connecting rooms are available
Located close to the bustling heart of Times Square and Fifth Avenue, this jewel of historic New York hotels has long entertained the city’s literary and cultural elite, as well as those who delight in creating their own unique stories.
Room rates in 2018 vary from $160 to $600+ per night, depending upon the season. The hotel is often sold out.
ALWAYS A PLACE TO WRITE
On the mezzanine, the hotel provides its guests with a writing desk and chair – if you are inspired and want to start that novel.
DINING OPTIONS IN THE HOTEL
The Round Table Restaurant
The Lobby Lounge
The Blue Bar
(Source: Photos and information are from the Algonquin Hotels web site, various history sites and Wikipedia)
