Grand Hotel

When the National Petroleum Association* convened in Atlantic City last week one of the principal speakers was sharp-bearded Henry Latham Doherty, generalissimo of Cities Service Co. He scolded the oil industry for having branched into unrelated lines, said proper planning would have carried petroleum companies through the Depression. Some of his listeners marveled to hear such talk from Tycoon Doherty for if ever a company had diversified interests it is Cities Service Co. Besides being a complete oil organization, from gusher to fuel tank, it also controls natural and manufactured gas companies, power companies, street car lines. And if ever an individual had diversified interests it is Tycoon Doherty. He is a banker and stock promoter as well as an engineer. He recently bought a half-interest in the Kansas City Journal-Post, better to fight the Kansas City Star in its attack on his gas rates (TIME, Aug. 17)./- And last week he bought, in association with John McEntee Bowman, the Miami Biltmore Hotel and the Miami Biltmore Country Club, on both of which he has ordered luxurious improvements. In 1929 the hotel and club were bought by a group including Mr. Bowman, Alfred Emanuel Smith and John Jacob Raskob. Last week the seller was Whitney National Bank of New Orleans, representing bond holders.

The industry which Tycoon Doherty now enters has been, as a whole, badly upset by Depression. August hotel room and restaurant sales were down 19%, from August 1930, 27.6% from 1928. Room sales were down 17% and restaurant sales down 21%. The room rate was averaging 8%, under last year while the August average rate of occupancy was 54% of capacity against 60%,. In comparing last month with August 1928, Horwath & Horwath, hotel accountants, found that Detroit has suffered the most with a 40% drop, while Cleveland, a big convention city, has suffered the least with a 21% drop.

Another indication of Hotel Depression was the report made last week by the Bowman-Biltmore chain, with hotels in Manhattan, Los Angeles, Providence, Atlanta and Havana, which showed a $121,000 loss for the six months ended June 30 against a $492,000 profit before Federal taxes in the corresponding 1930 period. Dinkier Hotels Co., operating in the South (Hotel Ansley, Atlanta; the Tutwiler, Birmingham; the Andrew Jackson, Nashville) last year earned $62,000 against $251,000 in 1929. A drop to $84,000 from $120,000 was shown last year by big United Hotels Co. of America which operates 20 hotels (the Clifton and the Niagara. Niagara Falls; the King Edward, Toronto; the Durant, Flint, Mich.; the Roosevelt, Manhattan; the Benjamin Franklin, Philadelphia; the President, Kansas City, Mo.; El Conquistador, Tucson, Ariz.). Big hotels in receivership include the Hotel White, the Fifth Avenue, the Allerton Houses, Manhattan. Bonds in the Stevens. Chicago, biggest U. S. hotel, last week sold at 25-c- on $1.* Pierre's, Manhattan, defaulted on bond interest.

While Tycoon Doherty's entrance into the hostelry business was news, hotel men last week were primarily interested in big doings in Manhattan. In the new Waldorf-Astoria there was bustle and excitement, prior to the formal opening Oct. 1.

Hotel prestige is a fickle thing; to maintain it is difficult. The backers of the new Waldorf-Astoria have undertaken an even more difficult task, that of recreating in the new hotel all the grandeur and glory of the old semi-national institution at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street, qualities which had begun to fade long before the building's demolition in 1929.

The idea of a new and modern Waldorf-Astoria is credited to the mind of Louis J. Horowitz, chairman of Thompson-Starrett Co., Inc., builders. The present board of directors includes nine men who can be identified with Thompson-Starrett. Among them is Charles Hayden of Hayden, Stone & Co., one of the firms that sold the Waldorf's bond issue. It was he who drove the first rivet (gold) and troweled the final stone. Also on the directorate is tall, aloof Lucius Boomer, 52, president of Waldorf-Astoria Corp. Mr. Boomer is an oldtime hotel man with wide experience. He was in charge of the McAlpin (Manhattan) when the late General Coleman du Pont asked him to take over the old Waldorf. He is a big factor in Sherry's and the Sherry-Netherland Hotel, also has a large interest in the Savarin chain of high-grade restaurants in Manhattan. The new Waldorf directors also include such celebrities as General William Wallace Atterbury of Pennsylvania Railroad; Edward Wentworth Beatty of Canadian Pacific; Robert Goelet, Manhattan real estate tycoon; Conde Nast, socialite-publisher; Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr. of General Motors.

The hotel's furnishing has been done by experts, is bedazzling yet tasteful. There are 1,571 rooms for transients, also 500 rooms in the towers which are reserved for residential suites. It is estimated that 2,000 employees will work to make life run smoothly for the patrons. The hotel also offers such features as circulating ice-water, vita glass windows for permanent guests who desire it, a playroom for children and a special children's barber, a ''sitting room" for guests' servants.

Chef of the hotel (officially: "Director of the Waldorf-Astoria Kitchens") is Alexandre Gastaud, a pupil for 40 years of the famed-to-gourmets Auguste Escoffier. Chef Gastaud used to cook for food-fond Edward VII. Director of the Towers will be Commendatore Guilio Gelardi who is being loaned by Claridge's of London for the fall and winter seasons. But best known of the Waldorf potentates will be Oscar Tschirky, 65, maitre d'hotel at the old Waldorf, with whom the tycoons and celebrities of many lands are proud to claim acquaintance. During the past year the new Waldorf's publicists have attempted to make even more fabulous the legend of "Oscar of the Waldorf," recalled from his farm for his new duties. He has dropped his last name for all purposes, has been sent touring cities of the interior, for much of the old hotel's trade came from the Middle and Far West.* At a reported salary of $30,000, he now occupies an office marked simply: "Oscar's Office." In it he arranges for banquets, balls, receptions.

Although the Waldorf will frown on rowdy conventions, it will welcome such dignified assemblages as the General Motors Convention in January and that of the American College of Surgeons in February. Loose and liquorish though it always becomes, the Beaux-Arts Ball retains enough arty prestige to have been invited (and obtained) away from the Astor across town. The Canadian Club will have headquarters in the hotel.

Unknown to many a person is the fact that the Waldorf has already had one opening. The King of Siam was told that many a member of his house had honored the old hotel. He attended a luncheon in the new building. The kitchens were not opened, but piping hot food was brought from Sherry's across the street and photographs were taken of His Majesty, Mr. Boomer and Oscar.

Interesting are the financial relationships of the hotel. The land upon which it is built is owned by the New York Central. For the construction of the building New York Central advanced $10,000,000. The remainder was provided by the issuance of $11,000,000 in bonds secured by a leasehold. The interest and sinking fund on the $10,000,000 advanced by the New York Central is to be paid out of hotel operations, before interest on the $11,000,000 leasehold bonds. Its cost was estimated at about $19,000,000; the furnishings are thought to have come to $8,500,000. The 26-year-11-month lease contains two 21-year renewal provisions. The rent will average about $1,500,000 a year, and is an operating charge which ranks ahead of bond interest. Perhaps because of this knowledge the Waldorf-Astoria leasehold bonds were selling last week at 49-c- on the dollar.

Despite the gloomy outlook of the hotel business last week neither Lucius Boomer nor Oscar was downhearted as the day approached when Banker Charles Hayden would start the register with his name and be given credit card No. 1. Average figures from the depressed hotel industry did not daunt them, for, they were glad to assert, the new Waldorf-Astoria is not an average hotel, cannot be judged by average standards.

*NationaI Petroleum Association is composed mostly of Eastern refiners, chiefly of those operating in Pennsylvania. It is much smaller than American Petroleum Institute, with which Oilman Doherty recently quarreled.

/-Last fortnight busy Mr. Doherty offered $500,000 to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, for a scientific study of unemployment.

*With 3,000 rooms the Stevens is rated biggest. Other leaders by this measure are: St. George, Brooklyn, 2,632; New Yorker, 2,500; Palmer House, Chicago, 2,268; Pennsylvania 2,200.

*Californians liked the old Waldorf because when they cashed checks they were paid in their favorite currency, gold.

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