STORY OF LUXURIOUS RITZ HOTEL

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 148, 18 March 1939, Page 6 (Supplement)

STORY OF LUXURIOUS RITZ HOTEL

Cowherd Who Set World New Standards

Cesar Ritz, the cowherd who set the world new standards of extravagant luxury and was followed from place to place by kings and princes, died forgotten and in obscurity, bis mind and body worn out. He built, the world’s most luxurious hotels, and added his name to the dictionary us a synonym for exclusiveness.

When he left the tiny Swiss village where he tended his father's cows, Ritzbeen me a waiter in a cheap Paris cafe —ami was fired for breaking too many pl tiles.

He got another job, became restaurant manager—and gave it up to start •as assistant waiter again in one of the most exclusive and discreet restaurants in Paris.

One day the manager lined up all the waiters. "A number of small holes have been bored in the doors of the private rooms upstairs,” he said. Several of the younger waiters blushed. The manager pounced on one of them. "Why are you so anxious to sec what goes on in those rooms?” "Because, sir,” the waiter hesitated. “I wanted io see how princes made love.” "Well, and what have you found out?” "Their love-making is no different from ours." Many years later, when Ritz, built the "arlton Hotel in London, be had a •recncd balcony incorporated where i >e Prince of Wales (late Edward ' ll), could entertain friend-, in public

without being seem There were no tiny holes in the doors. When one famous man gave a dinner al the Savoy, Ritz had a whole diningroom flooded with water and gondolas brought over from Venice to carry the waiters between the guests. That little entertainment cost £l5OO. Over his staffs. Ritz exercized the severest discipline. Everything bad to be exactly right. He could delect a wrinkle in a sheet even after the lied bad been'made, and lie would tear off the bedclothes and have it made again. At the opening of the magnificent Ritz Hotel in Paris, everything was ready for the guests except—the tables had not come! They turned up just three hours before the guests were due. Ritz sat down at one of them. "Wrong!” he yelled. "The tables are hall' an inch too high. Take them away and ent. the legs down.” It was done, too, with four minutes to spare. Ritz devoted his soul to catering for the pleasures of the wealthy. He paid for it in dramnlle fashion. In his biography published recently (Cesar Ritz), bis wife tells how bis career reached its pinnacle when Edward VII became King. Ritz was unofficial emperor of the Coronation festivities. He worked night and day arranging banquets, providing suites for Royally from all over the world. At the Insl momenl tile Coronation was post polled. Rilz (■.• line home Io his wile that afternoon and collapsed. He never recovered oil her his health or his sanity.