Open for Business

At 5 a.m. one morning last week Steamfitter Joe Fisher twisted a valve and the great steam tables in the Coffee Shop and the Oak Room kitchens began to hiss; at 7, Telephone Operator Alice Stuart clamped on her headpiece, spoke a few test words into the mouthpiece; at 8, redheaded Chambermaid Florence Donham checked over the soap and towel supply of the bath in room 2344; at 8:20, Barman Joseph Camille cracked open a case of I. W. Harper, with loving care began to fill up the empty shelves of the Rose Room bar. And right on the dot of 9, Hotelman Arnold S. Kirkeby turned a key in a brass and glass Michigan Avenue door that had been locked for months.

Only a few mildly curious onlookers paid any attention to all these goings on, but they meant a lot to Chicago: after 13 months its Stevens Hotel, world's largest, was once again open for business.

To Owner Kirkeby, who bought the $28,000,000 Stevens from the U.S. Army for a mere $5,251,000 (TIME, Sept. 13), last week's opening meant even more. With 1,100 of the Stevens' 3,000 rooms--all that were ready for occupancy--reserved long before he unlocked its doors, it looked as if he might be the first owner to turn a profit on Chicago's 16-year-old white elephant.

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