60 E 54th St, New York, NY 10022, USA
The Elysée Hotel is located on East 54th Street between Madison and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York. The hotel was founded in 1926 as a European-style hotel by Swiss native Max Hering. Leading New York concessionaire Meyer Quain bought the hotel after bankruptcy in 1937. After the war, his children decorated each room eclectically so that no two rooms were alike. Instead of traditional room numbers, the rooms were named to reflect their individuality, such as the "Sayonara" suite, where Marlon Brando stayed after his starring role in The Teahouse of the August Moon. Tennessee Williams lived in the hotel for fifteen years and died in the "Sunset" room.
Reviewer Jimmy Breslin, who considers the "Elysée" an excellent hotel and a true New York landmark, serves as the hotel's unofficial chronicler. After Tennessee Williams' death at the Elysée in February 1983, Breslin recalled a story about a guest who called the front desk at 5:00 a.m. complaining that someone in the next room kept her awake all night by typing. "They immediately knew who the culprit was, but they couldn’t ask Mr. Williams to stop writing the play, so we just moved the guest to another room," so that her complaints wouldn’t disturb the great playwright at work. Within the walls of the Elysée New York, the author created more than one work.
In November 1948, Tallulah Bankhead celebrated President Harry S. Truman’s victory over Thomas E. Dewey in the 1948 U.S. presidential election by throwing a raucous party at the hotel that lasted five days and nights without pause.
The Elysée Hotel is known for its Monkey Bar, a piano bar next to the lobby. Opened in the 1940s, it became famous among connoisseurs as "the place where jokes die," especially inappropriate jokes and double-entendre songs composed by performers such as Johnny Payne, Marion Page, and Mel Martin. Johnny Andrews played piano during "cocktail hour" for more than 50 years, from 1936 to 1990.
The boutique hotel’s design has changed little — French style of the 1920s dominates here. The rooms are decorated in classic European style with wooden headboards, rich carpeting, wall paintings, fireplaces, and clawfoot bathtubs.
Sources:
https://dom.mail.ru/articles/60270-6-istoricheskih-otelej-v-kotoryih-zhili-izvestnyie/
