Bermudians have a connection to the Big Apple that puts them in the heart of Manhattan.

It is a New York hotel that has played host over several decades and still brings smiles to those who recount dearly held memories of their life and times on and around the premises of the Hotel Edison Times Square.

For such adventures, the Edison, as almost everyone simply calls it, could not be better situated.

About a mile from Central Park and in the heart of Broadway, it is mere steps from the bright lights of Times Square.

It is less than a kilometre from Radio City Music Hall, the Rockefeller Centre and Fifth Avenue; and, barely a full kilometre from Carnegie Hall, the New York Public Library and Macy’s.

The hotel and related restaurants have even featured in major motion pictures, such as The Godfather,Bullets over Broadway and Birdman.

The Edison was once party central for an end-of-summer, uniquely Bermudian shindig held every year for decades, known as the “Bermuda Dance”.

The adjacent Rum Bar still prominently displays Gosling’s Black Seal Rum alongside Bermudian corporate neighbour Bacardi.

To this day, Bermudians continue to be drawn to the historic hotel, long since the last Bermuda Dance at the Edison ballroom.

For Black Bermudians, though, it was among the limited options available before broader society, slowly and begrudgingly, began accepting people of colour in the Sixties and Seventies.

In the early 1950s, an enterprising Bermudian travel agent saw a business opportunity, creating competitively priced group tours throughout the Americas and beyond.

The tours were so successful that Donald Smith and his travel agency would run two at the same time and deliver everyone to New York City for the tours’ finale — a celebration at the Bermuda Dance.

It was sometimes held off-property, and the Edison was not the only hotel Bermudians frequented in New York, but it has held special appeal.

Bermudians at home and those living in New York, New Jersey and elsewhere would find their way to the dance to join friends and family.

Businessman David Burgess remembers: “The hotel would be full. I never actually stayed there, but I knew people who attended the Bermuda Dance every year.

“People 75 and older would have a lot to say about it. I know some who are connoisseurs of the Bermuda Dance.

“A lot of Bermudian-American relationships started over the dance.”

Marilyn Smith spent more than four decades at the Donald Smith Travel Agency and was instrumental in bookings that included the Labour Day end-of-summer event.

She said: “Staff would close up the office and meet the tours in New York. Bermudians living abroad would also look forward to it.

“I started at the agency in 1952 and the dances started shortly after that. I stayed at the Edison many times.

“Even after the tours and the dance ended, Bermudians continued to be welcomed by friendly Edison staff.

“It must have started around 1954 and ended in the Nineties. The travel agency had been sold and the last dance was in North Carolina, I seem to recall.”

Shirley Blakeney remembered: “I first attended the Bermuda Dance when I was 18. It was in the 1950s and I was a part of the tour. I didn’t stay at the Edison that year, but I did later on.

“Back then, Black people had fewer options. The Edison made you feel welcomed. The staff were good to us and more people began to see it as a safe place. In the early days, we didn’t feel welcomed in some places.”

Providing uncompromising refuge is just a part of the storied, near century-old life of the Edison, for many years holding a listing in The Negro Motorist Green Book.

The Green Book was a staple of Black travel during the Jim Crow era, a listing of lodgings, entertainment, barbershops, petrol stations and other businesses along the road that were available to Black customers.

It was featured in the 2018 Academy Award-winning film, Green Book, which garnered numerous other awards.

A quietly shared annual guide, it was first published in 1936 by New Yorker Victor Hugo Green to help African-Americans safely navigate the roads of a segregated country.

The Green Book also included specific guest properties in Bermuda, the Caribbean, Canada, Mexico and Central America.

It was updated annually until 1967, serving a rising African-American middle class with the finances and vehicles for travel, although they were faced with social and legal restrictions that barred them from many accommodations.

At the time, there were reportedly thousands of “sundown towns” where Black people were legally barred from spending the night.

With a Green Book listing, travellers knew Edison was safe and welcoming to all.

Cecille Snaith-Simmons and her husband, Lionel Simmons, remember the Bermuda Dance at the Edison Ballroom.

Mrs Simmons said: “There were tour guides who would bus people to the Bermuda Dance.”

Mr Simmons said: “They rented the Edison Ballroom for the party. Organisers would arrange to have Bermuda food, traditional Bermuda dishes, in some cases brought directly from Bermuda. I remember in 1965 seeing a bottle of Bermuda Rum on every table.

“Times changed and people started making their own travel plans. But it was always a beautiful night.”

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Tomorrow: The Edison’s darkest days