Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Frank StantonFrank Stanton
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Session:         Page of 755

exert a kind of leadership. But somebody had to, you know, exert.

Q:

I thought he was very interested, though, in the building.

Stanton:

In the what?

Q:

In the building. Black Rock. Which are you talking about?

Stanton:

Well, that piece of property stood idle for two years, because we couldn't agree on architects or what we were going to do with the building. Oh, no. That was a wretched period.

Q:

I'd like to hear a little bit about that actually.

Stanton:

Well. When I came in as president, in the office that I moved into as president, there was a platform in the office. The office was an idle office--hadn't been used. When I moved in, there was a large table on stilts and there was a model of an office building. It was the model of the building that was going to be built at 58th and Park Avenue.

I think we'd long-since given up the options on the land and so forth. I had it moved out, and the reason we didn't build at that time was that the then-executive vice president, who was the second guy, and Paley couldn't agree on whether to go ahead or not. I remember him telling me: “If you can build that building, you're a better man than I am.” Because he was fed up about it.





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help