Hotel (novel)
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HotelHotel is a 1965 novel by Arthur Hailey. It is the story of an independent New Orleans hotel, the St. Gregory, and its management's struggle to regain profitability and avoid being assimilated into the O'Keefe chain of hotels. The St. Gregory is supposedly based on the Roosevelt Hotel.
The novel was adapted into a movie in 1967, and in 1983 Aaron Spelling turned into a television series, airing for five years on ABC. However, in the TV series, the St. Gregory Hotel was moved from New Orleans to San Francisco.
[edit] Characters
Peter McDermott, manager
Warren Trent, proprietor
Christine Francis, secretary to Warren Trent
Aloysius Royce, administrative assistant to Warren Trent
Curtis O'Keefe, owner of the O'Keefe chain
Dorothy "Dodo" Lash, O'Keefe's starlet companion
Albert Wells, aging hotel guest
The Duke and Duchess of Croydon, guests in the Presidential Suite
Ogilvie, house detective
Julius "Keycase" Milne, hotel thief
Herbie Chandler, villainous Bell Captain
Marsha Prescott, one night guest in the hotel
[edit] Story
Peter McDermott: The main character is Peter McDermott; the general manager with a past. He is a graduate from Cornell University in Hotel Management and then got a job in a hotel. However then he had been involved with a lady at time when he was supposed to be on duty. This gave Peter’s wife and the lady’s husband a reason to ask for a divorce. Getting involved was not a big thing for hotel to avoid but it had marked the headlines of newspaper so much, that he was dismissed from the job and was blacklisted. But Warren Trent, the head of St. Gregory Hotel, ignoring the past and considering the skill, hired him. The novel captures McDermott attempts to deal with several crises in the hotel which involve a range of other characters.
The Hotel Finance Problem: The Hotel's unpayable and unrenewable mortgage is due on Friday, necessitating its sale. Curtis O'Keefe, the one who owns a large hotel chains plans to buy St. Gregory hotel in New Orleans as the O'Keefe chain did not have a hotel here. They had offered to pay the two million mortgages due and one million dollar and living accommodation to Warren Trent as well. However Warren did not want to lose the hotel which he had nurtured for so long. They decided upon Friday afternoon timeline to make a decision on the deal. Warren Trent meanwhile decided to mark a deal with Journey man Union who wanted to enter the hotel Industry for long but were not successful. This way Warren Trent could maintain an independence of the hotel and still have a say in the affairs of it. Journey man had decided to send two of his executives on Thursday to study the books of hotel and then decide before the Friday afternoon deadline decided between Warren Trent and Curtis O'Keefe.Royall Edwards of St.Gregory had been appointed by Warren Trent to work with the two officers, if required all night, so that they complete the whole of study. However upset with the denial of entry to Negro man in Hotel, which became the headline of newspapers, Journeyman Union broke the deal. Warren Trent had no option but to give in to Curtis O'Keefe. To his utmost surprise, a few minutes before Friday noon, the bank manager who had turned down refinancing of the hotel, came with an offer, that an Individual, whose name could not be disclosed then, would be paying the mortgage and buying the major shares of the Hotel. Warren Trent would be the chairman, though Warren knew that he would be just a figurehead but as it was a better offer, so he accepted.
Christine and Albert Wells: Christine is the secretary to Warren Trent. Peter and Christine has a liking for each other. They share many things in common and feel they could be happy together. In hotel one of the guests Mr. Albert Wells had medical problems in his room. The hotel staff was quite alert and fast enough to move him in another room. He was quite elderly. Christine took care of Albert Wells personally as he was the hotel guest. Marsha Prescott: In another incident a group of teen-aged boys create a major incident that is aggravated by the fact that they are the sons of the local banker, car dealer, and other town notables. They try to attempt a rape on Marsha Prescott, the daughter of Mr. Prescott who is currently in Rome. However on listening her screams, Aloysis Royce, (a Negro and main help to Warren Trent who treats him like a son.) steps in and Marsha is able to escape then. Peter handles the situation and asks for a written apology from each of the boys involved in it. In said letters, villainous Bell Captain, Herbie Chandler is named as the one who made the incident possible. Marsha on the other hand falls in ‘love’ with Peter McDermott and proposes him for marriage. Peter finds it difficult to say no to her considering her affluence and beauty but finally says no as he knew that he liked Christine. However he overcomes his sense of guilt when he gets to know from Anna (Head maid servant of Marsha) that she is always the same and will be ok in some time and that Anna was not married. However Marsha in framing a good background to convince peter had said that Anna had a very good life with her husband whom she had met only once before marriage and it was not necessary to know a person for too long before to decide on marriage.
The Dentist Convention: Hotel business gains a minimum from room rent but a bulk of its profit comes from the food, conventions held at its place. As a sequel to it, a major convention of dentists was supposed to be held in St. Gregory. Dr Ingram, President of convention had arrived and settled in his room. Then Mr. Nicholas, a Negro, arrived at the counter, showing a confirmed reservation. However the hotel policy did not allow negros. Dr Ingram was quite disappointed at this and threatened the hotel authority that he would take the convention out of hotel, causing a major loss to hotel. When Peter discussed it with Warren he said, that after a few discussions this would be forgotten and the convention would be held and there was no need to worry. And after a few meetings the convention finally decided to stay though Mr. Ingram resigned from his post.
Curtis-o-Keefe and Dodo: Curtis O'Keefe, the one who owns a large hotel chains plans to buy St. Gregory hotel in New Orleans. He was there with Dodo, his girl friend. But it was time for Curtis to move on. He got movie role for Dodo and thought to go to New York to meet his new girlfriend. When Warren told Curtis that he was not accepting Curtis offer to sell the hotel, Curtis was very disappointed and in a fit of anger he told Dodo that he doesn’t want her any more. Dodo was upset, though somewhere she knew the truth already. She had to board her flight to Los Angeles and took elevator no 4, as she was about to move out of the hotel.
Duke and Duchess of Croydon: In another Instance the Duke and Duchess of Croydon are hiding out in the hotel from their responsibility for a gruesome hit-and-run accident which had been the highlight of the newspaper as the famous hit-and-run case. The duke had gone to a night club and the duchess reaches the club to find her husband. On their way back the duchess hits a woman and her daughter and both the woman and her daughter died on the spot. However in the accident the headlight and the trim ring of the car had damaged. Anyhow the duke and duchess reached back the hotel and try to find way out, so that there is left a slightest print of them being involved in an accident. When the waiter arrived in the presidential suite with dinner, the duchess intentionally hit the waiter so that her dress gets spoiled. The duchess created a big issue over this, just to make her presence felt in hotel so that it can be interpreted that she was in the hotel. But the chief house officer Ogilvie gets hint of it and tries to blackmail the duke and duchess. They finally reach an agreement that Ogilvie would drive their jaguar to Chicago and a total of twenty five thousand dollars would be paid to him. Further by the time the police identifies that the broken headlight and trim pieces would be identified as pieces of which car, Ogilvie would be out of New Orleans. The travel was supposedly on Thursday night at 1 am.Oglivie gets a written note from duchess asking for permission to drive the car out of garage in case the garage officer asks for. The moment he was driving the car out of hotel Peter was entering the hotel and they had eye contact, though peter did not think much of it. However recollecting all the events….a jaguar being driven by Ogilvie which belonged to duke and duchess….the broken headlight of the jaguar.… the fuss created by duchess on waiter all established a link towards the involvement of the duke and duchess.Peter enquired from garage officer and he informed that Ogilvie had a written note from the duchess and so was allowed to drive the car away, but somehow the note got misplaced.Peter informed the police, captain Yolles of the incident but they could not prove it without any evidence. After working hard, the incinerator officer, responsible for garbage recycling managed to find the note. When the note was produced before duchess she frowned. The Duke then decided to admit his crime and decided to leave and stepped into elevator no 4 of the Hotel.
Key case Milne: A hotel thief operating in the St.Gregory. He managed to get keys of several rooms in hotel by using tricks, asking for other room No keys from reception, using girls to obtain key for him and many other ways. When he saw the duke and duchess in hotel, he thought, if he could get the key of their room, it would be an excellent breakthrough. He managed to get the key from reception playing trickery, got a duplicate prepared and stole from duchess room her fifteen thousand dollars and jewellery. After obtaining so much of amount he decided to leave the hotel and boarded the elevator no 4.
Climax: The meeting to take over the hotel scheduled at 11.30 am Friday was in place. Mr Dempster from New York had arrived to tell who the boss was and it was Albert Wells, the hotel guest, whom Christine had taken care and thought of as not a rich man, had bought the hotel. To the utmost surprise of peter, Peter was appointed the Executive vice-President of St. Gregory and would be running the hotel with Dempster being the officiating president, the position Dempster had in all other hotels owned by Albert Wells. It was within the meeting itself that Christine came running and told that elevator no 4 met an accident and had a free fall.
Dodo suffered a lot of injuries and was rushed to hospital. It was then; Curtis realized how much he loved Dodo and got the best neuron surgeons for her. She was soon out of danger. Duke was dead on the spot in the elevator. The duchess still cold on hearing that ,had no expression. The policeman, Captain Yolles, thought now the blame of hit-n-run could be easily moved on duke as he was already dead and duchess could save herself. Key case managed to be safe and ran away from the country with all that money. Warren Trent was happy that he could retain his hotel being its chairman. Herbie Chandler, the evil bell captain would be permanently paralyzed and would never work again. Aloysius Royce left the hotel to study his law.
[edit] Structure of novel
The novel features multiple unfolding plot lines which take place over a period of five weekdays, Monday through Friday. Some days feature self-contained episodes exploring particular elements of the routine of a large hotel in detail. Meg Yetmein, the cleaning lady, "gets hers back" by smuggling out steaks under her clothing toward the end of her shift; Tom Earlshore, the fired bartender, does much the same by "skimming" liquor. Other brief episodes explain techniques used by prostitutes in entering and exiting the hotel undetected, and the various methods used by the hotel thief.
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