Or Death in a Hotel
Death is never a very joyful subject, and not one hotels generally much care to discuss. They do have to be prepared, however, because it is something they are likely to have to deal with sooner or later.
Death is never a very joyful subject, and not one hotels generally much care to discuss. They do have to be prepared, however, because it is something they are likely to have to deal with sooner or later.
When it does occur, staff are trained
to react with maximum discretion. Many larger hotels have
special hallways and back stairways to accommodate the comings and
goings of funeral-related activities. As nothing is more of a downer than a sheet-covered gurney pushed through the lobby, hotels will usually do whatever is necessary to keep reminders of death out of sight.
Here
is a little potpourri
of hotel obituaries. The only thing these celebrities had in common
is that they all breathed their last breath in a hotel.
* * * *
The actor James Gandolfini (whom Brenda
and I had seen on Broadway the year before) died of a heart attack in
room 440 at the Boscolo Hotel Exedra in Rome last summer. The
51-year-old star of “The Sopranos” was en route to my old
stomping grounds in Sicily to receive an acting award at the Taormina
Film Festival.
The Boscolo Hotel Exedra in Rome was the site of the heart
attack that killed actor James Gandolfini (Getty Images)
* * * *
Poet and author Dylan Thomas succumbed to alcoholism in November of 1953 at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City.
It was just two days after having told the desk clerk : “I've
just just had 18 straight whiskeys, I think that's my record.”
Playwright Tennessee Williams died in the more upmarket Hotel Elysée in 1983 in a similarly advanced state of alcoholism. The official cause was that he choked to death on the cap from a bottle of eye drops.
Playwright Tennessee Williams died in the more upmarket Hotel Elysée in 1983 in a similarly advanced state of alcoholism. The official cause was that he choked to death on the cap from a bottle of eye drops.
* * * *
Singer Whitney Houston, was discovered
dead in the bathtub of room 434 at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly
Hills in 2012. Death was attributed to accidental drowning,
but hey! just between you and me, drugs were definitely involved!
Houston's was but the most recent of a
rock history of high profile drug-related hotel demises. Rock legend Janis Joplin checked out not far away at the Landmark Motor
Hotel just off Sunset Strip in Hollywood. She was only 27 when she
died there in 1970 of a heroin overdose.
Jimi Hendrix succumbed to a fatal
overdose of sleeping pills in London's Samarkand Hotel one month
earlier. Both deaths were ruled accidental.
* * * *
Wilde (Google) |
* * * *
Chanel at home at The Ritz (Vogue) |
Patou's name hasn't retained quite the
luster of Chanel's in the intervening years, but both of their
couture houses have continued long after their deaths. Patou had
the last word, of sorts, when his creation “Joy” was voted
“perfume of the century” by an international perfume association
in 2000, narrowly beating out “Chanel No. 5.”
* * * *
German composer Richard Wagner died at
the Palazzo Vendramin Calergi in 1883 while wintering in the now
defunct Venetian hotel with his family. He was purported to be
composing a new opera when he lost consciousness. Wagner's grand hotel death later inspired Thomas Mann's much adapted novella
“Death in Venice.”
* * * *
Posthumous Harriman bio |
Her compatriot Margaret Thatcher had
already retired from active politics before Harriman was named
ambassador. She began a long descent into illness soon
after being pushed out of office by her own party in 1990.
Two of her oldest friends were David and Frederick Barclay, the brothers who owned the London Ritz. After being diagnosed with Alzheimers, Mrs. Thatcher continued to live in her London home for a number of years. But in her declining months, following bladder surgery, the Barclays insisted that she move into a suite at the Ritz where she was tended by her own caregivers as well as the hotel staff. It was there that she died in April of 2013 of a stroke while reading in bed.
Two of her oldest friends were David and Frederick Barclay, the brothers who owned the London Ritz. After being diagnosed with Alzheimers, Mrs. Thatcher continued to live in her London home for a number of years. But in her declining months, following bladder surgery, the Barclays insisted that she move into a suite at the Ritz where she was tended by her own caregivers as well as the hotel staff. It was there that she died in April of 2013 of a stroke while reading in bed.
Mrs. Thatcher's home at the Ritz. In her last weeks, she was sometimes able to lunch at the hotelrestaurant where diners and staff often applauded when she entered with her caregiver.
* * * *
This hotel necrology is far from
exhaustive, I have selected but a few of the better known examples. When you get right down to it, I suppose the
luxurious surroundings mattered little. Dying in a grand hotel is
still dying, but for some it may have made the final exit just a tad
more comfortable.
SIDEBAR: A Luxurious Exit
Marie McDill in her garden back home in Vermont (NY Times) |
When Marie McDill was diagnosed with a fast-spreading terminal cancer, she had one wish: to go out in style!
No stranger to elegant living, the seventy-year-old New England widow always had a soft spot for her favorite NYC hotel, The Carlyle. So, she put her affairs in order, said goodby to her friends in Vermont, and moved into the iconic Madison Avenue hostelry.
With the support and complicity of her three children, she had booked herself into an eighth-floor suite just ten days after receiving the grim medical prognosis. Marie McDill died peacefully in her sleep ten weeks later.
The family hired two hospice attendants from Brooklyn to care for Mrs. McDill: Rose and her sister Shirley rotated shifts on a 24-hour basis. In the evenings, Rose would sing spirituals for her patient-friend.
"She would put her head back and close her eyes and ask me to sing 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.' She'd say, 'Give me the long version, Rose.' " Rose, who took the subway from her East New York apartment to stay in the Carlyle with Mrs. McDill, later shared her memories with The New York Times.
“It was like low class to high class, going in there,” she said. “I would call her my queen, my majesty, and she called me her princess. And you know, she treated me like one.”
McDill in younger days (NY Times) |
Mrs. McDill's children organized a memorial service at St. Bartholomew's Church on Park Avenue. It was a sophisticated and poignant and very un-funeral-like affair. Loston Harris played "Just One Of Those Things" and "I've Got You Under My Skin." The hospice care sisters were also there, and Rose sang "Swing Low ..." once again. There was a colorful sprinkling of the green uniform worn by doormen, elevator operators and bellhops from her last New York residence.
The service was well attended, but Marie McDill would have undoubtedly been most pleased of all by the large turnout of her friends among the staff of the Carlyle.
Your input is welcomed: frank.pleasants@libertysurf.fr
17 comments:
Interesting post - I really had never thought of people dying while staying in hotels.
This blog reminded me of a film I saw years ago starring Jean Simmons and Dirk Bogarde. I think it was called “So Long at the Fair”. An exciting film showing the extremes the hotel would go, to prevent a death in their hotel becoming public knowledge.
As always, a most interesting history of the hotels and their famous customers!
Quite interesting! We have our share of celebrity deaths in LA but hadn't considered the hotel connection (or disconnection).
Great blog full of "new" information for me. As a child of the sixties I knew of some of the musicians demise but not in hotels. Loved the sidebar.
Dickie
Coco Chanel may have been more famous than Patou, but her conduct was more infamous!
Thanks for explaining how Thatcher ended up in the Ritz. I wondered about that when her death was announced.
As usual, I enjoyed your blog. I thought it was an interesting topic to tackle. And very informative.
As always, I enjoyed your posting, Frank!
Oh dear, penultimate from the ultimate pen...
Most interesting, I learn all the time....!! The subject sad, but very nicely written....you are the best!
Now you have written about the deaths, what about births? There must be some famous people who made their entrance into the world in a hotel room! This piece on deaths was a great read, and I am sorry to see that there is only one blog left. I do hope you are already planning Series No. 3.
Thnx, Chris. Yes, there were certainly some interesting hotel births, though probably not as many as deaths!
Already, I know that an old friend of mind (about whom I reminisced in musing no. 43 about the Connaught) who due to some wartime requisitioning was born in the very select Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulphur Springs in West Virginia.
Then there is Alexander, the last crown prince of ex-Yugoslavia, who was born in suite 222 at Claridges in London!
Oh dear Frank.....what a pity it is the penultimate blog. I look forward to the last one but will miss them once it is finished!
An interesting read as always Frank. Being in the hospitality business, one of my greatest operational fears to which I have no control over is someone dying in my hotel or restaurant. So far, so good. CHEERS!
Hi Frank. Thank you for another great blog. Giving hx on how some people finished their life journey!
You certainly do not disappoint --Inspired topic !
Hi Frank a delightful read .....I can't help wondering how lonely they might have been. I see death often in my work and think there is something special to hold someones hand! A thoughtful post - thank you
as I hesitate to say "enjoyed", reading about the deaths in hotels was both educational and the aforementioned word. I am very sorry for you to be winding down these musings. Rejuvenate and start again, fresh. I look forward to them.
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