September 14, 1956

Dear Bob,

I'm having a wonderful time here.  It really is a beautiful and wonderful town.

I had a very nice trip, though it did get cloudy and rough over central Penn., so
that we had to have our seat belts fastened all the way into N.Y.

The first moment I caught sight of the City as we neared the airport will always be
remembered by me as one of the most wonderful moments of my life.  It was quite
deceiving though.  It seemed that all the skyscrapers were clustered in the lower end of
Manhattan and the Empire State Building, a little to the north, was in an area which
contained rather medium sized buildings.  Thus I thought the center of the City would
be found in lower Manhattan, but it isn't, it is found in central Man.  There are located
Times Square, Broadway, 42nd Street, Madison, Lexington, Park and Fifth Avenues,
 the Woolworth, RCA, UN, Chrysler and Met Life Insurance Buildings.

I will try to give you some idea of the size of Manhattan.  Consider the Chicago area
bounded by  Michigan Ave., Lake Street, the alley between LaSalle and Wells (is there
one?) and Jackson.  Also consider N. Michigan Ave. (to 1600 N.) and Astor St.

Make the buildings twice as tall and twice as beautiful and imposing.  Now take all
but one traffic light from each intersection and at the same time divide the width of the
sidewalks by two and place ten times as many cabs in the streets.  Two fifths of that mess
is the business section of lower Manhattan, a concentrated and awesome part of town.
The remaining three fifths of our potpourri can be spread around a little and interspersed
with lesser buildings to form mid-Manhattan or "midtown".

The first night I was here I just wandered aimlessly, an action closely associated with
yours truly.

Thursday I really traveled, covering all the street mentioned and Wall Street, the ESB,
Lindy's.  Central Park  and the Automat, to mention just a few places.  At night I went
to see the show "New Faces of 1956".  What a day!

The view from the ESB is really tremendous ($1.30).  it is a beautiful and tremendous
building too.  (Raise the block-square wedge of the Merchandise Mart about 60 floors,
place the Willoughby Tower atop that, and top it with a TV antenna the size of
Cleopatra's Needle).

I guess I'd better explain the drawing.  First of all excuse my poor artist's try.  The
picture is just my impression of a typical New Yorker.  She is 22 or 23, blond, very
curvaceous, a model for a mid-town shop, unmarried, has no children, lives on
the East Side, drinks indiscreetly, smokes indoors, dresses chicly, and is very suave.
She is assuming the most popular un-natural pose assumed by New Yorkers, the
position whereby a cab is signaled.  Everybody here rides in cabs (even I do).  She
has just missed a cab (speeding up 42nd St.), but doesn't see the one that made a
U-turn on 42nd when he saw her signal.  After just about knocking her off the curb, the
cabbie will take her to her apt. or rendezvous.  It's not that the cabbies don't know how
to drive, it's that they're lethal.  Maybe that explains why the pedestrians here seem
more conservative and meek.

Note the "smoke" rising from the sewer?  It is really like that all over town.

Well that's a capsule summary of the town and the people and I hope I have kept you
entertained for a few minutes.

It's 2 A.M. and I think I better get some rest, for today I'm going on to D.

Tom

P.S.  The N.D. Club of N.Y. is on E. 37th near Park Ave., two doors away from the
Dartmouth College Club.