Blind Item #12 - I Remember You Well At The Plaza Hotel - Part 2 - An INSIDERHER Blind Item
My Mom was a big deal in New York & at the Plaza Hotel in the 60’s. She knew all their secrets, and they depended on her crack team in keeping their many celebrity clients’ valuables safe. I was a kid, but got to spend a lot of time at the Plaza, rather like Eloise. My Mom could get anything she wanted there.
She also got tons of celebrity gossip. She was too much the lady to repeat really good dirt, but she did tell me about a man who stayed for long periods at the Plaza. She knew I was an old movie fan, so she told me all about this actor, who she persisted in calling Gary till her dying day.
I was a fan, but I was also a kid, when I first heard these stories. Since much more information about this complicated man’s life comes to light, these stories make more sense.
Actually, even as a kid reading movie star biography, I knew this actor had a reputation for being a cheapskate. I’ve since learned it was far more than just being cheap, and far more than just a reputation! His most famous live-in situation with another A list actor was the subject of a famous quote from a famous blonde actress. She quipped about the actor not paying bills. When she said it, it was hilarious.
Apparently, even though he is now ranked as the number one most popular actor/leading man in the world/in some polls, a comedic genius-the real man behind the stunning exterior was dark, depressed, looking for salvation anywhere he could find it. Cold, calculating, paranoid, mean, suspicious, all applied to the Great Actor. He was, no doubt-a great actor, and a great Hollywood movie star. After all, who better than he embodied the handsome gay star who pretended to be straight his entire life? He made a living playing out this game, and it can’t have been easy. New documentaries & biographies about his childhood miseries make these reveals more pathetic than anything.
He apparently would hole up for days at a time at the Plaza, asking for no service & no visitors. He had a cheap dime store hot plate, and came to the Plaza with bags of canned soups. He apparently lived on booze, soup he heated up himself, and a tin of saltine crackers.
There was a lot of alcohol, a lot of black moods, and a refusal to pay for anything more than was absolutely necessary. It was perhaps pathological. It was certainly deeply engrained in his personality. This was a side of himself he never, once, displayed on film. It’s too bad he couldn’t have gone there, but after all, his reputation now couldn’t be better. He is numero uno! Above Gable & Bogart!
He had known abandonment, poverty, and was unable to relax & enjoy his wealth. Apparently, the face he presented publicly was very different from the image of perfection we saw onscreen.
She also got tons of celebrity gossip. She was too much the lady to repeat really good dirt, but she did tell me about a man who stayed for long periods at the Plaza. She knew I was an old movie fan, so she told me all about this actor, who she persisted in calling Gary till her dying day.
I was a fan, but I was also a kid, when I first heard these stories. Since much more information about this complicated man’s life comes to light, these stories make more sense.
Actually, even as a kid reading movie star biography, I knew this actor had a reputation for being a cheapskate. I’ve since learned it was far more than just being cheap, and far more than just a reputation! His most famous live-in situation with another A list actor was the subject of a famous quote from a famous blonde actress. She quipped about the actor not paying bills. When she said it, it was hilarious.
Apparently, even though he is now ranked as the number one most popular actor/leading man in the world/in some polls, a comedic genius-the real man behind the stunning exterior was dark, depressed, looking for salvation anywhere he could find it. Cold, calculating, paranoid, mean, suspicious, all applied to the Great Actor. He was, no doubt-a great actor, and a great Hollywood movie star. After all, who better than he embodied the handsome gay star who pretended to be straight his entire life? He made a living playing out this game, and it can’t have been easy. New documentaries & biographies about his childhood miseries make these reveals more pathetic than anything.
He apparently would hole up for days at a time at the Plaza, asking for no service & no visitors. He had a cheap dime store hot plate, and came to the Plaza with bags of canned soups. He apparently lived on booze, soup he heated up himself, and a tin of saltine crackers.
There was a lot of alcohol, a lot of black moods, and a refusal to pay for anything more than was absolutely necessary. It was perhaps pathological. It was certainly deeply engrained in his personality. This was a side of himself he never, once, displayed on film. It’s too bad he couldn’t have gone there, but after all, his reputation now couldn’t be better. He is numero uno! Above Gable & Bogart!
He had known abandonment, poverty, and was unable to relax & enjoy his wealth. Apparently, the face he presented publicly was very different from the image of perfection we saw onscreen.
