But these days the landmark home of wisecracks and cigar smoke, and legends like Milton Berle and Jerry Lewis, is trying to fight off extinction.A loan company has moved to foreclose on the club after it missed payments on a $13 million mortgage. And a federal judge is mulling whether to appoint an outside company to take over the Friars Club’s six-story townhouse on East 55th Street, which has been shuttered for months as the club’s financial problems have deepened.
After Decades of Drinks and Laughs, Is It Last Call at the Friars Club? – The New York Times
It is fun to think about what you’d do if you were a billionaire. Of course, I’d give lots of money to charity (I’d probably do something like Bill Gates and identify something that I think I’d be able to “fix” with my money in my lifetime and just focus on that).
However, even with lots of charity, you’d still be really wealthy. And I think I’d buy the Friars Club. I mean, it would be cool just to own the building! Though in reality, it would probably end up being a pain dealing with all the people that would come along with it.
That being said, I hope the club somehow survives. I think knowing that there are little pockets of the past holding on in our crazy mixed-up world.