From Grace Kelly to Joan Crawford and Sylvia Plath… Many of the residents of the Barbizon hotel went on to change the world
The Barbizon guest list reads as a who’s who of Hollywood and literary royalty. Grace Kelly, Joan Crawford, Tippi Hedren, Liza Minnelli, Ali MacGraw, Jaclyn Smith and literary stars Sylvia Plath and Joan Didion were among the household names who arrived as young unknowns. So it’s surprising that we’ve heard so little about it. While New York’s rock’n’roll Chelsea hotel has been endlessly documented, the Barbizon’s story has never been told. But that is about to change with the publication of a fascinating new book, The Barbizon, The New York Hotel That Set Women Free, by award-winning historian Paulina Bren. And with any luck, we can anticipate a binge-worthy mini series. HBO has secured the TV rights in a six-figure deal, after a closely fought bidding war, with Emilia Clarke of Game of Thrones on board to produce. (If the book is anything to go by we are in for a real treat. It has enough smouldering glamour to make Mad Men look dreary.)
Bren’s captivating book tells the story of this women’s residential hotel, from its construction in 1927 on Manhattan’s 140 East 63rd Street, to its eventual conversion into multimillion-dollar condominiums in 2007. But it is also a brilliant many-layered social history of women’s ambition and a rapidly changing New York throughout the 20th century.
