Last Days of the Ritz

New York's famed Ritz-Carlton Hotel was created to reward the rich for being rich. With its soft rugs, its gilded mirrors, its glittering chandeliers and the Roman grandeur of its outsized bathtubs, the Ritz breathed an atmosphere of continental elegance calculated to soothe the wrought-up millionaire. Vials of perfume sweetened its elevators. Its food was superb (Chef M. Diat's greatest achievement: the invention of Vichyssoise in 1912), and two waiters stood by, day & night, on every floor to take care of the hunger of its guests.

Princes, Premiers and the wealthiest wanderers of the world flocked to the Ritz. So did New York society. It was the scene of endless balls, receptions, cotillions. When Barbara Hutton came out in 1930, the Ritz's ballroom was decorated with $10,000 worth of eucalyptus trees; for another coming-out party it was transformed into a tropic jungle--with live monkeys. But last year, after four decades, the management of the hotel announced that the end had come: the Ritz was to be demolished to make way for a 25-story office building.

A chorus of anguish rose. Then guests began bidding frantically for pieces of their favorite hotel. A shrewd New York merchant snapped up brass doorknobs and key plates for resale as souvenirs. Last week, when the Ritz finally closed its doors, the hotel owners decided to auction off the furniture, rugs, mirrors, fireplaces and dishes, glassware and silver with the Ritz crest. Flashiest buyer: wealthy Texas Publisher Amon Carter, who bought the famed men's bar as a present for his son, and two elevator cages to be used as powder rooms in his Fort Worth home.

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