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The Waldorf-Astoria: America's gilded dream
CHRAQ News & Reviews
December 1991
1954 and Grand Met's decision to move into and out of the hotel industry are two particularly interesting case studies. The article on REKA, the Swiss social-travel fund, offers an insight into a creative way to assist people of limited means that also benefits the travel industry. Other topics contained in this volume: the Japanese travel boom (the Japanese considered establishing senior-citizen colonies in other countries, but dropped the idea when accused of "dumping" its elderly population); U.S. travel-industry issues (with the unlikely prediction that the impact of terrorism on travel will wane); and international airlines' hub operations (too cozy a relationship invites the interest of what Americans would call "anti-trust" authorities). I judge Tourism Management to be a worthwhile resource. Throughout, it is well-edited and easily readable (even if the letter "z" never appears). Moreover, you have to admire Butterworth-Heinemann for getting another $60 out of material that has been previously published.---G.W.
The Waldorf-Astoria: America's Gilded Dream, by Ward Morehouse III. M. Evans and Company, 216 East 49 Street, New York, NY 10017. 260 pp. Hardcover, $22.95. Which of the following did not occur in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel: (a) a "heaven-descended" dove flying around Francis Cardinal Spellman as he offered the invocation at a banquet; (b) the Harlem Globetrotters giving a basketball exhibition; (c) party hostess Elsa Maxwell riding on an elephant; or (d) a circus party, complete with a man on the flying trapeze? In the 60 years that the Waldorf has been at its current location on Park Avenue, the hotel's staff has seen many exotic events. In this book, Ward Morehouse III, who "narrowly escaped" being born in the Waldorf, chronicles many of the events and personalities connected to the two Waldorf-Astorias-the hotel that stood on the site of the Empire State Building and the current hotel on Park Avenue. Financing arrangements for the second Waldorf were completed just days before the stock market crashed in 1929, and the project had to proceed despite a gloomy outlook. The son of actress and publisher Joan Marlowe and broadway columnist Ward Morehouse, the author lived in a series of hotels as a youth. His parents had just moved out of the Waldorf-
86
Astoria when young Morehouse was born. After his parents separated, the author visited his father's suite in the Waldorf Towers many times. Ironically, the younger Morehouse never stayed in the Waldorf in his own right until recently when he was writing this book. Morehouse's book is mostly gossip--good, juicy gossip-and so enjoyable only insofar as the reader is familiar with the personalities being discussed. Those personalities include George Boldt and Oscar Tschirky (proprietors of the first Waldorf), Lucius Boomer and Claudius Charles Philippe (respectively, manager and maitre d'h6tel of the second Waldorf), the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Elsa Maxwell (the party giver), and a host of actors, actresses, and other luminaries. Embedded in the stories of Oscar, Philippe, the Windsors, Elsa, and Boomer is the tale of how the Waldorf became one of the foremost hotels in the world. Indeed, although the author may not have set out with this purpose, the book relates how a hotel of the magnitude of the Waldorf that opened in the depths of the Depression could ever have survived. Part of the answer is sheer will power. Oscar, Elsa, Philippe, and Boomer are noteworthy for brooking no interference with their roles within the Waldorf structure. Elsa Maxwell, who was never employed by the Waldorf, was a party giver for society. She lived in the Waldorf and arranged the parties that kept the hotel's F&B business alive--particularly crucial in the 1930s. The two maitres d'h6tel, Oscar and Philippe, kept the functions moving. Philippe is little known today, probably because he was nailed by the IRS in 1960 for failing to report tip income, allegedly in six figures. But he was particularly responsible for the post-war success of the hotel's banquet business. Working with Maxwell, Philippe created parties out of nothing, including the longrunning April in Paris charity ball (which he moved to autumn to fill in empty banquet dates). Morehouse gives Philippe the credit for developing the contemporary banquet business, which mixes business with society. The Windsors, who may or may not have ever paid a hotel bill, kept the Waldorf and any other hotel they visited in the limelight. In the societyconscious '50s, hosting the Windsors was like money in the bank. Boomer, the man who built the current Waldorf, ran the hotel with a will and arm of iron. Finding a bellman leaning against a wall one day, Boomer told him he was terminated because he must be too tired to keep on working.
THE CORNELL H.R.A. Q U A R T E R L Y
CHRAQ News & Reviews
December 1991
Almost missing in this saga is Conrad Hilton. Hilton perforce gets a chapter of his own, because he was the owner who finally brought financial stability to the Waldorf after he purchased control of the hotel in 1949. (Morehouse notes, however, that Barron Hilton was the one who bought the real estate in 1978.) Although Conrad Hilton is mentioned, he seems to be praised with faint damns. In essence, the argument is that people expected Hilton to do a poor job of maintaining the glamor of the Waldorf, but he surprised everyone by being successful. This chapter is weak because Morehouse goes into few specifics about how Hilton handled the hotel. The reader gets the idea that he mostly left it alone. Moreover, much of the Hilton chapter discusses other people, notably Alice Statler, whom Hilton wooed in the process of purchasing the Waldorf, since Hotels Statler was itself interested in the Waldorf. Explicitly excluded from this book is the rooms division of the Waldorf-Astoria. This book is set almost exclusively between the 28th and 42nd floors--the Waldorf Towers--and includes the hotel's banquet service. Morehouse correctly points out that the Waldorf-Astoria is two hotels--namely, the Waldorf-Astoria and the Waldorf Towers. That division has been in effect since the hotel opened on October 1, 1931. A minor problem with this book is that each chapter was written independently. As a result, the book is sometimes repetitive, as characters who appear in many chapters are reintroduced each time and some information is reiterated. There also is no index, so anyone who wants to use the book for its historical content is out of luck. The other small flaw is the author's "golly, wow" tone throughout. Those are minor problems, however, in the face of the many great stories Morehouse has to tell. Stories like Cardinal Spellman and the dove, Elsa Maxwell and her elephants, and John Ringling's trapeze. Four stories high and comprising 22,000 square feet, the Grand Ballroom at the Waldorf could easily host a basketball tourney, but this book does not record one.--G.W.
rHEOzE3AGA Candidates to fill the position of General Manager at The Otesaga Hotel, one of the finest resort hotels in the Northeast, are currently being sought. Located in beautiful Cooperstown, in central New York State the village of museums The Otesaga is a 270-bed resort and convention center nationally known for its elegance and stateliness. Reporting to the Board of Directors of the parent corporanon, the General Manager is responsible for all day-to-day activities, including marketing, sales, facilities management, recto*hog,training and motivating a large staffand the maintenanceand enhancement of the outstanding reputanon of the hotel. The General Manager will also overseethe operationsof The Cooper Inn, the hotel's 40-bed sister msutuuon, which is l~:ated within a five-minute walk of The Otesaga. The successfulcandidate will be a self-starter who possessesstrong entrepreneurial skills, creativity and initiative and will have had a high degree of achievement in a similar setting. Those interested in this prestigious career opportunity may apply by forwarding a cover letter and resume, in confidence, to Mr. Edward W. Stack, Vice President, Leatherstocking Corporation, 30 Wall Street, New York, New York 10005. Leatherstocking Corporatmn is an equal opportumty employer.
least one managerial article involving transactional analysis. See Maurice F. Villere, Thomas S. O'Connor, and William J. Quain, "Games Nobody Wins: Transactional Analysis for the Hospitality Industry," November 1983, pp. 72-79.) The final section is entitled "Employee Relations" and Human Relations for the Hospitality Industry, by Donald J. recounts Douglas McGregor's "Theory X-Theory Y" approach Martin and Donald Lundberg. Van Nostrand Reinhold, 115 Fifth to management, and then delves into Blake and Mouton's Avenue, New York, NY 10003. 299 pp. Hardcover, $36.95. management grid. Perhaps this book does the industry a service by collecting all these personality and management This book appears to be an elementary introduction to the theories into one volume. First-year college students should concepts of human relations. It ends up primarily being a enjoy them .-47. W. respository of pop psychology. An initial section is a discussion of guest relations so basic Capturing Customers: How to Target the Hottest Markets of that the target reader appears to be someone who has never the '90s, by Peter Francese and Rebecca Piirto. American entered a hotel. This section sets the tone for the rest of the book Demographics Press, 127 West State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850. by trotting out the venerable Maslow Hierarchy and Veblen's 1990. 192 pp. Hardcover, $39.95. "conspicuous consumption" theory. Much of the rest of the first section contains sets of proposed scripts for employees to use or Contemporary market research, supported by advances in adapt when they are dealing with guests. computerized statistical software, involves huge multivariate One-third of Martin and Lundberg's volume is taken up with a data bases. Understanding bow to maneuver these large volumes recounting of transactional-analysis theory, some of it taken of coded information requires a sophisticated understanding of directly from Games People Play, the TA book that was so computer languages, a solid grounding in the fields of marketing popular in the 1960s. To reveal my bias, I think transactional and consumer psychology, and an aptitude for interpreting both analysis is a wonderful parlor game. By filling out TA assessquantitative and qualitative research analyses. This is no easy ment forms (contained in this book's appendices), you can task for a sophisticated market researcher, let alone an entrepredetermine what kind of personality you have--child, parent, neur who is already working long hours. adult--and can characterize your basic approach to life, as If a business needs market-research expertise but is unable to summed up by the title of one of the most famous TA books, afford an in-house market-research department, the proprietor I'm OK, You're OK. (One mea culpa: The Quarterly has run at needs to know how to select a marketing-research agent or
D E C E M B E R 1991
87
December 1991
1954 and Grand Met's decision to move into and out of the hotel industry are two particularly interesting case studies. The article on REKA, the Swiss social-travel fund, offers an insight into a creative way to assist people of limited means that also benefits the travel industry. Other topics contained in this volume: the Japanese travel boom (the Japanese considered establishing senior-citizen colonies in other countries, but dropped the idea when accused of "dumping" its elderly population); U.S. travel-industry issues (with the unlikely prediction that the impact of terrorism on travel will wane); and international airlines' hub operations (too cozy a relationship invites the interest of what Americans would call "anti-trust" authorities). I judge Tourism Management to be a worthwhile resource. Throughout, it is well-edited and easily readable (even if the letter "z" never appears). Moreover, you have to admire Butterworth-Heinemann for getting another $60 out of material that has been previously published.---G.W.
The Waldorf-Astoria: America's Gilded Dream, by Ward Morehouse III. M. Evans and Company, 216 East 49 Street, New York, NY 10017. 260 pp. Hardcover, $22.95. Which of the following did not occur in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel: (a) a "heaven-descended" dove flying around Francis Cardinal Spellman as he offered the invocation at a banquet; (b) the Harlem Globetrotters giving a basketball exhibition; (c) party hostess Elsa Maxwell riding on an elephant; or (d) a circus party, complete with a man on the flying trapeze? In the 60 years that the Waldorf has been at its current location on Park Avenue, the hotel's staff has seen many exotic events. In this book, Ward Morehouse III, who "narrowly escaped" being born in the Waldorf, chronicles many of the events and personalities connected to the two Waldorf-Astorias-the hotel that stood on the site of the Empire State Building and the current hotel on Park Avenue. Financing arrangements for the second Waldorf were completed just days before the stock market crashed in 1929, and the project had to proceed despite a gloomy outlook. The son of actress and publisher Joan Marlowe and broadway columnist Ward Morehouse, the author lived in a series of hotels as a youth. His parents had just moved out of the Waldorf-
86
Astoria when young Morehouse was born. After his parents separated, the author visited his father's suite in the Waldorf Towers many times. Ironically, the younger Morehouse never stayed in the Waldorf in his own right until recently when he was writing this book. Morehouse's book is mostly gossip--good, juicy gossip-and so enjoyable only insofar as the reader is familiar with the personalities being discussed. Those personalities include George Boldt and Oscar Tschirky (proprietors of the first Waldorf), Lucius Boomer and Claudius Charles Philippe (respectively, manager and maitre d'h6tel of the second Waldorf), the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Elsa Maxwell (the party giver), and a host of actors, actresses, and other luminaries. Embedded in the stories of Oscar, Philippe, the Windsors, Elsa, and Boomer is the tale of how the Waldorf became one of the foremost hotels in the world. Indeed, although the author may not have set out with this purpose, the book relates how a hotel of the magnitude of the Waldorf that opened in the depths of the Depression could ever have survived. Part of the answer is sheer will power. Oscar, Elsa, Philippe, and Boomer are noteworthy for brooking no interference with their roles within the Waldorf structure. Elsa Maxwell, who was never employed by the Waldorf, was a party giver for society. She lived in the Waldorf and arranged the parties that kept the hotel's F&B business alive--particularly crucial in the 1930s. The two maitres d'h6tel, Oscar and Philippe, kept the functions moving. Philippe is little known today, probably because he was nailed by the IRS in 1960 for failing to report tip income, allegedly in six figures. But he was particularly responsible for the post-war success of the hotel's banquet business. Working with Maxwell, Philippe created parties out of nothing, including the longrunning April in Paris charity ball (which he moved to autumn to fill in empty banquet dates). Morehouse gives Philippe the credit for developing the contemporary banquet business, which mixes business with society. The Windsors, who may or may not have ever paid a hotel bill, kept the Waldorf and any other hotel they visited in the limelight. In the societyconscious '50s, hosting the Windsors was like money in the bank. Boomer, the man who built the current Waldorf, ran the hotel with a will and arm of iron. Finding a bellman leaning against a wall one day, Boomer told him he was terminated because he must be too tired to keep on working.
THE CORNELL H.R.A. Q U A R T E R L Y
CHRAQ News & Reviews
December 1991
Almost missing in this saga is Conrad Hilton. Hilton perforce gets a chapter of his own, because he was the owner who finally brought financial stability to the Waldorf after he purchased control of the hotel in 1949. (Morehouse notes, however, that Barron Hilton was the one who bought the real estate in 1978.) Although Conrad Hilton is mentioned, he seems to be praised with faint damns. In essence, the argument is that people expected Hilton to do a poor job of maintaining the glamor of the Waldorf, but he surprised everyone by being successful. This chapter is weak because Morehouse goes into few specifics about how Hilton handled the hotel. The reader gets the idea that he mostly left it alone. Moreover, much of the Hilton chapter discusses other people, notably Alice Statler, whom Hilton wooed in the process of purchasing the Waldorf, since Hotels Statler was itself interested in the Waldorf. Explicitly excluded from this book is the rooms division of the Waldorf-Astoria. This book is set almost exclusively between the 28th and 42nd floors--the Waldorf Towers--and includes the hotel's banquet service. Morehouse correctly points out that the Waldorf-Astoria is two hotels--namely, the Waldorf-Astoria and the Waldorf Towers. That division has been in effect since the hotel opened on October 1, 1931. A minor problem with this book is that each chapter was written independently. As a result, the book is sometimes repetitive, as characters who appear in many chapters are reintroduced each time and some information is reiterated. There also is no index, so anyone who wants to use the book for its historical content is out of luck. The other small flaw is the author's "golly, wow" tone throughout. Those are minor problems, however, in the face of the many great stories Morehouse has to tell. Stories like Cardinal Spellman and the dove, Elsa Maxwell and her elephants, and John Ringling's trapeze. Four stories high and comprising 22,000 square feet, the Grand Ballroom at the Waldorf could easily host a basketball tourney, but this book does not record one.--G.W.
rHEOzE3AGA Candidates to fill the position of General Manager at The Otesaga Hotel, one of the finest resort hotels in the Northeast, are currently being sought. Located in beautiful Cooperstown, in central New York State the village of museums The Otesaga is a 270-bed resort and convention center nationally known for its elegance and stateliness. Reporting to the Board of Directors of the parent corporanon, the General Manager is responsible for all day-to-day activities, including marketing, sales, facilities management, recto*hog,training and motivating a large staffand the maintenanceand enhancement of the outstanding reputanon of the hotel. The General Manager will also overseethe operationsof The Cooper Inn, the hotel's 40-bed sister msutuuon, which is l~:ated within a five-minute walk of The Otesaga. The successfulcandidate will be a self-starter who possessesstrong entrepreneurial skills, creativity and initiative and will have had a high degree of achievement in a similar setting. Those interested in this prestigious career opportunity may apply by forwarding a cover letter and resume, in confidence, to Mr. Edward W. Stack, Vice President, Leatherstocking Corporation, 30 Wall Street, New York, New York 10005. Leatherstocking Corporatmn is an equal opportumty employer.
least one managerial article involving transactional analysis. See Maurice F. Villere, Thomas S. O'Connor, and William J. Quain, "Games Nobody Wins: Transactional Analysis for the Hospitality Industry," November 1983, pp. 72-79.) The final section is entitled "Employee Relations" and Human Relations for the Hospitality Industry, by Donald J. recounts Douglas McGregor's "Theory X-Theory Y" approach Martin and Donald Lundberg. Van Nostrand Reinhold, 115 Fifth to management, and then delves into Blake and Mouton's Avenue, New York, NY 10003. 299 pp. Hardcover, $36.95. management grid. Perhaps this book does the industry a service by collecting all these personality and management This book appears to be an elementary introduction to the theories into one volume. First-year college students should concepts of human relations. It ends up primarily being a enjoy them .-47. W. respository of pop psychology. An initial section is a discussion of guest relations so basic Capturing Customers: How to Target the Hottest Markets of that the target reader appears to be someone who has never the '90s, by Peter Francese and Rebecca Piirto. American entered a hotel. This section sets the tone for the rest of the book Demographics Press, 127 West State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850. by trotting out the venerable Maslow Hierarchy and Veblen's 1990. 192 pp. Hardcover, $39.95. "conspicuous consumption" theory. Much of the rest of the first section contains sets of proposed scripts for employees to use or Contemporary market research, supported by advances in adapt when they are dealing with guests. computerized statistical software, involves huge multivariate One-third of Martin and Lundberg's volume is taken up with a data bases. Understanding bow to maneuver these large volumes recounting of transactional-analysis theory, some of it taken of coded information requires a sophisticated understanding of directly from Games People Play, the TA book that was so computer languages, a solid grounding in the fields of marketing popular in the 1960s. To reveal my bias, I think transactional and consumer psychology, and an aptitude for interpreting both analysis is a wonderful parlor game. By filling out TA assessquantitative and qualitative research analyses. This is no easy ment forms (contained in this book's appendices), you can task for a sophisticated market researcher, let alone an entrepredetermine what kind of personality you have--child, parent, neur who is already working long hours. adult--and can characterize your basic approach to life, as If a business needs market-research expertise but is unable to summed up by the title of one of the most famous TA books, afford an in-house market-research department, the proprietor I'm OK, You're OK. (One mea culpa: The Quarterly has run at needs to know how to select a marketing-research agent or
D E C E M B E R 1991
87