The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-04-23
Walter WincheIl On BrO0dW0y
SsaSs na'A Rss'"~Sa OsSvTSA ~AA DaS nS's'

and the boisterous crash of Broad
 way clubs; on the other, the sanc-
 tuary of the Stork or the smooth
 dolngs at Le Ruhan Bleu. A Riv-
 erside Drive address used to be the
 be-all; now 1t is better" to have
 an East Side number even if the
 backyard runs into @ fish market.
 At Fifth and Tenth Street, in
 the Church of the Ascension, presi-
 dent John Tyler married Miss Julia
 Gardner. His was the first wedding of a President while in office.
 In February, lS4O, the Avenue saw New York's first masked ball, an event during which Matilda Barclay, daughter of the British
 consul, came disguised as Lalla Rookh and eloped with her South Carolina beau. It was such @ scan- dal that fine of thousand dol- lads was instituted against cos- tune balls, though if you gave one and told on yourself, the fine was cut in halfl Much earlier than that, a tavern of the vicinity was making 1t known that five men were the limit for one bed.
 Once upon a rainstorm brook ran down what is now 69th and collected in mud puddles along the Avenue. Beneath what is now Fifth, a trout stream ran. It IS this stream which has been known to overflow and fill the basements of some Avenue establishments.
 The old Cumberland Hotel stood where part of the base of the Flat iron Building rests. The tale Is that one crochety old resident refused to move when the hotel was razed. He stood pat upon his lease and remained until the bricks began to fall around his ears.
 To ride the Fifth Avenue bus costs a nickel more than most, and Its patrons claim it's worth 1t. The pageant, even better from the up- per decks, isn't eQualled in a Technicolor spectacle. The Fifth Avenue department stores are as labyrinthine and enchanting as a grotto out of Hans Christian An-, dersen Best's, now in the pro- cess of making it's fourth move, has occupied three other sites, al- ways with the famous baby-shop- ping center, the Liliputian Bazaar; Wanamaker's stands on the old Randall farm from which the Ave- nue began; Sloane'S was site of old Windsor Hotel; 545, the site of the Hotel Lorraine; Brentano's, in al succession of locations, has been open for business since 1853: Lord and Taylor is occupying its fourth building Among the Avenues big banks, the Bankers Trust still employs a special tellor for ladies .., Many @ career has marked It's time and earned its meals within department store walls before stage and screen woke up to mutual agreement. The complete list has never been compiled to show you, for instance, that Vera Vague once modelled at Bergdorf- Goodman, that Margalo Gilmore was once employed at Bonwit's.
 The Henry Brevoort farm-it, exs tended from Ninth to Eighteenth Street-cost about 200 pounds. To- day 1t would be worth well over eight millionl A few steps above, Fist Street was known as Love Lane," and what is now Union Square was a swamp.
 In the days when the Avenues idea of a Summer vacation was em- bodied in outings to the Battery, Isaac Brown was the famous sexton of Grace Church and Q social ar- bitter for the city. He once protested that he couldn't, after all, run so- ciety past Fiftieth Street. He knew what names to blacklist from an affair, and was noted for making all funerals just as much of al pleasure aS possible.
 The handsomeSt policemen per- haps in all the land are the MTS men found only in the Fifth Avenue shopping sector. Many a lady see- ing any of them for the first time (and the MTS on their collars) be. lieved the initials stood for Mar. velousl Terrificl Sensational! .l Shoplifters are sure MTS stands for Take Samples.
 But Mrs means Mid-Town Squad.