Audio Stories Results

When the Flatiron Building was first built, it effected the city in some...unexpected...ways.

In the early 20th Century, celebrities weren't the likes of Paris Hilton. Instead, two of the most celebrated individuals were architects. And what brought them into the limelight? A competition between who could build the tallest building in New York City.

Famous architect Stanford White did not just design buildings in his famous studio building. He installed a red velvet swing on one of the ceilings. This swing became the focal point of his infatuation with a young woman, and the source for one of the many “trials of the century.”

The most famous fictional six-year old girl in New York was named Eloise and she lived at the Plaza. The creator of Eloise, Kay Thomson, became her own character while she lived and performed at the famed hotel.

Before Marlon Brando hit the big-time and became one of the world’s greatest film stars, he survived as a struggling actor in Greenwich Village. Much hilarity ensued when Brando was paired in a small apartment with a quirky Russian violinist named Igor.

French daredevil Philippe Petit achieved the impossible as he performed his famous high wire act between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Petit immediately became a New York legend.