Cary Grant’s grant to St. John’s Hospital

On March 12, 1968 Cary Grant, who was going through a nasty divorce, ran into some bad luck. While he was being driven to Kennedy Airport to return to Los Angeles for court proceedings, a tire assembly broke off a truck and hit his limousine.

The film icon suffered a broken nose and broken ribs and was taken to St. John’s Hospital in Elmhurst. The trial went on without him, and on March 20 he was ordered to pay $4,500 a month to his fourth wife, Dyan Cannon. On March 21 the divorce was made final.

During his stay at St. John’s, Grant found out from Sister Thomas Francis Cushing, the executive director, that the hospital was in great financial difficulty. Because of the great care he had received, Grant offered to pose for a photo with anybody in the hospital for $5 and donate the money. He posed with 451 people.

In 2009, St. John’s was in financial difficulty again. Without a benefactor the hospital closed and was sold at auction on Oct. 16, 2009 to Guttman Realty for $13.5 million. It is unclear what will become of the 275,000-square-foot building. If only Grant, who died in 1986, had been there to help, who knows what might have been.

Corrections

The Jan. 12 I Have Often Walked column contained some errors. The firm that developed Fresh Meadows was misidentified. It was New York Life Insurance. The Horn and Hardart restaurant’s location, business model and successors were incorrect. It was at 61-09 190 St., was not an automat but used servers, became a bagel shop and diner and is now Hooters. The H&H at 61-40 188 St. was a retail store and is now Qdoba. We regret the errors.