All roads — or tracks — lead to Grand Central Station.
You may have seen videos of George Clooney taking bows for his new Broadway play, “Good Night and Good Luck.” Behind him, on the stage set, you’ll see a large half arched window, the kind that when you look up from the main floor take up the sides of Grand Central near the ceiling. What you don’t know is, the set is based on a still accessible real place with a broadcasting history.
A few weeks ago, Mark Saulnier, the chief architect of Grand Central, gave me a tour of the historic train station built by Cornelius Vanderbilt . We went up into the warrens of hallways, walked across cat walks that are set in those windows, and wound up at a private tennis club located officially — if stealthily– at 15 Vanderbilt Avenue. Looking down from way up high, Saulnier said, the scurrying train passengers really did look like ants.
The Tennis club, pretty much hidden from the public, used to be the home of CBS Radio between 1939 and 1964. It’s where Edward R. Murrow and his gang of broadcasters– the subjects of Clooney’s movie and now play — delivered the news to America, like election results (back when they were honored). Who knew?
We met Saulnier at an usual event at Grand Central’s Campbell Apartments downstairs off Vanderbilt Avenue. The ornate, restored lounge hosted a party given by Czech Vogue for their March cover star, Consuelo Vanderbilt-Costin. If Vanderbilt sounds familiar, it’s because Consuelo’s descended from a long line of the wealthy famous family. She was named after Consuelo Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough.
How is the present Consuelo Vanderbilt related to the original Cornelius Vanderbilt? There are seven generations between them. It’s not easy to follow with Henry Louis Gates doing his show on PBS. But the original Consuelo was already the great-great-granddaughter, and she died in 1964 at age 87.The newer Consuelo is decades younger, seventh generation down and, of course, a philanthropist. She’s found Grand Central as her ancestral home since the avenue it’s built on is named for her family. There are plaques for Grand Central Station’s original builder, Cornelius, aka The Commodore, in the station. So that’s an easy connection.
What does Anderson Cooper know about this? That’s unclear. His mother, the late great Gloria Vanderbilt, was the Commodore’s granddaughter. Anderson is Consuelo’s third cousin, twice removed.
Michaela Seewald, Publisher of Vogue Czech Republic & Slovakia, gathered together fashionistas and influences from all over the world to honor Consuelo. Does she know about the Clooney-Murrow connection? She and Saulnier have become quite chummy as she takes clients and business associates all over Grand Central on tours. But even she will get a kick out of seeing the set of “Good Night, and Good Luck” on Broadway.
Consuelo is described as an Entrepreneur, philanthropist and international recording artist. She was recently featured in Elysian Magazine as one of New York City’s most influential and inspirational women, with a career as a singer, songwriter, actress, and entrepreneur. She even has a jewelry line, Homage by Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin, with HSN.
Who knows? If she’d been alive back when Murrow uttered his famous line, “Good Night, and Good Luck.” he could have featured her on his “Person to Person” radio show without going too far!!
