The Secret Life of the Savoy: Glamour and Intrigue at the World's Most Famous Hotel

by Olivia Williams

Overview

The captivating story of the famed Savoy Hotel’s founders, told through three generations—and one hundred years—of glamour and high society.

For the gondoliers-themed birthday dinner, the hotel obligingly flooded the courtyard to conjure the Grand Canal of Venice. Dinner was served on a silk-lined floating gondola, real swans were swimming in the water, and as a final flourish, a baby elephant borrowed from London Zoo pulled a five-foot high birthday cake.

In three generations, the D'Oyly Carte family and London's Savoy Hotel pioneered the idea of the luxury hotel and the modern theater, propelled Gilbert and Sullivan to lasting stardom, made Oscar Wilde a transatlantic celebrity, inspired a P. G. Wodehouse series, and popularized early jazz, electric lights, and Art Deco.

Following the history of the iconic Savoy Hotel through three generations of the D'Oyly Carte family, The Secret Life of the Savoy brings to life the extraordinary cultural legacy of the most famous hotel in the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643137391
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	06/01/2021
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	210,155
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Olivia Williams graduated with a Master’s in Modern History from Oxford University. She has been a guest on Bloomberg, Sky Arts, and CBS News. She is contributing writer to The Economist, House & Garden, and the Evening Standard. This is her first book to be published in America.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Preface 1

Act 1 Richard

1 Curtain up 9

2 Entertainment of a higher order 23

3 'Light of the future' 42

4 Off on tour 55

5 'The Hotel de Luxe of the World' 70

6 The carpet quarrel 85

7 'Everyone who comes, goes away highly pleased' 92

8 Scandals 101

9 Fluctuat nec migrator 108

Act 2 Rupert

10 Belle Époque 127

11 No sackcloth and ashes 147

12 Ruperts roaring twenties 161

13 Curzon Street Baroque 172

14 A scrum in Mayfair 178

15 An heir and a spare 190

16 Essence de civilisation 199

Act 3 Bridget

17 Reluctant heiress 221

18 Static in the swinging sixties 243

19 Pickwick and co. 257

20 Bridget hangs on 265

21 Curtain down 282

Postscript - Claridge's Restaurant, July 1990 287

Note on Money 288

Notes 289

Index 309

Acknowledgements 324

Editorial Reviews

04/19/2021

Historian Williams (Gin Glorious Gin) delivers a rich and rewarding history of London’s Savoy Hotel and Savoy Theatre. She spotlights three generations of the D’Oyly Carte family that built and ran the Savoy, beginning with theater impresario and talent agent Richard D’Oyly Carte, who financed the hotel project with profits earned from the Gilbert and Sullivan operas he staged at the theater next door. Opening in 1889, the Savoy Hotel “became a microcosm of the newly diverse local and international elite, who came to... see and be seen.” Richard’s son Rupert D’Oyly Carte introduced cabaret acts and the Savoy Havana Band after he took over in 1913, and made the Savoy the first British hotel to actively publicize itself in the U.S. Rupert’s only daughter, Bridget, became president of the Savoy Hotel after her father’s death in 1948, and with the help of chairman Hugh Wontner, fended off a series of “hostile takeovers.” Williams drops plenty of names (Claude Monet painted the view from his hotel room; Bob Dylan was denied entry for not wearing a tie), folds in colorful anecdotes (one maid’s sole job was picking beads from flappers’ dresses off the dance floor), and incisively analyzes real estate deals and other business matters. The result is a delicious peek behind some rather luxurious curtains. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Williams does not hang back when writing about how ornate and luxurious this hotel was. The reader will come away from reading about the Savoy with an intimate knowledge of this grand hotel."

Florida Times-Union

A real triumph, beautifully written, with many wonderful stories of the Savoy.

Lady Anne Glenconner

Advance praise for The Secret Life of the Savoy:

From the Publisher

"Williams writes with authority and style, making her ideal to chronicle the story of the Savoy.

Bloomberg News

"The story of how one family's vision shaped not only an institution but the very idea of luxury. From Belle Epoque scandals to Hollywood gossip, and from kitchen politics to corporate swashbuckling, Williams' writing is deliciously alive with the type of behind-the-scenes drama that will transport you back in time.

Francesca Cartier Brickell

A thoroughly entertaining account of some of London's most treasured history, with the beloved The Savoy at the heart of a fascinating and delightful plot. Bravo to Olivia Williams and her fantastically colorful cast of characters.

Lady Kinvara Balfour

This is a fascinating story, and it could not be better told. Elegant, great fun, and with a finely-judged personal touch: much like the Savoy hotel itself.”

Laura Thompson

A cracking good read and a fascinating story that—amazingly—has not been told before.

The Daily Telegraph

Thorough and entertaining. Who has stayed at the Savoy? Who hasn’t? The Savoy is where Vivien Leigh met her future husband, Laurence Olivier. It is where Oscar Wilde disastrously canoodled with young Lord Alfred Douglas. It is where the famous Parisian courtesan Marguerite Alibert — a former lover of Edward, the Prince of Wales — quarreled with and then murdered her husband, the Egyptian aristocrat Ali Kamel Fahey. Monet and Whistler painted scenes from the windows; the French author Emile Zola lived it up at the Savoy while, hilariously, visiting London 'to observe its poor.'

The New York Times - Sarah Lyall

Lively. Williams has unearthed a wealth of fascinating details about three generations of the eccentric, secretive D’Oyly Carte family.

The Wall Street Journal

"Entertaining anecdotes document legal wranglings, eccentric guests, titillating scandals, and accounts of unimaginable extravagance. Music theater enthusiasts, celebrity cognoscenti, and social history buffs will enjoy this account of timeless elegance and unparalleled service."

Booklist

An elegantly crafted, yet spritely and sparkling book, perfectly befitting its subject. Williams uses group biography to beautifully illuminate some of London's greatest hotel and theatre landmarks.

Ophelia Field

Thorough and entertaining. Who has stayed at the Savoy? Who hasn’t? The Savoy is where Vivien Leigh met her future husband, Laurence Olivier. It is where Oscar Wilde disastrously canoodled with young Lord Alfred Douglas. It is where the famous Parisian courtesan Marguerite Alibert — a former lover of Edward, the Prince of Wales — quarreled with and then murdered her husband, the Egyptian aristocrat Ali Kamel Fahey. Monet and Whistler painted scenes from the windows; the French author E´mile Zola lived it up at the Savoy while, hilariously, visiting London “to observe its poor.

The New York Times Sarah Lyall