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http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local...ipping_away_from_us_piece_by_shiny_piece.html
John Lennon loved Tavern on the Green. So did Michael Jackson, Madonna and the Yankees, but former owner Warner LeRoy cared more about dazzling regular New Yorkers.
"It wasn't about celebrities for Warner," Michael Desiderio, COO of LeRoy Adventures, said yesterday, as workers dismantled the magic, prism by prism.
"No matter who you were, you walked into the Crystal Room and you said, 'Wow!' He was a visionary."
The Baccarat chandeliers there are tagged for sale, as are the Tiffany lamps, the Venetian mirrors, the silver candelabra.
It all goes on the block Wednesday as Guernsey's auction house puts up for sale some 980 lots.
"There are no minimum bids set, so everyone has a chance," says Guernsey's owner Arlan Ettinger.
"Warner created this in 1973, when people didn't even feel safe jogging in Central Park," Desiderio said. "He put millions into it."
For years, it was the top-grossing restaurant in the country, with some 650,000 visitors annually. It might have become "touristy" for hipster flipsters, but for many, it was the place to come and have Prime Rib Au Jus and Cherry Blossom. John Lennon and his son Sean celebrated their joint birthdays there.
"We had one young lady whose christening we did, then her sweet 16, then her wedding," Desiderio said. "What's sad is, people won't have those traditions now."
When the LeRoy family's lease came up, the city put it out for bid, and gave it to Dean Poll, who runs the Boathouse.
Among the treasures ready to go are a 12-foot-tall carved wooden bear, two huge elk, copper monkeys with hats, weather vanes of harness racers, pianos - grand, of course - and a Wurlitzer with Sinatra's "Witchcraft."
The grandson of Harry Warner who grew up on the Warner Bros. back lot and frolicked on the set of "The Wizard of Oz," which his father, Mervyn LeRoy, produced, LeRoy was a showman.
Michael Jackson had his party here after his comeback concert at Madison Square Garden.
"It was the night before 9/11," recalls LeRoy aide-de-camp Shelley Clark. "The concert hadn't gone so well, and Michael was late. Whitney Houston was here, bone-skinny, and Marlon Brando, so fat ...
"Michael wanted the garden set up like a carnival, with games people could play, but Michael didn't want people to eat till he came .... He was very late.
"That munchkin song was driving people to near madness. [Photographer] Patrick McMullan said, 'You've got to shut up the munchkins!' There was a cluster of glory-era Hollywood divas, Ann Miller, Janet Leigh, Rhonda Fleming ... in gowns and jewels. They plopped down and said, 'We're old! We need to be fed!'"
Now, bidders wander the rooms, which look like Xanadu in the last scene of "Citizen Kane."
Only LeRoy was never bitter - and if there's a "Rosebud" object, it's the green chandelier.
"Green was special for Warner," Ettinger says. "Just like from the Emerald City."
John Lennon loved Tavern on the Green. So did Michael Jackson, Madonna and the Yankees, but former owner Warner LeRoy cared more about dazzling regular New Yorkers.
"It wasn't about celebrities for Warner," Michael Desiderio, COO of LeRoy Adventures, said yesterday, as workers dismantled the magic, prism by prism.
"No matter who you were, you walked into the Crystal Room and you said, 'Wow!' He was a visionary."
The Baccarat chandeliers there are tagged for sale, as are the Tiffany lamps, the Venetian mirrors, the silver candelabra.
It all goes on the block Wednesday as Guernsey's auction house puts up for sale some 980 lots.
"There are no minimum bids set, so everyone has a chance," says Guernsey's owner Arlan Ettinger.
"Warner created this in 1973, when people didn't even feel safe jogging in Central Park," Desiderio said. "He put millions into it."
For years, it was the top-grossing restaurant in the country, with some 650,000 visitors annually. It might have become "touristy" for hipster flipsters, but for many, it was the place to come and have Prime Rib Au Jus and Cherry Blossom. John Lennon and his son Sean celebrated their joint birthdays there.
"We had one young lady whose christening we did, then her sweet 16, then her wedding," Desiderio said. "What's sad is, people won't have those traditions now."
When the LeRoy family's lease came up, the city put it out for bid, and gave it to Dean Poll, who runs the Boathouse.
Among the treasures ready to go are a 12-foot-tall carved wooden bear, two huge elk, copper monkeys with hats, weather vanes of harness racers, pianos - grand, of course - and a Wurlitzer with Sinatra's "Witchcraft."
The grandson of Harry Warner who grew up on the Warner Bros. back lot and frolicked on the set of "The Wizard of Oz," which his father, Mervyn LeRoy, produced, LeRoy was a showman.
Michael Jackson had his party here after his comeback concert at Madison Square Garden.
"It was the night before 9/11," recalls LeRoy aide-de-camp Shelley Clark. "The concert hadn't gone so well, and Michael was late. Whitney Houston was here, bone-skinny, and Marlon Brando, so fat ...
"Michael wanted the garden set up like a carnival, with games people could play, but Michael didn't want people to eat till he came .... He was very late.
"That munchkin song was driving people to near madness. [Photographer] Patrick McMullan said, 'You've got to shut up the munchkins!' There was a cluster of glory-era Hollywood divas, Ann Miller, Janet Leigh, Rhonda Fleming ... in gowns and jewels. They plopped down and said, 'We're old! We need to be fed!'"
Now, bidders wander the rooms, which look like Xanadu in the last scene of "Citizen Kane."
Only LeRoy was never bitter - and if there's a "Rosebud" object, it's the green chandelier.
"Green was special for Warner," Ettinger says. "Just like from the Emerald City."
