Two of our new products were designed at Carnegie Hall: the Carnegie Hall Ticket Wallet
and Carnegie Hall Luggage Tag.
Our product designers went straight to the source for their ideas.
Bringing along antique leather wallets from Andrew Carnegie’s day, they met one warm September day in an upstairs room of Carnegie Hall with a group of young and passionate musicians who are fellows of The Academy, a program created by Carnegie Hall and The Juilliard School.
While the designers talked about leather goods with the musicians, Levenger Press editor Mim Harrison went poking around in Carnegie Hall’s Archives. She was in search, as usual, of something wonderful to publish. She didn’t come away with a book idea, but she did discover something about Carnegie Hall that makes it especially endearing to readers—to you, in other words. Read on…
The archivists’ space at Carnegie Hall is filled with old concert programs, handbills and posters of past performances. Where else do Fats Waller and Segovia, Frank Sinatra and Leonard Bernstein come together?
Before our visit, I knew what most of us know about Carnegie Hall: that it’s a proving ground for the world’s finest musicians. And that the way you get to Carnegie Hall (as the celebrated violinist Jascha Heifetz may or may not have actually said) is to practice, practice, practice.
But did you know that Marlon Brando slept here—in one of the upstairs rooms, when he was young and struggling and needed a place to crash?
And did you know about Gilda, who booked Carnegie Hall for many years? For decades, she hand-wrote, in something reminiscent of an old accounting ledger, the names and times of upcoming performances. During our visit that day, I got to see some of the pages of Gilda’s booking journal. One in particular stood out.
On Wednesday, February 12, 1964, Gilda’s entry included a group scheduled to perform at both 7:00 and 9:30 p.m. (“2 perf”). The princely sum of $1,750 had changed hands. The group was not a familiar name when Gilda booked them. In fact, they’d only been in the U.S. a few days at that point.
The entry reads: The Beetles.
America’s town hall
But my real discovery was that Carnegie Hall, from the first, had opened its doors not only to music but to ideas.
“Carnegie Hall was a nexus of everything that was going on in the country,” said Rob Hudson, the associate archivist and one of our hosts. “Up through the 1940s, there was a town hall feeling to it.”
Its benefactor, Andrew Carnegie, uttered these prophetic words when he laid the building’s cornerstone in 1890:
“It is probable that this hall will intertwine itself with the history of our country.”
In its early days it was the Music Hall, not Carnegie Hall, but “music hall” had a lowbrow ring to it, and this was to be a place of loftier ambitions. As early as 1892, Carnegie Hall was hosting a series of high-brow lectures for New Yorkers. Winston Churchill spoke about the Boer War in 1901. Jack London spoke on communism in 1905. And Mark Twain shared the stage with Booker T. Washington.
Where commerce and equality meet
Carnegie Hall may be quintessentially New York, but it is also indisputably American. It sits at the corner of 57th Street and 7th Avenue in Manhattan, the symbol of a place where commerce and egalitarianism have long intersected. Some of the first notes of jazz and the culture it stood for were sounded here. Carnegie Hall was integrated from day one.
Ideas continued to play out as the music played on. Suffragettes rallied here, Teddy Roosevelt campaigned here, the country’s first Congresswoman appeared here. Albert Einstein took the stage. Woodrow Wilson spoke of the Treaty of Versailles.
Martin Luther King spoke here in the last year of his life.
“It’s hard to find something that’s never been done here,” Rob said. “There’s always been an open-door policy.”
In its own way, Carnegie Hall is an extension of those many libraries Andrew Carnegie built. It is another place that fills our head with ideas—and ideals. Another way that Americans practice, practice, practice the ideas of a democratic society.
While the designers talked about leather goods with the musicians, Levenger Press editor Mim Harrison went poking around in Carnegie Hall’s Archives. She was in search, as usual, of something wonderful to publish. She didn’t come away with a book idea, but she did discover something about Carnegie Hall that makes it especially endearing to readers—to you, in other words. Read on…
—Steve
Before our visit, I knew what most of us know about Carnegie Hall: that it’s a proving ground for the world’s finest musicians. And that the way you get to Carnegie Hall (as the celebrated violinist Jascha Heifetz may or may not have actually said) is to practice, practice, practice.
But did you know that Marlon Brando slept here—in one of the upstairs rooms, when he was young and struggling and needed a place to crash?
And did you know about Gilda, who booked Carnegie Hall for many years? For decades, she hand-wrote, in something reminiscent of an old accounting ledger, the names and times of upcoming performances. During our visit that day, I got to see some of the pages of Gilda’s booking journal. One in particular stood out.
On Wednesday, February 12, 1964, Gilda’s entry included a group scheduled to perform at both 7:00 and 9:30 p.m. (“2 perf”). The princely sum of $1,750 had changed hands. The group was not a familiar name when Gilda booked them. In fact, they’d only been in the U.S. a few days at that point.
The entry reads: The Beetles.
America’s town hall
But my real discovery was that Carnegie Hall, from the first, had opened its doors not only to music but to ideas.
“Carnegie Hall was a nexus of everything that was going on in the country,” said Rob Hudson, the associate archivist and one of our hosts. “Up through the 1940s, there was a town hall feeling to it.”
Its benefactor, Andrew Carnegie, uttered these prophetic words when he laid the building’s cornerstone in 1890:
“It is probable that this hall will intertwine itself with the history of our country.”
In its early days it was the Music Hall, not Carnegie Hall, but “music hall” had a lowbrow ring to it, and this was to be a place of loftier ambitions. As early as 1892, Carnegie Hall was hosting a series of high-brow lectures for New Yorkers. Winston Churchill spoke about the Boer War in 1901. Jack London spoke on communism in 1905. And Mark Twain shared the stage with Booker T. Washington.
Where commerce and equality meet
Carnegie Hall may be quintessentially New York, but it is also indisputably American. It sits at the corner of 57th Street and 7th Avenue in Manhattan, the symbol of a place where commerce and egalitarianism have long intersected. Some of the first notes of jazz and the culture it stood for were sounded here. Carnegie Hall was integrated from day one.
Ideas continued to play out as the music played on. Suffragettes rallied here, Teddy Roosevelt campaigned here, the country’s first Congresswoman appeared here. Albert Einstein took the stage. Woodrow Wilson spoke of the Treaty of Versailles.
Martin Luther King spoke here in the last year of his life.
“It’s hard to find something that’s never been done here,” Rob said. “There’s always been an open-door policy.”
In its own way, Carnegie Hall is an extension of those many libraries Andrew Carnegie built. It is another place that fills our head with ideas—and ideals. Another way that Americans practice, practice, practice the ideas of a democratic society.
How about you, dear reader? Do you have a Carnegie Hall memory to share? I’d love to hear. Just click on the Comments link below. (If you’re reading this as an email, click here and you’ll connect to Comments).—Mim
—Steve
Mahalia Jackson deserves a mention since she is the one who brought the Hall back to what I am sure the Scotsman Andrew Carnegie intended to be its egalitarian spirit. Anne McGravie
Posted by: Anne McGravie | October 20, 2009 at 02:33 AM
This is kind of off topic but I just had to add a note about the Carnegie Wallet. It is the best wallet I have ever owned!! I had been looking for a vintage wallet that just allowed me to carry cash and a few cards. Many modern wallets don't have just plain simple slots for bills to be carried straight. This wallet is perfect!! The leather is beautiful and the red lining really sets it off. The slots in the front are great for holding not only play or concert tickets but for those random slips of paper that one needs to carry.
Thank you for designing this product! I only wish I had purchased a backup before they sold out.
Posted by: Natalie Zertuche | February 26, 2010 at 01:57 AM