What Everybody Wants To Know About The Empire State Building

Brochure advertising the Empire State Building, from sometime in the late 1960’s or 70’s.

Only the most famous and iconic buildings of the world get their own brochures. The Empire State Building in New York City is one of these, and the brochure pictured above is a fantastic little bit of marketing for the tower. I don’t know when it was made or where it was sold, but given the television antenna at the summit, which was installed in 1965, it’s probably from the late 1960’s or 70’s.

The main part that stood out to me was the title, and it’s use of Everybody. Those behind the brochure were assuming that everyone was curious about the building, and wanted to know the factoids that are included throughout the illustration. Given the skyscraper’s world-class status, it’s not that big an overstatement.

Most of the factoids deal with the sheer size of the building, including the 74 elevators, the 1,860 steps between street level and the observatory, and the 3,500 miles of telephone cable, among others. One other factoid that caught my eye is the million-and-a-half visitors from every state in the U.S. and nearly every foreign country who have visited the observation deck. This is a testament to the Empire State’s global draw, and the power of verticality for those visiting the city. The building dominated the skyline at the time, as well as the minds of the people in the city, be they residents or visitors.

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