Who are America’s four best-loved actresses?
If you answered Ethel Barrymore, Marilyn Miller, Mary Pickford and Rosa Ponselle—admittedly, a long shot—you’re going to be delighted to know that four diminutive marble statues of these larger-than-life theatrical figures have returned to their golden niches in the landmark I. Miller Building at Broadway and West 46th Street.
The statues, by Alexander Stirling Calder, were unveiled in 1929 and taken away in 2012 to Forestville, Md., for reconstructive surgery. After I. Miller closed in the 1970s, they were neglected while the once-elegant store—“The Show Folks Shoe Shop Dedicated to Beauty in Footwear,” as it says under the cornice—tumbled down market, ending up as a T.G.I. Friday’s chain restaurant.
New York Times Article, Jan. 29, 2014