The Story of its Creation
John Jacob Astor IV commissioned a young Maxfield Parrish to paint a mural for the barroom of The Knickerbocker Hotel, Astor’s glamorous new hotel on Broadway and 42nd Street. The contract was for $5,000, extremely generous at the time. But Astor had two conditions. First, the subject had to be Old King Cole. And second, Parrish had to use Astor as the model for King Cole’s face.
Parrish didn’t like Astor’s dictates. As a Quaker whose family frowned on alcohol, he wasn’t keen on a barroom mural. But his father, an established artist with Philadelphia and New York social connections, convinced his son that it would be a career-foolish move to say “no” to an Astor.
Installed at The Knickerbocker Hotel in 1906, Old King Cole became part of the New York City’s social scene. As F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in This Side of Paradise: “The Knickerbocker Hotel, beamed upon by Maxfield Parrish’s jovial, colorful Old King Cole was well crowded.”
Move to the St. Regis Hotel
Astor drowned on the Titanic’s maiden voyage. After the Knickerbocker Hotel closed in 1920, Old King Cole was placed in storage, displayed at a Chicago museum and finally installed in another Astor owned hotel, The St Regis Hotel, in 1932.
A Wall of Fame
Parrish’s three panel, 30 x 8 foot Old King Cole in the St. Regis bar has become a Manhattan icon. It has served as the backdrop for movie scenes in “The Godfather,” “The First Wives Club,” and “The Devil Wears Prada.” The St. Regis bar was a favorite haunt of Salvador Dali, Ernest Hemingway, Marilyn Monroe & Joe DiMaggio and John Lennon & Yoko Ono. When the New York Rangers won the Stanley Cup in 1994, the St. Regis’ King Cole Bar & Salon hosted their championship ring celebration.
Old King Cole’s Secret
Parrish painted the King slightly raised off his seat. The jesters and guards are reacting as if the King was passing gas. Although Parrish publicly denied it, the story of Parrish’s revenge on Astor for Astor’s demand to be the model for the King’s face remains part of the legend of this New York City Parrish masterpiece.