{"product_id":"hotel-kid-stephen-lewis-9781589880184","title":"Hotel Kid: A Times Square Childhood","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Funny, poignant, sad and wistful...This is a very fine book--about a person, and a city, growing up.\"--\u003ci\u003ePhiladelphia Inquirer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"This delightful yet poignant memoir is highly recommended for both public and academic libraries.\"--\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"The charming \u003ci\u003eHotel Kid\u003c\/i\u003e is as luxurious as the lobby in a five-star hotel.\"--\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA Manhattan landmark for fifty years, the Taft in its heyday in the 1930s and '40s 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. His 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 Runyonesque house dicks, chambermaids, bellmen, and waiters, who made sure that Stephen knew what to do with a swizzle stick by the time he was in the third grade.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe 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 all the family's meals from room service, and had her dresses sent over from Saks. During the Depression, the tough kids from Hell's Kitchen who went to grade school with Stephen marveled at the lavish spreads his mother offered her friends at lunch every day, and later even his wealthy classmates at Horace Mann-Lincoln were impressed by the limitless hot fudge sundaes available to the Lewis boys.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLewis contrasts the fairy-tale luxury of his life inside the hotel with the gritty carnival spirit of his Times Square neighborhood, filled with the noise of trolleys, the smell of saloons, the dazzle of billboards and neon signs. In \u003ci\u003eHotel Kid\u003c\/i\u003e, lovers of New York can visit the nightclubs and movie palaces of a vanished era and thread their way among the sightseers and hucksters, shoeshine boys and chorus girls who crowded the streets when Times Square really was the crossroads of the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"[T]his postcard from a vanished age nicely captures a special childhood rivaling Eloise's\"--\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Charming.\"--\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A colorful and nostalgic snapshot of a vanished era.\"--\u003ci\u003eBloomsbury Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Chockfull of history and wit, Stephen Lewis' account of his charming yet preposterous childhood spent in a suite at the Taft Hotel ordering from room service and playing games like elevator free fall is a five-star read. \u003ci\u003eHotel Kid\u003c\/i\u003e pays tribute to an elegant time long ago that was very elegant and is very gone. It's a book we've been waiting for without realizing it: at long last, an Eloise for grown ups.\"--Madeleine Blais, author of \u003ci\u003eUphill Walkers: Portrait of a Family\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Stephen Lewis\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1589880188\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781589880184\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Paul Dry Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/01\/2004\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 214\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.65lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.60d","brand":"Stephen Lewis","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43991641981183,"sku":"9781589880184","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_62df58e4-b3e2-488c-8027-52534026cadd.jpg?v=1683311430","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/hotel-kid-stephen-lewis-9781589880184","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}