Harpo Marx dines with Michael Colby’s grandparents, Ben and Mary Bodne, who owned the Algonquin Hotel. PHOTO COURTESY OF MICHAEL COLBY One might say Michael Elihu Colby is the real-life counterpart of Eloise, the fictional children’s book character who lived at New York’s Plaza Hotel.
Though the borough resident and awardwinning playwright is no work of fiction, his decidedly literary and theatrical roots have led him to pen the story of his own childhood spent growing up among luminaries of both worlds at the famed Algonquin Hotel.
“It was just a constant parade of … icons,” Colby said, describing his years at the hotel, which is a designated New York City historic landmark.
Colby’s book, “The Algonquin Kid: Adventures Growing Up at New York’s Legendary Hotel,” recounts his star-studded coming of age at the hotel his grandparents, Mary and Ben B. Bodne, owned from 1946 through 1987.
Michael Colby DAVID GOODMAN “I used to go to the hotel from when I was 2 on,” Colby said. “I moved in when I was 17.”
The Bodnes moved from Charleston, South Carolina, where they’d amassed wealth in the oil industry. They bought the Algonquin, restoring the aging beauty to her former allure and attracting celebrities of all varieties — becoming a sort of home base for big names in literature and the theater.
Having hosted the infamous Algonquin Round Table — populated daily by wellknown writers, actors and the like — since 1919, the hotel already had a long history of notables under its belt.
“My grandfather would host his own version of the roundtable,” Colby recalled.
As a little boy, he received white chocolate bunnies at Easter from Pulitzer Prizewinning playwright Mary Chase to represent Harvey, the giant imaginary rabbit from her play of the same name.
“My family was very close to Ella Fitzgerald,” he said. “She would sing songs at breakfast in front of me.”
After having seen Agnes Moorehead — largely known for her role of Endora on TV’s “Bewitched” — play the witch on a TV adaptation of “Rapunzel,” a young Colby reacted accordingly upon encountering her at the Algonquin.
“I started screaming through the hallway, ‘There’s the witch, there’s the witch,’ which she didn’t appreciate,” he said.
Colby also remembers Jacqueline Onassis paying a visit to his grandmother at his grandparents’ apartment within the hotel. Joe DiMaggio was a regular fixture at the Algonquin. His wife at one time, Marilyn Monroe, once flashed Colby’s grandmother, opening a white mink to reveal nothing beneath, he said. Maya Angelou was yet another largerthan life character who played a role in Colby’s charmed childhood.
“I was just in awe, and she was the loveliest person,” he said.
Full-time residents of the Algonquin included Angela Lansbury and James Thurber, among others.
“It was a hotel with a personal touch,” Colby said. “And it was a home away from home.”
It also became a sort of refuge for many. In the McCarthy era of the 1950s, when many were being blacklisted for purported Communism, the Algonquin remained welcoming.
“It became a place … where people could go during that period and still feel safe,” Colby said.
In addition, the hotel provided an openarmed reception to many African-Americans of the time, including celebrities such as Fitzgerald and Angelou, along with activists Coretta Scott King and Roy Wilkins, according to Colby.
“[Jazz pianist] Oscar Peterson played my bar mitzvah,” he said.
Colby explained that, because they had experienced being minorities in Charleston, his grandparents were kindred spirits with oppressed groups.
“They weren’t the most sophisticated of people, but they were great humanitarians,” he said. “There was a great sense of camaraderie between the Jews and the blacks in my grandmother’s circle.”
Being immersed in a sea of theatrical greats only helped Colby’s early love of theater flourish.
“I would go regularly to this golden age of musicals,” he said, adding that his grandmother often took him backstage.
He met the likes of Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Noel Coward, Laurence Olivier and Helen Hayes. Thornton Wilder was a personal friend, who even wrote a college recommendation for Colby, he said.
Hollywood personalities roaming the halls of the Algonquin included Dick Van Dyke, Anthony Hopkins, Vivien Leigh, Whoopi Goldberg and Peter O’Toole, according to Colby.
“I seemed to have more of a rapport with the Algonquin crowd than I did with my schoolmates,” he said of his youth there. “It wasn’t the big names; it was the people whose talent I loved.”
His grandparents regaling him with horror stories about show business did little to discourage Colby’s aspirations. He made his own place in the theater world, becoming an actor, composer and playwright, and winning awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), along with being nominated for a Drama Desk Award. He is also a member of BMI and the Dramatists Guild. Colby has contributed his writing talents to a number of productions on Broadway and elsewhere.
After leaving the Algonquin to marry his wife, Andrea, when he was 34, Colby found himself being swept off to Metuchen. He didn’t mind a bit.
“I said, ‘We’re going to have to find a place that has live theater, lots of culture, walking distance to the train, a good deli and a good community — and that’s Metuchen,” Colby said. “I like to say, ‘We live 45 minutes from Broadway.’”
The two have a son, Steven, who is now grown.
Along with working on his creative projects, Colby works as a substitute teacher, mostly in Metuchen, but also in Edison and New Brunswick.
“As much as I love the theater, it’s a very unpredictable business where the professional glories … outweigh the financial gains,” he said.
Colby’s most recent professional glory came with the April 2 release of his book — published by BearManor Media — at the Algonquin’s own Oak Room. The affair hosted performances by a number of Broadway stars and shepherded his tome into the public sphere.
Now, the Algonquin Kid himself is gearing up for an event that’s closer to home. The Metuchen bookstore To Be Continued, 420 Main St., will host a book-signing event from 2-4 p.m. April 26.
For more information on the book signing, call 917-686-6056. To learn more about the book or to order a copy, visit www.thealgonquinkid.com.