The Hotel Claridge was a 16-story building on Times Square in Manhattan, New York City, at the southeast corner of Broadway and 44th Street. Originally known as the Hotel Rector, it was built of brick in the Beaux-arts style in 1910–1911. The 14-story building had 240 guest rooms and 216,000 square feet of space. It operated for 59 years until the building was demolished in 1970 and replaced with 1500 Broadway.
Hotel Claridge
Typical floor plan of the hotel
The celebrated smoking Camel cigarette billboard in Times Square was designed by Douglas Leigh and mounted on the Hotel Claridge. (Photo, 1948)
The Girl from Rector's is a play written by Paul M. Potter. The play is a sex farce involving several couples in a tangle of adulterous affairs, and was considered indecent by many critics, as well as some government officials who censored performances. It is an adaptation of Loute, a French farce by Pierre Veber. In 1909, producer A. H. Woods staged it on Broadway, where it was a hit.
Poster for an Australian production
A scene from a production at the Moore Theater in Seattle