The Empire State Building is iconic. Its image has appeared on everything from spoons and thermometers to snow globes. In films, it’s where women go to meet King Kong or Cary Grant.
Built in 16 months at the beginning of the Great Depression, it was the tallest building in the world when it opened in May 1931. And held that record for decades, until the World Trade Center was built in 1972. There was a even a Zeppelin mooring dock built into one of the upper floors, because they were to be the transportation of the future. But the dock proved impractical when 40 mph winds wouldn’t hold a blimp steady enough for people to board it.
I was expecting a book tracking the history of the building, and part of it is this, but Pacelle, a business writer for The Wall Street Journal, focuses on the real estate deals and battling tycoons. Sometimes he gets a little too detailed about the money matters, but that’s easily skipped. The book has a choppy feel because the author jumps from one time period to another and back again. This causes a lot of repetition, as Pacelle must refresh our memory about the modern players. A more linear view would’ve made things smoother.
He also gets bogged down in the details of the many, many lawsuits that result after Hedeki Yokoi, a Japanese businessman buys the building in 1991, adding to his collection of castles and chateaux. His daughter, Kiko, insists that he intended to give her the building as a gift, but cannot prove it, beginning the string of court battles. Yokoi may have owned the building itself, but others owned the leases of the occupants. Most notably, the Helmsleys, longtime business associates of the previous owners. Mrs. Helmsley, a hotel magnate, was nicknamed “The Queen of Mean” for her approach to things. Yokoi recruited Donald Trump to try to break their control of the leases, leading to the endless headlines charting the battles between Leona Helmsley and Trump. This is what the middle of the book consists of, a tangle of trials and gossip I couldn’t keep up with. Only wanting to know how it all turned out kept me reading, skipping paragraphs until I got to the end, which felt like a cold rainy day.
Though I did learn a certain amount, there was so much more information that should’ve been presented instead of all the financial and legal gobbledygook. But then, I hadn’t taken into account the origin of the author, I really should’ve known better. There’s probably an actual history book on the Empire State Building somewhere, one that doesn’t mention “The Donald” on every page, I just need to find it.
John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 2001 344 pp. ISBN 0-471-40394-6
Jackie is a short person, so she doesn’t like tall buildings, but enjoys reading about them.
Enjoyed this review, Jackie. Smiled at your bio line. I’m not fond of tall buildings either, although I have been to the top of the Empire State Building and spent the entire time with streaming eyes from the strong winds up there. Visiting in January as the snow started to fall perhaps wasn’t the best idea…
It’s a shame that you had to skip parts of this book, although I suspect all of those real estate dealings would have got the better of me too. I had no idea about the Zeppelin mooring dock btw. Love that.
Hope you manage to find an ESB book that suits you more, and if so, of course come on VL to review it! Bit of Compare And Contrast with this one, even.
Anyhow, interesting review.
Ahk, I cannot imagine standing out on the deck in January, you must’ve been frozen by the time you went inside.
That’s a great idea to compare books on ESB, if I can find one I like better.Thanks for the suggestion.
What a shame for this book – it seems like a missed opportunity for a good “object” centred history. I would be interested in reading reviews you may make of other books on the same topic as its iconic status surely guarantees more interesting stories that solely financial ones.