For twenty years, Correll Jones has been a fixture as the primary greeter at a bustling plaza in Midtown Manhattan. His company-issued enterprise card displays his standing: “C.J. mayor of Rockefeller Middle.”
And every winter, as numerous guests arrive to see the Christmas tree outdoors 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Mr. Jones basically turns into the tree concierge.
In New York Metropolis, the place doormen historically function all the things from safety guard to confidant, Mr. Jones, 59, holds one of many occupation’s most prestigious posts. From now till the tree comes down in early January, he’ll dispense all the particulars about it to those that ask: that this 12 months’s model is a 79-foot-tall Norway spruce from Maryland adorned with 50,000 lights and a crystal-laden star that weighs practically a half-ton.
In the event that they inquire additional, he could inform them the tree is sort of 90 years outdated and was lower down “on the finish of its life.”
“We might by no means kill a tree in its prime,” Mr. Jones instructed a customer on Wednesday as he slalomed between employees establishing gear for the annual tree-lighting ceremony.
Along with tree questions, he fields a nonstop litany of different requests: instructions to shops, restaurant suggestions, and, most urgently, the place is the lavatory? (He directs those that ask to the restrooms in 30 Rock’s underground concourse.)
Mr. Jones works the plaza the way in which a seasoned occasion host works a room, zipping round energetically.
“Is everyone OK?” he requested guests on Wednesday. “All people good? Girls, you all proper?”
Mr. Jones’s nickname, C.J., is emblazoned on the identify tag pinned to his sharp grey go well with, which matches his hat and silver tie. And his caricature — “Mayor of the Rock” — has graced Rockefeller Middle vacation maps alongside illustrations of establishments like NBC, the Rainbow Room, and the Rockettes.
The job has allowed him to fulfill presidents and to seem in entrance of tv cameras, from spots on “Immediately” to doing schtick with Dan Aykroyd and dancing with Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Present.”
“He’s greater than a doorman or perhaps a greeter,” mentioned Pedro Francisco, a concierge within the 30 Rock foyer. “His persona is on show right here — he’s a part of the material of Rockefeller Middle.”
Mr. Francisco mentioned that Mr. Jones is aware of many of the outstanding figures who work on the NBC studios, together with exhibits like “30 Rock” and “Saturday Evening Dwell.”
“He is aware of all of the movers and shakers working right here, the celebrities, the titans of enterprise, the ‘Immediately’ present of us,” Mr. Francisco mentioned. “All of them cease to bounce issues off him due to his persona and since he has a finger on the heartbeat on what’s occurring.”
The brushes with fame are nice, Mr. Jones mentioned, however so is accumulating clippings from the tree handy out to the group each winter. And irrespective of who he meets on the job, his companion, Evelyn, retains him humble.
“The job by no means will get to my head,” he mentioned, “as a result of once I get dwelling, she says, ‘Chances are you’ll be the mayor of Rockefeller Middle, however once you come dwelling, you’re simply C.J.’”
Mr. Jones, a lifelong Brooklyn resident who now lives in Flatbush, mentioned he grew up within the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood and aspired to enter politics however finally shied away as a result of “it’s a unclean enterprise.”
“That by no means labored out,” he mentioned. “However in a means it did, as a result of now I’m the mayor of this place.”
Mr. Jones graduated from the New York Faculty of Printing in Manhattan (now often known as the Excessive Faculty of Graphic Communication Arts) and labored briefly at a business printing firm.
“I couldn’t take the ink beneath my fingernails,” he mentioned, “so I give up.”
He took a safety guard job on the Peninsula Lodge earlier than switching to the coat test room on the College Membership of New York after which transferring as much as doorman.
After twenty years on the membership, one in all its members, Rob Speyer, the chief govt of the Tishman Speyer actual property agency, which owns Rockefeller Middle, requested Mr. Jones whether or not he want to work there. Mr. Jones initially declined.
“I turned down the job as a result of I didn’t need to be cooped up inside behind a desk,” he mentioned. “However then after they instructed me I’d be outdoors greeting folks, I knew I needed to take it.”
“The hospitality enterprise match higher with my persona,” he mentioned.
An avid sports activities fan, Mr. Jones mentioned he pays his dues as a supporter of the oft-struggling Mets and Jets. As soon as a Knicks fan, he has switched his allegiance to the Brooklyn Nets as a result of their dwelling, Barclays Middle, is close to his personal.
Mr. Jones has a daughter and two granddaughters, one 11 and the opposite seven months. He mentioned the ladies occupied a lot of his free time.
“My weekends are spent doing what the Mrs. wants me to do and spending high quality time with my grandkids,” he mentioned.
Mr. Jones known as this vacation season particularly candy, after the coronavirus pandemic dampened final 12 months’s turnout and compelled the tree-lighting ceremony to be closed to the general public.
“There was a time final 12 months in the course of the pandemic when it was simply me and the pigeons out right here — it was a ghost city,” he mentioned. “However the vacationers are coming again. A variety of New Yorkers complain concerning the crowds, however they don’t understand how a lot this metropolis is determined by vacationers. We take them as a right. We’ve all obtained to share this huge metropolis.”
Bopping nonstop from one group of holiday makers to the subsequent, he was troublesome to maintain up with.
“Sorry,” he mentioned, “however being mayor, you bought to be seen.”
He instructed a girl asking concerning the Lego Retailer that it had moved from the plaza to Fifth Avenue and 51st Avenue.
“The place’s the large menorah?” one girl requested by way of her face masks. Mr. Jones directed her up Fifth Avenue towards 59th Avenue.
When Maribel Abreu, who was visiting from North Carolina, requested the place her household may watch the tree-lighting, Mr. Jones suggested them to get a number of hours relaxation and head for the plaza’s fiftieth Avenue entrance.
Then he playfully blocked the stream of passers-by so she might snap a household photograph. Ms. Abreu pulled him into the image as effectively.
Neil Lawner, a photographer from Manhattan, stopped to say hey.
“He’s an ideal spokesman for this place as a result of he’s so nice with folks,” Mr. Lawner mentioned of Mr. Jones.
Nicole Nieves and her grandmother, Abby Nieves, had been visiting from Montclair, N.J. They requested Mr. Jones for the free postcards Rockefeller Middle presents annually.
He trotted into the 30 Rock foyer to replenish his provide and shortly returned with their playing cards. He mentioned he usually handed out as much as 40,000 each vacation season.
“I obtained one of the best job on the planet,” he mentioned. “I’ve met folks from greater than 100 nations. A variety of them come again years later and thank me for sending them to some restaurant or retailer. That makes me really feel good.”