HoTELS
Oh no, not you again? Welcomes are seldom overstayed at BEST WESTERN hotels... Unless you’re a diminuative, stack heeled cowboy that is, explains Stephanie Ross onsummate raiser of hell and swearer extraordinaire, actor Richard Harris knew how to live life well. Mostly by spending years living in a suite at the Savoy. “It’s better than marriage,” he noted. As he rarely rose before noon or indeed ventured out before dark – and only then to the pub, where he would indulge in his favourite cocktail of Guinness and expletives, you can see why marriage might not have suited him. Harris’s Savoy run beats Alan Partridge’s infamous 182-day sojourn at Linton Travel Tavern into a cocked hat. It does not, however, beat Eleanor Cooper’s 11-year stay courtesy of BEST WESTERN Buchanan Arms Hotel & Spa in Drymen, Scotland. Jean McGlashan, night manager at the hotel for more than 40 years, is the kind of woman who wouldn’t – and indeed didn’t – hesitate to tell JR Ewing (Dallas actor Larry Hagman) he was ‘short in the arse’ when he stayed at the hotel, and would no doubt have put up with none of Harris’s nonsense. Jean might have no time for hijinks, but she certainly has time for those who need a place to stay. “When Eleanor Cooper stayed here at the hotel, you could tell she was a bit of a lost soul,” says Jean. It turned out Eleanor had no family, and nowhere permanent to live. So Jean helped her fnd a fat in the village, encouraged the locals to deck it out with furniture, carpets and curtains, and helped Eleanor
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move in. It was to be the place she called home for more than a decade. The rich and famous often adopt hotels for long-term living, but us mere mortals are less inclined to base our whole lives around transitory living. Well, apart from the couple from Sheffeld who spent 22 years – yes, that’s two and twenty – living in Travelodges and eating out at Little
Chefs.BEST WESTERN Buchanan Arms Hotel & Spa may not have been able to offer proximity to a Little Chef, but it did offer a near perfect setting close to the bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond, and a welcoming community in the surrounding village of Drymen. And, as far as Jean is concerned, hospitality doesn’t stop with laundry and a nice menu. “You quite often become more than a member of staff,” she says. “You become a social worker and a friend. That’s why Eleanor stayed so long – she found something she couldn’t get anywhere else.” She certainly did – not only did her association with the Buchanan Arms offer her a new home and friends, but the selfess Jean went on to care for Eleanor when she became ill. It’s an attitude that earned her an MBE for services to the hotel industry. But what of that short arse, JR Ewing? “He showed me his secret. Stack heeled cowboy boots,” says Jean. In contrast to Eleanor Cooper, JR didn’t end up staying at the Buchanan Arms too long. He might have had his stature called into question by a wee Scottish frebrand, but he didn’t get the all-important invitation to extend his stay. He should be so lucky.
Best westeRN Buchanan arms hotel & spa 08445 76 76 76 www.bestwestern.co.uk
Famous guests who came to stay
Playwright Tennessee Williams lived for 15 years at the Elysée hotel in New York. His tenure drew to a close when he choked to death on the cap from a bottle of eyedrops in the Sunset suite. Silent flm actress Dorothy Mackaill could live it up with the best of them. For 38 years she resided at the Royal Hawaiian hotel, Honolulu. As the ‘history manager’ of the hotel recalls, “She loved the water; she loved the glamour; she loved the
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beachboys.” Fair enough. Mention must be made of the Chelsea Hotel, in which residents such as Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and Leonard Cohen spent years abusing substances and engaging in rudeness. Dylan Thomas drank 18 glasses of whiskey and fell into a coma. Edie Sedgewick set fre to her room. As Arthur Miller, who stayed for six years, noted, “There are no vacuum cleaners, no rules and no shame.” God knows what state the carpets must have been in. Howard Hughes spent over 10 years living in hotels, many of them watching flms naked except for a pink napkin
placed over his precious bits. Hughes’ eccentric behaviour at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas caused a series of clashes with the owners. Luckily, Hughes had a way of guaranteeing an easy life. He bought the hotel, and management complaints desisted immediately. Oscar Wilde – who conducted his afair with Lord Alfred ‘Bosie’ Douglas at the Savoy in London – spent the last few years of his life in exile at various hotels in France. Ever the wag, he was said to remark of his fnal abode, the Hotel d’Alsace in Paris, “My wallpaper and I are fghting a duel to the death. One or other of us has got to go.” Alas, poor Oscar drew the short straw.
www.bestwestern.co.uk
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Actor Richard Harris lived for many years at the Savoy in London. When he was fnally carried out on a stretcher at the end of his life, he was said to remark to a curious passer-by, “It was the food.”