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The Paul brothers take a bite out of the big apple

It is mid September of 1954 and Peter suggests we take a trip to New York City. Sounds like a great idea to me, particularly because he is going to do the big brother thing and make all the arrangements. I am only responsible for packing my own suitcase.

We depart Linthicum on the B&A bus to Baltimore where we make our way to Penn Station to await the Pennsylvania Railroad train to Penn Station in New York City. This train ride alone is a great adventure for me because it is only the second time I have been on a train other than the B&A trains that used to stop in Linthicum. I enjoy seeing all the scenery whiz past at about 80 miles per hour as we head north. We make stops in Wilmington, where the station is up in the air, and Philadelphia where the platform is underground, and this is all very exciting. Then we plunge into the long tunnel under the Hudson river and finally come to a stop two floors below the concourse at Penn Station in downtown New York City.

This was not new to Peter because he had done this as part of getting himself to and from school at MIT in Boston. The next adventure is the subway. A totally scary thing for me, with all the underground platforms, tracks on two levels, and lots of people in a hurry. Peter knows exactly where we are going and soon we are in a subway car jammed full of humans moving at great speed through dark tunnels and past platforms where we do not stop.

In a few minuets we emerge from the subway and head for the Salisbury Hotel at 123 W. 57th Street, across from Carnegie Hall. Peter takes care of signing in and we follow a bellman to our room, which is at the rear of an upper floor, overlooking the rear ally. Another first for me. The two windows of our room face across the alley into windows of an office building where people are busy at work. This room is conveniently located next to the elevators, so near that the wall behind the hallway closet shakes every time an elevator goes up or down. I’m thinking this must not be the best room in the hotel.

Next it is off to the Museum of Modern Art where Peter wants to see the Japanese House which had just been erected as a temporary exhibit in the museum courtyard. We look at the modern art on display, which Peter enjoys but it’s not doing much for me. Then it ’s down to the basement theater to watch a beautifully photographed black and white film about the 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany.

Meal time is another exciting adventure for me because we eat most meals in a Horn & Hardat Automat near Times Square. I have never experienced anything like this. We come in the door, hand the lady cashier our dollar bill and, without looking, she flings exactly twenty nickels into the indentation in the marble counter. With our handful of nickels we walk along a wall of small glass-faced doors. Behind each one is an item of food on a plate. When I see something I cannot resist, I insert the number of required nickels for that item, turn the knob to open the little door, and take out my choice. This Automat is huge, with two floors of tables. We make our way to the second floor where we find an empty table for four. No sooner have we sat down and started to eat than total stranger sits down in one of the remaining empty chairs at our table. This is my introduction to life in New York City. The purchase of a meal at the Automat entitles you to a seat at a table, but not the entire table. It is a strange feeling for me to have a meal and conversation with Peter at a table with other people who were involved in eating, but not with us.

That night we go to a live play, which Peter had selected and purchased the tickets. I do not care what the play is, I am mostly interested in seeing the scenery and how things changed from scene to scene, because this was what I wanted to do, design scenery.

The next day I want to take a behind-the-scenes tour of the NBC Studios in Rockefeller Center. Peter has something else he wants to see, but first he takes me to the NBC Studio entrance, and promises to meet me there when the tour was over. Now I am on my own in the largest city in America. I take the elevator up to where tickets are sold for the tour and join the other people who would be on the tour. We begin with a visit to one of the original 1930’s radio studios, then get a demonstration on sound effects used on radio. Down the hall we pass the huge room with a wall of big round dials that is the control center for the entire NBC network. Finally we are on the ninth floor looking through large plate glass windows overlooking the 2-story studio 8H. It was original built as a radio studio for shows with an audience, but in 1950 it was converted into NBC’s largest television studio. Now it is used for the weekly live 1-hour broadcasts of the Kraft Television Theater. This is my dream come true, seeing all the scenery set up for the next broadcast. At the end of the tour, after a stop in the gift shop, I make my way down in the elevator. At this point I suddenly realized that I might find myself totally alone in this monster city, where I would wander lost and penniless for the rest of my short life. Why did I worry? of course, Peter is there when I emerge from the studio doors.

Now we were off to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Peter & I disappear into that hole in the sidewalk that leads down a series of stairs to the subway platform. We stick our subway tokens into the turnstile slot and enter the platform. At this point I have no idea what to do next. Not to worry, Peter has his subway map in hand and has everything under total control, or at least it appears that way to me. Being in control is what big brothers do, that’s why they are the big brother. We take whatever subway is headed uptown and soon come out of the sidewalk near the Metropolitan Museum.

We are walking through room after room of some of the best artwork in the world, but I must confess that the thing that most impresses me is the faux marble paint job that has been done on the wooden baseboard and the outlet covers. Let’s face it, I never expect any of my work to appear on these walls, but knowing how to simulate marble is one of the requirement for being admitted into the Scenery Painters Union.

It’s lunch time, so we make our way down to the recently completed Dorothy Draper-designed museum dining room. What a space! There are huge fluted Doric columns around a reflecting pool that fills the center of this huge room, and tables line both side areas. Lunch is not memorable, probably a tuna sandwich on toast, but the room certainly is delightful and memorable.

After we complete our museum visit we head back to the Salisbury, then its a walk to the Automat for dinner and another Broadway show.

Morning arrives as do the office workers across the alley. We get breakfast, check out of the hotel and make the return trip to 414 Hawthorne.

What I did not know then was that this would be the last Paul brothers trip. Later that month when we return to the Maryland Institute for the fall semester Peter meets a cute girl named Patricia Kilduff. From that point on little brother, Larry, is not high on the ‘let’s do things together’ list.


~ Larry Paul