Got Those Penthouse Blues Again

Like a lot of New Yorkers, I have never made a secret of the fact that I might enjoy living in a penthouse, like the famous "Boy  from New York  City," ( sung by Kool Kool Kitty and revived famously by the group Manhattan Transfer).

This place is probably nice, even if it is "only" a brownstone penthouse..

However, as I remember, "Kool Kool Kitty" was really the original Material Girl, ( in the song she goes on to slaver over the luxury of her great boyfriend's lifestyle, including the fact that " he keeps his pockets full of spending loot"-- maybe not unlike Bernie Madoff, former penthouse dweller whose pockets were however mostly full of OTHER PEOPLE'S  spending loot, which they were sorely aggrieved about when the whole story came out).

As I remember, a lot of this penthouse fixation started with a famous  early 1930's society hostess who hosted many swell affairs at her penthouse at the very chic Ritz Carlton Hotel in Midtown..

But a little research shows that they were in vogue already by then. One Chicago millionaire had his favorite architect draw up one plan after another for the roof of a tall building he owned...of course, he finally decided he had found the perfect design just as the stock market crashed in 1929.

I hope the architect got paid...