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Autos at the Astor: the motor show for the American élite
There’s luxury and there’s early twentieth-century luxury—think of sipping dry champagne while steaming along on the Orient Express, or sleeping on silken sheets aboard the Titanic. Jet airliners crossing continents had not yet been invented, but high-class hotels were all the rage, and what the White Star Line was to the Atlantic Ocean, the Hotel Astor was to the city of New York.
Located on Broadway in central Manhattan, the eleven-story hotel was built in 1905 and included a roof garden which was like a miniature Central Park, and indoors there were elaborately-themed ballrooms and restaurants, among them the American Indian Grill Room decorated with artefacts collected with the help of the American Museum of Natural History. The hotel used the following slogan to attract guests: "To have stayed at the Astor is to have lived in New York."
The only thing you needed to have lived that life was a fat wallet, as it was just for the rich and the famous of the day. It therefore seems no less than logical that the Astor’s visitors were probably formed the dream customers for any producer of true luxury goods, not least luxury automobiles. Yes, somebody came up with the idea to organise a motor show at the Hotel Astor and as far as we could discover, the first of these shows took place in 1917. The first picture shown here supposedly dates back to that particular year, with the other two dated 1918. Getting those motor cars onto the first floor may have been tricky, but what a sight! What do we see? Feel free to add your spots in the comments below.
We do not know how many motor shows took place at the Astor, but we think the last of them may have taken place in 1939, when the chandeliers were somewhat hidden from view and the lavish ornamental ceilings hidden behind straight wall facings and panels. The Hotel Astor was torn down in 1967 and replaced by a towering glass-and-steel structure.
Words: Jeroen Booij
Picture: Library of Philadelphia
Published:
Tuesday January 7th, 2025
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Comments
Geoff Newland
13 January 2025, 11:41
I think the two cars in the bottom right of the photo are Rolls-Royce Silver Ghosts. Both are right-hand drive and appear to have the Spirit of Ecstasy mascots, but the photos are not clear enough to be certain.
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Terry Spilsbury
17 January 2025, 17:05
In both 1917 and 1918 photos, four Rolls-Royce Silver Ghosts are discernible closely assembled to the near right. Same spot, same space allocation, it seems. All are, of course, British-built, pre-dating the American Springfield works. They're most likely by British coachbuilders and pre-Great War production, offered for re-sale to the American market, as new car production had not yet been resumed in Derby, England.
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David Grimstead
12 January 2025, 19:14
These 1917-18 photos come from the New York Automobile Salon show, originally the Importers' Salon, organised by the American Importers Alliance (A.I.A.).
The A.I.A. hosted exhibitions at the Hotel Astor from 1911 but held their first as the Annual Automobile Importers' Salon at Herald Square Hall in 1905 when twenty-two makes of imported car, engines, components, tyres and accessories were shown. It moved to Madison Square Gardens for 1908 when a “$1 entry day” was introduced to give New York’s richer patrons some exclusivity.
The first A.I.A. Hotel Astor show was held on January 2-11th, 1911, when seventy-five cars of twenty makes from six countries were exhibited. It was dedicated to promoting the best European coachwork designs imported immediately after the Paris and London shows but two American coachbuilders were also invited to exhibit. These early Astor salons were described as drawing-room exhibitions, not in any sense an industrial show and more a social function than a trade show. They became an exclusive opportunity for the well-heeled of New York to see and buy the most expensively bodied car chassis in the world.
Progressively, up to the start of World War One, this annual show, which ran at the same time as the main New York fall/winter Motor Shows at the Gand Central Palace and Madison Square Garden, incorporated more luxurious American chassis, coachwork and accessories. Some years, distinctly non-luxury and sporting models, like Bugatti, featured but bespoke, novel and upmarket coachwork became its core attraction.
For the 1917 Astor Salon pictured here, its first year run by the Automobile Salon Inc. for the A.I.A., the headline ran: “Importers Salon becomes American.” Hence, there were nearly one hundred cars from fifteen makers with Americans Brewster, Daniels, Locomobile, Murray, Navarra, Phianna, Simplex, Singer, S-S-E. and White, with only Isotta-Fraschini, Lancia and Rolls-Royce from war-torn Europe. There were five American coachbuilders, Holbrook, Locke, Fleetwood, Healey and Rubay, and ten accessory houses. The increase in American cars and up-market accessories required the first use of the gallery boxes above the ballroom.
In January, 1918, eleven American car-makers (Biddle, Brewster-Knight, Cunningham, Daniels, Fageol, Fergus, Locomobile, Mercury, Murray, Simplex and White), two Europeans (Lancia and Rolls-Royce), two American coach-builders and seven accessory suppliers were displayed by their agents. Bodies by at least Brewster, Rubay, Healey and Brooks-Ostruk were on various chassis. Three $14,000 Rolls-Royce, five $10,000 Simplexes, eight large Locomobiles and many others found buyers, prompting this observation: “Therefore, the Salon at the Astor fully bore out the conclusion expressed by those who visited it soon after it opened. There is a market for the high-priced car; those who have such machines to sell are going after that market, and they are finding it. When in the course of a week $50,000 worth of one make of car and $42,600 of another can be sold, and uncounted thousands of dollars paid for still others, New York and the East must still have much money to spend for automobiles, conclude the Salon visitors.”
With post-war American industry in the ascendant and Europe’s only in recovery, A.I.A. involvement diminished but renamed the Annual Automobile Salon, the show continued at four regional locations per year. For November, 1919’s, show, the New York Automobile Salon was held at the Hotel Commodore, there until 1929 when for the first time at the National Automobile show a section on the third floor of the Grand Central Palace was set aside for imported cars.
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The A.I.A. hosted exhibitions at the Hotel Astor from 1911 but held their first as the Annual Automobile Importers' Salon at Herald Square Hall in 1905 when twenty-two makes of imported car, engines, components, tyres and accessories were shown. It moved to Madison Square Gardens for 1908 when a “$1 entry day” was introduced to give New York’s richer patrons some exclusivity.
The first A.I.A. Hotel Astor show was held on January 2-11th, 1911, when seventy-five cars of twenty makes from six countries were exhibited. It was dedicated to promoting the best European coachwork designs imported immediately after the Paris and London shows but two American coachbuilders were also invited to exhibit. These early Astor salons were described as drawing-room exhibitions, not in any sense an industrial show and more a social function than a trade show. They became an exclusive opportunity for the well-heeled of New York to see and buy the most expensively bodied car chassis in the world.
Progressively, up to the start of World War One, this annual show, which ran at the same time as the main New York fall/winter Motor Shows at the Gand Central Palace and Madison Square Garden, incorporated more luxurious American chassis, coachwork and accessories. Some years, distinctly non-luxury and sporting models, like Bugatti, featured but bespoke, novel and upmarket coachwork became its core attraction.
For the 1917 Astor Salon pictured here, its first year run by the Automobile Salon Inc. for the A.I.A., the headline ran: “Importers Salon becomes American.” Hence, there were nearly one hundred cars from fifteen makers with Americans Brewster, Daniels, Locomobile, Murray, Navarra, Phianna, Simplex, Singer, S-S-E. and White, with only Isotta-Fraschini, Lancia and Rolls-Royce from war-torn Europe. There were five American coachbuilders, Holbrook, Locke, Fleetwood, Healey and Rubay, and ten accessory houses. The increase in American cars and up-market accessories required the first use of the gallery boxes above the ballroom.
In January, 1918, eleven American car-makers (Biddle, Brewster-Knight, Cunningham, Daniels, Fageol, Fergus, Locomobile, Mercury, Murray, Simplex and White), two Europeans (Lancia and Rolls-Royce), two American coach-builders and seven accessory suppliers were displayed by their agents. Bodies by at least Brewster, Rubay, Healey and Brooks-Ostruk were on various chassis. Three $14,000 Rolls-Royce, five $10,000 Simplexes, eight large Locomobiles and many others found buyers, prompting this observation: “Therefore, the Salon at the Astor fully bore out the conclusion expressed by those who visited it soon after it opened. There is a market for the high-priced car; those who have such machines to sell are going after that market, and they are finding it. When in the course of a week $50,000 worth of one make of car and $42,600 of another can be sold, and uncounted thousands of dollars paid for still others, New York and the East must still have much money to spend for automobiles, conclude the Salon visitors.”
With post-war American industry in the ascendant and Europe’s only in recovery, A.I.A. involvement diminished but renamed the Annual Automobile Salon, the show continued at four regional locations per year. For November, 1919’s, show, the New York Automobile Salon was held at the Hotel Commodore, there until 1929 when for the first time at the National Automobile show a section on the third floor of the Grand Central Palace was set aside for imported cars.
Bob
12 January 2025, 17:24
The hotel had quite a beautiful interior and it's a testament to the builders that the balcony could hold all that weight. I would like to know how they got those big cars up there. There's not a lot of room to manoeuvre them.
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