9 minute read
TRIPLIT with D. MAJOR “There’s Something About the Walls,” at Bemelmans’s Bar
TRIPLIT with D. MAJOR
“There’s Something About the Walls,” at Bemelmans’s Bar
In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines lived twelve little girls in two straight lines. In two straight lines they broke their bread and brushed their teeth and went to bed. They smiled at the good and frowned at the bad and sometimes they were very sad. They left the house at half past nine in two straight lines in rain or shine—the smallest one was Madeline.
-Ludwig Bemelmans, Madeline
The iconic Bemelmans’s Bar in The Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan, NY named after Ludwig Bemelmans—author and illustrator of the celebrated children’s series Madeline—is largely known for three things: celebrity sightings, jazz, and the best martini in New York City. But I went to see the walls, specifically the murals, though admittedly the jazz added to the ambience and the martinis (three!) were flowing.
Sidenote: How to Make a Major Martini Recipe: 1. Fill martini glass with crushed ice and pour Vermouth to the tippy-top of the glass. 2. Pour either Beluga Gold (preferably), Grey Goose, or Belvedere vodka into cocktail shaker with ice. No need to measure. You know what you’re capable of here. 3. Aggressively shake cocktail shaker. Shake, shake some more, shake until your hand is frozen to the metal and you’re in danger of losing your fingerprints. 4. Toss out ice and Vermouth mixture from the glass. 5. Pour vodka into martini glass through strainer. 6. Adorn with two extra-large, blue cheese-stuffed olives. Note: Olives must be hand-stuffed on the same day as making a Major Martini. 7. Jazz hands!
On the evening my hubby, Nick, and I visited Bemelmans’s Bar the atrium was full of WASPs dressed to the nines and there was a line waiting to get a seat at the bar. So, we joined the queue in a hallway and I stared at those walls for about half an hour. On either side of me were framed black and white photos of politicians, royalty, and Old Hollywood. It took me less than a minute eyeing Frank Sinatra, Princess Diana, Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy Onasis, and President John F. Kennedy who looked ever so glamourous exiting The Carlyle before I said to Nick, “Let’s go.” The vibes were too fancy even for me and I was thinking I didn’t even grow up reading Bemelmans’s books; those books were way before my time.
Madeline, the first book in a series of six books, was published in 1939. Of course, I was familiar with Madeline, specifically Bemelmans’s illustrations of a tiny, red-haired little girl wearing a yellow hat who if not on one of her grand adventures, was found with eleven of her schoolmates in “two straight lines” being herded by her caretaker, Miss Clavel. Insert Photo of Miss Clavel herding schoolgirls.
Once we landed a seat, I quickly settled in. The first martini didn’t hurt. The effect of Bemelmans’s low ceiling and subdued lighting was reminiscent of a dive bar. I felt like I could curl up in dark corner and imbibe for hours. But with its exquisite Art Deco décor, 24-karat gold leaf ceiling, and the low tones of cool jazz emanating from the double bass, Bemelmans’s is no dive bar, far from it. I wouldn’t rule out any raunchy activities happening there, however. The Carlye is veiled in innuendo.
To provide some background…The Carlye Hotel has catered to the uber rich and the uber famous since the 1930s. Though the staff would never reveal any of their guests’ secrets, people talk. It’s rumored that Marilyn Monroe snuck in through the tunnels to “meet” up with J.F.K. after singing Happy Birthday to him. Their tryst is well-documented. The tunnels are unconfirmed. Journalist, Gradon Carter, visited Hunter S. Thomspon’s room and noted Thompson had “a bottle of scotch, a bowl of cereal, and a bowl of cocaine.” Today, people flock to the bar to see and be seen. But I am not a member of the rich and/or the famous, and no one cares about seeing me…like I said I went for the walls.
Reflecting back, Bemelmans’s Bar is really an oxymoron. In its shadowy elegance are images of fanciful animals and caricatures of upper echelon New Yorkers doing upper echelon things.
As a waiter, who wanted to be an artist, Bemelmans was on the other side of the table so to speak. He had worked in the hotel business for most of his life including a fifteen year stint at the Ritz-Carlton. You can’t fault Bemelmans for poking fun at society types. Ironically, parodying patrons from Bemelmans’s and around New York City got him noticed:
His breakthrough finally came when, at work one day, the menus on which he’d absent-mindedly sketched caricatures of a pair of guests were accidentally handed to the very same guests to place their orders. They left in a fury, but Bemelmans’s manager recognized the talent in his work and insisted he use an empty suite as his studio in his off hours from then on.
There are mostly images of animals in the murals than people, so perhaps Bemelmans wanted to avoid anyone recognizing themselves again and decided to go with snooty animals such as the cigar-smoking rabbit. But you have to wonder about the conversations between the waitstaff when they saw monkey waiters wearing the same red uniform as theirs. In the mid-1940s and in trade for his family’s stay at the hotel, Bemelmans worked on the murals. He completed the paintings in 1947. An extended stay at The Carlye? Not a bad gig. Bemelmans had now made it to the other side of the table.
For Bemelmans, like most artists, his muse was his life. Madeline’s and Miss Clavel’s characters were an amalgamation of Bemelmans’s mother, wife—his main character’s namesake—and his daughter, Barbara.
The expression art imitates life rang true for Bemelmans. Incidents from his life became fodder for his writing.
In the middle of the night Miss Clavel turned on her light and said, “Something is not right!” Little Madeline sat in bed, cried and cried; her eyes were red. And soon after Dr. Cohn came, he rushed out to phone and dialed: DANton-ten-six—“Nurse,” he said, “it’s an appendix!” Madeline
While in the hospital in France after a biking accident, Bemelmans was introduced to, or found inspiration for his characters: Madeline, Miss Clavel, and Dr. Cohn:
A doctor came, with a cigarette stub hanging out of his lower lip…in the next room was a little girl who had had her appendix out, and on the ceiling over my bed was a dark crack that in the varying light of morning, noon, and evening, looked like a rabbit, who looked like Léon Blum, and at last, in the conformity of the island, like a tremendous sardine.
Bemelmans stated that at the hospital:
I saw the nun bringing soup to the little girl. I remembered the stories my mother had told me of life in the convent school at Altötting, and the little girl, the hospital, the room, the crank of the bed, the nurse, the old doctor, who looked like Leon Blum, all fell into place.
Few authors are writers and artists, so I appreciate it when authors illustrate scenes in their books. It gives the full perspective of their art and it was what compelled me to go wall-gazing at Bemelmans’s Bar.
My favorite image and undoubtedly the most recognizable of Bemelmans’s illustrations is Miss Clavel directing two straight lines of schoolgirls. That illustration resonates with me because I was once a Madeline.
During my stretch in Catholic schools, the students were always forming straight lines while presided over by a nun. I was confused why Bemelmans didn’t refer to Miss Clavel as Sister Clavel until I did a little digging and discovered that Miss Clavel is not a nun; she’s a nurse, the caretaker of twelve girls who live at a boarding school. When I visited Bemelmans’s Bar, I was still under the impression that Miss Clavel was a nun. But many mistake Miss Clavel for a nun. Plus, Bemelmans stated it himself, that the nun tending the little girl at the hospital was the origin of Miss Clavel. It’s not a great leap of the imagination to see a “Sister” in Miss Clavel. Plus, if you have a preoccupation for nuns, like I do, the mind can play tricks on you.
When I found my favorite image at Bemelmans’s Bar that evening it was blocked by a group of twenty-somethings doing the see and be seen thing I mentioned earlier. Whenever one of the women in the party moved her head I would try and snap a photo. I wasn’t having any success. Finally, I got up and kindly asked if I could get a quick photo and they were gracious and didn’t seem bothered that I had interrupted their conversation. Afterwards, I overheard one of them say, “Oh, yeah, I heard there’s something about the walls.”
There is indeed.
Note about sources: Photos of Bemelmans’ Bar were taken by Dawn Major. Quotes, photos of Bemelmans’s family, and photos of illustrations were taken from Madeline.
-A Madeline Treasury, The Original Stories by Ludwig Bemelmans previously published as Mad About Madeline with an Introduction by Anna Quindlen first published in 1993 by Viking an edition of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2014.
- “History of Bemelmans’ Bar at The Carlye Hotel, A Rosewood Hotel,” Press Kit, The Carlye Hotel website, 2/2025.
-Always at the Carlye a film, writer and director Matthew Miele, 2018.
-Punch, Reagan Hoffman, March 26, 2014.
-Leon Blum photo, Wiki. 2 20, 2025.
