Dawn of the Century by Robert Vaughan

Author:Robert Vaughan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 1992-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The very rich were arriving at the Waldorf-Astoria like so many brilliant kites on the wind, displaying their status with pomp and circumstance. The occasion was the reception given in honor of Sir Alexander Percival Chetwynd-Dunleigh, and the sudden influx of liveried carriages and chauffered automobiles, complete with footmen, created enough of a traffic jam to demand the services of extra policemen. Scores of spectators massed on the sidewalks to get a glimpse of the wealthy men and women descending from their carriages and autos, displaying the trappings of their special breed—striking formal attire, elaborate coiffures, sumptuous ball gowns, and magnificent jewels.

Alighting from his own carriage, J. P. Winthrop thought it appropriate that the gathering of these golden ones was held at the Waldorf-Astoria, considered, unquestionably, the finest hotel in the world. J.P. thought it a fitting parting gesture by William Waldorf Astor, when he had grown tired of New York a decade earlier and decided to move to England, that, before leaving, he tore down the house his father had left him on Fifth Avenue and built the huge Waldorf Hotel, replete with bas-reliefs, turrets, and finials.

Chuckling to himself, J.P. recalled that William's Aunt Caroline, the Mrs. Astor, had certainly deemed it vastly other than fitting. But though incensed that William would build such a vulgar and commercial edifice right next to her house, the grande dame of New York society had no recourse and continued to live in her four-story mansion, which, dwarfed as it was by the massive hotel, looked like a tiny cabin clinging to the side of a giant cliff. Finally, however, Mrs. Astor could take it no more, and she abandoned her house and moved to her château at Sixty-fifth and Fifth. Her son John, angry with his cousin for building the hotel, had considered razing his mother's house and putting in a stable to ruin the hotel's business. However, because profit was even more palatable than revenge, he had decided instead to build his own hotel right next door to the Waldorf, naming it the Astoria.

But even before the new hotel was completed, the two hotels had been joined into one operation although the cousins also agreed that the connection between the two buildings could be sealed off if need be, providing for a separation should the alliance prove to be unworkable. With a thousand bedrooms, many public rooms, plus a ballroom that could hold fifteen hundred guests in radiant splendor, the Waldorf-Astoria was the largest and most expensive hotel in the world and became the place of the very rich, where in order to dine in the most exclusive of the restaurants, even on an ordinary night, guests were required to wear evening clothes. The atmosphere was wealthy, the air was scented with the most expensive perfumes, and on any given night, the halls and rooms would be rife with jewels, furs, and silks.

The maître d’ at the Waldorf-Astoria, a man named Oscar, was a legend in his profession, a practiced snob

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.