Hotel Pennsylvania - PEnnsylvania 6-5000

PEnnsylvania 6-5000

The hotel has the distinction of having the New York phone number in longest continuous use. The number, PEnnsylvania 6-5000, (212-736-5000), is the inspiration for the Jerry Gray composition of the same name (with lyrics later added by Carl Sigman). The most popular version was performed by Glenn Miller with the Andrews Sisters' version not far behind. Many big band names played in the hotel's Main Dining Room, The Cafe Rouge, including the Dorsey Brothers, Woody Herman, Count Basie and Duke Ellington. One evening in November 1939 while in the midst of a steady long-term engagement at the Cafe Rouge, bandleader Artie Shaw left the bandstand between sets and decided he had enough of the band business and all the hype of having become a major celebrity in the year and a half leading up to that point; he and his band having been thrust into the position of being most popular big band in the country at that time. Shaw did not return to the bandstand and essentially quit his own band on the spot; the act getting such great notice in the press that even the New York Times felt obliged to offer an editorial upon the situation and did. From 1940-42 Glenn Miller's band also had repeated long-term steady bookings in the room during the three years of Miller's great popularity as a major bandleader of the Swing Era. The aforementioned Jerry Gray had been Shaw's principal orchestrator from 1937–39 and he was immediately hired by Miller as a staff arranger when Shaw deserted his band; it was during Miller's 1940 engagement at the hotel that Gray wrote the popular instrumental tune that immortalized the Hotel's telephone number. For the last several decades, when callers dial the hotel they hear the Glenn Miller recording until an operator answers. This bit of nostalgia continues until this day, with the recording now accompanied by a general voice message and small menu of options.