At the Plaza: An Illustrated History of the World's Most Famous Hotel

Curtis Gathje

St. Martin's Publishing Group, Mar 25, 2014 - History - 192 pages

At The Plaza is a pictorial record and an anecdotal history of the world's most famous hotel: New York's Plaza. As a story, it traverses the breadth and scope of Gotham's high society during the American Century. As a photo collection, it's like no other, capturing the hotel's remarkable presence on the ever-changing New York scene.

For almost one hundred years, The Plaza has mirrored the social history of Manhattan: its tastes in design, entertainment, restaurants and accommodations, as well as its adjustment to Prohibition, the Great Depression, two World Wars, the Cold War, women's rights, smokers' rights, animals' rights and British rock-and-roll. The first guests to sign the register-Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt-set the standard for the long procession of luminaries that followed: Mark Twain, Diamond Jim Brady, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Marlene Dietrich, Frank Lloyd Wright, Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and the Beatles, among many others.

In At The Plaza, the hotel's official historian, Curtis Gathje, has compiled a tremendous collection of photographs and vignettes chronicling the colorful history of a building, an institution, and a city.

Contents

• The New Yorh Shatiné Cluh MGMBM: 4
• Demolition of the First Plaza Hotel: 11
• October 7 1906: 17
• Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt Signs the OpeningDay Register: 23
• Mrs Patrieh Campbell Lights 11 Cigarette: 29
• The Plaza Crest: 35
• The Plaza and the Taxicab: 43
• The Sherman Monument: 46
• F Scott Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby: 59
• Colonel Serge Oholenshy: 73
• The Rendezvous: 87
• In the Persian Room: 100
• Jayne Manslielcl in the Tricycle Garage: 113
• The Two Eloise Portraits: 126
• Richard Burton and Taylor Meet the Press: 139
• Donald Trump Buys The Plaza: 153
• Filmography: 167

About the author

Curtis Gathje has been The Plaza's official historian since 1994. Also author of the novel A Model Crime, he makes his home in New York City.

Bibliographic information

• Title: At the Plaza: An Illustrated History of the World's Most Famous Hotel
• Author: Curtis Gathje
• Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2014
• ISBN: 1466867000, 9781466867000
• Length: 192 pages
• Subjects: History / United States / State & Local / Middle Atlantic (DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA)