Bitter Boniface

A beetling, black-browed Viennese with a thick accent and a passion for hotels is Ralph Hitz, president of National Hotel Management Co., Inc. According to legend, this son of an Austrian horse dealer ran away from home to become an elevator boy in Vienna's Hotel Sacher, was coaxed back into the family on the promise of being taken to New York. Three days after he arrived in 1906, prodigal, 15-year-old Ralph Hitz ran away again, became a $3-a-weekbusboy in a Broadway hashhouse. Then for nine years he crisscrossed the U. S., paying far more attention to learning about hotels as waiter and cook than to polishing his English. In 1915 he married and by 1927 he was making $12,000 as manager of Cincinnati's Hotel Gibson. Two years later, having jacked the Gibson's yearly net from $95,000 to $333,000, he was hired away to manage the vast Hotel New Yorker, opened in Manhattan ten weeks after the stock-market crash of 1929.

The New Yorker had been partially financed by a $13,000,000 mortgage held by Manufacturers Trust Co. When this big bank surprisedly found itself making 6% on its investment under Hitz handling, it decided to give him control of other hotels it was stuck with in Depression. Created in 1932, therefore, was National Hotel Management Co., Inc. with Ralph Hitz as president. By 1937 N. H. M. was managing (not owning) eight hotels in seven cities* with a success that has made Ralph Hitz perhaps the most famed U. S. boniface. Last week, in connection with N. H. M.'s ninth hotel, Manhattan's Belmont Plaza, Ralph Hitz added to the Hitz legend.

When the Belmont Plaza was called the Montclair it made itself a certain reputation but no money. It lost many patrons to N. H. M.'s flashy Hotel Lexington, less than two blocks away. Hitz had taken over the Lexington in 1932, put in his old friend Charles E. Rochester as manager and by 1936 had upped annual gross operating revenues from $74,000 to $400,000. Last June when the Montclair was offered for sale, Hitz and a group of friends proceeded to buy it for $3,000,000. Thereupon, Hotel Lexington, Inc. canceled its contract with N. H. M. Manager Rochester quit Hitz to continue as the Lexington's manager. Ralph Hitz has not spoken to Charles Rochester since.

Out to humble Hotel Lexington, Inc., Hitz is promoting the new Belmont Plaza to a fare-thee-well. First move was to install a slick new cabaret called the Glass Hat which cost over $200,000 and opened last October with Postmaster General James Farley among those present. Ralph Hitz, meanwhile, is in the process of spending $100,000 dolling up the lobby and coffee shop and will soon start redecorating the bedrooms. Last week he put up a new marquee which burns 12,000 watts per hour and virtually eclipses that of the Lexington.

Hotelmen tell another tale which reflects the hostility of the two managements. Last September the Partridge Club, an association of hotel supply men with membership limited to 75, decided to give a banquet for Charles Rochester. Ralph Hitz thereupon let it be known that his hotels would buy no food, liquor, or anything else from any supply man who attended. A majority of the supply men stood fast and 285 members and guests attended the dinner. Thereupon Ralph Hitz began to make good his threat, even taking his advertising out of Hotel Gazette because it mentioned the dinner.

Ralph Hitz hotly denies all this, though he does not deny his fury at Charles Rochester. Last week most hotelmen agreed that this personal feud was only at a temporary lull while Hitz launches yet another new venture--the opening next week at North Conway, N. H. of the Eastern Slope Inn for skiers. This rambling wooden hulk will be given the authentic Hitz Hotel zip by a team of sled-dogs.

*New Yorker (Xew York City), Lexington (New York City). Book-Cadillac (Detroit), Nicollet (Minneapolis), The Netherland Plaza (Cincinnati), Van Cleve (Dayton), Adolphus (Dallas), Congress (Chicago).

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