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The old Stevens: Memoirs of Bob Quain
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The Old Stevens: Memoirs of Bob Quain
An informal look back at hotel life in the 1940s and ’50s through the eyes of a career hotel man. Although the situations described here are past history, many of the problems and their solutions are quite contemporary by Robert F. Quain and Michael M. Lefever IN MAY OF 1927 the Stevensthen the world’s largest hotel-first opened its doors to the public. Not only did the planners have the foresight to create a hotel with 3,000 rooms, they also had the vision to provide convention space and facilities that were far ahead of the times. The Stevens survived both the Great Depression and World War II, although there were 0
1993, Cornell University.
many times when it might have seemed unlikely that it would. During the depression years there were frequent occasions when the employees outnumbered the guests and large sections of the hotel were closed. In 1942 the
Stevens became an army barracks, sometimes sleeping as many as 4,000 air cadets. The grand ballroom-stripped of its elegancebecame a mess hall, while Park Row served as the post exchange. Toward the end of 1943, the hotel
From 1945 to 1965, Robert F. Quain was assistant to the general manager, operations manager, and GM of the Stevens Hotel, now the Chicago Hilton and Towers. This article was submitted by Michael M. Lefever, Ph.D., head of the department of Hotel, Restaurant & Travel Administration at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and is a compilation of excerpts from Quain’s manuscript “Inside View of Hilton Hotels," from the Conrad N. Hilton Archive and Library at the University of Houston (courtesy of Cathleen Baird Huck, director and archivist). 44
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was once again open to the public. However, as it was a time of shortages of both labor and materials, efforts to rehabilitate the hotel were limited. In 1945, Conrad N. Hilton purchased the hotel. Under the leadership of Robert P. Williford, executive vice president of Hilton Hotels Corporation, and Robert F. Quain, operations manager, assistant to the general manager, and later GM himself, a carefully planned and executed program of rehabilitation was begun. This is the story of those early years at the Stevens through the eyes of Bob Quain.
Apologies and Rosary Beads I detrained in Chicago on a wintry, bleak afternoon, November 15, 1945, and went directly to the Stevens Hotel. I was greeted with a h u m a n barricade, literally hundreds of people standing in line waiting for rooms. I walked over to the assistant manager and said: "I think you have a reservation for me. My name is Robert Quain." He replied: '%Vell, Mr. Quain, all these people are supposed to have reservations. Get in line!" I got in line and stood there waiting for the line to move, but nothing happened. I decided I'd had enough of this nonsense and went around the desk and asked to see the front-office manager. I told him my name was Robert Quain and asked him to call Mr. Williford and tell him I had arrived. Suddenly all hell broke loose. The front-office manager recognized my name and did a double take. The chief room clerk and another assistant manager who had overheard my conversation came over to shake hands and greet me. They asked where I had been and said they had been looking for me all day. They had expected me to arrive on the Century in the morning. A U G U S T 1993
Photograph courtesy of the Conrad N. Hilton Archive and Library, University of Houston
A day or so later I met still another assistant manager and mentioned t hat the one with the rosary beads must be a very religious m an and related the incident to him. He laughed and said: "He's not even a Catholic. He borrowed those beads from me." It developed t hat a friend of mine, Monsignor Joseph Toomey from Binghamton, New York, had been in the hotel the week before and had mentioned that his friend Bob Quain was coming to Chicago. Therefore the assistant manager, who wanted to rectify his mistake, figured t hat I was Catholic and borrowed the rosary beads to impress me.
Robert F. Quain
Chicago's Gratuity System
I explained t hat I had taken a latenight train after one of our farewell dinners. My accommodations were waiting for me, and the front office had indeed been alerted to my arrival, they assured me, but apparently one of the assistant managers had goofed or hadn't been given the alert. Everyone was embarrassed and apologetic, and I was escorted to my suite in style, as though I were royalty. They couldn't do enough for me. The next morning when I went down to the lobby, the assistant manager who had ordered me to get in line was waiting for me with rosary beads dangling shakily in his hands. He apologized over and over again, telling me how sorry he was. I told him to forget it. He escorted me into the dining room and assigned a hostess and two waitresses to take care of me. They kept hovering over me until I finally told them to leave me alone so I could enjoy my breakfast in peace. They said they understood how I felt but that the assistant manager had been most insistent t ha t they stay with me and take good care of me.
I didn't wait two or three weeks to familiarize myself with the various operations. After two days of reviewing the hotel, especially the disorganized front office, I suggested to Mr. Williford t ha t I start correcting the situation immediately. There was no control system on arrivals and departures, and hundreds of people with reservations were being turned away. He was aware of the situation but felt stymied about how to go about correcting it. He gave me the green light to go ahead. There was a heavy demand for rooms in Chicago, since the war was just ending and few homes were being built. Our reservations staff was accepting hundreds of reservations, and the front-office clerks were selling rooms to many people without reservations--for bribes of $5 for singles, $10 for twins, and $25 to $50 for suites. I was appalled at the situation, though I soon learned it was common practice in Chicago hotels. When I first met with the frontoffice manager, Roland Blackstone, and his assistant, Dorothy Baker, I found out t hat the person approv-
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I was well aware t h a t the incident could have caused one of those race riots I'd read a b o u t - and within our own hotel. I was greatly relieved t h a t I could get the two individuals out of the cafeteria and speak to t h e m about the serious situation t h a t had developed. After a time they realized the gravity of the situation, and I asked t h e m to come out a r m in a r m to indicate to the employees t h a t they had m a d e up, and t h e r e were no longer any h a r d feelings.
Prima Donnas
Robert Ouain, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Chicago's Hilton hotel.
ing the reservations was a m a n a g e r I knew from New York City. He claimed it was a situation caused by a lack of sufficient personnel, and they couldn't do a n y t h i n g about it. I replied, "We are going to do something about it now!" The tally-sheet system of controls I set up was similar to the one we h a d used at the Roosevelt in New York. With the cooperation of the front-office manager, his assistant, and a few honest employees, we were able to eliminate overbooking and m a n y of the gratuity problems.
Early Race Riots My first exposure to Chicago's racial problems came on Thanksgiving eve in 1945, two weeks or so after I h a d arrived at the Stevens. I received a call from the executive assistant manager, who was r e l u c t a n t to go up and face the problem, informing me t h a t there was a fight going on between black and white employees in the employees' cafeteria. A security officer accompanied me to the scene of the
melee. By the time we got there, the hostilities were subsiding. M a n y of those employees of both races were from the l a u n d r y and housekeeping departments. Our l a u n d r y manager, J o h n Varick, had t a k e n the black employees over to one section of the room. The executive housekeeper, and a security officer had t a k e n the white employees to a n o t h e r side of the cafeteria. I inquired w h a t had happened. We h a d a jukebox in the cafeteria, and one of the elevator operators, a young white woman, was dancing in such a way as to suggest she was imitating a black w o m a n dancing. A black waitress took offense and told her to stop, but the white elevator operator didn't. I asked to speak to the elevator operator and the waitress in a n o t h e r room, and they both came with me. Since I was new to them, I introduced m y s e l f and told t h e m I thought this was an u n f o r t u n a t e thing to happen, especially on the day before T h a n k s g i v i n g - - t h e day t h a t was m e a n t for giving t h a n k s for all the blessings we had. 46
T h e r e are always prima-donna d e p a r t m e n t heads in any hotel operation. Notable among those I had to deal with at the Stevens were the catering manager, the chef, and the chief engineer. We had resolved most of our problems with the catering m a n a g e r and the chef. Our chief engineer, Harold Toombs, was something else. He wasn't exactly the type to contribute to our image as "the world's friendliest hotel," though fortunately his aberrations were confined to in-house operations. He made his own decisions without consulting anyone else and was thoroughly annoyed w h e n I a t t e n d e d his meetings and m a d e a few suggestions. No general m a n a g e r had ever before a t t e n d e d his meetings or challenged his operation. He finally decided it was necessary to r e m i n d me t h a t he directed the engineering departmerit of the hotel and he m a d e the decisions in his d e p a r t m e n t - - i n essence, "Stay out of it, mister." I a m a quiet person in m y surveillance of and response to quixotic situations. This was no exception. I said, "Mr. Toombs, you have been a tower of strength in staying with the Stevens throughout the war effort, and you deserve a great deal of credit. However, there is going to be one m a n a g e r of operations here, and that's me." THE C O R N E L L H.R.A. Q U A R T E R L Y
I told him th at if he wasn't agreeable to that, he'd better go home and sleep on it and see me the following morning. The next day he came to my office and apologized, and he said he would be willing to cooperate. Subsequently we developed a good working relationship.
Going to Market The managers and chefs at the Stevens did a great deal of research in the area of food purchasi n g - b y opening canned goods, for instance, and checking the contents. We found it was actually costlier to buy an inferior brand, even though it was cheaper, t han to buy a superior-quality product. After the war the Stevens was a volume user of beef, and one or more senior managers usually went with the food-purchasing agent and our young m a na ge m ent executives to visit the meat companies in Chicago, such as Swift and Stockyard Packing Company, to select quality beef for the hotel. By going to the market, we were able to select all primequality beef instead of ordering from the meat companies and having them deliver what was meat marked "prime" but that often was not. When we selected our meat, we always marked it with a Hilton Hotel stamp, which could not be washed off. That assured us of top-prime beef t hat would be aged before being delivered to the hotel. We also made trips at six o'clock in the morning to the fruit and vegetable markets for fresh, topquality products. After a num be r of such visits to the markets and meat-packing companies, we made an impression on those vendors. They decided th a t our foodpurchasing people knew their products, and thereafter they usually gave us special consideration and excellent service. A U G U S T 1993
We made every effort to have quality food at the hotel. We even set up a taste-testing exhibit for our employees in one of our exhibit halls, with all cuts of meat as well as vegetables and fruits. We invited the floor clerks, bellmen, front-office staff--all guest-contact employees--to sample our food, to make them aware of the quality of food we were serving so they could make recommendations to the guests. Their favorite was the rib roast, which they invariably recommended. That created a problem, because everyone was ordering roast beef, and the other items on the m enu were not selling well. The food-and-beverage manager, then, had to prepare new menus with a different placement of items to entice guests to order something besides roast beef--and level off our food costs. (Of course, in any food-service operation a certain percentage of all food items must be sold to keep food costs in balance.) That is one of the intricacies of the hotel business. Mr. Tucker One of the highlights of my experiences in the executive kitchen brigade was the arrival at the Stevens of a certain Mr. Tucker, an infamous guest whom I had known since my days at the Roosevelt in New York City. We had had quite a bit of trouble with him because of returned checks marked "Insufficient Funds." Mr. Tucker arrived in Chicago promoting a fabulous and fantastic new car and invited a few thousand car dealers to come and review the new car at his "plant," which I assumed was nonexistent. He had booked a dinner at the Stevens for 1,300 of his top dealers. Our catering manager was then called and advised that there would be an additional thousand people arriving by bus for cocktails and dinner. The additional guests 47
had to be served in our public dining rooms, and a thousand additional chairs had to be set up in the ballroom after the dinner. I had already told our credit manager that Mr. Tucker's credit was questionable and t hat he would have to pay us in advance with a certified check for his big cocktail and dinner party. Although Mr. Tucker insisted th a t it be billed to his "company," I wasn't even sure he had a company and so I said, "No way!" When Mr. Tucker and I finally came face to face on this occasion, he recognized me immediately. He pleaded with me to send the bill to his company, but I insisted on a certified check. He then met with his executives, went to a bank, and personally delivered a sizable certified check to our credit manager. Busloads of people arrived for cocktails and d i n n e r - - a n overflow crowd on short notice, which created a problem for us. On top of it all, it developed t hat the sensational new car he was trying to m arket didn't have an engine in it. Although Mr. Tucker assured everyone t hat after dinner a car fully equipped with an engine would appear, t hat never happened as far as I know.*
The Beginning of Yield Management With our control system for advanced forecasting of room reservations, we discovered th a t we had a heavy number of arrivals from regular business, Monday through Thursday, and that the sales director was also booking 500 rooms for convention delegates with arrivals on Mondays and Tuesdays. That created room congestion during the early part of the week, and the w e e k e n d s -
*Editors'note: F o r m o r e stories a b o u t c i r c u m s t a n c e s s u r r o u n d i n g the i n f a m o u s T u c k e r automobile, see: "Tucker: The M a n a n d His D r e a m , " a 1988 f e a t u r e - l e n g t h film directed by F r a n c i s F o r d Coppola a n d s t a r r i n g J e f f Bridges.
Fridays, Saturdays, and S u n d a y s - were not fully sold out. I recommended to Mr. Williford that we contact the convention executives and give Friday, Saturday, and Sunday as alternative dates for their members' arrivals as we had done at the Roosevelt in New York. He approved the plan. Our director of sales was reluctant, but we were supported by James Collins, assistant director of sales. I made the decision to give it a try, and we sent telegrams to all the heads of conventions that we had booked for the upcoming six months, giving them the weekend alternative. We were swamped with phone calls and letters from the convention executives, many of them offering to come to Chicago personally to accept our proposal. It turned out to be profitable not only for the hotel but for the city of Chicago, which prospered from the tremendous increase in weekend business. Other Chicago hotels followed our lead in weekend convention business.
Distillers and the Vatican Shortly after I arrived at the Stevens Hotel, the cardinal's office made arrangements for a luncheon for a thousand people. Monsignor Cletis O'Donnell, who was making all the arrangements for the election of a new bishop, advised me that Schenley Distillers would furnish all beverages and would assume the cost. By accident, I discovered that that practice was accepted by hotels in Chicago for special conventions and groups when they made dinner arrangements at hotels. Schenley would pay the hotel two dollars a bottle and the bartenders' labor costs. I asked our catering manager who had made the arrangements, and he said it was Bill Lewis, convention manager for Schenley
Distillers, whom I knew well from after some persistent investigation New York City. I asked the catering found out from Steve Healy, the manager to have Mr. Lewis see me. former owner of the Stevens, t h a t The next day Mr. Lewis came to the syndicate had earned its my office and congratulated me on special status because it had my new position. We exchanged a supplied liquor for the hotel's few words of greeting, and then I reopening after the war, when the said: "Bill, you have arranged for a Stevens couldn't get sufficient luncheon to be held at the Stevens alcoholic beverages. So the syndifor a thousand people, and I undercate had priority on those suites-stand that you are taking care of for a while. the alcoholic beverages and will After meetings with our attorassume all charges. If you assume neys the practice came to an end. all the charges, I wish to put on the The Chicago syndicate relinrecord that it will be by the drink." quished those suites, and some of He replied: "Bob, you can't do the displaced guests were willing that. You will get in trouble with to take rooms instead, to have a the powers that be at the cathevoting address in Chicago's dral." Next I made a call to my First Ward. friend John Brown, a publicrelations executive at Schenley, and Union Thugs told him the story. I advised him Whenever large numbers of guests that if Schenley was to assume the arrived in the morning, there were charges, they would be by the not enough bellmen to take care of drink. them. Arriving guests were taken In the end, my position preto their rooms, and they often vailed, and Schenley and other wouldn't accept the room. That was liquor companies were thereafter often due as much to the lack of dissuaded from making special equipment--lamps, linens, and so arrangements with organizations at on--as to misplaced beds centered a hotel's expense. That was an under the overhead light. The innovation in the hotel business, bellmen were then delayed while and helped hotels to earn a fair another room was assigned. It profit on banquet business. sometimes took three or four room changes before a guest was satisThe Chicago Mob fled with the accommodation. After I became familiar with the I set up a procedure whereby Stevens's operations, I discovered room clerks and assistant managthat two of its most expensive ers advised guests, when they deluxe suites were occupied by checked in, about the conditions we permanent guests at a monthly rate were faced with, explaining that of $150. One should have sold for their baggage would be checked $125 a day, and the other for $175. until their room could be made up Whenever I asked the manager properly. By and large, the guests about it, he brushed me off, saying were understanding and cooperat ha t I should not pursue it, t hat tive, and the new procedure there was no way of changing the seemed to be working smoothly, rates. However, I did pursue it and until one day a hotel bellman learned that the suites were leased informed me that there had been by members of the Chicago mobster complaints from other bellmen to syndicate. the union. Soon after, two agitated I brought the m at t er to Mr. union representatives arrived in Williford's attention. Mr. Williford my office. They were both six-footwent into the matter further and plus and quite vociferous. 48
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One plopped his feet up on my desk and began, like a headchopper at an inquisition: "Quain, I understand you come from New York. Well, let me tell you, w e r u n these unions in Chicago, and we want you to know t hat you have to cooperate with us." By invoking an unprintable curse word I told the guy with his feet on my desk to remove them and to speak to me like a gentlem a n - - t h e n I would certainly be glad to cooperate with him and his associate. He was so surprised at what I said and the forcefulness with which I said it t hat in taking his feet offthe desk he fell offthe chair onto the floor. He was totally embarrassed, as even his associate began to laugh. I told him that I had come up in the hotel business as an elevator man, a bellman, and a service manager, and I certainly wished to cooperate with the bell staff, as the bellmen could be our best salesmen for the Stevens, and I was looking out for their interests. Most important, I convinced the union guys t h at the bellmen could earn just as much, or more, revenue by taking care of more guests in the same amount of time, instead of staying with one guest and shifting t hat guest's luggage from room to room. It seemed so simple to me. I still don't know why the union people wanted to make a federal case out of it. At any rate, they finally agreed to give the new baggage-checking system a one-week trial. They left my office with the notion t ha t maybe th at man Quain from New York had the bellmen's interest at heart, and I had no further problems with them. Th at meeting with the union representatives left me with one important, deeply embedded idea. Thereafter, before I put into practice any new procedures t ha t involved a union, I always con-
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tacted representatives of t hat union and got their support.
Elevators and Pulsating Lights The most important improvement at the Stevens was in the elevator service, which at one time was unbelievably inept. Guests would be getting in the elevators while others would be trying to get off at the same time. Often tempers would flare, and the elevator operators--young women, generally--were being abused. Women guests fared the worst and wrote m any letters of complaint about their disappointment in the elevator service, and there were constant complaints from the executive vice presidents of national and international conventions. Before I arrived at the Stevens, it had two elevator companies trying to devise a better system of control, and they were unable to come up with a solution. Mr. McNamara, assistant manager in charge of service, and I, together with the rehabilitation department, also tried to come up with a solution and were unable to do so. Then Mrs. Quain and I attended a motion picture starring Dan Dailey, Jr., a friend of ours and the son of the manager of the Roosevelt. At the theater, we had to stand in line behind roped stanchions for almost three-quarters of an hour before gaining admittance to see the movie. Suddenly it dawned on me t ha t t hat was the solution to controlling the elevator problem. I met with Mr. McNamara the next morning and related my idea to him. We could place ropes and stanchions in the center of the elevator foyer to hold back the people who wanted to enter the elevators. The ropes could be handled by two starters, one for the right bank of elevators and one for the left bank. That would eliminate competition in front of the elevators. The elevators held 16 people, so
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"He was so surprised at what I said and the forcefulness with which I said it that in taking his feet off the desk he fell off the chair onto the floor."
when an elevator came to its own great showroom, the the ground floor and the Empire Room, and the people had gotten off, the Stevens had its terraced, appropriate starter would spacious Boulevard Room. release 16 people from the Both were vying for showroped-off area to get on business headliners to the elevator. attract customers for Mr. McNamara arranged dinner shows. to have rehearsals of the To avoid competition procedure, explaining to the between the two Hilton elevator operators how the hotels, Mr. Williford decided exiting guests would go to to change the format at the the right or to the left, Stevens and put on a depending on which elevator spectacular ice show in the they were in, and the Boulevard Room instead of starters would control the the usual night-club enterpeople waiting behind the tainment. We had the space Pictured left to right: Robert Quain, Barron Hilton, roped stanchions to board and the facilities--a suband Conrad N. Hilton (1971). The photograph is the elevators. After three basement foundation on courtesy of the Conrad N. Hilton Archive and days of practice, Mr. Library at the University of Houston. which to build an ice rink, Williford and I watched a elevators to move the rink rehearsal and were pleased with it. buy the necessary equipment to up and down, and equipment to Another problem was the install the pulsating lights. It was convert the rink to a dance floor number of guests waiting for an accomplished, and the elevatorwhen the ice show was finished. elevator on the upper floors before maintenance man was awarded a We closed the Boulevard Room in anyone could do anything about it. bonus for his ingenuity. December 1947 to prepare for our Because most of the entertainment Those improvements were so new ice-show format. The next suites were on high-number floors, enthusiastically embraced by the month the new Boulevard Room there could be large numbers of convention executives that we had the spectacular opening of its people waiting there for elevators, received a great deal of free publicfirst ice show, which was a big hit. and the control board in the lobby ity. The result was that many of the We often headlined individual did not indicate how many were national conventions made their stars of the famed Ice Capades, as waiting on any particular floor, or headquarters at the Stevens, and well as skaters who had made high for how long they had been waiting. we increased our convention marks in national competitions for We spoke to the elevator combusiness. the Olympics. We engaged Frankie pany about the possibility of Masters, Ted Weems, Oren Tucker, The Ice Capades installing pulsating lights on each and other well-known orchestra floor that could signal the elevator Mr. Hilton's hunch was right. The leaders to provide backup music for operators to take their cars to the Palmer House and the Stevens, the ice shows, as well as dance entertainment floors and then only a few blocks apart, were able music after the shows. provide express service to the to maintain their distinctive Our Boulevard Room ice show ground floor. Such a system would personalities without competing also received a boost from preclude empty cars from having to with each other. We were able to television's Tonight Show, then in return first to the ground floor to control the constant-rate structure its infancy and having a difficult receive instructions to head up to and develop a relationship between time gaining popularity. At the the entertainment floors. That was the two hotels that gave us an edge time, leading columnists from New a new request for the elevator on the booking of national and York, Los Angeles, and Chicago executives, as they were not aware international conventions that met were trying to give the Tonight that such a problem existed. As the in Chicago. Show a boost. When it was booked price they quoted was exorbitant, We soon learned, however, that in Chicago, Irving Kupcinet, who our elevator-maintenance man and the operation of two major Hilton wrote the widely read "Kup's the chief engineer decided to study hotels in the same city posed a Column" in the Chicago Sun-Times, the problem themselves. They problem in the entertainment hosted it, which meant great found that for about $75 they could department. The Palmer House had national coverage for the hotel. 50
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Truman. The Stevens was to be the headquarters for the 1948 National Shrine Convention, and the Shrine's executive committee decided to invite President T r u m a n as their guest of honor. Although they did not expect him to accept, he did. Because I had not taken a vacation in a couple of years and we had just bought our property in A Cat Burglar Valparaiso, Indiana, I was planning to take some time off. I told Joe About three nights a week, rooms Harper, our manager, t hat I was on the 23rd floor of the Stevens going down to our new home, and were being robbed, and it was t ha t I didn't give a damn if the causing us much difficulty. In president of the United States was speaking with the people who had or wasn't coming to the St evens-been victimized, I found t ha t m a ny I wasn't going to ret urn until the were under the impression t ha t end of my vacation. someone had a monkey and was I had to eat my words. Two days dropping it down from the roof to later Joe H arper called me in go into their rooms. Other people Valparaiso and said: "President thought it was a young person T r u m a n is coming, and I'm sorry to dangling down a rope who Was have to tell you t hat you have to be being dropped into the rooms. back here tomorrow. The Secret (The 23rd floor was four floors Service called and they want the below the roof.) general manager to be here to go One morning at about two through the hotel with them and o'clock, after six months of frustrapersonally supervise all the artion, the night assistant manager rangements for the president." received a phone call from a guest President T r u m a n did come for on the 23rd floor who said there the Shrine convention, and of was a man sliding along the ledge course, I did ret urn to the Stevens. outside the building. On the evening of the Shrine The assistant manager thanked banquet in the Grand Ballroom-the caller and got the security an important e v e n t - - t h e Shriners officers and bellmen, who immediindulged themselves a little too ately went up to the floor. They much at the reception preceding the guarded the stairways between the dinner, with the result t hat chaos 22nd and 24th floors. One of the reigned in the VIP room, where they security officers opened a door were assembled to organize the leading to the fire escape and saw Shrine officers and guests who were the thief sliding along, approaching to be seated at the dais. It seemed the fire escape. City detectives learned later that impossible for them to get lined up. Up in his suite the president was he was a circus performer and also getting exercised about being kept an ironworker. What a relief for management, employees, and guests waiting. It was now the time when he was supposed to come down to when the thief was finally caught! the Grand Ballroom, and he was a Hail to the Chief stickler for punctuality. I called the head of the White House division of Soon after I became general manthe Secret Service, Mr. James ager of the Stevens, my own plans Raleigh, who was with the presiwere fouled up a bit by no less a dent, and told him we were having a personage th an President H a r r y
The televised ice show was a success, and was one of the first Tonight Shows ever broadcast. The ice shows actually improved the image of the Stevens, and for m a n y years both the Stevens and the Palmer House had a reputation for offering top-quality entertainment in Chicago.
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difficult time getting the head table lined up, which was causing a delay. I asked him to advise the president of that, which he did, and I could hear President Truman's reply: "Tell t hem if they don't get lined up, I'm coming down and going to the dais myself. I'm not going to wait any longer." I told Mr. Raleigh t hat he'd better come down and help out with the situation. In the meantime Harold Lloyd, the movie star and also a Shriner, took over. He jumped up on a chair and told them they were embarrassing both the Shrine and themselves. He finally got them lined up and ready to march into the ballroom, but in the confusion they forgot about an escort for the president of the United States to the dais. Mr. Raleigh therefore asked me to escort the president, which of course was an honor and a pleasure. As we walked in, President T r u m a n said to me, "Oh, I hope they don't play t hat damn 'Missouri Waltz.' Everybody thinks that's my favorite song." Instead the orchestra played "Hail to the Chief' as we walked to the dais, and President Truman's face broke into th a t famous grin. Tom McNamara, our executive assistant manager, and I were delegated to escort President T r u m a n out of the hotel to his limousine the next morning. On the way down to the elevator, I asked if he had slept well and apologized for the music t hat had played so loud and long into the night. "I loved the music," he said. "That music put me to sleep. But I wish some guy had thrown a pail of water on t hat son of a bitch looking for Chloe. He drove me out of my mind." One of the Shrine divisions had hired a m an with a raspy voice to go around all night calling, "Chloe! Chloe!" It was their idea of fun. "It kept waking me up. I kept wishing I had a pail of water to
throw on that son of a bitch," President Truman said. He was at times an earthy man.
Russian Protocol
The famous Furniture Mart in Chicago, held during January, has traditionally been the largest MacArthur's Miniburgers gathering of furniture executives in When General MacArthur returned the United States, and hotel from Japan in September of 1951, accommodations are always he first stopped in San Francisco snapped up well in advance. Just and his second stop was Chicago, before one of the furniture markets where he spoke to 100,000 people in the late 1950s, I received an at Soldiers' Field. urgent call from the executive vice Mr. Hilton was there to meet the president of the Department of general, and Mr. Williford and I Commerce and Industry, asking if I were to meet Mrs. MacArthur and could arrange accommodations for their son. There were thousands Mr. Anastas Mikoyan, the economic and thousands of people gathered adviser to Soviet premier Nikita outside the hotel. Some committee, Khrushchev. without notification or approval Mr. Mikoyan was to be the guest from management or the police speaker at a noon luncheon at one department, had arranged to throw of our city clubs, and before leaving leis from Hawaii out of the mezzafor his speaking engagement, he nine windows, just above the invited me, along with the comentrance to the hotel. The drivers merce and industry vice president in the MacArthur motorcade didn't and a representative of the State pull up to the curb, leaving the Department, up to his suite for vehicles farther out in the street, a drink. and as they were getting out of the I had instructed our hotel staff to cars, the leis started to come down. have bottles of vodka, scotch, and When the crowd below saw the bourbon available in his suite, but leis coming down, the people ran to when I got there, I was informed try to catch them. We were caught through his interpreter that Mr. right in the middle of the stampede, Mikoyan specifically did not want along with the police. The police vodka; he preferred scotch with had to resort to using a footballginger ale. style blocking wedge to get the It was served by one of our MacArthurs, Mr. Hilton, and me captains, but the Soviet economic safely into the hotel. It was a adviser decided that we were being frightening experience. too economical with our scotch, so With the aid of the policemen, he picked up the bottle and began we escorted the MacArthurs to our pouring more of it into all our 23rd-floor Royal Skyway Suite. drinks. He made it obvious that the There we had arranged for a buffet rest of us were supposed to drink table, and as an added gesture, had with him. Then he decided he provided little hamburgers and wanted to drink bourbon and water. rolls. The only food the MacArthurs Again, he felt the waiter wasn't wanted were those hamburgers and giving us enough bourbon, and he rolls. The general asked if I would picked up the bottle and poured more for us and himself. At half arrange to get him more of them past eleven the commerce and instead of dinner. We fulfilled his industry vice president said: "I can't request and got him a couple of drink anymore. I have to be the dozen of those small hamburgers chairman of this luncheon." and coffee, as well as the ketchup Mr. Mikoyan insisted that we he requested. Evidently they don't continue drinking with him, and have hamburgers in Japan. 52
the State Department man advised us to do so. However, during Mr. Mikoyan's conversations with his interpreter, we kept adding water to our glasses. The luncheon group was quite pickled when they left, and I don't know how they got through their speeches, but they obviously did, because they returned to the hotel in time for an afternoon press conference in the Boulevard Room. There were many Slavic groups congregating and marching around the hotel, waiting for his return. I suggested to police officers and to our own security guards that we bring Mr. Mikoyan in through a side entrance and walk upstairs to the Boulevard Room to avoid the crowds. That we did, but in doing so, we moved so fast that we lost Mr. Mikoyan's own bodyguards and his interpreter. It took them some time to make their way through the crowd and find the Boulevard Room. By the time they arrived, we had Mr. Mikoyan seated and waiting by the microphones, calm and composed, and I think somewhat sobered. He had to be wondering what had happened to his caretakers! I was never filled in on what kind of economic advice he gave to Mr. Khrushchev, but, whatever it was, I'm sure it was colored by his consumption of scotch and bourbon. One thing about the hotel busin e s s - y o u meet such interesting people, co
EPILOGUE In 1971, after 47 years in the hotel industry, Robert F. Quain retired as senior vice president and director of the Washington division of the Hilton Hotels Corporation. Upon retirement and before his death several years ago, he and his wife, Florence, divided their time between Valparaiso, Indiana, and Lauderhill, Florida.--M.M.L.
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Profile
The Old Stevens: Memoirs of Bob Quain
An informal look back at hotel life in the 1940s and ’50s through the eyes of a career hotel man. Although the situations described here are past history, many of the problems and their solutions are quite contemporary by Robert F. Quain and Michael M. Lefever IN MAY OF 1927 the Stevensthen the world’s largest hotel-first opened its doors to the public. Not only did the planners have the foresight to create a hotel with 3,000 rooms, they also had the vision to provide convention space and facilities that were far ahead of the times. The Stevens survived both the Great Depression and World War II, although there were 0
1993, Cornell University.
many times when it might have seemed unlikely that it would. During the depression years there were frequent occasions when the employees outnumbered the guests and large sections of the hotel were closed. In 1942 the
Stevens became an army barracks, sometimes sleeping as many as 4,000 air cadets. The grand ballroom-stripped of its elegancebecame a mess hall, while Park Row served as the post exchange. Toward the end of 1943, the hotel
From 1945 to 1965, Robert F. Quain was assistant to the general manager, operations manager, and GM of the Stevens Hotel, now the Chicago Hilton and Towers. This article was submitted by Michael M. Lefever, Ph.D., head of the department of Hotel, Restaurant & Travel Administration at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and is a compilation of excerpts from Quain’s manuscript “Inside View of Hilton Hotels," from the Conrad N. Hilton Archive and Library at the University of Houston (courtesy of Cathleen Baird Huck, director and archivist). 44
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H.R.A. QUARTERLY
was once again open to the public. However, as it was a time of shortages of both labor and materials, efforts to rehabilitate the hotel were limited. In 1945, Conrad N. Hilton purchased the hotel. Under the leadership of Robert P. Williford, executive vice president of Hilton Hotels Corporation, and Robert F. Quain, operations manager, assistant to the general manager, and later GM himself, a carefully planned and executed program of rehabilitation was begun. This is the story of those early years at the Stevens through the eyes of Bob Quain.
Apologies and Rosary Beads I detrained in Chicago on a wintry, bleak afternoon, November 15, 1945, and went directly to the Stevens Hotel. I was greeted with a h u m a n barricade, literally hundreds of people standing in line waiting for rooms. I walked over to the assistant manager and said: "I think you have a reservation for me. My name is Robert Quain." He replied: '%Vell, Mr. Quain, all these people are supposed to have reservations. Get in line!" I got in line and stood there waiting for the line to move, but nothing happened. I decided I'd had enough of this nonsense and went around the desk and asked to see the front-office manager. I told him my name was Robert Quain and asked him to call Mr. Williford and tell him I had arrived. Suddenly all hell broke loose. The front-office manager recognized my name and did a double take. The chief room clerk and another assistant manager who had overheard my conversation came over to shake hands and greet me. They asked where I had been and said they had been looking for me all day. They had expected me to arrive on the Century in the morning. A U G U S T 1993
Photograph courtesy of the Conrad N. Hilton Archive and Library, University of Houston
A day or so later I met still another assistant manager and mentioned t hat the one with the rosary beads must be a very religious m an and related the incident to him. He laughed and said: "He's not even a Catholic. He borrowed those beads from me." It developed t hat a friend of mine, Monsignor Joseph Toomey from Binghamton, New York, had been in the hotel the week before and had mentioned that his friend Bob Quain was coming to Chicago. Therefore the assistant manager, who wanted to rectify his mistake, figured t hat I was Catholic and borrowed the rosary beads to impress me.
Robert F. Quain
Chicago's Gratuity System
I explained t hat I had taken a latenight train after one of our farewell dinners. My accommodations were waiting for me, and the front office had indeed been alerted to my arrival, they assured me, but apparently one of the assistant managers had goofed or hadn't been given the alert. Everyone was embarrassed and apologetic, and I was escorted to my suite in style, as though I were royalty. They couldn't do enough for me. The next morning when I went down to the lobby, the assistant manager who had ordered me to get in line was waiting for me with rosary beads dangling shakily in his hands. He apologized over and over again, telling me how sorry he was. I told him to forget it. He escorted me into the dining room and assigned a hostess and two waitresses to take care of me. They kept hovering over me until I finally told them to leave me alone so I could enjoy my breakfast in peace. They said they understood how I felt but that the assistant manager had been most insistent t ha t they stay with me and take good care of me.
I didn't wait two or three weeks to familiarize myself with the various operations. After two days of reviewing the hotel, especially the disorganized front office, I suggested to Mr. Williford t ha t I start correcting the situation immediately. There was no control system on arrivals and departures, and hundreds of people with reservations were being turned away. He was aware of the situation but felt stymied about how to go about correcting it. He gave me the green light to go ahead. There was a heavy demand for rooms in Chicago, since the war was just ending and few homes were being built. Our reservations staff was accepting hundreds of reservations, and the front-office clerks were selling rooms to many people without reservations--for bribes of $5 for singles, $10 for twins, and $25 to $50 for suites. I was appalled at the situation, though I soon learned it was common practice in Chicago hotels. When I first met with the frontoffice manager, Roland Blackstone, and his assistant, Dorothy Baker, I found out t hat the person approv-
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I was well aware t h a t the incident could have caused one of those race riots I'd read a b o u t - and within our own hotel. I was greatly relieved t h a t I could get the two individuals out of the cafeteria and speak to t h e m about the serious situation t h a t had developed. After a time they realized the gravity of the situation, and I asked t h e m to come out a r m in a r m to indicate to the employees t h a t they had m a d e up, and t h e r e were no longer any h a r d feelings.
Prima Donnas
Robert Ouain, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Chicago's Hilton hotel.
ing the reservations was a m a n a g e r I knew from New York City. He claimed it was a situation caused by a lack of sufficient personnel, and they couldn't do a n y t h i n g about it. I replied, "We are going to do something about it now!" The tally-sheet system of controls I set up was similar to the one we h a d used at the Roosevelt in New York. With the cooperation of the front-office manager, his assistant, and a few honest employees, we were able to eliminate overbooking and m a n y of the gratuity problems.
Early Race Riots My first exposure to Chicago's racial problems came on Thanksgiving eve in 1945, two weeks or so after I h a d arrived at the Stevens. I received a call from the executive assistant manager, who was r e l u c t a n t to go up and face the problem, informing me t h a t there was a fight going on between black and white employees in the employees' cafeteria. A security officer accompanied me to the scene of the
melee. By the time we got there, the hostilities were subsiding. M a n y of those employees of both races were from the l a u n d r y and housekeeping departments. Our l a u n d r y manager, J o h n Varick, had t a k e n the black employees over to one section of the room. The executive housekeeper, and a security officer had t a k e n the white employees to a n o t h e r side of the cafeteria. I inquired w h a t had happened. We h a d a jukebox in the cafeteria, and one of the elevator operators, a young white woman, was dancing in such a way as to suggest she was imitating a black w o m a n dancing. A black waitress took offense and told her to stop, but the white elevator operator didn't. I asked to speak to the elevator operator and the waitress in a n o t h e r room, and they both came with me. Since I was new to them, I introduced m y s e l f and told t h e m I thought this was an u n f o r t u n a t e thing to happen, especially on the day before T h a n k s g i v i n g - - t h e day t h a t was m e a n t for giving t h a n k s for all the blessings we had. 46
T h e r e are always prima-donna d e p a r t m e n t heads in any hotel operation. Notable among those I had to deal with at the Stevens were the catering manager, the chef, and the chief engineer. We had resolved most of our problems with the catering m a n a g e r and the chef. Our chief engineer, Harold Toombs, was something else. He wasn't exactly the type to contribute to our image as "the world's friendliest hotel," though fortunately his aberrations were confined to in-house operations. He made his own decisions without consulting anyone else and was thoroughly annoyed w h e n I a t t e n d e d his meetings and m a d e a few suggestions. No general m a n a g e r had ever before a t t e n d e d his meetings or challenged his operation. He finally decided it was necessary to r e m i n d me t h a t he directed the engineering departmerit of the hotel and he m a d e the decisions in his d e p a r t m e n t - - i n essence, "Stay out of it, mister." I a m a quiet person in m y surveillance of and response to quixotic situations. This was no exception. I said, "Mr. Toombs, you have been a tower of strength in staying with the Stevens throughout the war effort, and you deserve a great deal of credit. However, there is going to be one m a n a g e r of operations here, and that's me." THE C O R N E L L H.R.A. Q U A R T E R L Y
I told him th at if he wasn't agreeable to that, he'd better go home and sleep on it and see me the following morning. The next day he came to my office and apologized, and he said he would be willing to cooperate. Subsequently we developed a good working relationship.
Going to Market The managers and chefs at the Stevens did a great deal of research in the area of food purchasi n g - b y opening canned goods, for instance, and checking the contents. We found it was actually costlier to buy an inferior brand, even though it was cheaper, t han to buy a superior-quality product. After the war the Stevens was a volume user of beef, and one or more senior managers usually went with the food-purchasing agent and our young m a na ge m ent executives to visit the meat companies in Chicago, such as Swift and Stockyard Packing Company, to select quality beef for the hotel. By going to the market, we were able to select all primequality beef instead of ordering from the meat companies and having them deliver what was meat marked "prime" but that often was not. When we selected our meat, we always marked it with a Hilton Hotel stamp, which could not be washed off. That assured us of top-prime beef t hat would be aged before being delivered to the hotel. We also made trips at six o'clock in the morning to the fruit and vegetable markets for fresh, topquality products. After a num be r of such visits to the markets and meat-packing companies, we made an impression on those vendors. They decided th a t our foodpurchasing people knew their products, and thereafter they usually gave us special consideration and excellent service. A U G U S T 1993
We made every effort to have quality food at the hotel. We even set up a taste-testing exhibit for our employees in one of our exhibit halls, with all cuts of meat as well as vegetables and fruits. We invited the floor clerks, bellmen, front-office staff--all guest-contact employees--to sample our food, to make them aware of the quality of food we were serving so they could make recommendations to the guests. Their favorite was the rib roast, which they invariably recommended. That created a problem, because everyone was ordering roast beef, and the other items on the m enu were not selling well. The food-and-beverage manager, then, had to prepare new menus with a different placement of items to entice guests to order something besides roast beef--and level off our food costs. (Of course, in any food-service operation a certain percentage of all food items must be sold to keep food costs in balance.) That is one of the intricacies of the hotel business. Mr. Tucker One of the highlights of my experiences in the executive kitchen brigade was the arrival at the Stevens of a certain Mr. Tucker, an infamous guest whom I had known since my days at the Roosevelt in New York City. We had had quite a bit of trouble with him because of returned checks marked "Insufficient Funds." Mr. Tucker arrived in Chicago promoting a fabulous and fantastic new car and invited a few thousand car dealers to come and review the new car at his "plant," which I assumed was nonexistent. He had booked a dinner at the Stevens for 1,300 of his top dealers. Our catering manager was then called and advised that there would be an additional thousand people arriving by bus for cocktails and dinner. The additional guests 47
had to be served in our public dining rooms, and a thousand additional chairs had to be set up in the ballroom after the dinner. I had already told our credit manager that Mr. Tucker's credit was questionable and t hat he would have to pay us in advance with a certified check for his big cocktail and dinner party. Although Mr. Tucker insisted th a t it be billed to his "company," I wasn't even sure he had a company and so I said, "No way!" When Mr. Tucker and I finally came face to face on this occasion, he recognized me immediately. He pleaded with me to send the bill to his company, but I insisted on a certified check. He then met with his executives, went to a bank, and personally delivered a sizable certified check to our credit manager. Busloads of people arrived for cocktails and d i n n e r - - a n overflow crowd on short notice, which created a problem for us. On top of it all, it developed t hat the sensational new car he was trying to m arket didn't have an engine in it. Although Mr. Tucker assured everyone t hat after dinner a car fully equipped with an engine would appear, t hat never happened as far as I know.*
The Beginning of Yield Management With our control system for advanced forecasting of room reservations, we discovered th a t we had a heavy number of arrivals from regular business, Monday through Thursday, and that the sales director was also booking 500 rooms for convention delegates with arrivals on Mondays and Tuesdays. That created room congestion during the early part of the week, and the w e e k e n d s -
*Editors'note: F o r m o r e stories a b o u t c i r c u m s t a n c e s s u r r o u n d i n g the i n f a m o u s T u c k e r automobile, see: "Tucker: The M a n a n d His D r e a m , " a 1988 f e a t u r e - l e n g t h film directed by F r a n c i s F o r d Coppola a n d s t a r r i n g J e f f Bridges.
Fridays, Saturdays, and S u n d a y s - were not fully sold out. I recommended to Mr. Williford that we contact the convention executives and give Friday, Saturday, and Sunday as alternative dates for their members' arrivals as we had done at the Roosevelt in New York. He approved the plan. Our director of sales was reluctant, but we were supported by James Collins, assistant director of sales. I made the decision to give it a try, and we sent telegrams to all the heads of conventions that we had booked for the upcoming six months, giving them the weekend alternative. We were swamped with phone calls and letters from the convention executives, many of them offering to come to Chicago personally to accept our proposal. It turned out to be profitable not only for the hotel but for the city of Chicago, which prospered from the tremendous increase in weekend business. Other Chicago hotels followed our lead in weekend convention business.
Distillers and the Vatican Shortly after I arrived at the Stevens Hotel, the cardinal's office made arrangements for a luncheon for a thousand people. Monsignor Cletis O'Donnell, who was making all the arrangements for the election of a new bishop, advised me that Schenley Distillers would furnish all beverages and would assume the cost. By accident, I discovered that that practice was accepted by hotels in Chicago for special conventions and groups when they made dinner arrangements at hotels. Schenley would pay the hotel two dollars a bottle and the bartenders' labor costs. I asked our catering manager who had made the arrangements, and he said it was Bill Lewis, convention manager for Schenley
Distillers, whom I knew well from after some persistent investigation New York City. I asked the catering found out from Steve Healy, the manager to have Mr. Lewis see me. former owner of the Stevens, t h a t The next day Mr. Lewis came to the syndicate had earned its my office and congratulated me on special status because it had my new position. We exchanged a supplied liquor for the hotel's few words of greeting, and then I reopening after the war, when the said: "Bill, you have arranged for a Stevens couldn't get sufficient luncheon to be held at the Stevens alcoholic beverages. So the syndifor a thousand people, and I undercate had priority on those suites-stand that you are taking care of for a while. the alcoholic beverages and will After meetings with our attorassume all charges. If you assume neys the practice came to an end. all the charges, I wish to put on the The Chicago syndicate relinrecord that it will be by the drink." quished those suites, and some of He replied: "Bob, you can't do the displaced guests were willing that. You will get in trouble with to take rooms instead, to have a the powers that be at the cathevoting address in Chicago's dral." Next I made a call to my First Ward. friend John Brown, a publicrelations executive at Schenley, and Union Thugs told him the story. I advised him Whenever large numbers of guests that if Schenley was to assume the arrived in the morning, there were charges, they would be by the not enough bellmen to take care of drink. them. Arriving guests were taken In the end, my position preto their rooms, and they often vailed, and Schenley and other wouldn't accept the room. That was liquor companies were thereafter often due as much to the lack of dissuaded from making special equipment--lamps, linens, and so arrangements with organizations at on--as to misplaced beds centered a hotel's expense. That was an under the overhead light. The innovation in the hotel business, bellmen were then delayed while and helped hotels to earn a fair another room was assigned. It profit on banquet business. sometimes took three or four room changes before a guest was satisThe Chicago Mob fled with the accommodation. After I became familiar with the I set up a procedure whereby Stevens's operations, I discovered room clerks and assistant managthat two of its most expensive ers advised guests, when they deluxe suites were occupied by checked in, about the conditions we permanent guests at a monthly rate were faced with, explaining that of $150. One should have sold for their baggage would be checked $125 a day, and the other for $175. until their room could be made up Whenever I asked the manager properly. By and large, the guests about it, he brushed me off, saying were understanding and cooperat ha t I should not pursue it, t hat tive, and the new procedure there was no way of changing the seemed to be working smoothly, rates. However, I did pursue it and until one day a hotel bellman learned that the suites were leased informed me that there had been by members of the Chicago mobster complaints from other bellmen to syndicate. the union. Soon after, two agitated I brought the m at t er to Mr. union representatives arrived in Williford's attention. Mr. Williford my office. They were both six-footwent into the matter further and plus and quite vociferous. 48
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One plopped his feet up on my desk and began, like a headchopper at an inquisition: "Quain, I understand you come from New York. Well, let me tell you, w e r u n these unions in Chicago, and we want you to know t hat you have to cooperate with us." By invoking an unprintable curse word I told the guy with his feet on my desk to remove them and to speak to me like a gentlem a n - - t h e n I would certainly be glad to cooperate with him and his associate. He was so surprised at what I said and the forcefulness with which I said it t hat in taking his feet offthe desk he fell offthe chair onto the floor. He was totally embarrassed, as even his associate began to laugh. I told him that I had come up in the hotel business as an elevator man, a bellman, and a service manager, and I certainly wished to cooperate with the bell staff, as the bellmen could be our best salesmen for the Stevens, and I was looking out for their interests. Most important, I convinced the union guys t h at the bellmen could earn just as much, or more, revenue by taking care of more guests in the same amount of time, instead of staying with one guest and shifting t hat guest's luggage from room to room. It seemed so simple to me. I still don't know why the union people wanted to make a federal case out of it. At any rate, they finally agreed to give the new baggage-checking system a one-week trial. They left my office with the notion t ha t maybe th at man Quain from New York had the bellmen's interest at heart, and I had no further problems with them. Th at meeting with the union representatives left me with one important, deeply embedded idea. Thereafter, before I put into practice any new procedures t ha t involved a union, I always con-
AUGUST 1993
tacted representatives of t hat union and got their support.
Elevators and Pulsating Lights The most important improvement at the Stevens was in the elevator service, which at one time was unbelievably inept. Guests would be getting in the elevators while others would be trying to get off at the same time. Often tempers would flare, and the elevator operators--young women, generally--were being abused. Women guests fared the worst and wrote m any letters of complaint about their disappointment in the elevator service, and there were constant complaints from the executive vice presidents of national and international conventions. Before I arrived at the Stevens, it had two elevator companies trying to devise a better system of control, and they were unable to come up with a solution. Mr. McNamara, assistant manager in charge of service, and I, together with the rehabilitation department, also tried to come up with a solution and were unable to do so. Then Mrs. Quain and I attended a motion picture starring Dan Dailey, Jr., a friend of ours and the son of the manager of the Roosevelt. At the theater, we had to stand in line behind roped stanchions for almost three-quarters of an hour before gaining admittance to see the movie. Suddenly it dawned on me t ha t t hat was the solution to controlling the elevator problem. I met with Mr. McNamara the next morning and related my idea to him. We could place ropes and stanchions in the center of the elevator foyer to hold back the people who wanted to enter the elevators. The ropes could be handled by two starters, one for the right bank of elevators and one for the left bank. That would eliminate competition in front of the elevators. The elevators held 16 people, so
49
"He was so surprised at what I said and the forcefulness with which I said it that in taking his feet off the desk he fell off the chair onto the floor."
when an elevator came to its own great showroom, the the ground floor and the Empire Room, and the people had gotten off, the Stevens had its terraced, appropriate starter would spacious Boulevard Room. release 16 people from the Both were vying for showroped-off area to get on business headliners to the elevator. attract customers for Mr. McNamara arranged dinner shows. to have rehearsals of the To avoid competition procedure, explaining to the between the two Hilton elevator operators how the hotels, Mr. Williford decided exiting guests would go to to change the format at the the right or to the left, Stevens and put on a depending on which elevator spectacular ice show in the they were in, and the Boulevard Room instead of starters would control the the usual night-club enterpeople waiting behind the tainment. We had the space Pictured left to right: Robert Quain, Barron Hilton, roped stanchions to board and the facilities--a suband Conrad N. Hilton (1971). The photograph is the elevators. After three basement foundation on courtesy of the Conrad N. Hilton Archive and days of practice, Mr. Library at the University of Houston. which to build an ice rink, Williford and I watched a elevators to move the rink rehearsal and were pleased with it. buy the necessary equipment to up and down, and equipment to Another problem was the install the pulsating lights. It was convert the rink to a dance floor number of guests waiting for an accomplished, and the elevatorwhen the ice show was finished. elevator on the upper floors before maintenance man was awarded a We closed the Boulevard Room in anyone could do anything about it. bonus for his ingenuity. December 1947 to prepare for our Because most of the entertainment Those improvements were so new ice-show format. The next suites were on high-number floors, enthusiastically embraced by the month the new Boulevard Room there could be large numbers of convention executives that we had the spectacular opening of its people waiting there for elevators, received a great deal of free publicfirst ice show, which was a big hit. and the control board in the lobby ity. The result was that many of the We often headlined individual did not indicate how many were national conventions made their stars of the famed Ice Capades, as waiting on any particular floor, or headquarters at the Stevens, and well as skaters who had made high for how long they had been waiting. we increased our convention marks in national competitions for We spoke to the elevator combusiness. the Olympics. We engaged Frankie pany about the possibility of Masters, Ted Weems, Oren Tucker, The Ice Capades installing pulsating lights on each and other well-known orchestra floor that could signal the elevator Mr. Hilton's hunch was right. The leaders to provide backup music for operators to take their cars to the Palmer House and the Stevens, the ice shows, as well as dance entertainment floors and then only a few blocks apart, were able music after the shows. provide express service to the to maintain their distinctive Our Boulevard Room ice show ground floor. Such a system would personalities without competing also received a boost from preclude empty cars from having to with each other. We were able to television's Tonight Show, then in return first to the ground floor to control the constant-rate structure its infancy and having a difficult receive instructions to head up to and develop a relationship between time gaining popularity. At the the entertainment floors. That was the two hotels that gave us an edge time, leading columnists from New a new request for the elevator on the booking of national and York, Los Angeles, and Chicago executives, as they were not aware international conventions that met were trying to give the Tonight that such a problem existed. As the in Chicago. Show a boost. When it was booked price they quoted was exorbitant, We soon learned, however, that in Chicago, Irving Kupcinet, who our elevator-maintenance man and the operation of two major Hilton wrote the widely read "Kup's the chief engineer decided to study hotels in the same city posed a Column" in the Chicago Sun-Times, the problem themselves. They problem in the entertainment hosted it, which meant great found that for about $75 they could department. The Palmer House had national coverage for the hotel. 50
THE C O R N E L L H.R.A. Q U A R T E R L Y
Truman. The Stevens was to be the headquarters for the 1948 National Shrine Convention, and the Shrine's executive committee decided to invite President T r u m a n as their guest of honor. Although they did not expect him to accept, he did. Because I had not taken a vacation in a couple of years and we had just bought our property in A Cat Burglar Valparaiso, Indiana, I was planning to take some time off. I told Joe About three nights a week, rooms Harper, our manager, t hat I was on the 23rd floor of the Stevens going down to our new home, and were being robbed, and it was t ha t I didn't give a damn if the causing us much difficulty. In president of the United States was speaking with the people who had or wasn't coming to the St evens-been victimized, I found t ha t m a ny I wasn't going to ret urn until the were under the impression t ha t end of my vacation. someone had a monkey and was I had to eat my words. Two days dropping it down from the roof to later Joe H arper called me in go into their rooms. Other people Valparaiso and said: "President thought it was a young person T r u m a n is coming, and I'm sorry to dangling down a rope who Was have to tell you t hat you have to be being dropped into the rooms. back here tomorrow. The Secret (The 23rd floor was four floors Service called and they want the below the roof.) general manager to be here to go One morning at about two through the hotel with them and o'clock, after six months of frustrapersonally supervise all the artion, the night assistant manager rangements for the president." received a phone call from a guest President T r u m a n did come for on the 23rd floor who said there the Shrine convention, and of was a man sliding along the ledge course, I did ret urn to the Stevens. outside the building. On the evening of the Shrine The assistant manager thanked banquet in the Grand Ballroom-the caller and got the security an important e v e n t - - t h e Shriners officers and bellmen, who immediindulged themselves a little too ately went up to the floor. They much at the reception preceding the guarded the stairways between the dinner, with the result t hat chaos 22nd and 24th floors. One of the reigned in the VIP room, where they security officers opened a door were assembled to organize the leading to the fire escape and saw Shrine officers and guests who were the thief sliding along, approaching to be seated at the dais. It seemed the fire escape. City detectives learned later that impossible for them to get lined up. Up in his suite the president was he was a circus performer and also getting exercised about being kept an ironworker. What a relief for management, employees, and guests waiting. It was now the time when he was supposed to come down to when the thief was finally caught! the Grand Ballroom, and he was a Hail to the Chief stickler for punctuality. I called the head of the White House division of Soon after I became general manthe Secret Service, Mr. James ager of the Stevens, my own plans Raleigh, who was with the presiwere fouled up a bit by no less a dent, and told him we were having a personage th an President H a r r y
The televised ice show was a success, and was one of the first Tonight Shows ever broadcast. The ice shows actually improved the image of the Stevens, and for m a n y years both the Stevens and the Palmer House had a reputation for offering top-quality entertainment in Chicago.
AUGUST 1993
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difficult time getting the head table lined up, which was causing a delay. I asked him to advise the president of that, which he did, and I could hear President Truman's reply: "Tell t hem if they don't get lined up, I'm coming down and going to the dais myself. I'm not going to wait any longer." I told Mr. Raleigh t hat he'd better come down and help out with the situation. In the meantime Harold Lloyd, the movie star and also a Shriner, took over. He jumped up on a chair and told them they were embarrassing both the Shrine and themselves. He finally got them lined up and ready to march into the ballroom, but in the confusion they forgot about an escort for the president of the United States to the dais. Mr. Raleigh therefore asked me to escort the president, which of course was an honor and a pleasure. As we walked in, President T r u m a n said to me, "Oh, I hope they don't play t hat damn 'Missouri Waltz.' Everybody thinks that's my favorite song." Instead the orchestra played "Hail to the Chief' as we walked to the dais, and President Truman's face broke into th a t famous grin. Tom McNamara, our executive assistant manager, and I were delegated to escort President T r u m a n out of the hotel to his limousine the next morning. On the way down to the elevator, I asked if he had slept well and apologized for the music t hat had played so loud and long into the night. "I loved the music," he said. "That music put me to sleep. But I wish some guy had thrown a pail of water on t hat son of a bitch looking for Chloe. He drove me out of my mind." One of the Shrine divisions had hired a m an with a raspy voice to go around all night calling, "Chloe! Chloe!" It was their idea of fun. "It kept waking me up. I kept wishing I had a pail of water to
throw on that son of a bitch," President Truman said. He was at times an earthy man.
Russian Protocol
The famous Furniture Mart in Chicago, held during January, has traditionally been the largest MacArthur's Miniburgers gathering of furniture executives in When General MacArthur returned the United States, and hotel from Japan in September of 1951, accommodations are always he first stopped in San Francisco snapped up well in advance. Just and his second stop was Chicago, before one of the furniture markets where he spoke to 100,000 people in the late 1950s, I received an at Soldiers' Field. urgent call from the executive vice Mr. Hilton was there to meet the president of the Department of general, and Mr. Williford and I Commerce and Industry, asking if I were to meet Mrs. MacArthur and could arrange accommodations for their son. There were thousands Mr. Anastas Mikoyan, the economic and thousands of people gathered adviser to Soviet premier Nikita outside the hotel. Some committee, Khrushchev. without notification or approval Mr. Mikoyan was to be the guest from management or the police speaker at a noon luncheon at one department, had arranged to throw of our city clubs, and before leaving leis from Hawaii out of the mezzafor his speaking engagement, he nine windows, just above the invited me, along with the comentrance to the hotel. The drivers merce and industry vice president in the MacArthur motorcade didn't and a representative of the State pull up to the curb, leaving the Department, up to his suite for vehicles farther out in the street, a drink. and as they were getting out of the I had instructed our hotel staff to cars, the leis started to come down. have bottles of vodka, scotch, and When the crowd below saw the bourbon available in his suite, but leis coming down, the people ran to when I got there, I was informed try to catch them. We were caught through his interpreter that Mr. right in the middle of the stampede, Mikoyan specifically did not want along with the police. The police vodka; he preferred scotch with had to resort to using a footballginger ale. style blocking wedge to get the It was served by one of our MacArthurs, Mr. Hilton, and me captains, but the Soviet economic safely into the hotel. It was a adviser decided that we were being frightening experience. too economical with our scotch, so With the aid of the policemen, he picked up the bottle and began we escorted the MacArthurs to our pouring more of it into all our 23rd-floor Royal Skyway Suite. drinks. He made it obvious that the There we had arranged for a buffet rest of us were supposed to drink table, and as an added gesture, had with him. Then he decided he provided little hamburgers and wanted to drink bourbon and water. rolls. The only food the MacArthurs Again, he felt the waiter wasn't wanted were those hamburgers and giving us enough bourbon, and he rolls. The general asked if I would picked up the bottle and poured more for us and himself. At half arrange to get him more of them past eleven the commerce and instead of dinner. We fulfilled his industry vice president said: "I can't request and got him a couple of drink anymore. I have to be the dozen of those small hamburgers chairman of this luncheon." and coffee, as well as the ketchup Mr. Mikoyan insisted that we he requested. Evidently they don't continue drinking with him, and have hamburgers in Japan. 52
the State Department man advised us to do so. However, during Mr. Mikoyan's conversations with his interpreter, we kept adding water to our glasses. The luncheon group was quite pickled when they left, and I don't know how they got through their speeches, but they obviously did, because they returned to the hotel in time for an afternoon press conference in the Boulevard Room. There were many Slavic groups congregating and marching around the hotel, waiting for his return. I suggested to police officers and to our own security guards that we bring Mr. Mikoyan in through a side entrance and walk upstairs to the Boulevard Room to avoid the crowds. That we did, but in doing so, we moved so fast that we lost Mr. Mikoyan's own bodyguards and his interpreter. It took them some time to make their way through the crowd and find the Boulevard Room. By the time they arrived, we had Mr. Mikoyan seated and waiting by the microphones, calm and composed, and I think somewhat sobered. He had to be wondering what had happened to his caretakers! I was never filled in on what kind of economic advice he gave to Mr. Khrushchev, but, whatever it was, I'm sure it was colored by his consumption of scotch and bourbon. One thing about the hotel busin e s s - y o u meet such interesting people, co
EPILOGUE In 1971, after 47 years in the hotel industry, Robert F. Quain retired as senior vice president and director of the Washington division of the Hilton Hotels Corporation. Upon retirement and before his death several years ago, he and his wife, Florence, divided their time between Valparaiso, Indiana, and Lauderhill, Florida.--M.M.L.
THE CORNELL H.R.A. QUARTERLY