The hotel continued its reputation as home to many well-to-do New Yorkers and entertaining celebrity visitors like Ringo Starr in 1969.
He undertook a $26 million Louis XV-style renovation with plans to sell the 132 rooms and suites as cooperatives while running the building as a luxury hotel.
[9] Unfortunately, the expected profit was not realized and the Hanover subsidiary that owned the Stanhope PRE-packaged and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February 1988.
At that point, the hotel also paid $2 million annually to the estate of Sol Goldman, which owned the leased ground on which the structure sat.
The hotel's cabaret was revived as the Melrose Room, featuring talents including pianist Steve Ross[13] and soprano Anna Bergman.