In other words, without actually having enough money to back the stock, a person could own shares and speculate on the future of a corporation. These people were convinced of the unbridled prosperity of America's future-and with it-their own.
During this era, oil magnate John D. Rockefeller purchased a tract of land from Columbia University on which he began construction of an entertainment plaza that would be named Rockefeller Center. A rash of skyscrapers arose on the New York skyline. The old Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, a long-time monument of the elite New York social scene, fell to make room for a 102-story office building-at the time the tallest building in the world. Meanwhile, blocks away, construction began on the new Waldorf-Astoria, a magnificent 47-story structure that filled one square block. Attracted by all this construction, some of the wealthier New Yorkers left their old mansions for trendy penthouse apartments where they planted gardens on their terraces. Others moved out of their mansions into opulent hotels.
Afternoon hotel-room cocktail parties became the newest form of hospitality. The most infamous of these parties developed common attributes. Says one historian, "You might find your hostess installed in a five-room furnished suite at a luxurious hotel, its walls practically invisible under her aggregated Vermeers, Rembrandts, and Italian primitives" (Morris, p.
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