N.Y. Singing Red, White and Bucks to Miss Liberty

Gracing the Hotel Parker Meridien’s marble atrium on West 57th Street this week is another Statue of Liberty given by the French to their American friends. It stands 15 feet, weighs 4,000 pounds and was flown here aboard a 747 from Paris. However, it is made not of bronze or copper but of bittersweet chocolate.

At Bloomingdale’s on Lexington Avenue, the bunting is out and the aisles are positively star-spangled. Souvenir hunters are scouring the store’s two Miss Liberty boutiques for foam rubber crowns and torches, beach towels, ceramic mugs, cookie tins, T-shirts, totes and aprons. A display touting Liberty-shaped edibles proposes: “Give me your tired, your poor, your chocoholics.”

On 5th Avenue, Tiffany & Co. showcases display an array of official commemorative designs in sterling silver, from a $35 torch key ring to a $650 watch. A portion of their cost is being donated to the statue’s $265-million face-lift effort.

Hype-hype-hooray! The Big Apple is holding the Statue of Liberty’s 100th birthday party, and almost every merchant--from the lowliest street vendor to the most chichi boutique--wants a piece of the action. The United States hasn’t seen anything like this since--well, since two years ago, when the Olympic Games had much of Los Angeles swapping pins and buying banners.

With New York City’s population of 7 million expected to swell to 12 million or so during the long Fourth of July weekend, tourist businesses are also saying hurrah for the red, white and bucks.

Lofts and warehouses with Harbor Views are going for $5,000 to $100,000 for the weekend’s rental, depending on their size and vista of the statue.

Ships Charge Premiums

Cruise ships that normally rent for about $300,000 a week are yielding the same amount for two days’ work. The Dolley Madison, for example, will fetch $39,000 for the morning of July 3, another $39,000 for that afternoon and $100,000 each for the morning and evening of July 4.

Tickets for the opening ceremony--complete with a razzle-dazzle show directed by David L. Wolper, who brought Los Angeles the opening and closing Olympic ceremonies--are priced at $10,000. For that, viewers will see 200 Elvis Presley look-alikes and 300 Jazzercise ladies, among many others.

Miss Liberty’s promise of opportunity has rubbed off on all sorts of entrepreneurs.

One barge company that is hauling equipment the 500 yards between lower Manhattan and Governors Island is charging $40,000--five times its usual rate.

Breakfast for $100

Grandstand seats for fireworks viewing are going for $65 apiece, refreshments included. Continental breakfast (and binoculars) at the Shanghai Red restaurant on the New Jersey bank of the Hudson River will cost Fourth of July guests $100 each .

And according to Pat Morrow of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, which is overseeing the restoration, “every port-a-potty in the whole eastern section of the country is taken.”

The Staten Island Ferry, which normally shuttles passengers from one New York borough to another for a quarter, will charge Fourth of July passengers $300 each for a four-hour ride and view of the spectacle. So far, about 6,500 have signed up.

All rooms at the Vista Hotel in the World Trade Center were booked for Liberty weekend two years ago, with the normal $165-a-night rate raised to $200, a spokesman said.

After the New York Times wrote about profiteering apartment owners in early June, New York special-events consultants were inundated with calls from consumers wanting to rent out lofts, apartments and warehouses by the day.

“Entrepreneurs were coming out of the wall,” said Blair Wynkop of Corporate Event Consultants in Manhattan. “One guy wanted us to get him $5,000 for a studio apartment. It didn’t even have a view. Of anything!”

‘Sales Are Lagging’

But response hasn’t been overwhelming at some restaurants offering special celebrations.

“Our concern is that sales are lagging,” said Joanne Jackson, of ViewPoint International, a special-events company that has been coordinating Liberty weekend events for two years for 16,000 clients, including the Windows on the World restaurant in the World Trade Center. “We thought we would sell out (the restaurant reservations) to private corporations, but we didn’t.”

Windows on the World is offering private groups 5 1/2 hours of food, drink, entertainment and a view of the fireworks. But when the reservations just trickled in, the restaurant reduced the per-person price from $300 to $250 and then eventually opened it to the general public, for $175 per person. .

One client of Corporate Event Consultants became so disillusioned with New York entrepreneurs while planning a Fourth of July party that it is having a catering crew and food flown in from Newport Beach, Calif.

Dollar Buys a Statue

As New York sets its teeth for the onslaught of tourists, places of business without a statue in their windows are as scarce as cabs on rainy opening nights on Broadway.

Just how much is that statue in the window? Chroma Cards on 6th Avenue sells a green eraser statue for a dollar. Two dollars buys a little yellow statue made of a synthetic substance that grows to 200 times its size in water.

On the extravagant side, Dyansen Galleries in SoHo is almost sold out of a limited-edition bronze by Erte called “Liberty, Fearless and Free,” according to director Ronda Esser. Each person who buys the $15,000 sculpture will be able to write off 15%, the amount donated to the Liberty Foundation.

Mervin Bendewald, owner of the Statue of Liberty Gallery in the West Village, reports booming business in “that stupid torch,” a sponge creation at $5.25, and a light-green plastic flashlight torch at $12.95 (batteries not included). He claims that his 1 1/2-year-old shop on Hudson Street is the only one in the country devoted exclusively to statue merchandise.

Commercialism Draws Fire

All the hoopla has given rise to complaints of crass commercialism. Especially criticized are businesses that have no official connection with the restoration effort.

As with the Olympics in Los Angeles, official sponsors, suppliers and about 100 licensees, including several from Southern California, paid substantial sums or guaranteed the foundation a certain amount, plus royalties from sales of authorized Liberty merchandise.

Last week foundation President William May said the sale of commemorative items had provided $8 million in income for the restoration, or 3% of the $252 million raised so far. However, he also warned that some retailers and vendors are selling counterfeit souvenirs that are close copies of official Statue of Liberty products. On Tuesday investigators seized 5,000 T-shirts, for example.

That was small consolation for Brandywine of California Ltd., a Los Angeles company that guaranteed $1 million to the foundation in exchange for the Statue of Liberty license on T-shirts, sweat shirts, jogging suits and other apparel. It filed last week to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the federal Bankruptcy Code.

Betty Boop Pays Off

“We won’t even sell a third of what we needed (to break even),” said President Joe Levinson, who added that events, such as a fire at a facility where designs were printed on garments, seemed to conspire against the 35-year-old company.

Ironically, the company’s Betty Boop merchandise, including shirts with the shapely cartoon character as the Statue of Liberty, is “doing fantastic” at Macy’s and other stores, Levinson said, but those royalties have no bearing on the restoration efforts.

Resource Developers in Torrance, the licensee for flags and banners, did not repeat the success of AAA Flag & Banner Manufacturing Co., the Los Angeles firm that did banner business during the Olympics. Don Derbigny, a co-owner of Resource Developers, said that the company paid $500,000 for its license and that “we’re not close” to meeting expectations. He blames in part the proliferation of non-official merchandise, which is rampant because the Statue of Liberty image is in the public domain and available to anyone who wants to put it on a product, no matter how tasteless or shoddy.

“Even here in New York, it seems like no one really knows what’s official and unofficial,” said Derbigny.

Some Licensees Reap

A few licensees fared well. Weingeroff Enterprises of Cranston, R.I., has had the license on Liberty pins, key chains and other products for three years and is making a profit, said Michael Gray, marketing vice president. “Last year we did more business on the West Coast than on the East Coast (because) the fever from the Olympics carried over,” he said.

Here’s another similarity with the Olympics: Unusual “official” Liberty weekend products are springing up all around. Consider the official flashlight (from Eveready), the official bagel (by Lender’s Bagels of West Haven, Conn.) and the official cheese (from Nibbles International, a Boston maker of cheese spreads).

But when it comes to food, the Parker Meridien’s chocolate statue has to take the cake. It was hand-carved by Paul Berthon, a master chocolatier who used as a model an original mold made by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, creator of the Statue of Liberty. Valrhona, a well-known French company, donated the dark chocolate.

And It Won’t Melt

Despite great care, the statue suffered a broken arm en route from Paris. Berthon, who accompanied his creation, and associates spent an entire night repairing the damage. Now, the glistening statue will be on view until sometime after the Fourth of July weekend, after which it will be auctioned off for charity.

Might it melt in the muggy New York heat?

No way, said Kathleen Duffy, a spokeswoman for the French-owned hotel. “The air conditioning is turned up nice and high in the lobby.”

Times researcher Tony Robinson in New York contributed to this story.