Automobile Club of America Annual Delegates Meeting

For the Automobile Club of America's annual delegates meeting, Empire partnered with Ronnie Davis Productions and caterer Great Performances to co-produce a remarkable evening of entertainment designed to complement the historic surroundings of the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. As guests arrived via ferry, they were greeted by a group of children waving flags of many nations. At cocktails, guests were entertained by a stride pianist dressed in sleeve garters and suspenders playing music from the early twentieth century. Upstairs in the main hall, guests entered to a sumptuous dinner for 600 and were greeted by a singing choir of 30 members onstage. The choir then harmonized to support a dramatic reading of the 1883 Emma Lazarus poem "The New Colossus" that is engraved on the Statue of Liberty ("Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..."). Following the dinner, guests enjoyed an uplifting performance by Irish Tenor, Ronan Tynan, who sang songs about the immigrant experience and concluded with a rendition of God Bless America with the backing of the choir that brought the audience to their feet to sing along.