History & Mythology
...In Translation

Flatiron Building


Michael excitedly describes the Flatiron Building to Walt, and explains that it was the structure that first inspired him to learn how to draw.
 
From Wikipedia.com:
 
The Fuller Building, better known as the Flatiron Building, was one of the tallest buildings in New York City upon its completion in 1902. The building, at 175 Fifth Avenue in the borough of Manhattan, sits on a triangular island block at 23rd Street, Fifth Avenue, and Broadway, facing Madison Square.
 
...
 
The building, which took its name from the triangular lot it was built on (the Flatiron block, so called because it was shaped like a clothes iron), was officially named the Fuller Building after George A. Fuller, founder of the company that financed its construction two years after his death. Locals took an immediate interest in the building, placing bets on how far the debris would spread when the wind knocked it down. The building is also said to have helped coin the phrase "23 skidoo" or scram, from what cops would shout at men who tried to get glimpses of women's dresses being blown up by the winds created by the triangular building.