Only women in the hotel: the story of an amazing hotel in New York

Who was she, a guest at New York's famous Barbizon Hotel?

She could come from anywhere: from provincial one-story America or from the other side of the George Washington Bridge. But most often she drove up to the door of the hotel in a yellow taxi, as she still did not know how to use the subway. In the hands - a piece of paper with the address: "Hotel" Barbizon, East 63rd Street, building 140 ". But, most likely, the taxi driver guessed where to take her before she gave the address. Maybe it's the way she gets into the car timidly, gripping the handle of her brown leather suitcase tightly. Or maybe it was because the out-of-town girl who was in Manhattan for the first time put on the best dress.

By that time, a piece of paper with an address could be wrinkled and worn out on a bus, train, or even an airplane. The excitement that seized the young woman as she opened the front door of the hotel is never to be experienced again. Because it meant so much. This is an escape from her native town and from what could (or could not) expect her there. This happened after many months in which she had to save, deny herself everything and make long, carefully plans. And here she is in New York, ready to change and start a new life. Her fate is in her hands.

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For years, the hotel's magazine advertisements exclaimed, "Oh, how good it is to live in New York! Especially at the Barbizon Hotel (ladies only).”

The slogan is tenacious and reassuring: “A one-of-a-kind hotel for young women only!”

But the articles also warned that predatory male wolves were roaming New York in search of pretty and inexperienced girls. And the Barbizon Hotel will be both a haven and a shelter. However, not only because of this, the girls of all America sought to stay there. The hotel was known to be home to budding actresses, models, singers, artists and writers. Including famous ones! When Rita Hayworth posed sexy for Life magazine in the hotel gym, she showed with all her appearance: you have a lot of opportunities.

True, each newcomer had to first appear before Mrs. May Sibley. It's the assistant manager, hawk-eyed from the front desk. The newcomer was supposed to have a presentable (or better attractive) appearance. And, depending on the moral and other qualities, one or another letter was assigned to it. Silently, Mrs. Sibley determined which one it was: A, B, or C.

The letter “A” was most often assigned to girls under 28, “B” - to those who were from 28 to 38, and “C” ... well, these were of little use

Most often, a visiting girl who wore a troubled smile on her face, and on her head a hat in which she went to Sunday school, was assigned an “A”. The first hurdle was easily overcome. Those who received Mrs. Sibley's approval were given a room key and a list of do's and don'ts. After that, the newly-made guest of the Barbizon Hotel took the elevator to the floor, to the room. In his new house, where in no case was it allowed to receive men.

There she contemplated what to do next. Some have only dreamed of such a room before, others have seen better. But for every guest at the Barbizon, a narrow bed, a chest of drawers, an armchair, a floor lamp and a small writing desk, a floral-patterned bedspread on the bed, and curtains with the same pattern were a kind of symbol of liberation. In any case, at first.

The Barbizon is the story of New York's most famous women's hotel, from its construction in 1927 to its transformation into a multi-millionaire residence in 2007. This story captures the fate of prominent women who lived in it. It is a chronicle of twentieth-century Manhattan and women's past aspirations and aspirations. The hotel was built in the twenties for many women who decided overnight to break into New York to work in a sparkling skyscraper. They no longer wanted to stay in uncomfortable furnished rooms. They wanted what men had long wanted: a sophisticated hotel with permanent apartments and weekly rates, daily maid service, and a hotel restaurant that took the hassle out of the kitchen.

Other hotels for women appeared in the 1920s, but it was the Barbizon that excited the minds of American women.

He lasted longer than others because he was associated with young women. And later, in the 1950s, with beautiful and desirable young women. Men were strictly forbidden to enter there. Only on weekends could they come to parties called “Lovers' Alley” - and then no further than the lobby. The couples hid in the shade hiding in the foliage of houseplants, pots of which were placed in strategic places. Writer Jerome Salinger often spent time in the coffee shop of the Barbizon Hotel pretending to be a Canadian hockey player. And other men, as soon as they crossed Lexington Avenue near 63rd Street, were so tired that they urgently needed to rest. And somehow the lobby of the Barbizon seemed like the perfect place for them. Some boasted that they managed to get into the heavily guarded bedrooms. And others have failed by trying to impersonate a plumber or a gynecologist. These attempts both amused and annoyed Mrs. Sibley.

The list of Barbizon guests alone is worth something: Titanic survivor Molly Brown; actresses Grace Kelly, Tippi Hedren, Liza Minnelli, Ali McGraw, Candice Bergen, Phylicia Rashad, Jacqueline Smith and Cybil Shepard; writers Sylvia Plath, Joan Didion, Diana Johnson, Gale Green, Ann Beatty, Mona Simpson and Meg Woolitzer; designer Betsey Johnson and many others.

Before becoming famous, they, quite young, came to the hotel with a suitcase, letters of recommendation and hopes.

Few managed to fulfill their dream, many did not. Some drove back home, others locked themselves in their hotel rooms and figured out what had gone wrong. Each hoped that this was a temporary shelter. And just about the heroine will make a name for herself, realize her dreams and aspirations. But year after year, many returned. These lingerers, known to the younger guests as "those women," clearly demonstrated that this is what will happen if you do not try and break out of here.

In the 70s, when Manhattan was slowly turning from chic and fashionable to shabby and outdated, “those women” regularly gathered in the lobby and discussed the young. And sometimes they allowed themselves unsolicited remarks about the length of their skirts and the neatness of their hairstyles. And in the 1980s, when it was no longer possible to maintain the former image of a “safe haven for women”, the hotel management allowed men to move in. Then these ladies and even more so there were reasons for criticism. However, despite threats to leave the house, “those women” remained. When Manhattan regained its former attractiveness in the real estate market, "Barbizon" survived the reconstruction. From a hotel, it has become an elite residential building. For "those women" they allocated a whole renovated floor, where the few remaining live to this day - now at the address: "Barbizon", fraction sixty-three. Another current tenant, British actor and comedian Ricky Gervais, picks up his correspondence from the mailbox.

Since 1928, when the Barbizon Hotel opened its doors to women, there was no need to specify that it was for middle and upper class white women.

This was made clear by the address, the portrait of a typical guest from advertising posters, and the required type of letters of recommendation. But in 1956, a student at Temple University, a talented artist Barbara Chase, settled in the hotel. Most likely, she was the first African American among the guests of the hotel. Then nothing out of the ordinary happened. In her defense was not only an attractive appearance and creative achievements, but also the magazine "Mademoiselle". The magazine's editor-in-chief, Betsy Talbot Blackwell, arranged for Barbara, as one of the winners of a literary competition, to travel to New York for a month to intern as a guest editor. There was no certainty that the administration of the Barbizon would allow her to live in a hotel. But it happened - even if they did not begin to tell her that there was a pool on the basement floor. In the office of Mademoiselle magazine on Madison Avenue, when clients from the southern states came to meet the winners of the competition, Betsy Talbot Blackwell prudently led Barbara out of the office.

"Barbizon" and "Mademoiselle" in many ways existed in symbiosis

Both of them were designed for a specific female audience, were at the forefront of social change so that the very women for whom they worked, having changed their interests and aspirations, themselves became in the forefront. This means that it is impossible to tell the story of "Barbizon" without walking through the corridors of the editorial office of the magazine "Mademoiselle". In 1944, Betsy Talbot Blackwell decided that the winners of the literary competition, who would spend June in Manhattan, should stay at the Barbizon: during the day they would have an internship under the guidance of the editors of the magazine, and in the evenings, without denying themselves pleasures, attend dinner parties, brilliant party and drink cocktails in sophisticated society. The competition attracted the best students and opened the doors of the Barbizon to Joan Didion, Meg Woolitzer, Betsy Johnson and others. But it was Sylvia Plath, the most famous guest editor of the month, who brought Barbizon into disrepute. Ten years after her stay at the hotel, and shortly before her last successful suicide attempt, she reveals the dark secrets of the hotel in her famous book Under the Glass Dome. There the hotel is veiled with the name "Amazon".

The guest editors lived in a hotel next to cult secretary students Katherine Gibbs.

They occupied three floors of the hotel. They had their own commandants, strict routines and separate tea parties. Young women in white gloves and hats, which were supposed to be worn by "ideal secretaries", personified new opportunities for a girl from the provinces. For the one who can't get to New York thanks to the talent of a dancer, actress or singer, but is quite capable of making her way to chic and brilliance with the help of a typewriter. However, it was the presence of the models that cemented the hotel's reputation as a "doll's house". The beautiful residents of the hotel mostly worked for the Powers agency. And then, for the most part, they migrated to the Ford agency, which was run by two women. But behind the walls of the abode of heartthrobs in heels-glasses, there were also enough disappointments.

Writer Gail Green returned to Barbizon two years after her first visit as guest editor with Joan Didion. She decided to write about those who were not considered "chrysalis". She called the guests, whom the men did not pay attention to, "single women." Some were so lonely that they committed suicide. Often this happened on Sunday mornings, because, as one such woman remarked, Saturday nights are for dates. And Sunday became a day of sorrow. The hotel management made sure that suicides were less mentioned in the press. They knew that the image - above all. Let them write about the most luxurious hotel guest, actress Grace Kelly.

When the Barbizon opened its doors to men, the original design with which it was built seemed outdated.

The idea was something like this: women live among women so that no one interferes with their dreams. For example, in order not to clean and cook yourself. Each room was cleaned daily by a maid, there was simply no kitchen in the rooms. The women didn't come to the Barbizon to interact with each other. But they helped each other find work, discussed problems, rejoiced at successes. They also consoled those who were not so lucky. Even the fact that they lived in the Barbizon gave them strength. Actress Eli McGraw moved into the hotel in the summer of 1958. She recalls how, holding a blue-and-white paper cup of Turkish morning coffee in her palms, she felt that she was “already moving somewhere”, just settling there.

The book "Barbizon" tells the whole story, which was previously known in fragments.

When I started talking about the one-of-a-kind hotel for women, I had no idea how many people had tried to do it before me. But then they gave up trying. In the archives of the New York Historical Society, where I expected to find a stack of documents, only a thin folder was found. And it contains only a few newspaper clippings. There were few sources of information about those who simply lived in the Barbizon Hotel. Of course, the lack of information also says something. About how easily a woman's life is forgotten. And how easy it is to decide from a lack of information that women did not participate in the daily life of the XNUMXth century.

But they participated - and how! They even had creative and career aspirations. I learned this when I unearthed the hidden stories of the Barbizon. I found former guests, now alive, witty ladies in their 80s and 90s. I found notebooks, letters, photographs. Even a whole archive in Wyoming! All this told the story of an unmarried woman of a certain type. What did it mean for her to have her own room, where she could breathe freely, shaking off the burden of her family's expectations. In New York, the city where dreams come true.