(Boys in Limo) Narrator: "This is really cool - The two friends, Gabriel and Manuel are munching popcorn, driving through Manhattan in their $250 an hour limo on the way to meet their parents at the Plaza Hotel, the corner of 59th Street and Central Park South - since 1907, one of New York's best addresses. (Interior POV) Narrator: The Plaza has served as an Eldorado for the rich who found it chic to lounge and bathe while overlooking Central Park. Having mastered the art of building skyscrapers, New Yorkers were excited to have a new hotel built with the elegance and style of the best of European design. Bernhard Beinecke, a German immigrant, provided the land and funds. All of New York turned out for the opening to see with their own eyes the East Coast aristocracy - the Vanderbilts; the Astors; the Rockefellers; the Guggenheims. On opening night, Benjamin Guggenheim and Arthur Vanderbilt danced in the Palm Court to the new, jazz music. Five years later, both were at another historic event - the Titanic where they went down with the ship. (Over historical recreation in Plaza Bar) Narrator: For writers, the Plaza was a stage and the rich guests, a great source for material. F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda were permanent fixtures at the bar. Fitzgerald used the Plaza as a setting for "The Great Gatsby". His friend, Ernest Hemingway, warned him that he couldn't handle all the drinking there and said, "When you die, we'll send your liver to Princeton and your heart to the Plaza." Still they drank through the night and wrote through the 1929 stock market crash and the Depression and Prohibition. In those days, the servants lived at the top and millionaires lived on the bottom. Salomon Guggenheim, the multi-millionare and art collector, inhabited the entire first floor where he displayed his Picassos and Klees. In 1953, Guggenheim hired Frank Lloyd Wright to build him a new museum. The only place Wright would stay in New York was the Plaza - though he did banish all the rococo furniture to the basement. Guggenheim, a man who achieved the proverbial American rags to riches dream, from dishwasher to tycoon, came to realize his monument - the Guggenheim Museum designed my America's preeminent architect. When the famous playwright, Arthur Miller told his new bride, Marilyn Monroe that Wright, the best architect in America, was staying at the Plaza, she decided to go ask him herself to build their new home. But the architect declined as he was nearing 90. (Over Palm Court) Narrator: "Here in the Palm Court, all had visited - the Guggenheims, Marilyn Monroe, Arthur Miller... ...(Doorman Eddie Trinker) "Then there were the Beatles." Narrator: "Day and night, the fans were in front of the hotel. The Beatles were ushered in through the back door to the kitchen to protect them from fans and reporters." (Reporter in the Plaza Hotel Press conference with the Beatles) "What does the 'Beatles' mean? George - "John picked it." John - "It just means 'Beatles'. It could have been 'The Shoes'. We could have been called 'The Shoes'." Narrator: "The management wasn't pleased with the visitors from Great Britain. They didn't like having to transport their unconscious fans. They didn't care for their cavalier treatment of the Plaza rooms. On their next visit to New York, the Beatles were accommodated elsewhere."
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