Hotel Mavens: Lucius M. Boomer, George C. Boldt and Oscar of the Waldorf

By Stanley Turkel CMHS

The word maven is defined by Wikipedia as a trusted expert in a particular field, who seeks to pass knowledge on to others. Since the 1980s it has become more common when the New York Times columnist William Safire adapted it to describe himself as the language maven. The word from Hebrew is mainly confined to American English and was included in the Oxford English Dictionary second edition (1989).

My three hotel mavens are:

1) Lucius M. Boomer, one of the most famous hoteliers of his time, was chairman of the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria Corporation. In a career of over half a century, he directed such celebrated hotels as the Bellevue-Stratford in Philadelphia, the Taft in New Haven, the Lenox in Boston, and the McAlpin, Claridge, Sherry-Netherland and the original as well as the current Waldorf-Astoria in New York.

2) George C. Boldt who was the genius of the original Waldorf-Astoria. It was said of him that he made innkeeping a profession and, more than any man, was responsible for the modern American hotel.

3) Oscar of the Waldorf who was described in 1898 by the New York Sun:

In only one New York hotel, however, is there a personage deserving to be called a matre dhotel. Anyone who studies him closely will soon arrive at a firm conviction that he might quite as appropriately have been called General or Admiral, if circumstances had not led him into the hotel business. Oscar knows everybody.

Oscar was a superstar of his time and one of the stalwarts who managed both the original and the current Waldorf-Astoria. Among his many duties, Oscar commanded a staff of 1,000 persons bedsides conducting a school for waiters, at the time the only one of its kind in the United States. In 1896, Oscar wrote one of the greatest cookbooks of its time: The Cook Book by Oscar of the Waldorf. It contains 907 pages and 3,455 recipes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Sep 19, 2014
• ISBN: 9781496933348

Stanley Turkel CMHS

STANLEY TURKEL is a recognized authority and consultant in the hotel industry. He operates his hotel consulting practice serving as an expert witness in hotel-related cases and providing asset management. Prior to forming his own hotel consulting firm, Turkel was the Product Line Manager of Hotel/Motel operations at the International Telephone & Telegraph Company overseeing the Sheraton Corporation of America. Before joining IT&T, he was the General Manager of the Summit Hotel (762 Rooms), General Manager of the Drake Hotel (680 Rooms) and Resident Manager of the American Hotel (1842 Rooms), all in New York City. Turkel is certified as a Master Hotel Supplier Emeritus by the Educational Institute of the American Hotel and Lodging Association. Stanley Turkel is one of the most widely-published authors in the hospitality industry in the United States. In 2014 and 2015, he was designated as the Historian of the Year by the Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. [e-mail] www.stanleyturkel.com

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HOTEL MAVENS:

Lucius M. Boomer, George C. Boldt and Oscar of the Waldorf

STANLEY TURKEL, CMHS

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© 2014 Stanley Turkel, CMHS. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 9/19/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-3335-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-3336-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-3334-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014914352

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Dedication

Preface

Introduction

George C. Boldt (1851-1916)

Oscar of the Waldorf (1866-1950)

Lucius M. Boomer (1878-1947)

The Lenox Hotel

The Hotel Claridge

The McAlpin Hotel

Lucius M. Boomer and T. Coleman duPont

The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel

After World War I

The New Willard Hotel

The Sherry-Netherland Hotel

The InterContinental Hotel Corporation

Hotel Management Principles and Practice by Lucius M. Boomer

Jorgine (Georgia) Slettede Boomer

The New Waldorf-Astoria Hotel

Lucius M. Boomer’s Accomplishments

Epilogue

Staff News

Facts About the Waldorf-Astoria

Condensed Chronology: Original Waldorf-Astoria from 1890-1929

Condensed Chronology: New Waldorf-Astoria from 1929 to 1946

Source Materials

Bibliography

About the Author

Omar Khayyam, the poet and prophet, writing more than 800 years ago has said: In the four parts of the earth there are many that are able to write learned books, many that are able to lead armies, and many also that are able to govern kingdoms and empires, but few there be that can keep a hotel.

-Mark Twain, in the appendix to his

A Tramp Abroad, written in 1878.

DEDICATION

To six special women who enriched my life in significant ways:

1. Mollie Turkel- my warm-hearted mother whose capacity for life extended from mouth-watering cookies to a world-class sense of humor.

2. Anna Sokoloff- my hard-working mother-in-law whose heart was big enough to embrace everyone around her.

3. Rima Turkel- my wonderful wife of 43 years who shared and enhanced our fabulous life together.

4. Barbara Turkel- the intellectual and courageous mother of my two children: Marc and Allison.

5. Allison Turkel- my amazing daughter who surpasses all my expectations.

6. Benay Forrest-Spector- my trustworthy step-daughter who is a super-mom and a super-technician.

PREFACE

As I complete writing this book and prepare it for publication, I have received the following marvelous letter:

HISTORIC HOTELS

of AMERICA

National Trust for Historic Preservation

May 15, 2014

Mr. Stanley Turkel

Via Email

Dear Stan:

Thank you for being a champion of preserving history and meeting with me in New York at The Harvard Club. Your articles and books have benefited our organization and our historic hotels tremendously. Historic Hotels of America would like to present you with a special award, the Historic Hotels of America Historian of the Year, at our upcoming Annual Conference and Awards Gala, September 30-October 3, 2014, at The Hotel Hershey, Established 1933, in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation for recognizing historic hotels, is committed to preserving and promoting the authenticity of over 240 of America’s most prominent lodging addresses and offers visitors a remarkable travel experience to savor, celebrate and share.

To be eligible for membership in Historic Hotels of America, a hotel must be fifty years or older and must qualify for or be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. From opulent mansions to converted factories, each fascinating place has been inducted into this distinguished brand based upon noteworthy standards, and many of our hotels have been designated by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior as National Historic Landmarks. Historic Hotels of America is represented by all major hotel chains, brands, and collections and this Annual Conference and Awards Gala will include owners, general managers, and sales directors from our historic hotels.

In addition to receiving your award, Historic Hotels of America would like you to speak to our attendees with an educational overview of Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry. Our attendees would enjoy learning from you about your insights into some of these hotel pioneers: Henry Flagler, Fred Harvey, George Pullman, Henry Plant, Carl Fisher, Ellsworth Statler, Kemmons Wilson, Howard Johnson, Juan Trippe, John Bowman, Conrad Hilton, Ernest Henderson, A.M. Sonnabend and John Hammons.

We are pleased to cover your conference registration, travel, and lodging expenses and to provide you with four complimentary tickets to the Awards Gala on Thursday, October 2, 2014. In addition, we are happy to make a $500 donation to the charity of your choice.

For more information about the conference, please feel free to review our event website:

www.historichotels.net/hershey, or call me if you have any questions, 202 772-9983.

We are honored to present you with this award and to have you speak to us as a distinguished author.

Respectfully,

Lawrence P. Horwitz

Executive Director

Historic Hotels of America and Historic Hotels Worldwide

INTRODUCTION

The word maven is defined by Wikipedia as a trusted expert in a particular field, who seeks to pass knowledge on to others. The word maven comes from Hebrew, and means one who understands, based on an accumulation of knowledge. .… It was first recorded (spelled mayvin) in English in 1950 (in the Jewish Standard of Toronto), and popularized in the United States in the 1960s by a series of commercials created by Martin Solow for Vita Herring, featuring The Beloved Herring Maven which ran in radio ads from 1964 to 1968, and was then brought back in 1983. An example of a print advertisement including the Maven is: Get Vita at your favorite supermarket, grocery or delicatessen. Tell them the beloved Maven sent you. It won’t save you any money: but you’ll get the best herring.

Since the 1980s it has become more common when the New York Times columnist William Safire adapted it to describe himself as the language maven. The word is mainly confined to American English and was included in the Oxford English Dictionary second edition (1989).

Malcolm Gladwell used the term in his book The Tipping Point (Little Brown, 2000) to describe those who are intense gatherers of information and impressions, and so are often the first to pick up on new or nascent trends. Gladwell also suggests that mavens may act most effectively when in collaboration with connectors - i.e., those people who have wide network of casual acquaintances by whom they are trusted, often a network that crosses many social boundaries and groups.

There may be no more unexpected way to begin a biography of a once-famous person than to quote his obituary verbatim. At the turn of the century, New York Times obituaries were thoroughly researched and well-written. Therefore, the following obituary about Lucius Boomer which appeared in the New York Times on June 27, 1947 provides a concise snapshot of one of the most famous hoteliers of his time.

Lucius Boomer, 68, Hotel Leader, Dies

Director of Waldorf-Astoria

Spent Half Century at Helm

of Outstanding Hostelries

______

FRIEND TO MANY NOTABLES

_______

Duke of Windsor and Churchill

Among Patrons-Succumbs

on Vacation in Norway

_______

OSLO, Norway, June 26, 1947

Lucius Boomer, director of New York’s Hotel Waldorf-Astoria, died of a heart ailment at Hamar today. His age was 68. He was on his way to the Gudrandsdal Valley, where he intended to spend the summer with his Norwegian-born wife and their daughter.

Headed Leading Hostelries

Lucius Boomer, chairman of the board of directors of the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria Corporation, was one of the best known hotel men in this country. In a career of half a century he had directed such celebrated hostelries as the Taft in New Haven, the Bellevue-Stratford in Philadelphia, and the McAlpin, Claridge, Sherry-Netherland, and the old as well as the new Waldorf-Astoria in this city.

A man of vibrant personality, Mr. Boomer was the personal friend of many world-famous individuals who had enjoyed his hospitality, such as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Winston Churchill. Only last fall, his suite on the thirty-seventh floor of the Waldorf Towers was the setting for the meeting of the Big Four Foreign Ministers.

In the hotel field, Mr. Boomer was regarded as a pioneer in the scientific management of large hotels. He was the author of a standard book on hotel management, which was translated into many languages, including Japanese. His associates described him as a dynamic executive, with an exceptional capacity for detail.

I liked hotel work as soon as I started it, he once told an interviewer who had asked him the secret of his success. I suppose I must have more or less fitness for it. I worked hard. That’s all.

He was born in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. on August 28, 1878. As a boy he also lived in New York, Johnstown, PA., Pittsburgh and Chicago. He had just entered the University of Chicago when his father died, leaving him only enough funds for two months. He devoted the two months to studying stenography at day and night schools, to fit himself to earn a living. Mr. Boomer was earning $55 a month as a stenographer in railroad office in Chicago when the winter of 1897 loomed. Unable to afford an overcoat, he found a way out by getting a job with the Flagler Hotel in St. Augustine, FL. For three years he spent his winters there and his summers at the Oriental Hotel in Manhattan Beach.

Became Manager at 27

Rising steadily in his profession he was appointed manager of the Royal Muskoka Hotel, Muskoka Lakes, Canada, a celebrated summer resort hotel, when he was only 27 years old. When the Hotel Plaza was opened here in October, 1907, he came here as secretary to Frederick Sterry, its managing director.

He later opened and directed the Nassau Hotel at Long Beach, L.I., and, in association with Henry Merry, the Hotel Taft in New Haven. There he made a strong impression on the late Charles P. Taft, who was one of the principal owners of that hotel. Mr. Taft was also a backer of the Hotel McAlpin, then nearing completion in this city.

In December, 1912, Mr. Boomer undertook the organization of a staff for the McAlpin, and managed it for several years thereafter. His ability and energy attracted the attention of Gen. T. Coleman duPont, who had been offered control of the old Waldorf-Astoria for $3,000,000 after the death of George C. Boldt, its founder.

Boomer, I will take it if you will run it. General duPont said to the youthful hotel executive. Mr. Boomer agreed. He became president of the Boomer-duPont Properties Corporation, a holding company, and also of the operating company that was formed to manage the Waldorf.

The Boomer-duPont interests subsequently expanded to other cities. In 1919, they acquired the Bellevue-Stratford in Philadelphia and later they also took control of the New Willard Hotel in Washington and the Windsor in Montreal. In 1920, on the retirement of Louis Sherry, Mr. Boomer also became directing head of the Louis Sherry chocolate and ice cream business. He was also president of The Savarins, Inc., a chain of restaurants.

Prohibition Caused Decline

Prohibition brought troublesome days for the hotel industry. Mr. Boomer always insisted on the scrupulous observance of the law, but sadly observed patrons leaving some of the establishments under his direction for other places. In June, 1922, he was forced to close the Claridge at Broadway and Forty-fourth Street because of this situation.

He became president of another company formed to build and operate the Sherry-Netherland Hotel at Fifth Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street. He was having dinner at Sherry’s on the night of April 12, 1927, when he received word that the scaffolding around the tower of the almost-completed hotel was on fire. He joined several hundred thousand other New Yorkers in watching one of the most spectacular blazes in the city’s history. It did not delay the opening of the new hotel, from which Mr. Boomer resigned in 1937.

On December 20, 1928, Mr. Boomer announced that the site of the Waldorf-Astoria, which had been the city’s premier hotel for thirty-five years, had been sold to make way for the Empire State Building. The site at the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and Thirty-fourth Street, brought $13,500,000. It was later disclosed that Mr. Boomer reserved the right to the name Waldorf-Astoria for a new hotel.

Mr. Boomer had envisioned a new hotel in a location farther uptown. He found the site he wanted in the block bounded by Park and Lexington Avenues, Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Streets. The property was owned by the New York Central Railroad. Mr. Boomer formed the Waldorf-Astoria Corporation to build the new hotel there.

The structure was opened to the public on October 1, 1931. President Hoover, speaking by radio from Washington, made the principal address of the occasion. Mr. Boomer was president of the Waldorf-Astoria Corporation until 1945, when he was elected chairman of the board of directors. In both capacities he remained the chief executive officer of the hotel.

Because of his great experience in the hotel field, Mr. Boomer was frequently called