TIME FOR MONOGRAMMED PILLOW TALK
Rich are different from you and me — staying Always at The Carlyle
The most infamous elevator ride in history allegedly occurred at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City, when Michael Jackson, Steve Jobs and Diana Spencer all got on the same lift. To hear the elevator operator tell the story, all was quiet among the King of Pop, the Emperor of Apple and the Princess of Wales, until she started singing Beat It.
These are the kinds of stories one hears in Always at The Carlyle, Matthew Miele’s affectionate look at the ultraexclusive 88-year-old hotel that offers monogrammed pillow slips for every guest, and charges thousands of dollars a night. Miele has been documenting his way through the Big Apple, with films about retailers Tiffany’s and Bergdorf ’s and photographer Harry Benson. His next project is on Bronx-born filmmaker Alan J. Pakula (All the President’s Men, Sophie’s Choice).
In the opening minutes of the film we seem to be in for a tellnothing, as employees and even guests clam up over details of the hotel’s clientele. For instance, no one will spill the beans on JFK’s rumoured time spent there with Marilyn Monroe. Though a bartender recalls calling President Truman “Harry” and almost losing his job, until the president lied and said he’d requested the first-name address. Another president, back when he was just a real estate hustler, once called The Carlyle “a joke.”
The rambling doc mixes namedropping trivia — Paul Newman used to make his own salad dressing while dining there, years before he started selling it — with fun facts about the building; for instance, the Dutch masters
hanging in the lobby were bought by William Randolph Hearst, while the murals in the bar are by Ludwig Bemelmans, illustrator of the Madeline books. Sometimes fame and art collide, as when Wes Anderson reveals that his Grand Budapest Hotel was inspired in part by the Carlyle.
Two signs of a good hotel are repeat guests and low turnover. Always at The Carlyle is loosely structured around a visit by Prince William and Kate, who are merely the latest in a long line of royals to stay there. And many of the interview subjects have worked there for decades. Famed pianist Bobby Short performed at the hotel restaurant from 1968 until shortly before his death in 2005.
We also meet concierge Dwight Owsley, retiring after 36 years. Along with Danny, the hotel’s bellman since 1963, they put the “always” in the Carlyle.