My First Day in New York

After seeing “I can get it for you wholesale” I went to other theaters to purchase tickets for the upcoming days and in the evening I saw “Subways Are For Sleeping” which is good but not great. I then went to find my car and found that I had lost my parking receipt with the address. I realized I did not know where the car was!
So there was a slight chance that I would not find my car with all my worldly possessions. I walked up and down looking for a familiar site and after 30 or 40 minutes, I found a garage that looked like the one where I had parked my car.
I said, “I think you have my car, filled with LP’s and baseball cars from Wisconsin” and they said “Yes we do.”
I then proceeded to drive to the 63’rd street Y and asked for a room with air conditioning and television (as I planned to spend quite a few of my waking hours in the hotel room).
The hotel clerk said “You want AC and television, huh?”
I said, “Yes.”
He said “I’ll tell you where to go. Waldorf Astoria.”
I knew this was not a sincere attempt to help me.
“You mean the Y does not have AC and television? The Y in Chicago does!”
I suddenly thought that maybe New York is not as good as Chicago… which is not a pleasant thought.
But I had no other choice at 11:30 at night so I checked into the room he had available. The next morning, I walked onto Broadway around the corner from the Y and saw a flashing neon sign that said “Air Conditioning and Television” above a nearby hotel. This of course was what I wanted. I found the cost of the new hotel was the same as the cost had been at the Y so I immediately checked in. The hotel was not first class, but it had my air conditioning and television. I expected to only stay in the hotel for a few days, or even a week, but found that I could not find an affordable hotel and it wasn’t until November, five months later, that I found my eventual place on East 78th street.
I saw some shows over the summer “Camelot”, “Bravo Giovanni”, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”, and “How to Succeed in Business”.
The first show I saw in the fall, after I started work, was Irving Berlin’s “Mr. President”. I went to the box office of the St. Jame’s theater where I had seen “Subways are for Sleeping” and waited in line for over 2 hours. When I asked for my first ten rows of the orchestra, I was told that there were no seats in the first 10 rows of the orchestra for sale, that I could use mail order. But I wanted to see the show! So I broke my rule and took a seat in the balcony or the mezz.
I did mail in for a ticket in my first ten rows but after I used the balcony seat I decided that I didn’t want to see the show again so I never used my good seat for “Mr. President”.

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One Night Stand by Jule Styne for $9.95

There will be more stories to follow and anyone who would like to discuss musicals, particularly unsuccessful ones, please feel free to call and talk to me at 203 544 8288.