If you are coming to New York to make a splurge, or learn what life is like, or impress someone on a business deal, you must headquarter on the East Side.
Most any of its hundred standard hotels will do. If you are staying a while, you may want an apartment.
Humorist Harry Hershfield used to explain to his friends that he was "on Broadway, but not of it."
Those were the days when it was considered a rap to say of one "he has gone Broadway."
When one went Broadway (or Hollywood) it wasn't nice at all. He developed a severe case of big-shotitis, spoke of money in tablecloth figures and referred to Lee Shubert as "Lee" and Louis B. Mayer as "Louis" (when they weren't around).
But now, with most of the things that were then so characteristic of Broadway as de trop as a pug dog, the people who used to go Broadway go Park Avenue.
It is the same sort of disease, but more aggravated, and when it hits the average guy it raises a higher fever.
You can spot a man who went Park Avenue by the fact that he refers to Alfred G. Vanderbilt as "Alf" and Barbara Hutton as "Babs." He mutters gibberish of "dilatory domiciles" and "married maidens," and has a Social Register.
It has destroyed the usefulness of many otherwise useful people, as will be attested by several East Side night club proprietors.