The Gramercy Park Hotel: A New York Icon

Documentary filmmaker Weissberg debuts with an overstuffed history of New York City’s Gramercy Park Hotel, which his family owned and lived in from 1958 to 2002. Weissberg himself remarks that the book is jam-packed with “as many stories as I could cram in.” (As he further explains, “I recorded this history only because someone needed to. It was not a labor of love. More like a twenty-year-long anvil of obligation.”) The Gramercy opened in 1925 and attracted golden age Hollywood stars: Humphrey Bogart’s first wedding took place there, and the hotel barbershop was frequented by John Barrymore and James Cagney. In the ’70s the hotel became a mecca for music legends like the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, and Bob Marley, earning the nickname “the Glamercy” and eventually the “Gram.” The latter refers to the fact that patrons could “Telegram at the Gram,” meaning a doorman or bellhop would “deliver cocaine to their room like a pepperoni pizza.” The author also offers his reflections on myriad lesser-known mobsters and makes hints about conspiracy theories surrounding Jimmy Hoffa and JFK. Along the way, the complicated financial and personal struggles of the Weissberg family are explored (“my tragic family... who some believe became cursed as a result of living in the hotel”). Though the narrative drags in places, New York City history buffs will find some amusing trivia. (Feb.)