by Julie Satow
First published 2019
New York Times journalist Julie Satow traces the Plaza Hotel's transformation from gilded palace to modern battleground. She begins in 1907 when Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt became the first guest at the white marble tower on Fifth Avenue. Satow follows the money through a century of American capitalism, revealing how dowager widows saved the hotel during the Great Depression and how foreign oligarchs later converted guest rooms into money laundering conduits. The book exposes the construction murder that preceded the hotel's opening, Donald Trump's bankruptcy of the property, and an Indian tycoon who bought the Plaza from his Delhi jail cell. Satow connects cultural moments like Truman Capote's Black and White Ball and The Beatles' first American visit to the financial machinations that kept the hotel running. She shows how anonymous shell companies have hollowed out the Plaza's guest rooms, turning them into condominiums that shield questionable wealth. The Plaza emerges as both glamorous stage and corrupt mirror, reflecting New York's role in American culture while exposing the dark currents of international money that now flow through its marble halls.
Genres: history, 20th-century, business, non-fiction, 21st-century, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: corruption, money
Setting: Delhi, Fifth Avenue, New York, Plaza Hotel
Period: 1907, Great Depression
1 pages · Audio CD · 12/Twelve