From "The Places Where I've Done Time": "During my walks up or down 57th street, I passed the narrow entrance to The Great Northern Hotel many times and several times noticed the name and liked it, but I did not take a room there until 1935, after my first book had been published, and I was famous, or people believed I was, or I was able to imagine that I was, if not famous, then at least well-known." "I was delighted to be at The Great Norther, for the rooms were large, the bath was large, the ceilings were high, and (this may be difficult to believe) the rent was $12 a week." William Saroyan wrote three plays during three stays at The Great Northern Hotel: 'Subway Circus', 'The Time of Your Life', and 'The Cavedwellers'. They each represented a significant moment in his career. 'The New York Times' had reported, erroneously, that Saroyan was working on a play during his 1935 visit to The Great Northern. He responded by writing a play, 'Subway Circus' which was the first play he had completed. In 1939, while again staying at The Great Northern during the run fo his first play, 'My Heart's In the Highlands', George Jean Nathan encouraged him to write his second play for Broadway: 'The Time of Your Life' which would become his most enduring hit. He wrote it over six days, May 30 to June 5th, 1939. In the 1950s, Saroyan had not had an original Broadway play premiere in 15 years, and while again staying at The Great Northern, on one of his final visits to the grad old hotel, he wrote 'The Cavedwellers' which was the last of his original plays to appear on Broadway.