[MENU] HOTEL ASTOR - TIMES SQUARE - NEW YORK

New York, 1940. Cards. Black and white photo illustrated wraps. Very good. 32 x 23 cm. Sunday, April 28, 1940: Luncheon from 11:30 AM to 2:30 PM. Slip back in time to New York City during the WWII. Life in the big city rolled on at the Astor Hotel with "Dancing - Broadway Cocktail Lounge, featuring Dick. Kuhn and his Orchestra" One clue to the world affairs is a printed corner of the menu stating: "Suppose nobody cared! Give to The Greater New York Fund" - otherwise you could pick from an assorted menu of Broiled Finnan Haddie, Strawberry Jam Omelet, Roast Spring Lamb, Roast Stuffed Duckling, or the Chef's Special Salad in a Bowl (drink special - Scarlett O'Hara 45c). The cover - front and verso portray a pastural black and white photo scene of lambs - possibly harking back to the days when the "Square" was a farm.

The Hotel Astor was the brainchild of German businessman William C. Muschenheim, a restaurateur and former proprietor of the New York Athletic Club. Muschenheims great dream was to build a hotel. Although planning one at Longacre Square seemed like a risk, it was Astor family property, and the Astors were known for their successful hotels. With backing from William Waldorf, Muschenheim oversaw the construction of the Hotel Astor, an eleven-floor Beaux-Arts jewel. The Astor had a place in popular culture for decades, from the extended double entendre song "She Had to Go and Lose It at the Astor" and it was there that Frank Sinatra made early New York appearances with Dorsey's band from 1940 to 1942. Interior clean, although there are four 1/2 cm. tape marks to perimiter. Covers rubbed at the edges.