Rebecca DeBiase

Professor Hoffman

IDC 1001H

6 December 2017

The Plaza Underground

          I’m here to tell you about my experiences while being an elevator operator. Sure, it might not sound interesting, but I felt as if I should write these down before I forget them considering my old age. Here is “The Plaza Underground” by, yours truly, Stephen Harlesburg. I guess I should start with how I started working as an elevator operator. I can remember hearing on the radio that the Treaty of Berlin had been signed and that the Pirates beat the Phillies eight to zero. It was August of 1921 and I had just quit my job at a fancy restaurant. I couldn’t stand the snobbish people that came in and out without leaving decent tips and so I needed to find another job quickly in order to pay for my college tuition. I happened to pass by The Plaza Hotel a few days later and I saw a paper with “WE’RE HIRING.INQUIRE WITHIN” hanging by the window. Like other hotels in the area in 1921, it was rather extravagantly decorated, but bland at the same time. Everything revolved around the same three colors and was rather drab.

          As I walked in, this couple across from the entrance were having an argument about who knows what, but it seemed heated enough for the lady to pour her glass of water on the man and march out of the place almost knocking me over (I wasn’t always the heavy, weak man that I am now. I used to be tall and thin, thus very likely to be tipped over.) To my surprise, the man wasn’t upset at all. Turns out he was, as we used to say, “zozzled” and fell asleep on the couch a few minutes after the woman had left. He was later arrested for consuming alcohol, which was illegal at the time.

          I got myself together, took a deep breath and went to the women behind the front desk saying that I was interested in the job that the poster on the window was advertising. (Of course, I had no idea at the time what it was). She looked me up and down and then sent me to the manager’s office where I was offered the job as an elevator operator on the spot. I was young, tall, and thin and apparently that’s all you need to be to be an operator. Turns out that the last operator was running a speakeasy on the side and that he told one of the hotel’s clients to help advertise and he happened to be a cop. I was given my uniform and told to start the next day.

          Some days were livelier than others. I met a young actress trying to kick-start her career, a businessman in town for a convention, although, I doubt that his female guest was his wife, a family on vacation with the idea that New York City is a spa-like-getaway, as well as many other eccentric New Yorkers. I once met an old lady that was wearing a worn out flowered dress once offered me a penny saying it’ll keep the night terrors away. Another time I saw an old man dressed as a young woman in a fringe dress, heels, and bright pink lipstick. This job even got me involved in the bootlegging business.

          I happened across a young man one day that was in town for a performance. He would be going in and out of the Hotel frequently during my shift. He was rather odd in his own way, like we all are, but was probably the “most” normal out of everyone I had met while working at the Plaza. He was the type of guy that was very sociable and so I started to learn a lot about him. His name was Archie Leach and he was a struggling actor from England. When he wasn’t able to find an acting job, he would work as a stilt-walker (I’d see him sometimes trying to carry them into the building.) He looked up to Charlie Chaplin in a way and would often talk about his film The Kid that had premiered earlier in the year. He was a Giants fan and I was a Yankee fan so you could imagine how our conversations went whenever baseball was brought up. He was also very peculiar with food. I remember him telling me a story once about how his breakfast order was supposed to come with muffins and he was given one and a half muffins instead of the typical two. He was rather passionate about the need for there to be two muffins and that he had felt cheated because he was missing a half. I had never met someone so particular with their food besides for myself. I didn’t get to learn anything else about him after this because he had moved somewhere else for a job in a film. I don’t remember what the film was or where he moved to, just that he said he would return a star. He did, in fact, return a star and even changed his name to Cary Grant.

          On other days, I’d see the usual riff-raff. Prohibition started in 1920 and The Plaza had started to lose money because of it. It wasn’t until a couple years later when they made small “delivery tunnel” between the hotel and the Oak Room on the opposite side of the block, did they become involved with the alcohol business. To be allowed into the club, one needed to be staying at The Plaza and know someone that worked there. Many people tried to befriend the secretaries or higher-ups here to get in. No one, besides a few, thought that an elevator operator could get them in. I was probably the best person to get them in too. I often had to deliver the wine, beer, whiskey, etc. to the club since I knew how to get around the building. One time when I was on one of my deliveries I remember seeing a cop across the street walking towards me. I was able to hide the alcohol under my jacket to look like I had a gut and passed by without suspicion (Thankfully, I had run into a rather stupid cop.) As the cop left, I saw two others follow while they stared me down to see if I’d flinch. After they left, I was able to continue to my job and got a “champagne flower” for not being as see through as most. (Typically, the cops check if they have even the slightest suspicion. I guess I just looked like a fool and not someone carrying bottles of whiskey, vodka, and beer.)

          People such as Coco Chanel, Josephine Baker, and Al Jolson would come stop by either for the booze or for the hotel. I remember getting to know one rather well. Her name was Pauline Lord and she was staying at the Plaza because she was in a recent production, Eugene O’Neill‘s Anna Christie at the Vanderbilt Theatre on Broadway. I had heard her name before because of the other works she had been in and the fascination that most people had with her. With her role in Anna Christie, she started to stir up, even more, commotion and the hotel became flooded with people and press. My manager had told me to make sure she gets in and out of the hotel safely and if I didn’t do that I’d be fired. Despite my lack of training, I was practically her bodyguard from the hotel’s doors to the elevator. I got to learn that she absolutely despised the director of the play. She had said to me once, “That high hat accused me of being a face stretcher. ME! I’m only 31!” She said it with so much conviction and passion that I knew if I tried to interrupt her I’d probably die from the glare I would have been given.

          She’d talk to me about her problems thinking that even an elevator operator could help and most likely wouldn’t spill her secrets. She told me about how she had thought her boyfriend had been cheating on her with some ensemble actress from Anna Christie, so she had me spy on him at the hotel. Turned out that he had been cheating on her, but with one of the background actors, not actresses. She seemed oddly relieved, but I later heard her kicking him out of her hotel room when I was helping another guest to their floor. There were clothes scattered everywhere and broken dishes from the hotel dining area. Due to the scene she had made, she was removed from the hotel and I couldn’t see her unless I went to one of her performances.

          The 1920’s were a time where I didn’t only meet many famous people but I was able to be at the center of the jazz movement. One song in particular that I liked was Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin. I first heard it when I went to Aeolian Hall to see one of my friends perform. Gershwin played this song and I immediately fell in love with the texture and duality of the music. The recurring motif that pulls you back into the music after the development of the other sections is incredibly catchy. Did I mention I was previously involved with music? I used to play viola in my high school orchestra and piano for the band occasionally. I had actually wanted to be a composer but wasn’t able to go to school for it. Well, anyway, I bring this up because I was able to meet Gershwin as well.

          A few days after the song was premiered at Aeolian Hall, he stayed at the Plaza for a few nights. I recognized him and was able to talk to him about his composition. He was inspired by the “steely” noises his train to Boston was making and the unpredictable nature of it except for the rattling that would happen every so often.  He also mentioned how he had to rewrite it because a woman passed by as he was composing and accidentally spilled her coffee over him and it. He also told me about how he was planning on staying at his childhood home in Brooklyn and that if I ever wanted compositional help he’d be there. I never got to take him up on his offer. Later that week I had to work overtime because we had a pool of people come to stay (Some new and popular Hollywood stars were in town.)

          Those are just a few of the people I met while working at The Plaza Hotel, but I’ll leave the rest for a later date. In fact, after I worked at The Plaza, I worked at the St. Regis Hotel a few blocks away. If you thought that I had some chance encounters at The Plaza, then you won’t believe what happened at the St. Regis, but that’ll have to wait for another time.