Did that slogan mean anything to anyone from out of town? “West is the way to go.” The West Side, in other words.

It’s the Park Central now. I stayed there once in the 90s. and found it careworn and tired. Wikipedia:

Named Park Central because of its close proximity to, but no actual views of, Central Park

The article also says:

It is most infamous as the site of the murder of mobster Albert Anastasia, which took place on October 25, 1957, in the hotel's barber shop. Earlier, in 1928, the Jewish gangster and well-dressed prototype of the modern don, Arnold Rothstein, was shot and fatally wounded inside one of the suites.

I seem to remember that the bar had a speakeasy theme, for some reason.