At The Plaza

An Illustrated History of the World's Most Famous Hotel

Curtis Gathje

• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9780312261740
• eBook ISBN: 9781466867000
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

At The Plaza is a pictorial record and an anecdotal history of the world's most famous hotel: New York's Plaza. As a story, it traverses the breadth and scope of Gotham's high society during the American Century. As a photo collection, it's like no other, capturing the hotel's remarkable presence on the ever-changing New York scene.
For almost one hundred years, The Plaza has mirrored the social history of Manhattan: its tastes in design, entertainment, restaurants and accommodations, as well as its adjustment to Prohibition, the Great Depression, two World Wars, the Cold War, women's rights, smokers' rights, animals' rights and British rock-and-roll. The first guests to sign the register-Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt-set the standard for the long procession of luminaries that followed: Mark Twain, Diamond Jim Brady, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Marlene Dietrich, Frank Lloyd Wright, Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and the Beatles, among many others.
In At The Plaza, the hotel's official historian, Curtis Gathje, has compiled a tremendous collection of photographs and vignettes chronicling the colorful history of a building, an institution, and a city.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Notice
• Contents
• Dedication
• The Plaza, the Camera, and the Century
• Part One: The Site
• Part Two: The Legend
• Time Line
• Filmography
• Bibliography
• Illustration Credits
• Acknowledgments
• Index
• Copyright