Pictures and the Picturegoer (Jan-Dec 1925)

FEBRUARY 1925 Pierre s an d Pichjre $uer 25 arrived in town he had made a Dumber of business appointments which used the Algonquin as an address. The clerk couldn't help him. Was sorry, hut such was the situation. 1 was called into consultation. Mr. Efergesheimer told me his name. That settled it. Mr. Her^esheimcr wasn't simply a traveller in serious need ot" a place to sleep. He was the man whose books had given me so many hours of pleasure — who had already won my esteem, and, 1 in i_\ say ' friendship with his work. Well . . . he got a room. It can he done. " And I've very deliberately done it. First there was my natural interest and respect for important people — people who are interesting ami have done interesting things. Then — as an easy and pleasant way of combining business and pleasure — there was my hotel and the reputation which I knew it would cam if 'celebrities' made it their rendezvous. a .oiiur table with his wife, Nataeha. Claire Windsor usually stops at the Algonquin when she is not on the >• and Barbara La Man, altOUgh she, to.., can scarcely be called a " regular," is seen there increasingly often. The Algonquin dining room has a certain round table situated near the centre of the room. Here, the disgruntled say, is the board 'round which reputations of plays and players are made and broken. Here sit the New York newspaper critics when they foregather of a noontime or at night after an opening. Their clique was once dubbed " The Vicious Circle," and the name has stuck. Edward Goulding, the well-known scenario writer who helped HergeBheimer put " The Bright Shawl " into screen form, is on hand frequently — often dines with Richard Barthelmess. " Names " abound. John Drew, most lamous of American leading nun oj the older feneration, and uncle "i 'hi I'.ai ryinores, has lived at the hoti 1 tor many wars. Evang< Inn Booth, ( 'mill. lander of the .Salvation Army, lives there, and the Algonquin is the official headquarter! the Salvation Army in New York. The Bishop of Kansas and the Bishop of Michigan are friends of Mr. Case's and invariably stop at his hotel while they are I Frank Case has made his hotel and his home the home of the stars — stars of every firmaneiit. At the Algonquin each Tuesday noon ^^ m the Green Room there meets the increasingly well-known " Woman Pays Club," a cheerful organisation of professional women engaged in and around the several arts. Elsie Ferguson has been a member for several years, and Mary Eaton, who played in the picture His Children's Children, is a member. So are the Gish girls. So is Mabel Ballin. The better known and more successful motion picture and theatrical press agents form an important group, and there is a distinct smattering of sculptors, painters, interior decorators and representatives of the other arts. The Algonquin has drawn them as it has drawn most of the other worthwhile people of our day. John Vandercook. The lounge and dining room of the Algonquin Hotel. " Yes-— I am a tuft-hunter. It's my hobby. And I've made it my business." " I suppose after it first started, after Mr. Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, for instance, came here and let it be known that it was their habit to come here, the rest followed? " Yes. The rest was, or were, easy. But it isn't easy to hold them." That has been the brightest feather in the cap of Mr. Case. They have stayed. And more of " them " have come each season and returned again . . . New fashions in hotel — new skyscraper, several-million-dollar piles in the Grand Central district have won away some fickle famed ones — but most of them gravitate back to the Algonquin. It has a " pull " that cannot be denied. Mr. Case is invariably on hand. At meal hours he is to be found at his own special little table just within the doorway of the main dining room. He kno\ s a considerable percentage of those who come. He nods to them all. Most stop and exchange the " time of day " with him. It is here that Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford lunch nearly every day they are in New York. Thomas Mcighan, who, since he has come to live permanently in New York is to be seen everywhere, is invariably on hand. \ alentino, though he is not a real habitue, often lunches at The Algonquin from the outside, West Forty-fourth Street, Ncv York.