Last Saturday my sister, my daughter, and I attended a tea at the Plaza. We were invited to join my sister’s friend and thirty of her closest friends, a power lunch for creative interesting women of all ages. Even her gynecologist was there giving out cards. And when she ran out, she wrote her name down on small scraps of paper.
I was very pleased to be included as I was dying for one last trip to the Plaza before it closes. I’d never met my sister’s friend before, a tall, attractive television art director, with a warm personality and a penchant for bringing people together. She looked absolutely Plaza-ish in a vintage cloche hat with a tall feather and her grandmother’s old-fashioned gloves. She welcomed everyone personally and gave each of us Plaza candy bars, postcards, and unlimited amounts of champagne.
I sat at a table with an assortment of well-traveled, accomplished women. One, a filmmaker of Persian descent, is on her way to Baghdad next month for the second time as part of a humanitarian group made up of Quakers and Mennonite Christians; she’s making a film about her experiences there.
My daughter is a great afficianado of the Eloise books so a trip to the Plaza to see the portrait of Eloise is always a treat. She is aware that the Plaza is closing and has decided that Eloise is moving to Paris, along with Skipperdee and Weannie, to be with her mother. She is, however, concerned about where Nanny and Mr. Salamone will relocate. In an Eloise sort of way, my daughter spent much of the tea collecting white plastic Plaza Hotel tea sandwich tooth picks (see photograph, above left).
When we arrived at the hotel, I asked one of the doormen if he’d seen Eloise. "I think she’s around here somewhere," he said cheerfully. He then turned to another doorman and asked, "Have you seen Eloise?"
His willingness to go along with the game was very endearing. We then asked a managerial looking person if he knew where to find the hotel manager, Mr. Salomone. He looked at us like we were crazy and said he didn’t know anyone by that name.
-Louise G. Crawford
I enjoyed your article. I loved Eloise as a child of the 50s and wanted so much to take my granddaughter to the Plaza for an Eloise experience. We are going to NYC in June (2006), but will be sad not to be able to see Eloise. I have been searching the web, trying to learn where they took her portrait. My (almost 5 years old) granddaughter, asking if Eloise was a a real girl or “only made up for the story” said, “Well, New York is a very big city and there’s lots of things to do there and we might see Eloise and if we see her, then she’ll be REAL.” If only it were that simple, but I can’t help thinking in those terms now. I will be on the lookout for dear Eloise, my alter ego.
Thanks for the story.
Catherine
We’re going to make our pilgrimage, too. My mom’s friend is taking us, our second day in NY.
Eloise ABSOLUTELY is moving to Paris. It’s the only other city for a personage like her.