NYC Hotel Queen Leona Helmsley Passes On
Chris · August 20, 2007
The New York Times reported that former hotel magnate Leona Helmsley died today at the age of 87.
Dubbed the “Queen of Mean” by the media in New York in the 1980’s, billionaire hotel and real estate developer Leona Helmsley had a storied history of tyrannic behaviour towards her hotel employees. She was also known to dispute payments to vendors and contractors.
In 1989 Helmsley was convicted of federal tax evasion and sentenced to over 15 years in prison, but she ended up only serving 21 months. The following year, Hollywood turned the Helmsley story into a feature film called ”Leona Helmsley: The Queen of Mean”, starring Suzanne Pleshette and Lloyd Bridges.
Years ago when I worked in New York City at the Rihga Royal Hotel (now the London NYC) one of my concierge colleagues loved to tell stories of his many years working at the nearby Helmsley Park Lane Hotel on Central Park South.
Apparently, hotel employees in the Helmsley group developed a sophisticated system of telephone and radio signals to track the whereabouts of Helmsley at all times. And when she left one of her hotels on a tirade about a service deficiency, telephone calls went out to her other properties to warn employees about Helmsley’s current emotional status, and problem du-jour.
Regardless of her negative press, Leona Helmsley was a very successful hotel operator in the 1980’s and she was known for being a stickler for details and guest comfort.
Check out this Helmsley advertisement from the 1980’s featuring the Queen of Mean herself...and you thought Westin’s Heavenly Bed started the race to develop better sleep systems?
Linkage
Leona Helmsley, Hotel Queen, Dies at 87 [New York Times]
Images thanks to the NYT piece
