Address: | 147 West 43rd Street |
Location City: | Manhattan, New York City |
Location Country: | United States |
Floor Count: | 6 |
The Casablanca Hotel Times Square, formerly the Hotel Metropole, is a hotel in Manhattan, New York City, at 147 West 43rd Street just off Times Square.[1] It was the city's first hotel to have running water in every room.[2] The Metropole had a list of notable residents including Nick Arnstein and Western lawman-turned-sports writer Bat Masterson.
In the early morning hours of July 16, 1912, the hotel was the site of the murder of Herman Rosenthal.[3] Rosenthal was the owner of several New York gambling dens. This murder was allegedly at the behest of Charles Becker, a New York police detective who was executed in 1915 for that murder.[4] James Thurber wrote an article about this called "Two O'Clock at the Metropole".[5]
The Metropole's reputation for attracting gamblers is referenced in F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel The Great Gatsby. It appears in the dialogue as the location of a restaurant favored by Meyer Wolfsheim.[6] The hotel was where Joshua Shapira stayed in Little Odessa.
The Hotel Metropole later became the Hotel Rosoff and is now the Casablanca Hotel.