Hotel kid
Subtitle: a Times Square childhood
By: by Stephen Lewis.
Edition: 1st Paul Dry Books ed.
Publisher: Paul Dry Books
Published: 2002
Place of publication: Philadelphia, Pa
Language: eng
Number of pages: 214
Subjects: Lewis, Stephen, 1929- -- Childhood and youth.; Taft (Hotel : New York, N.Y.) -- Biography.; Taft (Hotel : New York, N.Y.) -- History -- 20th century.; Hotelkeepers -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography.; New York (N.Y.) -- Biography.; New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs -- 20th century.; Times Square (New York, N.Y.) -- History -- 20th century.
Genres: Biography.
Description: "A Manhattan landmark for fifty years, the Taft in its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s was the largest hotel in midtown, famed for the big band in its basement restaurant and the view of Times Square from its towers. As the son of the general manager, Stephen Lewis grew up in this legendary hotel, living with his parents and younger brother in a suite overlooking the Roxy Theater.

This engaging memoir of his childhood captures the colorful, bustling atmosphere of the Taft, where his father, the best hotelman in New York, ruled a staff of Damon Runyon-esque house dicks, chambermaids, bellmen and waiters.".

"The star of this memoir is Lewis's fast-talking, opinionated, imperious mother, who adapted so completely to hotel life that she rarely left the Taft. Evelyn Lewis rang the front desk when she wanted to make a telephone call, ordered the family's meals from room service, and had her dresses sent over from Saks."--BOOK JACKET.