In a message dated 1/2/03 9:25:14 AM, [log in to unmask] writes:

> Later it was the Starlight Room of New York's Waldorf-Astoria, then the
> world-wide telecasts.

I first saw this unusual room last year, at the benefit dance where, while my
wife was out of the room,  I bid $1700 on a small Harley (luckily, there were
deeper pockets in the room, and it went for $29,000.)  On (about) the 25th
floor, the first setback of the 1931 Waldorf, this 200 foot long, 60 foot
wide clear span space is perhaps 50 feet high. The "starlight" part derives
from its unusual slide-retracting roof, now long since locked into position.
Such sliding roofs were once fairly common in pre-airconditioning New York,
especially on roof gardens and theatres. Another one survives (also fixed in
place) on Carrere & Hastings' old Lunt-Fontanne theater - it is fixed in
place, but the original roller equipment still survives on the roof, encased
in roofing tar like a wooly mammoth.

The size of the Waldorf's retractible roof makes it, I suspect, the largest
ever erected (or perhaps, retracted?) in New York.  Do any BP subscribers
know of any larger ones out there, before the advent of sliding dome stadia?

Christopher Gray