At the Plaza - Curtis Gathje

AT THE PLAZA is a pictorial record and anecdotal history of the world's most famous hotel, The Plaza in New York. At the same time, it's a chronicle of the 20th century, as seen at one of Manhattan's most prestigious addresses. For almost one hundred years, The Plaza has mirrored the social history of Manhattan: its tastes in design, entertainment, restaurants and accommodations, as well as its adjustment to Prohibition the Great Depression, two World Wars, the Cold War, women's rights, smoker's rights animal rights and British rock-and-roll. The first quests to sign the register - Mr & Mrs Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt - set the standard for the long procession of luminaries that followed: Mark Twain, Diamond Jim Brady, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Marlene Dietrich, Frank Lloyd Wright, Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and the Beatles, among many others. In AT THE PLAZA, Curtis Gathje, the hotel's official historian, has compiled a wide-ranging collection of photographs and artwork - many of which have never been published before - that includes pictures of the Plaza's construction, rare interior views, reproductions of menus and even Eloiseiana.;The result of a vivid history of a building, and institution, and a city.