"(Al Smith) started in of course by showing me the 90-story building out of the window that gave us the best view of it. It did look wonderful. It's got some sort of outside structural steel work that looks like Illinium, and in the sun it just glistens."
- Will Rogers.
"You haven't really seen it till you have looked at it from the air."
- Amelia Earhart to Al Smith.
"There's not much chance that I will ever be up."
- Al Smith to Amelia Earhart.
Among the famous visitors: Mussolini's son; Robert Wadlow, the world's tallest man (8'7"); Albert Einstein; George Bernard Shaw; H G Wells; Winston Churchill; Pope Pius XII; Nikita Krushchev; Fidel Castro; Queen Elizabeth II.
In 1938 Abdul Assan and the Shogola Alaba dancers from the Congo visited the observatory. They hoped the building's height would assist their ritual dance in dispelling the evil spirits that were causing them problems during their theatrical engagements.
