“There’s a Genuineness to HK That’s Rooted in All That History” — Broadway EVP Charles Flateman Shares His West Side Story
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From dispatching buses at Port Authority at 14 to running Gray Line Sightseeing and eventually landing on Broadway, Charles Flateman has spent a lifetime around the industries that keep New York moving. This is his West Side Story.
So what’s your New York story? Born here, or just arrived?
In the way an iPhone was designed in Cupertino but assembled in China, I was designed in Brooklyn but final assembly was in New Jersey.
What was your first job? What do you do now?
My extended family ran a bus company (Short Line), and in 1970 at age 14 I was an assistant bus dispatcher and teletype operator at the Port Authority Bus Terminal after school and on weekends. I am now Executive Vice President at The Shubert Organization. I also Chair NYC Tourism.
What’s your favorite New York minute (or moment) so far?
New to the list this year has to be the Knicks parade, which I got to ride in (at the very end, far from the actual stars). Turning the corner onto Lower Broadway and finding myself in the middle of a million giddy, ecstatic New Yorkers gave me true chills on a hot day. So much joy from so many people.
It’s also a reminder of how continued investment in our city’s tourism industry can bring more people here to experience those joyful, uniquely New York moments for themselves.
Share with us why you love Hell’s Kitchen
Hell’s Kitchen has always been a community that served the industries that grew New York — from the docks to the stables to the taxis to the warehouses — and certainly to the Broadway theaters that came to anchor midtown. There’s a genuineness to HK that’s rooted in all that history.
Photos: Phil O’Brien