1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days by Albert Stevens Crockett

Hall ofFame miss for anything in the world. It is a dinner in honor of the new Sheriff, Mr. Alfred Smith. Most of his friends call him 'Al.' I am very fond of him and I wouldn't let anything keep me from attending. You know," he added, cocking his head on one side, as was his habit, "I believe he is a man who will go very far." Just how far Al Smith was to go, Boldt perhaps did not guess. In view of the real admiration and warm personal interest that Boldt seemed to feel for the young politician, it is a curious working out of fate that Al Smith, some sixteen years after that conversation, should open, on the spot where long stood the old Wal– dorf, a great building which, 'after all, to many who knew and loved the old hotel, more than anything else ~erves as a monument to what, for at least twenty years, was a real American institution.