Built in the late 1800s Webster Hall was first used for community meetings, social gatherings, and weddings. Spurned by the likes of Emma Goldman and Marcel DuChamp benefit balls led the way to hedonistic nights of drinking and dancing as the forerunner to the modern nightclub earning the spot its nickname as "The Devil's Playhouse". While working on a book about Webster Hall I learned that as the RCA Premiere Studio it became The Birthplace of High Fidelity. The first successful stereo recording was made on October 6, 1953, with Leopold Stokowski and his Symphony Orchestra in Webster Hall, New York City. The greatest compliment to my restoration efforts came from Harry Belafonte as he walked through and exclaimed at how well we had preserved the place. Perry Como spent much of his early career in Webster Hall where he recorded a good deal of his hit records and began an American tradition of nationally televised Christmas Specials. Bowing to the pressures of foreign management to modernize efforts to preserve this icon of American Arts and Entertainment are presently in danger of being lost forever.

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