Charles

Charles

Preppy Ivy League, Media Guru, Golden Oldie

“The first time I came to NYC was in 1943. When the war started, my father moved to Washington to work at the Pentagon. We lived in Washington, D.C. and he brought me to New York to go shopping at the men’s clothing store Brooks Brothers and to see his sister who lived on West 55th St. From the time I was 11 or 12 years old, I’d come up to New York. It was always exciting. I remember feeling special coming here with my father just to go shopping so that I could look right”

“ Meeting a girl in New York under the clock at The Biltmore Hotel was ‘the thing’ when I was young. You’d tell her, ‘Meet me under the clock at the Biltmore.’ It was taken out of a scene from “The Catcher in the Rye,” which was the book for young people back then. Meeting under the clock was very romantic and exciting. You had arrived. You were ‘in the know.”

“New York is exciting, it’s sophisticated, it’s the center of the two worlds I wanted to be part of, the theater and then the media. The first time I came here for a job was in 1960. It was for a job in television. Highly competitive. At that time, the place to be was CBS. What you learn with time, is that it’s not necessarily the smartest or most talented people who become successful. It’s the people who are the most ambitious. It’s the people who know how to manage up, who are highly political. There’s really a ruthless sense of ambition in New York.”

“The house across the street was the last sold. It sold for $7.85 million. There’s only a few certain kind of people who can afford that. It’s great. They’ve got the money, fine. They’re lovely people. They couldn’t be nicer to us, but it’s boring in the sense that we have a guard on the street in this neighborhood. We want to keep people out of here so there’s not a lot of noise. That’s the way people like it. I love it when we go down to the Lower East Side or to Bushwick. It’s much more lively and interesting. But the people on our block are really lovely, lovely people.”

“My wife and I have friends that are very wealthy and travel all over the world. They have summer homes and many cars and all of these things. But we also have our artist friends who live in Brooklyn. We have a diverse group of friends. You can have that in New York. Where in the world can you have these kinds of friends?”

“I went to the Burning Man at 80 to look at the art. I remember waiting in line to get my picture and get my playa name. Everybody has a playa name. Mine was Yoda. I’m old, you know.”

“ It’s sort of the chicken and the egg situation. Does New York make you happy and make you smart and make you successful? Or do smart, driven, achievement-oriented people come to New York?”

What neighborhood do you live in? Carnegie Hill, Upper East Side.

Best thing about living there? Quiet, safe, good transportation, lovely neighbors.

Favorite neighborhood in NYC? Carnegie Hill.

Favorite street to stroll? East 95th St.

Why? To chat with neighbors.

Favorite restaurant? Blanca in Bushwick.

Favorite bar? In the old days, when I did drink, it was Chumley’s in Greenwich Village.

Hidden gem? The Saloon in the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Terminal.

How to be(come) a New Yorker? To become a New Yorker, do not blend in. Be your true self and stand out.

Your New York soundtrack? “My One and Only Love” by Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane.

5 THINGS THAT TELL A STORY ABOUT CHARLES

DADS DOG TAGS “My dad was a veteran of World War I. When he was in a farmhouse in Germany, he was gassed with mustard gas. As he crawled along the floor to get out, he saw a soldier who was passed out and dragged him outside. He saved the soldier’s life. He was a hero.”

BELT BUCKET “We created this belt bucket when I was working at WMAQ Country Music Radio in Chicago. These were hugely popular with truck drivers. These were just amazing in their popularity. We gave out hundreds of thousands of them. It reminds me of the success I had there.”

OBAMA BUTTON “My wife and I campaigned for Obama in 2008. We took a bus, went down to South Philly, and knocked on doors. We felt very proud of that.”

PATEK PHILIPPE “This watch was given to me on my 80th birthday. It means so much to me. It’s worth a little over $20,000 and it has the original strap. I actually had an ex whose dad collected these. Everyday he’d sit in the morning and just wind all of his watches. It was a ritual for him.”

CHARLIES DOG TAGS “I was a soldier in the Korean War and went to Austria, but got called back in 1954, because my father was very ill. He died when I was 22. Every once in a while, I dream about him. I haven’t had him for over 60 years and I miss him.”